THE ROMAN EMPIRE UNDER ANASTASIUS: THE INHERITANCE OF JUSTINIAN
That a spirit of dominion was implanted in the breasts of those early
settlers or refugees who rallied around Romulus, when, about 750 B.C.,
he raised his standard on the Palatine hill, is made plain by the
subsequent history of that infant community; and the native daring
which first won wives for a colony of outcasts, foreshadowed the
career of conquest and empire which eventually attached itself to the
Roman name.[534] Contemned, doubtless, and disregarded by their more
reputable neighbours as a band of adventurers with nothing to lose, in
despair of being respected they determined to make themselves feared;
and the original leaven was infused through every further accretion
of population, and was entailed as an inheritance on all succeeding
generations who peopled the expanding city of the Tiber. When their
kings threatened to become despotic they drove them out; when the
patricians attempted to maintain an exclusive control the more numerous
plebs revolted and gradually achieved the establishment of a republic,
in which political honours and aristocracy became synonymous with
the ability to fill, or the energy to gain, a ruling position. They
devoted themselves with enthusiasm to the task of self-government, and
sacrificed their private interests to the welfare of the Republic.
Without history and without science, inflated by ambition within their
narrow sphere, they applied the conception of immortality, which
millenniums would not justify, to being acclaimed in the ephemeral
fervour of the populace or to being remembered for a few decades in the
finite language of poetry and rhetoric.
While the Roman state was in its cradle a citizen and a soldier were
equivalent terms, and every man gave his military service as a free
contribution to the general welfare of the public. But as wars became
frequent and aggressive, and armies were compelled to keep the field
for indefinite periods, a system of payment[535] was introduced in
order to compensate the soldier for the enforced neglect of his family
duties. By the continued growth of the military system, war became a
profession, veteran legions sprang into existence, and generals, whose
rank was virtually permanent, became a power among the troops and a
menace to the state. Finally the transition was made from a republic
governed by a democracy to an empire ruled by the army. In the meantime
the dominion of Rome had been extended on all sides to the great
natural barriers of its position on the hemisphere; to the Atlantic
ocean on the west, to the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euxine on the
north, to the Euphrates on the east, and on the south to the securest
frontier of all, the impassable deserts of Libya and Arabia.
The first emperors affected to rule as civil magistrates and accepted
their appointment from the Senate, but their successors assumed the
purple as the nominees of the troops, and often held it by right of
conquest over less able competitors.[536] Concurrently the Imperial
city had been insensibly undergoing a transformation; by the persistent
influx of strangers of diverse nationalities its ethnical homogeneity
was lost;[537] a new and more populous Rome, in which the traditions of
republican freedom were dissipated, was evolved; and the inhabitants
without a murmur saw themselves deprived of the right to elect their
own magistrates.[538] The laws of the Republic were submitted for
ratification to the citizens, but in the ascent to absolutism the
emperor became the sole legislator of the nation.[539] The elevation
of an emperor seemed at first to be an inalienable privilege of the
metropolis, and the original line of Caesars necessarily descended
from a genuine Roman stock; but in little more than a century the
instability of this law was made plain, and many an able general of
provincial blood was raised to the purple at his place of casual
sojourn.[540] In the sequel, when men of an alien race, who neither
knew nor revered Rome, obtained the first rank, they chose their place
of residence according to some native preference or in view of its
utility as a base for military operations. The simultaneous assumption
of the purple by several candidates in different localities, each at
the head of an army, foreboded the division of the Empire; and after
the second century an avowed sharing of the provinces became the
rule rather than the exception. As each partner resided within his
own territory, Rome gradually became neglected and at last preserved
only a semblance of being the capital of the Empire.[541] But after
Constantine founded a capital of his own choice even this semblance was
lost, and the new Rome on the Bosphorus assumed the highest political
rank. From this event we may mark the beginning of mediaevalism, of
the passing of western Europe under the cloud of the dark ages; and
the disintegration of the Roman Empire in the West was achieved by the
barbarians within the following century and a half. In 395 a final
partition of the Empire, naturally halved as it was by the Adriatic
sea, was made; and the incapable sons of Theodosius, Arcadius and
Honorius,[542] were seated as independent sovereigns on thrones in the
East and West. During this period a central administrative energy to
uphold Rome as an Imperial seat was entirely wanting; and a succession
of feeble emperors maintained a mere shadow of authority while their
provinces were being appropriated by the surplus populations of the
north. Italy and south-west Gaul became the prey of East and West
Goths; the valorous Franks under Clovis founded a kingdom which made
itself permanently respected under the name of France; Vandals, with
kindred tribes, gained possession of Spain and even erected a monarchy
in north Africa, which extended beyond the limits of ancient Carthage;
Britain, divested of Roman soldiers in 409, for centuries became the
goal of acquisitive incursions by the maritime hordes who issued from
the adjacent seaboards, Saxons, Angles, and Danes.
In the change from a nominally popular or constitutional monarchy to a
professed despotism, a reconstitution of all subordinate authority was
regarded as a matter of necessity. At first the Empire was administered
in about forty provinces, but under the later scheme of control it was
parcelled out into nearly three times that number. In earlier times
a Roman proconsul in his spacious province was almost an independent
potentate during his term of office,[543] the head alike of the civil
and military power. But in the new dispensation no man was intrusted
with such plenary authority, and each contracted province was ruled by
a purely civil administrator, whilst the local army obeyed a different
master. For further security, each of these in turn was dependent on a
higher civil or military officer, to whom was delegated the collective
control of a number of his subordinates. Again a shift of authority
was made, and the reins of government were delivered into fewer hands,
until, at the head of the system, the source of all power, stood the
Emperor himself. In order to perfect this policy the army itself was
treated in detail on a similar plan; and for the future no homogeneous
body of troops of considerable number was collocated in the hands of a
single leader. A typical Roman legion had previously consisted of about
six thousand foot, seven hundred horse, and of a band of auxiliaries
drawn from foreign or barbarian sources, in all, perhaps, ten thousand
men. Each legion was thus in itself an effective force; and as it
yielded implicit obedience to a single praefect, the loyalty or
venality of a few such officers in respect of their common general had
often sufficed to seat him firmly on the throne. To obviate the risk,
therefore, of revolt, usurpation, or even of covert resistance to the
will of the Emperor, existing legions were broken up into detachments
which were relegated to different stations so as to be dispersed
over a wide area. As a consequence the praefect of the legion could
only exist in name, and that office was soon regarded as obsolete.
Consistently, when new legions had to be enrolled for the exigences of
defence or warfare, their number was limited to about one fifth of the
original amount.[544] To complete the fabric of autocracy all the pomp
and pretensions of Oriental exclusiveness were adopted by Diocletian,
so that henceforward the monarch was only accessible to the subject
under forms of such complexity and abasement as seemed to betoken a
being of more than mortal mould.[545]
Another signal divergence from the simple manners of the first emperors
was the permanent establishment of eunuchs in high offices about the
royal person.[546] The Grand Chamberlain, as the constant attendant
on the privacy of the monarch, generally became his confidant, and
sometimes his master.[547] Ultimately, by habitude, or perhaps with
a feeling for the vicious propensities of the times, the Emperor
developed an almost feminine reserve in relation to the “bearded”
or masculine sex; and in his movements he was guarded by his staff
of eunuchs with as much jealousy as if his virtue were something as
delicate as that of a woman.[548]
Having dismissed these general considerations, I will now attempt to
depict briefly the state of the remaining moiety of the Empire, of the
Eastern provinces, at the beginning of the sixth century. In order to
render my descriptions more compact and intelligible, I shall treat the
subject under three distinct headings, viz., Political, Educational,
and Religious.
I. POLITICAL
The dominions of Anastasius the elder,[549] for there was a later
emperor of that name, corresponded generally to those ruled during the
first quarter of the past century by the Ottoman sultans, who were
the last to conquer them, and who became possessed of the whole in
1461.[550] Proceeding from east to west, the northern boundary of the
Empire followed the coast of the Euxine in its sweep from the mouth of
the Phasis (adjacent to the modern town of Batoum) to the estuaries of
the Danube, as it delimits Asia on the north and Europe on the east,
by the bold curve of its unequal arms. From the latter point, taking
the Danube for its guide, the northern frontier stretched westwards
to its termination on the banks of that river in the neighbourhood
of Sirmium.[551] The western border, descending from thence almost
due south, was directed in part of its course by the river Drina, and
halved nearly vertically the modern principality of Montenegro as it
struck towards the shores of the Adriatic. The coast of Greece, with
its associated islands on this aspect, traced the western outline of
the Empire for the rest of its course, excepting a small portion to
be reached by crossing the Mediterranean to the Syrtis Major, where
at this date the confines of Roman Africa were to be found. In this
vicinity the Egyptian territory began, and the southern frontier
coincided for the most part with the edge of the Libyan desert as it
skirts the fertile lands of the north and east, that is, the Cyrenaica
and the valley of the Nile. An artificial line, cutting that valley
on a level with the first cataract and the Isle of Philae, marked
the southern extension of Egypt as far as claimed by the Byzantine
emperors.[552] From a corresponding point on the opposite shore of
the Red Sea the Asiatic border of their dominions began. Passing
northwards to regain that part of the Euxine from whence we started,
the eastern frontier pursued a long and irregular track, at first
along the margin of the Arabian desert as it verges on the Sinaitic
peninsula, Palestine, and Syria; then crossing the Euphrates it gained
the Tigris, so as to include the northern portion of Mesopotamia.
Finally, returning to the former river, it joined it in its course
along the western limits of Armenia,[553] whence it reached the Phasis
on the return journey, the point from which we set out.[554] Considered
in their greatest length, from the Danube above Sirmium, to Syene on
the Nile, and in their extreme width, from the Tigris in the longitude
of Daras or Nisibis, to the Acroceraunian rocks on the coast of Epirus,
these ample dominions stretch from north to south for nearly eighteen
hundred miles, and from east to west for more than twelve hundred. In
superficial area this tract may be estimated to contain about half
a million of square miles, that is, an amount of surface fully four
times greater than that covered by Great Britain and Ireland.[555] At
the present day it is calculated that these vast regions are peopled by
only about twenty-eight millions of inhabitants,[556] but their modern
state of decay is practically the reverse of their condition in the
sixth century, when they were the flourishing, though already failing,
seat of the highest civilization at that time existing on the earth;
and there is good reason to believe that they were then considerably
more, perhaps even double as, populous.[557]
For the purposes of civil government the Empire was divided into
sixty-four provinces, each of which was placed under an administrator,
who was usually drawn from the profession of the law.[558] These
officers were, as a rule, of nearly equal rank, but in three instances
the exceptional extent and importance of the provinces necessitated the
bestowal of a title more lofty than usual on the governors.
1. The whole of Greece, including Hellas proper and the Peloponnesus,
though now no longer classical, was ruled under the name of Achaia by
a vicegerent, to whom was conceded the almost obsolete dignity of a
proconsul. 2. Similarly, the central maritime division of Asia Minor,
containing the important cities of Smyrna and Ephesus with many others
and grandiosely named “Asia,”[559] was also allowed to confer on its
ruler the title of proconsul. This magistrate had the privilege of
reporting directly to the Emperor without an intermediary, and had
also jurisdiction over the governors of two adjacent provinces, viz.:
the Hellespont, which abutted on the strait of that name, and The
Islands, a term applied collectively to about a score of the Cyclades
and Sporades. 3. The main district of Lower Egypt, adorned by the
magnificent and populous city of Alexandria, the second capital of the
Empire, was placed under an administrator bearing the unique title of
the Augustal Praefect. The sixty-one remaining provinces were intrusted
to governors of practically the same standing; of these, twenty-seven
were called consulars, thirty-one presidents, two correctors, and one
duke, the latter officer being on the southern frontier of Egypt,
apparently in both civil and military charge.[560]
To enumerate severally in this place all the petty provinces of the
Empire would be mere prolixity, but there are a few whose designations
present peculiarities which may save them from being passed over
without notice. The comprehensive names of Europe and Scythia, which
in general suggest such vast expansions of country, were given to
two small portions of Thrace, the first to that which extended up to
the walls of Constantinople, and the second to the north-east corner
which lay between the Danube and the Euxine.[561] With parallel
magniloquence, a limited area adjoining the south-east border of
Palestine was denominated Arabia. The maritime province of Honorias
on the north of Asia Minor, perpetuated the memory of the despicable
Emperor of the West, Honorius. The name of Arcadia awakens us to
reminiscences of Mount Cyllene with Hermes and “universal” Pan,[562] of
Artemis with her train of nymphs heading the chase through the woods of
Erymanthus, or of the historic career of Epaminondas and the foundation
of Megalopolis. But the Arcadia officially recognized in the Eastern
Empire had no higher associations than the feeble son of Theodosius,
brother of the above-named, and we may be surprised to find it in
central Egypt with Oxyrhyncus and Memphis for its chief towns.
By a second disposition of the Empire of an inclusive kind the
provinces were grouped in seven Dioceses, namely: three European,
Dacia,[563] Thrace, and Macedonia; three Asiatic, the Asian, the
Pontic, and the Orient; and one African, Egypt. The first of these
obeys the Praetorian Praefect of Illyricum, the sixth the Count of the
Orient or East, and the last the Augustal Praefect, whilst the rulers
of the remaining four are entitled Vicars.[564] When I add that the
Orient, the most extensive of these divisions, comprised in fifteen
provinces the whole of Palestine and Syria as well as the southern
tract of Asia Minor, from the Tigris to the Mediterranean, and the
island of Cyprus, the limits of the other dioceses may be conjectured
from their names with sufficient accuracy for our present purpose.[565]
By a final partition the dominions of the Byzantine Emperor were
assigned, but very unequally, to two officers of the highest or
Illustrious rank, viz.: the Praetorian Praefects of the East and of
Illyricum. Dacia and Macedonia fell to the rule of the latter, whilst
the remaining five dioceses were consolidated under the control of the
former minister.[566] The Praefect of the East is in general to be
regarded as the subject in closest proximity to the throne, in fact,
the first minister of the crown.[567] The Imperial capital, as being
outside all these subordinate arrangements, was treated as a microcosm
in itself; and with its Court in permanent residence, its bureaus of
central administration, and its special Praefect of Illustrious rank,
may almost be considered as a third of the prime divisions of the
Empire. Here, as a rule, through the long series of Byzantine annals,
by the voice of the populace and the army, or by the intrigues of the
Court, emperors were made or unmade.
The whole Empire was traversed by those narrow, but solidly constructed
roads, the abundant remains of which still attest how thoroughly his
work was done by the Roman engineer.[568] The repair and maintenance of
these public ways was enjoined on the possessors of the lands through
which they passed; and similarly in the case of waterways, the care
of bridges and banks was an onus on the shoulders of the riparian
owners.[569] On all the main roads an elaborate system of public posts
was studiously maintained; and at certain intervals, about the length
of an average day’s journey, _mansions_ or inns were located for the
accommodation of those travelling on the public service.[570] Each
of such stations was equipped with a sufficient number of light and
heavy vehicles, of draught horses and oxen, of pack-horses, sumpter
mules, and asses for the exigences of local transit.[571] Stringent
rules were laid down for the equitable loading of both animals and
carriages, and also for the humane treatment of the former. Thus a span
of four oxen was allowed to draw a load of fifteen hundred pounds,
but the burden of an ordinary pack-horse was limited to thirty.[572]
It was forbidden to beat the animals with heavy or knotted sticks;
they were to be urged onwards by the use only of a sharp whip or rod
fit to “admonish their lagging limbs with a harmless sting.”[573] In
addition to the mansions there were usually four or five intermediate
stations called _mutations_, where a few relays were kept for the
benefit of those speeding on an urgent mission.[574] The abuse of the
public posts was jealously guarded against, and only those bearing
an order from the Emperor or one of the Praetorian Praefects could
command their facilities, and then only to an extent restricted to
their purely official requirements. A Vicar could dispose of a train
of ten horses and thirteen asses on a dozen occasions in the year, in
order to make tours of inspection throughout his diocese; legates from
foreign countries and delegates from provincial centres, journeying to
Constantinople to negotiate a treaty or to lay their grievances before
the Emperor, were provided for according to circumstances.[575] The
highways were constantly permeated by the Imperial couriers bearing
dispatches to or from the capital.[576] These emissaries were also
deputed to act as spies, and to report at head-quarters any suspicious
occurrences they might observe on their route,[577] whence they were
popularly spoken of as “the eyes of the Emperor.”[578] They were known
by their military cloak and belt, their tight trousers,[579] and by
a spray of feathers[580] in their hair to symbolize the swiftness of
their course. One or two were appointed permanently to each province
with the task of scouring the district continually as inspectors of
the public posts.[581] There was also a regular police patrol on the
roads, called Irenarchs, whose duty it was to act as guardians of the
peace.[582]
A Roman emperor of this age, as an admitted despot subjected to no
constitutional restraints, could formulate and promulgate whatever
measures commended themselves to his arbitrary will. But such
authority, however absolute in theory, must always be restricted in
practice by the operation of sociological laws. Although a prince with
a masterful personality might dominate his subordinates to become the
father or the scourge of his country, a feeble monarch would always
be the slave of his great officers of state. Yet even the former
had to stoop to conciliate the people or the army, and a sovereign
usually stood on treacherous ground when attempting to maintain a
balance between the two.[583] The army, as the immediate and effectual
instrument of repression, was generally chosen as the first stay of the
autocracy, and there are few instances of a Byzantine emperor whose
throne was not on more than one occasion cemented with the blood of his
subjects. But many a virtuous prince in his efforts to curb the licence
of the troops lost both his sceptre and his life.[584]
[Illustration: ROMAN EMPIRE _and Vicinity_, c. 500 A.D.]
The Council of the Emperor, besides the three Praefects already
mentioned, consisted of five civil and of an equal number of military
members, all of Illustrious dignity.[585] Their designations were
severally: 1. Praepositus of the Sacred Cubicle, or Grand
Chamberlain, Master of the Offices, Quaestor, Count of the Sacred
Largesses, and Count of the Privy Purse. 2. Five Masters of Horse and
Foot,[586] two at head-quarters,[587] and one each for the Orient,
Thrace, and Illyricum. To these may be added the Archbishop or
Patriarch of Constantinople, always a great power in the State. In
the presence of a variable number of these ministers it was usual for
the Emperor to declare his will, to appeal to their judgment, or to
act on their representations, but the time, place, and circumstances
of meeting were entirely in the discretion of the prince.[588] The
formal sittings of the Council were not held in secret, but before
an audience of such of the Spectabiles as might wish to attend.[589]
The legislation of the Emperor, comprised under the general name of
Constitutions, fell naturally into two classes, viz., laws promulgated
on his own initiative and those issued in response to some petition.
Edicts, Acts, Mandates, Pragmatic Sanctions, and Epistles usually
ranked in the first division; Rescripts in the second.[590] A Rescript
was granted, as a rule, in compliance with an _ex parte_ application,
and might be disregarded by the authority to whom it was addressed
should it appear to have been obtained by false pretences, but the
Court which set it aside did so at its own peril.[591]
The Senate of Constantinople, created in imitation of that of Rome,
was designed by Constantine rather to grace his new capital than to
exercise any of the functions of government.[592] Like the new order of
patricians, the position of Senator was mainly an honorary and not an
executive rank. All the members enjoyed the title of Clarissimus, that
of the third grade of nobility, and assembled under the presidency of
the Praefect of the city.[593] As a body the Senate was treated with
great ostensible consideration by the Emperor, and was never referred
to in the public acts without expressions of the highest esteem, such
as “the Venerable,” “the Most Noble Order,” “amongst whom we reckon
ourselves.”[594] This public parade of their importance, however,
endowed them with a considerable moral power in the popular idea; and
the subscription of the impotent Senate was not seldom demanded by a
prudent monarch to give a wider sanction to his acts of oppression or
cruelty.[595] During an interregnum their voice was usually heard
with attention;[596] and a prince with a weak or failing title to
the throne would naturally cling to them for support.[597] They were
sometimes constituted as a High Court for the trial of criminal cases
of national importance, such as conspiring against the rule or life of
the Emperor.[598] They could pass resolutions to be submitted for the
approval of the crown;[599] they had a share in the nomination of some
of the higher and lower officials; and they performed generally the
duties of a municipal council.[600]
In addition to the Imperial provinces there was also, to facilitate
the work of local government, a subsidiary division of the Empire into
Municipia. Every large town or city, with a tract of the surrounding
country, was formed into a municipal district and placed under the
charge of a local Senate or Curia. The members of a Curia were called
Decurions,[601] and were selected officially to the number of about one
hundred from the more reputable inhabitants of the vicinity. They not
only held office for life, but transmitted it compulsorily to their
heirs, so that the State obtained a perpetual lien on the services of
their descendants. In each Municipium the official of highest rank was
the “Defender of the City,”[602] who was elected to his post for five
years by the independent suffrage of the community. His chief duty was
to defend the interests of his native district against the Imperial
officers who, as aliens to the locality, were assumed to have little
knowledge or concern as to its actual welfare. He became _ex officio_
president of the Curia; and in conjunction with them acted as a judge
of first instance or magistrate in causes of lesser importance.[603]
A provincial governor, generally called the Rector or Ordinary Judge,
held open court at his Praetorium and sat within his chancel every
morning to hear all causes brought before him.[604] His chancellors
guarded the trellis, which fenced off the outer court against the
onrush of eager suitors;[605] within, the advocates delivered their
pleadings, whilst a body of scribes and actuaries took a record in
writing of the whole proceedings.[606] The precincts were crowded with
his apparitors,[607] officers upon whom devolved the duty of executing
the judgements of the court. With the aid of his assessor,[608] a
legal expert well versed in the text of the law, the Rector elaborated
his judgment, a written copy of which he was bound to deliver to each
litigant.[609] But if his decision were asked in cases which seemed
too trivial for his personal attention, he was empowered to hand them
over to a class of petty judges called _pedanei judices_.[610] From the
provincial court an appeal lay to the Vicar of the Diocese, or even
to the Emperor himself,[611] but appellants were severely mulcted if
convicted of merely contentious litigation.[612] At certain seasons the
Rector went on circuit throughout his province to judge causes and to
inspect abuses.[613]
I. The permanent existence of any community in a state of political
cohesion depends on its possession of the means to defray the expenses
of government; and, therefore, the first duty of every primary ruler
or administrative body in chief is to collect a revenue for the
maintenance of a national treasury. The Roman or Byzantine system
of raising money or its equivalent, by means of imposts laid on the
subjects of the Empire, included every conceivable device of taxing
the individual for the benefit of the state. The public were called
on not only to fill the treasury, but were constrained to devote
their resources in kind, their time, and their labour to the needs of
the government. To obtain every requisite without purchase for the
administration was the economical policy of the ruling class. Food
and clothing, arms and horses, commuted to a money payment if the
thing were unattainable, were levied systematically for the use of the
civil and military establishment. The degree of personal liability was
determined by the assessment of property, and those who were possessed
of nothing were made liable for their heads. Social distinctions and
commercial transactions were also taxed under well-defined categories.
A considerable section of the community was, however, legally freed
from the regular imposts. This indulgence was granted especially to the
inhabitants of cities, whose facilities for combination and sedition
were always contemplated with apprehension by the jealous despot. But
immunity from taxation was also extended with some liberality to all
who devoted themselves to art or learning.
1. The financial year began with the first of September, and was
spoken of numerically as an _indiction_, according to its place in a
perpetually recurring series of fifteen. Properly an indiction was
the period of fifteen years[614] which separated each new survey and
revaluation of the private estates throughout the Empire. At the
beginning of such a term the Imperial Censitors or surveyors pervaded
the country districts, registering in their books and on their plans
all the details of the new census.[615] Their record showed the
amount of the possessions of each landowner; the quality of the land;
to what extent it was cultivated or lay waste; in what proportions
it was laid out in vineyards and olive-grounds; in woods, pastures,
and arable land. The number and magnitude of the farm and residential
buildings were carefully noted, and even the geniality of the climate,
and the apparent fecundity of the fruit-bearing trees, which were
separately counted and disposed in classes, exercised the judgement
of the Censitor in furnishing materials for a just estimate as to the
value of an estate. Essential also to the _cataster_, or assessment,
was a list of the flocks and herds possessed by the owner.[616] The
particulars supplied by the Censitor passed into the hands of another
official named a _Peraequator_. He divided the district into “heads” of
property, each computed to be of the value of 1,000 solidi,[617] and
assigned to each landowner his census, that is, the number of heads
for which in future he would be taxed. This assessment was not based
on a mere valuation of the property of each person; it was complicated
by the principle of Byzantine finance that all land should pay to the
Imperial exchequer. It was the duty, therefore, of a Peraequator, to
assign a nominal possession in barren or deserted land to each owner in
fair proportion to his apparent means. Thus the possessor of a valuable
farm was often encumbered with a large increment of worthless ground,
whilst the owner of a poor one might escape such a burthen.[618] Yet a
third official, called an _Inspector_,[619] came upon the scene, but
his services were not always constant or comprehensive. He visited the
province in response to petitions or appeals from dissatisfied owners,
or was sent to solve matters of perplexity.[620] His acquirements were
the same as those of a Peraequator, but, whereas the latter was obliged
to impose a rate on some one for every hide of land, the Inspector
was allowed considerable discretion. After a strict scrutiny he was
empowered to give relief in clear cases of over-assessment, and even to
exclude altogether any tracts of land which could not fairly be imposed
on any of the inhabitants of the district. Before final ratification,
the cataster had to pass under the eyes of the local Curia, the
provincial Rector, and of the Imperial financiers at the capital. The
_polyptica_ or censual books were then closed, and remained immutable
until the next indiction.[621]
2. Appended to the land survey was a register of the labourers, slaves,
and animals employed by the possessors of estates; and upon every
ordinary adult of this caste a poll-tax was imposed.[622] Similarly
with respect to every animal which performed a task, horses, oxen,
mules, and asses for draught purposes, and even dogs.[623] For this
demand the landowner alone was dealt with by the authorities, but he
was entitled to recover from his labourers whatever he paid on account
of themselves or their families. As this capitation was very moderate,
the individual was freed from it by the possession of the smallest
holding, and subjected to the land-tax instead;[624] but the farmer
still paid vicariously for his work-people, even when assessed on
property of their own. Slaves were always, of course, a mere personal
asset of their masters, and incapable of ownership. A sweeping immunity
from poll-tax was conferred on all urban communities,[625] whence
nobles and plutocrats escaped the impost for the hosts of servants they
sometimes maintained at their city mansions; but even in the rural
districts, virgins,[626] widows, certain professional men, and skilled
artizans generally, were exempt.[627]
3. Port or transit dues, called _vectigalia_,[628] were levied on all
merchandise transported from one province to another for the sake of
gain, that is, for resale at a profit; but for purely personal use
residents were permitted to pass a limited quantity of goods free of
tax. In this category may be included licenses for gold-mining, which
cost the venturer about a guinea a year.[629] Taxes of this class were
let out by public auction for a term of three years to those who bid
highest for the concession of collecting them.[630] Export of gold
from the Empire was forbidden, and those who had the opportunity,
were exhorted to use every subterfuge in order to obtain it from the
barbarians.[631]
4. A tax, peculiar in some respects to the Byzantine Empire, was the
_lustral collation_ or _chrysargyron_, a duty of the most comprehensive
character on the profits of all commercial transactions.[632] Trade in
every shape and form was subjected to it, not excepting the earnings
of public prostitutes, beggars, and probably even of catamites.[633]
The _chrysargyron_ was collected every fourth year only, and for this
reason, as it appears, was felt to be a most oppressive tax.[634]
Doubtless the demand was large in proportion to the lapse of time since
the last exaction, and weighed upon those taxed, like a sudden claim
for accumulated arrears. When the time for payment arrived, a wail
went up from all the small traders whose traffic barely sufficed to
keep them in the necessaries of life. To procure the money, parents
frequently, it is said, had to sell their sons into servitude and
their daughters for prostitution.[635] There were limited exemptions
in favour of ministers of the orthodox faith and retired veterans,
who might engage in petty trade; of artists selling their own works;
and of farmers who sold only their own produce.[636] The most popular
and, perhaps, the boldest measure of Anastasius, was the abrogation
of this tax.[637] Fortifying himself with the acquiescence of the
Senate, he proclaimed its abolition, caused all the books and papers
relating to this branch of the revenue to be heaped up in the sphendone
of the Hippodrome, and publicly committed them to the flames.[638] The
chrysargyron was never afterwards reimposed.
5. With some special taxes reaped from dignitaries of state, the
income derived from crown lands and state mines, and with fines,
forfeitures, and heirless patrimonies, the flow of revenue into the
Imperial coffers ceased. From a fiscal point of view there were four
classes of Senators, or to consider more accurately, perhaps, only two:
those who were held to contribute something to the treasury in respect
of their rank, and those who were absolved from paying anything.
Wealthy Senators, possessed of great estates, paid an extraordinary
capitation proportioned to the amount of their property, but lands
merely adjected to fill up the census were exempt under this heading;
those of only moderate means were uniformly indicted for two _folles_,
or purses of silver, about £12 of our money; whilst the poorest class
of all were obliged to a payment of seven _solidi_ only, about £4,
with a recommendation to resign if they felt unequal to this small
demand.[639] Members who enjoyed complete immunity were such as
received the title of Senator in recognition of long, but comparatively
humble, service to the state; amongst these we find certain officers
of the Guards, physicians, professors of the liberal arts, and
others.[640] Not even, however, with their set contributions were the
Senators released from the pecuniary onus of their dignity, for they
were expected to subscribe handsome sums collectively to be presented
to the sovereign on every signal occasion, such as New Year’s day,
lustral anniversaries of his reign, birth of an heir, etc.[641] When
any of the great functionaries of state, during or on vacating office,
were ennobled with the supreme title of patrician, an offering of 100
lb. of gold (£4,000) was considered to be the smallest sum by which he
could fittingly express his gratitude to the Emperor; this accession of
revenue was particularly devoted to the expenses of the aqueducts.[642]
An oblation of two or three horses was also exacted every five years
for the public service from those who acquired honorary codicils of
ex-president or ex-count.[643] Finally a tax, also under the semblance
of a present, was laid on the Decurions of each municipality, who,
in acknowledgement of their public services, were freed from all the
lesser imposts. To this contribution was applied the name of _coronary
gold_, the conception of which arose in earlier times when gold, in
the form of crowns or figures of Victory, was presented to the Senate,
or to the generals of the Republic who had succeeded in subjecting
them, by conquered nations in token of their subservience.[644] These
presentations were enjoined on every plausible occasion of public
rejoicing and the Imperial officials did not forget to remind the local
Curiae of their duty to overlook no opportunity of conveying their
congratulations in a substantial manner to the Emperor. The Imperial
demesnes lay chiefly in Cappadocia, which contained some breadths of
pasture land unequalled in any other part of the Empire.[645] The
province was from the earliest times famous for its horses, which were
considered as equal, though not quite, to the highly-prized Spanish
breeds in the West.[646] Mines for gold, silver, and other valuable
minerals, including marble quarries, were regularly worked by the
Byzantine government in several localities both in Europe and Asia;
but history has furnished us with no precise indications as to the
gains drawn from them.[647] Under the penal code, to send criminals
to work in the mines was classed as one of the severest forms of
punishment.[648]
The _exaction_ of the _annones_ and _tributes_, expressions which
virtually included all the imposts, was the incessant business of the
official class. At the beginning of each financial year the measure
of the precept to be paid by each district was determined in the
office of the Praetorian Praefect, subscribed by the Emperor, and
disseminated through the provinces by means of notices affixed in
the most public places.[649] A grace of four months was conceded and
then the gathering in of the _annones_ or canon of provisions, which
included corn, wine, oil, flesh, and every other necessary for the
support of the army and the free distributions to the urban populace,
began. Delivery was enjoined in three instalments at intervals of
four months,[650] but payments in gold were not enforced until the
end of the year.[651] The _Exactors_, who waited on the tributaries
to urge them to performance, were usually decurions or apparitors of
the Rector.[652] The Imperial constitutions directed with studied
benignity that no ungracious demeanour should be adopted towards the
tax-payers,[653] that no application should be made on Sundays,[654]
that they should not be approached by _opinators_, that is, by soldiers
in charge of the military commissariat,[655] that they should, when
possible, be allowed the privilege of _autopragias_ or voluntary
delivery,[656] and that, if recalcitrant, they should not be sent to
prison or tortured, but allowed their liberty under formal arrest.[657]
Only in the last resource was anything of their substance seized as a
pledge, to be sold “under the spear” if unredeemed,[658] but in general
any valid excuse was accepted and the tributaries were allowed to run
into arrears.[659] Consonantly, however, to the prevailing principle
every effort was made by the Exactors to amass the full precept from
the locality, and those who could pay were convened to make up for
the defaulters.[660] The actual receivers of the canon were named
_Susceptors_, and their usual place of custom was at the mansions or
mutations of the public posts.[661] Scales and measures were regularly
kept at these stations,[662] and on stated occasions a Susceptor was in
attendance accompanied by a _tabularius_, a clerk who was in charge of
the censual register which showed the liability of each person in the
municipality.[663] The _tabularius_ gave a receipt couched in precise
terms to each tributary for the amount of his payment or consignment,
particulars of which he also entered in a book kept permanently for
the purpose.[664] The system of _adaeratio_, or commutation of species
for money, was extensively adopted to obviate difficulties of delivery
in kind; and this was especially the case with respect to clothing or
horses for the army, or when transit was arduous by reason of distance
or rough country.[665] The transport of the annones and tributes to
their destination was a work of some magnitude, and was under the
special supervision of the Vicar of the diocese.[666] Inland the
_bastagarii_, the appointed branch of the public service, effected the
transmission by means of the beasts of burden kept at the mansions of
the Posts;[667] by sea the _navicularii_ performed the same task. The
latter formed a corporation of considerable importance to which they
were addicted as the decurions were to the Curia. Selected from the
seafaring population who possessed ships of sufficient tonnage, their
vessels were chartered for the conveyance of the canon of provisions
as a permanent and compulsory duty.[668] Money payments, in coin or
ingots, went to the capital;[669] provisions to the public granaries
of Constantinople or Alexandria, the two cities endowed with a free
victualling market,[670] or were widely dispersed to various centres
to supply rations for the troops.[671] Besides the ordinary officials
engaged in exaction there were several of higher rank to supervise
their proceedings: _Discussors_, the Greek _logothetes_, who made
expeditions into the provinces from time to time to scrutinize and
audit the accounts;[672] surveyors of taxes, Senators preferably,
whose duties were defined by the term _protostasia_,[673] to whom the
_Susceptors_ were immediately responsible; and lastly _Compulsors_,
officers of the central bureaucracy, _Agentes-in-rebus_, palatines
attached to the treasury, even Protectors, who were sent on special
missions to stimulate the Rectors when the taxes of a province were
coming in badly.[674]
As to the revenue of the Roman Empire at this or at any previous
period, the historian can pronounce no definitive word, but it concerns
us to note here one important fact, viz., that Anastasius during the
twenty-seven years of his reign saved about half a million sterling
per annum, so that at his death he left a surplus in the treasury of
nearly £13,000,000.[675]
II. The political position of the Roman Empire in respect of its
foreign relations presents a remarkable contrast to anything we are
accustomed to conceive of in the case of a modern state. Having
absorbed into its own system everything of civilization which lay
within reach of its arms, there was henceforth no field in which
statesmanship could exert itself by methods of negotiation or
diplomacy in relation to the dwellers beyond its borders. Encompassed
by barbarians, to live by definite treaty on peaceful terms with its
neighbours became outside the range of policy or foresight; and its
position is only comparable to that of some great bulwark founded to
resist the convulsions of nature, which may leave it unassailed for
an indefinite period, or attack it without a moment’s warning with
irresistible violence. The vast territories stretching from the Rhine
and the Danube to the frontiers of China, nearly a quarter of the
circumference of the globe, engendered a teeming population, nomads
for the most part, without fixed abodes, who threatened continually to
overflow their boundaries and bring destruction on every settled state
lying in their path. Among such races the army and the nation were
equivalent terms; the whole people moved together, and inhabited for
the time being whatever lands they had gained by right of conquest.
But their career was brought to a close when they subdued nations much
more numerous than themselves, with fixed habitations and engaged in
the arts of peace; and they then possessed the country as a dominant
minority, which, whilst giving a peculiar tincture to the greater mass,
was gradually assimilated by it. In classical and modern times conquest
usually signifies merely annexation, but in the Middle Ages it implied
actual occupation by the victors. Such was the fate of the Western
Empire, when Italy, Africa, Spain, Gaul, and Britain were dissevered
from each other by various inroads; and those countries at the time
I am writing of are found to be in such a transitional state.[676]
Nor can Thrace and Illyricum, though forming a main portion of the
Eastern Empire, be properly omitted from this list; for, exposed to
barbarian incursions[677] during more than two centuries, they enjoyed
a merely nominal settlement under the Imperial government; and if we
contemplate the Long Wall[678] of Anastasius, at a distance of only
forty miles from the capital, we shall need no further evidence that
the Byzantines exercised no more than a shadow of political supremacy
in these regions.[679] But an exception to the foregoing conditions was
generally experienced by the Romans on their eastern frontier, where
the Parthian or Persian power was often able to meet them with a civil
and military organization equal to their own.[680]
The elaborate scheme for the defence of the Empire against its
restless and reckless foes was brought to perfection under Diocletian
and Constantine. Armies and fleets judiciously posted were always
ready to repel an attack or to carry offensive operations into an
enemy’s country. A chain of muniments guarded the frontiers in every
locality where an assault could be feared. Forts and fortified camps
sufficiently garrisoned lined every barrier, natural or artificial,
at measured distances. Suitable war vessels floated on the great
circumscribing waterways; and where these were deficient their place
was supplied by walls of masonry, by trenches, embankments, and
palisades, or even by heterogeneous obstructions formed of felled trees
with their branches entangled one with the other.[681] Border lands
were granted only to military occupants, who held them by a kind of
feudal tenure in return for their service on the frontier.[682] Every
important station was guarded by from 2,000 to 3,000 soldiers; and
in the Eastern Empire the division of the army to which such duties
were assigned may have amounted to over 200,000 men of all soldiers,
arms,[683] etc. These forces were called the _Limitanei Milites_,
or Border Soldiers, and in each province of the exterior range were
under the command collectively of a Count or Duke.[684] Such were the
stationary forces of the Empire, of whose services the frontiers could
not be depleted should a mobile army be required to meet the exigences
of strategic warfare. Large bodies of troops were, therefore, quartered
in the interior of the country, which could be concentrated in any
particular locality under the immediate disposition of the Masters of
the Forces. This portion of the army was organized in two divisions
to which were given the names of _Palatines_ and _Comitatenses_. The
former, which held the first rank, were stationed in or near the
capital under the two Masters[685] at head-quarters; and, in accordance
with their designation, were identified most nearly with the conception
of defending the Imperial Palace or heart of the state. The latter
were distributed throughout the provinces under the three Masters
whose military rule extended over the East, Thrace, and Illyricum
respectively. The _Palatine_ troops comprised about 50,000 men, the
_Comitatenses_ about 70,000.[686] Cavalry formed a large proportion
of all the forces, and may be estimated at about one third of the
_Limitanei_ and nearly one fourth of the other branches. In addition to
these troops a fourth military class, the highest of all, was formed,
the Imperial Guards already mentioned,[687] viz., the Excubitors,
Protectors, Candidates, and Scholars. The latter body consisted of
seven troops of cavalry, each 500 strong, 3,500 in all.[688] Owing
their position solely to birth or veteran service, the three former
groups were probably much less numerous, but their actual number is
unknown.[689] The usual division of the infantry was the legion of
1,000 men, that of the horse the _vexillatio_ containing 500.[690] The
various bodies of foot soldiers were distinguished by the particular
emblems which were depicted on their brightly painted shields,[691]
but amongst horse and foot alike each separate body was recognizable
by an ensign of special design, for the former a _vexillum_, for
the latter a dragon. The Imperial standard, or that of the general
in chief command, was a purple banner embroidered with gold and of
exceptional size. The _vexilla_ were dependent horizontally from a
cross-bar fixed to the pole or spear by which they were elevated.
Mounted lancers displayed small pennons or streamers near the points
of their weapons,[692] but these were removed as an encumbrance on
the eve of battle.[693] Full armour was worn, in some troops even by
the horses.[694] Besides the weapons adapted for close conflict, much
reliance was placed on missiles, javelins and slings, but especially
bows and arrows in the hands of mounted archers.[695] In replenishing
the ranks great discrimination was exercised; and not only the physical
fitness of the recruit,[696] but the social atmosphere in which he had
sprung up was made the subject of strict inquiry. No slave was accepted
as a soldier,[697] nor any youth whose mind had been debased by menial
employment or by traffic for petty gains in the slums of a city.[698]
The sons of veterans were impressed into the service,[699] and the
landowners had periodically either to provide from their own family or
to pay a computed sum for the purchase of a substitute among such as
were not liable to conscription.[700] Many of the turbulent barbarian
tribes on being subdued were obliged by the articles of a treaty to
pay an annual tribute of their choicest youths to the armies of the
Empire.[701] In addition to the regular forces, barbarian contingents,
called _foederati_,[702] obeying their own leaders, were often bound by
a league to serve under the Imperial government. In Europe the Goths,
in Asia the Saracens, were usually the most important of such allies.
Of the former nation Constantine at one time attached to himself as
many as 40,000, an effort in which he was afterwards emulated by the
great Theodosius.[703] The warships of the period were mostly long, low
galleys impelled by one bank of oars from twenty to thirty in number,
built entirely with a view to swiftness and hence called _dromons_ or
“runners.” The smaller ones were employed on the rivers, the larger for
operations at sea.[704] After a period of service varying from fifteen
to twenty-four years the soldier could retire as a veteran with a
gratuity, a grant of land, and exemption from taxation on a graduated
scale for himself and his family.[705]
Such was the carefully digested scheme of military defence bequeathed
to his successors by Constantine, who doubtless anticipated that he
had granted a lease of endurance to the regenerated Empire for many
centuries to come. But in the course of a hundred and fifty years
this fine system fell gradually to pieces; and by the beginning of
the sixth century no more than a _cento_ of the original fabric can
be discerned in the chronicles of the times. The whole forces were
diminished almost to a moiety of their full complement;[706] the
great peripheral bulwark of the _Limitanei_, scarcely discoverable
on the Illyrian frontier, in other regions was represented by meagre
bodies of one or two hundred men;[707] whilst the _Palatines_ and
_Comitatenses_ betrayed such an altered character that they could
claim merely a nominal existence.[708] The very name of legion,
so identified with Roman conquest, but no longer available in the
deteriorated military organization, became obsolete. In a Byzantine
army at this period three constituents exist officially, but with
little practical distinction. They appear as the _Numeri_,[709] the
_Foederati_, and the _Buccellarii_. 1. The _Numeri_ are the regular
troops of the Empire, horse and foot, enrolled under the direct
command of the Masters of the Forces, but the principle of strict
selection has been virtually abandoned, applicants are accepted
indiscriminately,[710] and even slaves are enlisted and retained under
any plausible pretext.[711] 2. The _Foederati_ now consist of bodies
of mercenaries raised as a private speculation by soldiers of fortune,
with the expectation of obtaining lucrative terms for their services
from the Imperial government.[712] Such regiments were formed without
regard to nationality, and might be composed mainly, or in part,
of subjects of the Empire, or be wholly derived from some tribe of
outer barbarians who offered themselves in a body for hire. On being
engaged, each band received an _optio_ or adjutant, who formed the
connecting link between them and the central authorities, and arranged
all matters relating to their _annones_ and stipend.[713] But the tie
was so loose that even on a foreign expedition they might arbitrarily
dissolve the contract for some trivial reason, and possibly join the
enemy’s forces.[714] 3. The _Buccellarii_[715] are the armed retainers
or satellites of the Byzantine magnates, whether civil or military,
but especially of the latter. Officially they are reckoned among the
_Foederati_,[716] and are obliged to take an oath of allegiance, not
only to their actual chief, but also to the Emperor.[717] Their number
varied according to the rank and wealth of their employers, and in the
case of the Praetorian Praefects, or the Masters of the Forces, might
amount to several thousands.[718] In each company they were divided
into two classes, named respectively the lancers and the shieldmen.
The former were selected men who formed the personal guard of their
leader, the latter the rank and file who were officered by them.[719]
The lancers were invariably cavalry, the shieldmen not necessarily so.
These satellites were recruited preferably amongst the Isaurians,[720]
a hardy race of highlanders, who, though within the Empire, always
maintained a quasi-independence in their mountain fastnesses,
and devoted themselves openly to brigandage.[721] To check their
depredations a military Count was always set over that region, which
thus resembled a frontier rather than an interior province. A fleet of
warships was not kept up systematically at this epoch, but in view of
an expedition, owing to the small size of the vessels, a navy could be
created in a few weeks.[722]
From the foregoing specification it will be perceived that the method
of enrollment constituted the only practical difference between the
three classes of soldiers who marched in the ranks of a Byzantine army.
The maintenance of the Empire rested, therefore, on a heterogeneous
multitude, trained to the profession of arms no doubt, but without the
cohesion of nationality or uniform military discipline.[723] In the
multifarious host the word of command was given in Latin, which Greek
and barbarian alike were taught to understand.[724]
Every student of ancient history is familiar with the methods of
warfare among the Greeks and Romans; with the impenetrable, but
inactive, phalanx which subdued the eastern world; and with the less
solid, but mobile, legion which ultimately succeeded in mastering
it.[725] Such armies consisted mainly of infantry; and the small bodies
of cavalry attached to them, amounting to one tenth, or, perhaps, to
as little as one twentieth part of the whole, were intended merely to
protect the flanks of each division, or to render more effective the
pursuit of a flying enemy. In those times, therefore, the horsemen
were only an auxiliary force, which never engaged in battle as an
independent army. But in the multiple operations against elusive
barbarians in the wide circuit of the Roman Empire, experience made it
evident that the mobility of cavalry was indispensable in order to
deal effectively with such wary and reckless foes.[726] Early in the
fourth century the number and importance of the cavalry had increased
to such an extent that they were relegated to a separate command:
and the Master of the Horse was regarded as of superior rank to his
colleague of the infantry.[727] In the East, however, both branches of
the service were soon combined under a single commander-in-chief; and
henceforward the first military officers are entitled Masters of the
Horse and Foot, or, collectively, of the Forces.[728]
At the period I am writing about, the usual routine of a pitched
battle is to range the infantry in the centre with large squadrons of
cavalry on either flank.[729] Both armies first exhaust their supply of
missiles, after which a general engagement at close quarters ensues.
By the aid of various evolutions, concealed reserves, and unexpected
manœuvres, the opposing generals strive to take each other at a
disadvantage, and victory rests with the most skilful or fortunate
tactician. Single combats in the interspace between the two armies are
not unfrequently initiatory to a battle;[730] and sometimes a campaign
is decided by conflicts of cavalry alone.[731]
The various classes of Imperial guards still exist as a fourth division
of the army, but, owing to the introduction of a system of purchase,
these corps have degenerated into the condition of being mere figures
to be mechanically paraded in the course of state pageantry; soldiers
apparently, and in resplendent uniforms, but unversed in war, who would
sooner buy their release for a large sum than enter on a campaign.[732]
The wars of Anastasius may be reviewed briefly in this section. They
were four in number. 1. At the outset of his reign he found himself
opposed within the capital by a strong faction of turbulent Isaurians,
the relations and adherents of the late Emperor Zeno. Some of these
held high office, and had even aspired to the throne.[733] On their
dismissal and banishment from Constantinople the leaders fled to
Isauria, where they levied large forces, and raised a rebellion by
the aid of arms and treasure which Zeno had seen fit to amass in his
native province.[734] The insurgents kept up hostilities for a long
period with declining success against the Imperial generals, and the
revolt was not fully suppressed till the seventh year (498).[735] In
the fourth year of the war, however, the ringleaders were captured
and decapitated, and their heads were sent to Constantinople, where
they were exhibited to the populace fixed on poles in the suburb of
Sycae.[736] The pacification of the province was achieved by this war
more effectually than on any previous occasion, and the Isaurians do
not again appear in history as refractory subjects of the Empire.[737]
2. In 502 the Persian king, Cavades,[738] applied to Anastasius
for the loan of a large sum of money which he required in order to
cement an alliance with the barbarian nation of the Nephthalites or
White Huns.[739] For politic reasons this loan was refused, and the
exasperated potentate immediately turned his arms against the Empire.
He invaded the western portion of Armenia, which was under Roman
suzerainty,[740] and took one or two towns of minor importance before
an army could be sent against him. The principal feature of this war,
which lasted about four years, was the capture and recovery of Amida,
a strongly fortified city of considerable size, situated in northern
Mesopotamia, on the banks of the Tigris. Although ill-garrisoned,
and neither armed nor provisioned to stand a siege, the inhabitants
received the Persians with the most insulting defiance and made a very
determined resistance for some months. The massive walls withstood the
attacking engines, and all the devices of the besiegers were baffled
by the ingenuity of those within the city. In despair Cavades had
already given orders to raise the siege when the downfall of Amida
was brought about by a very singular circumstance, as related by the
chief historian of the period.[741] In the excess of popular frenzy at
the news of the proposed retreat, the harlots of the town hastened to
the battlements in order to jeer at the Persian monarch as he passed
on his rounds, by making an indecent exposure of their persons. This
obscene conduct so impressed the Magi in attendance that they gave it
a mystical signification, and imparted their opinion to the King that
“everything hidden and secret in Amida would shortly be laid bare.” The
departure was countermanded, and ultimately, through the supineness or
treachery of some monks, to whom the guard of one of the main towers
had been confided, an entry was made. A vengeful massacre of the
vanquished then took place,[742] which was only stayed by the wit of
a suppliant priest, who, in answer to the irate question of Cavades,
“How did you dare to resist me so violently?” replied, “That the city
might be won by your valour and not by our cowardice.” Two years
later, as a result of a protracted but ineffective siege, the Persians
agreed to evacuate the town for a payment of one thousand pounds of
gold (£40,000). On entering, the Romans discovered to their chagrin
that such a state of destitution prevailed as would have compelled the
surrender of the stronghold within a few days. The conclusion of this
war was brought about by an invasion of the Huns,[743] who threatened
Persia from the north; and hence Cavades was glad to make peace for
seven years, on terms which left both parties in the same position as
before the commencement of hostilities. The issue of this conflict was,
on the whole, favourable to Anastasius, who, in the sense of being
the superior power, soon proceeded to infringe the articles of the
treaty by erecting commanding fortresses against his late foes along
his eastern border. Especially as a counterpoise to the impregnable
Nisibis, which had been ceded to the Persians a century and a half
previously by the inept Jovian,[744] he raised the insignificant
village of Daras to the rank of an important town, and surrounded it
with bastions of imposing strength.[745] The impotent protests of the
Persians were disregarded, and the two empires did not again come into
martial collision for more than twenty years.
3. In 505 Anastasius and Theodoric, the Gothic king in Italy, by mutual
inadvertence, as it may be judged, became involved in a conflict.
Simultaneously the Master of the Forces in Illyricum and the Gothic
general Petza were engaged in suppressing their several enemies in
that region.[746] The antagonist of the Byzantine general was Mundo,
a bandit chief of the blood of Attila, who, with a body of Hunnish
marauders, was preying on the country. He, on the point of being
worsted, craved the assistance of Petza, who, seeing in him a natural
ally of kindred race, joined him with his forces. The Goth had, in
fact, just achieved the object of his expedition and probably made
this move in the heat of success. Together they routed the Imperial
army, which was shattered beyond all chance of reparation.[747] To
avenge this defeat, Anastasius in 508 fitted out a naval expedition,
which conveyed a landing force of 8,000 soldiers to the Italian coast.
Making an unforeseen descent on Tarentum, they ravaged the vicinity
with piratical ferocity, and returned as hastily as they came.[748]
Theodoric, however, did not feel equal to pitting himself against the
forces and resources of the East, and decided not to resent these
reprisals. He deprecated the wrath of the Emperor in deferential
language, and these encounters were soon forgotten as merely fortuitous
disturbances of the peace.[749]
4. In 514 the studied economy of Anastasius provoked an upheaval of
the incongruous elements of the state, which threatened the immediate
collapse of his administration. From the hordes of barbarians massed
on the banks of the Danube, troops were continually detached to
take service under the Empire as _Foederati_; and their numbers had
increased to such an extent that the annones due to them became an
intolerable drain on the revenue. A sweeping reduction of these
supplies was, therefore, decreed;[750] a measure judicious in itself,
which would probably have been supported in sullen silence by the
barbarians had not Count Vitalian, a Goth, and their principal leader,
perceived that a specious means of retaliation was to hand. Taking
advantage of the religious intractability of Anastasius, which was
the bane of his rule and had alienated from him most of his pious
subjects, he announced himself as the champion of orthodoxy, and
proclaimed a holy war against the heretical Emperor.[751] The cry was
taken up universally, and, especially within the capital, all the
factious fanatics clamoured for Vitalian as the legitimate occupant
of the throne. An immense host of _Foederati_ followed the standard
of the rebel; a great battle was fought in Thrace, with the result
that the Imperial army was cut to pieces, suffering a loss, it is
said, of more than sixty thousand.[752] A fleet was placed at the
disposal of the pretender, whereupon Vitalian moved on the capital
and blockaded Constantinople by land and sea. Against this attack
the Emperor concerted measures within the city with some Athenian
philosophers, their chemical knowledge was utilized effectively,
galleys which ejected bituminous combustibles were launched against
the hostile ships, and the investing fleet retreated precipitately
amid volumes of fire and smoke.[753] The diplomacy of the almost
nonagenarian monarch during this revolt was marked by much temporizing
and duplicity; he disarmed the _Foederati_ by a liberal donative,[754]
and by raising their captain to the rank of Master of the Forces in
Thrace;[755] he mollified the orthodox ecclesiastics by promises and
prepared instruments for the recall of exiled bishops; and he appealed
to Pope Hormisdas praying that a synod should meet at Heraclea in order
to appease the dissensions of the Church.[756] The synod met after
protracted negotiations, but the combination was already dissolved,
and the head of rebellion was broken; the concessions offered by
the Emperor were presented and found to be illusory, and the futile
assembly separated without any tangible result.[757] Anastasius had
carried his point; active, yet impotent discontent reigned everywhere,
but he had yielded nothing; and soon afterwards, in extreme old age, he
sank into the grave[758] amid the familiar waves of sedition which for
twenty-seven years had raged ineffectually round his throne.[759]
III. The commercial activities of the ancient world, as far as they
come within the vision of history, were almost confined to these
countries which encircle the basin of the Mediterranean; and in the
early centuries of our era the varied regions to be measured between
the Ganges and Gades were conceived to represent approximately the
whole extent of the habitable earth.[760] Although the theory of a
globe was held by advanced geographers and astronomers, the fact had
not been established by circumnavigation and survey; and the idea was
so far from being realized by the masses, that the notion of antipodes
seemed to them to be little less than preposterous.[761] In the
obscurity of prehistoric times the arts and sciences appear to have
originated in the East; and from thence, by the aid of Greece and Rome,
civilization extended until it included almost all the known parts of
Western Africa and Europe. Before the beginning of the sixth century,
however, owing to the incursions and settlements of Goths and Vandals,
those western countries had retrograded nearly to the same level of
barbarism from which they had been rescued formerly by the civilizing
arms of Rome.
In the earliest ages the trade of the Mediterranean was entirely in
the hands of the Semitic race; and from their great ports of Tyre and
Sidon the Phoenicians penetrated with their well-laden ships even as
far as Spain and Britain,[762] disposing of their native manufactures
and imported wares on every coast within their reach.[763] But with
the rise and spread of Hellenic civilization, commerce became more
cosmopolitan; and by the conquests of Alexander the Greeks were made
practically cognizant of a Far East teeming with productions which
could minister to the needs of increasing wealth and luxury. At the
same period, about 330 B.C., the foundation of Alexandria by that
monarch gave them the command of Egypt, and they began to explore the
borders of the Arabian Gulf or Red Sea as far as the Gulf of Aden and
the confines of equatorial Africa. Concomitantly the laborious voyage
of Nearchus,[764] undertaken at the instigation of the Macedonian
conqueror, along inhospitable shores from the mouth of the Indus to
the head of the Persian Gulf, revealed to the Greeks the existence of
a chain of navigable seas by which the treasures of the Indies might
be brought by water to the wharves of the new capital. Through the
establishment of this commerce Alexandria became the greatest trading
centre of the Mediterranean, and distributed its exports to every
civilized community who peopled the extended littoral of that sea.[765]
The first merchants who crossed the Indian ocean, embarking in small
ships of light draught, timidly hugged the shore during their whole
voyage, dipping into every bight for fear of losing sight of land.
But in the reign of Claudius a navigator named Hippalus discovered
the monsoons, and noted their stability as to force and direction
at certain seasons of the year.[766] Thenceforward the merchants,
furnishing themselves with larger vessels,[767] boldly spread their
sails to the wind, ventured into mid-ocean, and made a swift and
continuous passage from the southern coast of Arabia to some chosen
port in the vicinity of Bombay.[768] Such was the southern, and, within
the Christian era, most frequented trade route between the Roman
Empire and the Indies. There were, however, two other avenues, more
ancient, but less safe and less constant, by which merchandise from
the far East, mainly by inland transit, could enter the Empire. By the
first of these, which traversed many barbarous nations, the eastern
shores of the Euxine were brought into communication with northern
India through the Oxus, the Caspian Sea, and the Cyrus. From a bend
in the latter river, the emporium of the trade, the town of Phasis,
was easily attainable.[769] The second, intermediately situated, was
the most direct and facile of the three, but, as it lay through the
Persian dominions, the activity of commerce by this route depended on
the maintenance of peace between the two empires.[770] The Byzantine
government, jealous of the intercourse of its subjects with their
hereditary enemies, fixed Artaxata, Nisibis, and Callinicus[771] as
marts beyond which it was illegal for Roman merchants to advance for
the purposes of trade on this frontier.[772]
In the sixth century the Ethiopian kingdom of Axume,[773] nearly
corresponding with Abyssinia, became the southern centre of
international trade; and its great port of Adule was frequented
by ships and traders from all parts of the East.[774] Ethiopian,
Persian, and Indian merchants scoured the Gangetic Gulf, and, having
loaded their vessels with aloes, cloves, and sandalwood, obtained
at Tranquebar and other ports, returned to Siedeliba or Ceylon[775]
to dispose of their goods. There transhipments were effected, and
sapphires, pearls, and tortoise-shell, the chief exports of that
island, were added to the cargoes of ships westward bound. In the
same market a limited supply of silk was obtained from such Chinese
merchants as were venturesome enough to sail so far.[776] From Ceylon
such vessels voyaged along the Malabar coast between Cape Comorin and
Sindu, near the mouth of the Indus, receiving on board at various
places supplies of cotton and linen fabrics for clothing, copper and
rare woods, together with spices and aromatics, musk, castor, and
especially pepper. In the harbours of that seaboard they also met with
the merchants from Adule, most of whom sailed no farther, and provided
them with the freight for their homeward voyage.[777]
The traders of Axume were not, however, wholly dependent for supplies
on their intercourse with the Indies. Adjacent to their own borders lay
wide tracts of country which were to them a fruitful source of the most
valuable commodities; and with such their ships were laden when outward
bound for the further East. Journeying to the south-east they entered
an extensive but wild region called Barbaria,[778] part of which was
known as the Land of Frankincense, from its peculiar fecundity in that
odoriferous balsam. In this region cinnamon and tortoise-shell were
also obtained; black slaves were purchased from various savage tribes;
elephants were hunted by the natives for food; and ivory was supplied
in greatest quantity to the markets of the world.[779] Every other year
a caravan of several hundred merchants set out from Axume, well armed
and equipped for a distant expedition. For six months continuously they
travelled southward until they had penetrated far into the interior
of the African continent. Gold was the object of their journey, and
they took with them a herd of oxen as well as a quantity of salt and
iron to barter for the precious metal. On arriving at the auriferous
region they slaughtered the oxen and cut up the flesh into joints which
they arranged along with the other objects of trade on the top of a
specially erected barrier formed of thorn bushes. They then retreated
to some distance, upon which the inhabitants, who had been watching
their proceedings, came forward and placed pellets of gold on such lots
as they wished to purchase. On the savages retreating the traders again
advanced and removed or left the gold, according as they accepted or
refused the amount offered. In this way, after various advances and
retreats, bargains were satisfactorily concluded.[780] In the southern
parts of Arabia bordering on the ocean, myrrh and frankincense were
gathered in considerable quantity, whence the country acquired the
epithet of Felix or Happy.[781] The richest source of emeralds lay
in the uncivilized territory between Egypt and Axume, where the mines
were worked by a ferocious tribe of nomads called Blemmyes. From them
the Axumite merchants obtained the gems, which they exported chiefly
to northern India. Amongst the White Huns, the dominant race in that
region, they were esteemed so highly that the traders were enabled
to load their ships with the proceeds of a few of these precious
stones.[782]
Down the Red Sea to Adule resorted the Byzantine merchants, engaged
in the home trade, in great numbers.[783] After loading their vessels
they again sailed northward, a proportion of them to the small island
of Jotabe,[784] situated near the apex of the peninsula of Mount Sinai,
which separated the Elanitic from the Heroopolitan gulf. At a station
there they were awaited by the officials of the excise, who collected
from them a tenth part of the value of their merchandise.[785] Some
of these ships proceeded up the eastern arm of the sea to Elath; the
rest of them chose the western inlet and cast anchor at Clysma.[786]
The wares landed at these ports were intended chiefly for the markets
of Palestine and Syria.[787] By far the greater portion of the fleet,
however, terminated their northward voyage at Berenice,[788] the last
port of Egypt, on the same parallel with Syene. Here they discharged
their cargoes and transferred the goods to the backs of camels, who
bore them swiftly to the emporium of Coptos on the Nile.[789] A crowd
of small boats then received the merchandise and made a rapid transit
down stream to the Canopic arm of the river, from which by canal they
emerged on lake Mareotis,[790] the inland and busiest harbour of
Alexandria. The maritime traffic between the Egyptian capital and all
other parts of the Empire, Constantinople especially, was constant and
extensive, so that commodities could be dispersed from thence in every
direction with the greatest facility.
Within the Eastern Empire itself there were manufactories for the
fabrication of everything essential to the requirements of civilized
life, but production was much restricted by the establishment
universally of a system of monopolies. Several of these were held by
the government, who employed both men and women in the manufacture of
whatever was necessary to the Court and the army.[791] At Adrianople,
Thessalonica, Antioch, Damascus, and other towns, arms and armour were
forged, inlaid with gold when for the use of officers of rank; the
costly purple robes of the Imperial household emanated from Tyre,[792]
where dye-works and a fleet of fishing-boats for collecting the murex
were maintained; these industries were strictly forbidden to the
subject. There were, besides, at Cyzicus[793] and Scythopolis,[794]
official factories for the weaving of cloth and linen. The military
workshops were under the direction of the Master of the Offices, the
arts of peace under that of the Count of the Sacred Largesses. Public
manufacturers or traders were incorporated in a college or guild
controlled by the latter Count, the privileges of which were limited
to some five or six hundred members.[795] Among the staple productions
of the Empire we find that Miletus[796] and Laodicea[797] were famous
for woollen fabrics, Sardes[798] especially for carpets, Cos[799] for
cotton materials, Tyre[800] and Berytus[801] for silks, Attica[802]
and Samos[803] for pottery, Sidon[804] for glass, Cibyra[805] for
chased iron, Thessaly[806] for cabinet furniture, Pergamus[807] for
parchment, and Alexandria[808] for paper. The fields of Elis were
given over to the cultivation of flax, and all the women at Patrae
were engaged in spinning and weaving it.[809] Hierapolis[810] in
Phrygia was noted for its vegetable dyes; and Hierapolis[811] in Syria
was the great rendezvous for the hunters of the desert, who captured
wild animals for the man and beast fights of the public shows. Slave
dealers, held to be an infamous class, infested the verge of the Empire
along the Danube, but at this date Romans and barbarians mutually
enslaved each other.[812] On this frontier, also, consignments of
amber and furs were received from the shores of the Baltic and the Far
North.[813] With respect to articles of diet, almost every district
produced wine, but Lesbian and Pramnian were most esteemed.[814] A wide
tract at Cyrene was reserved for the growth of a savoury pot-herb,
hence called the Land of Silphium.[815] Egypt was the granary of the
whole Orient.[816] Dardania and Dalmatia were rich in cheese,[817]
Rhodes[818] exported raisins and figs, Phoenicia[819] dates, and the
capital itself had a large trade in preserved tunnies.[820]
China was always topographically unknown to the ancients, and about
the sixth century only did they begin to discern clearly that an ocean
existed beyond it.[821] The country was regarded as unapproachable by
the Greek and Roman merchants,[822] but nevertheless became recognized
at a very early period as the source of silk. Fully four hundred years
before the Christian era the cocoons were carried westward, and the art
of unwinding them was discovered by Pamphile of Cos, one of the women
engaged in weaving the diaphanous textiles for which that island was
celebrated.[823] Owing to the comparative vicinity of the Persian and
Chinese frontiers, the silk exported by the Celestial Empire always
tended to accumulate in Persia, so that the merchants of that nation
enjoyed almost a monopoly of the trade.[824] Hence Byzantine commerce
suffered severely during a Persian war, and strenuous efforts would be
made to supply the deficiency of silk by stimulating its importation
along the circuitous routes. Such attempts, however, invariably proved
ineffective[825] until the invention of the compass and the discovery
of the south-east passage opened the navigation of the globe between
the nations of the East and West.
IV. In general condition the Byzantine people exhibit, almost uniformly
in every age, a picture of oppressed humanity, devoid of either
spirit or cohesion to nerve them for a struggle to be free. With
the experience of a thousand years, the wisdom of Roman statesmen
and jurists failed to evolve a political system which could insure
stability to the throne or prosperity to the nation. Seditious in the
cities, abject in the country, ill-disciplined in the camp, unfaithful
in office, the subjects of the Empire never rose in the social scale,
but languished through many centuries to extinction, the common grave
of Grecian culture and Roman prowess.
In the rural districts almost all the inhabitants, except the actual
landowners, were in a state of virtual slavery. The labourers who
tilled the soil were usually attached, with their offspring, to each
particular estate in the condition of slaves or serfs. They could
neither quit the land of their own free will, nor could they be
alienated from it by the owner, but, if the demesne were sold, they
were forced to pass with it to the new master.[826] The position of a
serf was nominally superior to that of a slave, but the distinction
was so little practical that the lawyers of the period were unable
to discriminate the difference.[827] Any freeman who settled in a
neighbourhood to work for hire on an estate lost his liberty and
became a serf bound to the soil, unless he migrated again before the
expiration of thirty years.[828] The use and possession of arms was
interdicted to private persons throughout the Empire, and only such
small knives as were useless for weapons of war were allowed to be
exposed for sale.[829]
In every department of the State the same principle of hereditary
bondage was applied to the lower grades of the service, and even in
some cases to officials of considerable rank. Here, however, a release
was conceded to those who could provide an acceptable substitute, a
condition but rarely possible to fulfil.[830] Armourers, mintmen,
weavers, dyers, purple-gatherers, miners, and muleteers, in government
employ[831] could neither resign their posts nor even intermarry[832]
with associates on a different staff, or the general public, unless
under restrictions which were almost prohibitive. Within the same
category were ruled the masters or owners of freight-ships,[833]
chartered to convey the annones and tributes, of which the Alexandrian
corn-fleet[834] constituted the main section. Those addicted to this
vocation in the public interest were necessarily men of some private
means, as they were obliged to build and maintain the vessels at their
own expense; but they were rewarded by liberal allowances, and were
almost exempt in respect of the laws affecting the persons and property
of ordinary citizens. The lot of this class of the community appears to
have been tolerable, and was even, perhaps, desirable,[835] but that
of the Decurions, the members of the local senates, was absolutely
unbearable.[836] In relation to their fellow townsmen their duties
do not seem to have been onerous, but as collectors of the revenue
they were made responsible for the full precept levied four-monthly
on each district, and had to make good any deficiency from their own
resources.[837] As natives of the locality to which their activities
were constrained, their intimate knowledge of the inhabitants was
invaluable to the government in its inquisitorial and compulsive
efforts to gather in the imposts; and, subordinated to the Imperial
officials resident in, or on special missions to, the provinces, they
became consequently the prime object of their assaults when dealing
with the defaulting tributaries. In view of such hardships, municipal
dignities and immunities were illusory; and, as the local senates were
very numerous, there were few families among the middle classes, from
whom those bodies were regularly replenished, whose members did not
live in dread of a hereditary obligation to become a Decurion. In every
ordinary sphere of exertion, not excepting the Court, the Church, or
the army, men, long embarked on their career, were liable to receive
a mandate enjoining them to return to their native town or village
in order to spend the rest of their lives in the management of local
affairs.[838] Occupation of the highest offices of State, or many
years’ service in some official post, could alone free them from the
municipal bond.[839]
Life under accustomed conditions, though with restricted liberty,
may be supportable or even pleasant, but the Byzantine subject could
seldom realize the extent of his obligations or foresee to what
exactions he might have to submit. He might review with satisfaction
a series of admirable laws which seemed to promise him tranquillity
and freedom from oppression, but experience soon taught him that
it was against the interest of the authorities to administer them
with equity. By an ineradicable tradition, dating from the first
centuries of the expansion of the Empire, it was presumed that the
control of a province offered a fair field to a placeman for enriching
himself.[840] Hence the prevalence of a universal corruption and a
guilty collusion between the Rector and all the lesser officials,
who afforded him essential aid in his devices for despoiling the
provincials.[841] While the fisc never scrupled to aggravate the
prescribed imposts by superindictions,[842] its agents were insatiate
in their efforts at harvesting for themselves. The tyranny of the
first emperors was local and transient, but under the rule of the
Byzantine princes the vitals of the whole Empire were persistently
sapped. In the _adaeratio_ of the annones a value was set upon the
produce far above the market price;[843] taxes paid were redemanded,
and receipts in proper form repudiated because the _tabellio_ who
had signed them, purposely removed, was not present to acknowledge
his signature;[844] unexpected local rates were levied, to which
the assent of the Decurions was forced, with the avowed object of
executing public works which were never undertaken;[845] sales of
property at a vile estimate were pressed on owners who dared not
provoke the officials by a refusal;[846] decisions in the law courts
were ruled by bribery, and suitors were overawed into not appealing
against unjust judgements;[847] forfeitures of estates to the crown
were proclaimed under pretence of lapse of ownership or questionable
right of inheritance, and their release had to be negotiated for
the payment of a sufficient ransom;[848] even special grants from
the Imperial treasury for reinstatement of fortifications or other
purposes were sometimes embezzled without apprehension of more serious
trouble, if detected, than disgorgement.[849] In all these cases the
excess extorted was appropriated by the rapacious officials. Such
were the hardships inflicted systematically on the small proprietors
who, if unable to pay or considered to be recalcitrant, were not
seldom subjected to bodily tortures. For hours together they were
suspended by the thumbs,[850] or had to undergo the application of
finger-crushers or foot-racks,[851] or were beaten on the nape of
the neck with cords loaded with lead.[852] Nevertheless, remainders
accumulated constantly, and a remission of hopeless arrears for a
decade or more was often made the instance of Imperial indulgence.
But the old vouchers were habitually secreted and preserved by the
collectors so that the ignorant rustics might be harassed persistently
for debts which they no longer owed.[853] The existence of such
frauds was patent even to the exalted perceptions of the Court; and
hence Anastasius, in order to render his abolition of the chrysargyron
effective, resorted to an artifice which appealed to the avarice of
his financial delegates throughout the country.[854] But an emperor,
however well-intentioned, could rarely attempt to lighten the burdens
of even the humblest of his subjects. His immediate ministers had sold
the chief posts in the provinces[855] and were under a tacit convention
to shield their nominees unless in the case of some rash and flagrant
delinquent who abandoned all discretion. The public good was ignored
in practice; to keep the treasury full was the simple and narrow
policy of the Byzantine financier, who never fostered any enlightened
measure for making the Empire rich.[856] Zeno essayed to remedy the
widespread evil of venality, but his effort was futile; although his
constitution was re-enacted more than once and permanently adorned
the statute-book.[857] According to this legislator every governor
was bound to abide within his province in some public and accessible
place for fifty days after the expiration of his term of office. Thus
detained within the reach of his late constituents when divested of his
authority, it was hoped that they would be emboldened to come forward
and call him to account for his misdeeds. The reiteration of the law at
no great intervals of time sufficiently proves that it was promulgated
only to be disregarded.[858]
Without legitimate protectors from whom they might seek redress, the
wretched tributaries either tried to match their oppressors in craft,
or yielded abjectly to all their demands. Some parted with whatever
they possessed, and finally sold their sons and daughters into slavery
or prostitution;[859] others posted their holdings against the visits
of the surveyors with notices designating them as the property of
some influential neighbour.[860] Such local magnates, who maintained,
perhaps, a guard of Isaurian bandits, were wont to bid defiance
to the law as well as to the lawlessness of the Rector and his
satellites.[861] To their protection, in many instances, the lesser
owners were impelled to consign themselves unconditionally, hoping to
find with them a haven of refuge against merciless exaction. The patron
implored readily accepted the trust, but the suppliant soon discovered
that his condition was assimilated to that of a serf.[862] The web of
social order was strained or ruptured in every grade of life; traders
joined the ranks of the clergy in order to abuse the facilities for
commerce conceded to ministers of religion;[863] the proceedings of
the Irenarchs among the rustic population were so vexatious, that they
were accounted disturbers, instead of guardians of the peace,[864] and
the simple pastor had to be denied the use of a horse, lest it should
enable him to rob with too much security on the public highways.[865]
II. EDUCATIONAL