[547] The names of Eusebius, Eutropius, Chrysaphius, etc., are well

known as despots of the Court and Empire. “Apud quem [si vere dici

debeat] Constantius multum potuit,” is the sarcasm of Ammianus on the

masterful favourite Eutropius; xviii, 4. Ultimately members of the

royal family were castrated to allow of their being intrusted with the

office of Chamberlain, practically the premiership, whilst unfitting

them to usurp the throne; see Schlumberger, L’épopée byzant. au dix.

siècle, 1896, p. 6.

[548] See Const. Porph., _passim._ The emperor cannot even uncover his

head without the castrates closing round him to intercept the gaze of

rude mankind; Reiske, ii, p. 259.

[549] The use of numerical affixes to the names of monarchs did not

exist among the ancients, and hence many cruxes arise for antiquarians

to distinguish those of the same name. Popularly they were often

differentiated by nicknames. Thus we read of Artaxerxes the Longhanded,

Ptolemy the Bloated, the Flute-player; Charles the Bald, the Fat;

Philip the Fair, Frederic Barbarossa, etc. The grandson of the last,

Frederic II, seems to have been the first who assumed a number as part

of his regal title; see Ludewig, Vita Justin., VIII, viii, 53.

[550] CP. fell to Mahomet II in 1453, and the kingdom of Trebizond,

a fragment which still existed under a Comnenian dynasty, in 1461.

Bosnia, Herzegovina, Roumania, Armenia proper, Georgia, and the lower

part of Mesopotamia did not, however, belong to the Eastern Empire, but

there was suzerainty over most of the adjacent territory except Persia.

[551] The town itself was in the hands of the Bulgarians till 504, when

it was won by Theodoric for Italy; Cassiodorus, Chron.

[552] This frontier was delimited by Diocletian, _c. 295_; Eutropius,

ix; Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 19.

[553] At this time Western Armenia, about one-third of the whole, was

called Roman, the rest Persian. It was divided at the end of the fourth

century, but no taxes were collected there by the Byzantines; see below.

[554] Neither the north-eastern nor the north-western boundaries can

now be precisely defined. According to Theodoret, the north-eastern

verge of the Empire was Pityus, about seventy miles farther north;

Hist. Eccles., v, 34. After the reign of Trajan the Euxine was

virtually a Roman lake, and a garrisoned fort was kept at Sebastopol,

considerably north of the Phasis, Bosphorus (Crimea) under its Greek

kings being still allowed a nominal autonomy; Arrian, Periplus Pont.

Euxin. After 250, however, under Gallienus, etc., these regions were

overrun by the Goths. In 275 Trajan’s great province of Dacia was

abandoned by Aurelian, but he preserved the remembrance of it by

forming a small province with the same name south of the Danube; Hist.

Aug., Aurelian, 39, etc.

[555] This geographical sketch is based chiefly on the Notitia, the

Synecdemus of Hierocles, and Spruner’s maps.

[556] Less than the present population of England, which has barely a

tenth of the area of the Empire.

[557] To take a few instances: Thessalonica and Hadrianople, former

population not less than 300,000 each, now about 70,000 each; Antioch,

formerly 500,000 (Chrysostom mentions 200,000, doubtless only freemen),

now 7,500; Alexandria, formerly 750,000, now again growing into

prosperity, 230,000; on the other hand, Ephesus, Palmyra, Baalbec,

etc., once great cities, have entirely disappeared. Nor have any

modern towns sprung up to replace those mentioned; Cairo alone, with

its 371,000, is an apparent exception, but it is almost on the site

of Memphis, still a busy town in the sixth century. For these and

many similar examples the modern gazetteers, etc., are a sufficient

reference. Taking all things into consideration, to give a hundred

millions to the countries forming the Eastern Empire, in their palmy

days, might not be an overestimate; and even then the density of

population would be only about one-third of what it is in England at

the present day.

[558] Institut. Just., Prooem., etc.

[559] Here, however, seems to have been the tract first known to the

Greeks as Asia, but the name was extended to the whole continent fully

ten centuries before this time.

[560] Hierocles, _op. cit._ By the Notitia the civil and military

government of Isauria and Arabia are in each case vested in the same

person.

[561] Now the Dobrudscha.

[562]

The birds their choir apply; airs, vernal airs,

Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune

The trembling leaves, while universal Pan,

Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance,

Led on the eternal Spring.

Paradise Lost, IV.

[563] Including the small province of that name.

[564] On the roll of precedence the Vicars and Proconsuls were

Spectabiles, the ordinary governors Clarissimi. The intendant of the

Long Walls was also called a Vicar; Novel., viii.

[565] See the Notitia.

[566] The independence of proconsular Asia has already been mentioned.

[567] “Yielding only to the sceptre”; Jn. Lydus, De Magistr., ii, 5. On

the roll of precedence, however, he came after consuls and patricians,

but he was usually an ex-consul and patrician as well; see Godefroy

_ad_ Cod. Theod., VI, vi.

[568] The most noted of these roads, the Via Appia, ran from Rome

to Brindisi. It was about fifteen feet wide, with raised footpaths

proportionately narrow. The only road in the Eastern Empire with

a special name was the Via Egnatia, leading from the coast of the

Adriatic through Thessalonica to Cypsela (Ipsala, about forty miles

north of Gallipoli). The Antonine Itinerary shows the distance

between most of the towns and ports in the Empire (_c. 300_). The

Tabula Peutingeriana is a sort of panoramic chart on which towns,

roads, mountains, forests, etc., are marked without any approach to

delineating the outline of the countries, except in the vicinity of

the Bosphorus and CP. (third century, but brought up to a later date;

about 15 feet × 1). There is a photographic reproduction, Vienna, 1888.

Strabo (IV, iii, 8) notes how careless the Greeks were, as compared

with the Romans, in the matter of public works of ordinary utility.

[569] Cod. Theod., XV, iii. By the absence of this title from the Code

and from Procopius (De Bel. Goth., i, 14; De Aedific., iv, 8; v, 5) we

can discern that the roads in the East were generally in bad condition.

No rubbish or filth or obstructive matter of any kind was allowed to

be discharged into the roads or rivers. All roads or canals, that is,

by-paths, were to be maintained in their primary condition, whether

paved or unpaved; Pand., XLIII, x-xv. Soldiers were enjoined not to

shock the public decency by bathing shamelessly in the rivers; Cod.

Theod., VII, i; 13.

[570] The modern caravanserai, a great square building with open

central court and chambers on two floors (see Texier and Pullan,

_op. cit._, p. 142, for a description and plans of one attributed to

the times of the Empire), is supposed to represent not only these

mansions, but even the pattern of the original Persian _angari_ of the

classic period. Travellers could stop at them gratuitously and obtain

provender, etc. Cicero, Atticus, v, 16, etc.

[571] About forty animals were kept at each station; Procopius, Anecd.,

30.

[572] Cod. Theod., VIII, v, 28, etc. 22½ lb. avd. seems absurdly

little for a horse to carry; a parhippus, an extra-strong horse, was

kept, and might take 100 lb. (75 avd.), but even that is only half the

weight of an average man; Cassiodorous, Var. Epist., iv, 47; v, 5. C.

remarks, however, that it is absurd to load an animal who has to travel

at a high speed. I think, therefore, that the load is in addition to a

rider (_hippocomus_).

[573] Cod. Theod., VIII, v, 2.

[574] The Jerusalem Itinerary (_c._ 350) shows the mansions and

mutations from Bordeaux to J., etc. The former seem to have been in or

near large towns, the latter by the wayside.

[575] Cod. Theod., VIII, v, with Godefroy’s paratitlon.

[576] Cod. Theod., VI, xxvii; called _Agentes in rebus_.

[577] They appear to have originated in the _Frumentarii_

(corn-collectors), who were sent into the provinces to purvey for the

wants of the capital. Encouraged on their return to tattle about what

they had seen, signs of disaffection, etc., their secondary vocation

became paramount; and under Diocletian they were reconstituted with a

more consonant title, whilst their license was restrained; Aurelius

Vict., Diocletian; Hist. Aug. Commodus, 4, etc.

[578] Libanius, Epitaph. Juliani (R., I, p. 568); cf. Xenophon,

Cyropaedia, viii, 2. The Persian king was the original begetter of

“eyes and ears” of this description; Herodotus, i, 114.

[579] Liban., Adv. eos qui suam Docendi Rat., etc. At this time they

were generally called _Veredarii_, _veredus_ being the name of the

post-horses they always rode; Procopius, De Bel. Vand., i, 16; De Bel.

Pers., ii, 20.

[580] Vetus Glossarium, _sb. Vered. eq._ (Godefroy _ad_ Cod. Theod.,

VI, xxix, 1).

[581] _Curiosi_; Cod. Theod., VI, xxix.

[582] _Irenarchi_; _ibid._, XII, xiv; Cod., X, lxxv.

[583] In no instance better exemplified than in that of Anastasius.

[584] Galba, Pertinax, Alexander, Probus, Maurice, etc.

[585] See their insignia and appointments in the Notitia; there was a

separate set for the East and West even after the extinction of the

Roman dynasty of the latter division.

[586] Or more briefly, Masters of Soldiers, of Troops, or of the

Forces; in the Notitia the five military magnates are placed before the

Counts of the Treasury.

[587] _In praesenti_, in the Presence; to be with the Emperor

travelling was to be _in sacro Comitatu_; to send anything to Court was

to send it _ad Comitatum_, etc.

[588] For the probable daily order of the Consistorium see p. 92; Cod.

Theod., XI, xxxix, 5, 8; the materials at this date are too scanty to

fill an objective picture; cf. Schiller, Gesch. d. röm. Kaiserzeit,

Gotha, 1887, ii, p. 66.

[589] Cod. Theod., VI, xii, and Godefroy _ad loc._

[590] _Ibid._, I, i, ii, with Godefroy’s paratitla.

[591] They had much the force of a decree nisi, to be made absolute

only in the quarter where all the circumstances were known. The Codes

are full of warnings against acting too hastily on the Emperor’s

rescript; thus Constantine says, “Contra jus Rescripta non valeant,”

but his son on the same page, “Multabuntur Judices qui Rescripta

contempserint.” They had to steer between Scylla and Charybdis; in most

cases, however, an easy task enough in Byzantine administration; Cod.

Theod., I, i, 1, 5.

[592] Julian, in his zeal for constitutional government, tried to make

it a real power in the state, but his effort was quietly ignored after

his short career by his successors; Zosimus, iii, 11.

[593] In theory the Consul (Cod. Theod., VI, vi), but practically the

P.U.; _ibid._, ii, and Godefroy’s paratitlon; cf. Cassiodorus, Var.

Epist., i, 42, 43, etc.

[594] Cod. Theod., VI, xxiii, 1; XII, i, 122; IX, ii, 1, etc.

[595] Ammianus, xxviii, 1; Cod., I, xiv. Thus even Theodosius based

himself on a decree of the Senate before embarking on the war with

Maximus; Zosimus, v, 43, 44.

[596] When there was no emperor in the East, after the death of Valens,

Julius, the Master of the Forces, applied for sanction to the Senate

before ordering the massacre of all the Gothic youth detained as

hostages throughout Asia; Zosimus, iv, 26.

[597] As in the case of Anastasius himself; Marcellinus Com., an. 515,

etc.

[598] Ammianus, xxviii, 1; Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iii, 32.

[599] Cod. Theod., VI, ii, 4; XV, ix; Cod., I, xiv. Leo Sap. at last

abolished the Senatusconsulta; Nov. Leo., lxxviii.

[600] References to, and a _résumé_ of, modern authorities who have

tried to work out the political significance of the Senate at this

epoch will be found in Schiller, _op. cit._ p. 31. I may add that

fifty members formed a quorum (Cod. Theod., VI, iv, 9), but a couple

of thousand may have borne the title of Senator; Themistius, xxxiv,

p. 456 (Dind.). Many of these, however, had merely the “naked” honour

by purchase (Cod. Theod., XII, i, 48, _et passim_), or received it on

being superannuated from the public service, but the potential Senators

inherited the office or assimilated it naturally on account of their

rank. Many of the titular Senators lived on their estates in the

provinces; Cod. Theod., VI, ii, 2; cf. Cassiodorus, Var. Epist., iii,

6, etc.

[601] Cod. Theod., XII, i; Godefroy reckons seventy-nine Curiae in

the Eastern Empire, but there must have been many more not definitely

indicated; paratitlon _ad loc._

[602] Cod. Theod., I, xxix.

[603] _Ibid._, XII, i, 151; Novel., xv; see Savigny, Hist. Roman Law,

I, ii. They seem to have been created by Valentinian I; Cod., I, lv, 1,

etc.

[604] Cod. Theod., I, vii, 3; the first book contains most of Haenel’s

additions, and his numbers often differ from Godefroy’s, to which I

always refer on account of the commentary.

[605] Jn. Lydus, De Magistr., iii, 37; cf. Cassiodorus, Var. Ep., xi,

6. _Cancellarius_, from the _cancelli_ or grille, within which they sat

or stood.

[606] Plutarch, Cato Min., 23, etc.; cf. Savigny, _loc. cit._

[607] Generally about 400 in number; the Count of the East was allowed

600; Cod., XII, lvi, lvii, etc. A sort of constabulary lower in rank

than ordinary soldiers; Cod., XII, lviii, 12, etc.

[608] _Ibid._, I, xii.

[609] _Ibid._, IV, xvii.

[610] Cod. Theod., I, vii, 2; Cod., III, iii. Notwithstanding a long

article by Bethmann-Hollweg (Civilprozessen, Bonn, 1864, iii, p. 116),

nothing is known as to how they held their court, etc.

[611] Cod. Theod., XI, xxx.

[612] _Ibid._, I, v.

[613] _Ibid._, I, vii, 5, 6.

[614] Thus the first, the fifteenth, indiction were the first and

last years of the round of fifteen. This method of reckoning mostly

superseded all other dates, both in speaking and writing. The first

Indiction is usually calculated from 1st September, 312. Fundamentally,

indiction means rating or assessment.

[615] Hyginus, de Limitibus, etc., is our chief source of knowledge as

to Roman land-surveying. Permanent maps were engraved on brass plates

and copies were made on linen, etc. See Godefroy _ad_ Cod. Theod., XI,

xxvii.

[616] Pand., L, xv, 4; Cod. Theod., IX, xlii, 7; Cod., IX, xlix, 7.

[617] From a Syriac MS. in the British Museum, it appears that to every

_caput_ or _jugum_ of 1,000 solidi (£560) were reckoned 5 _jugera_

(about ⅝ acre) of vineyard, 20, 40, or 60 of arable land, according

to quality, 250 olive trees, 1st cl., and 450 2nd cl.; see Mommsen on

this document, Hermes, iii, 1868, p. 429; cf. Nov. Majorian, i. The

amount exacted for each head varied with time and place. When Julian

was in Gaul (_c. 356_), the inhabitants were paying 25 solidi (£14)

_per caput_ or _jugum_, which he managed to reduce to 7 solidi (£4);

Ammianus, xvi, 5.

[618] Cod. Theod., XI, i, 10; XIII, xi, 12; Cod., XI, lviii, etc.

Deserted lands were mostly near the borders, from which the occupiers

had been driven by hostile incursions. Barren lands presumably were put

in the worst class.

[619] The duties of these officials are nowhere precisely defined, and

a consistent account must be presumed from the scattered indications

contained in the Codes, Cassiodorus, etc.; see Cod. Theod., XIII, xi;

Cod., XI, lvii, etc.

[620] Cod. Theod., XIII, x, 5; xi, 4, etc.

[621] _Ibid._, XIII, x, 8.

[622] For this assessment the adult age was in general 18, but in

Syria, males 14, females 12; Pand., L, xv, 3.

[623] “Capitatio humana atque animalium”; Cod. Theod., XI, xx, 6; cf.

Cedrenus, i, p. 627; Zonaras, xiv, 3; Glykas, iv, p. 493, etc. Owing

to the use in the Codes of the words _caput_ and _capitatio_ with

respect to both land-tax and poll-tax, these were generally confounded

together, till Savigny made the distinction clear in his monograph,

Ueber d. röm. Steuerverfassung, pub. 1823 in the Transact. of the

Berlin Acad. of Science. The poll-tax is usually distinguished as

_plebeia capitatio_. The epigram of Sidonius Ap. is always quoted, and

has often misled the expositors of the Codes, in this connection. To

the Emperor Majorian he says:

Geryones nos esse puta, monstrumque tributum,

Hic capita, ut vivam, tu mihi tolle tria.

The taxes must have been again very high for him to anticipate so much

relief from the remission of only three heads (_c._ 460).

[624] Cod. Theod., XI, i, 14; “quantulacumque terrarum possessio.”

[625] _Ibid._, XIII, x, 2.

[626] _Ibid._, XIII, x, 4, 6.

[627] _Ibid._, XIII, iii, iv. A list of thirty-five handicrafts

exempted is given, including professionals, such as physicians,

painters, architects, and geometers. I find no relief, however, in the

case of lawyers.

[628] Cod. Theod., IV, xii; Godefroy could only recover one

Constitution of this title, but Haenel has been able to collect nine;

thirteen are contained in the corresponding title of the Code, IV, lxi.

On imported eunuchs ⅛ was paid; Cod., IV, xlii, 2.

[629] _Ibid._, X, xix, 3, 12.

[630] _Ibid._, IV, xii.

[631] Cod., IV, lxiii, 2; “subtili auferatur ingenio.”

[632] Cod. Theod., XIII, i; Cod., XI, i. Evagrius (iii, 39), one of the

nearest in time, is most copious on the subject of this tax. Cedrenus,

Glykas, Zonaras (“an annual tribute!”) evidently confused it with the

poll-tax, but their remarks show that every animal useful to the farmer

returned something to the revenue; a horse or an ox one shilling, an

ass or a dog fourpence, etc.

[633] Evagrius alone mentions these; cf. Hist. August. Alexander, 34.

[634] According to an old Biblical commentator, it was called the

_penalizing gold_, “the price of sorrow,” as we might say (aurum

poenosum or pannosum, the _gold of rags_, levied even on beggars);

see Valesius ad Evagr. _loc. cit._; Quaest. Vet. et Nov. Test. 75,

_ad calc._ St. August, (in Migne, iii, 2269). He also is thinking

of a poll-tax, _didrachma_, less than two shillings a head. The

Theodosian Code in twenty-one Constitutions is clear and precise as

to the incidence of the chrysargyron, and nothing can be interjected

extraneous to the definitions there constituted. The quadriennial

contribution of Edessa was 140 lb. of gold (£5,600); Joshua Stylites

(Wright), Camb. 1882, 31.

[635] Zosimus, ii, 38. He is severe on Constantine for inflicting it,

but there must have been something like it before; see Godefroy _ad_

Cod. Theod., XIII, i, 1.

[636] Cod. Theod., XVI, ii, 8, 14, 15; XIII, i, 11, etc.; VII, xx, 3,

9, etc. (also some Court officers; XI, xii, 3); XIII, iv; i, 10.

[637] It is the signal action of Anastasius respecting it which has

caused so much notice to be taken of the impost; see esp. Procopius,

Gaz. Panegyric., 13. One Timotheus of Gaza is said to have aimed a

tragedy at the harshness of it; Cedrenus; Suidas, _sb._ Timoth. By

Code, XI, i, 1, it seems that traces of it remained permanently.

Evagrius alludes vaguely to some compensating financial measures of

Anastasius; iii, 42; cf. Jn. Malala, p. 394.

[638] This was the regular procedure when state debtors were officially

forgiven—a ceremonial burning of the accounts; Cod. Theod., XI, xxviii,

2, 3, etc.

[639] Cod. Theod., VI, ii, 1, 4, 13, etc. The idea of abolishing

these senatorial taxes was entertained in the time of Arcadius, but

the scheme fell through; Cod., XII, ii. Senatorial estates were kept

distinct from all others during peraequation at the quindecennial

survey; Cod. Theod., VI, iii, 2, 3.

[640] Cod. Theod., VI, xxiv, 8, 9; XIII, iii, 15, 17, etc., see

Godefroy’s paratitlon to VI, ii.

[641] _Ibid._, VI, ii, 5, 9; VII, xxiv, etc.

[642] Cod., XII, iii, 3.

[643] Cod. Theod., VII, xxiii.

[644] _Ibid._, XII, xiii, and Godefroy’s commentaries. Cod., X, lxxiv.

[645] Cod. Theod., VI, xxx, 2; Nov., xxx, etc.

[646] Cod. Theod., X, vi; XV, x, and Godefroy _ad loc._

[647] _Ibid._, X, xix; Cod., XI, vi; see Dureau de la Malle (_op.

cit._, iv, 17), who summarizes with refs. our scanty information on the

subject. It seems that the ancient methods of working the ore were very

defective, and the _scoriae_ of the famous silver mines at Laurium have

been treated for the third time in recent years with good results; see

Cordella, Berg u. hüttenmän. Zeitung, xlii, 1883, p. 21; Strabo, IX, 1.

[648] Cod. Theod., I, v, 1, etc. Chrysostom alludes to the severity

of the miner’s existence; Stagirium, 13; Mart. Aegypt., 2 (in Migne,

i, 490; ii, 697). During the Gothic revolt of 376 the Thracian miners

joined the insurgents; Ammianus, xxxi, 6.

[649] Cod. Theod., XI, i, 1, 34; v, 3, 4; xvi, 8, etc.

[650] Cod. Theod., XI, i, 15, 16; xxv; XII, vi, 15, etc.

[651] _Ibid._, XII, vi, 2, etc.

[652] _Ibid._, XI, vii, 14, 16, etc.

[653] _Ibid._, XI, vii, 1, etc.

[654] _Ibid._, XI, vii, 10, 13; VIII, viii, 1, 3; this privilege was

extended to the Jews’ Sabbath; II, viii, 3.

[655] _Ibid._, XI, vii, 16, etc.

[656] _Ibid._, XI, i, 34, 35; xxii, 4, etc.

[657] _Ibid._, XI, vii, 3, etc.

[658] _Ibid._, X, xvii; XI, ix; that is by auction.

[659] _Ibid._, [?] xxviii; cf. Cassiodorus, Var. Epist., xi, 7.

[660] _Ibid._, XI, vii, 2, 6, etc., cf. Cassiodorus, _op. cit._, iv, 14.

[661] Cod. Theod., XI, i, 9, 21; XII, vi, 19, and Godefroy _ad loc._;

_ibid._, XII, vii, 2, etc.

[662] _Ibid._, XII, vi, 19, 21, etc.

[663] _Ibid._, XI, vii, 1; XIII, x, 1, etc. The demand notes had to be

signed by the Rector; XI, i, 3.

[664] _Ibid._, XI, i, 19; xxvi, 2; XII, vi, 18, 23, 27. The Defender of

the City was generally present to act as referee on these occasions.

A single annone was valued at 4 _sol._ (£2 5_s._) per annum; Novel.,

Theod., xxiii. It appears that the precious metals were accepted by

weight only to guard against adulteration, clipping, etc. Thus, in

321, Constantine enacted that 7 _sol._ should be paid for an ounce by

tale instead of six, indicating ⅐ alloy in his own gold coin at that

period; see Dureau de la Malle, _op. cit._, i, 10; Cod. Theod., XII,

vii, 1; cf. vi, 13.

[665] _Ibid._, VII, vi; xxiii; XI, i, 9; cf. Cassiodorus, _op. cit._,

xi, 39. When it was found that sheep and oxen fell into poor condition

after being driven a long way the estimated price was exacted instead.

[666] Cod. Theod., I, xv; one law only in Godefroy, 17 in Haenel.

[667] Cod. Theod., VIII, v, 13, 18; X, xx, 4, 11, etc.

[668] _Ibid._, XIII, v, 28; ix; Cod., XI, iii, 2, etc. In an emergency

any one possessing a ship of sufficient size was liable to be

impressed. The prescribed least capacity seems to have been about ten

measured tons according to the modern system (100 cub. ft. per ton

register), that is, cargo space for 2,000 _modii_, about 650 cub. ft.

[669] There were three grand treasuries at CP., viz., that of the

Praefect of the East, of the Count Sacrarum Largitionum, and of the

Count Rerum Privatarum (his local agents were called _Rationales_, but

seem from the Notitia to have become extinct in the East), but the

Praefect was the chief minister of finance and ruled both the returns

and the disbursements; see Godefroy’s Notitia, _ad calc._; Cod. Theod.;

Jn. Lydus, De Magistr., ii, 27; Cassiodorus, Var. Epist., vi, 3, etc.

The Rectors and the Curiae could levy local rates for public works, to

which purpose a third of the revenue from the customs in each district

and from national estates (mostly property of abolished temples) was

regularly devoted; see Cod. Theod., XV, i, with Godefroy’s paratitlon

and commentaries. The Emperor indulged his fancy in building out of the

public funds or granted sums in the form of largess, as when Anastasius

bestowed a considerable amount on the island of Rhodes to repair the

damage done by an earthquake; Jn. Malala, xvi. There were some small

taxes I have not noticed, such as the _siliquaticum_, pay for the army,

by which each party to a sale gave a ½ _siliqua_ (3_d._). This was

devised by Valentinian III (Novel., Theodos., xlviii; Do. Valent.,

xviii) and existed in the time of Cassiodorus (_op. cit._, iv, 19,

etc.), but does not seem to have been adopted in the East.

[670] Antioch also had an allowance of free provisions, but there is no

precise evidence in this case.

[671] Cod. Theod., VIII, iv, 6; XI, i, 11, etc.

[672] _Ibid._, XI, xxvi.

[673] Considerable obscurity envelops the office of _protostasia_.

I conjecture it to have been a supervision imposed on local nobles,

chiefly residential Senators, who had to serve for two years; Cod.

Theod., XI, xxiii. In theory all the superior offices had to be vacated

on the expiration of a year, but they were often prolonged. Thus a

trustworthy and efficient _Susceptor_ retained his post for five years;

_ibid._, XII, vi, 24. The latter were mostly elected by the Curiae, who

were liable for their defalcations; _ibid._, 1, etc.

[674] Cod. Theod., VIII, viii; x; XI, vii, 17, etc. These palatine

emissaries, coming as _Compulsors_ or otherwise, were detested by the

Rectors, etc., who could scarcely show them the deference due to their

brevet-rank, which was high: doubtless they gave themselves airs;

_ibid._, VI, xxiv, 4; xxvi, 5, etc. They were entitled to be greeted

with a kiss and to sit with the Judge on his bench.

[675] 320,000 lb. of gold; Procopius, Anecdot., 19. In the time of

Pompey it was thought a considerable achievement when that general

raised the income of the Republic to the trifling sum, according to

modern ideas, of £3,500,000; Plutarch, Pompey, 45. On the other hand we

have the statement of Vespasian, a century later, that he needed close

on £400,000,000 to keep the Empire on its legs, a sum almost equal to

the requirements of modern Europe, but the scope of his remark is not

plain; Suetonius, Vespas., 16. Antoninus Pius, again, with the finances

of the whole Empire under his hand during his reign of twenty-three

years saved £22,000,000, nearly the same amount per annum as Anastasius

for a similar extent of territory; Dion Cass., lxxiii, 8. Such small

savings by the most thrifty emperors do not argue a large income. In

our own best years a surplus may reach about five per cent. of the

receipts. This gives us grounds for a guess that the revenue of Rome

after Augustus was something like £20,000,000.

[676] See p. 131 for the names of those hordes who shared the Western

Empire between them. Overflow of population and pressure by the most

powerful nomads, the Huns and Alani, were the general causes which

precipitated the barbarian hosts on the Empire.

[677] About this time the Bulgarians made their first appearance on the

Danube as the foes of civilization. They were lured into a treaty by

Zeno; Müller, Fr. Hist. Graec., iv, p. 619 (Jn. Antioch.); cf. Zonaras,

xiv, 3, etc.

[678] See p. 124.

[679] The capitation tax was remitted in Thrace; Cod., XI, li. In fact,

hardly any taxes were drawn from that Diocese, for, as Anastasius

himself remarks, the inhabitants were ruined by barbarian irruptions;

_ibid._, X, xxvii, 2. How irrepressible were the wild tribes across the

Danube can best be appreciated by a perusal of Ammianus, xxxi, etc.,

and Jordanes _passim_.

[680] The new Persian Empire which dissolved the Parthian sovereignty

was founded, _c. 218_, by Ardashir (Artaxerxes); see Agathias, ii, 26,

etc.

[681] See Godefroy _ad_ Cod. Theod., VII, xiv, xv, xvii; Hist. Aug.

Hadrian, 11, 12; Probus, 13, 14; Ammianus, xxviii, 2, etc. The walls

of Hadrian and Antonine in North Britain are well known, and have been

exhaustively described. The camps are represented as military cities.

See Bruce’s Handbook to the Roman Wall, 1885, etc.

[682] Cod. Theod., VII, xv, etc.

[683] Arrian, Peripl. Pont. Eux. This force was reduced by Constantine;

Zosimus, ii, 34.

[684] In the Notitia Or., there are two Counts and thirteen Dukes. All

of the latter, however, were Counts of the First Order, as evidenced by

their insignia. In rank they were _Spectabiles_, that is, a step higher

than the Rectors and ordinary Senators.

[685] Evidently from the Notitia.

[686] See Godefroy _ad_ Cod. Theod., VII, i, 18; Mommsen, _op. cit._,

Hermes, 1889. In Agathias (v, 13) we have the vague statement that the

whole forces of the Empire amounted to 645,000 men at the period of

highest military efficiency. More than half of these would be assigned

to the East. But John of Antioch, in making a similar statement, seems

to have the Eastern Empire only in his mind; Müller, Fr. Hist. Graec.,

iv, p. 622.

[687] See p. 50.

[688] Procopius, Anecdot., 24, 26; Agathias, v, 15.

[689] See Godefroy _ad_ Cod. Theod., VI, xxiv; XIV, xvii, 8, 9, 10. On

the Candidati see Reiske _ad_ Const. Porph., p. 77. In the field they

seem to have been the closest bodyguard of the Emperor, as were the

eunuchs on civil occasions; Ammianus, xxxi, 13.

[690] See the Notitia and Mommsen, _op. cit._

[691] These are all given in the Notitia, some copies of which are

coloured.

[692] The general appearance was probably: “The tuft of the helmet,

the lance pennon, and the surcoat were all of a fixed colour for each

band;” Oman, Art of War, p. 186.

[693] For the ensign see Ammianus, xvi, 10; Vegetius, ii, 7, 13, 14,

etc.; Cod., I, xxvii, 1 (8); Jn. Lydus, De Magistr., i, 46; Maurice,

Strategikon, ii, 9, 13, 14, 19; Cedrenus, i, p. 298. The dragons were

hollow so as to become inflated with the wind; Gregory Naz., Adv.

Julian, i, 66.

[694] The cavalry with mail-clad horses were called _cataphractarii_ or

_clibanarii_; Ammianus, xvi, 10; Cod. Theod., XIV, xxvii, 9.

[695] Ammianus, xx, 11; xxix, 5; Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 1;

Maurice, _op. cit._, XII, viii, 2, 4, 11, etc. There were fifteen

factories for the forging of arms; Notitia; see below.

[696] Vegetius, i, 4, 5, 6; Cod. Theod., VII, xiii, 3; xx, 12, etc.

[697] Cod. Theod., VII, xiii, 8; Pand., XLIX, xvi, 11, etc.

[698] Vegetius, i, 7; Cod. Theod., VII, xiii, etc.; eighteen was the

usual age for the recruit, 5 ft. 8 in. the height. They were branded in

a conspicuous part of the body; Cod. Theod., X, xxi, 4, and Godefroy

_ad loc._

[699] Provided they were physically fit; Cod. Theod., VII, xxii.

[700] Ammianus, xxi, 6; Cod. Theod., VII, xiii. An officer called a

_temonarius_ collected the quittance money for the recruits, which

varied from £14 to £20 apiece.

[701] Ammianus, xvii, 13; xix, 11; xxviii, 5, etc.; Zosimus, iv, 12,

etc. Barbarians of this class were called _Dedititii_.

[702] Cod. Theod., VII, xiii, 16, and Godefroy _ad loc._

[703] Jordanes, De Reb. Get., 21, 28. The enlistment of barbarians

seems to have reached its height under Justin II, when Tiberius led

150,000 mercenaries against the Persians (_c._ 576); Evagrius, v, 14;

cf. Theophanes, an. 6072, etc.

[704] Godefroy _ad_ Cod. Theod., VII, xvii; Vegetius, v (the Liburnian

galleys); Marcellinus Com., an. 508 (“centum armatis navibus totidemque

dromonibus.” By “armed ships” I presume he means bulky transports laden

with soldiers and munitions of war); Procopius, De Bel. Vand., i, 11,

etc.

[705] Cod. Theod., VII, xx.

[706] Evidently from Agathias, v, 15, and the following.

[707] Rescript of Anastasius, Mommsen, _op. cit._, pp. 199, 256.

[708] The _Limitanei_ and _Comitatenses_ are mentioned in the Code (I,

xxvii, 2 (8), etc.), but the Palatine troops do not occur by name in

the literature of the sixth century (?).

[709] The term was used long before the word legion dropped out; Cod.

Theod., VII, i, 18, etc. By the Greeks the _Numeri_ were called the

_Catalogues_; Procopius, _passim_ (also in previous use).

[710] Cod. Theod., [?] vii, 16, 17, etc.; Procopius, De Bel. Goth.,

iii, 39; iv, 26. Applicants of all soils were on occasion attracted by

the offer of a bounty called _pulveraticum_.

[711] Cod., XII, xxxiv, 6, 7.

[712] Olympiodorus, p. 450; Novel., Theod., xx; Procopius, De Bel.

Vand., i, 11; De Bel. Goth., iv, 5, etc.

[713] Cod., IV, lxv, 35; Novel., cxvii, 11; cf. Benjamin, Berlin

Dissert., 1892.

[714] Procopius, De Bel. Vand., i, 2, 3; Agathias, ii, 7, 9, etc. There

were no true allies of the Empire at this time, although all those who

fought for her may not have been technically _Foederati_; cf. Mommsen,

_op. cit._, pp. 217, 272.

[715] The name defines them as “biscuit-eaters,” in allusion to their

being maintained at the table of their lord.

[716] Benjamin’s essay is written to oppose this view which is favoured

by Mommsen; _op. cit._, in both cases.

[717] Procopius, De Bel. Vand., ii, 18.

[718] _Ibid._, De Bel. Pers., i, 25; De Bel. Goth., iii, 1, etc.

[719] _Ibid._, De Bel. Vand., i, 17; ii, 19, etc.

[720] Cod., IX, xii, 10.

[721] Ammianus, xiv, 2; xxvii, 9, etc.

[722] Cassiodorus, Var. Epist., v, 16, 17. An order for 1,000 _dromons_

was executed for Theodoric in an incredibly short time. “Renuntias

completum quod vix credi potest inchoatum.”

[723] The general character given to Byzantine soldiers is

exceptionally bad: “The vile and contemptible military class”; Isidore

Pelus., Epist., i, 390: “as free from crime as you might say the sea

is free from waves”; Chrysostom, In Matth. Hom. LXI, 2 (in Migne,

vii, 590). These, of course, are priests, but cf. Ammianus, xxii, 4;

Zosimus, ii, 34, etc. Thus a century earlier the army had already

fallen into a wretched condition; see also Synesius, De Regno.

[724] Maurice, _op. cit._, XII, viii, 16.

[725] From the anonymous Strategike it would seem that the phalanx was

restored on occasion during the sixth century (Köchly and Rüslow).

[726] See Arrian’s Tactica _v._ Alanos. For an interesting exposition

of the vicissitudes of warfare by means of cavalry, infantry, and

missiles pure, see Oman’s Art of War, but the author’s selection of the

battle of Adrianople (378) as marking a sharp turn in the evolution

of Roman cavalry is quite arbitrary and could not be historically

maintained. That disaster made no demonstrable difference in the

constitution of the armies of the Empire. The forces of Rome were

consumed to a greater extent at the battle of Mursa less than thirty

years previously (351), when the army of the victor contained, perhaps,

40,000 cavalry, half of the whole amount; Julian, Orat. I, ii (p. 98,

etc., Hertlein); Zonaras, xiii, 8, etc.

[727] Constantine, according to Zosimus (ii, 33), first appointed a

Magister Equitum in the new sense; cf. Cod. Theod., XI, i, 1 (315).

[728] Notitia Or.

[729] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 13, etc.

[730] Procop., De Bel. Pers., i, 13, etc.

[731] _Ibid._, De Bel. Vand., i, 19.

[732] _Ibid._, Anecdot., 24; Agathias, v, 15. Under Leo Macella the

Scholars consisted of selected Armenians, but Zeno introduced a rabble

of Isaurians, his own countrymen; these, of course, were chased by

Anastasius; Theodore Lect., ii, 9, etc. Leo also levied the Excubitors

to be a genuine fighting corps of the Domestics; Jn. Lydus, De Magist.,

i, 16.

[733] Longinus, brother of Zeno, expected to succeed him, but he was

seized promptly, shaved, and banished as a presbyter to Alexandria;

Theophanes, an. 5984, etc.

[734] _Ibid._, an. 5985. To his power among the Isaurians Zeno owed

his elevation, being taken up by Leo as a counterpoise to Aspar and

his Goths, the authors of his own fortune, of whom he was in danger of

becoming the tool; Candidus, Excerpt., p. 473, etc.

[735] Marcellinus Com., an. 498.

[736] This was the end of the war according to Theophanes (an. 5988),

who gives it only three years; cf. Jn. Malala, xvi.

[737] These brigands had been subsidized to the amount of 5,000 lb. of

gold annually (Jn. Antioch., Müller, v, p. 30, says only 1,500 lb.),

which was henceforth saved to the treasury; Evagrius, iii, 35. All the

most troublesome characters were captured and settled permanently in

Thrace; Procopius, Gaz. Paneg., 10. For a monograph on this war see

Brooks, Eng. Hist. Rev., 1893.

[738] Kavádh in recent transliteration. Persian history has been

greatly advanced by modern Orientalists; see especially Nöldeke,

Geschichte der Perser, Leyden, 1887. But the history of Tabari is

absurdly wrong in nearly all statements respecting the Romans and the

translations of Nöldeke and Zotenberg vary so much that we often seem

to be reading different works.

[739] Theodore Lect., ii; Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 7, _et seq._; De

Aedific., iii, 2, _et seq._

[740] _Ibid._; De Bel. Pers., ii, 3.

[741] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 7; cf. his parallel story of Attila

and the storks at Aquileia; De Bel. Vand., i, 4 (copied, perhaps, by

Jordanes). While such anecdotes may enliven the page of history, their

effectivity must always be accepted with suspicion.

[742] If the statements of Zacharias Myt. and Michael Melit. can be

accepted, the town must have been very populous, as the number of

citizens slain is put by them at eighty thousand.

[743] The Nephthalites or White Huns who occupied Bactria, previously

the seat of a powerful Greek kingdom under a dynasty of Alexander’s

successors.

[744] Ammianus, xxv, 7.

[745] Procopius, De Aedific., ii, 1; cf. Jn. Malala, xvi, etc.

[746] Jordanes, 58. I am putting it, perhaps, too mildly in the text

if Theodoric, who was a vassal of the Empire, knew beforehand of the

course taken by his general. Sabinianus was chiefly supported by

Bulgarians in consequence of Zeno’s treaty with them; cf. Ennodius,

Panegyr. Theodor. Petza had only 2,000 foot and 500 horse.

[747] Marcellinus Com., an. 505; Ennodius, _loc. cit._

[748] Marcellinus Com., an. 508. Doubtless this was the event which

caused Theodoric to build a large fleet; Cassiodorus, Var. Epist., v,

15, 16.

[749] Cassiodorus, Var. Epist., i, 1, might apply here; in any case the

sentiments of Theodoric are clearly expressed by Jordanes, 59; cf. 57.

[750] Jn. Antioch. and Jn. Malala, Hermes, vi (Mommsen), pp. 344, 389.

[751] Marcellinus Com., an. 514; Jn. Malala, xvi; Theophanes, an. 6005,

etc.

[752] Marcellinus Com., an. 514; Theophanes, an. 6005. The texts merely

imply, perhaps, that they deserted to Vitalian. Hypatius, the Byzantine

general, and nephew to Anastasius, was taken prisoner, deliberately

given up in fact. A second engagement, however, under Cyril, was

undoubtedly bloody; Jn. Malala, xvi.

[753] Jn. Malala, xvi; Zonaras (xiv, 3) says the fleet was inflamed by

burning (concave) mirrors.

[754] As a ransom for their captives; Marcellinus Com., an. 515;

Theophanes, an. 6006. The Senate negotiated for Anastasius.

[755] Marcellinus Com., an. 515.

[756] See, besides the above authorities, the correspondence between

Emperor and Pope (in Migne, S.L., lxiii, also Concil. and Baronius).

[757] Theophanes, an. 6006; Cedrenus, i, p. 632.

[758] All the chronographists relate the vision of Anastasius, to whom,

just before his death, a figure with a book appeared, saying: “For your

insatiable avarice I erase fourteen years.” Every one must regret the

inherent defect of character which deprived us of a centenarian emperor.

[759] That of Anastasius is the last life written by Tillemont, which,

as usual, he has illustrated by his wide erudition in ecclesiastical

literature. But the infantile credulity of the man in theological

matters abates much of the critical value of his work. Thus he gravely

questions if the action of the Deity was correct when, for the benefit

of the Persian king, he allowed a Christian bishop to release a

treasure guarded by demons whom the Magi had failed to exorcise. He

believes implicitly that an orthodox bishop emerged from the flames

intact so as to convince an Arian congener of his error, etc. Rose’s

thesis (Halle, 1886) on these wars is of some value.

[760] Strabo, II, i, 30, etc.; Pliny, Hist. Nat., ii, 112. The earth

was thought to be about 9,000 miles long and half that width, north to

south.

[761] Cosmas Indicopleustes, a merchant who eventually turned monk,

in his Christian Topography is our chief authority for popular

cosmogony and trade in the sixth century (in Migne, S.G.). The

theories of philosophers jar with his Biblical convictions and excite

his antagonism. He writes to prove that the world is flat, that the

sun rounds a great mountain in the north to cause night, etc. Being

something of a draughtsman he explains his views by cosmographical

diagrams, and figures many objects seen in his travels. There is an

annotated translation by McCrindle, Lond., 1899 (Hakluyt Soc.).

[762] Diodorus, Sic., v, 19, 22, etc. For tin to the Scilly Is., etc.

[763] Phoenician trade is summarized with considerable detail by

Ezekiel, xxvii; cf. Genesis, xxxvii, 25. But a couple of centuries

earlier the race was well known to Homer, who often adverts to their

skill in manufactures, as also to their knavery and chicanery:

Αὐτὴ δ’ ἐς θάλαμον κατεβήσατο κηώεντα,

Ἔνθ’ ἔσαν οἱ πέπλοι παμποίκιλοι, ἔργα γυναικῶν

Σιδονίων. κ.τ.λ.

Iliad, vi, 288.

Ἔνθα δὲ Φοίνικες ναυσίκλυτοι ἤλυθον ἄνδρες

Τρῶκται, μυρί’ ἄγοντες ἀθύρματα νηῒ μελαίνῃ ...

Τὴν δ’ ἄρα Φοίνικες πολυπαίπαλοι ἠπερόπευον. κ.τ.λ.

Odyssey, xv, 415.

The recently discovered ruins in Mashonaland (Rhodesia) prove, perhaps,

that their unrecorded expeditions reached to S. Africa; see works by

Bent, Neal and Hall, Keane, etc.

[764] 326 B.C. In Arrian’s Indica, 18, _et seq._

[765] Strabo, XVII, i, 13.

[766] Pliny, Hist. Nat., vi, 26; Pseud-Arrian, Peripl. Mar. Erythr.,

57. For a discussion as to the date of Hippalus see Vincent, Commerce

of the Ancients, ii, p. 47, etc. The S.W. monsoon blows from April to

October, the N.E. in the interval.

[767] Very small, however, according to modern ideas; Pliny (_op.

cit._, vi, 24) gives them 3,000 _amphorae_, not more than 40 or 50 tons

register. Arrian (_op. cit._, 19) marks the distinction between “long,

narrow war-galleys and round, capacious trading ships.” A few great

ships—floating palaces rather—were built by the Ptolemies and Hiero

of Syracuse, but they were never seriously employed in navigation;

Athenaeus, v, 36, _et seq._ Yet ships of at least 250 tons register

were in common use by 170; Pand., L, v, 3.

[768] Pliny, _op. cit._, vi, 26, _et seq._; Pseud-Arrian, _op. cit._,

57. The vessels had to be armed lest they should fall in with pirates.

“The merchant floating down the stream; the caravan crossing the

desert, mounting the defile, looking out upon the sea and its harbours;

the ferry passing the river; the mariners in their little ship—they

are real figures, yet they are nameless, all but a few; they suffer

and they succumb without ever finding a voice for their story. On the

desert, perhaps, a cloud of robber horse burst upon them; on the river

the boat sinks, overladen; in the mountain passes they drop with cold;

in the dirty lanes of the mart they die of disease. Commerce is not

organized, safeguarded, universalized, as at present, but, such as it

is, it reaches wide, and its life is never quite extinct.” Beazley,

Dawn of Modern Geography, i, p. 177.

[769] Pliny, _op. cit._, vi, 19. He remarks that Pompey, during the

Mithridatic war, first made the existence of this trade known to the

Romans; cf. Strabo, XI, ii, 16; the geographer notes that Dioscurias,

about 50 miles north of Phasis, was a great barbarian mart frequented

by 70, or even, as some said, by 300 different nations; see also

Ammianus, xxiii, 6.

[770] Cosmas, _op. cit._, ii; cf. Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 20.

[771] So called from a sophist who was murdered there; Libanius,

Epist., 20. Previously Nicephorium.

[772] Cod. Theod., VII, xvi, 2, 3, and Godfrey _ad loc._; Cod., IV,

lxiii, 4.

[773] The inhabitants were a mixed race, containing Semitic and

Hellenic elements, etc. Greek inscriptions were common there; Cosmas,

_op. cit._, ii; cf. Philostorgius, iii, 6, etc.

[774] For the transport of an army to the opposite coast the king was

able to collect 120 Roman, Persian, and native vessels; Act. Sanct.

(Boll.), lviii, p. 747 (not 1,300 as Finlay, i, p. 264, which comes

from adding a cipher to the figures in Surius).

[775] Called Taprobane by the Greek and Roman writers. It was

distinguished by the possession of an immense lustrous jewel (ruby

perhaps) which scintillated from the top of a temple; Cosmas, _op.

cit._, xi.

[776] The junks from Annam, as it appears, ploughed round the Malay

peninsula to Galle; Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, 1885, p. 178.

The Cingalese took no active part in the trade!; Tennant, Ceylon, i, p.

568 (_ibid._).

[777] Cosmas, _op. cit._, xi. His own trade seems to have lain chiefly

between Adule and Malabar. In this age all the southern regions

eastward of the Nile were commonly referred to as India; and that river

was often named as the boundary between Africa and Asia. Hence the Nile

was said to rise in India; Procopius, De Aedific., vi, 1, etc.

[778] Now Somaliland.

[779] Cosmas, _op. cit._, xi; cf. Strabo, XVI, iv, 14. When Nonnosus

went to Axume, _c._ 330, he saw 5,000 elephants grazing in a vast

plain; Excerpt., p. 480.

[780] Cosmas, _op. cit._, ii. This kind of wordless barter was also the

mode of trading with the Serae or Chinese on the higher reaches of the

Brahmaputra (?); Pliny, Hist. Nat., vi, 24; Ammianus, xxiii, 6; cf.

Herodotus, iv, 196.

[781] Pliny, _op. cit._, xii, 30. This district was also called the

land of Frankincense; cf. Strabo, XVI, iv, 25; Pseud-Arrian, _op.

cit._, 29. There was also a port called Arabia Felix on or near the

site of modern Aden.

[782] Cosmas, _op. cit._, xi. White slaves, especially beautiful

females for concubinage, were among the most important exports to

India; Pseud-Arrian, _op. cit._, 49. One Eudoxus tried to reach

that country by rounding West Africa with a cargo of choir girls,

physicians, and artisans, but twice failed; Strabo, II, iii, 4. In the

time of Pliny the Empire was drained by the East yearly to the amount

of £800,000 in specie; Hist. Nat., xii, 41. Statues and paintings were

also exported from the Empire; Strabo, XVI, iv, 26; Pseud-Arrian, _op.

cit._, 48; Philostratus, Vit. Apol., v, 20. The import of precious

stones, etc., may be conceived from the statement that Lollia Paulina

appeared in the theatre wearing emeralds and pearls to the value of

£304,000; Pliny, _op. cit._, ix, 58.

[783] Cosmas, _op. cit._, ii.

[784] Malchus, p. 234; Theophanes, an. 5990. The island was taken

by the Scenite (tent-dwelling) Arabs under Theodosius II, but was

recovered by Anastasius.

[785] _Ibid._

[786] Antoninus Martyr, Perambulatio, etc., 38, 41 (trans. in Pal.

Pilgr. Text Soc., ii). The martyr, however, is a liar, as he professes

to have produced wine from water at Cana, unless some brother monk in

copying has been anxious to enhance his reputation. Clysma is now Suez.

[787] Rhinocolura, near Gaza, was the depôt for this trade in the time

of Strabo (XVI, iv, 24).

[788] Strabo, XVII, i, 45; Pliny, Hist. Nat., vi, 26; Pseud-Arrian,

_op. cit., passim_. Cosmas does not mention Berenice, but it was

flourishing in the time of Procopius (De Aedific., vi, 2).

[789] Strabo, XVII, i, 45; Pliny, _op. cit._, vi, 26.

[790] Strabo, XVI, iv, 24; XVII, iv, 10, _et seq._ There was a canal

from the Red Sea to the Nile, but it silted up too rapidly to be

permanently used. In Roman times Trajan last reopened it; see Lethaby

and S., _op. cit._, p. 236, for monographs on this subject.

[791] Notitia Or., X, XII; Cod. Theod., X, xx, xxi, xxii, and

Godefroy’s commentaries; Cod., XI, viii, ix, x.

[792] Strabo, XVI, iv, 24; Pliny, _op. cit._, v, 16. There were

different shades of purple and only the imperial shade was prohibited;

Pliny, _op. cit._, xxi, 22. The murex was gathered in several other

places, especially Laconia, where it was inferior only to that of Tyre;

Pausanias, iii, 21, etc.

[793] Sozomen, v, 15. Much money was also coined at Cyzicus.

[794] Cod. Theod., X, xx, 8.

[795] Cod., IV, lxxxiii, 6. This doubtless applied only to great

houses, not to petty retail dealers and shopkeepers (to the

ἔμπορος not the κάπηλος); the number seems too large to understand it

of the capital alone.

[796] Pliny, _op. cit._, viii, 73; Athenaeus, i, 50; xv, 17, etc.

[797] Strabo, XII, viii, 16; Pliny, _op. cit._, 73, etc.

[798] Athenaeus, ii, 30; vi, 67.

[799] Pliny, _op. cit._, xi, 27, etc. It is a question whether the

transparent Coan fabrics were of silk, linen, or cotton, or a mixture.

[800] Procopius, Anecdot., 25.

[801] _Ibid._

[802] Athenaeus, i, 50.

[803] Pliny, _op. cit._, xxxv, 46.

[804] Strabo, XVI, ii, 25; Pliny, _op. cit._, xxxvi, 65. False stones

were plentifully manufactured; _ibid._, xxxvii, 78, etc.

[805] Strabo, XIII, iv, 17.

[806] Athenaeus, i, 50; xiii, 24.

[807] Pliny, _op. cit._, xiii, 21.

[808] Strabo, XVII, i, 15; Pliny, _op. cit._, xiii, 22; Hist. August.

Firmus, etc.

[809] Pausanias, v, 5; vii, 21.

[810] Strabo, XIII, iv, 14.

[811] Cod. Theod., XV, xi; Cod., XI, xliv. Indigenously called Mabog.

It was a mart of venal beauty as well as of beasts; Lucian, De Syria

Dea.

[812] Ammianus, xxix, 4; Procopius, Anecdot. 21.

[813] Pliny, _op. cit._, iv, 27; xxxvii, 11.

[814] Pliny, _op. cit._, xiv, _passim_; Athenaeus, i, 52, 55; x,

_passim_.

[815] Strabo, XVII, iii, 23; Pliny, xxiv, 48; measuring more than 100

by 30 miles. What silphium really was is now indeterminate, but it

was economically akin to garlic and asafoetida. It seems to have been

indispensable in ordinary cooking.

[816] Totius Orb. Descript. (Müller, Geog. Graec. Min., Paris, 1861)

36; Procopius, De Aedific., v, 1.

[817] Tot. Orb. Descr., 51, 53. This tract from a Greek original (_c._

350) summarizes the productions of the whole Empire, and for the most

part confirms the continuance of the industries adverted to by the

earlier and more copious writers.

[818] Athenaeus, i, 49.

[819] _Ibid._

[820] Strabo, VII, vi, 2; Pliny, ix, 17, _et seq._

[821] Cosmas, _op. cit._, ii.

[822] Several “embassies” from Rome are mentioned in the Chinese

annals, but nothing seems to have been known of them in the West. Stray

merchants sometimes penetrated very far; Strabo, XV, i, 4. At first

Rome is disguised as _Ta-thsin_, but later (643) the Byzantine power

figures as _Fou-lin_; see Pauthier, Relat. polit. de la Chine avec les

puiss. occid., 1859; cf. Hirth, _op. cit._, who was without books to

pursue the inquiry; Florus, iv, 12, etc.

[823] Aristotle, Hist. Animal., v, 19; Pliny, _op. cit._, xi, 26;

Pausanias, vi, 26.

[824] Cosmas, _op. cit._, ii.

[825] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 30.

[826] A serf was called _colonus_, _inquilinus_, or _adscriptus

glebae_, terms fairly synonymous; Cod., XI, xlvii, 13. Godefroy’s

paratitlon to Cod. Theod., V, ix, x, is an epitome of everything

relating to the serfs of antiquity; cf. Savigny, Römische Colonat

u.s.w. Berlin Acad., 1822-3. The name of modern works on slavery and

serfdom is legion.

[827] Cod., XI, xlvii, 21.

[828] _Ibid._, 18, 23.

[829] Cod. Theod., X, xv, and Godefroy _ad loc._; Pand., XLVII, vi;

Novel., xvii, 17; lxxxv, 4, etc. This general disarmament of the

industrial classes often left them defenceless against the barbarian

raiders, as is instanced practically by Synesius, Epist. 107. Yet in an

age of non-explosives peasants armed only with agricultural implements

could become terrible, as was shown in Paphlagonia (359), when the

incensed Novatian sectaries routed the legionaries sent against them

with their hatchets, reaping-hooks, etc.; Socrates, ii, 30; Sozomen,

iv, 21.

[830] Cod. Theod., X, xx, 16.

[831] _Ibid._, X, xx, xxi, xxii; Cod., XI, viii, ix, x. To be a public

baker (_manceps_) was a particular sort of punishment; Cod. Theod.,

XIV, lii, 22, etc.

[832] _Ibid._, X, xx, 3, 5, 10, 15. Male and female alike, as well as

their offspring, became bound to the sodality into which they married.

The _addicti_ were branded on the arm like recruits; _ibid._, X, xxi,

4; cf. IX, xl, 2; Cod., XI, ix, 2. Scarcely less stringent were the

rules by which even the private guilds or colleges were governed. All

the trades were incorporated in such associations under an official

charter; Cod. Theod., XIV, ii-viii. But the note of personal liberty

had already been sounded, and the more coercive restrictions were

omitted from the later Code; cf. Choisy, L’art de batir chez les

Byzantins, Paris, 1883, p. 200, etc. (Mommsen’s pioneer work on guilds

is well known).

[833] Cod. Theod., XIII, v, vi, ix; Cod., X, ii, etc. (and Godefroy).

[834] Procopius, De Aedfiic., v, 1.

[835] Although their property was held in lien by the state as security

for the maintenance of ships, it appears that they could grow rich

through the facilities they enjoyed for private commerce and possess an

independent fortune; Cod. Theod., XIII, vi; cf. Pand., L, iv, 5. Hence

some joined voluntarily.

[836] Cod. Theod., XII, i. This title, the longest of all (192 laws),

provides us with a plummet with which we may sound the depths of their

misery, and exemplifies their eagerness to escape to any other mode of

existence as well as the stringency with which they were reclaimed.

[837] Hence their property was always in chancery, as we may say,

and the Curia to which they belonged was their reversionary heir,

necessarily to a fourth; Cod., X, xxxiv. In the Code the laws relating

to them are reduced to about seventy; X, xxxi, _et seq._ Their duties

and liabilities are indexed in Godefroy’s paratitlon. Libanius had seen

people of substance reduced to beggary by these obligations; Epitaph.

Juliani (R., I., p. 571). Majorian (457-61) attempted reforms in the

West.

[838] See Libanius, Epist., 248, 339, 825, 1079, 1143, etc. The sophist

had much interest owing to the number of pupils he had trained to

succeed in advocacy, etc., and could often beg off one old disciple

by appealing to another. A Rector’s nod in such cases was more potent

than an Imperial rescript; Cod. Theod., XII, i, 17; _ibid._, 1,

notwithstanding. Zeno enacted that even some Illustrious officials

should not be exempt after vacating their office; Cod., X, xxxi, 64, 65.

[839] Fathers of a dozen children were released or not called upon;

Cod. Theod., XII, i, 55; Cod., X, xxxi, 24. Otherwise disease or

decrepit old age seem to have the only effective claims for relief,

apart from interest, bribery, etc. The general result of this political

economy was that the Empire resembled a great factory, in which each

one had a special place, and was excluded from everywhere else.

“In England a resident of Leeds is at home in Manchester, and has

judicially the same position as a citizen of Manchester, whereas in the

Roman Empire a citizen of Thessalonica was an alien in Dyrrachium; a

citizen of Corinth an alien in Patras”; Bury, Later Rom. Emp., i, p. 38.

[840] The Verrine sequence of Cicero’s speeches remains a picture up

to this date of the usual tyranny of a Roman governor. Few went to the

provinces with any other idea but that of rapine. “Cessent jam nunc

rapaces officialium manus,” says Constantine, “cessent inquam: nam

si moniti non cessaverint, gladiis praecidentur,” etc.; Cod. Theod.,

I, vii, 1. The revolution of two centuries brings no improvement:

“Confluunt huc (Constantinople) omnes ingemiscentes, sacerdotes, et

curiales, et officiales, et possessores, et populi, et agricolae,

judicum furta merito et injustitias accusantes,” etc.; Novel., viii,

Pro. For this law, ineffective as ever, all are enjoined to return

thanks to God! a vain parade of legislation.

[841] Cod. Theod., X, xxiv; XII, ix; Salvian, De Gubern. Dei, v, 4, _et

passim_. Titles x, xi, xii, xiii, xiv (of X) deal with the self-seekers

who, in the guise of delators or informers, infested the Court in

unsettled times and tried to oust people from their possessions by

accusing them of treason; cf. Ammianus, xix, 12, etc.

[842] Cod. Theod., XI, vi; Ammianus, xvii, 3; Salvian, _op. cit._, v,

7, etc.

[843] So Verres, ii, 38, etc.

[844] Cod. Theod., XII, vi, 27, etc.

[845] _Ibid._, XI, vi, viii; XV, i; and Godefroy’s commentaries. The

Defenders of the Cities seem to have been in general too cowed to

exercise their prerogative or were gained over.

[846] _Ibid._, VIII, xv. In this, as in other instances, I refer to the

laws against the offences which were committed in disregard of them.

Godefroy usually supplies exemplifications.

[847] _Ibid._, XI, xxx, 4; xxxiv.

[848] Cod. Theod., X, ix, 1, and Godefroy _ad loc._; cf. _ibid._, i,

2; Novel. xvii, 15; Agathias, v, 4. They even attempted to invalidate

Imperial grants. Notices on purple cloth were suspended to denote

confiscation of estates to the crown.

[849] Cassiodorus, Var. Epist., v, 34; ix, 14, etc.

[850] Palladius, Vit. Paphnutii; Hist. Lausiaca, 63 (not by Jerome, as

Godefroy _ad_ Cod. Theod., III, iii).

[851] Synesius, Epist., 79, 96, etc. These may have been isolated

devices of Andronicus at Ptolemais. One of his subordinates used to

seize objects of art _à la_ Verres. Yet these men were only reached by

the happy thought of excommunicating them. In this the great Athanasius

had set the example.

[852] Cod. Theod., IX, xxxv, and Godefroy. This was the regular method

of scourging, but illegal as a means of enforcing payment of taxes;

_ibid._, XI, vii, 7. The Egyptians were particularly obstinate, and

even proud to show the weals they had suffered sooner than pay;

Ammianus, xxii, 6, 16.

[853] Cod. Theod., XI, xxviii, 10, 14; cf. vii, 20.

[854] Evagrius, iii, 39. He pretended to have made a sad mistake, and

spread a report that he would promptly reimpose it were he not without

documentary evidence to enable the books to be reopened. Enticed by

this ruse the knavish collectors brought in the accounts they had kept

back and a second conflagration was made with them.

[855] Under Arcadius the traffic was barefaced by Eutropius, and

probably little less so in the succeeding reign by Chrysaphius:

Vestibulo pretiis distinguit regula gentes.

Tot Galatae, tot Pontus, eat, tot Lydia nummis.

Si Lyciam tenuisse velis, tot millia ponas, etc.

Claudian, In Eutropium, i, 202.

Afterwards it was more underhand; see Novel. viii.

[856] As Bury well observes; Gibbon, v, p. 533.

[857] Cod., I, xlviii.

[858] Novel. viii; xcv; clxi.

[859] Cod. Theod., III, iii; V, viii; XI, xxvii, and Godefroy’s

illustrations. Sold in this way, Roman citizens were not held in

perpetual bondage, but regained their liberty after serving for a term;

cf. Cassiodorus, Var. Ep., viii, 33. Constantine was shocked to find

that deaths from starvation were frequent in his dominions, and so

advertised a measure of outdoor relief, which Rectors were instructed

to exhibit conspicuously in all parts; cf. Lactantius, Divin. Inst.,

vi, 20. The same Constantine is the author of an extravagant law by

which lovers who elope together are subjected to capital (?) punishment

without any suffrance of accommodation, whilst even persons who may

have counselled them to the step are condemned to perish by having

molten lead poured down their throats. By such frantic whims could

legislation be travestied in those days; Cod. Theod., IX, xxiv.

[860] Cod. Theod., II, xiv; Cod., II, xvi; Augustine, Enarr. in Psalm.

XXI, etc.

[861] Cod., IX, xii, 10. See Priscus for a general outline of some of

the grievances dealt with in this article; Hist. Goth. Excerpt., p.

190; cf. Nov. xxxiii, etc.

[862] Cod. Theod., XI, xxiv; Cod., XI, liii; cf. liv. Libanius in the

East and Salvian in the West, at the distance of nearly a century,

complain in analogous terms of the manner in which the wealthy

residents turned the tribulations of their poorer neighbours to their

own profit; De Prostasiis (ii, p. 493 R.); De Gubern. Dei, v, 8, 9; cf.

Nov. xxxiii, etc.

[863] Cod. Theod., XIII, i, 16; XVI, ii, 10, etc. “Distincta enim

stipendia sunt religionis et calliditatis” is the caustic taunt

put into the mouth of Arcadius. The concessions were withdrawn by

Valentinian III (Novel. II, xii), ineffectively we may safely assume

from Nov. xliii; 1,100 duty-free shops at CP. belonging to St. Sophia

alone.

[864] Cod. Theod., XII, xiv.

[865] _Ibid._, IX, xxx, 2, 5; xxxi. A further hardship was the

quartering of soldiers on private persons, but this, of course,

was only local and temporary. The Goths and other barbarians were

especially harsh and grasping among those who had to receive them when

in transit through the country; see Jos. Stylites, _op. cit._, 86.

Generally the military were arrogant towards, and contemned the civil

population; Zosimus, ii, 34.

[866] There seems to be no good reason why children should not now be

taught from a primer of scientific cosmology, and have a catechism

of ethics as well to the exclusion of everything mythological. The

human brain is a weak organ of mind, and requires, above all things,

a tonic treatment. Nothing can be more enfeebling than any teaching

which causes children to imagine that they are surrounded by unseen

intelligences having the power to affect them for good or evil. In most

instances, a mind so subdued never recovers its resiliency; liberty

of thought is always hampered by dread of the invisible; and many of

our greatest men have been unable in after life to free themselves

from this fatuity. There should, however, be places of public assembly

where people could resort for ethical direction and encouragement,

without the lessons taught being vitiated or nullified by being made to

depend on mythology. But the objectionable name “agnostic” should be

discarded, as if to be properly educated were to belong to a peculiar

sect. It suggests a country in which a special designation has to be

given to all who are neither diseased nor deformed.

[867] Even Cicero affects to think it _infra dig._ for him to show any

correct knowledge of the most famous Greek sculptors; Verres, II, iv.

[868] Suetonius, De Ill. Gram., 2; De Clar. Rhet., 1; Aul. Gell., xv,

11. Crates Mallotes has the credit of being the first Greek Grammarian

who taught at Rome, _c. 157_ B.C. The Rhetoricians had migrated

earlier, and in 161 a SC. was launched against them, and again a few

years later.

[869] When the system was fully organized under Ant. Pius (138-161),

the largest communities were allowed ten Physicians, five Rhetoricians

(or Sophists), and three Grammarians; the smallest recognized under the

scheme, five Physicians, three Rhetoricians, and three Grammarians;

Pand., XXVII, i, 6; Hist. August. Ant. Pius, 11. Antonius Musa,

physician to Augustus, seems to have been the first learned man to

whom public honours were decreed at Rome, viz., a statue of brass on

the recovery of the Emperor, 23 B.C.; Suetonius, August., 59, 81. He

was even the cause of privileges being conferred on his profession

generally; Dion Cass., liii, 30. Vespasian was the first to give

regular salaries to Rhetoricians; he also gave handsome presents to

poets, artists, and architects, and granted relief from public burdens

to physicians and philosophers; Suetonius in Vita, 18; Pand., L, iv,

18(30). But the idea of remitting their taxes to learned men was old;

Diogenes Laert., Pyrrho, 5. That of selling philosophers for slaves

when they could not pay them, was also old; _ibid._, Xenocrates; Bion.

Hadrian, called _Graeculus_ from his pedantry, also did much for the

cause of learning; Hist. August. in Vita, 1, 17, and commentators. The

Athenaeum at Rome was his foundation, an educational college of which

no details are known; Aurel. Victor, in Vita. Alexander Sev. went

further than any of his predecessors in granting an allowance to poor

students; Hist. August. in Vita, 44.

[870] Cod. Theod., XV, i, 53, and Godefroy _ad loc._

[871] Zacharias, De Opific., Mund., 40, _et seq._ (in Migne, S. G.,

lxxxv, 1011); See Hasaeus, De Acad. Beryt., etc. Halae Magd., 1716. The

humblest school was adorned with figures of the Muses; Athenaeus, viii,

41; Diogenes Laert., Diog., 6. A lecture hall was generally called a

“Theatre of the Muses”; Himerius, Or., xxii; Themistius, Or., xxi.

[872] Diogenes Laert., Theophrastus, 14; Eumenius, De Schol. Instaur.;

Themistius, Or., xxvi, etc.

[873] Gregory Naz., Laud. Basil, 14, _et seq._ In Julian, ii; Zosimus,

v, 5. Synesius pictures the schools as deserted when he visited Athens

(_c. 410_); no philosophers, no painted porches, nothing in evidence

but the jars of honey from Hymettus. Hypatia, in fact, was attracting

every one to Alexandria. After her murder, however, it doubtless began

to recuperate (_c_. 415). Themistius inveighs against those parents

who sent their sons to a _place_ on account of its repute, instead of

looking out for the _best man_. He mentions that pupils came to him

at CP. from Greece and Ionia; Or., xxvii; xxiii. The students of this

age are described as extremely fractious. At Athens, a great commotion

greeted the arrival of a freshman, who was put through a rude ordeal

until they had passed him into the public bath, whence he issued again

as an accepted comrade; Gregory Naz., Laud. Basil., 16. There also they

fought duels, and Libanius reprobates their presenting themselves to

him slashed with knives; Epist., 627; Himerius, Or., xxii. Practical

jokes amongst themselves, or played on the professors, were often

pushed by the students to the verge of criminality; Pand. praef.,

2(9). At Carthage St. Augustine found his class for rhetoric so unruly

that he threw it up and migrated to Rome. There, indeed, they were

more orderly, but indulged in the galling practice of flocking in a

body to a certain teacher, whom they suddenly abandoned after a time,

forgetting to pay their fees. Sick of it all, he eagerly closed with an

offer of the P. U. to take up a salaried post at Milan; Confess., v, 8,

12, 13.

[874] Cod. Theod., XIV, ix, 3; Cod., XI, xviii.

[875] _Ibid._

[876] Cod. Theod., XIV, ix, 2. Constantius seems to have founded the

first great library (_c._ 351), and another was originated by Julian;

Themistius, Or., iv; see p. 88. Themistius says that he spent twenty

years in studying the “old treasures” of literature at CP.; Or., xxxiii

(p. 359, Dind.).

[877] Themistius, Or., xxiii; xxviii, etc. Chrysostom, Ad Pop. Ant.

Hom. xvii, 2 (in Migne, ii, 173).

[878] See p. 58; Themistius, Or., xxiv; cf. Cresollius, Theatr. Vet.

Rhet., Paris, 1620, a huge repertory of details relating to this class.

[879] Themistius, Or., xxviii, etc.

[880] Themistius, Or., xiii; Chrysostom, In Epist. ad Ephes. Hom. xxi,

3 (in Migne, xi, 153); Eunapius, Proaeresius. These popular lectures

were often merely colloquial entertainments, such as used to be

associated with the name of Corney Grain, without the music. See the

correspondence of Basil Mag. with Libanius, Epist., 351 (Migne), _et

seq._, L.’s most effective piece, a dialogue in which he mimicked the

fretfulness of a morose man.

[881] Cod. Theod., XIII, iii, 1, and Godefroy _ad loc._ At this time,

however, pagan professors were often much persecuted by Christian

fanatics, and Themistius complains that they were even officially

muzzled; Or., xxvi, and _ibid._ Professors were naturally the last to

become converts. As to the general esteem in which the class was held,

see the poetical commemoration of the Bordeaux professors by Ausonius.

Lucian deals satirically with philosophers in his Eunuch, De Merc.

Cond., Hermotimus, etc.

[882] Cod. Theod., XIII, iii, 7, and Godefroy _ad loc._; Cod., X, lii,

8; Themistius, Or., xxi, etc. Chrysostom, _loc. cit._ (note 4 _supra_).

[883] Cod. Theod., XIII, iii, 5. A law of Julian to facilitate his

ousting Christian professors, but retained for its literal application.

[884] Themistius fairly covers the ground as to this question; Or.,

xxi; xxiii. The inferior teachers were exacting, and even extortionate.

They accused him of requiring a talent (£240?), but he asked nothing at

CP. where he was subsidized; on the contrary, he assisted needy pupils.

Still, he received a great deal of money as presents. At Antioch, where

it was the custom, he took fees like the rest. For more ancient times

and generally, see Cresollius, _op. cit._, v, 3, 4, etc. What the

government paid is uncertain. Augustus gave V. Flaccus £800 a year for

acting exclusively as tutor to his nephews; Suetonius, De Ill. Gram.,

17. £1,040 has been conjectured as the salary of Eumenius (600,000

_nummi_, _op. cit._). In Diocletian’s Act for fixing prices, ordinary

schoolmasters are allowed only about 4_s._ a month, professors 12_s._;

for each pupil in a class, of course. The case of M. Aurelius bestowing

£400 per ann. on the professors at Athens is also to be noted; Dion

Cass., lxxxi, 31.

[885] Chrysostom, Genesis, i, Hom. iii, 3 (in Migne, iv, 29); In Epist.

ad Coloss. Hom. iv, 3 (in Migne, xi, 328); Paulus Aegin., i, 14; cf.

Quintilian, i, 1, etc. Youths from the provinces studying at Rome were

packed home again at twenty, but this order seems to have been dropped

later on; Cod. Theod., XIV, ix, 1 (not retained in Code).

[886] On first methods with children, see Quintilian, i; Jerome,

Epist., 107; Chrysostom, Ad Pop. Ant. Hom. xvi, 14 (in Migne, ii,

168); De Mut. Nom. ii, 1 (in Migne, iii, 125); Genesis, i, Hom. iii,

3; Epist. Coloss. i, Hom. iv, 3 (in Migne, xi, 329), etc. Libanius, In

Chriis (Reiske, ii, p. 868). The first book of Augustine’s Confessions

gives many particulars as to his own bringing up in childhood. Greek

nursemaids were hired at Rome so that young children might learn the

language; Tacitus, De Caus. Cor. Eloq., 29. Wooden or ivory letters

were used as playthings. These schoolmasters are represented as very

harsh instructors, who cowed the spirit of their pupils. The rod was

freely used, and chiefly by the paedagogue. Even scholars of maturer

age were corrected by whipping. Libanius used to “wake up the lazy ones

with a strap, the incorrigible he expelled.” Epist., 1119. Chrysostom

himself accepts as axiomatic that nothing can be done with boys without

beating; Act. Apost. Hom. xlii, 4 (in Migne, ix, 308). Quintilian and

Paul of Aegina, however, advise going on the opposite tack; _loc. cit._

[887] Pand., L, v, 2, etc.

[888] Martianus Capella, an African who lived in the fifth century, is

the author of the only self-contained manual of liberal education which

has come down to us. His treatise seems to contain all the book-work a

student was expected to do while under oral teaching by the professors.

Cassiodorus has left a slight tract, but he recommends other volumes to

supplement his own merely tentative work. Isidore of Seville, a century

later, has also included an epitome of the seven liberal arts in the

first three books of his Etymologies, but his exposition is almost as

thin as that of Cassiodorus. The remaining seventeen books are a sort

of encyclopaedic dictionary with explanatory jottings on almost every

subject, well worth dipping into.

[889] Introduced, perhaps, by Boethius; De Arith., i, 1.

Τετρακτὺς is found in Greek; Anna Comn.; i, pref.; see Ducange,

_sb. voc._ The latter word is really the original and goes back to

Pythagorean times.

[890] See Priscian, Partitiones, xii, Vers. Aen., etc.

[891] After Rome had produced good writers, such as Virgil, Horace,

Livy, etc., they were added to the course of literature in the West;

Quintilian, i, 8; x.

[892] There is some obscurity about his date, which suggests that he

was a centenarian. Ordericus Vit. says he died in 425; cf. Cassiodorus,

De Orthograph., 12, etc.

[893] “One father,” says Chrysostom, “points out to his son how some

one of low birth by learning eloquence obtained promotion to high

office, won a rich wife, and became possessed of wealth with a fine

house, etc., or how another through a mastery of Latin achieved a great

position at Court”; Adv. Oppug. Vit. Mon., iii, 5 (in Migne, i, 357).

[894] The details of teaching are presented most circumstantially in

the rhetorical catechism of Fortunatianus (_c. 450_).

[895] Cresollius has brought together an immense amount of information

on this branch of the art in his Vacationes Autumnales, Paris, 1620;

cf. Kayser in his introduction to the lives of Philostratus (Teubner).

Blandness of voice was sedulously pursued by professional sophists, and

_plasmata_, or emollient medicaments were much resorted to. There was

a _phonascus_, or voice-trainer, who paid special attention to such

matters.

[896] Libanius has outlined very clearly the course of instruction

through which he put his class; Epist., 407.

[897] Nothing could be more meagre than the allusions to this subject;

even the treatise on geometry by Boethius, which seems to have been

the only one current, contains little more than enunciations of

propositions.

[898] I have already referred to the geography of this period, see p.

182.

[899]

Altera pars orbis sub aquis jacet invia nobis,

Ignotaeque hominum gentes, nec transita regna,

Commune ex uno lumen ducentia sole, etc.

Manilius (Weber), i, 375.

The Christian fathers ridicule the antipodes severely. “More rational

to say that black was white”; Lactantius, Div. Inst., iii, 24; Epitome,

39. “The earth stands firm on water [going back to Thales] and does

not turn”; Chrysostom, Genesis, Hom. xii, 3, 4 (in Migne, iv, 101); In

Titum Hom. iii, 3 (in Migne, xi, 680); cf. Cosmas Ind., _op. cit._, x,

for other theological authorities on cosmology.

[900] Such as that five represents the world, being made up of three

and two, which typify male and female respectively; or that seven

equates Minerva, the virgin, neither contained or containing; and

other Pythagorean notions; see M. Capella, vii, and the arithmetic of

Boethius.

[901] Such is the well-known system elaborated by Hipparchus and

Ptolemy, but the Pythagoreans put the sun at the centre, though without

definite reasons and with imaginative details; see Diogenes Laert.

and Delambre’s Hist. Astron. Ant. Although Democritus, Epicurus, and

others held that there were an infinite number of worlds (κόσμοι), they

regarded the objective universe as only one of them, and had no idea

that myriads of systems similar to that in which they lived lay before

their eyes.

[902] Thus M. Capella states that Mercury and Venus revolve round

the sun; and Isidore of Seville says the crystalline sphere runs so

fast that did not the stars retard it by running the opposite way the

universe would fall to pieces; Etymolog., iii, 35.

[903] See Themistius, Or., xxvi (p. 327 Dind.); cf. Boethius (?), De

Discipl. Scholar., iii.

[904] Graduated from about A below treble stave to E in fourth space (A

to E″ = La_{2} to Mi_{4}), but there seems to have been great variety

in pitch.

[905] Cassiodorus often alludes to the organ of his time, especially in

Exposit. Psal. CL, where he describes many instruments. See Daremberg

and Saglio, _sb. voc._

[906] See M. Capella, ix; Boethius on Music, etc., and Hadow’s Oxford

History of Music, 1901.

[907] See Plato, Protagoras, 43, etc. Even in the time of Homer the

Greek warriors were practical musicians, but the Romans were not

so originally. I can make no definite statement as to how far the

Byzantine upper classes were performers on instruments at this date,

but see Jerome, Ep., 107. Further remarks on Greek education, with

references to an earlier stratum of authors, will be found in Hatch,

Hibbert Lectures, 1888, ii, _et seq._ There is a great compilation by

Conringius (De Antiq. Academ., Helmstadt, 1651), which I have found

extremely useful. From the observations of Chrysostom (see p. 118), it

appears that little advantage was taken of educational facilities in

his day, but it may be assumed that the foundation of the Auditorium

caused mental culture to be fashionable, at least for a time.

[908] Themistius, Or., xxvi, _loc. cit._ Theodosius II was the first

Christian emperor who systematically fostered philosophy by creating

a faculty at CP. and extending clearly to philosophers the immunities

granted to other professors; Cod. Theod., XIII, iii, 16; XIV, ix,

3; Cod., X, lii, 14, etc. We are continually reminded that Socrates

brought down the sophists of his time from star-gazing and speculation

as to the origin of things to the ethics of common life. Thence arose

a succession of dialogues in which Utopian republics were discussed,

where wives should be in common so that everybody might be the

supposititious brother, etc., of every one else. A more harmonious

community could not be engendered by such a device; cf. Herodotus, iv,

104.

[909] See the elogium of Berytus in Nonnus, Dionysiacs, xli. From

389, etc., Hasacus (_op. cit._) thinks that the school was founded by

Augustus after the battle of Actium, but it is first distinctly noted

as flourishing _c. 231_; Gregory Thaum., Panegyric. in Origen, 1, 5 (in

Migne, S. G., 1051).

[910] Pand. praef., 2 [7]; Totius Orb. Descript.; Gotlefroy _ad_ Cod.

Theod., XI, i, 19, etc.

[911] Nowhere definitely expressed, but inferred from Pand. praef., 2

(superscription), with confirmative evidence; see Hasaeus, _op. cit._,

viii, 2, _et seq._

[912] The freshmen rejoiced in the “frivolous and ridiculous cognomen”

of _Dupondii_ (equivalent to “Tuppennies,” apparently); in the second

year they became _Edictionaries_ (students of Hadrian’s Perpetual

Edict); thirdly, _Papinianistae_ (engaged on the works of Papinian);

fourthly, Αύται (when reading Paulus); fifthly, the last year,

_Prolytae_ (mainly given up to reviewing previous studies); Pand.

praef., 2. The last two terms are not explained; the idea is evidently

that of being _loosed_ or dismissed from the courses. Cf. Macarius

Aegypt. Hom. xv, 42 (in Migne, S. G., xxxiv, 604), who presents a

different scheme, perhaps, from the Alexandrian law-school.

[913] The first attempt at consolidating the laws was the Perpetual

Edict of Hadrian, _c. 120_.

[914] Pand., _loc. cit._ And many more were probably dragged up in

court from time to time, which it would be the bent of despotism to

taboo. Cod. Theod., I, iv, gives the rule as to deciding knotty points

by the collation of legal experts.

[915] It was specially decreed by Diocletian that students might remain

at B. to the age of twenty-five; Cod., X, xlix, 1. This law could

doubtless be pleaded even against a call to their native Curia. We

need not suppose that the periods allotted to the various branches of

education were always rigidly adhered to in spite of circumstances.

Thus Libanius complains that his pupils used to run off to the study

of law before he had put them through the proper routine of rhetorical

training, the moment they had mastered a little Latin in fact; iii, p.

441-2 (Reiske).

[916] Sufficiat medico ad commendandam artis auctoritatem, si

Alexandriae se dixerit eruditum; Ammianus, xxii, 16. This celebrity was

won _c. 300_ B.C. through the distinction acquired by Erasistratus and

Herophilus. See Conringius, _op. cit._, i, 26.

[917] Cod., I, ii, 19, 22; this and the next title for charities

_passim_.

[918] Even Plato held this notion (Timaeus, 72), but it was flouted at

once by Chrysippus; Plutarch, De Stoic. Repug., 29.

[919] Galen gives very correct descriptions of the action of the

larynx; Oribasius, xxiv, 9; and tells us how he satisfied himself by

various vivisections that the blood actually flowed in the arteries; An

Sanguis in Arter. Nat. Cont.; De Placit., i, 5; vi, 7, 8, etc.

[920] Themistius, Or., i.

[921] What appears to be an epitome of current knowledge of natural

history and botany is given by Cicero in De Nat. Deor., ii, 47, etc.

[922] See especially Dioscorides, ii. Tinctures and ointments made from

toads, scorpions, bugs, woodlice, centipedes, cockroaches, testes of

stag and horse, etc., were staple preparations. The realistic coloured

illustrations in the great edition published by Lonicerus in 1563 with

a colossal commentary, are worth looking at. The pills of seminal fluid

(_à la_ Brown-Séquard) decried in the _Pistis Sophia_ appear to have

been merely a mystic remedy.

[923] The profession did not yet stand apart from the lay community

as pronouncedly as at present. Thus Celsus, author of a noted medical

treatise, was an amateur, a Roman patrician in fact; and the precious

MS. of Dioscorides, with coloured miniatures, preserved at Vienna, was

executed (_c. 500_) for a Byzantine princess, Julia Anicia, daughter of

Olybrius, one of the fleeting emperors of the West.

[924] Less than a century previously Plutarch had declared the common

opinion that Fortune, having divested herself of her pinions and winged

shoes, had settled down as a permanent inhabitant of the Palatine Hill;

De Fortuna Rom.

[925] Art in the time of Augustus and Tiberius has to be judged mainly

by the wall-paintings recovered at Rome and Pompeii, many of which are

highly meritorious. For succeeding centuries a series of sculptures

remain which allow us to keep the retreat of art in constant view.

The chief landmarks are: 1. The arch of Titus and the column of

Trajan; 2. The Antonine column and the arch of Severus; 3. The arch

of Constantine, remarkable for its crudity and for some spaces being

filled by figures ravished from that of Titus; 4. The Theodosian

column at CP.; though much defaced, the incapacity of the executant is

still recognizable. The reproduction of the Arcadian pillar published

by Banduri (see p. 49) cannot be regarded as a faithful copy, it

being evident that the artist has elevated the bas-reliefs to his own

standard. In Agincourt, _op. cit._, and Mau’s Pompeii these subjects

are pictorially represented, as well as in many other works.

[926] Cod. Theod., XIII, iv, 1. Architectis plurimis opus est, sed quia

non sunt, etc. (334). His buildings were so hastily run up that they

soon went to ruin; Zosimus, ii, 32. Hence, perhaps, C.’s opinion that

there were no proper architects.

[927] Cod. Theod., XIII, iv, 1, 4. Few, however, of these regulations,

if any, were new; they were mostly in force before the reign of

Commodus; Pand., L, vi, 9.

[928] In the eleventh century, after a flush of splendour in the

already greatly contracted Empire, owing to the conquests of the

Saracens, this particular form of degeneracy began to be manifested.

“Les personnages sont trop longs, leur bras trop maigres, leur gestes

et leur mouvements plein d’affectation; une rigidité cadavérique est

repandue sur l’ensemble”; Kondakoff, Hist. de l’art byz., Paris, 1886,

ii, p. 138.

[929] This was not altogether new to the Greeks; for in the

juxtaposition of Athenian and Assyrian bas-reliefs at the British

Museum it can be seen that even the school of Phidias adhered to some

types which had originated in the East, drawing of horses, etc.

[930] See Lethaby and Swainson for arguments on this head. Certain

churches in the domical style at Antioch, Salonica, etc., are

maintained by some authorities to be anterior to the sixth century;

_op. cit._, x. For illustrations see Vogüé, Archit. de la Syrie cent.,

Paris, 1865-77.

[931] Thus even maidens in a state of nudity engaged publicly in the

athletic games at Sparta and Chios; Plutarch, Lycurgus; Athenaeus,

xiii, 20. The parade of virgins before Zeuxis at Agrigentum in order

that he might select models for his great picture of the birth of

Venus, as related by Pliny, has often been quoted; Hist. Nat., xxxv,

36. Yet even among the Greeks a squeamish modesty existed in some

quarters, as is evidenced by the famous statue of Venus by Praxiteles

having been rejected by the Coans in favour of a draped one, previous

to its being set up at Cnidus; _ibid._, xxxvi, 4; cf. Lucian, Amores.

[932] Thus Shakespeare:

See what a grace was seated on this brow:

Hyperion’s curls; the front of Jove himself;

An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;

A station like the herald Mercury,

New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill.

Hamlet, III, 4.

[933] See p. 109.

[934] They vary in merit considerably; see some reproductions of the

better ones in Bayet, L’art byz., Paris, 1892, ii, 3, and other similar

works, especially Gori, _op. cit._ Specimens at South Kensington.

[935] Choricius of Gaza (_c._ 520) has left us an elaborate description

of such a church interior and also of the frescoes in a palace. The

whole has been republished by Bertrand in his work, Un art crit. dans

l’antiq., Paris, 1882. Modern Greek churches are precisely similar,

and those belonging to the monasteries of Mt. Athos are especially

noteworthy; see Bayet, _op. cit._, iv, 2. Two can be inspected in

London. That in Bayswater is a “Kutchuk Aya Sofia.” Walsh’s CP., Lond.,

1838, has a good engraving; ii, p. 31. See also the striking mosaics

of St. George’s, Salonica (Texier and P., _op. cit._), the Pompeiesque

style of which suggest an early date in church building—vistas of

superimposed arcades raised on a forest of fantastically graceful, but

impossible columns, architecture run wild in fact.

[936] “Du moment qu’il avait exécuté une composition dans la manière

antique et qu’il y avait mis toute la splendeur de sa palette, il

ne se demandait pas si le dessin de ses personnages était correct

ou non, s’ils se trainaient bien sur leur jambes, s’ils étaient

réellement assis sur une chaise ou un fauteuil, ou simplement appuyés

contre ces meubles”; Kondakoff, _op. cit._, i, 108. Of existing MSS.

with coloured miniatures, only some six or eight date back to these

early centuries. Labarte’s Hist. des arts indust., Paris, 1892, with

coloured facsimiles is the most satisfying work in which to study

mediaeval art objectively. At South Kensington a variety of specimens

are to be found, including ivories, enamels, paper casts of mosaics,

reproductions of frescoes, etc., many of which go as far back as the

sixth century.

[937] Oribasius, physician to Julian, seems to be the genuine father of

bookmaking, the real prototype of the “scissors and paste” author, but

he foreran the swarming of the brood by a couple of centuries.

[938] Gregory Nys., De Vit. S. Macrinae (in Migne, iii, 960). Whence it

appears that it was unusual for them to be taught to apply themselves

to the distaff or the needle. Maidenhood was mostly passed in luxury

and adornment; Chrysostom, Qual. Duc. Sint Uxores, 9 (in Migne, iii,

239); in Epist. ad Ephes., iv, Hom. xiii, 3 (in Migne, xi, 97); cf.

Jerome, Epist., 128, 130. The latter sets forth his ideas as to the

training of a girl at some length. As soon as she has imbibed the

first rudiments she is to begin psalm-singing and reading of prophets,

apostles, etc. Later she should proceed to the study of the fathers,

especially Cyprian, Athanasius, and Hilarius. She should spend much

time in church with her parents, and must be guarded circumspectly from

the attentions of the curled youth (_cincinatti_, _calamistrati_). She

rises betimes to sing hymns, and employs herself generally in weaving

plain textures. Silks and jewellery are to be rigorously eschewed;

and the saint cannot reconcile himself to the idea of an adult virgin

making use of the bath, as she should blush to see herself naked;

Epist., 107. His remarks, of course, apply directly to life at Rome.

[939] From Jerome’s letter just quoted it appears that it was usual for

girls to play on the lyre, pipe, and organ.

[940] See her life by Gregorovius, 1892. Her cento of Homeric verses

applied to Christ is extant. To her inspiration most probably is due

the foundation of the Auditorium at CP., and the prominence given

to philosophy. Pulcheria was occupied in building churches and in

disinterring the relics of martyrs.

[941] She is best known from the epistles of Synesius. Nothing of

hers is extant. Murdered 415, wife or maid uncertain; see Suidas,

_sb. nom._ She was scraped to pieces with shells, a mode of official

torture peculiar to the Thebais, which may have been inflicted often on

Christian ladies during Pagan persecutions. In other districts an iron

scraper was used; Eusebius, Hist. Eccles., viii, 9; 3, etc.

[942] I need not refer more particularly to the phenomena of

radio-activity and cathode rays, information concerning which has been

exploited by every popular periodical. The atoms (electrons) which

become visible in the low-pressure tube have been calculated to be of

but 1∕800 the magnitude of the hydrogen atom, and many physicists are

inclined to regard them as the first state of matter on its way to

resolution into the formless protyle or ether.

[943] A great part of modern books on chemistry is now devoted to

synthesis. Not only have such well-known organic substances as indigo,

vanilla, citric acid, etc., been prepared artificially, but also those

new articles of commerce, the aniline dyes, saccharine, etc. Numbers of

new drugs for therapeutic experiment are synthetized annually in the

great German laboratories of Bayer, Merck, etc.

[944] Especially suggestive are the ingenious experiments with

ferments, which tend to show that the anabolic and katabolic activities

of living matter may soon be imitated in the laboratory; see Buchner,

Bericht d. deutsch. chem. Gesel., xxx, xxxi, xxxii; also recent

physiological treatises in which are contained the speculations of

Pflüger and others as to the “biogens” of protoplasm, etc. Most

important of all is Loeb’s discovery of the possibility of chemical

fertilization; see Boveri, Das Problem der Befruchtung, Jena, 1902.

[945] Archytas, with his flying wooden dove, was the most noted

mechanician in this line; A. Gellius, x, 12, etc.

[946] Even windmills were unknown until they were introduced into

Europe by the Saracens in the twelfth century.

[947] It appears that of late years a dearth of candidates for orders

in every religious denomination of Christendom has been experienced,

but this may be due merely to the usual poverty of the career. The

Church should fall to principle not to poverty. And here we may

catch a glimpse of the process by which the various Protestant sects

may ultimately die out naturally: that young men of high character,

ambitious of honourable distinction, will avoid a profession which

entails an attitude of disingenuous reserve towards those whom they

are deputed to instruct. On the other hand it may be foreseen that the

Romish and Orthodox churches, upholding as they do a gross superstition

and instituting the members of their priesthood almost from childhood,

will retain their power over the masses for a much longer period,

until at last they have to face suppression by force. Those who at the

present time are engaged in impressing a belief in obsolete mythologies

on the community should realize that they are doing an evil service to

their generation instead of exerting themselves for the liberation and

elevation of thought. However brilliant their temporary position, they

deserve, much more than the oblivious patriot, to go down

To the vile dust from whence they sprung,

Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.

[948] Grotius has made a large collection of those passages in

classical and other ancient writers, which seem to support the

creation-myth of Genesis; De Veritate Relig. Christ., i, 16. For the

Chaldaean or Babylonian variations, and some earlier associations of

Adam, see King’s Seven Tablets of Creation, Lond., 1903. It appears

that the protoplast in the original account was created by Marduk, the

tutelary deity of Babylonia, out of his own blood, a circumstance which

the “priestly” redactor of Genesis has suppressed, together with many

other interesting details; cf. Radau, Creation Story of Genesis i,

Chicago, 1903. Margoliouth’s attempt to show that Abraham’s Jehovah was

the male moon-god of Ur is interesting; Contemporary Review, 1896.

[949] In this country the subject of comparative mythology and the

origin of theistic notions has been exhaustively treated by Herbert

Spencer, Andrew Lang, J. G. Frazer, and others. Nevertheless, it

cannot be determined whether the fear of ghosts or the innate bent of

the human mind to speculate as to casuality is the germ of religious

systems. Their development has, no doubt, always been much indebted to

the ascendancy to be gained as the reward of successful imposture in

such matters.

[950] Avowed atheists were rare among the Greeks, as there was always

some personal risk in ventilating opinions which clashed with the

popular superstitions. Some, however, incurred the odium of holding

such views. Of these the most noteworthy was Diagoras, who is said to

have impiously chopped up his image of Hercules to boil his turnips;

Athenagoras, Apol., 4. The jaunty impiety of Dionysius, tyrant of

Syracuse (_c. 400_ B.C.), was celebrated in antiquity. After pillaging

the temple of the Locrian Proserpine, he sailed back home and, finding

the wind favourable, remarked to his companions, “See what a fine

passage the gods are granting to us sacrilegious reprobates.” He seized

the golden cloak from the shoulders of Jupiter Olympus, observing that

it was “too heavy for summer and too cold for winter, whereas a woollen

one would suit him well for all seasons.” Noticing a gold beard on

Æsculapius at Epidaurus, he removed it, saying, that it was “improper

for him to wear it, since his father, Apollo, was always represented

beardless.” Whenever in the temples he met with statues proffering,

as it were, jewels and plate with their projecting hands, he took

possession of the valuables, asserting that it “would be folly not to

accept the good things offered by the gods.” The pious were aghast at

the example of such a man enjoying a long and prosperous reign and

transmitting the throne to his son; Cicero, De Nat. Deor., iii, 34;

Lactantius, Div. Instit., ii, 4, etc. With a view to such instances,

Plutarch wrote a treatise to prove that “the mills of God grind slow,

but very sure.” Euhemerus and Palaephatus transformed mythology into

history by a rationalizing process, assigning the origin to popular

exaggeration of common occurrences.

[951] A system of verbal trickery originated with the Eleatics, of

which Zeno (_c. 400_ B.C.) was the chief exponent. Their catches were

generally ingenious; that disproving the reality of motion is best

known—“If a thing moves, it must do so in the place in which it is, or

in a place in which it is not; but it cannot move in the place in which

it is, and it certainly does not move in a place in which it is not;

therefore there is no motion at all;” Diogenes Laert., Pyrrho, 99, etc.

See Plato’s Euthydemus for a sample of ridiculous word-chopping.

[952] There were six principal sects which achieved a sort of

permanency and retained their vitality for several centuries. They may

be characterized briefly: Academics (Plato), sceptical and respectable;

Peripathetics (Aristotle), inquisitive and progressive; Stoics (Zeno

of Citium, Chrysippus), ethical and intense; Cynics (Antisthenes,

Diogenes), squalid, morose, and sententious; Epicureans, tranquil

enjoyment and indifference; Cyreneans (Aristippus), pure hedonism with

discretion. In general the Epicureans are wrongly associated with the

last conception.

[953] Aristotle (_c. 350_ B.C.) was the first to perceive the

importance of collecting facts and disposing them into their proper

groups. Thus zoology, botany, anatomy, physiology, mineralogy,

astronomy, meteorology, etc., began to take form in his hands, each

being relegated to a separate compartment for consideration as a

concordant whole and to receive future additions.

[954] Even with his limited outlook Aristotle had sufficient astuteness

to divine that nature might become the “slave of man,” and expresses

himself clearly to that effect; Metaphysics, i, 2. Such a claim may

provoke a smile from the modern who reviews the mild conquests of the

embryo science of his day.

[955] A few of their utterances may be quoted:

Ἐχθρὸς γάρ μοι κεῖνος ὁμως Αἰδᾶο πύλησιν,

Ὅς χ’ ἕτερον μὲν κεύθῃ ἐνὶ φρεσὶν ἄλλο δὲ εἴπῃ.

_Iliad_, ix, 312.

Ἔργον δ’ οὐδὲν ὄνειδος, ἀεργίη δέ τ’ ὄνειδος.

_Op. et Dies_, 311.

Μὴ κακὰ κερδαίνειν, κακὰ κέρδεα ἷσ’ ἄτῃσιν.

_Ibid._, 352.

[956] From the Golden Verses of Pythagoras; Epictetus, iii, 10.

[957] Hence Socrates would not save his life by flight from Athens

after his condemnation, although his friends had made everything secure

for his escape; see the Crito.

[958] Plato, Gorgias, 55, etc.; Protagoras, 101, etc.

[959] Isocrates, Ad Nicoclem, 61. This maxim, in slightly differing

forms, has been attributed to Confucius and many others. Pythagoras

enjoined his disciples to love a friend as oneself; see Bigg, Christian

Platonists, London, 1886, p. 242. “Love your fellow men from your

heart,” says Marcus Aurelius, viii, 34.

[960] Cicero, De Officiis, iii, 8. In this treatise the author is for

the most part merely voicing the sentiments of the Stoic Panaetius.

[961] Epictetus, ii, 2.

[962] _Ibid._, i, 18.

[963] Marcus Aurelius, xii, 12.

[964] Seneca, Epist., 47; De Beneficiis, 18, etc. To a master who

ill-treats his servants Epictetus addresses himself: “Slave! can you

not be patient with your brother, the offspring of God and a son of

heaven as much as you are”; i, 13.

[965] Tuscul. Disp., ii, 17.

[966] Epist. 7.

[967] Lucian, Demonax.

[968] It was, however, prohibited early at Thebes; Aelian, Var. Hist.,

ii, 7.

[969] Pand., XXV, iii, 4; see Noodt’s Julius Paulus, etc., 1710.

Aristotle upheld the custom without scruple; Politics, viii, 16.

[970] Then Valentinian proscribed it with a penalty, but the

legislation was tentative, and the practice was scarcely suppressed

until modern times; Cod. Theod., V, vii; Cod., VIII, lii, 2; cf.

Lactantius, Div. Inst., vi, 20. It was palliated by the institution of

the brephotrophia; see p. 82.

[971] Odyssey, xx, 55.

[972] See Lysias, Orat., Ὑπερ τοῦ ἀδυνάτου, etc., Plutarch, Aristides

_ad fin._

[973] See p. 81.

[974] Trajan appears to have established orphanages and homes for the

children of needy parents; see Pliny, Panegyric., 27, etc. The fact is

also indicated by coins (ALIMENTA ITALIAE), and a sculptured slab found

in the Roman forum; Cohen, ii, p. 18; Middleton, Rome, etc., Lond.,

1892, p. 346. Faustina, wife of Antoninus Pius, also busied herself

in a similar way, as is evidenced by well-known coins (PUELLULAE

FAUSTINIANAE); Cohen, ii, p. 433.