poorer nations, and to maintain a naval power for the protection of
their coasts and the annoyance of their enemies. A commerce of
mutual benefit exchanged the gold of Constantinople for the blood
of Sclavonians and Turks, the Bulgarians and Russians: their valor
contributed to the victories of Nicephorus and Zimisces; and if a
hostile people pressed too closely on the frontier, they were recalled
to the defence of their country, and the desire of peace, by the
well-managed attack of a more distant tribe. The command of the
Mediterranean, from the mouth of the Tanais to the columns of
Hercules, was always claimed, and often possessed, by the successors of
Constantine. Their capital was filled with naval stores and dexterous
artificers: the situation of Greece and Asia, the long coasts, deep
gulfs, and numerous islands, accustomed their subjects to the exercise
of navigation; and the trade of Venice and Amalfi supplied a nursery of
seamen to the Imperial fleet. Since the time of the Peloponnesian and
Punic wars, the sphere of action had not been enlarged; and the science
of naval architecture appears to have declined. The art of constructing
those stupendous machines which displayed three, or six, or ten, ranges
of oars, rising above, or falling behind, each other, was unknown to
the ship-builders of Constantinople, as well as to the mechanicians of
modern days. The _Dromones_, or light galleys of the Byzantine
empire, were content with two tier of oars; each tier was composed of
five-and-twenty benches; and two rowers were seated on each bench, who
plied their oars on either side of the vessel. To these we must add
the captain or centurion, who, in time of action, stood erect with his
armor-bearer on the poop, two steersmen at the helm, and two officers
at the prow, the one to manage the anchor, the other to point and play
against the enemy the tube of liquid fire. The whole crew, as in
the infancy of the art, performed the double service of mariners and
soldiers; they were provided with defensive and offensive arms, with
bows and arrows, which they used from the upper deck, with long pikes,
which they pushed through the portholes of the lower tier. Sometimes,
indeed, the ships of war were of a larger and more solid construction;
and the labors of combat and navigation were more regularly divided
between seventy soldiers and two hundred and thirty mariners. But for
the most part they were of the light and manageable size; and as
the Cape of Malea in Peloponnesus was still clothed with its ancient
terrors, an Imperial fleet was transported five miles over land across
the Isthmus of Corinth. The principles of maritime tactics had not
undergone any change since the time of Thucydides: a squadron of galleys
still advanced in a crescent, charged to the front, and strove to impel
their sharp beaks against the feeble sides of their antagonists. A
machine for casting stones and darts was built of strong timbers, in the
midst of the deck; and the operation of boarding was effected by a crane
that hoisted baskets of armed men. The language of signals, so clear and
copious in the naval grammar of the moderns, was imperfectly expressed
by the various positions and colors of a commanding flag. In the
darkness of the night, the same orders to chase, to attack, to halt, to
retreat, to break, to form, were conveyed by the lights of the leading
galley. By land, the fire-signals were repeated from one mountain to
another; a chain of eight stations commanded a space of five hundred
miles; and Constantinople in a few hours was apprised of the hostile
motions of the Saracens of Tarsus. Some estimate may be formed of the
power of the Greek emperors, by the curious and minute detail of the
armament which was prepared for the reduction of Crete. A fleet of one
hundred and twelve galleys, and seventy-five vessels of the Pamphylian
style, was equipped in the capital, the islands of the ∆gean Sea, and
the seaports of Asia, Macedonia, and Greece. It carried thirty-four
thousand mariners, seven thousand three hundred and forty soldiers,
seven hundred Russians, and five thousand and eighty-seven Mardaites,
whose fathers had been transplanted from the mountains of Libanus. Their
pay, most probably of a month, was computed at thirty-four centenaries
of gold, about one hundred and thirty-six thousand pounds sterling. Our
fancy is bewildered by the endless recapitulation of arms and engines,
of clothes and linen, of bread for the men and forage for the horses,
and of stores and utensils of every description, inadequate to the
conquest of a petty island, but amply sufficient for the establishment
of a flourishing colony.
The invention of the Greek fire did not, like that of gun powder,
produce a total revolution in the art of war. To these liquid
combustibles the city and empire of Constantine owed their deliverance;
and they were employed in sieges and sea-fights with terrible effect.
But they were either less improved, or less susceptible of improvement:
the engines of antiquity, the catapultÊ, balistÊ, and battering-rams,
were still of most frequent and powerful use in the attack and defence
of fortifications; nor was the decision of battles reduced to the
quick and heavy _fire_ of a line of infantry, whom it were fruitless to
protect with armor against a similar fire of their enemies. Steel and
iron were still the common instruments of destruction and safety; and
the helmets, cuirasses, and shields, of the tenth century did not,
either in form or substance, essentially differ from those which
had covered the companions of Alexander or Achilles. But instead of
accustoming the modern Greeks, like the legionaries of old, to the
constant and easy use of this salutary weight, their armor was laid
aside in light chariots, which followed the march, till, on the
approach of an enemy, they resumed with haste and reluctance the unusual
encumbrance. Their offensive weapons consisted of swords, battle-axes,
and spears; but the Macedonian pike was shortened a fourth of its
length, and reduced to the more convenient measure of twelve cubits or
feet. The sharpness of the Scythian and Arabian arrows had been severely
felt; and the emperors lament the decay of archery as a cause of the
public misfortunes, and recommend, as an advice and a command, that the
military youth, till the age of forty, should assiduously practise
the exercise of the bow. The _bands_, or regiments, were usually three
hundred strong; and, as a medium between the extremes of four and
sixteen, the foot soldiers of Leo and Constantine were formed eight
deep; but the cavalry charged in four ranks, from the reasonable
consideration, that the weight of the front could not be increased by
any pressure of the hindmost horses. If the ranks of the infantry or
cavalry were sometimes doubled, this cautious array betrayed a secret
distrust of the courage of the troops, whose numbers might swell the
appearance of the line, but of whom only a chosen band would dare to
encounter the spears and swords of the Barbarians. The order of battle
must have varied according to the ground, the object, and the adversary;
but their ordinary disposition, in two lines and a reserve, presented a
succession of hopes and resources most agreeable to the temper as well
as the judgment of the Greeks. In case of a repulse, the first line fell
back into the intervals of the second; and the reserve, breaking into
two divisions, wheeled round the flanks to improve the victory or cover
the retreat. Whatever authority could enact was accomplished, at least
in theory, by the camps and marches, the exercises and evolutions, the
edicts and books, of the Byzantine monarch. Whatever art could produce
from the forge, the loom, or the laboratory, was abundantly supplied by
the riches of the prince, and the industry of his numerous workmen. But
neither authority nor art could frame the most important machine, the
soldier himself; and if the _ceremonies_ of Constantine always suppose
the safe and triumphal return of the emperor, his _tactics_ seldom
soar above the means of escaping a defeat, and procrastinating the war.
Notwithstanding some transient success, the Greeks were sunk in their
own esteem and that of their neighbors. A cold hand and a loquacious
tongue was the vulgar description of the nation: the author of the
tactics was besieged in his capital; and the last of the Barbarians, who
trembled at the name of the Saracens, or Franks, could proudly exhibit
the medals of gold and silver which they had extorted from the feeble
sovereign of Constantinople. What spirit their government and character
denied, might have been inspired in some degree by the influence of
religion; but the religion of the Greeks could only teach them to suffer
and to yield. The emperor Nicephorus, who restored for a moment the
discipline and glory of the Roman name, was desirous of bestowing the
honors of martyrdom on the Christians who lost their lives in a holy
war against the infidels. But this political law was defeated by the
opposition of the patriarch, the bishops, and the principal senators;
and they strenuously urged the canons of St. Basil, that all who were
polluted by the bloody trade of a soldier should be separated, during
three years, from the communion of the faithful.
These scruples of the Greeks have been compared with the tears of
the primitive Moslems when they were held back from battle; and this
contrast of base superstition and high-spirited enthusiasm, unfolds to
a philosophic eye the history of the rival nations. The subjects of the
last caliphs had undoubtedly degenerated from the zeal and faith of the
companions of the prophet. Yet their martial creed still represented the
Deity as the author of war: the vital though latent spark of fanaticism
still glowed in the heart of their religion, and among the Saracens, who
dwelt on the Christian borders, it was frequently rekindled to a lively
and active flame. Their regular force was formed of the valiant slaves
who had been educated to guard the person and accompany the standard of
their lord: but the Mussulman people of Syria and Cilicia, of Africa and
Spain, was awakened by the trumpet which proclaimed a holy war against
the infidels. The rich were ambitious of death or victory in the cause
of God; the poor were allured by the hopes of plunder; and the old, the
infirm, and the women, assumed their share of meritorious service by
sending their substitutes, with arms and horses, into the field. These
offensive and defensive arms were similar in strength and temper to
those of the Romans, whom they far excelled in the management of the
horse and the bow: the massy silver of their belts, their bridles, and
their swords, displayed the magnificence of a prosperous nation; and
except some black archers of the South, the Arabs disdained the naked
bravery of their ancestors. Instead of wagons, they were attended by a
long train of camels, mules, and asses: the multitude of these animals,
whom they bedecked with flags and streamers, appeared to swell the pomp
and magnitude of their host; and the horses of the enemy were often
disordered by the uncouth figure and odious smell of the camels of the
East. Invincible by their patience of thirst and heat, their spirits
were frozen by a winter's cold, and the consciousness of their
propensity to sleep exacted the most rigorous precautions against the
surprises of the night. Their order of battle was a long square of two
deep and solid lines; the first of archers, the second of cavalry. In
their engagements by sea and land, they sustained with patient firmness
the fury of the attack, and seldom advanced to the charge till they
could discern and oppress the lassitude of their foes. But if they were
repulsed and broken, they knew not how to rally or renew the combat; and
their dismay was heightened by the superstitious prejudice, that God had
declared himself on the side of their enemies. The decline and fall of
the caliphs countenanced this fearful opinion; nor were there wanting,
among the Mahometans and Christians, some obscure prophecies which
prognosticated their alternate defeats. The unity of the Arabian empire
was dissolved, but the independent fragments were equal to populous and
powerful kingdoms; and in their naval and military armaments, an emir of
Aleppo or Tunis might command no despicable fund of skill, and industry,
and treasure. In their transactions of peace and war with the Saracens,
the princes of Constantinople too often felt that these Barbarians had
nothing barbarous in their discipline; and that if they were destitute
of original genius, they had been endowed with a quick spirit of
curiosity and imitation. The model was indeed more perfect than the
copy; their ships, and engines, and fortifications, were of a less
skilful construction; and they confess, without shame, that the same God
who has given a tongue to the Arabians, had more nicely fashioned the
hands of the Chinese, and the heads of the Greeks.
Chapter LIII: Fate Of The Eastern Empire.--Part IV.
A name of some German tribes between the Rhine and the Weser had spread
its victorious influence over the greatest part of Gaul, Germany, and
Italy; and the common appellation of Franks was applied by the Greeks
and Arabians to the Christians of the Latin church, the nations of
the West, who stretched beyond _their_ knowledge to the shores of the
Atlantic Ocean. The vast body had been inspired and united by the
soul of Charlemagne; but the division and degeneracy of his race soon
annihilated the Imperial power, which would have rivalled the CÊsars
of Byzantium, and revenged the indignities of the Christian name. The
enemies no longer feared, nor could the subjects any longer trust, the
application of a public revenue, the labors of trade and manufactures
in the military service, the mutual aid of provinces and armies, and
the naval squadrons which were regularly stationed from the mouth of the
Elbe to that of the Tyber. In the beginning of the tenth century, the
family of Charlemagne had almost disappeared; his monarchy was broken
into many hostile and independent states; the regal title was assumed
by the most ambitious chiefs; their revolt was imitated in a long
subordination of anarchy and discord, and the nobles of every province
disobeyed their sovereign, oppressed their vassals, and exercised
perpetual hostilities against their equals and neighbors. Their private
wars, which overturned the fabric of government, fomented the martial
spirit of the nation. In the system of modern Europe, the power of the
sword is possessed, at least in fact, by five or six mighty potentates;
their operations are conducted on a distant frontier, by an order of men
who devote their lives to the study and practice of the military art:
the rest of the country and community enjoys in the midst of war the
tranquillity of peace, and is only made sensible of the change by the
aggravation or decrease of the public taxes. In the disorders of the
tenth and eleventh centuries, every peasant was a soldier, and every
village a fortification; each wood or valley was a scene of murder
and rapine; and the lords of each castle were compelled to assume the
character of princes and warriors. To their own courage and policy they
boldly trusted for the safety of their family, the protection of their
lands, and the revenge of their injuries; and, like the conquerors of a
larger size, they were too apt to transgress the privilege of defensive
war. The powers of the mind and body were hardened by the presence of
danger and necessity of resolution: the same spirit refused to desert
a friend and to forgive an enemy; and, instead of sleeping under the
guardian care of a magistrate, they proudly disdained the authority of
the laws. In the days of feudal anarchy, the instruments of agriculture
and art were converted into the weapons of bloodshed: the peaceful
occupations of civil and ecclesiastical society were abolished or
corrupted; and the bishop who exchanged his mitre for a helmet, was more
forcibly urged by the manners of the times than by the obligation of his
tenure.
The love of freedom and of arms was felt, with conscious pride, by the
Franks themselves, and is observed by the Greeks with some degree of
amazement and terror. "The Franks," says the emperor Constantine, "are
bold and valiant to the verge of temerity; and their dauntless spirit is
supported by the contempt of danger and death. In the field and in close
onset, they press to the front, and rush headlong against the enemy,
without deigning to compute either his numbers or their own. Their ranks
are formed by the firm connections of consanguinity and friendship; and
their martial deeds are prompted by the desire of saving or revenging
their dearest companions. In their eyes, a retreat is a shameful flight;
and flight is indelible infamy." A nation endowed with such high and
intrepid spirit, must have been secure of victory if these advantages
had not been counter-balanced by many weighty defects. The decay of
their naval power left the Greeks and Saracens in possession of the sea,
for every purpose of annoyance and supply. In the age which preceded
the institution of knighthood, the Franks were rude and unskilful in the
service of cavalry; and in all perilous emergencies, their warriors were
so conscious of their ignorance, that they chose to dismount from their
horses and fight on foot. Unpractised in the use of pikes, or of missile
weapons, they were encumbered by the length of their swords, the weight
of their armor, the magnitude of their shields, and, if I may repeat
the satire of the meagre Greeks, by their unwieldy intemperance. Their
independent spirit disdained the yoke of subordination, and abandoned
the standard of their chief, if he attempted to keep the field beyond
the term of their stipulation or service. On all sides they were open to
the snares of an enemy less brave but more artful than themselves. They
might be bribed, for the Barbarians were venal; or surprised in the
night, for they neglected the precautions of a close encampment or
vigilant sentinels. The fatigues of a summer's campaign exhausted their
strength and patience, and they sunk in despair if their voracious
appetite was disappointed of a plentiful supply of wine and of food.
This general character of the Franks was marked with some national and
local shades, which I should ascribe to accident rather than to climate,
but which were visible both to natives and to foreigners. An ambassador
of the great Otho declared, in the palace of Constantinople, that the
Saxons could dispute with swords better than with pens, and that they
preferred inevitable death to the dishonor of turning their backs to an
enemy. It was the glory of the nobles of France, that, in their humble
dwellings, war and rapine were the only pleasure, the sole occupation,
of their lives. They affected to deride the palaces, the banquets,
the polished manner of the Italians, who in the estimate of the Greeks
themselves had degenerated from the liberty and valor of the ancient
Lombards.
By the well-known edict of Caracalla, his subjects, from Britain to
Egypt, were entitled to the name and privileges of Romans, and their
national sovereign might fix his occasional or permanent residence in
any province of their common country. In the division of the East and
West, an ideal unity was scrupulously observed, and in their titles,
laws, and statutes, the successors of Arcadius and Honorius announced
themselves as the inseparable colleagues of the same office, as the
joint sovereigns of the Roman world and city, which were bounded by the
same limits. After the fall of the Western monarchy, the majesty of the
purple resided solely in the princes of Constantinople; and of these,
Justinian was the first who, after a divorce of sixty years, regained
the dominion of ancient Rome, and asserted, by the right of conquest,
the august title of Emperor of the Romans. A motive of vanity or
discontent solicited one of his successors, Constans the Second, to
abandon the Thracian Bosphorus, and to restore the pristine honors of
the Tyber: an extravagant project, (exclaims the malicious Byzantine,)
as if he had despoiled a beautiful and blooming virgin, to enrich, or
rather to expose, the deformity of a wrinkled and decrepit matron. But
the sword of the Lombards opposed his settlement in Italy: he entered
Rome not as a conqueror, but as a fugitive, and, after a visit of twelve
days, he pillaged, and forever deserted, the ancient capital of the
world. The final revolt and separation of Italy was accomplished about
two centuries after the conquests of Justinian, and from his reign we
may date the gradual oblivion of the Latin tongue. That legislator had
composed his Institutes, his Code, and his Pandects, in a language which
he celebrates as the proper and public style of the Roman government,
the consecrated idiom of the palace and senate of Constantinople, of the
campus and tribunals of the East. But this foreign dialect was unknown
to the people and soldiers of the Asiatic provinces, it was imperfectly
understood by the greater part of the interpreters of the laws and
the ministers of the state. After a short conflict, nature and habit
prevailed over the obsolete institutions of human power: for the general
benefit of his subjects, Justinian promulgated his novels in the two
languages: the several parts of his voluminous jurisprudence were
successively translated; the original was forgotten, the version was
studied, and the Greek, whose intrinsic merit deserved indeed the
preference, obtained a legal, as well as popular establishment in
the Byzantine monarchy. The birth and residence of succeeding princes
estranged them from the Roman idiom: Tiberius by the Arabs, and Maurice
by the Italians, are distinguished as the first of the Greek CÊsars,
as the founders of a new dynasty and empire: the silent revolution was
accomplished before the death of Heraclius; and the ruins of the Latin
speech were darkly preserved in the terms of jurisprudence and the
acclamations of the palace. After the restoration of the Western empire
by Charlemagne and the Othos, the names of Franks and Latins acquired an
equal signification and extent; and these haughty Barbarians asserted,
with some justice, their superior claim to the language and dominion of
Rome. They insulted the alien of the East who had renounced the dress
and idiom of Romans; and their reasonable practice will justify the
frequent appellation of Greeks. But this contemptuous appellation was
indignantly rejected by the prince and people to whom it was applied.
Whatsoever changes had been introduced by the lapse of ages, they
alleged a lineal and unbroken succession from Augustus and Constantine;
and, in the lowest period of degeneracy and decay, the name of Romans
adhered to the last fragments of the empire of Constantinople.
While the government of the East was transacted in Latin, the Greek was
the language of literature and philosophy; nor could the masters of
this rich and perfect idiom be tempted to envy the borrowed learning and
imitative taste of their Roman disciples. After the fall of Paganism,
the loss of Syria and Egypt, and the extinction of the schools of
Alexandria and Athens, the studies of the Greeks insensibly retired
to some regular monasteries, and above all, to the royal college of
Constantinople, which was burnt in the reign of Leo the Isaurian. In the
pompous style of the age, the president of that foundation was named the
Sun of Science: his twelve associates, the professors in the different
arts and faculties, were the twelve signs of the zodiac; a library of
thirty-six thousand five hundred volumes was open to their inquiries;
and they could show an ancient manuscript of Homer, on a roll of
parchment one hundred and twenty feet in length, the intestines, as it
was fabled, of a prodigious serpent. But the seventh and eight centuries
were a period of discord and darkness: the library was burnt, the
college was abolished, the Iconoclasts are represented as the foes of
antiquity; and a savage ignorance and contempt of letters has disgraced
the princes of the Heraclean and Isaurian dynasties.