century, became finally seated in the city under Vespasian; see “Isis”
in Smith’s Classical Dictionary and similar works. But the greatest run
was on Mithras, a sun-god extracted from the Persian mythology, who
grew in favour from the time of Pompey until his worship reached even
to the north of Britain. Quite a literature exists under his name at
present; see Cumont, Mysteries of Mithras, Lond., 1903. For the account
of a regular invasion of Syrian deities see Hist. August., Heliogabalus.
[976] Polybius complains of the rising scepticism at Rome in his time;
vi, 56. I need not reproduce the oft-quoted lines of Juvenal (ii, 149),
but the following are not generally brought forward:
Sunt, in fortunae qui casibus omnia ponunt,
Et nullo credant mundum rectore moveri, etc.
xiii, 86.
Such unbelief, however, did not penetrate beyond the upper social
stratum; and even at Athens in the second century those who scouted
the ancient myths were considered to be impious and senseless by the
multitude; see Lucian, Philopseudes, 2, etc. The voluminous dialogues
of Cicero are sufficient to prove how practised the Romans had become
in tearing the old mythology to pieces. But the pretence of piety was
kept up in the highest places. “The soul of Augustus is not in those
stones,” exclaimed Agrippina in a moment of vexation when she found
Tiberius sacrificing to the statues of his predecessor; Tacitus, Ann.,
iv, 52.
[977] There were many grades of charlatans from Apollonius of Tyana,
who seems to have been a genuine illusionist or mystic, to Alexander
Abonoteichos, an impudent impostor, and Marcus, an infamous rascal;
Philostratus, Vit. Apol.; Lucian, Pseudomantis; Irenaeus, i, 13.
[978] But he never left Rome and the duties were performed by Pomponius
Flaccus; Tacitus, Ann., ii, 32; vi, 27, etc. Jn. Malala mentions one
Cassius, p. 241.
[979] That is, sufferers from epilepsy, St. Vitus’s dance, mania,
etc., diseases which might be cured by hypnotic suggestion, neuroses
of various kinds. This popular fallacy was not held universally, but
was derided by the more educated, including the medical faculty; see
Philostorgius, viii, 10.
[980] Thus a century later, when a true messianic note was struck,
half a million of Jews rushed frantically to destruction in the wake
of Barcochebas, the leader of their revolt under Hadrian, though not
without the satisfaction of dragging 100,000 Gentiles to their doom
at the same time. Some exegetes are tempted to see in John, v, 4, an
allusion to this war, and hence to find a date for that gospel (the
bridge, via Philo Judaeus, between Judaeism and Hellenism), _c._ 140.
[981] Rufus (or Fufius) and Rubellius are probably meant; Lactantius,
De Morte Persec., 2. See the differing statements in the Chronicles
from Jn. Malala onwards; also articles on biblical chronology in recent
encyclopaedias, Chron. of Eusebius, Consular Fasti appended to Chron.
Paschal., etc. By the synoptical gospels the ministry of Jesus seems
to have lasted one year only, but two, three, and even four years have
been assumed from the later composition of John, _e.g._, in Jerome’s
chronicle, _sb._ A.D. 33.
[982] It is, however, improbable that any Christian could have given a
consecutive account of the life of Jesus prior to 120 or thereabouts.
The newly-discovered Apology of Aristides seems to be the earliest
evidence for the existence of gospels. It was presented to Hadrian,
perhaps, _c._ 125. On the other hand First Clement, moored at 95, but
with an incorrigible tendency to rise to 140, is clearly by a writer
who possessed no biography, but merely Logia of Jesus.
[983] They were coated with inflammable matter, pitch, etc., and used
for torches to illuminate the public gardens at night (Nov., 64);
Tacitus, Ann., xv, 44; Suetonius, Nero, 16, etc.
[984] Dion Cass., lxvii, 14; Eusebius, Hist. Eccles., iii, 18, _et
seq._; cf. Lactantius, De Morte Persec., 3; Suetonius, Domitian.
Clement, a cousin of this emperor, appears to have been put to death
for being a Christian, and has been claimed by some as one of the first
popes.
[985] Pliny, Epist., x, 97, 98. This correspondence and, indeed, the
whole book which contains it has been stigmatized as a forgery by some
investigators; see Gieseler, Eccles. Hist., i, 33, for refs. The same
suspicion rests, in fact, on every early allusion to the Christians. It
certainly seems strange that they should be such unfamiliar sectaries
to Trajan and Pliny if they were well known at Rome under Nero and
Domitian. Much less can we believe that in the destruction of Jerusalem
Titus was actuated chiefly by a desire to extinguish Christianity,
or that he had weighed the differences in theological standpoint
between Jews and Christians; Sulp. Severus, Hist. Sacr., ii, 30. Such
is history “as she was wrote” at that epoch. The whole evidence that
Christians were popularly known and recognized politically during the
first century is scanty and unsatisfactory. Trajan achieved a great
reputation, which never died out even among the Christians, perhaps on
account of the tolerant attitude attributed to him on this occasion. He
was prayed out of hell by one of the popes along with one or two other
noted pagans whom the Church was anxious to take under its wing.
Quivi era storiata l’alta gloria
Del roman prince, lo cui gran valore
Mosse Gregorio alia sua gran vittoria:
Io dico di Traiano imperadore; etc.
Dante, Purg., x; Parad., xx.
[986] Hence the anti-Christian philosopher Celsus (_c._ 160) exclaims:
“You say that no educated, wise or intellectual person need approach
you, but only those that are ignorant, silly, and childish. In fact you
are able to persuade the vulgar only, slaves, women, and children”;
Origen c. Celsum, iii, 44.
[987] Minucius Felix, Octavius, 12, etc. Their gloomy austerity is
strongly brought out by Tertullian in his tract De Spectaculis.
[988] Tertullian, De Idololatria, 17, _et seq._; De Corona Militis, 11;
Origen c. Celsum, viii, 55, 60, _et seq._ Not only did they refuse the
quasi-divine honours to the Emperor, but they would not even join in
the illumination and floral decoration of their houses required of all
loyal citizens during imperial festivals; Tertullian, De Idololatria,
13, _et seq._; Ad Nationes, i, 17; Theophilus, Autolycus, i, 11,
etc. The causes of the unpopularity of the Christians can be studied
very completely with the aid of Gieseler (Eccles. Hist., i, 41), who
has brought together numerous extracts and references bearing on the
subject. As was natural under the circumstances, atrocious libels began
to be spread abroad against them, such as that they worshipped an
ass’s head, that the sacrifice of new-born infants was a part of their
ritual, etc.; Tertullian, Apology, 16; Minucius Felix, 9, etc.
[989] Origen c. Celsum, viii, the latter half especially. As early as
500 B.C. Xenophanes had said “God is the One,” but this was recondite
philosophy which could not penetrate to the masses, and, if preached
openly, would have aroused popular fanaticism; Aristotle, Metaphysics,
i, 5.
[990] The prohibitive campaign was almost confined to Lyons and Vienne
in Gaul; Eusebius, Hist. Eccles., v, 1, _et seq._ The animus against
the Christians was so intense that slaves were even allowed to inform
on their owners, ordinarily a criminal act; Pand., XLVIII, xviii, 1,
18, etc. The Acts of the Martyrdom of Polycarp (_c._ 155-161), after
holding their ground so long, are now at last beginning to be classed
as spurious; see Van Manen in Encyclop. Biblica, _sb._ Old Christ.
Literat.
[991] See Tertullian’s Address to the Martyrs; also Cyprian’s
restrained efforts to modify the reverence paid to them; Epist., 22,
83, etc.; cf. Eusebius, Martyrs of Palestine; Lactantius, De Morte
Persec.; Neander, Church Hist., ii.
[992] Ten persecutions were reckoned by those who wished to make up
a mystic number to accord with the ten plagues of Egypt, Revelat.,
xvii, etc., but the specification of them does not correspond in
different writers. After a certain date, which cannot be accurately
fixed, there was always local animosity against the sect, the practical
issue of which varied relatively to the temper of the populace and the
provincial governor; see Gieseler, i, 56.
[993] Lactantius, De Morte Persec., 48; Eusebius, Eccles. Hist., x, 5.
Advanced critics, however, are now beginning to doubt the authenticity
of this decree as presented by the Fathers of the Church; see Seeck,
Gesch. d. Untergangs d. antiken Welt, 1895, ii, pp. 457, 460.
[994] At present it appears that some nourish a hope of the reality of
miracles being still believed in by supposing them to have occurred as
an “extension of the natural.” In this way it may become credible that
cartloads of baked bread and cooked fish—vertebrate animals with all
their physiological parts—suddenly sprang into existence out of the
air. A travesty of the ridiculous, not an extension of the natural, is
the more proper description of such assumptions. Natural phenomena,
observed, but so far ill understood, lie in quite a different plane
from contradictions of natural law in which consists the essence of
legendary miracles.
[995] The more timorous critics still cling to one or two of the
Epistles grouped together under the name of St. Paul, but the
advanced school has decided to reject them in their entirety; see Van
Manen, Encycl. Biblica, _sb._ “Paul.” I may exemplify the general
discrepancy of views still prevailing in this field of research by
a single illustration: “It has now been established that the latter
(Epistles of Ignatius) are genuine”; Encycl. Britan., _sb._ “Gospels”
and “Ignatius”: “certainly not by Ignatius”; Encycl. Biblica, _sb._
“Old Christ. Lit.” Such opposing statements will continue to be put
forward as long as we have Faculties of Divinity at Universities
filled by scholars who are constrained to treat historical questions
in conformity with the requirements of an established ministry; and so
long shall we be edified by the spectacle of men engaged in balancing
truth and error in such a manner as to pretend not to be refuting the
latter, so that in perusing their treatises we must either suspect
their candour or distrust their judgement. Yet in not a few instances
the men may be observed exulting amid the ruins of the fortress which
they had entered to hold as an invincible garrison.
[996] A. D. Loman decided in 1881 that Jesus had not been a real
personage, but he now thinks he went too far; Encycl. Biblica,
_sb._ “Resurrection.” Edwin Johnson, author of _Antiqua Mater_,
1887, has marshalled the evidence against his existence very fully
and fairly, but in some of his later work he has gone too far, and
such exaggerated scepticism, while it may often amuse, can scarcely
succeed in convincing. Jn. M. Robertson, author of A Short History of
Christianity, 1902, and previous works of some magnitude from similar
studies, argues on the same side. Havet says, “Sa trace dans l’histoire
est pour ainsi dire imperceptible”; Le Christianisme, iii, 1878, p.
493. Bruno Brauer concludes that “the historic Jesus becomes a phantom
which mocks all the laws of history”; Kritik d. evang. Geschichte,
1842, iii, p. 308; see also Frazer’s Golden Bough, 1900, iii, p. 186,
_et seq._ Disregarding the Gospels, a form of narrative which could not
be accepted by us as historical in connection with any other religion,
the slight allusions to Jesus in known writers (Josephus, Tacitus,
Suetonius), are evidently mere hearsay derived from the Christians
themselves. Hegesippus, a lost church historian (_c._ 170), gives
some details as to the death of “James, the brother of the Lord,” and
also states that some poor labourers of Judaea, for whom a descent
from the Holy Family was claimed, were brought before Domitian and
dismissed as of no account; fragments in Eusebius, Hist. Eccles., iii,
20. Remarkable is the silence, in his voluminous writings, of Philo
Judaeus, a philosophico-theological Jew of Alexandria, a prominent
citizen, and a man of middle age at the time of the Crucifixion.
So close to the scene itself he could scarcely have failed to have
heard of any popular agitation centring round a Messiah at Jerusalem.
When Augustus was told that Herod had executed two of his sons he
observed that “it was better to be Herod’s pig than his son.” In
ignorant repetition at a later date this remark was construed into an
allusion to the slaughter of the innocents; Macrobius, ii, 4. Several
(non-extant) Jewish historians, Justus Tiberiensis for example, made
no mention of Jesus. Still worse is the case for the Apostles; they
are not noticed outside the N. T. unless in Acts conceded on all
hands to be apocryphal. Most singular is it that no descendants of
theirs were ever known. Towards the middle of the second century when
the Christians loom into view as a compact body of co-religionists
we should assuredly expect to find relations of the Apostles, direct
or collateral, moving with extraordinary prestige among the Saints
on earth. But, beyond a vague allusion to two daughters of Philip
(Eusebius, Hist. Eccles., iii, 39), there is no trace of any such
individuals. The descendants of Mahomet alone were numerous a century
after his death, but the Twelve proved as barren of progeny as if they
had never existed. With respect to the canon of the N. T. it is known
that it was formed almost as at present before the third century, a
great many similar works being put aside as apocryphal or unsuitable.
Those selected were altered to some extent to meet the requirements of
doctrine; Origen c. Celsum, ii, 27; Dionysius of Corinth in Eusebius,
_op. cit._, iv, 23, etc. They were, in fact, edited from time to
time in the interests of orthodoxy or heresy, interchangeable terms,
as is shown by Origen, Epiphanius, and Jerome; see Nestle’s Textual
Criticism, Lond., 1899. Much of the Apocrypha remains to this day,
including circumstantial accounts of the childhood of Jesus; see
Clark’s Ante-Nicene Library, in which Tatian’s Diatessaron (_c._ 170,
an Arabic version only remains), shows the absence of texts now found
in the Gospels, especially that relating to the Church being founded
on a rock (Peter). The striking likeness between the legend of Buddha
(_c._ 500 B.C.), and the life of Jesus has been set forth by several
Orientalists; see Seydel, Die Buddha-Legende und das Leben Jesu, 1884.
The resemblance to early Egyptian folklore may be seen in Griffith’s
High Priests of Memphis (story of Khammuas), 1900 (from recent demotic
papyri). Some interesting questions are raised in Mead’s Did Jesus
Live 100 B.C.? (on Talmudic legends or libels). It must be borne in
mind that scarcely a MS. of a classical author (excepting some scraps
recently recovered in Egypt) exists, which has not passed the pen of
monkish copyists. Hardouin taxes them with having forged nearly all
patristic literature, both Greek and Latin. They had, he says, suitable
materials for various ages, parchments, inks, etc., and executants
who practised various styles of writing. In recording his conclusions
he deprecates the accusation of insanity. Such is the deliberate
verdict of a Roman Cardinal whose learning is indisputable, and whose
discrimination in other matters has not been impugned; Ad Censur.
Vet. Script. Prolegomena, Lond., 1766. At any rate the acknowledged
forgeries make up an enormous bulk, Gospels, Acts, Epistles, laws,
decretals, etc. It seems scarcely possible that the question as to the
existence of Jesus and the Twelve can ever be definitely disposed of;
and it must take its place beside such problems as to whether there
was ever a Siege of Troy, a King Arthur, etc. In the cases of Pope
Joan and William Tell, local and contemporary records were obtainable
sufficiently comprehensive to prove a negative; but no evidence is
likely to come to hand close enough to exclude the credible details of
the Gospel narrative from the possible occurrences at Jerusalem during
the period. The English reader now possesses in the Encyclopaedia
Biblica, a repertory in which Biblical investigations are treated in
a manner as free from bias and obscurantism as is attainable at the
present time. Such a work has long been needed in English literature,
and marks a national advance. But much more remains to be done, and
within a score or two of years we may see such discussions take up a
stable position between the advanced critics who still feel obliged to
entertain some illogical propositions, and the rather wild free-lances
who would dissipate all marvel-tainted evidence by their uncompromising
scepticism, in which they sometimes do more harm than good by their
disregard of critical sanity. By that time a liberal application of the
critic’s broom will have swept many documents now held up to public
respect into the limbo to which they properly belong.
[997] Previous to the overthrow of Biblical and other ancient
cosmogonies by the extension of natural knowledge the historic inquiry
as to the truth of supernatural religion was paramount. As recently as
the fifties of the last century a sceptic, if asked to give reasons for
his disbelief, might have answered that it was due to the absence of
witnesses of known position and integrity to attest the occurrences;
and that if such evidence were forthcoming he should certainly consider
that Christianity rested on foundations which could never be shaken.
Let us see whether it is in our power to prove that if a religion
based on miracles could pass such an ordeal it would not necessarily
even then hold an impregnable position. In 1848 certain phenomena,
termed the “Rochester knockings,” occurring at a place in New England,
impelled a wave of credulity as to spiritual manifestations throughout
Christendom, which has not wholly subsided up to the present date.
Prof. Robt. Hare, an eminent chemist and electrician, was attracted to
investigate the matter with the firm intention of exposing the folly.
But he became convinced instead, and by the aid of a lady who could
produce “raps,” apparently unconnected with her person, he devised a
code of signals from which resulted a couple of bulky volumes devoted
by the professor to explicit details of the doings in, and the beauties
of, the spirit-land, the whole recounted by deceased relations of his
own; Spiritualism Scientifically Demonstrated, New York, 1855. But the
spirits did not for long restrict themselves to merely audible signs;
they responded generously to the attention paid to them and soon began
to reveal their hands, faces, and even their whole persons for physical
observation, often pelting the audience with flowers, presenting them
with bouquets, and showing themselves to be accomplished musicians
in the negro mode by performances on unseen instruments. Although
their deeds were never dark, yet they always insisted on darkness as
indispensable for the perpetration of them. In 1852, after the craze
reached England, many men of academical and scientific repute observed
and attested incredible phenomena, of which Prof. Challis of Cambridge
said that, if the statements had to be rejected, “the possibility of
ascertaining facts by human testimony must be given up.” Mr. A. R.
Wallace, the congener of Darwin, became a convert, and bore witness to
the miracles of Mrs. Guppy, her floral materializations, etc.; Modern
Miracles and Spiritualism, 1874, etc. (I cannot omit to mention that
this author, at one time at least, was an anti-vaccinationist). Sir
W. Crookes, the celebrated scientist, had séances in his own house,
where he walked and talked with a young lady from the Orient, dead
a century before, subjected her to a quasi-medical examination, and
possessed himself of a lock of her hair; Researches on the Phenomena
of Spiritualism, 1870. The professors of Leipzig University received
the celebrated medium, Dr. Slade, in their private study on several
occasions, when he satisfied them of his ability to perform the
impossible by producing untieable knots, passing matter through matter,
and causing writing to appear on slates from invisible correspondents;
Transcendental Physics, by Prof. Zöllner, Lond., 1883. Other observers
who upheld the reality of spiritual achievements are Sir R. Burton,
Mr. Cromwell Varley, F.R.S., Dr. Lockhart Robinson, Lord Lindsay, etc.
The list of veracious witnesses is, in fact, a long one and a weighty.
Yet all these eminent men have been deceived by cunning impostors.
See the Reports of the Societies for Psychical Research, English and
American, which have been issued regularly for nearly twenty years.
Hallucinations, ghost-stories, and hypnosis have been exhaustively
investigated, but no spirits have ventured to materialize themselves
whenever conclusive tests were insisted on. At the most it has been
demonstrated that telepathy, a kind of wireless telegraphy between
brain and brain, may occur under favourable but rare conditions.
Whenever trickery was excluded the pretended mediums were invariably
unsuccessful. The redoubtable Dr. Slade, when he found that dupes
failed him, retired from the profession, and shortly after, on meeting
a friend who challenged him, replied, “you never believed in the
old spirits, did you?” The absurdities which were effective among
the credulous when their superstitions were appealed to were often
a ludicrous feature. A stone picked up by the wayside and ejected
adroitly from the medium’s pocket during a dance is looked upon as a
supernatural occurrence. See Truesdell’s ridiculous exposure of Slade
and other charlatans of that class; Bottom Facts of Spiritualism,
N.Y., 1883. The career of an English impostor has been unveiled
throughout by a confederate in Confessions of a Medium, Lond., 1882.
The literature on both sides is very large and is still accumulating.
Several spiritual journals are published with the support of thousands
of believers in Europe and America, etc. This modern illustration
teaches us very conclusively: (1) That had the Gospels come down to us
as the acknowledged writings of some of the best known and trustworthy
men of antiquity, their contents would still have to be discredited
as originating in fraud or illusion: (2) That devotion to a branch of
science, or even to science generally, is not essentially productive
of any critical insight into matters theological or professedly
supernatural: (3) That phenomena of cerebration, normal, aberrant, and
perhaps supranormal (exalted sensitiveness), may easily be utilized
for purposes of imposture; and are a proper subject for methodized
psychical study. Since a contemporary religion, supported by a mass of
direct and definite evidence thus collapses before a strict scrutiny,
we must ask what truth could reside in those generated in the womb of
Oriental mysticism, for which no solid foundations can be perceived?
When we see that even scientists do not always succeed in persuading
themselves that nothing is credible but fact, _quod semper, quod
ubique, quod omnibus demonstrabile sit_, how little reliance can be
placed on popular reports and unauthentic tracts. Even if we had not
spiritualism to hand, a practically similar lesson might be taught from
a consideration of Shakerism, Mormonism, Harris’s Brotherhood of the
New Life, the Zion Restoration Host, with its reincarnated Elijah, etc.
See Oxley’s Modern Messiahs, 1889, for many interesting details as to
popular illusionists who have assumed the prophet’s mantle.
[998] Timaeus, 9, _et seq._ Plato is not here inventing, but for the
most part merely co-ordinating previous notions, especially those
of the philosopher whose name is affixed to the dialogue. Reference
to some other dialogues is necessary to complete the picture of his
religion and theology.
[999] Parmenides; Republic, vi, 19; Plotinus, Enneads, vi, 9.
[1000] That is fire, air, water, and earth; not our chemical elements.
[1001] The original (?) Trinity here invented consists of: 1. The
ποιητής, πατήρ, or δημιουργός. 2. Νοῦς. 3. Ψυχή. From the spurious
Epinomis Νοῦς may be equaled with Λόγος.
[1002] Phaedo, 19, 25, etc.
[1003] Thus the period of eclecticism was entered on, for an account of
which see Zeller’s Eclectics, Lond., 1883. It began about the age of
Cicero, but a definite system did not crystallize out of it till the
time I am treating of.
[1004] Born at Lycopolis in 205; died in Campania, 270.
[1005] There was no creed in Neoplatonism, and, therefore, what was
believed has to be deduced from a study of the Enneads of Plotinus,
so-called as consisting of a series of books, six in all, each
containing nine treatises. The logical germ of the conception is that
the One emits continually the Nous or intelligence; and the latter the
Soul. The Soul animates the world, but becomes lost should it allow
itself to coalesce with matter by yielding to sin. The subject has been
treated exhaustively by Vacherot, L’école d’Alexandrie, Paris, 1846;
and by Zeller, Philosophie der Griechen, iii, Leipzig, 1881. Neither
of these works has been translated, but there is an excellent summary
by Bigg (Neoplatonism, Lond., 1892), who has dealt with some phases of
the movement at length in his Christian Platonists of Alexandria, 1886.
According to Bigg’s expression, the Christian Father, Clement Alex.
(_c._ 190), “separated the thinker from the thought, and thus founded
Neoplatonism.” Numenius, who was, perhaps, a Jew, made some advances
in the definition of the Platonic trinity; and Plotinus was accused of
borrowing from him; see Bigg’s latter work, pp. 64, 250, etc. Ammonius
Saccas, a porter of Alexandria, was the teacher of Plotinus, and is
considered to be the immediate begetter of Neoplatonism.
[1006] Philo Judaeus (_c._ 20) is the first known to have taught this
doctrine of ecstasy, but it is not certain that the Neoplatonists
utilized his works. He also was the first to corrupt the rigid
monotheism of the Jews by assuming the Platonic (?) Logos as a
necessary mediator between Jehovah and the world; see Harnack, History
of Dogma, Lond., 1892, i, p. 115, etc.; also Bigg as above, and the
Histories of Philosophy by Zeller, Ueberweg, etc.
[1007] The details of the life of Plotinus are due to Porphyry, who
gives the most succinct account of his doctrine, and describes his
excursions into the higher sphere by means of self-hypnosis. The whole
field of modern spiritualism seems to have been cultivated by the
Neoplatonists, and, indeed, by other mystics long before; allusions
by Plotinus himself will be found in Enneads, v, 9; vi, 7; iii, 8,
etc. Porphyry relates that during the six years of his intimacy with
him, his master attained to ecstatic union on four occasions. It will
be seen, therefore, that Plotinus was very abstemious in indulging in
such a luxury; he would have much to learn from modern improvements
under which Mrs. Piper and other trance-mediums enter the vacuous realm
regularly day by day; see the Psychical Society’s Reports; cf. Bigg,
Christian Platonists, etc., p. 248; also Myers’ Classical Essays, 1883,
p. 83, _et seq._
[1008] “Only the cultured,” he remarks, “can aspire to the summit
and upwards; as for the vulgar crowd, they are bound down to common
necessaries”; Enneads, II, ix, 9.
[1009] The Stoics began this allegorizing of the ancient books; see
Zeller (Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics, Lond., 1892) for an account
of their conceits. Philo Judaeus performed a similar service for
the Pentateuch, of which the Jews do not seem to have believed much
literally in his day; nor, in fact, did the early Christian Fathers;
see Origen, Comment. in Genesim, etc. He notices, amongst other things,
the difficulty which arises from the production of light before the
sun was created; Gen., i, 3, 16. Porphyry’s treatise on the Cave of
the Nymphs (Odyssey, xiii, 102) remains to show the method of exegesis
adopted by the Neoplatonists in order to demonstrate the divine
inspiration of the old Greek poets. Kingsley’s novel, “Hypatia,” gives
a good picture of Neoplatonism in some of its popular aspects.
[1010] A treatise emanating from the school of Iamblichus is extant,
viz., The Mysteries of the Egyptians, an exposition supposed to be
written by Abamon in answer to a sceptical letter from Porphyry to
Anebo, assumed characters apparently. It includes a whole system of
Neoplatonic magic and theurgy, and describes the various appearances
of daemonic phantasms with the accuracy of one accustomed to be
familiarly associated with them. Objectively the series descends from
the celestial light which defines the personality of a god to a turbid
fire indicative of the form of a lower daemon, perhaps of malignant
propensities. There is a recent edition of this work in English,
probably a venture addressed to spiritualistic circles.
[1011] Irenaeus, i, 23; Hippolytus, vi, 7, etc. His contests with St.
Peter were a favourite subject in early Christian literature; see
Ordericus Vitalis (ii, 2), who has extracted some amusing incidents
as to their rivalry at Rome, etc. In the Clementine Homilies and
Recognitions, which form a kind of religious novel, at the time put
forward as genuine, he fills the stage as the villain of the piece,
but is considered to be merely a pseudonym for St. Paul, a name which
typified a policy to which the author of the composition was opposed.
See the article on Simon in any comprehensive encyclopaedia of recent
date.
[1012] Mansel’s Gnostic Heresies (1875) supersedes to a great
extent the larger treatises of Matter and others, as it embodies a
discussion of details more recently derived from Hippolytus, etc.
Their sects increased rapidly in number, from the thirty-seven dealt
with by Irenaeus (_c._ 185), to the eighty refuted by Epiphanius
(_c._ 350). There were two main schools of Gnostics, the Syrian and
the Alexandrian. The former was frankly dualistic, but the Egyptian
assimilated Buddhistic notions, which saw in matter the essence of
evil; only, however, when vitalized by the celestial emanations after
they had become impoverished, as the result of their descent to an
infinite distance from the throne of light. In general the attitude
of Gnostics towards Christianity was rejection of the Jewish creator
as an evil demiurge, and the acceptance of Jesus as an emissary from
the god of love to rescue the world from sin and darkness. Their
Christology was docetic; that is, the Saviour was merely a phantom who
appeared suddenly on the banks of the Jordan, in the semblance of a man
of mature age. Their greatest leader, though not a pure Gnostic, was
Marcion of Pontus. His bible consisted of the Pauline Epistles, and
a Gospel said to be Luke mutilated, but more justly recognized as an
independent redaction of the primitive tradition. Marcion’s Jesus said,
“I come not to fulfil the law, but to destroy it”; see Tertullian, Adv.
Marcion, iv, 7, 9. The modern Christian might imagine that his faith is
dualistic, owing to the power and prominence given to the devil, but
such a view would be inexpiable heresy. Satan and his crew are merely
rebellious angels, whose relations to Jehovah are similar to that of
sinful men in general, so much so that some of the Fathers in the early
Church held that Christ would descend into Hell to be crucified there a
second time for the salvation of devils; see Origen, De Principiis, I,
vi, 2, 3; Labbe, Concil. (1759), ix, 533, can. 7, etc.
[1013] Unless it should be maintained that Christianity germinated in
Gnostic soil, the most vigorous growth which overshadowed and in the
end annihilated its weaker associates, a not untenable hypothesis.
[1014] The two portly folios devoted to the history of Manichaeism
(Amst., 1734), by Beausobre, must now be supplemented by more recent,
though less extensive, works, owing to the activity of modern scholars
among Oriental sources. St. Augustine was a Manichaean for eight years,
and the most reliable details are to be collected from his writings
after he became a Christian, and issued diatribes against his former
teachers. Socrates gives a short life of Mani, fabulous in great part
most likely; i, 22; the latest researches are those of Kessler. The
best summary will be found in Harnack, Hist. of Dogma, iii, p. 317, to
which is appended a bibliography of the subject.
[1015] An old Persian notion; see Xenophon, Cyropaedia, vi, 1.
[1016] “Not the devilish Messiah of the Jews, but a contemporaneous
phantom Jesus, who neither suffered nor died”; Harnack, Encycl. Brit.,
_sb._ “Manichaeism.”
[1017] The text of his edict, with references to the sources, is given
by Gieseler, Hist. Eccles., i, 61. The enactment, however, is regarded
with suspicion, and is never mentioned unless accompanied by a query as
to its genuineness. See also Haenel, Cod. Theod., 44^*.
[1018] See the laws against mathematicians, etc., for so were sorcerers
and witches designated at the time, from the Antonines onwards; Cod.
Theod., IX, xvi; Cod., IX, xviii.
[1019] As Harnack remarks (_loc. cit._), it commended itself
successfully to the partly Semitic inhabitants of North Africa, among
whom was Augustine. But it permeated Europe as well, and in a more
Christianized form flourished among such comparatively modern sects as
the Cathari, Albigenses, Bogomils, etc. Its fate in these quarters is
traced out by Gieseler and other church historians. But the Manichaean
pedigree of these sects is not now accepted so freely as formerly; see
Bury’s Gibbon, vi, p. 543. At one time all heretics were stigmatized as
Manichaeans in the vituperation of the orthodox, especially when their
views approached the docetism held by all Gnostics, as in the case of
the Monophysites; Labbe, Concil., v, 147, etc.
[1020] Justin. Apol., i, 11; Eusebius, Hist. Eccles., v, 16; see
Gieseler, _op. cit._, i, 41, 48, etc. The belief in the Millennium
was, doubtless, the most potent influence in segregating the first
Christians from their fellow subjects. It was conceived by some that as
the world was created in six days it would last for six thousand years,
and the seventh thousand would be distinguished by the reign of Christ
on earth; see the Church Histories and Harnack’s article “Millennium,”
in Encycl. Brit., etc. As the chronology was uncertain the critical
transition might be revealed at any moment. Christian writers now began
to date from the creation of the world as per Genesis; some made it
about 5500 B.C., so that the Millennium should have been entered on
during the reign of Anastasius. But according to others it should have
begun under Nero or Trajan. Michael Melit. (Langlois); Jn. Malala, p.
428, etc.
[1021] See Apostolical Constit., ii, 25; Hatch, Early Church, pp. 40,
69, etc. The Emperor Julian was rather exasperated at finding that
the Christians took the wind out of his sails by their indiscriminate
charity, and so cultivated the good will of all the lower classes;
Epist. (frag.), p. 391 (H). He seems to be addressing some Pagan priest.
[1022] See The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, 11, _et seq._;
Gieseler, _op. cit._, i, 30. It is uncertain whether the first
assemblies were convened after the pattern of the Jewish synagogue
or the guild meetings of the Empire; probably after one or the other
according to local affinity.
[1023] It may be imagined that this transformation was not effected
without a conflict when parties with opposed views found themselves
at the parting of the ways. This rupture was called Montanism, from
Montanus, a Phrygian who, with two “prophetesses,” proclaimed a renewal
of the original dispensation. The movement spread to the West, where
the celebrated Tertullian became one of its most ardent advocates. See
Gieseler, _op. cit._, i, 48, etc., or Harnack in Encycl. Brit., _sb.
nom._
[1024] Origen c. Celsum, iii, 9.
[1025] Some details of the catechetical course are known. The
student was first taken through the “science” of the period until,
like Socrates, he found that he knew nothing. Then the current of
Jewish-Christian legend and mythology was allowed to flow, and
everything was lighted up instantly as by an electric illumination;
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Panegyr. in Origen, 5, _et seq._ Almost the
strongest argument the Fathers found for the acceptance of their
creed was the failure of Greek philosophical speculation to explain
the universe. Many of them dwell at great length on this subject; see
Tatian, Athenagoras, Lactantius, etc. One of the best summaries of
ancient metaphysics is given by Hippolytus in his first book against
heresies. But Clement and Origen were more concerned to correlate
the two, thinking there was something divine in both. Eusebius is on
similar ground in his Praep. Evang., etc.
[1026] As late as 160, or so, the Christians were taunted with having
no visible places of worship; Origen c. Celsum, viii, 17, 19, etc.;
Minucius Felix, 10. About a century later the handsome churches began
to be erected; Apostolic Constit., ii, 57; Eusebius, Hist. Eccles.,
viii, 1; x, 4, etc. An inventory of the actual contents of a church at
Cirta, in N. Africa, _c._ 300, is extant; Routh, Reliquiae Sacrae, ii,
p. 100.
[1027] See the account of Hierocles, the hostile proconsul, in
Lactantius, Div. Inst., v, 2; De Morte Persec., 16. He and the Emperor
Galerius appear to have been the prime movers of the Diocletian
persecution in 303; cf. Eusebius, _op. cit._, viii, 2, etc. After
several years, however, Galerius found the task of stamping out
Christianity beyond him, and issued an edict of toleration. Hence there
was really no call for Constantine to legislate anew. This Hierocles
was one of those who set up the idealized Apollonius of Tyana as an
avatar of the Deity, and tried to exalt him as an object of adoration
above Jesus. But the attempt failed; Apollonius was a real personage
with a familiar name; Jesus was a dream; see the controversial tract of
Eusebius against Hierocles.
[1028] Cod. Theod., XVI, vii, 1; x, 1, 7, etc., and Godefroy _ad
loc._ About this time (380) Gratian discarded the dignity of Pontifex
Maximus, which the previous Christian emperors had continued to assume;
Zosimus, iv, 36.
[1029] A civil war was opened throughout the East by many bishops, who
proceeded to demolish the temples at the head of gangs of monks and
other enthusiasts. On both sides infuriated mobs fought zealously for
their religion, and much slaughter resulted. The most violent commotion
was occasioned by the destruction of the great temple of Serapis at
Alexandria (389); see the ecclesiastical historians: Socrates, v, 16;
Sozomen, vii, 15; Theodoret, v, 21, etc. Such doings became official
under Arcadius; Cod. Theod., XVI, x, 16 (399); cf. Gieseler, i, 79.
[1030] In 367 Damasus and Ursinus fought a battle in one of the Roman
churches for the papal seal; 137 corpses were removed next day from the
pavement of the sacred edifice. “I am not surprised at the contention,”
says Ammianus, “when I consider the splendour of the dignity. The
successful aspirant is enriched by the offerings of matrons, rolls
about in his chariot sumptuously apparelled, and surpasses the
profusion of royalty in his banquets”; xxvii, 3. As the Vicar of God,
bishops professed to stand above temporal princes; Apostol. Constit.,
ii, 34. The Bishop of Tripolis declared to the Empress Eusebia (_c._
350) that he would not visit her unless she descended from the throne
to meet him, kissed his hands, and waited his permission to reseat
herself after he had sat down, etc.; Suidas, _sb._ Λεόντιος. St. Martin
of Tours (_c._ 370) was waited on at table by the Empress; he handed
the cup to his chaplain, thus giving him precedence over the Emperor;
Sulp. Severus, Vita St. M., 20; Dial., ii, 6. See further Gieseler,
_op. cit._, i, 91.
[1031] See the original church historians. Theodoret’s account is the
most definite and satisfactory; i, 2, _et seq._ Recently Arianism has
been treated by Gwatkin in a separate work. Harnack’s exposition of
it is, as usual, most lucid and interesting; Hist. Dogma, iv. This is
the great controversy in which the celebrated words _Homoousios_ and
_Homoiousios_ were combined to distinguish the contending theories:
D’une syllabe impie un saint mot augmenté
Remplit tous les esprits d’aigreurs si meurtrières,
Et fit de sang chrétien couler tant de rivières, etc.
Boileau, Sat. xii.
_Homoean_ and _Anomoean_ denote Arian sub-sects who differed more or
less from orthodoxy. In fact, the Arian heresy has never really died
out, and is now represented by Unitarianism.
[1032] “Tradendi ratio sicca est, memoriaeque potius, quam
intelligentiae accommodata”; Mosheim, Eccles. Hist., IX, ii, 3. The
first great theological debates concerned the mutual relations of the
persons of the Trinity in their celestial abode; and were decided
against those who confounded the persons (Sabellians, Monarchians) or
divided the substance (Arians). Such momentous matters being settled
as finally registered in the so-called Athanasian Creed, the Fathers
descended to earth and busied themselves in analyzing the mystic
conjunction of the Godhead with the flesh, viz., the Incarnation of
Jesus. These controversies were determined by the ejection from the
fold of Orthodoxy of those who maintained the existence of but one
nature or one will in the God-man (Monophysites, Monotheletes), and
also of a small party who propounded the incorruptibility of the body
of Jesus (Aphthartodocetae). The erection of this fabric of dogma was
essential to Orthodoxy, the underlying conception of which was that God
became man so that man might become God; ii Clement, 9; cf. Bigg, _op.
cit._, p. 71. Hence if the Saviour were made out to be merely a sham
human being the whole scheme of redemption must fall through at once.
The last step led them to consult about the mundane relatives of Jesus,
and ended in the dogma that Mary’s was an asexual birth, the Immaculate
Conception, and that, as she could never have been sullied by any
carnal conversation, the brothers of Jesus, as represented, must merely
have been his cousins. But the Church did not approach some of these
latter considerations till a later age.
[1033] His laws have already been referred to. For the result as
represented by an educated Pagan, see Libanius, De Templis. This
Council enacted that the Bishop of CP. should hold the next rank to
the Roman Pontiff; Socrates, v, 8 (Concil., can. 3). About this time
the title of Patriarch began to be restricted to the higher bishops;
_ibid._ Constantine’s pagan temples at CP. were now ruined; Jn. Malala,
p. 345.
[1034] The chief source for the Council of Chalcedon is Evagrius, ii,
1, _et seq._ By Canon 21 the equality of the Byzantine Patriarch with
the Pope was affirmed; Labbe, Concil., vii, 369; cf. Cod. Theod., XVI,
ii, 45, etc.
[1035] Evagrius, iii, 13, _et seq._ It was composed by Acacius, the
Patriarch of the capital.
[1036] See pp. 104, 180. To the Monophysites, Anastasius is, of course,
“the pious and orthodox Emperor”: see John of Nikiu (Zotenberg);
Zachariah of Mytilene (Hamilton), etc.
[1037] Cod., I, v, 12; Codinus, p. 72; Procopius, De Aedific, i, 4. See
Ducange, CP. Christ., _sb. nom._, for a collection of passages relating
to St. Mocius.
[1038] In 423 Theodosius II considered that Paganism was virtually
extinct, so little in evidence were those who still adhered to the old
religion; Cod. Theod., XVI, x, 22. But subsequent events proved that
his confidence was premature. I have anticipated the use of the word
“Pagan” (_paganus_, rustic, villager) as a term of reproach to those
who had not been illuminated by Christianity. In this sense it is first
found in a law of Valentinian I: Cod. Theod., XVI, ii, 18 (365). It
arose at a time when the urban population exhibited a sharp contrast to
the country people in the matter of religion. Long after the former had
been converted _en masse_, polytheism lingered in the rural districts,
the scattered inhabitants of which did not come into touch with the
Christian propagandists and their new creed for a considerable time.
Hence the idea of a country fellow became synonymous with that of a
worshipper of the gods long since despised.
[1039] The history of their migration and subsequent activity at the
local source of their inspiration will deserve our attention in a
future chapter.
[1040] Valentinian I and the succeeding emperors legislated definitely
against them; Cod. Theod., XVI, v, 3, 18, 40, 43, 59; cf. Cod., I, v.
The whole title against heretics contains sixty-six laws, a monument
of Christian bigotry and intolerance. The novelty of the Christian
doctrines and the constant dissensions of ecclesiastics as to the
proper mode of apprehending them, caused all classes to be infected
with a mania for drawing theological distinctions, _ex. gr._, “If you
require some small change, the person you address will begin to argue
about ‘begotten and unbegotten’; should you ask the price of bread you
will hear that the Father is greater and the Son inferior; or in reply
to an inquiry whether your bath is prepared, the attendant will define
for your benefit that the Son was made out of nothing”; Gregory Nys.,
Orat. De Deitate, etc., 2 (in Migne, i, 557). Yet sometimes a prelate
would assume a jocular tone in the pulpit when speaking on these grave
questions. Thus Eudoxius, Bishop of CP., began his discourse one day
with the assertion, “The Father is impious, but the Son is pious.”
The congregation seemed awe-struck, but he at once continued, “Be not
alarmed; the Son is pious because he worships the Father, but the
Father worships no one”; Socrates, ii, 43. Marrast has devised some
scenes to bring out the absurd way in which theological hair-splitting
disturbed everyday social relations at this period; _op. cit._, p. 89.
[1041] Chrysostom mentions the fact with exultation. Objectors fear
that the race may die out as the result of the widespread celibacy,
but the Saint knows better; the women who remain will be rendered more
fecund by the Deity, and thus the numerical complement of mankind
will be maintained. He also knows that there is a countless host
of heaven, asexual, who are propagated in a passionless manner by
divine ordination; In Epist. Rom. Hom. xiii, 7 (in Migne, ix, 517);
De Virginitate, 14, _et seq._ (in Migne, i, 544); cf. Ambrose, De
Virginitate, 3; Rufinus, Hist. Monach., 7 (in Migne, 413).
[1042] Monks are enjoined by Theodosius I “deserta loca et vastas
solitudines sequi atque habitare”; Cod. Theod., XVI, iii.
[1043] The literature of early monkish life, descriptive and laudatory,
is very extensive; see Gieseler, Eccles. Hist., i, 95, 96, etc. The
most striking picture will be found in Evagrius, i, 21; iv, 33, etc. He
is lost in admiration of them; they suppressed their natural appetites
so rigidly that they looked like corpses wandering away from their
graves. Some lived in dens and caves where they could neither stand
nor lie. Some dwelt in the open air almost naked, exposed to excessive
heat or cold. Others rejected human food and took to grazing like
cattle, shunning human beings as if they were wild beasts. Both sexes
embraced such lives of unremitting castigation. Some of the males
made a practice of repairing from time to time to the cities in order
to demonstrate their sexual frigidity by bathing in the public baths
amongst nude women. They applied themselves to prayer, of course, until
they brought themselves to the verge of exhaustion; cf. Sozomen, vi,
28, _et seq._ One Apelles had a conflict with the devil similar to that
related of the English St. Dunstan.
[1044] The celebrated Simeon Stylites was the inventor of this sublime
method of serving the Deity. From 420 he lived on columns near Antioch
for thirty-seven years; Evagrius, i, 13; see Gieseler, i, _loc. cit._,
for reference to fuller accounts, separate biographies, etc.
[1045] He was contemporary with Athanasius, who wrote an extant life of
him; see Sozomen, i, 13, etc.
[1046] Sozomen, iii, 14.
[1047] Socrates, iv, 23; Sozomen, i, 12, _et seq._ Previous to
Christianity there were at least two communities of Jewish ascetics in
the near East, the Essenes, who dwelt west of the Dead Sea, and the
Therapeutae, who lived by Lake Moeris, near Alexandria. The first have
been described briefly by Pliny (Hist. Nat., v, 15) and the second by
Philo Judaeus in a separate tract (De Vita Contemplativa) respecting
the authorship and date of which, however, opinion continually
fluctuates; I do not know whether at present it is on the crest of the
wave or in the trough of the sea. These solitaries consisted of males
and females, and were recruited regularly by persons who became sick of
the world and determined to fly far from the madding crowd. About them
generally see Neander, Church Hist., Introd.
[1048] Socrates, iv, 21; Gregory Nazianz., Laud. Basil (in Migne, ii,
577).
[1049] Nicephorus, Cal., xv, 23; see p. 78. Not psalmody, however,
says Card. Hardouin, but restless application to work. Manufacture of
fictitious documents he insinuates, doubtless.
[1050] Cod., XII, i, 63; Orosius, vii, 33; Jerome, Chron., an. 375; cf.
Socrates, iv, 24.
[1051] The histories of monachism are numerous and voluminous,
especially those composed some two or three centuries ago. Helyot’s
Hist. des Ordres Mon., Paris, 1714, etc., in 8 vols., may be read for
amusement as well as instruction.
[1052] Epicurus, the unavowed disciple of Leucippus and Democritus, the
earliest atomists, conceived the coalescence of the particles to result
from their rushing onwards always under the influence of a certain
natural deflection which led to their meeting continually so as to
become conjoined. As an Academic, and, therefore, a sceptic, Carneades
could not accept this or any other theory, but in criticizing its
fortuity, he remarked that it might have been perfected, or, at least,
made more intelligible if Epicurus had conferred some faculty of will
or intention on his atoms; Cicero, De Finibus, i, 6; De Fato, 11. With
our increased knowledge of physics, we may now venture to supply the
deficiency in accordance with the suggestion of Carneades. Not even in
the process of crystallization can the motion of the atoms or molecules
be considered as fortuitous, since they seem to be borne towards each
other under the influence of some irresistible desire. The recent
investigators strongly uphold the vitality of the process.
[1053] The question of abiogenesis or spontaneous generation, remains
still indeterminate. Substances in transitional stages between the
vital and the non-vital state have not been observed; perhaps because
such matter is too inconspicuous to have been discovered so far and
recognized, or, it may be, that the swarm of germs by descent is now
so great, that the incipiently organic at once becomes their prey, and
forms, perhaps, their constant pabulum. If identical atoms underlie all
kinds of matter, and the recent _début_ of electrons brings the proof
appreciably nearer that it is so, we are still at a loss to explain why
they should at one time, by their association, exhibit vital phenomena,
and at another reveal to us their versatility in aggregating under the
species of gold, sulphur, etc. The statement in the text might run that
the chemical compounds combine with each other in greater complexity to
form the elements of protoplasm.
[1054] That the effective origin of evolution consists in will capable
of responding to a stimulus, being an essential attribute of matter,
is a conclusion to which we are led necessarily by a consideration
of the subject. When an amoeba protrudes a process, incited from
within or without by some desire, it is already on the way to evolve
itself into a higher form; and when a hygienist essays to preserve or
prolong life by his studies in bacteriology, etc., in his immeasurably
higher sphere, he literally does no more. The earlier evolutionists,
Huxley, for example, were inclined to hold that the potency of cosmic
evolution became evanescent progressively with the elaboration of
purposive intelligence and social institutions, but such a view is
manifestly erroneous, and would not now, I presume, be maintained by
any contemporary scientists.
[1055] Our means of astronomical research are not sufficiently definite
to enable us to explain conclusively the appearance of previously
unobserved stars (_e.g._ Nova Persei, 1901), but there is good reason
to suppose that these new lights sometimes signal to us the catastrophe
of millions of beings more or less similar to ourselves. We are,
however, well acquainted with the convulsions of nature, which often
bring swift destruction to thousands of those dwelling on this small
globe; for instance, the Mont Pelée eruption of 1903, which claimed
some 40,000 victims. It might indeed be imagined from the occurrence of
such disasters that animated nature is merely a kind of surface disease
of the earth, which undergoes a spontaneous cure from time to time by
means of earthquakes, floods, volcanic action, etc. Certainly, if we
are the only result of the activities of this solar system, there would
seem to be much superfluous expenditure of power and materials. The
conception of God, when cleared of all irrelevancy, is merely that of
a perpetual source of energy; and that we must find in the medium we
exist in or nowhere. It is nugatory to talk of beginnings and endings
when dealing with the infinite, unless as regards phases of phenomena;
if there had to be an end of the universe, there would never have been
a beginning.
[1056] Amongst some follies, the Stoic philosophers, in their
pantheistic conception of nature, reached the highest level which has
yet been attained in the expression of theocratic dogma. With them, the
universe is the very body of the divine essence, and the good and wise
man is in no way inferior to the sublimest manifestation of it. He is
rightly called a god upon earth, and his intellect is an efflux of the
Deity. “Back to the Porch for your ideas of God and nature,” the modern
philosopher may cry to his age. “You are gods yourselves, and nature
is your realm to conquer and hold in subjection.” The religion of the
future will be more akin to Stoicism than to any other doctrine which
has been formulated by thinkers in the past—a high ethical code upheld
by a pride of race and a devotion to the evolution of humanity. The
Stoic would not now be ready to make his own quietus with a bare bodkin
should the currents turn awry. He would stand to his post till the last
hour, working for the advancement of science. “Les stoiciens n’étaient
occupés qu’a travailler au bonheur des hommes, à exercer les devoirs
de la société: il semblait qu’ils regardassant cet esprit sacré qu’ils
croyaient être en eux-mêmes, comme une espèce de providence favorable
qui veillait sur le genre humain”; Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois, xxiv,
10. See Plutarch, De Stoic. Repug., 13; Adv. Stoicos, 33; Seneca, De
Provid., 1; Epist., cvi; cxvii, etc.; Epictetus, ii, 8, 9; Lactantius,
Div. Inst., i, 5, 27, etc.
[1057] Accepting the identity of the evolutionary process at all grades
of its prepotency, we may suppose that future advancement will be
the result of deliberate effort; and that the more determinate such
effort, the more rapid must be the progress. While the aptitude of
our faculties must be increased by their being constantly exercised
in study and research, the knowledge attainable by such work may
ultimately win for us some controlling influence over our physiological
constitution. The wild dreams of mediaeval alchemists now seem to us
less unreal since we have had experience of the properties of radium;
and the vision of an _elixir vitae_, which illuded those investigators,
appears more realizable in the light of recent research. The arrest of
senility may come within the range of the future therapeutist; and a
new Demeter may subject the modern Triptolemus to some alchemical fire,
to render him proof against mortality. Less remotely, the systematic
administration of sexual associations would exert a powerful influence
over mental and bodily development; and it would be physiologically
correct if famous stallions should stand to cover brood mares in the
human as well as in the equine world. The Spartans realized something
of this in practice; Plutarch, Lycurgus. The tendency to equalization
of the sexes which has been growing of late years, is undoubtedly a
forward movement on the path of evolution. The possibility of man in
the future being endowed with greatly increased intellectual power
must not be lost sight of. Exceptional gifts of genius, in some cases
uniquely manifested, and the occurrence of “prodigies,” especially
in relation to mathematics, music, and art, teach that the mental
faculties of the human race may yet be evolved in a much higher degree.
The limitations imagined by Greg, which are, perhaps, generally
entertained, must now be contemplated with suspended judgement: “Two
glorious futures lie before us: the progress of the race here, the
progress of the man hereafter. History indicates that the individual
man needs to be translated in order to excel the past. He appears
to have reached his perfection centuries ago.... What sculptor has
surpassed Phidias? What poet has transcended Homer?” etc.; Enigmas
of Life, 1891, p. 177. This is an evident misconception of the pace
at which evolution moves; such short periods count for nothing. In
evolutionary time, Homer and Phidias are our contemporaries. We know
nothing of the final state of such beings as ourselves after they have
passed through some millions of years, to which most probably the life
of this planet must extend. They may well attain to some condition
resembling that of the “gods” of Epicurus, who existed with a “quasi
corpus, quasi sanguis,” etc. The chemist and biologist have a wide
field before them in which they will yet make many conquests.
[1058] Compare the account of the soldier Ammianus with those of the
church historians; Socrates, iii; Sozomen, v; Philostorgius (an Arian),
vii; Theodoret, iii, etc. These are honest writers and, although they
often relied on mere hearsay, most of the matter they bring forward is
historical. On the other hand the Church History of Eusebius, who was
infinitely above them in abilities and learning, contains little but
popular report and legend. It is improbable that Julian inflicted any
physical persecution on the Christians, but no doubt his subordinates
did so on the strength of his attitude towards them and he afterwards
got all the credit of it.
[1059] It is generally suggested that the constant immigration of
barbarians and their wholesale collocation in the army must have
gradually undermined the civilization of the Empire. But a great state
is able to digest an enormous quantity of such accretions; and in the
pride of their recent elevation such new citizens would have become
more Roman than the Romans themselves. The great Transatlantic Republic
has been built up during three centuries by the immigration of alien
barbarians. For a good summary of the peaceful settlement of barbarians
in the Roman territories see Bury, _op. cit._, i, p. 31.
[1060] See Gieseler (_op. cit._, i, 99), where the assimilation of
heathenism is well summarized and instanced. Augustine (_c._ 400) draws
a striking picture of the impostors, who, in the garb of monks, tramped
the country selling sham relics, phylacteries, etc.; De Op. Monach.,
28, 31, etc.; Epist. ad Jan. (118). Jerome, in his diatribe against
Vigilantius, unwittingly makes a display of the gross superstition
which that earnest reformer sought to suppress. Bayle’s article on
Vigilantius (Dictionnaire, etc.) is a full and interesting account
of the subject, but there is more still in Gilly’s V. and his Times,
Lond., 1844.
[1061] The first victims of ecclesiastical rancour were the
Priscillianists, who arose in Spain about 380. They were tainted with
Manichaeism, and two bishops persuaded the tyrant of Gaul, Maximus,
to put several of them to death in 385. Generally the Fathers of the
Church were shocked at this execution, but the utility of subjecting
heretics to the capital penalty was soon perceived and the practice
thenceforward became an intrinsic part of Christian discipline. The
result is well known to students of Church history and the religious
wars waged against the Paulicians, Albigenses, Huguenots, etc., and
the horrors of the Inquisition are familiar subjects in popular
literature. During three centuries in Spain (1471-1781), the first and
the last scene of the judicial slaughter of heretics, nearly 250,000
persons were dealt with by the Inquisitors, a circumstance which Galton
considers to have been equivalent to the suppression of national genius
and to account for “the superstitious and unintelligent Spanish race
of the present day”; see Hereditary Genius, 1869, p. 359. The same
reasoning would, of course, apply to any process, such as is occurring
in Russia at the present day, by which the more active and effective
members of a community are being constantly weeded out. Paganism was
not, of course, absolutely free from intolerance; and the cases of
Socrates, Anaxagoras, etc., will occur to every one. Even Cleanthes,
the Stoic, denounced Aristarchus of Samos for running counter to the
popular religion when he put forth some astronomical anticipations of
the Copernican system; Plutarch, De Facie in Orbe Lunae, 6. Even Cicero
in his “Laws” (ii, 8) decidedly proscribes nonconformity with the
state religion. Polytheism was tolerant because it was comprehensive
and could easily assimilate all kindred beliefs. Thus a hospitable
reception was ensured to any new arrival who was fairly accredited as a
member of the Olympian family.
[1062] Seven Crusades to Palestine were undertaken between 1096 and
1270. During that period more than 7,000,000 persons are said to have
started from Western Europe on their way to the East. Perhaps the
weeding out of the worst fanatics in this way may have conduced to
subsequent progress.
[1063] Dante (1265-1321) may be considered as the first prominent
figure of the Renaissance; Wycliffe (1325-84) of the Reformation, but
Arnold of Brescia (_c._ 1100-55) has some claim to the credit of being
the first Protestant.
[1064] In the daily press of March 15, 1896, we read the utterance of a
R. C. prelate when speaking of the Anglican clergy: “Do they claim the
power to produce the actual living Jesus Christ by transubstantiation
on the altar, according to the claims of the priesthood of the Eastern
and Western Churches?” Persons who address a public audience in the
Metropolis in this manner are not considered to be insane nor are they
classed as charlatans. Concomitantly with such proceedings we find that
the greatest of English encyclopaedias is published with introductory
articles in which it is allowed that the old religion is now a mere
phantasm on the stage of reality. At the present moment every form of
religious belief rests secure and stable on the broad back of popular
ignorance; and it remains for posterity in ages to come to solve the
problem as to how long humanity will have to wait for the evolution
of that elevation of mind which will decline to pay the tribute of
hypocrisy and reticence for the assurance of a stipend.
[1065] Sooner or later the progress of colonization is always resisted
by the aborigines, but the numbers of them who fall in war would soon
be regenerated and their gradual extinction is due to the restrictions
imposed on them by civilization or to their becoming addicted to its
vices. The decrease of the U. S. Indians (303,000, 1880; 266,000,
1900; previous decrease unknown) and of the Maoris (100,000, 1780;
46,000, 1901) is partly due to conflicts with the whites, but that
of the Hawaiians (200,000, 1780; 31,000, 1900) results solely from
the immigration of higher races. Similarly the Tasmanians have become
extinct in the last half of the nineteenth century. The peaceful
pioneer of civilization, perhaps a missionary, is more deadly to the
native races than periodical invasions by an armed force.
[1066] The ecclesiastical dictatorship of the Byzantine emperors, for
which the term “Caesarpapism” has been coined, is specially illustrated
by Gfrörer, Byzant. Geschichte, Graz, 1874, ii, 17, _et seq._
[1067] All the chronographers connect his death with a thunderstorm,
and it appears at least probable that he was affected with brontophobia
in his later years. He is even said to have built a chamber to retire
into, for fear of being struck by lightning; Cedrenus, etc.
[1068] Theodore Lect., ii, 7, etc.
[1069] It appears that he set up a private chair or stand in one of the
churches, from which he used to address a crowd to gain converts for
his doctrine. He was ejected thence by the same Patriarch, who shortly
afterwards had to crown him; Theophanes, an. 5982; Suidas, _sb._
φατρία; see p. 104.
[1070] Evagrius, iii, 34.
[1071] He tried to obtain its acceptance in 496, and again 508; Victor
Ton., an. 496; Theophanes, an. 6001, etc. He even tried to convert the
Pope, Anastasius II; Theodore Lect., ii, 17.
[1072] He favoured the Reds, a mere appendix of the Greens, and so kept
himself free from any absolute partisanship; Jn. Malala, xvi. Rambaud
(_op. cit._, 4, 5) is successful in proving by texts that the Demes
did not represent definitely any political or religious party; and the
notion of comparing them to a sort of popular house, with “supporters
of the government,” and an “opposition” cannot be substantiated.
They were rivals in the games and threefold rivals for the Emperor’s
favour, in the Hippodrome, for interpreting his will to the people, and
for conveying to him the popular sentiment. Thus they had a place in
the administration, but not one that can be paralleled in any modern
constitution. They were practically indifferent to creed or policy. The
numbers recruited under each colour at CP. might be from 900 to 1,500;
Theophylact Sim., viii, 7.
[1073] See p. 155. But the exactions of Marinus the Syrian, P.P. who
committed the local supervision of the taxes to so-called _vindices_
of his own creation, instead of to the Decurions, ultimately branded
A. with the opprobrium of being a grasping character: Jn. Lydus, De
Magistr., iii, 36, 46, 49; Evagrius, iii, 42, etc.
[1074] The large sum he left in the Treasury has already been alluded
to; see p. 163.
[1075] The closest personal view of him is to be got from Cyril
Scythop., Vit. S. Saba, 50, _et seq._ He was surnamed Dicorus
(double-pupil), because his eyes differed in colour.
[1076] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 10; De Aedific., iii, 2, etc.; Jn.
Lydus, De Magistr., iii, 47, _et passim_.
[1077] Especially Evagrius and Cyril Scythop., both of whom condemned
him as a heretic.
[1078] Marcellinus Com., an. 518. Now Uskiub, a flourishing Turkish
town, nearly on the same site. The whole district has recently been
explored by Evans; Antiquarian Researches in Illyricum, Archaeologia,
xlix, 1885.
[1079] The Balkans. See generally Tozer’s Travels in the Turkish
Highlands, 1869, i, 16, etc.
[1080] Procopius, De Aedific., iv, 1. It seems that they are still
represented by villages called Taor and Bader; see Tozer, _op. cit._,
ii. Append.
[1081] See Tozer’s narrative of his journey through the Pass from
Prisrend to Uskiub; _loc. cit._
[1082] Novel. vii, 1. The extensive remains of the Latin occupation
still to be seen are described by Evans, _op. cit._
[1083] Procopius, De Bel. Vand., ii, 16.
[1084] _Ibid._, Anecdot., 6. The names of the other two are given as
Zimarchus and Ditybistus, but I see no reason to call them his brothers
as is sometimes done. Justin was cowherd, or swineherd, or field
labourer according to Zonaras, xiv, 5.
[1085] Procopius, _loc. cit._
[1086] According to Alemannus (pp. 361, 461), however, Zimarchus as a
centenarian (!) was active in important posts; Theophanes, an. 6054-5.
cf. Jn. Malala, xviii, p. 490
[1087] Jn. Antioch. (Müller, Frag. Hist. Graec., v, p. 31); Procopius,
_loc. cit._
[1088] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 8.
[1089] Theodore Lect., ii, 37; Const. Porph. De Cerim., i, 93, etc. His
title was Count of the Excubitors.
[1090] Jn. of Antioch., _loc. cit._, p. 35.
[1091] Procopius, Anecdot., 6.
[1092] _Ibid._, De Aedific., iv, 1.
[1093] _Ibid._, Anecdot., 12; Theophanes, an. 6024. The name seems to
have been common at this epoch; see Socrates, v, 21, etc.
[1094] The girl’s name was Vigilantia; Procopius, De Bel. Vand., ii,
24, etc. Probably her mother’s name.
[1095] Corp. Insc. Lat., v, 8120.
[1096] Inferred from subsequent history. The point is discussed by
Ludewig, _op. cit._, viii, 5; cf. Alemannus, p. 437, _et seq._
[1097] Victor Ton., an. 520; Const. Porph., _op. cit._, i, 93.
[1098] The circumstances and date of the adoption are not recorded, but
that it must have taken place appears evident from Cod., II, ii, 9;
Novel. xxviii, 4, etc. Ludewig argues against it in the face of facts.
[1099] Almost certainly: the correct form would have been Justinus
Sabbatianus, but the Byzantines were ignorant or varied old rules _ad
lib._ There seems to have been no classical Justinian, but two of that
name flit across the stage under Honorius; Zosimus, v, 30; vi, 2.
[1100] See pp. 103, 104.
[1101] From Chron. Paschal. and Theophanes it might be argued that
there was an interregnum, but the contemporary accounts of Peter
Magister (Const. Porph., _loc. cit._) and Cyril Scythop. (_op. cit._,
60) prove that Anastasius died early in the morning on July 9, and
that Justin was elevated on the same day. Some give Justin the credit
of having betrayed the cause of the eunuch by his astuteness, but it
appears rather that his greatness was thrust upon him; Jn. Malala,
xvii; Evagrius, iv, 12; Zonaras, xiv, 51, etc.
[1102] The official record of the election by Peter Magister (_loc.
supra cit._) has been preserved. It was Justin’s own duty to announce
publicly that the throne was vacant. The Circus was immediately filled
and, as there was no known claimant to the succession, a wild scene
ensued. First one of Justin’s subordinates was set up on a shield by
a company of the guards, but the Blues, disapproving, made a rush and
dispersed the throng. Then a patrician general was seized on by a body
of the Scholars, but the Excubitors attacked them and were dragging the
unlucky officer away to lynch him when he was rescued by the Candidate
Justinian, who was watching the tumult. Upon this the crowd scurried
round Justinian himself, but he declined the dangerous distinction,
being doubtless aware that a decisive election was maturing behind the
scenes among responsible representatives. Still, however, the attempts
to create an emperor went on, until at last the doors of the Cathisma
were thrown open and Justin appeared, supported by the Patriarch, the
Senate, and the chief military officers. All then perceived that an
emperor had been chosen by legitimate methods, and both factions with
the rest of the populace applauded the new monarch in the usual way:
“Justin Augustus, may you be victorious! Reign as you have lived!”
etc. It will be observed that Justin did not ascend the throne as the
emperor of the Blues or the Greens, but that both Demes joined in their
acquiescence. This apparently was always the case unless some party
usurper, such as Phocas, managed to seize the reins of power; see
Theophanes, an. 6094.
[1103] Procopius, Anecdot., 6. Nearly all the chronographers note his
illiteracy. A certain Marinus painted in one of the public baths a
sequence of pictures in which he portrayed the career of Justin from
his youth upwards. For this he was taken to task by the Emperor, but he
extricated himself by explaining that his intention was an ethical one,
in order to teach the people that in the Byzantine Empire a man might
raise himself by his talents from the dunghill to the first position in
the state; Zachariah Mytil., viii, 1.
[1104] Theodore Lect., ii, 37, etc. The name Lupicina was, of course,
the popular sobriquet for a prostitute, being connected with _lupa_,
_lupanar_, etc.
[1105] Victor Ton., an. 523; Cyril Scythop., _op. cit._, 68.
[1106] Marcellinus Com., an. 527. He also took over his uncle’s post of
Count of the Excubitors; Hormisdas, Epist., 37.
[1107] Procopius, Anecdot., 6; De Bel. Vand., i, 9; Jn. Lydus, De
Magistr., iii, 51, etc.
[1108] Zonaras, xiv, 5.
[1109] Procopius, Anecdot., 6. He was probably the _ex officio_
president of the Consistorium. It was generally anticipated that
Anastasius would have chosen a successor from one of his three
nephews, Hypatius, Pompeius, and Probus, all of whom he had raised to
important positions. His failure to do so is accounted for seriously
by a singular story. Being undecided as to which of them he should
select to inherit the Empire, he arranged that they should dine
together at the Palace on a certain day in an apartment by themselves.
Here he provided three couches, on which, according to custom, they
would take a siesta after the meal. One of these he designated in his
own mind as the Imperial bed, and kept watch in order to see which
of them would occupy it. As it happened, however, two of the three
threw themselves down together on the same couch, and the significant
position remained vacant. Judging that a higher power had ruled the
event, he then prayed that his successor might be revealed to him as
the first person who should enter to him next morning. This proved to
be that very likely officer of his household, Justin, a result which
appears to have satisfied him; Anon. Vales., 13. Such relations cannot
be rejected in this age on the grounds that so-and-so had too much good
sense, etc. On the contrary, they serve to indicate the mental calibre
of the time. The slaughter of several “Theos” as possible successors
by Valens (Ammianus, xxix, 1) may be remembered, and Zeno is said to
have executed an unfortunate silentiary anent of a silly prediction;
Jn. Malala, xv; Theophanes, an. 5982. But Justin and Justinian, being
arrested on two occasions, as it is said, were providentially preserved
by visions which enjoined their release; Procopius, Anecdot., 8;
Cedrenus, i, p. 635, etc.
[1110] Procopius, Anecdot., 6; Jn. Malala, xvii (the fuller transcript
by Mommsen, Hermes, vi, 1885, p. 375); Zachariah Mytil., viii, 1, etc.
The cruel fate of Theocritus is specially indicated by Marcellinus
Com., an. 519. Before the death of Anastasius, Amantius was indulged
with a pre-vision of his destiny, having seen himself in a dream on the
point of being devoured by a great pig, symbolizing, of course, Justin
the swineherd.
[1111] The massacres of Monophysites in Asia Minor are described
at length with the names of numerous sufferers by Michael Melit.
(Langlois). Among them, two stylites with their pillars were hurled to
the ground.
[1112] Jn. Malala, xvii, etc.
[1113] _Ibid._ It was proposed that he should become one of the two
Masters of the Forces _in praesenti_.
[1114] Zachariah Mytil., viii, 2. This was the church in which the
great Council of Chalcedon was held. Evagrius gives a picturesque
description of it.
[1115] Zachariah Mytil., viii, 2; Procopius, Anecdot., 6. After this
Justinian spoke of him as his “most distinguished brother”; Hormisdas,
Epist., 55.
[1116] In the government of the Church he showed great activity, traces
of which will be found in Concil. and Baronius, etc., during these
years.
[1117] Jn. Malala, especially in Hermes, _loc. cit._
[1118] Procopius, _loc. cit._; Evagrius, iv, 3; Victor Ton., an. 523.
As to the _Delphicum_, or banqueting room, see Procopius, De Bel.
Vand., i, 21.
[1119] Marcellinus Com., an. 520. Theophanes says he was killed in
an _émeute_ by the Byzantines to avenge those who perished through
his insurrection under Anastasius, but this is evidently a report
circulated later on to cover Justinian’s guilt. Zonaras mentions both
versions of the murder.
[1120] Const. Porph., De Them., i, 12.
[1121] Memorials of this consulate still exist, and samples of the
diptychs are preserved at Paris and Milan; Corp. Insc. Lat., _loc.
cit._ Unfortunately they are simple in design and do not attempt
a likeness of Justinian. From them we learn that at this time he
had assumed the names of Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus; for
reproductions see Molinier, Hist. gen. des Arts, etc., Paris, 1896,
and Diehl, _op. cit._ Perhaps the later diptych in Gori represents
him; see p. 50. As to the adulatory attempts to fasten the name of
Anicius on Justin and his nephew in order to connect them with the most
distinguished Roman family of the age, see Ludewig and Isambert (_op.
cit._), who have discussed the question at length. Justinian and St.
Benedict, a contemporary, are brought into relationship and presented
as scions of the same race as the existing royal house of Hapsburg.
[1122] Marcellinus Com., an. 521. Trajan, after his conquest of
the Dacians, exhibited 10,000 gladiators and 11,000 animals in the
Colosseum; Dion Cass., lxviii, 15. Under Claudius I a naval battle for
sport on Lake Fucinus brought 100 ships, manned by 19,000 combatants,
into play; Tacitus, Ann., xii, 56; Dion Cass., lx, 33. Real warfare
among the Grecian states was often on a less extensive scale.
Justinian’s display cost about £150,000, his first considerable draught
on the savings of Anastasius.
[1123] Const. Porph., De Them., i, 12.
[1124] Procopius, De Aedific., i, 4; Codinus, p. 87; see p. 37. cf.
Chron. Paschal., an. 605
[1125] A history of the reign of Justin is enumerated among the works
of Hesychius of Miletus, but nothing remains to us but the jottings,
more or less brief, of the chroniclers. Nicephorus Callistus (_c._
1400) has rolled into one nearly all previous Church historians.
[1126] Jn. Malala, xvii; cf. Marcellinus Com., an. 523, etc. Theodotus,
the P.U. of CP. was especially severe in his repressive measures and
went too far in executing a man of rank. On the strength of a serious
illness of Justinian it seems likely that he even aimed at the purple,
but Justinian recovered and immediately brought him to trial for his
excesses. By the influence of Proclus he escaped with exile; Procopius,
Anecdot., 9; Jn. Malala, xvii; cf. Alemannus, p. 368.
[1127] Paulus Diaconus, Hist. Miscel., xvii.
[1128] _Ibid._; Marcellinus Com., an. 525; Theophanes, an. 6016, etc.
[1129] Paulus Diac., _loc. cit._; Anon. Vales., 16. These writers,
however, represent Justin as conceding everything demanded, although
the statement is at variance with the general tenor of their own
account, and there is no trace of a wave of leniency in the literature
of the East. That John got the credit of having betrayed his trust in
the interests of orthodoxy is shown by a spurious letter in which he
is seen urging the Italian bishops from his prison to persecute the
Arians; Labbe, Concil., viii, 605.
[1130] Pliny (Hist. Nat., vi, 15) adverts to the common error of
calling them Caspian, instead of Caucasian. Properly the Caspian, also
Albanian Gates (now Pass of Derbend), were situated at the abutment of
the Caucasus on the sea of that name. There were other Caspian Gates
south of that sea in Hyrcania.
[1131] On the Russian military road from Vladikavkaz to Tiflis. It
rises to 8,000 feet.
[1132] Pliny, Hist. Nat., vi, 12; Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 10. An
old way of blocking dangerous passes; Xenophon, Anab., i, 4.
[1133] Jn. Lydus, De Magistr., iii, 52, _et seq._
[1134] _Ibid._, Procopius, _loc. cit._
[1135] Jn. Lydus, _loc. cit._
[1136] Zachariah Mytil., viii, 5. Cavades demanded 500 lb. of gold
(£20,000) each year.
[1137] Al Mundhir (Nöldeke).
[1138] Zachariah Mytil., _loc. cit._; cf. Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i,
17.
[1139] Zachariah Mytil., _loc. cit._ This account seems to emanate
from a contemporary native of Syria; cf. Procopius, De Bel. Pers.,
ii, 28. Al Lât and Al Uzzâ, names of a lascivious duality, held sway
at Mecca till overthrown by Mahomet. This Arab, like most of his
tribe, appears to have possessed a subtle wit, a circumstance which
was utilized for the invention of a skit pointed at the Monophysites.
It was related that two bishops of that sect, paying him a visit in
the hope of converting him to Christianity, found him apparently in a
state of great despair. On being questioned, Alamundar replied that
he was shocked at having just heard of the death of the archangel
Michael. The missionaries assured him that the death of an angel was an
impossibility. “How then,” exclaimed the Arab, “can you pretend that
Christ, being very God, died on the cross, if he had but one divine
nature?” The bishops retired discomfited; Theodore Lect., ii, 35, etc.
[1140] Rufinus, x, 10; Socrates, i, 20, etc. A Christian captive, a
female, won over the royal family by miraculous cures, etc.
[1141] In the classical period Iberia was the usual name for Spain
among the Greeks.
[1142] Jn. Malala, xvii, etc. The tables (see p. 90) of his cloak, were
embroidered with the likeness of Justin.
[1143] Jn. Malala, xvii, etc.
[1144] See p. 176.
[1145] Jn. Malala, _loc. cit._, etc.
[1146] Khosrau (Nöldeke); also called Nushirvan (Anosharwán), as
Zotenberg always names him in his translation of Tabari.
[1147] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 11. He even tried to make out
that it was a cunningly devised plot to annex the Empire to Persia.
The power of Proclus, who seems to have been an alarmist, is clearly
brought out by this incident.
[1148] Procopius, _loc. cit._ Theophanes (followed by Clinton, Fast.
Rom.) places this affair in 521, a date which removes it altogether out
of its setting; 525 is the most likely year.
[1149] Hypatius and Probus, the nephews of Anastasius.
[1150] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 12.
[1151] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 12. As, however, the Roman guard
could only be victualled by the active co-operation of the Lazi, and
after a short time they proved too lazy to bring in provisions to the
fort, it was evacuated and left to the Persians; _ibid._
[1152] _Ibid._
[1153] “Sidus cometes effulsit; de quo vulgi opinio est tanquam
mutationem regnis portendat,” etc.; Tacitus, Ann., xiv, 22; cf. xv, 47.
As Milton expresses it:
Satan stood
Unterrified, and like a comet burn’d,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war.
Paradise Lost, ii.
[1154] The fullest account of these calamities is given by Jn. Malala,
xvii.
[1155] Cedrenus and Zonaras place it in this reign. Jn. Malala a little
later.
[1156] This was not the first occurrence of the kind, and all the
chronographers are anxious to record that a slab now came to light with
a punning inscription or prophecy, which may be rendered in English as,
“The river Skip will skip some evil skippings for the townspeople”; as
anxious as they are to note the peregrinations of a Cilician giantess,
over seven feet high, who tramped the Empire, begging a penny at all
the workshops for showing herself. After its restoration Edessa was
called Justinopolis in legal acts.
[1157] Procopius puts it as high as 300,000; De Bel. Pers., ii, 14.
[1158] Jn. Lydus, De Magistr., iii, 54.
[1159] Zachariah Mytil., viii, 4.
[1160] Nearly all these particulars are due to John Malala, who, from
the amount of detail he supplies about his native city, may be called
the historian of Antioch. From him we learn that the Olympic games
continued to be celebrated at Antioch, but were finally suppressed in
521 by Justin, for reasons similar to those which about half a century
ago led to the abolition of Donnybrook Fair.
[1161] Cedrenus, i, p. 641. Perhaps he is only speaking figuratively.
[1162] Jn. Lydus, _loc. cit._
[1163] Evagrius, iv, 6. Jn. Malala (xviii, p. 443) puts the
re-christening in 528. He adds that Justinian remitted three years’
taxes to several of the towns then damaged by earthquakes.
[1164] His death is said to have resulted from the recrudescence of
an old wound in the foot at the age of seventy-five (Jn. Malala) or
seventy-seven (Chron. Paschal.). The higher number is to be preferred,
as Procopius says that at his accession he was τυμβογέρων, that is, an
old man “with one foot in the grave”; Anecdot., 6; cf. Alemannus, p.
385.
[1165] The age of Justinian is not satisfactorily known, but Cedrenus
and Zonaras give him forty-five years at his coronation. I need only
allude to the reputed life of Justinian by his so-called tutor, Bogomil
or Theophilus, quoted implicitly by Alemannus, a historical puzzle
for nearly three centuries, but at last solved a few years ago; see
Bryce, English Hist. Rev., 1887. It is little more than a MS. leaflet
(in the Barberini library at Rome), and proves to be devoid of any
sort of authenticity. The chief non-corroborated statement is that
Justinian spent some time at Ravenna, as a hostage, with Theodoric the
Goth. Justinian himself was, in fact, a barbarian of some tribe, and
the bogus name given him, _Uprauda_, seems to have some affinity with
“upright” and “Justinian.”
[1166] The characters of Helen, Andromache, and Penelope, as they
appear in the Iliad and Odyssey, have taken a place permanently in
modern literature.
[1167] See Plutarch’s account of the legislation of Lycurgus. A king
of Sparta was fined by the Ephors for marrying a wife of poor physique
for money, instead of choosing a strapping young lady with a view to
having a vigorous family; _ibid._, Agesilaus; Athenaeus, xiii, 20. The
Spartans applauded the adulterous union of Acrotatus and Chelidonis,
because they seemed to be physically well matched for the production of
offspring; Plutarch, Pyrrhus. In fact Lycurgus thought that wives might
properly be lent to suitable mates for breeding purposes. As an example
of noble character in the female, the conduct of Chelonis is recorded:
also the resolution and bravery of the female relatives of Cleomenes
when they all met their death at Alexandria; _ibid._, Agis; Cleomenes.
[1168] On the Athenian women in general, see Becker-Göll, Charicles,
Excurs.
[1169] To a female visitor from another country it seemed that the
Lacedaemonian women ruled the men; Plutarch, Lycurgus; cf. Aristotle,
Politics, ii, 9. He makes out that things were muddled at Sparta, owing
to interference by the women.
[1170] Herodotus, vii, 99; viii, 87, etc. Several of her ruses in war
are mentioned by Polyaenus, Stratagems, viii, 53.
[1171] Pliny, Hist. Nat., xxxvi, 5, etc. The fragments of it to a
large amount are now in a special room of the British Museum, together
with attempted restorations in the solid and on the flat. It was
delightfully situated on the Bay of Halicarnassus, a sight in itself,
and a point of sight for a splendid prospect of sea, contained in a
circuit of rising coast, covered with specimens of Greek architecture.
Herodotus himself hailed from this town.
[1172] Polyaenus, Stratagems, viii, 60.
[1173] Athenaeus, xiii, 10.
[1174] Diodorus Sic., xix, 52; 11; 51; Justin, xiv, 5, 6, etc.
[1175] Laodicea in Phrygia (and elsewhere), by Seleucus after his
mother Laodice; Thessalonica by Cassander, and Nice (Nicaea) in
Bithynia, of ecclesiastical fame, by Lysimachus, from their wives.
These were generals and successors of Alexander, _c._ 320 B.C.
[1176] The most illustrious lady of this age was Phila, wife of
Demetrius Poliorcetes (her third marriage). She acted the part of
political adviser and ambassadress; and was amiable and pacific as
well as intellectual; Plutarch, Demetrius; Diodorus Sic., xx, 93. A
flatterer of D. raised a temple to her, and called it the Philaeum;
Athenaeus, vi, 65.
[1177] Justin, xxxix, 1, 2.
[1178] _Ibid._, 4. These queens flourished _c._ 100 B.C.
[1179] Justin, xxvi, 3. He was called Demetrius the Handsome, son of
the D. above-named, but not by Phila. She stood at the door of the
chamber, while the ministers of her vengeance were operating within,
calling out to them to spare her mother (_c._ 250 B.C.). Her own fate
was to be put to death by her son, Ptolemy IV of Egypt, in 221 B.C.
[1180] That is, her hair cut off and suspended in the temple of
Aphrodite to propitiate divine favour for her husband (Ptolemy III),
during his Syrian war, _c._ 245 B.C. It became a constellation
according to the adulators of the day, as is shown in the poem of
Catullus, a translation from the Greek of Callimachus.
[1181] The constitution of the Roman family can be apprehended readily
by running through the consecutive expositions in Muirhead’s Private
Law of Rome, Edin., 1886, pp. 24, 64, 115, 248, 345, 514. In law the
mother and children were practically the slaves of the _paterfamilias_:
he could divorce his wife at pleasure, and yet 500 years elapsed before
a husband made use of this power, so potent was the high ethical code
which sustained the Republic.
[1182] The story or legend of Cloelia used to be well known. Being
delivered as a hostage, with a number of other maidens, to Porsena, she
encouraged them to escape, and headed the band in swimming across the
Tiber. But they were all punctiliously returned (_c._ 508 B.C.); Livy,
ii, 13; Plutarch, Publicola, etc.
[1183] Portia, daughter of Cato, and wife of Brutus, the assassin of
Caesar, aspired to be the confidante of her husband, but, distrusting
her feminine nature, she refrained from soliciting him to trust
her, until, by stabbing herself in the thigh, she felt satisfied
of possessing sufficient masculine strength of mind to become the
repository of state secrets (44 B.C.); Plutarch, Brutus, etc. See
Shakespeare’s delineation of her in _Julius Caesar_, where she recounts
her action to Brutus.
[1184] The accomplishments of Cornelia, the fifth wife of Pompey, are
given in detail by Plutarch. She was well read in literature, played
the lyre, had made progress in geometry, and fortified herself by
the study of philosophy. Julia, the mother of Mark Antony, is called
“a most learned woman” by Cicero, Catiline, iv, 6. Greek culture was
fashionable at this time among the Romans. But an earlier Cornelia
(_c._ 330 B.C.) became famous in infamy as the centre of a female
society for poisoning men of note; Livy, viii, 18.
[1185] Tacitus, Ann., xiii, 5.
[1186] Hist. Aug. Heliogabalus, 2, _et seq._ She “lived the life of a
prostitute,” and she also instituted a “petty senate” of females, which
prescribed the fashions of the day to women. Manners, dress, jewellery,
style of carriages, choice of draught-animals, horses, asses, or oxen,
etc., were the subject of their jurisdiction.
[1187] _Ibid._, 17, _et seq._ Both were murdered, and their bodies
dragged through the streets by the Praetorian guard, before their reign
had lasted quite four years.
[1188] She was a daughter of the great Theodosius. The turning-point
in the fall of the Western Empire was the sacking of Rome by Alaric
in 410. From about 425 her authority was paramount at Ravenna, the
provisional capital or rather refuge of the mouldering government. Most
information about her is contained in Zosimus, vi, 12, and Procopius,
De Bel. Vand., i, 3, _et seq._
[1189] I have several times had occasion to mention this princess.
There is no consecutive history of this period, but merely scraps to be
collected from brief chronicles, Church historians, and fragments of
lost works, etc.
[1190] See pp. 103, 302.
[1191] Const. Porph., i, 93; see p. 303.
[1192] Jn. Malala, xv.; Theophanes, an. 5967, _et seq._
[1193] Tacitus, Ann., iv, 19; the case of Sosia Galla. Cf. the account
of Salonina and her gorgeous appearance, riding in the van of the army
with her husband Caecina; _ibid._, Hist., ii, 20.
[1194] Tacitus, Ann., iii, 33.
[1195] _Ibid._, i, 69.
[1196] _Ibid._, ii, 55, 74; iii, 17, etc. As she acted with the secret
approval of the Court, she was acquitted at a mock trial (20), but a
dozen years later, on the death of her accessories, she anticipated her
fate by suicide; _ibid._, vi, 26.
[1197] _Ibid._, iii, 33. Plutarch (De Mul. Virt.), has collected
twenty-seven instances of the notable doings of women, and Polyaenus
(Stratagemata, viii) has repeated most of them, and added almost as
many more. The latter record extends up to about 170.
[1198] Herodotus, i, 199. This applies to Babylon and Cyprus, but
there were several other places, and the custom was carried by the
Semites as far west as Sicca Veneria, in Numidia, N. Africa; Valerius
Max., ii, 6 (15). See the commentators on the passage of Herodotus;
Strabo, XVI, i, 20, etc. At all times the simplicity of devout females
was liable to be abused, several instances of which are recounted.
For example, an ancient rite ordained that a Phrygian damsel should
on the eve of her marriage bathe in the Scamander, whilst invoking
the river-god to accept her virginity. In this custom on one occasion
a youth of the neighbourhood found his opportunity. Hearing of the
nuptials of a young lady who was socially unapproachable to him, but
of whom he had long been enamoured, he bedizened himself with reeds
and water-flowers and posted himself in a recess to await her coming.
On her entering the water he came forward thus in the guise of the
divinity she was supposed to meet, and the guileless maid permitted him
to embrace her without resistance, devoutly unconscious of anything
being wrong. Subsequently, as she was walking in the bridal procession,
her eyes fell upon him among the spectators, whereupon she made him a
profound obeisance and pointed him out to those who accompanied her
as the genius of the sacred stream; Aeschines, Epist., 10. This was
an isolated and comparatively blameless case, but later on some of
the semi-Christian charlatans managed such matters wholesale; see the
account of Marcus in Irenaeus, i, 13.
[1199] Strabo, VIII, vi, 20
[1200] Athenaeus, xiii, 25. St. Augustine was of the same opinion:
“Aufer meretrices de rebus humanis, turbaveris omnia libidinibus”; De
Ordine, ii, 4 (in Migne, i, 1000).
[1201] Athenaeus, xiii, 46. Nicarete of Megara is noted as being a
disciple of Stilpo of the same town, a philosopher who achieved a great
and lasting reputation; _ibid._, 70; Diogenes Laert. in Vita, “A wife
is legally countenanced in sulking and keeping to the house, but a
hetaira knows that it is only by her social talents that she can attach
friends to herself”; Athenaeus, xiii, 7.
[1202] The names of these biographers are preserved, viz., Aristophanes
of Byzantium, Apollodorus, Antiphanes, Ammonius, and Gorgias of Athens,
but their works are lost; Athenaeus, xiii, 21, 46. The first-named
composed as many as 135 lives, and Apollodorus exceeded even this
number. The gist of their writings, however, seems to have been
preserved by Athenaeus in his thirteenth book; and among the moderns,
Jacobs has attempted to reconstruct all the principal biographies;
Attische Museum, 1798-1805. The accounts of them are almost wholly
made up of anecdotes as to their witty remarks and rejoinders. But
at least one modern author has written biographies of courtesans;
see Devaux-Mousk, Fleurs du Persil, Paris, 1887 (with portraits and
autographs).
[1203] Plutarch, Pericles, etc. At the same time it was not beneath her
to become a procuress, and it is said that all Greece was supplied with
girls by her agency. It was even maintained that the immediate cause of
the Pelopennesian war was the abduction of one of these girls imported
from Megara; Athenaeus, xiii, 25; Plutarch, _loc. cit._ Parallels to
Aspasia are not altogether wanting in very recent times. Thus of Cora
Pearl (_née_ Crouch, of Plymouth) we read: “For some time she excited
the greatest interest among all classes of Parisian society, and ladies
imitated her dress and manners”; Dict. Nat. Biog., _sb. nom._
[1204] Memorabilia, iii, 11.
[1205] Diogenes Laert., Epicurus; Cicero, De Nat. Deor., i, 33; see an
imaginary letter of hers in Alciphron, ii, 2.
[1206] Athenaeus, xiii, 37, 38, 56. Timotheus, when it was thrown
in his teeth that his mother was a prostitute, replied that he was
very much obliged to her for making him the son of Conon. The son of
Pericles by Aspasia was legitimated and became a general.
[1207] _Ibid._, 40, 38. Hieronymus, the last king of Syracuse, is said
to have married a common prostitute, but their issue did not succeed to
any crown; _ibid._ In modern times the assumption of the premiership of
Bavaria by the notorious Lola Montez (_née_ Gilbert of Limerick) will
be remembered. “She now ruled the kingdom of Bavaria, and, singular to
say, ruled it with wisdom and ability. Her audacity confounded alike
the policy of the Jesuits and of Metternich”; Dict. Nat. Biog., _sb.
nom._ Her _régime_ did not, however, last more than a year, being
unable to stem the tide of revolution in 1848. More fortunate was
the _castrato_ singer, Farinelli, who retained a position differing
little from that of prime minister under Philip V of Spain and his
successor for nearly twenty-five years. The reign of courtesans in the
seventeenth century, when the aristocratic blood of France and England
was enriched by “legitimated princes” and peers under Louis XIV and
Charles II is too well known to need comment here; but the acquisition
of governmental power at the hands of Louis XV by Jeanne Vaubernier
(Countess Du Barry), a low-class strumpet, doubtless helped decidedly
to bring that disgraceful epoch to a close; see Voltaire’s _Louis XIV_
and _Louis XV_, etc.
[1208] Athenaeus, xiii, 38; Alciphron, ii, 1.
[1209] Athenaeus, xiii, 60. Here, again, a parallel is afforded by
Cora Pearl. During the war of 1870 she transformed her house into an
“ambulance,” where she spent her time and money to the amount of £1,000
in nursing wounded soldiers. Afterwards she claimed to be reimbursed,
but £60 only was granted to her by the government; see her Mémoires,
Paris, 1886. Ultimately she was expelled from Paris.
[1210] _Ibid._, xiii, 7, 31.
[1211] _Ibid._, xiii, 70; Polyaenus, viii, 45, etc.
[1212] Athenaeus, xiii, 34.
[1213] _Ibid._, xiii, 54. A figurative memorial, a lioness tearing a
ram; Pausanias, ii, 2.
[1214] _Ibid._, xiii, 59; Aelian, Var. Hist., ix, 32. Crates, the
Cynic, said that it was an advertisement of the profligacy of Greece.
[1215] Athenaeus, xiii, 69; and another at Babylon, the seat of his
governorship. Plutarch (Phocion) says it cost about £7,000, and was
poor value for the money, but Pausanias extols it; i, 37.
[1216] Athenaeus, xiii, 34.
[1217] _Ibid._, vi, 62. Plutarch tells us that he fined the Athenians
£70,000, which he handed over to Lamia and the rest of his harem to buy
_soap_!
[1218] A _licentia stupri_ was issued to each woman by the _aediles_;
Tacitus, Ann., ii, 85.
[1219] Plutarch, Sulla.
[1220] _Ibid._, Pompey.
[1221] Plutarch, Lucullus.
[1222] In the year 19 Rome was shocked by Vistilia, a married woman of
noble birth, applying for a licence. She was banished, and a law passed
to prevent the repetition of such an occurrence; Tacitus, Ann., ii, 85.
Half a century later probably no notice would have been taken, but the
ethics of the day varied regularly with the character of the reigning
emperor.
[1223] Dion Cass., lxvi, 14. As a proof of the meanness of Vespasian,
he relates that Titus expostulated with his father on the unseemliness
of maintaining a tax on the collection of urine, whereupon the Emperor,
drawing a handful of gold from his pocket, tendered it to his son,
saying, “Smell, does it stink?” cf. Suetonius, 23.
[1224] Socrates, v, 18. The punishment of an adultress at this epoch
took the ridiculous form of impounding her in a narrow cabinet next
the street, where she was forced to prostitute herself to all comers.
Every time she received a companion a jingling of little bells was
kept up to publish the circumstance to passers by. At the same period
immense underground bakeries were run by contractors for the supply
of the Steps (see p. 81), and they hit on a remarkable expedient for
procuring slaves to work in them. Taverns served by prostitutes were
set up contiguous to the vaults; and customers, chiefly strangers, were
lured into a compartment, from which they were suddenly lowered into
the cavity beneath, by a sinking floor. There they ended their days in
enforced labour, being never again allowed to see the light. A bold
soldier of Theodosius, however, being thus entrapped, drew a dagger and
fought his way out. He then laid information, which brought about the
destruction of all such infamous dungeons; _ibid._
[1225] In the Middle Ages the absence of judicious and uniform
legislation is one of the most marked features, and in every province
the extremes of sociological phenomena are commonly to be observed.
Side by side with measures for the total abolition of prostitution we
find brothels tolerated as a regular department of royal palaces. In
1546, for example, prostitution was suppressed at Strasbourg, and at
Toulouse in 1587. On the other hand, from the eleventh century onwards,
a community of courtesans was maintained as part of the establishment
of the kings of France. They were placed in the charge of an officer,
named _le Roi des Ribauds_. His position, however, was low, and his
right to eat at the same board with the other members of the household
was disputed; see Rabutaux, La Prostitution (_au moyen âge_), Paris,
1851, ff. 16, 21, 32, 33. Again, it is well authenticated, though
almost incredible, that in the sixteenth century nobles and generals of
the south of Europe kept in the camp elegantly caparisoned goats for
amatory purposes; see Bayle, _sb._ Bathyllus.
[1226] See p. 89.
[1227] Our knowledge of these facts in detail is due to Procopius
(Anecdota or Hist. Arcana), but sufficient corroboration from other
sources is not wanting. The question as to the authenticity of this
work of Procopius has been finally set at rest by the recent researches
of Dahn and Haury. It is doubtless as true as all history in detail,
_i.e._, vitiated by prejudice, ignorance, and mistakes. The life and
literary activity of P. will be noticed later on.
[1228] Procopius, Anecdot., 10.
[1229] This was a staple piece of “gag” for centuries, and is another
instance of the uniformity of Byzantine life during long periods; see
Tertullian and Gregory Naz., as quoted by Alemannus, _op. cit._, p. 380.
[1230] See Mirecourt (Les Contemporains, Paris, 1855, 78) for an
amusing account (with portrait) of Lola Montez, and her bold procedure
in dispensing with her _maillots_, “to the delight of the gentlemen
of the orchestra,” when dancing at Paris. Some may still remember the
popularity of “the Menken,” as Mazeppa at Astley’s, the result of her
having been counselled to turn “to account her fine physique”; see Dic.
Nat. Biog., _sb. nom._, for her career and distinguished associates.
Her apology, protesting against the performance being denounced as an
exhibition of nakedness, was published, and is extant. This hetaira
approached somewhat to her Greek prototypes, and issued a volume of
poems, which, if not equal to Sappho’s, had a merit of their own. The
same significance cannot, however, be attached to such displays as at
the present day. The indiscriminate bathing was only just passing into
disrepute, and ingenuous exhibitions of that kind were still possible.
See, for instance, Aristaenetus (i, 7), where a “modest” young lady
trips down to the beach, coolly divests herself of her clothing, and
asks a young gentleman, who happens to be reclining there, to keep an
eye on her things while she is in the water. This author, waiting _c._
500, could scarcely have deemed such an incident preposterous in his
time. As to naked women in the theatre, in addition to the notices
already given from Chrysostom, see In Matth. Hom. xix, 4 (in Migne,
viii, 120).
[1231] Her proceedings are described by Procopius, with the openness
and detail which was natural to the age in which he lived. For this,
however, he has been censured, to the damage of his historical credit,
as if he thereby proved himself to be a dissolute person, unusually
experienced in the vices of the times. But the charge is unjust, and
might be urged with greater force against almost all of the Christian
fathers who continually inveigh against abuses of the sexual instinct,
in the intricacies of which they show themselves to be far better
versed. Beginning with the Epistle of Barnabas they never tire of
decrying circumstantially all sexual relations, especially those
who “medios viros lambunt, libidinoso ore inguinibus inhaerescunt”;
Minucius Felix, 28; cf. Arnobius, Adv. Gen., ii; Lactantius, Div.
Inst., vi, 23, etc. Their rigid text is “genitalem corporis partem
nulla alia causa nisi efficiendae sobolis accepimus”; _ibid._ Nor was
it regarded as proper that the knowledge and discussion of such matters
should be ordinarily thrust out of sight; on the contrary they were
included in the category of topics habitually invested with interest to
“society.” Thus the polished Agathias in an amatory epigram (28), after
lamenting the pangs and torments of love, makes his point with:
Πάντ’ ἄρα Διογένης ἔφυγεν τάδε, τὸν δ’ Ὑμέναιον
ἤειδεν παλάμῃ, Λαΐδος οὐ χατέων.
This graphic effusion duly found its place in that book of “elegant
extracts,” compiled for the delectation of the Byzantine drawing-room,
the Greek Anthology, where it remains enshrined amid a crowd of
companions, at least ten times as remote as itself from modern ideas of
decency.
[1232] One example of her unusual turpitude may be reproduced. After
enlivening a party of ten or more young men for a whole evening,
she “παρὰ τοὺς ἐκείνων οἰκέτας ἰοῦσα τριάκοντα ὄντας ἂν οὕτω τύχοι,
ξυνεδυαζετο μὲν τούτων ἑκάστῳ”; Procopius, Anecdot., 9. Unconsciously
she was emulating the activities of the Empress Messalina five
centuries previously:
Claudius audi
Quae tulerit: dormire virum cum senserat uxor ...
Intravit calidum veteri centone lupanar ...
Excepit blanda intrantes, atque aera poposcit:
Mox lenone suas jam dimittente puellas,
Tristis abit; etc.
Juvenal, Sat. vi, 115, _et seq._
Pliny discusses her proclivities in the inquiring mood of a
physiologist; Hist. Nat., x, 83.
[1233] This is in direct opposition to the established views of
Byzantine superstition; see p. 119.
[1234] The age of Theodora is nowhere mentioned, but Ludewig and
Isambert favour 497. Nicephorus Cal. (xvi, 39) says that she was
born in Cyprus, an assertion which cannot be contradicted, but which
is, on the whole unlikely, and some of his collateral statements are
erroneous. The following information _pour rire_ has found its way
into so considerable a work as Hefner-Altneck’s Trachten: “Theodora
was the daughter of Acacius, Patriarch of CP., and was trained by
her mother (!) for the theatre, in which she distinguished herself
by her art as a pantomimist”; i, p. 124. The Patriarch Acacius was
doubtless a celibate. The whitewashing of Theodora has, of course, been
undertaken, but late, not till 1731, by Ludewig. She was, in fact, in
bad odour with the Church, and the worst that could be said of her
was acceptable. Recently a further attempt has been made by Débidour
(L’Impératrice Theodora, Paris, 1885, Latin Thesis, 1877), called forth
by Sardou’s well-known play of _Theodora_, in which she is undoubtedly
misrepresented. A pendant to this _brochure_, containing all the facts
of the defence, will be found in Eng. Hist. Rev., 1887 (Mallet).
Present flatterers were, of course, ready to swear that she was an
Anician! See p. 308.
[1235] Procopius, Anecdot., 10, 17. His horror at the practice of
abortion teaches us that a great revulsion of public sentiment must
have taken place since the time of Aristotle, who counsels resorting to
it when over-population is threatened; Politics, vii, 16.
[1236] Procopius, Anecdot., 17.
[1237] _Ibid._, 9.
[1238] Codinus, p. 104 (Anon. of Banduri). This information dates from
the early part of the eleventh century, but must have been copied from
some earlier document. It is in general agreement with Procopius,
Anecdot., 9.
[1239] Socrates, iv, 28. The Novation purists made great headway there;
_ibid._, ii, 30, etc.
[1240] Contiguous to the church of St. Panteleemon, which stood on the
Propontis to the east of the Theodosian Port; see Notitia, reg. ix and
Ducange _sb. Homonoea_. The suburban St. P. is said to be indicated by
ruins still existing at the foot of the “Giant’s Grave,” on the Asiatic
side of the Bosphorus; see Gyllius, De Bosp., iii, 6; Procop., etc.,
Notitia, reg. ix; Ducange, _sb. Homonoea_; Procopius, De Aedific., i, 9.
[1241] Codinus, _loc. cit._
[1242] Procopius, Anecdot., 9.
[1243] _Ibid._, 10. He allows that she was sufficiently well looking,
but he also states that her countenance was disfigured by debauchery;
_ibid._, 9. At a later date he praises her beauty as something almost
superhuman, but this was intended for the eyes of the Court; De
Aedific., i, 11.
[1244] In natural gifts she may have had some resemblance to Cleopatra;
see Shakespeare’s presentation of the latter:
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety, etc.
Act ii, 2.
[1245] Procopius, Anecdot., 9; cf. John of Ephesus, Com. de Beat.
Orient. (Van Douven and Land), p. 68, where the words occur, “ad
Theodoram τὴν ἐκ τοῦ πορνείου, quae illo tempore patricia erat.” She
is often mentioned in this work in a laudatory strain, with which
this sentence, as Diehl (_op. cit._) forcibly observes, is decidedly
incongruous. Probably, therefore, it has been introduced by a copyist,
but of what date I cannot surmise.
[1246] Probably she now took up her residence in the palace of
Hormisdas; see pp. 37, 309.
[1247] As shown by subsequent events; Theophanes, an. 6019; Victor
Ton., an. 566; Jn. Malala, xviii, p. 430; _ib._, an. 6020.
[1248] Her position was now very similar to that of Caenis under
Vespasian; see p. 336.
[1249] See p. 108.
[1250] Procopius, Anecdot., 10; the law itself, Cod., V, iv, 23 (De
Nuptiis). This relaxation, however, was quite in accordance with the
development of Christian sentiment. Thus Chrysostom expresses it:
“Inflamed by this fire (Christian repentance) the prostitute becomes
holier than virgins”; In Matth. viii, Hom. vi, 5 (in Migne, vii, 69).
[1251] Procopius, Anecdot., 9. The spurious life by Theophilus (see
p. 320) tells us also that Justinian’s mother, her name Biglenitza
(Vigilantia), opposed the marriage, not on account of unchastity, but
because Theodora was too clever and addicted to magic, etc. There is no
historical mention of this Vigilantia.
[1252] _Ibid._, 10.
[1253] Jn. Malala, xvii, etc.
[1254] According to Michael the Syrian, Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch,
Theodora was the daughter of an “orthodox” (_i.e._, Monophysite)
priest, who would not part with his daughter until Justinian had
pledged his word not to coerce her to conform to Chalcedon! See
Chabot’s trans. from the Syriac, 1901, ix, 20. She built St. P. (p.
344) on the site of her chaste pre-nuptial life.
[1255] Procopius, Anecdot., 1. Aimoin (Hist. Franc., ii, 5), a western
author of the eleventh century, but in great part fabulous, relates
that Belisarius and Justinian entered a brothel and chose there two
prostitutes, Antonina and _Antonia_, sisters, whom they subsequently
married. If this is not merely loose hearsay emanating originally
from a reader of Procopius, it shows the sort of stories which were
popularly current on the subject. Although the anecdote is scarcely
far-fetched, it is rendered impossible by the fact that the ages of the
two men differed by something like a score of years.
[1256] Later we hear from Procopius (De Bel. Goth., i, 5) that in 535
he had just become old enough to receive a separate command in the
army; which probably indicates that he had then attained to the age of
eighteen, the period when a young Roman was freed from his guardian
(_curator_) and became _sui juris_. About nine years earlier (_c._ 526,
De Bel. Pers., i, 12) Belisarius is referred to in very similar terms,
so that the relative ages of these two characters can be determined
with tolerable accuracy. Belisarius was then “πρῶτος ὑπηνήτης.”
[1257] Antonina and her son Photius are personages almost peculiar
to Procopius and do not come to light noticeably in the ordinary
chronographers.