IV. Even such a tax was less intolerable than the privilege of

monopolies, 8611 which checked the fair competition of industry,

and, for the sake of a small and dishonest gain, imposed an

arbitrary burden on the wants and luxury of the subject. “As

soon” (I transcribe the Anecdotes) “as the exclusive sale of silk

was usurped by the Imperial treasurer, a whole people, the

manufacturers of Tyre and Berytus, was reduced to extreme misery,

and either perished with hunger, or fled to the hostile dominions

of Persia.” A province might suffer by the decay of its

manufactures, but in this example of silk, Procopius has

partially overlooked the inestimable and lasting benefit which

the empire received from the curiosity of Justinian. His addition

of one seventh to the ordinary price of copper money may be

interpreted with the same candor; and the alteration, which might

be wise, appears to have been innocent; since he neither alloyed

the purity, nor enhanced the value, of the gold coin, 87 the

legal measure of public and private payments. V. The ample

jurisdiction required by the farmers of the revenue to accomplish

their engagements might be placed in an odious light, as if they

had purchased from the emperor the lives and fortunes of their

fellow-citizens. And a more direct sale of honors and offices was

transacted in the palace, with the permission, or at least with

the connivance, of Justinian and Theodora. The claims of merit,

even those of favor, were disregarded, and it was almost

reasonable to expect, that the bold adventurer, who had

undertaken the trade of a magistrate, should find a rich

compensation for infamy, labor, danger, the debts which he had

contracted, and the heavy interest which he paid. A sense of the

disgrace and mischief of this venal practice, at length awakened

the slumbering virtue of Justinian; and he attempted, by the

sanction of oaths 88 and penalties, to guard the integrity of his

government: but at the end of a year of perjury, his rigorous

edict was suspended, and corruption licentiously abused her

triumph over the impotence of the laws. VI. The testament of

Eulalius, count of the domestics, declared the emperor his sole

heir, on condition, however, that he should discharge his debts

and legacies, allow to his three daughters a decent maintenance,

and bestow each of them in marriage, with a portion of ten pounds

of gold. But the splendid fortune of Eulalius had been consumed

by fire, and the inventory of his goods did not exceed the

trifling sum of five hundred and sixty-four pieces of gold. A

similar instance, in Grecian history, admonished the emperor of

the honorable part prescribed for his imitation. He checked the

selfish murmurs of the treasury, applauded the confidence of his

friend, discharged the legacies and debts, educated the three

virgins under the eye of the empress Theodora, and doubled the

marriage portion which had satisfied the tenderness of their

father. 89 The humanity of a prince (for princes cannot be

generous) is entitled to some praise; yet even in this act of

virtue we may discover the inveterate custom of supplanting the

legal or natural heirs, which Procopius imputes to the reign of

Justinian. His charge is supported by eminent names and

scandalous examples; neither widows nor orphans were spared; and

the art of soliciting, or extorting, or supposing testaments, was

beneficially practised by the agents of the palace. This base and

mischievous tyranny invades the security of private life; and the

monarch who has indulged an appetite for gain, will soon be

tempted to anticipate the moment of succession, to interpret

wealth as an evidence of guilt, and to proceed, from the claim of

inheritance, to the power of confiscation. VII. Among the forms

of rapine, a philosopher may be permitted to name the conversion

of Pagan or heretical riches to the use of the faithful; but in

the time of Justinian this holy plunder was condemned by the

sectaries alone, who became the victims of his orthodox avarice.

90

85 (return) [ One to Scythopolis, capital of the second

Palestine, and twelve for the rest of the province. Aleman. (p.

59) honestly produces this fact from a Ms. life of St. Sabas, by

his disciple Cyril, in the Vatican Library, and since published

by Cotelerius.]

86 (return) [ John Malala (tom. ii. p. 232) mentions the want of

bread, and Zonaras (l. xiv. p. 63) the leaden pipes, which

Justinian, or his servants, stole from the aqueducts.]

8611 (return) [ Hullman (Geschichte des Byzantinischen Handels.

p. 15) shows that the despotism of the government was aggravated

by the unchecked rapenity of the officers. This state monopoly,

even of corn, wine, and oil, was to force at the time of the

first crusade.—M.]

87 (return) [ For an aureus, one sixth of an ounce of gold,

instead of 210, he gave no more than 180 folles, or ounces of

copper. A disproportion of the mint, below the market price, must

have soon produced a scarcity of small money. In England twelve

pence in copper would sell for no more than seven pence, (Smith’s

Inquiry into the Wealth of Nations, vol. i. p. 49.) For

Justinian’s gold coin, see Evagrius, (l. iv. c. 30.)]

88 (return) [ The oath is conceived in the most formidable words,

(Novell. viii. tit. 3.) The defaulters imprecate on themselves,

quicquid haben: telorum armamentaria coeli: the part of Judas,

the leprosy of Gieza, the tremor of Cain, &c., besides all

temporal pains.]

89 (return) [ A similar or more generous act of friendship is

related by Lucian of Eudamidas of Corinth, (in Toxare, c. 22, 23,

tom. ii. p. 530,) and the story has produced an ingenious, though

feeble, comedy of Fontenelle.]

90 (return) [ John Malala, tom. ii. p. 101, 102, 103.]

Chapter XL: Reign Of Justinian.—Part IV.

Dishonor might be ultimately reflected on the character of

Justinian; but much of the guilt, and still more of the profit,

was intercepted by the ministers, who were seldom promoted for

their virtues, and not always selected for their talents. 91 The

merits of Tribonian the quaestor will hereafter be weighed in the

reformation of the Roman law; but the economy of the East was

subordinate to the Praetorian præfect, and Procopius has

justified his anecdotes by the portrait which he exposes in his

public history, of the notorious vices of John of Cappadocia. 92

921 His knowledge was not borrowed from the schools, 93 and his

style was scarcely legible; but he excelled in the powers of

native genius, to suggest the wisest counsels, and to find

expedients in the most desperate situations. The corruption of

his heart was equal to the vigor of his understanding. Although

he was suspected of magic and Pagan superstition, he appeared

insensible to the fear of God or the reproaches of man; and his

aspiring fortune was raised on the death of thousands, the

poverty of millions, the ruins of cities, and the desolation of

provinces. From the dawn of light to the moment of dinner, he

assiduously labored to enrich his master and himself at the

expense of the Roman world; the remainder of the day was spent in

sensual and obscene pleasures, 931 and the silent hours of the

night were interrupted by the perpetual dread of the justice of

an assassin. His abilities, perhaps his vices, recommended him to

the lasting friendship of Justinian: the emperor yielded with

reluctance to the fury of the people; his victory was displayed

by the immediate restoration of their enemy; and they felt above

ten years, under his oppressive administration, that he was

stimulated by revenge, rather than instructed by misfortune.

Their murmurs served only to fortify the resolution of Justinian;

but the præfect, in the insolence of favor, provoked the

resentment of Theodora, disdained a power before which every knee

was bent, and attempted to sow the seeds of discord between the

emperor and his beloved consort. Even Theodora herself was

constrained to dissemble, to wait a favorable moment, and, by an

artful conspiracy, to render John of Coppadocia the accomplice of

his own destruction. 932 At a time when Belisarius, unless he had

been a hero, must have shown himself a rebel, his wife Antonina,

who enjoyed the secret confidence of the empress, communicated

his feigned discontent to Euphemia, the daughter of the præfect;

the credulous virgin imparted to her father the dangerous

project, and John, who might have known the value of oaths and

promises, was tempted to accept a nocturnal, and almost

treasonable, interview with the wife of Belisarius. An ambuscade

of guards and eunuchs had been posted by the command of Theodora;

they rushed with drawn swords to seize or to punish the guilty

minister: he was saved by the fidelity of his attendants; but

instead of appealing to a gracious sovereign, who had privately

warned him of his danger, he pusillanimously fled to the

sanctuary of the church. The favorite of Justinian was sacrificed

to conjugal tenderness or domestic tranquility; the conversion of

a præfect into a priest extinguished his ambitious hopes: but the

friendship of the emperor alleviated his disgrace, and he

retained in the mild exile of Cyzicus an ample portion of his

riches. Such imperfect revenge could not satisfy the unrelenting

hatred of Theodora; the murder of his old enemy, the bishop of

Cyzicus, afforded a decent pretence; and John of Cappadocia,

whose actions had deserved a thousand deaths, was at last

condemned for a crime of which he was innocent. A great minister,

who had been invested with the honors of consul and patrician,

was ignominiously scourged like the vilest of malefactors; a

tattered cloak was the sole remnant of his fortunes; he was

transported in a bark to the place of his banishment at

Antinopolis in Upper Egypt, and the præfect of the East begged

his bread through the cities which had trembled at his name.

During an exile of seven years, his life was protracted and

threatened by the ingenious cruelty of Theodora; and when her

death permitted the emperor to recall a servant whom he had

abandoned with regret, the ambition of John of Cappadocia was

reduced to the humble duties of the sacerdotal profession. His

successors convinced the subjects of Justinian, that the arts of

oppression might still be improved by experience and industry;

the frauds of a Syrian banker were introduced into the

administration of the finances; and the example of the præfect

was diligently copied by the quaestor, the public and private

treasurer, the governors of provinces, and the principal

magistrates of the Eastern empire. 94

91 (return) [ One of these, Anatolius, perished in an

earthquake—doubtless a judgment! The complaints and clamors of

the people in Agathias (l. v. p. 146, 147) are almost an echo of

the anecdote. The aliena pecunia reddenda of Corippus (l. ii.

381, &c.,) is not very honorable to Justinian’s memory.]

92 (return) [ See the history and character of John of Cappadocia

in Procopius. (Persic, l. i. c. 35, 25, l. ii. c. 30. Vandal. l.

i. c. 13. Anecdot. c. 2, 17, 22.) The agreement of the history

and anecdotes is a mortal wound to the reputation of the

praefct.]

921 (return) [ This view, particularly of the cruelty of John of

Cappadocia, is confirmed by the testimony of Joannes Lydus, who

was in the office of the præfect, and eye-witness of the tortures

inflicted by his command on the miserable debtors, or supposed

debtors, of the state. He mentions one horrible instance of a

respectable old man, with whom he was personally acquainted, who,

being suspected of possessing money, was hung up by the hands

till he was dead. Lydus de Magist. lib. iii. c. 57, p. 254.—M.]

93 (return) [ A forcible expression.]

931 (return) [ Joannes Lydus is diffuse on this subject, lib.

iii. c. 65, p. 268. But the indignant virtue of Lydus seems

greatly stimulated by the loss of his official fees, which he

ascribes to the innovations of the minister.—M.]

932 (return) [ According to Lydus, Theodora disclosed the crimes

and unpopularity of the minister to Justinian, but the emperor

had not the courage to remove, and was unable to replace, a

servant, under whom his finances seemed to prosper. He attributes

the sedition and conflagration to the popular resentment against

the tyranny of John, lib. iii. c 70, p. 278. Unfortunately there

is a large gap in his work just at this period.—M.]

94 (return) [ The chronology of Procopius is loose and obscure;

but with the aid of Pagi I can discern that John was appointed

Praetorian præfect of the East in the year 530—that he was

removed in January, 532—restored before June, 533—banished in

541—and recalled between June, 548, and April 1, 549. Aleman. (p.

96, 97) gives the list of his ten successors—a rapid series in a

part of a single reign. * Note: Lydus gives a high character of

Phocas, his successor tom. iii. c. 78 p. 288.—M.]

V. The edifices of Justinian were cemented with the blood and

treasure of his people; but those stately structures appeared to

announce the prosperity of the empire, and actually displayed the

skill of their architects. Both the theory and practice of the

arts which depend on mathematical science and mechanical power,

were cultivated under the patronage of the emperors; the fame of

Archimedes was rivalled by Proclus and Anthemius; and if their

miracles had been related by intelligent spectators, they might

now enlarge the speculations, instead of exciting the distrust,

of philosophers. A tradition has prevailed, that the Roman fleet

was reduced to ashes in the port of Syracuse, by the

burning-glasses of Archimedes; 95 and it is asserted, that a

similar expedient was employed by Proclus to destroy the Gothic

vessels in the harbor of Constantinople, and to protect his

benefactor Anastasius against the bold enterprise of Vitalian. 96

A machine was fixed on the walls of the city, consisting of a

hexagon mirror of polished brass, with many smaller and movable

polygons to receive and reflect the rays of the meridian sun; and

a consuming flame was darted, to the distance, perhaps of two

hundred feet. 97 The truth of these two extraordinary facts is

invalidated by the silence of the most authentic historians; and

the use of burning-glasses was never adopted in the attack or

defence of places. 98 Yet the admirable experiments of a French

philosopher 99 have demonstrated the possibility of such a

mirror; and, since it is possible, I am more disposed to

attribute the art to the greatest mathematicians of antiquity,

than to give the merit of the fiction to the idle fancy of a monk

or a sophist. According to another story, Proclus applied sulphur

to the destruction of the Gothic fleet; 100 in a modern

imagination, the name of sulphur is instantly connected with the

suspicion of gunpowder, and that suspicion is propagated by the

secret arts of his disciple Anthemius. 101 A citizen of Tralles

in Asia had five sons, who were all distinguished in their

respective professions by merit and success. Olympius excelled in

the knowledge and practice of the Roman jurisprudence. Dioscorus

and Alexander became learned physicians; but the skill of the

former was exercised for the benefit of his fellow-citizens,

while his more ambitious brother acquired wealth and reputation

at Rome. The fame of Metrodorus the grammarian, and of Anthemius

the mathematician and architect, reached the ears of the emperor

Justinian, who invited them to Constantinople; and while the one

instructed the rising generation in the schools of eloquence, the

other filled the capital and provinces with more lasting

monuments of his art. In a trifling dispute relative to the walls

or windows of their contiguous houses, he had been vanquished by

the eloquence of his neighbor Zeno; but the orator was defeated

in his turn by the master of mechanics, whose malicious, though

harmless, stratagems are darkly represented by the ignorance of

Agathias. In a lower room, Anthemius arranged several vessels or

caldrons of water, each of them covered by the wide bottom of a

leathern tube, which rose to a narrow top, and was artificially

conveyed among the joists and rafters of the adjacent building. A

fire was kindled beneath the caldron; the steam of the boiling

water ascended through the tubes; the house was shaken by the

efforts of imprisoned air, and its trembling inhabitants might

wonder that the city was unconscious of the earthquake which they

had felt. At another time, the friends of Zeno, as they sat at

table, were dazzled by the intolerable light which flashed in

their eyes from the reflecting mirrors of Anthemius; they were

astonished by the noise which he produced from the collision of

certain minute and sonorous particles; and the orator declared in

tragic style to the senate, that a mere mortal must yield to the

power of an antagonist, who shook the earth with the trident of

Neptune, and imitated the thunder and lightning of Jove himself.

The genius of Anthemius, and his colleague Isidore the Milesian,

was excited and employed by a prince, whose taste for

architecture had degenerated into a mischievous and costly

passion. His favorite architects submitted their designs and

difficulties to Justinian, and discreetly confessed how much

their laborious meditations were surpassed by the intuitive

knowledge of celestial inspiration of an emperor, whose views

were always directed to the benefit of his people, the glory of

his reign, and the salvation of his soul. 102

95 (return) [ This conflagration is hinted by Lucian (in Hippia,

c. 2) and Galen, (l. iii. de Temperamentis, tom. i. p. 81, edit.

Basil.) in the second century. A thousand years afterwards, it is

positively affirmed by Zonaras, (l. ix. p. 424,) on the faith of

Dion Cassius, Tzetzes, (Chiliad ii. 119, &c.,) Eustathius, (ad

Iliad. E. p. 338,) and the scholiast of Lucian. See Fabricius,

(Bibliot. Graec. l. iii. c. 22, tom. ii. p. 551, 552,) to whom I

am more or less indebted for several of these quotations.]

96 (return) [ Zonaras (l. xi. c. p. 55) affirms the fact, without

quoting any evidence.]

97 (return) [ Tzetzes describes the artifice of these

burning-glasses, which he had read, perhaps, with no learned

eyes, in a mathematical treatise of Anthemius. That treatise has

been lately published, translated, and illustrated, by M. Dupuys,

a scholar and a mathematician, (Memoires de l’Academie des

Inscriptions, tom xlii p. 392—451.)]

98 (return) [ In the siege of Syracuse, by the silence of

Polybius, Plutarch, Livy; in the siege of Constantinople, by that

of Marcellinus and all the contemporaries of the vith century.]

99 (return) [ Without any previous knowledge of Tzetzes or

Anthemius, the immortal Buffon imagined and executed a set of

burning-glasses, with which he could inflame planks at the

distance of 200 feet, (Supplement a l’Hist. Naturelle, tom. i.

399—483, quarto edition.) What miracles would not his genius have

performed for the public service, with royal expense, and in the

strong sun of Constantinople or Syracuse?]

100 (return) [ John Malala (tom. ii. p. 120—124) relates the

fact; but he seems to confound the names or persons of Proclus

and Marinus.]

101 (return) [ Agathias, l. v. p. 149—152. The merit of Anthemius

as an architect is loudly praised by Procopius (de Edif. l. i. c.

1) and Paulus Silentiarius, (part i. 134, &c.)]

102 (return) [ See Procopius, (de Edificiis, l. i. c. 1, 2, l.

ii. c. 3.) He relates a coincidence of dreams, which supposes

some fraud in Justinian or his architect. They both saw, in a

vision, the same plan for stopping an inundation at Dara. A stone

quarry near Jerusalem was revealed to the emperor, (l. v. c. 6:)

an angel was tricked into the perpetual custody of St. Sophia,

(Anonym. de Antiq. C. P. l. iv. p. 70.)]

The principal church, which was dedicated by the founder of

Constantinople to St. Sophia, or the eternal wisdom, had been

twice destroyed by fire; after the exile of John Chrysostom, and

during the Nika of the blue and green factions. No sooner did the

tumult subside, than the Christian populace deplored their

sacrilegious rashness; but they might have rejoiced in the

calamity, had they foreseen the glory of the new temple, which at

the end of forty days was strenuously undertaken by the piety of

Justinian. 103 The ruins were cleared away, a more spacious plan

was described, and as it required the consent of some proprietors

of ground, they obtained the most exorbitant terms from the eager

desires and timorous conscience of the monarch. Anthemius formed

the design, and his genius directed the hands of ten thousand

workmen, whose payment in pieces of fine silver was never delayed

beyond the evening. The emperor himself, clad in a linen tunic,

surveyed each day their rapid progress, and encouraged their

diligence by his familiarity, his zeal, and his rewards. The new

Cathedral of St. Sophia was consecrated by the patriarch, five

years, eleven months, and ten days from the first foundation; and

in the midst of the solemn festival Justinian exclaimed with

devout vanity, “Glory be to God, who hath thought me worthy to

accomplish so great a work; I have vanquished thee, O Solomon!”

104 But the pride of the Roman Solomon, before twenty years had

elapsed, was humbled by an earthquake, which overthrew the

eastern part of the dome. Its splendor was again restored by the

perseverance of the same prince; and in the thirty-sixth year of

his reign, Justinian celebrated the second dedication of a temple

which remains, after twelve centuries, a stately monument of his

fame. The architecture of St. Sophia, which is now converted into

the principal mosque, has been imitated by the Turkish sultans,

and that venerable pile continues to excite the fond admiration

of the Greeks, and the more rational curiosity of European

travellers. The eye of the spectator is disappointed by an

irregular prospect of half-domes and shelving roofs: the western

front, the principal approach, is destitute of simplicity and

magnificence; and the scale of dimensions has been much surpassed

by several of the Latin cathedrals. But the architect who first

erected an _aerial_ cupola, is entitled to the praise of bold

design and skilful execution. The dome of St. Sophia, illuminated

by four-and-twenty windows, is formed with so small a curve, that

the depth is equal only to one sixth of its diameter; the measure

of that diameter is one hundred and fifteen feet, and the lofty

centre, where a crescent has supplanted the cross, rises to the

perpendicular height of one hundred and eighty feet above the

pavement. The circle which encompasses the dome, lightly reposes

on four strong arches, and their weight is firmly supported by

four massy piles, whose strength is assisted, on the northern and

southern sides, by four columns of Egyptian granite.

A Greek cross, inscribed in a quadrangle, represents the form of

the edifice; the exact breadth is two hundred and forty-three

feet, and two hundred and sixty-nine may be assigned for the

extreme length from the sanctuary in the east, to the nine

western doors, which open into the vestibule, and from thence

into the narthex or exterior portico. That portico was the humble

station of the penitents. The nave or body of the church was

filled by the congregation of the faithful; but the two sexes

were prudently distinguished, and the upper and lower galleries

were allotted for the more private devotion of the women. Beyond

the northern and southern piles, a balustrade, terminated on

either side by the thrones of the emperor and the patriarch,

divided the nave from the choir; and the space, as far as the

steps of the altar, was occupied by the clergy and singers. The

altar itself, a name which insensibly became familiar to

Christian ears, was placed in the eastern recess, artificially

built in the form of a demi-cylinder; and this sanctuary

communicated by several doors with the sacristy, the vestry, the

baptistery, and the contiguous buildings, subservient either to

the pomp of worship, or the private use of the ecclesiastical

ministers. The memory of past calamities inspired Justinian with

a wise resolution, that no wood, except for the doors, should be

admitted into the new edifice; and the choice of the materials

was applied to the strength, the lightness, or the splendor of

the respective parts. The solid piles which contained the cupola

were composed of huge blocks of freestone, hewn into squares and

triangles, fortified by circles of iron, and firmly cemented by

the infusion of lead and quicklime: but the weight of the cupola

was diminished by the levity of its substance, which consists

either of pumice-stone that floats in the water, or of bricks

from the Isle of Rhodes, five times less ponderous than the

ordinary sort. The whole frame of the edifice was constructed of

brick; but those base materials were concealed by a crust of

marble; and the inside of St. Sophia, the cupola, the two larger,

and the six smaller, semi-domes, the walls, the hundred columns,

and the pavement, delight even the eyes of Barbarians, with a

rich and variegated picture. A poet, 105 who beheld the primitive

lustre of St. Sophia, enumerates the colors, the shades, and the

spots of ten or twelve marbles, jaspers, and porphyries, which

nature had profusely diversified, and which were blended and

contrasted as it were by a skilful painter. The triumph of Christ

was adorned with the last spoils of Paganism, but the greater

part of these costly stones was extracted from the quarries of

Asia Minor, the isles and continent of Greece, Egypt, Africa, and

Gaul. Eight columns of porphyry, which Aurelian had placed in the

temple of the sun, were offered by the piety of a Roman matron;

eight others of green marble were presented by the ambitious zeal

of the magistrates of Ephesus: both are admirable by their size

and beauty, but every order of architecture disclaims their

fantastic capital. A variety of ornaments and figures was

curiously expressed in mosaic; and the images of Christ, of the

Virgin, of saints, and of angels, which have been defaced by

Turkish fanaticism, were dangerously exposed to the superstition

of the Greeks. According to the sanctity of each object, the

precious metals were distributed in thin leaves or in solid

masses. The balustrade of the choir, the capitals of the pillars,

the ornaments of the doors and galleries, were of gilt bronze;

the spectator was dazzled by the glittering aspect of the cupola;

the sanctuary contained forty thousand pounds weight of silver;

and the holy vases and vestments of the altar were of the purest

gold, enriched with inestimable gems. Before the structure of the

church had arisen two cubits above the ground, forty-five

thousand two hundred pounds were already consumed; and the whole

expense amounted to three hundred and twenty thousand: each

reader, according to the measure of his belief, may estimate

their value either in gold or silver; but the sum of one million

sterling is the result of the lowest computation. A magnificent

temple is a laudable monument of national taste and religion; and

the enthusiast who entered the dome of St. Sophia might be

tempted to suppose that it was the residence, or even the

workmanship, of the Deity. Yet how dull is the artifice, how

insignificant is the labor, if it be compared with the formation

of the vilest insect that crawls upon the surface of the temple!

103 (return) [Among the crowd of ancients and moderns who have

celebrated the edifice of St. Sophia, I shall distinguish and

follow, 1. Four original spectators and historians: Procopius,

(de Edific. l. i. c. 1,) Agathias, (l. v. p. 152, 153,) Paul

Silentiarius, (in a poem of 1026 hexameters, and calcem Annae

Commen. Alexiad.,) and Evagrius, (l. iv. c. 31.) 2. Two legendary

Greeks of a later period: George Codinus, (de Origin. C. P. p.

64-74,) and the anonymous writer of Banduri, (Imp. Orient. tom.

i. l. iv. p. 65—80.)3. The great Byzantine antiquarian. Ducange,

(Comment. ad Paul Silentiar. p. 525—598, and C. P. Christ. l.

iii. p. 5—78.) 4. Two French travellers—the one, Peter Gyllius,

(de Topograph. C. P. l. ii. c. 3, 4,) in the xvith; the other,

Grelot, (Voyage de C. P. p. 95—164, Paris, 1680, in 4to:) he has

given plans, prospects, and inside views of St. Sophia; and his

plans, though on a smaller scale, appear more correct than those

of Ducange. I have adopted and reduced the measures of Grelot:

but as no Christian can now ascend the dome, the height is

borrowed from Evagrius, compared with Gyllius, Greaves, and the

Oriental Geographer.]

104 (return) [ Solomon’s temple was surrounded with courts,

porticos, &c.; but the proper structure of the house of God was

no more (if we take the Egyptian or Hebrew cubic at 22 inches)

than 55 feet in height, 36 2/3 in breadth, and 110 in length—a

small parish church, says Prideaux, (Connection, vol. i. p. 144,

folio;) but few sanctuaries could be valued at four or five

millions sterling! * Note *: Hist of Jews, vol i p 257.—M]

105 (return) [ Paul Silentiarius, in dark and poetic language,

describes the various stones and marbles that were employed in

the edifice of St. Sophia, (P. ii. p. 129, 133, &c., &c.:)

1. The Carystian—pale, with iron veins.

2. The Phrygian—of two sorts, both of a rosy hue; the one with a

white shade, the other purple, with silver flowers.

3. The Porphyry of Egypt—with small stars.

4. The green marble of Laconia.

5. The Carian—from Mount Iassis, with oblique veins, white and

red. 6. The Lydian—pale, with a red flower.

7. The African, or Mauritanian—of a gold or saffron hue. 8. The

Celtic—black, with white veins.

9. The Bosphoric—white, with black edges. Besides the

Proconnesian which formed the pavement; the Thessalian,

Molossian, &c., which are less distinctly painted.]

So minute a description of an edifice which time has respected,

may attest the truth, and excuse the relation, of the innumerable

works, both in the capital and provinces, which Justinian

constructed on a smaller scale and less durable foundations. 106

In Constantinople alone and the adjacent suburbs, he dedicated

twenty-five churches to the honor of Christ, the Virgin, and the

saints: most of these churches were decorated with marble and

gold; and their various situation was skilfully chosen in a

populous square, or a pleasant grove; on the margin of the

sea-shore, or on some lofty eminence which overlooked the

continents of Europe and Asia. The church of the Holy Apostles at

Constantinople, and that of St. John at Ephesus, appear to have

been framed on the same model: their domes aspired to imitate the

cupolas of St. Sophia; but the altar was more judiciously placed

under the centre of the dome, at the junction of four stately

porticos, which more accurately expressed the figure of the Greek

cross. The Virgin of Jerusalem might exult in the temple erected

by her Imperial votary on a most ungrateful spot, which afforded

neither ground nor materials to the architect. A level was formed

by raising part of a deep valley to the height of the mountain.

The stones of a neighboring quarry were hewn into regular forms;

each block was fixed on a peculiar carriage, drawn by forty of

the strongest oxen, and the roads were widened for the passage of

such enormous weights. Lebanon furnished her loftiest cedars for

the timbers of the church; and the seasonable discovery of a vein

of red marble supplied its beautiful columns, two of which, the

supporters of the exterior portico, were esteemed the largest in

the world. The pious munificence of the emperor was diffused over

the Holy Land; and if reason should condemn the monasteries of

both sexes which were built or restored by Justinian, yet charity

must applaud the wells which he sunk, and the hospitals which he

founded, for the relief of the weary pilgrims. The schismatical

temper of Egypt was ill entitled to the royal bounty; but in

Syria and Africa, some remedies were applied to the disasters of

wars and earthquakes, and both Carthage and Antioch, emerging

from their ruins, might revere the name of their gracious

benefactor. 107 Almost every saint in the calendar acquired the

honors of a temple; almost every city of the empire obtained the

solid advantages of bridges, hospitals, and aqueducts; but the

severe liberality of the monarch disdained to indulge his

subjects in the popular luxury of baths and theatres. While

Justinian labored for the public service, he was not unmindful of

his own dignity and ease. The Byzantine palace, which had been

damaged by the conflagration, was restored with new magnificence;

and some notion may be conceived of the whole edifice, by the

vestibule or hall, which, from the doors perhaps, or the roof,

was surnamed chalce, or the brazen. The dome of a spacious

quadrangle was supported by massy pillars; the pavement and walls

were incrusted with many-colored marbles—the emerald green of

Laconia, the fiery red, and the white Phrygian stone, intersected

with veins of a sea-green hue: the mosaic paintings of the dome

and sides represented the glories of the African and Italian

triumphs. On the Asiatic shore of the Propontis, at a small

distance to the east of Chalcedon, the costly palace and gardens

of Heraeum 108 were prepared for the summer residence of

Justinian, and more especially of Theodora. The poets of the age

have celebrated the rare alliance of nature and art, the harmony

of the nymphs of the groves, the fountains, and the waves: yet

the crowd of attendants who followed the court complained of

their inconvenient lodgings, 109 and the nymphs were too often

alarmed by the famous Porphyrio, a whale of ten cubits in

breadth, and thirty in length, who was stranded at the mouth of

the River Sangaris, after he had infested more than half a

century the seas of Constantinople. 110

106 (return) [ The six books of the Edifices of Procopius are

thus distributed the first is confined to Constantinople: the

second includes Mesopotamia and Syria the third, Armenia and the

Euxine; the fourth, Europe; the fifth, Asia Minor and Palestine;

the sixth, Egypt and Africa. Italy is forgot by the emperor or

the historian, who published this work of adulation before the

date (A.D. 555) of its final conquest.]

107 (return) [ Justinian once gave forty-five centenaries of gold

(180,000 L.) for the repairs of Antioch after the earthquake,

(John Malala, tom. ii p 146—149.)]

108 (return) [ For the Heraeum, the palace of Theodora, see

Gyllius, (de Bosphoro Thracio, l. iii. c. xi.,) Aleman. (Not. ad.

Anec. p. 80, 81, who quotes several epigrams of the Anthology,)

and Ducange, (C. P. Christ. l. iv. c. 13, p. 175, 176.)]

109 (return) [ Compare, in the Edifices, (l. i. c. 11,) and in

the Anecdotes, (c. 8, 15.) the different styles of adulation and

malevolence: stripped of the paint, or cleansed from the dirt,

the object appears to be the same.]

110 (return) [ Procopius, l. viii. 29; most probably a stranger

and wanderer, as the Mediterranean does not breed whales.

Balaenae quoque in nostra maria penetrant, (Plin. Hist. Natur.

ix. 2.) Between the polar circle and the tropic, the cetaceous

animals of the ocean grow to the length of 50, 80, or 100 feet,

(Hist. des Voyages, tom. xv. p. 289. Pennant’s British Zoology,

vol. iii. p. 35.)]

The fortifications of Europe and Asia were multiplied by

Justinian; but the repetition of those timid and fruitless

precautions exposes, to a philosophic eye, the debility of the

empire. 111 From Belgrade to the Euxine, from the conflux of the

Save to the mouth of the Danube, a chain of above fourscore

fortified places was extended along the banks of the great river.

Single watch-towers were changed into spacious citadels; vacant

walls, which the engineers contracted or enlarged according to

the nature of the ground, were filled with colonies or garrisons;

a strong fortress defended the ruins of Trajan’s bridge, 112 and

several military stations affected to spread beyond the Danube

the pride of the Roman name. But that name was divested of its

terrors; the Barbarians, in their annual inroads, passed, and

contemptuously repassed, before these useless bulwarks; and the

inhabitants of the frontier, instead of reposing under the shadow

of the general defence, were compelled to guard, with incessant

vigilance, their separate habitations. The solitude of ancient

cities, was replenished; the new foundations of Justinian

acquired, perhaps too hastily, the epithets of impregnable and

populous; and the auspicious place of his own nativity attracted

the grateful reverence of the vainest of princes. Under the name

of Justiniana prima, the obscure village of Tauresium became the

seat of an archbishop and a præfect, whose jurisdiction extended

over seven warlike provinces of Illyricum; 113 and the corrupt

appellation of Giustendil still indicates, about twenty miles to

the south of Sophia, the residence of a Turkish sanjak. 114 For

the use of the emperor’s countryman, a cathedral, a place, and an

aqueduct, were speedily constructed; the public and private

edifices were adapted to the greatness of a royal city; and the

strength of the walls resisted, during the lifetime of Justinian,

the unskilful assaults of the Huns and Sclavonians. Their

progress was sometimes retarded, and their hopes of rapine were

disappointed, by the innumerable castles which, in the provinces

of Dacia, Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace, appeared to

cover the whole face of the country. Six hundred of these forts

were built or repaired by the emperor; but it seems reasonable to

believe, that the far greater part consisted only of a stone or

brick tower, in the midst of a square or circular area, which was

surrounded by a wall and ditch, and afforded in a moment of

danger some protection to the peasants and cattle of the

neighboring villages. 115 Yet these military works, which

exhausted the public treasure, could not remove the just

apprehensions of Justinian and his European subjects. The warm

baths of Anchialus in Thrace were rendered as safe as they were

salutary; but the rich pastures of Thessalonica were foraged by

the Scythian cavalry; the delicious vale of Tempe, three hundred

miles from the Danube, was continually alarmed by the sound of

war; 116 and no unfortified spot, however distant or solitary,

could securely enjoy the blessings of peace. The Straits of

Thermopylae, which seemed to protect, but which had so often

betrayed, the safety of Greece, were diligently strengthened by

the labors of Justinian. From the edge of the sea-shore, through

the forests and valleys, and as far as the summit of the

Thessalian mountains, a strong wall was continued, which occupied

every practicable entrance. Instead of a hasty crowd of peasants,

a garrison of two thousand soldiers was stationed along the

rampart; granaries of corn and reservoirs of water were provided

for their use; and by a precaution that inspired the cowardice

which it foresaw, convenient fortresses were erected for their

retreat. The walls of Corinth, overthrown by an earthquake, and

the mouldering bulwarks of Athens and Plataea, were carefully

restored; the Barbarians were discouraged by the prospect of

successive and painful sieges: and the naked cities of

Peloponnesus were covered by the fortifications of the Isthmus of

Corinth. At the extremity of Europe, another peninsula, the

Thracian Chersonesus, runs three days’ journey into the sea, to

form, with the adjacent shores of Asia, the Straits of the

Hellespont. The intervals between eleven populous towns were

filled by lofty woods, fair pastures, and arable lands; and the

isthmus, of thirty seven stadia or furlongs, had been fortified

by a Spartan general nine hundred years before the reign of

Justinian. 117 In an age of freedom and valor, the slightest

rampart may prevent a surprise; and Procopius appears insensible

of the superiority of ancient times, while he praises the solid

construction and double parapet of a wall, whose long arms

stretched on either side into the sea; but whose strength was

deemed insufficient to guard the Chersonesus, if each city, and

particularly Gallipoli and Sestus, had not been secured by their

peculiar fortifications. The long wall, as it was emphatically

styled, was a work as disgraceful in the object, as it was

respectable in the execution. The riches of a capital diffuse

themselves over the neighboring country, and the territory of

Constantinople a paradise of nature, was adorned with the

luxurious gardens and villas of the senators and opulent

citizens. But their wealth served only to attract the bold and

rapacious Barbarians; the noblest of the Romans, in the bosom of

peaceful indolence, were led away into Scythian captivity, and

their sovereign might view from his palace the hostile flames

which were insolently spread to the gates of the Imperial city.

At the distance only of forty miles, Anastasius was constrained

to establish a last frontier; his long wall, of sixty miles from

the Propontis to the Euxine, proclaimed the impotence of his

arms; and as the danger became more imminent, new fortifications

were added by the indefatigable prudence of Justinian. 118

111 (return) [ Montesquieu observes, (tom. iii. p. 503,

Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Decadence des Romains, c.

xx.,) that Justinian’s empire was like France in the time of the

Norman inroads—never so weak as when every village was

fortified.]

112 (return) [ Procopius affirms (l. iv. c. 6) that the Danube

was stopped by the ruins of the bridge. Had Apollodorus, the

architect, left a description of his own work, the fabulous

wonders of Dion Cassius (l lxviii. p. 1129) would have been

corrected by the genuine picture Trajan’s bridge consisted of

twenty or twenty-two stone piles with wooden arches; the river is

shallow, the current gentle, and the whole interval no more than

443 (Reimer ad Dion. from Marsigli) or 5l7 toises, (D’Anville,

Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 305.)]

113 (return) [ Of the two Dacias, Mediterranea and Ripensis,

Dardania, Pravalitana, the second Maesia, and the second

Macedonia. See Justinian (Novell. xi.,) who speaks of his castles

beyond the Danube, and on omines semper bellicis sudoribus

inhaerentes.]

114 (return) [ See D’Anville, (Memoires de l’Academie, &c., tom.

xxxi p. 280, 299,) Rycaut, (Present State of the Turkish Empire,

p. 97, 316,) Max sigli, (Stato Militare del Imperio Ottomano, p.

130.) The sanjak of Giustendil is one of the twenty under the

beglerbeg of Rurselis, and his district maintains 48 zaims and

588 timariots.]

115 (return) [ These fortifications may be compared to the

castles in Mingrelia (Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tom. i. p. 60,

131)—a natural picture.]

116 (return) [ The valley of Tempe is situate along the River

Peneus, between the hills of Ossa and Olympus: it is only five

miles long, and in some places no more than 120 feet in breadth.

Its verdant beauties are elegantly described by Pliny, (Hist.

Natur. l. iv. 15,) and more diffusely by Aelian, (Hist. Var. l.

iii. c. i.)]

117 (return) [ Xenophon Hellenic. l. iii. c. 2. After a long and

tedious conversation with the Byzantine declaimers, how

refreshing is the truth, the simplicity, the elegance of an Attic

writer!]

118 (return) [ See the long wall in Evagarius, (l. iv. c. 38.)

This whole article is drawn from the fourth book of the Edifices,

except Anchialus, (l. iii. c. 7.)]

Asia Minor, after the submission of the Isaurians, 119 remained

without enemies and without fortifications. Those bold savages,

who had disdained to be the subjects of Gallienus, persisted two

hundred and thirty years in a life of independence and rapine.

The most successful princes respected the strength of the

mountains and the despair of the natives; their fierce spirit was

sometimes soothed with gifts, and sometimes restrained by terror;

and a military count, with three legions, fixed his permanent and

ignominious station in the heart of the Roman provinces. 120 But

no sooner was the vigilance of power relaxed or diverted, than

the light-armed squadrons descended from the hills, and invaded

the peaceful plenty of Asia. Although the Isaurians were not

remarkable for stature or bravery, want rendered them bold, and

experience made them skilful in the exercise of predatory war.

They advanced with secrecy and speed to the attack of villages

and defenceless towns; their flying parties have sometimes

touched the Hellespont, the Euxine, and the gates of Tarsus,

Antioch, or Damascus; 121 and the spoil was lodged in their

inaccessible mountains, before the Roman troops had received

their orders, or the distant province had computed its loss. The

guilt of rebellion and robbery excluded them from the rights of

national enemies; and the magistrates were instructed, by an

edict, that the trial or punishment of an Isaurian, even on the

festival of Easter, was a meritorious act of justice and piety.

122 If the captives were condemned to domestic slavery, they

maintained, with their sword or dagger, the private quarrel of

their masters; and it was found expedient for the public

tranquillity to prohibit the service of such dangerous retainers.

When their countryman Tarcalissaeus or Zeno ascended the throne,

he invited a faithful and formidable band of Isaurians, who

insulted the court and city, and were rewarded by an annual

tribute of five thousand pounds of gold. But the hopes of fortune

depopulated the mountains, luxury enervated the hardiness of

their minds and bodies, and in proportion as they mixed with

mankind, they became less qualified for the enjoyment of poor and

solitary freedom. After the death of Zeno, his successor

Anastasius suppressed their pensions, exposed their persons to

the revenge of the people, banished them from Constantinople, and

prepared to sustain a war, which left only the alternative of

victory or servitude. A brother of the last emperor usurped the

title of Augustus; his cause was powerfully supported by the

arms, the treasures, and the magazines, collected by Zeno; and

the native Isaurians must have formed the smallest portion of the

hundred and fifty thousand Barbarians under his standard, which

was sanctified, for the first time, by the presence of a fighting

bishop. Their disorderly numbers were vanquished in the plains of

Phrygia by the valor and discipline of the Goths; but a war of

six years almost exhausted the courage of the emperor. 123 The

Isaurians retired to their mountains; their fortresses were

successively besieged and ruined; their communication with the

sea was intercepted; the bravest of their leaders died in arms;

the surviving chiefs, before their execution, were dragged in

chains through the hippodrome; a colony of their youth was

transplanted into Thrace, and the remnant of the people submitted

to the Roman government. Yet some generations elapsed before

their minds were reduced to the level of slavery. The populous

villages of Mount Taurus were filled with horsemen and archers:

they resisted the imposition of tributes, but they recruited the

armies of Justinian; and his civil magistrates, the proconsul of

Cappadocia, the count of Isauria, and the praetors of Lycaonia

and Pisidia, were invested with military power to restrain the

licentious practice of rapes and assassinations. 124

119 (return) [ Turn back to vol. i. p. 328. In the course of this

History, I have sometimes mentioned, and much oftener slighted,

the hasty inroads of the Isaurians, which were not attended with

any consequences.]

120 (return) [ Trebellius Pollio in Hist. August. p. 107, who

lived under Diocletian, or Constantine. See likewise Pancirolus

ad Notit. Imp. Orient c. 115, 141. See Cod. Theodos. l. ix. tit.

35, leg. 37, with a copious collective Annotation of Godefroy,

tom. iii. p. 256, 257.]

121 (return) [ See the full and wide extent of their inroads in

Philostorgius (Hist. Eccles. l. xi. c. 8,) with Godefroy’s

learned Dissertations.]

122 (return) [ Cod. Justinian. l. ix. tit. 12, leg. 10. The

punishments are severs—a fine of a hundred pounds of gold,

degradation, and even death. The public peace might afford a

pretence, but Zeno was desirous of monopolizing the valor and

service of the Isaurians.]

123 (return) [ The Isaurian war and the triumph of Anastasius are

briefly and darkly represented by John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 106,

107,) Evagrius, (l. iii. c. 35,) Theophanes, (p. 118—120,) and

the Chronicle of Marcellinus.]

124 (return) [ Fortes ea regio (says Justinian) viros habet, nec

in ullo differt ab Isauria, though Procopius (Persic. l. i. c.

18) marks an essential difference between their military

character; yet in former times the Lycaonians and Pisidians had

defended their liberty against the great king, Xenophon.

(Anabasis, l. iii. c. 2.) Justinian introduces some false and

ridiculous erudition of the ancient empire of the Pisidians, and

of Lycaon, who, after visiting Rome, (long before Aeenas,) gave a

name and people to Lycaoni, (Novell. 24, 25, 27, 30.)]

Chapter XL: Reign Of Justinian.—Part V.

If we extend our view from the tropic to the mouth of the Tanais,

we may observe, on one hand, the precautions of Justinian to curb

the savages of Aethiopia, 125 and on the other, the long walls

which he constructed in Crimaea for the protection of his

friendly Goths, a colony of three thousand shepherds and

warriors. 126 From that peninsula to Trebizond, the eastern curve

of the Euxine was secured by forts, by alliance, or by religion;

and the possession of Lazica, the Colchos of ancient, the

Mingrelia of modern, geography, soon became the object of an

important war. Trebizond, in after-times the seat of a romantic

empire, was indebted to the liberality of Justinian for a church,

an aqueduct, and a castle, whose ditches are hewn in the solid

rock. From that maritime city, frontier line of five hundred

miles may be drawn to the fortress of Circesium, the last Roman

station on the Euphrates. 127 Above Trebizond immediately, and

five days’ journey to the south, the country rises into dark

forests and craggy mountains, as savage though not so lofty as

the Alps and the Pyrenees. In this rigorous climate, 128 where

the snows seldom melt, the fruits are tardy and tasteless, even

honey is poisonous: the most industrious tillage would be

confined to some pleasant valleys; and the pastoral tribes

obtained a scanty sustenance from the flesh and milk of their

cattle. The Chalybians 129 derived their name and temper from the

iron quality of the soil; and, since the days of Cyrus, they

might produce, under the various appellations of Chaldæans and

Zanians, an uninterrupted prescription of war and rapine. Under

the reign of Justinian, they acknowledged the god and the emperor

of the Romans, and seven fortresses were built in the most

accessible passages, to exclude the ambition of the Persian

monarch. 130 The principal source of the Euphrates descends from

the Chalybian mountains, and seems to flow towards the west and

the Euxine: bending to the south-west, the river passes under the

walls of Satala and Melitene (which were restored by Justinian as

the bulwarks of the Lesser Armenia,) and gradually approaches the

Mediterranean Sea; till at length, repelled by Mount Taurus, 131

the Euphrates inclines its long and flexible course to the

south-east and the Gulf of Persia. Among the Roman cities beyond

the Euphrates, we distinguish two recent foundations, which were

named from Theodosius, and the relics of the martyrs; and two

capitals, Amida and Edessa, which are celebrated in the history

of every age. Their strength was proportioned by Justinian to the

danger of their situation. A ditch and palisade might be

sufficient to resist the artless force of the cavalry of Scythia;

but more elaborate works were required to sustain a regular siege

against the arms and treasures of the great king. His skilful

engineers understood the methods of conducting deep mines, and of

raising platforms to the level of the rampart: he shook the

strongest battlements with his military engines, and sometimes

advanced to the assault with a line of movable turrets on the

backs of elephants. In the great cities of the East, the

disadvantage of space, perhaps of position, was compensated by

the zeal of the people, who seconded the garrison in the defence

of their country and religion; and the fabulous promise of the

Son of God, that Edessa should never be taken, filled the

citizens with valiant confidence, and chilled the besiegers with

doubt and dismay. 132 The subordinate towns of Armenia and

Mesopotamia were diligently strengthened, and the posts which

appeared to have any command of ground or water were occupied by

numerous forts, substantially built of stone, or more hastily

erected with the obvious materials of earth and brick. The eye of

Justinian investigated every spot; and his cruel precautions

might attract the war into some lonely vale, whose peaceful

natives, connected by trade and marriage, were ignorant of

national discord and the quarrels of princes. Westward of the

Euphrates, a sandy desert extends above six hundred miles to the

Red Sea. Nature had interposed a vacant solitude between the

ambition of two rival empires; the Arabians, till Mahomet arose,

were formidable only as robbers; and in the proud security of

peace the fortifications of Syria were neglected on the most

vulnerable side.

125 (return) [ See Procopius, Persic. l. i. c. 19. The altar of

national concern, of annual sacrifice and oaths, which Diocletian

had created in the Isla of Elephantine, was demolished by

Justinian with less policy than]

126 (return) [ Procopius de Edificiis, l. iii. c. 7. Hist. l.

viii. c. 3, 4. These unambitious Goths had refused to follow the

standard of Theodoric. As late as the xvth and xvith century, the

name and nation might be discovered between Caffa and the Straits

of Azoph, (D’Anville, Memoires de l’academie, tom. xxx. p. 240.)

They well deserved the curiosity of Busbequius, (p. 321-326;) but

seem to have vanished in the more recent account of the Missions

du Levant, (tom. i.,) Tott, Peysonnnel, &c.]

127 (return) [ For the geography and architecture of this

Armenian border, see the Persian Wars and Edifices (l. ii. c.

4-7, l. iii. c. 2—7) of Procopius.]

128 (return) [ The country is described by Tournefort, (Voyage au

Levant, tom. iii. lettre xvii. xviii.) That skilful botanist soon

discovered the plant that infects the honey, (Plin. xxi. 44, 45:)

he observes, that the soldiers of Lucullus might indeed be

astonished at the cold, since, even in the plain of Erzerum, snow

sometimes falls in June, and the harvest is seldom finished

before September. The hills of Armenia are below the fortieth

degree of latitude; but in the mountainous country which I

inhabit, it is well known that an ascent of some hours carries

the traveller from the climate of Languedoc to that of Norway;

and a general theory has been introduced, that, under the line,

an elevation of 2400 toises is equivalent to the cold of the

polar circle, (Remond, Observations sur les Voyages de Coxe dans

la Suisse, tom. ii. p. 104.)]

129 (return) [ The identity or proximity of the Chalybians, or

Chaldaeana may be investigated in Strabo, (l. xii. p. 825, 826,)

Cellarius, (Geograph. Antiq. tom. ii. p. 202—204,) and Freret,

(Mem. de Academie, tom. iv. p. 594) Xenophon supposes, in his

romance, (Cyropaed l. iii.,) the same Barbarians, against whom he

had fought in his retreat, (Anabasis, l. iv.)]

130 (return) [ Procopius, Persic. l. i. c. 15. De Edific. l. iii.

c. 6.]

131 (return) [ Ni Taurus obstet in nostra maria venturus,

(Pomponius Mela, iii. 8.) Pliny, a poet as well as a naturalist,

(v. 20,) personifies the river and mountain, and describes their

combat. See the course of the Tigris and Euphrates in the

excellent treatise of D’Anville.]

132 (return) [ Procopius (Persic. l. ii. c. 12) tells the story

with the tone, half sceptical, half superstitious, of Herodotus.

The promise was not in the primitive lie of Eusebius, but dates

at least from the year 400; and a third lie, the Veronica, was

soon raised on the two former, (Evagrius, l. iv. c. 27.) As

Edessa has been taken, Tillemont must disclaim the promise, (Mem.

Eccles. tom. i. p. 362, 383, 617.)]

But the national enmity, at least the effects of that enmity, had

been suspended by a truce, which continued above fourscore years.

An ambassador from the emperor Zeno accompanied the rash and

unfortunate Perozes, 1321 in his expedition against the

Nepthalites, 1322 or white Huns, whose conquests had been

stretched from the Caspian to the heart of India, whose throne

was enriched with emeralds, 133 and whose cavalry was supported

by a line of two thousand elephants. 134 The Persians 1341 were

twice circumvented, in a situation which made valor useless and

flight impossible; and the double victory of the Huns was

achieved by military stratagem. They dismissed their royal

captive after he had submitted to adore the majesty of a

Barbarian; and the humiliation was poorly evaded by the

casuistical subtlety of the Magi, who instructed Perozes to

direct his attention to the rising sun. 1342 The indignant

successor of Cyrus forgot his danger and his gratitude; he

renewed the attack with headstrong fury, and lost both his army

and his life. 135 The death of Perozes abandoned Persia to her

foreign and domestic enemies; 1351 and twelve years of confusion

elapsed before his son Cabades, or Kobad, could embrace any

designs of ambition or revenge. The unkind parsimony of

Anastasius was the motive or pretence of a Roman war; 136 the

Huns and Arabs marched under the Persian standard, and the

fortifications of Armenia and Mesopotamia were, at that time, in

a ruinous or imperfect condition. The emperor returned his thanks

to the governor and people of Martyropolis for the prompt

surrender of a city which could not be successfully defended, and

the conflagration of Theodosiopolis might justify the conduct of

their prudent neighbors. Amida sustained a long and destructive

siege: at the end of three months the loss of fifty thousand of

the soldiers of Cabades was not balanced by any prospect of

success, and it was in vain that the Magi deduced a flattering

prediction from the indecency of the women 1361 on the ramparts,

who had revealed their most secret charms to the eyes of the

assailants. At length, in a silent night, they ascended the most

accessible tower, which was guarded only by some monks,

oppressed, after the duties of a festival, with sleep and wine.

Scaling-ladders were applied at the dawn of day; the presence of

Cabades, his stern command, and his drawn sword, compelled the

Persians to vanquish; and before it was sheathed, fourscore

thousand of the inhabitants had expiated the blood of their

companions. After the siege of Amida, the war continued three

years, and the unhappy frontier tasted the full measure of its

calamities. The gold of Anastasius was offered too late, the

number of his troops was defeated by the number of their

generals; the country was stripped of its inhabitants, and both

the living and the dead were abandoned to the wild beasts of the

desert. The resistance of Edessa, and the deficiency of spoil,

inclined the mind of Cabades to peace: he sold his conquests for

an exorbitant price; and the same line, though marked with

slaughter and devastation, still separated the two empires. To

avert the repetition of the same evils, Anastasius resolved to

found a new colony, so strong, that it should defy the power of

the Persian, so far advanced towards Assyria, that its stationary

troops might defend the province by the menace or operation of

offensive war. For this purpose, the town of Dara, 137 fourteen

miles from Nisibis, and four days’ journey from the Tigris, was

peopled and adorned; the hasty works of Anastasius were improved

by the perseverance of Justinian; and, without insisting on

places less important, the fortifications of Dara may represent

the military architecture of the age. The city was surrounded

with two walls, and the interval between them, of fifty paces,

afforded a retreat to the cattle of the besieged. The inner wall

was a monument of strength and beauty: it measured sixty feet

from the ground, and the height of the towers was one hundred

feet; the loopholes, from whence an enemy might be annoyed with

missile weapons, were small, but numerous; the soldiers were

planted along the rampart, under the shelter of double galleries,

and a third platform, spacious and secure, was raised on the

summit of the towers. The exterior wall appears to have been less

lofty, but more solid; and each tower was protected by a

quadrangular bulwark. A hard, rocky soil resisted the tools of

the miners, and on the south-east, where the ground was more

tractable, their approach was retarded by a new work, which

advanced in the shape of a half-moon. The double and treble

ditches were filled with a stream of water; and in the management

of the river, the most skilful labor was employed to supply the

inhabitants, to distress the besiegers, and to prevent the

mischiefs of a natural or artificial inundation. Dara continued

more than sixty years to fulfil the wishes of its founders, and

to provoke the jealousy of the Persians, who incessantly

complained, that this impregnable fortress had been constructed

in manifest violation of the treaty of peace between the two

empires. 1371

1321 (return) [ Firouz the Conqueror—unfortunately so named. See

St. Martin, vol. vi. p. 439.—M.]

1322 (return) [ Rather Hepthalites.—M.]

133 (return) [ They were purchased from the merchants of Adulis

who traded to India, (Cosmas, Topograph. Christ. l. xi. p. 339;)

yet, in the estimate of precious stones, the Scythian emerald was

the first, the Bactrian the second, the Aethiopian only the

third, (Hill’s Theophrastus, p. 61, &c., 92.) The production,

mines, &c., of emeralds, are involved in darkness; and it is

doubtful whether we possess any of the twelve sorts known to the

ancients, (Goguet, Origine des Loix, &c., part ii. l. ii. c. 2,

art. 3.) In this war the Huns got, or at least Perozes lost, the

finest pearl in the world, of which Procopius relates a

ridiculous fable.]

134 (return) [ The Indo-Scythae continued to reign from the time

of Augustus (Dionys. Perieget. 1088, with the Commentary of

Eustathius, in Hudson, Geograph. Minor. tom. iv.) to that of the

elder Justin, (Cosmas, Topograph. Christ. l. xi. p. 338, 339.) On

their origin and conquests, see D’Anville, (sur l’Inde, p. 18,

45, &c., 69, 85, 89.) In the second century they were masters of

Larice or Guzerat.]

1341 (return) [ According to the Persian historians, he was

misled by guides who used he old stratagem of Zopyrus. Malcolm,

vol. i. p. 101.—M.]

1342 (return) [ In the Ms. Chronicle of Tabary, it is said that

the Moubedan Mobed, or Grand Pontiff, opposed with all his

influence the violation of the treaty. St. Martin, vol. vii. p.

254.—M.]

135 (return) [ See the fate of Phirouz, or Perozes, and its

consequences, in Procopius, (Persic. l. i. c. 3—6,) who may be

compared with the fragments of Oriental history, (D’Herbelot,

Bibliot. Orient. p. 351, and Texeira, History of Persia,

translated or abridged by Stephens, l. i. c. 32, p. 132—138.) The

chronology is ably ascertained by Asseman. (Bibliot. Orient. tom.

iii. p. 396—427.)]

1351 (return) [ When Firoze advanced, Khoosh-Nuaz (the king of

the Huns) presented on the point of a lance the treaty to which

he had sworn, and exhorted him yet to desist before he destroyed

his fame forever. Malcolm, vol. i. p. 103.—M.]

136 (return) [ The Persian war, under the reigns of Anastasius

and Justin, may be collected from Procopius, (Persic. l. i. c. 7,

8, 9,) Theophanes, (in Chronograph. p. 124—127,) Evagrius, (l.

iii. c. 37,) Marcellinus, (in Chron. p. 47,) and Josue Stylites,

(apud Asseman. tom. i. p. 272—281.)]

1361 (return) [ Gibbon should have written “some prostitutes.”

Proc Pers. vol. 1 p. 7.—M.]

137 (return) [ The description of Dara is amply and correctly

given by Procopius, (Persic. l. i. c. 10, l. ii. c. 13. De

Edific. l. ii. c. 1, 2, 3, l. iii. c. 5.) See the situation in

D’Anville, (l’Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 53, 54, 55,) though he

seems to double the interval between Dara and Nisibis.]

1371 (return) [ The situation (of Dara) does not appear to give

it strength, as it must have been commanded on three sides by the

mountains, but opening on the south towards the plains of

Mesopotamia. The foundation of the walls and towers, built of

large hewn stone, may be traced across the valley, and over a

number of low rocky hills which branch out from the foot of Mount

Masius. The circumference I conceive to be nearly two miles and a

half; and a small stream, which flows through the middle of the

place, has induced several Koordish and Armenian families to fix

their residence within the ruins. Besides the walls and towers,

the remains of many other buildings attest the former grandeur of

Dara; a considerable part of the space within the walls is arched

and vaulted underneath, and in one place we perceived a large

cavern, supported by four ponderous columns, somewhat resembling

the great cistern of Constantinople. In the centre of the village

are the ruins of a palace (probably that mentioned by Procopius)

or church, one hundred paces in length, and sixty in breadth. The

foundations, which are quite entire, consist of a prodigious

number of subterraneous vaulted chambers, entered by a narrow

passage forty paces in length. The gate is still standing; a

considerable part of the wall has bid defiance to time, &c. M

Donald Kinneir’s Journey, p. 438.—M]

Between the Euxine and the Caspian, the countries of Colchos,

Iberia, and Albania, are intersected in every direction by the

branches of Mount Caucasus; and the two principal gates, or

passes, from north to south, have been frequently confounded in

the geography both of the ancients and moderns. The name of

Caspian or Albanian gates is properly applied to Derbend, 138

which occupies a short declivity between the mountains and the

sea: the city, if we give credit to local tradition, had been

founded by the Greeks; and this dangerous entrance was fortified

by the kings of Persia with a mole, double walls, and doors of

iron. The Iberian gates 139 1391 are formed by a narrow passage

of six miles in Mount Caucasus, which opens from the northern

side of Iberia, or Georgia, into the plain that reaches to the

Tanais and the Volga. A fortress, designed by Alexander perhaps,

or one of his successors, to command that important pass, had

descended by right of conquest or inheritance to a prince of the

Huns, who offered it for a moderate price to the emperor; but

while Anastasius paused, while he timorously computed the cost

and the distance, a more vigilant rival interposed, and Cabades

forcibly occupied the Straits of Caucasus. The Albanian and

Iberian gates excluded the horsemen of Scythia from the shortest

and most practicable roads, and the whole front of the mountains

was covered by the rampart of Gog and Magog, the long wall which

has excited the curiosity of an Arabian caliph 140 and a Russian

conqueror. 141 According to a recent description, huge stones,

seven feet thick, and twenty-one feet in length or height, are

artificially joined without iron or cement, to compose a wall,

which runs above three hundred miles from the shores of Derbend,

over the hills, and through the valleys of Daghestan and Georgia.

Without a vision, such a work might be undertaken by the policy

of Cabades; without a miracle, it might be accomplished by his

son, so formidable to the Romans, under the name of Chosroes; so

dear to the Orientals, under the appellation of Nushirwan. The

Persian monarch held in his hand the keys both of peace and war;

but he stipulated, in every treaty, that Justinian should

contribute to the expense of a common barrier, which equally

protected the two empires from the inroads of the Scythians. 142

138 (return) [ For the city and pass of Derbend, see D’Herbelot,

(Bibliot. Orient. p. 157, 291, 807,) Petit de la Croix. (Hist. de

Gengiscan, l. iv. c. 9,) Histoire Genealogique des Tatars, (tom.

i. p. 120,) Olearius, (Voyage en Perse, p. 1039—1041,) and

Corneille le Bruyn, (Voyages, tom. i. p. 146, 147:) his view may

be compared with the plan of Olearius, who judges the wall to be

of shells and gravel hardened by time.]

139 (return) [ Procopius, though with some confusion, always

denominates them Caspian, (Persic. l. i. c. 10.) The pass is now

styled Tatar-topa, the Tartar-gates, (D’Anville, Geographie

Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 119, 120.)]

1391 (return) [ Malte-Brun. tom. viii. p. 12, makes three passes:

1. The central, which leads from Mosdok to Teflis. 2. The

Albanian, more inland than the Derbend Pass. 3. The Derbend—the

Caspian Gates. But the narrative of Col. Monteith, in the Journal

of the Geographical Society of London. vol. iii. p. i. p. 39,

clearly shows that there are but two passes between the Black Sea

and the Caspian; the central, the Caucasian, or, as Col. Monteith

calls it, the Caspian Gates, and the pass of Derbend, though it

is practicable to turn this position (of Derbend) by a road a few

miles distant through the mountains, p. 40.—M.]

140 (return) [ The imaginary rampart of Gog and Magog, which was

seriously explored and believed by a caliph of the ninth century,

appears to be derived from the gates of Mount Caucasus, and a

vague report of the wall of China, (Geograph. Nubiensis, p.

267-270. Memoires de l’Academie, tom. xxxi. p. 210—219.)]

141 (return) [ See a learned dissertation of Baier, de muro

Caucaseo, in Comment. Acad. Petropol. ann. 1726, tom. i. p.

425-463; but it is destitute of a map or plan. When the czar

Peter I. became master of Derbend in the year 1722, the measure

of the wall was found to be 3285 Russian orgyioe, or fathom, each

of seven feet English; in the whole somewhat more than four miles

in length.]

142 (return) [ See the fortifications and treaties of Chosroes,

or Nushirwan, in Procopius (Persic. l. i. c. 16, 22, l. ii.) and

D’Herbelot, (p. 682.)] VII. Justinian suppressed the schools of

Athens and the consulship of Rome, which had given so many sages

and heroes to mankind. Both these institutions had long since

degenerated from their primitive glory; yet some reproach may be

justly inflicted on the avarice and jealousy of a prince, by

whose hand such venerable ruins were destroyed.

Athens, after her Persian triumphs, adopted the philosophy of

Ionia and the rhetoric of Sicily; and these studies became the

patrimony of a city, whose inhabitants, about thirty thousand

males, condensed, within the period of a single life, the genius

of ages and millions. Our sense of the dignity of human nature is

exalted by the simple recollection, that Isocrates 143 was the

companion of Plato and Xenophon; that he assisted, perhaps with

the historian Thucydides, at the first representation of the

Oedipus of Sophocles and the Iphigenia of Euripides; and that his

pupils Aeschines and Demosthenes contended for the crown of

patriotism in the presence of Aristotle, the master of

Theophrastus, who taught at Athens with the founders of the Stoic

and Epicurean sects. 144 The ingenuous youth of Attica enjoyed

the benefits of their domestic education, which was communicated

without envy to the rival cities. Two thousand disciples heard

the lessons of Theophrastus; 145 the schools of rhetoric must

have been still more populous than those of philosophy; and a

rapid succession of students diffused the fame of their teachers

as far as the utmost limits of the Grecian language and name.

Those limits were enlarged by the victories of Alexander; the

arts of Athens survived her freedom and dominion; and the Greek

colonies which the Macedonians planted in Egypt, and scattered

over Asia, undertook long and frequent pilgrimages to worship the

Muses in their favorite temple on the banks of the Ilissus. The

Latin conquerors respectfully listened to the instructions of

their subjects and captives; the names of Cicero and Horace were

enrolled in the schools of Athens; and after the perfect

settlement of the Roman empire, the natives of Italy, of Africa,

and of Britain, conversed in the groves of the academy with their

fellow-students of the East. The studies of philosophy and

eloquence are congenial to a popular state, which encourages the

freedom of inquiry, and submits only to the force of persuasion.

In the republics of Greece and Rome, the art of speaking was the

powerful engine of patriotism or ambition; and the schools of

rhetoric poured forth a colony of statesmen and legislators. When

the liberty of public debate was suppressed, the orator, in the

honorable profession of an advocate, might plead the cause of

innocence and justice; he might abuse his talents in the more

profitable trade of panegyric; and the same precepts continued to

dictate the fanciful declamations of the sophist, and the chaster

beauties of historical composition. The systems which professed

to unfold the nature of God, of man, and of the universe,

entertained the curiosity of the philosophic student; and

according to the temper of his mind, he might doubt with the

Sceptics, or decide with the Stoics, sublimely speculate with

Plato, or severely argue with Aristotle. The pride of the adverse

sects had fixed an unattainable term of moral happiness and

perfection; but the race was glorious and salutary; the disciples

of Zeno, and even those of Epicurus, were taught both to act and

to suffer; and the death of Petronius was not less effectual than

that of Seneca, to humble a tyrant by the discovery of his

impotence. The light of science could not indeed be confined

within the walls of Athens. Her incomparable writers address

themselves to the human race; the living masters emigrated to

Italy and Asia; Berytus, in later times, was devoted to the study

of the law; astronomy and physic were cultivated in the musaeum

of Alexandria; but the Attic schools of rhetoric and philosophy

maintained their superior reputation from the Peloponnesian war

to the reign of Justinian. Athens, though situate in a barren

soil, possessed a pure air, a free navigation, and the monuments

of ancient art. That sacred retirement was seldom disturbed by

the business of trade or government; and the last of the

Athenians were distinguished by their lively wit, the purity of

their taste and language, their social manners, and some traces,

at least in discourse, of the magnanimity of their fathers. In

the suburbs of the city, the academy of the Platonists, the

lycaeum of the Peripatetics, the portico of the Stoics, and the

garden of the Epicureans, were planted with trees and decorated

with statues; and the philosophers, instead of being immured in a

cloister, delivered their instructions in spacious and pleasant

walks, which, at different hours, were consecrated to the

exercises of the mind and body. The genius of the founders still

lived in those venerable seats; the ambition of succeeding to the

masters of human reason excited a generous emulation; and the

merit of the candidates was determined, on each vacancy, by the

free voices of an enlightened people. The Athenian professors

were paid by their disciples: according to their mutual wants and

abilities, the price appears to have varied; and Isocrates

himself, who derides the avarice of the sophists, required, in

his school of rhetoric, about thirty pounds from each of his

hundred pupils. The wages of industry are just and honorable, yet

the same Isocrates shed tears at the first receipt of a stipend:

the Stoic might blush when he was hired to preach the contempt of

money; and I should be sorry to discover that Aristotle or Plato

so far degenerated from the example of Socrates, as to exchange

knowledge for gold. But some property of lands and houses was

settled by the permission of the laws, and the legacies of

deceased friends, on the philosophic chairs of Athens. Epicurus

bequeathed to his disciples the gardens which he had purchased

for eighty minae or two hundred and fifty pounds, with a fund

sufficient for their frugal subsistence and monthly festivals;

146 and the patrimony of Plato afforded an annual rent, which, in

eight centuries, was gradually increased from three to one

thousand pieces of gold. 147 The schools of Athens were protected

by the wisest and most virtuous of the Roman princes. The

library, which Hadrian founded, was placed in a portico adorned

with pictures, statues, and a roof of alabaster, and supported by

one hundred columns of Phrygian marble. The public salaries were

assigned by the generous spirit of the Antonines; and each

professor of politics, of rhetoric, of the Platonic, the

Peripatetic, the Stoic, and the Epicurean philosophy, received an

annual stipend of ten thousand drachmae, or more than three

hundred pounds sterling. 148 After the death of Marcus, these

liberal donations, and the privileges attached to the thrones of

science, were abolished and revived, diminished and enlarged; but

some vestige of royal bounty may be found under the successors of

Constantine; and their arbitrary choice of an unworthy candidate

might tempt the philosophers of Athens to regret the days of

independence and poverty. 149 It is remarkable, that the

impartial favor of the Antonines was bestowed on the four adverse

sects of philosophy, which they considered as equally useful, or

at least, as equally innocent. Socrates had formerly been the

glory and the reproach of his country; and the first lessons of

Epicurus so strangely scandalized the pious ears of the

Athenians, that by his exile, and that of his antagonists, they

silenced all vain disputes concerning the nature of the gods. But

in the ensuing year they recalled the hasty decree, restored the

liberty of the schools, and were convinced by the experience of

ages, that the moral character of philosophers is not affected by

the diversity of their theological speculations. 150

143 (return) [ The life of Isocrates extends from Olymp. lxxxvi.

1. to cx. 3, (ante Christ. 436—438.) See Dionys. Halicarn. tom.

ii. p. 149, 150, edit. Hudson. Plutarch (sive anonymus) in Vit.

X. Oratorum, p. 1538—1543, edit. H. Steph. Phot. cod. cclix. p.

1453.]

144 (return) [ The schools of Athens are copiously though

concisely represented in the Fortuna Attica of Meursius, (c.

viii. p. 59—73, in tom. i. Opp.) For the state and arts of the

city, see the first book of Pausanias, and a small tract of

Dicaearchus, in the second volume of Hudson’s Geographers, who

wrote about Olymp. cxvii. (Dodwell’s Dissertia sect. 4.)]

145 (return) [ Diogen Laert. de Vit. Philosoph. l. v. segm. 37,

p. 289.]

146 (return) [ See the Testament of Epicurus in Diogen. Laert. l.

x. segm. 16—20, p. 611, 612. A single epistle (ad Familiares,

xiii. l.) displays the injustice of the Areopagus, the fidelity

of the Epicureans, the dexterous politeness of Cicero, and the

mixture of contempt and esteem with which the Roman senators

considered the philosophy and philosophers of Greece.]

147 (return) [ Damascius, in Vit. Isidor. apud Photium, cod.

ccxlii. p. 1054.]

148 (return) [ See Lucian (in Eunuch. tom. ii. p. 350—359, edit.

Reitz,) Philostratus (in Vit. Sophist. l. ii. c. 2,) and Dion

Cassius, or Xiphilin, (lxxi. p. 1195,) with their editors Du

Soul, Olearius, and Reimar, and, above all, Salmasius, (ad Hist.

August. p. 72.) A judicious philosopher (Smith’s Wealth of

Nations, vol. ii. p. 340—374) prefers the free contributions of

the students to a fixed stipend for the professor.]

149 (return) [ Brucker, Hist. Crit. Philosoph. tom. ii. p. 310,

&c.]

150 (return) [ The birth of Epicurus is fixed to the year 342

before Christ, (Bayle,) Olympiad cix. 3; and he opened his school

at Athens, Olmp. cxviii. 3, 306 years before the same aera. This

intolerant law (Athenaeus, l. xiii. p. 610. Diogen. Laertius, l.

v. s. 38. p. 290. Julius Pollux, ix. 5) was enacted in the same

or the succeeding year, (Sigonius, Opp. tom. v. p. 62. Menagius

ad Diogen. Laert. p. 204. Corsini, Fasti Attici, tom. iv. p. 67,

68.) Theophrastus chief of the Peripatetics, and disciple of

Aristotle, was involved in the same exile.]

The Gothic arms were less fatal to the schools of Athens than the

establishment of a new religion, whose ministers superseded the

exercise of reason, resolved every question by an article of

faith, and condemned the infidel or sceptic to eternal flames. In

many a volume of laborious controversy, they exposed the weakness

of the understanding and the corruption of the heart, insulted

human nature in the sages of antiquity, and proscribed the spirit

of philosophical inquiry, so repugnant to the doctrine, or at

least to the temper, of an humble believer. The surviving sects

of the Platonists, whom Plato would have blushed to acknowledge,

extravagantly mingled a sublime theory with the practice of

superstition and magic; and as they remained alone in the midst

of a Christian world, they indulged a secret rancor against the

government of the church and state, whose severity was still

suspended over their heads. About a century after the reign of

Julian, 151 Proclus 152 was permitted to teach in the philosophic

chair of the academy; and such was his industry, that he

frequently, in the same day, pronounced five lessons, and

composed seven hundred lines. His sagacious mind explored the

deepest questions of morals and metaphysics, and he ventured to

urge eighteen arguments against the Christian doctrine of the

creation of the world. But in the intervals of study, he

personally conversed with Pan, Aesculapius, and Minerva, in whose

mysteries he was secretly initiated, and whose prostrate statues

he adored; in the devout persuasion that the philosopher, who is

a citizen of the universe, should be the priest of its various

deities. An eclipse of the sun announced his approaching end; and

his life, with that of his scholar Isidore, 153 compiled by two

of their most learned disciples, exhibits a deplorable picture of

the second childhood of human reason. Yet the golden chain, as it

was fondly styled, of the Platonic succession, continued

forty-four years from the death of Proclus to the edict of

Justinian, 154 which imposed a perpetual silence on the schools

of Athens, and excited the grief and indignation of the few

remaining votaries of Grecian science and superstition. Seven

friends and philosophers, Diogenes and Hermias, Eulalius and

Priscian, Damascius, Isidore, and Simplicius, who dissented from

the religion of their sovereign, embraced the resolution of

seeking in a foreign land the freedom which was denied in their

native country. They had heard, and they credulously believed,

that the republic of Plato was realized in the despotic

government of Persia, and that a patriot king reigned ever the

happiest and most virtuous of nations. They were soon astonished

by the natural discovery, that Persia resembled the other

countries of the globe; that Chosroes, who affected the name of a

philosopher, was vain, cruel, and ambitious; that bigotry, and a

spirit of intolerance, prevailed among the Magi; that the nobles

were haughty, the courtiers servile, and the magistrates unjust;

that the guilty sometimes escaped, and that the innocent were

often oppressed. The disappointment of the philosophers provoked

them to overlook the real virtues of the Persians; and they were

scandalized, more deeply perhaps than became their profession,

with the plurality of wives and concubines, the incestuous

marriages, and the custom of exposing dead bodies to the dogs and

vultures, instead of hiding them in the earth, or consuming them

with fire. Their repentance was expressed by a precipitate

return, and they loudly declared that they had rather die on the

borders of the empire, than enjoy the wealth and favor of the

Barbarian. From this journey, however, they derived a benefit

which reflects the purest lustre on the character of Chosroes. He

required, that the seven sages who had visited the court of

Persia should be exempted from the penal laws which Justinian

enacted against his Pagan subjects; and this privilege, expressly

stipulated in a treaty of peace, was guarded by the vigilance of

a powerful mediator. 155 Simplicius and his companions ended

their lives in peace and obscurity; and as they left no

disciples, they terminate the long list of Grecian philosophers,

who may be justly praised, notwithstanding their defects, as the

wisest and most virtuous of their contemporaries. The writings of

Simplicius are now extant. His physical and metaphysical

commentaries on Aristotle have passed away with the fashion of

the times; but his moral interpretation of Epictetus is preserved

in the library of nations, as a classic book, most excellently

adapted to direct the will, to purify the heart, and to confirm

the understanding, by a just confidence in the nature both of God

and man.

151 (return) [ This is no fanciful aera: the Pagans reckoned

their calamities from the reign of their hero. Proclus, whose

nativity is marked by his horoscope, (A.D. 412, February 8, at C.

P.,) died 124 years, A.D. 485, (Marin. in Vita Procli, c. 36.)]

152 (return) [ The life of Proclus, by Marinus, was published by

Fabricius (Hamburg, 1700, et ad calcem Bibliot. Latin. Lond.

1703.) See Saidas, (tom. iii. p. 185, 186,) Fabricius, (Bibliot.

Graec. l. v. c. 26 p. 449—552,) and Brucker, (Hist. Crit.

Philosoph. tom. ii. p. 319—326)]

153 (return) [ The life of Isidore was composed by Damascius,

(apud Photium, sod. ccxlii. p. 1028—1076.) See the last age of

the Pagan philosophers, in Brucker, (tom. ii. p. 341—351.)]

154 (return) [ The suppression of the schools of Athens is

recorded by John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 187, sub Decio Cos. Sol.,)

and an anonymous Chronicle in the Vatican library, (apud Aleman.

p. 106.)]

155 (return) [ Agathias (l. ii. p. 69, 70, 71) relates this

curious story Chosroes ascended the throne in the year 531, and

made his first peace with the Romans in the beginning of 533—a

date most compatible with his young fame and the old age of

Isidore, (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. iii. p. 404. Pagi, tom.

ii. p. 543, 550.)]

About the same time that Pythagoras first invented the

appellation of philosopher, liberty and the consulship were

founded at Rome by the elder Brutus. The revolutions of the

consular office, which may be viewed in the successive lights of

a substance, a shadow, and a name, have been occasionally

mentioned in the present History. The first magistrates of the

republic had been chosen by the people, to exercise, in the

senate and in the camp, the powers of peace and war, which were

afterwards translated to the emperors. But the tradition of

ancient dignity was long revered by the Romans and Barbarians. A

Gothic historian applauds the consulship of Theodoric as the

height of all temporal glory and greatness; 156 the king of Italy

himself congratulated those annual favorites of fortune who,

without the cares, enjoyed the splendor of the throne; and at the

end of a thousand years, two consuls were created by the

sovereigns of Rome and Constantinople, for the sole purpose of

giving a date to the year, and a festival to the people. But the

expenses of this festival, in which the wealthy and the vain

aspired to surpass their predecessors, insensibly arose to the

enormous sum of fourscore thousand pounds; the wisest senators

declined a useless honor, which involved the certain ruin of

their families, and to this reluctance I should impute the

frequent chasms in the last age of the consular Fasti. The

predecessors of Justinian had assisted from the public treasures

the dignity of the less opulent candidates; the avarice of that

prince preferred the cheaper and more convenient method of advice

and regulation. 157 Seven processions or spectacles were the

number to which his edict confined the horse and chariot races,

the athletic sports, the music, and pantomimes of the theatre,

and the hunting of wild beasts; and small pieces of silver were

discreetly substituted to the gold medals, which had always

excited tumult and drunkenness, when they were scattered with a

profuse hand among the populace. Notwithstanding these

precautions, and his own example, the succession of consuls

finally ceased in the thirteenth year of Justinian, whose

despotic temper might be gratified by the silent extinction of a

title which admonished the Romans of their ancient freedom. 158

Yet the annual consulship still lived in the minds of the people;

they fondly expected its speedy restoration; they applauded the

gracious condescension of successive princes, by whom it was

assumed in the first year of their reign; and three centuries

elapsed, after the death of Justinian, before that obsolete

dignity, which had been suppressed by custom, could be abolished

by law. 159 The imperfect mode of distinguishing each year by the

name of a magistrate, was usefully supplied by the date of a

permanent aera: the creation of the world, according to the

Septuagint version, was adopted by the Greeks; 160 and the

Latins, since the age of Charlemagne, have computed their time

from the birth of Christ. 161

156 (return) [ Cassiodor. Variarum Epist. vi. 1. Jornandes, c.

57, p. 696, dit. Grot. Quod summum bonum primumque in mundo decus

dicitur.]

157 (return) [ See the regulations of Justinian, (Novell. cv.,)

dated at Constantinople, July 5, and addressed to Strategius,

treasurer of the empire.]

158 (return) [ Procopius, in Anecdot. c. 26. Aleman. p. 106. In

the xviiith year after the consulship of Basilius, according to

the reckoning of Marcellinus, Victor, Marius, &c., the secret

history was composed, and, in the eyes of Procopius, the

consulship was finally abolished.]

159 (return) [ By Leo, the philosopher, (Novell. xciv. A.D.

886-911.) See Pagi (Dissertat. Hypatica, p. 325—362) and Ducange,

(Gloss, Graec p. 1635, 1636.) Even the title was vilified:

consulatus codicilli.. vilescunt, says the emperor himself.]

160 (return) [ According to Julius Africanus, &c., the world was

created the first of September, 5508 years, three months, and

twenty-five days before the birth of Christ. (See Pezron,

Antiquite des Tems defendue, p. 20—28.) And this aera has been

used by the Greeks, the Oriental Christians, and even by the

Russians, till the reign of Peter I The period, however

arbitrary, is clear and convenient. Of the 7296 years which are

supposed to elapse since the creation, we shall find 3000 of

ignorance and darkness; 2000 either fabulous or doubtful; 1000 of

ancient history, commencing with the Persian empire, and the

Republics of Rome and Athens; 1000 from the fall of the Roman

empire in the West to the discovery of America; and the remaining

296 will almost complete three centuries of the modern state of

Europe and mankind. I regret this chronology, so far preferable

to our double and perplexed method of counting backwards and

forwards the years before and after the Christian era.]

161 (return) [ The aera of the world has prevailed in the East

since the vith general council, (A.D. 681.) In the West, the

Christian aera was first invented in the vith century: it was

propagated in the viiith by the authority and writings of

venerable Bede; but it was not till the xth that the use became

legal and popular. See l’Art de Veriner les Dates, Dissert.

Preliminaire, p. iii. xii. Dictionnaire Diplomatique, tom. i. p.

329—337; the works of a laborious society of Benedictine monks.]

Chapter XLI: Conquests Of Justinian, Character Of Balisarius.—Part I.

Conquests Of Justinian In The West.—Character And First Campaigns Of

Belisarius—He Invades And Subdues The Vandal Kingdom Of Africa—His

Triumph.—The Gothic War.—He Recovers Sicily, Naples, And Rome.—Siege Of

Rome By The Goths.—Their Retreat And Losses.—Surrender Of

Ravenna.—Glory Of Belisarius.—His Domestic Shame And Misfortunes.

When Justinian ascended the throne, about fifty years after the

fall of the Western empire, the kingdoms of the Goths and Vandals

had obtained a solid, and, as it might seem, a legal

establishment both in Europe and Africa. The titles, which Roman

victory had inscribed, were erased with equal justice by the

sword of the Barbarians; and their successful rapine derived a

more venerable sanction from time, from treaties, and from the

oaths of fidelity, already repeated by a second or third

generation of obedient subjects. Experience and Christianity had

refuted the superstitious hope, that Rome was founded by the gods

to reign forever over the nations of the earth. But the proud

claim of perpetual and indefeasible dominion, which her soldiers

could no longer maintain, was firmly asserted by her statesmen

and lawyers, whose opinions have been sometimes revived and

propagated in the modern schools of jurisprudence. After Rome

herself had been stripped of the Imperial purple, the princes of

Constantinople assumed the sole and sacred sceptre of the

monarchy; demanded, as their rightful inheritance, the provinces

which had been subdued by the consuls, or possessed by the

Caesars; and feebly aspired to deliver their faithful subjects of

the West from the usurpation of heretics and Barbarians. The

execution of this splendid design was in some degree reserved for

Justinian. During the five first years of his reign, he

reluctantly waged a costly and unprofitable war against the

Persians; till his pride submitted to his ambition, and he

purchased at the price of four hundred and forty thousand pounds

sterling, the benefit of a precarious truce, which, in the

language of both nations, was dignified with the appellation of

the endless peace. The safety of the East enabled the emperor to

employ his forces against the Vandals; and the internal state of

Africa afforded an honorable motive, and promised a powerful

support, to the Roman arms. 1

1 (return) [ The complete series of the Vandal war is related by

Procopius in a regular and elegant narrative, (l. i. c. 9—25, l.

ii. c. 1—13,) and happy would be my lot, could I always tread in

the footsteps of such a guide. From the entire and diligent

perusal of the Greek text, I have a right to pronounce that the

Latin and French versions of Grotius and Cousin may not be

implicitly trusted; yet the president Cousin has been often

praised, and Hugo Grotius was the first scholar of a learned

age.]

According to the testament of the founder, the African kingdom

had lineally descended to Hilderic, the eldest of the Vandal

princes. A mild disposition inclined the son of a tyrant, the

grandson of a conqueror, to prefer the counsels of clemency and

peace; and his accession was marked by the salutary edict, which

restored two hundred bishops to their churches, and allowed the

free profession of the Athanasian creed. 2 But the Catholics

accepted, with cold and transient gratitude, a favor so

inadequate to their pretensions, and the virtues of Hilderic

offended the prejudices of his countrymen. The Arian clergy

presumed to insinuate that he had renounced the faith, and the

soldiers more loudly complained that he had degenerated from the

courage, of his ancestors. His ambassadors were suspected of a

secret and disgraceful negotiation in the Byzantine court; and

his general, the Achilles, 3 as he was named, of the Vandals,

lost a battle against the naked and disorderly Moors. The public

discontent was exasperated by Gelimer, whose age, descent, and

military fame, gave him an apparent title to the succession: he

assumed, with the consent of the nation, the reins of government;

and his unfortunate sovereign sunk without a struggle from the

throne to a dungeon, where he was strictly guarded with a

faithful counsellor, and his unpopular nephew the Achilles of the

Vandals. But the indulgence which Hilderic had shown to his

Catholic subjects had powerfully recommended him to the favor of

Justinian, who, for the benefit of his own sect, could

acknowledge the use and justice of religious toleration: their

alliance, while the nephew of Justin remained in a private

station, was cemented by the mutual exchange of gifts and

letters; and the emperor Justinian asserted the cause of royalty

and friendship. In two successive embassies, he admonished the

usurper to repent of his treason, or to abstain, at least, from

any further violence which might provoke the displeasure of God

and of the Romans; to reverence the laws of kindred and

succession, and to suffer an infirm old man peaceably to end his

days, either on the throne of Carthage or in the palace of

Constantinople. The passions, or even the prudence, of Gelimer

compelled him to reject these requests, which were urged in the

haughty tone of menace and command; and he justified his ambition

in a language rarely spoken in the Byzantine court, by alleging

the right of a free people to remove or punish their chief

magistrate, who had failed in the execution of the kingly office.

After this fruitless expostulation, the captive monarch was more

rigorously treated, his nephew was deprived of his eyes, and the

cruel Vandal, confident in his strength and distance, derided the

vain threats and slow preparations of the emperor of the East.

Justinian resolved to deliver or revenge his friend, Gelimer to

maintain his usurpation; and the war was preceded, according to

the practice of civilized nations, by the most solemn

protestations, that each party was sincerely desirous of peace.

2 (return) [ See Ruinart, Hist. Persecut. Vandal. c. xii. p. 589.

His best evidence is drawn from the life of St. Fulgentius,

composed by one of his disciples, transcribed in a great measure

in the annals of Baronius, and printed in several great

collections, (Catalog. Bibliot. Bunavianae, tom. i. vol. ii. p.

1258.)]

3 (return) [ For what quality of the mind or body? For speed, or

beauty, or valor?—In what language did the Vandals read

Homer?—Did he speak German?—The Latins had four versions,

(Fabric. tom. i. l. ii. c. 8, p. 297:) yet, in spite of the

praises of Seneca, (Consol. c. 26,) they appear to have been more

successful in imitating than in translating the Greek poets. But

the name of Achilles might be famous and popular even among the

illiterate Barbarians.]

The report of an African war was grateful only to the vain and

idle populace of Constantinople, whose poverty exempted them from

tribute, and whose cowardice was seldom exposed to military

service. But the wiser citizens, who judged of the future by the

past, revolved in their memory the immense loss, both of men and

money, which the empire had sustained in the expedition of

Basiliscus. The troops, which, after five laborious campaigns,

had been recalled from the Persian frontier, dreaded the sea, the

climate, and the arms of an unknown enemy. The ministers of the

finances computed, as far as they might compute, the demands of

an African war; the taxes which must be found and levied to

supply those insatiate demands; and the danger, lest their own

lives, or at least their lucrative employments, should be made

responsible for the deficiency of the supply. Inspired by such

selfish motives, (for we may not suspect him of any zeal for the

public good,) John of Cappadocia ventured to oppose in full

council the inclinations of his master. He confessed, that a

victory of such importance could not be too dearly purchased; but

he represented in a grave discourse the certain difficulties and

the uncertain event. “You undertake,” said the præfect, “to

besiege Carthage: by land, the distance is not less than one

hundred and forty days’ journey; on the sea, a whole year 4 must

elapse before you can receive any intelligence from your fleet.

If Africa should be reduced, it cannot be preserved without the

additional conquest of Sicily and Italy. Success will impose the

obligations of new labors; a single misfortune will attract the

Barbarians into the heart of your exhausted empire.” Justinian

felt the weight of this salutary advice; he was confounded by the

unwonted freedom of an obsequious servant; and the design of the

war would perhaps have been relinquished, if his courage had not

been revived by a voice which silenced the doubts of profane

reason. “I have seen a vision,” cried an artful or fanatic bishop

of the East. “It is the will of Heaven, O emperor! that you

should not abandon your holy enterprise for the deliverance of

the African church. The God of battles will march before your

standard, and disperse your enemies, who are the enemies of his

Son.” The emperor, might be tempted, and his counsellors were

constrained, to give credit to this seasonable revelation: but

they derived more rational hope from the revolt, which the

adherents of Hilderic or Athanasius had already excited on the

borders of the Vandal monarchy. Pudentius, an African subject,

had privately signified his loyal intentions, and a small

military aid restored the province of Tripoli to the obedience of

the Romans. The government of Sardinia had been intrusted to

Godas, a valiant Barbarian: he suspended the payment of tribute,

disclaimed his allegiance to the usurper, and gave audience to

the emissaries of Justinian, who found him master of that

fruitful island, at the head of his guards, and proudly invested

with the ensigns of royalty. The forces of the Vandals were

diminished by discord and suspicion; the Roman armies were

animated by the spirit of Belisarius; one of those heroic names

which are familiar to every age and to every nation.

4 (return) [ A year—absurd exaggeration! The conquest of Africa

may be dated A. D 533, September 14. It is celebrated by

Justinian in the preface to his Institutes, which were published

November 21 of the same year. Including the voyage and return,

such a computation might be truly applied to our Indian empire.]

The Africanus of new Rome was born, and perhaps educated, among

the Thracian peasants, 5 without any of those advantages which

had formed the virtues of the elder and younger Scipio; a noble

origin, liberal studies, and the emulation of a free state.

The silence of a loquacious secretary may be admitted, to prove

that the youth of Belisarius could not afford any subject of

praise: he served, most assuredly with valor and reputation,

among the private guards of Justinian; and when his patron became

emperor, the domestic was promoted to military command. After a

bold inroad into Persarmenia, in which his glory was shared by a

colleague, and his progress was checked by an enemy, Belisarius

repaired to the important station of Dara, where he first

accepted the service of Procopius, the faithful companion, and

diligent historian, of his exploits. 6 The Mirranes of Persia

advanced, with forty thousand of her best troops, to raze the

fortifications of Dara; and signified the day and the hour on

which the citizens should prepare a bath for his refreshment,

after the toils of victory. He encountered an adversary equal to

himself, by the new title of General of the East; his superior in

the science of war, but much inferior in the number and quality

of his troops, which amounted only to twenty-five thousand Romans

and strangers, relaxed in their discipline, and humbled by recent

disasters. As the level plain of Dara refused all shelter to

stratagem and ambush, Belisarius protected his front with a deep

trench, which was prolonged at first in perpendicular, and

afterwards in parallel, lines, to cover the wings of cavalry

advantageously posted to command the flanks and rear of the

enemy. When the Roman centre was shaken, their well-timed and

rapid charge decided the conflict: the standard of Persia fell;

the immortals fled; the infantry threw away their bucklers, and

eight thousand of the vanquished were left on the field of

battle. In the next campaign, Syria was invaded on the side of

the desert; and Belisarius, with twenty thousand men, hastened

from Dara to the relief of the province. During the whole summer,

the designs of the enemy were baffled by his skilful

dispositions: he pressed their retreat, occupied each night their

camp of the preceding day, and would have secured a bloodless

victory, if he could have resisted the impatience of his own

troops. Their valiant promise was faintly supported in the hour

of battle; the right wing was exposed by the treacherous or

cowardly desertion of the Christian Arabs; the Huns, a veteran

band of eight hundred warriors, were oppressed by superior

numbers; the flight of the Isaurians was intercepted; but the

Roman infantry stood firm on the left; for Belisarius himself,

dismounting from his horse, showed them that intrepid despair was

their only safety. 611 They turned their backs to the Euphrates,

and their faces to the enemy: innumerable arrows glanced without

effect from the compact and shelving order of their bucklers; an

impenetrable line of pikes was opposed to the repeated assaults

of the Persian cavalry; and after a resistance of many hours, the

remaining troops were skilfully embarked under the shadow of the

night. The Persian commander retired with disorder and disgrace,

to answer a strict account of the lives of so many soldiers,

which he had consumed in a barren victory. But the fame of

Belisarius was not sullied by a defeat, in which he alone had

saved his army from the consequences of their own rashness: the

approach of peace relieved him from the guard of the eastern

frontier, and his conduct in the sedition of Constantinople amply

discharged his obligations to the emperor. When the African war

became the topic of popular discourse and secret deliberation,

each of the Roman generals was apprehensive, rather than

ambitious, of the dangerous honor; but as soon as Justinian had

declared his preference of superior merit, their envy was

rekindled by the unanimous applause which was given to the choice

of Belisarius. The temper of the Byzantine court may encourage a

suspicion, that the hero was darkly assisted by the intrigues of

his wife, the fair and subtle Antonina, who alternately enjoyed

the confidence, and incurred the hatred, of the empress Theodora.

The birth of Antonina was ignoble; she descended from a family of

charioteers; and her chastity has been stained with the foulest

reproach. Yet she reigned with long and absolute power over the

mind of her illustrious husband; and if Antonina disdained the

merit of conjugal fidelity, she expressed a manly friendship to

Belisarius, whom she accompanied with undaunted resolution in all

the hardships and dangers of a military life. 7