179 (return) [ The ancient, and perhaps _The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes)

sufferings of Tarachus and his companions, (Acta Sincera Ruinart,

p. 419—448,) is filled with strong expressions of resentment and

contempt, which could not fail of irritating the magistrate. The

behavior of Ædesius to Hierocles, præfect of Egypt, was still

more extraordinary. Euseb. de Martyr. Palestin. c. 5. * Note: M.

Guizot states, that the acts of Tarachus and his companion

contain nothing that appears dictated by violent feelings,

(sentiment outré.) Nothing can be more painful than the constant

attempt of Gibbon throughout this discussion, to find some flaw

in the virtue and heroism of the martyrs, some extenuation for

the cruelty of the persecutors. But truth must not be sacrificed

even to well-grounded moral indignation. Though the language of

these martyrs is in great part that of calm de fiance, of noble

firmness, yet there are many expressions which betray “resentment

and contempt.” “Children of Satan, worshippers of Devils,” is

their common appellation of the heathen. One of them calls the

judge another, one curses, and declares that he will curse the

Emperors, as pestilential and bloodthirsty tyrants, whom God will

soon visit in his wrath. On the other hand, though at first they

speak the milder language of persuasion, the cold barbarity of

the judges and officers might surely have called forth one

sentence of abhorrence from Gibbon. On the first unsatisfactory

answer, “Break his jaw,” is the order of the judge. They direct

and witness the most excruciating tortures; the people, as M.

Guizot observers, were so much revolted by the cruelty of Maximus

that when the martyrs appeared in the amphitheatre, fear seized

on all hearts, and general murmurs against the unjust judge rank

through the assembly. It is singular, at least, that Gibbon

should have quoted “as probably authentic,” acts so much

embellished with miracle as these of Tarachus are, particularly

towards the end.—M. * Note: Scarcely were the authorities

informed of this, than the president of the province, a man, says

Eusebius, harsh and cruel, banished the confessors, some to

Cyprus, others to different parts of Palestine, and ordered them

to be tormented by being set to the most painful labors. Four of

them, whom he required to abjure their faith and refused, were

burnt alive. Euseb. de Mart. Palest. c. xiii.—G. Two of these

were bishops; a fifth, Silvanus, bishop of Gaza, was the last

martyr; another, named John was blinded, but used to officiate,

and recite from memory long passages of the sacred writings—M.]

180 (return) [ Euseb. de Martyr. Palestin. c. 13.]

181 (return) [ Augustin. Collat. Carthagin. Dei, iii. c. 13, ap.

Tillanant, Mémoires Ecclésiastiques, tom. v. part i. p. 46. The

controversy with the Donatists, has reflected some, though

perhaps a partial, light on the history of the African church.]

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To

Constantine.—Part VIII.

The vague descriptions of exile and imprisonment, of pain and

torture, are so easily exaggerated or softened by the pencil of

an artful orator, 1811 that we are naturally induced to inquire

into a fact of a more distinct and stubborn kind; the number of

persons who suffered death in consequence of the edicts published

by Diocletian, his associates, and his successors. The recent

legendaries record whole armies and cities, which were at once

swept away by the undistinguishing rage of persecution. The more

ancient writers content themselves with pouring out a liberal

effusion of loose and tragical invectives, without condescending

to ascertain the precise number of those persons who were

permitted to seal with their blood their belief of the gospel.

From the history of Eusebius, it may, however, be collected, that

only nine bishops were punished with death; and we are assured,

by his particular enumeration of the martyrs of Palestine, 182

that no more than ninety-two Christians were entitled to that

honorable appellation. 1821 As we are unacquainted with the

degree of episcopal zeal and courage which prevailed at that

time, it is not in our power to draw any useful inferences from

the former of these facts: but the latter may serve to justify a

very important and probable conclusion. According to the

distribution of Roman provinces, Palestine may be considered as

the sixteenth part of the Eastern empire: 183 and since there

were some governors, who from a real or affected clemency had

preserved their hands unstained with the blood of the faithful,

184 it is reasonable to believe, that the country which had given

birth to Christianity, produced at least the sixteenth part of

the martyrs who suffered death within the dominions of Galerius

and Maximin; the whole might consequently amount to about fifteen

hundred, a number which, if it is equally divided between the ten

years of the persecution, will allow an annual consumption of one

hundred and fifty martyrs. Allotting the same proportion to the

provinces of Italy, Africa, and perhaps Spain, where, at the end

of two or three years, the rigor of the penal laws was either

suspended or abolished, the multitude of Christians in the Roman

empire, on whom a capital punishment was inflicted by a judicia,

sentence, will be reduced to somewhat less than two thousand

persons. Since it cannot be doubted that the Christians were more

numerous, and their enemies more exasperated, in the time of

Diocletian, than they had ever been in any former persecution,

this probable and moderate computation may teach us to estimate

the number of primitive saints and martyrs who sacrificed their

lives for the important purpose of introducing Christianity into

the world.

1811 (return) [ Perhaps there never was an instance of an author

committing so deliberately the fault which he reprobates so

strongly in others. What is the dexterous management of the more

inartificial historians of Christianity, in exaggerating the

numbers of the martyrs, compared to the unfair address with which

Gibbon here quietly dismisses from the account all the horrible

and excruciating tortures which fell short of death? The reader

may refer to the xiith chapter (book viii.) of Eusebius for the

description and for the scenes of these tortures.—M.]

182 (return) [ Eusebius de Martyr. Palestin. c. 13. He closes his

narration by assuring us that these were the martyrdoms inflicted

in Palestine, during the _whole_ course of the persecution. The

9th chapter of his viiith book, which relates to the province of

Thebais in Egypt, may seem to contradict our moderate

computation; but it will only lead us to admire the artful

management of the historian. Choosing for the scene of the most

exquisite cruelty the most remote and sequestered country of the

Roman empire, he relates that in Thebais from ten to one hundred

persons had frequently suffered martyrdom in the same day. But

when he proceeds to mention his own journey into Egypt, his

language insensibly becomes more cautious and moderate. Instead

of a large, but definite number, he speaks of many Christians,

and most artfully selects two ambiguous words, which may signify

either what he had seen, or what he had heard; either the

expectation, or the execution of the punishment. Having thus

provided a secure evasion, he commits the equivocal passage to

his readers and translators; justly conceiving that their piety

would induce them to prefer the most favorable sense. There was

perhaps some malice in the remark of Theodorus Metochita, that

all who, like Eusebius, had been conversant with the Egyptians,

delighted in an obscure and intricate style. (See Valesius ad

loc.)]

1821 (return) [ This calculation is made from the martyrs, of

whom Eusebius speaks by name; but he recognizes a much greater

number. Thus the ninth and tenth chapters of his work are

entitled, “Of Antoninus, Zebinus, Germanus, and other martyrs; of

Peter the monk. of Asclepius the Maroionite, and other martyrs.”

[Are these vague contents of chapters very good authority?—M.]

Speaking of those who suffered under Diocletian, he says, “I will

only relate the death of one of these, from which, the reader may

divine what befell the rest.” Hist. Eccl. viii. 6. [This relates

only to the martyrs in the royal household.—M.] Dodwell had made,

before Gibbon, this calculation and these objections; but Ruinart

(Act. Mart. Pref p. 27, _et seq_.) has answered him in a

peremptory manner: Nobis constat Eusebium in historia infinitos

passim martyres admisisse. quamvis revera paucorum nomina

recensuerit. Nec alium Eusebii interpretem quam ipsummet Eusebium

proferimus, qui (l. iii. c. 33) ait sub Trajano plurimosa ex

fidelibus martyrii certamen subiisse (l. v. init.) sub Antonino

et Vero innumerabiles prope martyres per universum orbem

enituisse affirmat. (L. vi. c. 1.) Severum persecutionem

concitasse refert, in qua per omnes ubique locorum Ecclesias, ab

athletis pro pietate certantibus, illustria confecta fuerunt

martyria. Sic de Decii, sic de Valeriani, persecutionibus

loquitur, quæ an Dodwelli faveant conjectionibus judicet æquus

lector. Even in the persecutions which Gibbon has represented as

much more mild than that of Diocletian, the number of martyrs

appears much greater than that to which he limits the martyrs of

the latter: and this number is attested by incontestable

monuments. I will quote but one example. We find among the

letters of St. Cyprian one from Lucianus to Celerinus, written

from the depth of a prison, in which Lucianus names seventeen of

his brethren dead, some in the quarries, some in the midst of

tortures some of starvation in prison. Jussi sumus (he proceeds)

secundum præ ceptum imperatoris, fame et siti necari, et reclusi

sumus in duabus cellis, ta ut nos afficerent fame et siti et

ignis vapore.—G.]

183 (return) [ When Palestine was divided into three, the

præfecture of the East contained forty-eight provinces. As the

ancient distinctions of nations were long since abolished, the

Romans distributed the provinces according to a general

proportion of their extent and opulence.]

184 (return) [ Ut gloriari possint nullam se innocentium

poremisse, nam et ipse audivi aloquos gloriantes, quia

administratio sua, in hac paris merit incruenta. Lactant.

Institur. Divin v. 11.]

We shall conclude this chapter by a melancholy truth, which

obtrudes itself on the reluctant mind; that even admitting,

without hesitation or inquiry, all that history has recorded, or

devotion has feigned, on the subject of martyrdoms, it must still

be acknowledged, that the Christians, in the course of their

intestine dissensions, have inflicted far greater severities on

each other, than they had experienced from the zeal of infidels.

During the ages of ignorance which followed the subversion of the

Roman empire in the West, the bishops of the Imperial city

extended their dominion over the laity as well as clergy of the

Latin church. The fabric of superstition which they had erected,

and which might long have defied the feeble efforts of reason,

was at length assaulted by a crowd of daring fanatics, who from

the twelfth to the sixteenth century assumed the popular

character of reformers. The church of Rome defended by violence

the empire which she had acquired by fraud; a system of peace and

benevolence was soon disgraced by proscriptions, war, massacres,

and the institution of the holy office. And as the reformers were

animated by the love of civil as well as of religious freedom,

the Catholic princes connected their own interest with that of

the clergy, and enforced by fire and the sword the terrors of

spiritual censures. In the Netherlands alone, more than one

hundred thousand of the subjects of Charles V. are said to have

suffered by the hand of the executioner; and this extraordinary

number is attested by Grotius, 185 a man of genius and learning,

who preserved his moderation amidst the fury of contending sects,

and who composed the annals of his own age and country, at a time

when the invention of printing had facilitated the means of

intelligence, and increased the danger of detection.

If we are obliged to submit our belief to the authority of

Grotius, it must be allowed, that the number of Protestants, who

were executed in a single province and a single reign, far

exceeded that of the primitive martyrs in the space of three

centuries, and of the Roman empire. But if the improbability of

the fact itself should prevail over the weight of evidence; if

Grotius should be convicted of exaggerating the merit and

sufferings of the Reformers; 186 we shall be naturally led to

inquire what confidence can be placed in the doubtful and

imperfect monuments of ancient credulity; what degree of credit

can be assigned to a courtly bishop, and a passionate declaimer,

1861 who, under the protection of Constantine, enjoyed the

exclusive privilege of recording the persecutions inflicted on

the Christians by the vanquished rivals or disregarded

predecessors of their gracious sovereign.

185 (return) [ Grot. Annal. de Rebus Belgicis, l. i. p. 12, edit.

fol.]

186 (return) [ Fra Paola (Istoria del Concilio Tridentino, l.

iii.) reduces the number of the Belgic martyrs to 50,000. In

learning and moderation Fra Paola was not inferior to Grotius.

The priority of time gives some advantage to the evidence of the

former, which he loses, on the other hand, by the distance of

Venice from the Netherlands.]

1861 (return) [ Eusebius and the author of the Treatise de

Mortibus Persecutorum. It is deeply to be regretted that the

history of this period rest so much on the loose and, it must be

admitted, by no means scrupulous authority of Eusebius.

Ecclesiastical history is a solemn and melancholy lesson that the

best, even the most sacred, cause will eventually the least

departure from truth!—M.]

Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part I.

Foundation Of Constantinople.—Political System Constantine, And

His Successors.—Military Discipline.—The Palace.—The Finances.

The unfortunate Licinius was the last rival who opposed the

greatness, and the last captive who adorned the triumph, of

Constantine. After a tranquil and prosperous reign, the conquerer

bequeathed to his family the inheritance of the Roman empire; a

new capital, a new policy, and a new religion; and the

innovations which he established have been embraced and

consecrated by succeeding generations. The age of the great

Constantine and his sons is filled with important events; but the

historian must be oppressed by their number and variety, unless

he diligently separates from each other the scenes which are

connected only by the order of time. He will describe the

political institutions that gave strength and stability to the

empire, before he proceeds to relate the wars and revolutions

which hastened its decline. He will adopt the division unknown to

the ancients of civil and ecclesiastical affairs: the victory of

the Christians, and their intestine discord, will supply copious

and distinct materials both for edification and for scandal.

After the defeat and abdication of Licinius, his victorious rival

proceeded to lay the foundations of a city destined to reign in

future times, the mistress of the East, and to survive the empire

and religion of Constantine. The motives, whether of pride or of

policy, which first induced Diocletian to withdraw himself from

the ancient seat of government, had acquired additional weight by

the example of his successors, and the habits of forty years.

Rome was insensibly confounded with the dependent kingdoms which

had once acknowledged her supremacy; and the country of the

Cæsars was viewed with cold indifference by a martial prince,

born in the neighborhood of the Danube, educated in the courts

and armies of Asia, and invested with the purple by the legions

of Britain. The Italians, who had received Constantine as their

deliverer, submissively obeyed the edicts which he sometimes

condescended to address to the senate and people of Rome; but

they were seldom honored with the presence of their new

sovereign. During the vigor of his age, Constantine, according to

the various exigencies of peace and war, moved with slow dignity,

or with active diligence, along the frontiers of his extensive

dominions; and was always prepared to take the field either

against a foreign or a domestic enemy. But as he gradually

reached the summit of prosperity and the decline of life, he

began to meditate the design of fixing in a more permanent

station the strength as well as majesty of the throne. In the

choice of an advantageous situation, he preferred the confines of

Europe and Asia; to curb with a powerful arm the barbarians who

dwelt between the Danube and the Tanais; to watch with an eye of

jealousy the conduct of the Persian monarch, who indignantly

supported the yoke of an ignominious treaty. With these views,

Diocletian had selected and embellished the residence of

Nicomedia: but the memory of Diocletian was justly abhorred by

the protector of the church: and Constantine was not insensible

to the ambition of founding a city which might perpetuate the

glory of his own name. During the late operations of the war

against Licinius, he had sufficient opportunity to contemplate,

both as a soldier and as a statesman, the incomparable position

of Byzantium; and to observe how strongly it was guarded by

nature against a hostile attack, whilst it was accessible on

every side to the benefits of commercial intercourse. Many ages

before Constantine, one of the most judicious historians of

antiquity1 had described the advantages of a situation, from

whence a feeble colony of Greeks derived the command of the sea,

and the honors of a flourishing and independent republic. 2

1 (return) [ Polybius, l. iv. p. 423, edit. Casaubon. He observes

that the peace of the Byzantines was frequently disturbed, and

the extent of their territory contracted, by the inroads of the

wild Thracians.]

2 (return) [ The navigator Byzas, who was styled the son of

Neptune, founded the city 656 years before the Christian æra. His

followers were drawn from Argos and Megara. Byzantium was

afterwards rebuild and fortified by the Spartan general

Pausanias. See Scaliger Animadvers. ad Euseb. p. 81. Ducange,

Constantinopolis, l. i part i. cap 15, 16. With regard to the

wars of the Byzantines against Philip, the Gauls, and the kings

of Bithynia, we should trust none but the ancient writers who

lived before the greatness of the Imperial city had excited a

spirit of flattery and fiction.]

If we survey Byzantium in the extent which it acquired with the

august name of Constantinople, the figure of the Imperial city

may be represented under that of an unequal triangle. The obtuse

point, which advances towards the east and the shores of Asia,

meets and repels the waves of the Thracian Bosphorus. The

northern side of the city is bounded by the harbor; and the

southern is washed by the Propontis, or Sea of Marmara. The basis

of the triangle is opposed to the west, and terminates the

continent of Europe. But the admirable form and division of the

circumjacent land and water cannot, without a more ample

explanation, be clearly or sufficiently understood. The winding

channel through which the waters of the Euxine flow with a rapid

and incessant course towards the Mediterranean, received the

appellation of Bosphorus, a name not less celebrated in the

history, than in the fables, of antiquity. 3 A crowd of temples

and of votive altars, profusely scattered along its steep and

woody banks, attested the unskilfulness, the terrors, and the

devotion of the Grecian navigators, who, after the example of the

Argonauts, explored the dangers of the inhospitable Euxine. On

these banks tradition long preserved the memory of the palace of

Phineus, infested by the obscene harpies; 4 and of the sylvan

reign of Amycus, who defied the son of Leda to the combat of the

cestus. 5 The straits of the Bosphorus are terminated by the

Cyanean rocks, which, according to the description of the poets,

had once floated on the face of the waters; and were destined by

the gods to protect the entrance of the Euxine against the eye of

profane curiosity. 6 From the Cyanean rocks to the point and

harbor of Byzantium, the winding length of the Bosphorus extends

about sixteen miles, 7 and its most ordinary breadth may be

computed at about one mile and a half. The new castles of Europe

and Asia are constructed, on either continent, upon the

foundations of two celebrated temples, of Serapis and of Jupiter

Urius. The _old_ castles, a work of the Greek emperors, command

the narrowest part of the channel in a place where the opposite

banks advance within five hundred paces of each other. These

fortresses were destroyed and strengthened by Mahomet the Second,

when he meditated the siege of Constantinople: 8 but the Turkish

conqueror was most probably ignorant, that near two thousand

years before his reign, Darius had chosen the same situation to

connect the two continents by a bridge of boats. 9 At a small

distance from the old castles we discover the little town of

Chrysopolis, or Scutari, which may almost be considered as the

Asiatic suburb of Constantinople. The Bosphorus, as it begins to

open into the Propontis, passes between Byzantium and Chalcedon.

The latter of those cities was built by the Greeks, a few years

before the former; and the blindness of its founders, who

overlooked the superior advantages of the opposite coast, has

been stigmatized by a proverbial expression of contempt. 10

3 (return) [ The Bosphorus has been very minutely described by

Dionysius of Byzantium, who lived in the time of Domitian,

(Hudson, Geograph Minor, tom. iii.,) and by Gilles or Gyllius, a

French traveller of the XVIth century. Tournefort (Lettre XV.)

seems to have used his own eyes, and the learning of Gyllius. Add

Von Hammer, Constantinopolis und der Bosphoros, 8vo.—M.]

4 (return) [ There are very few conjectures so happy as that of

Le Clere, (Bibliotehque Universelle, tom. i. p. 148,) who

supposes that the harpies were only locusts. The Syriac or

Phœnician name of those insects, their noisy flight, the stench

and devastation which they occasion, and the north wind which

drives them into the sea, all contribute to form the striking

resemblance.]

5 (return) [ The residence of Amycus was in Asia, between the old

and the new castles, at a place called Laurus Insana. That of

Phineus was in Europe, near the village of Mauromole and the

Black Sea. See Gyllius de Bosph. l. ii. c. 23. Tournefort, Lettre

XV.]

6 (return) [ The deception was occasioned by several pointed

rocks, alternately sovered and abandoned by the waves. At present

there are two small islands, one towards either shore; that of

Europe is distinguished by the column of Pompey.]

7 (return) [ The ancients computed one hundred and twenty stadia,

or fifteen Roman miles. They measured only from the new castles,

but they carried the straits as far as the town of Chalcedon.]

8 (return) [ Ducas. Hist. c. 34. Leunclavius Hist. Turcica

Mussulmanica, l. xv. p. 577. Under the Greek empire these castles

were used as state prisons, under the tremendous name of Lethe,

or towers of oblivion.]

9 (return) [ Darius engraved in Greek and Assyrian letters, on

two marble columns, the names of his subject nations, and the

amazing numbers of his land and sea forces. The Byzantines

afterwards transported these columns into the city, and used them

for the altars of their tutelar deities. Herodotus, l. iv. c.

87.]

10 (return) [ Namque arctissimo inter Europam Asiamque divortio

Byzantium in extremâ Europâ posuere Greci, quibus, Pythium

Apollinem consulentibus ubi conderent urbem, redditum oraculum

est, quærerent sedem _cæcerum_ terris adversam. Ea ambage

Chalcedonii monstrabantur quod priores illuc advecti, prævisâ

locorum utilitate pejora legissent Tacit. Annal. xii. 63.]

The harbor of Constantinople, which may be considered as an arm

of the Bosphorus, obtained, in a very remote period, the

denomination of the _Golden Horn_. The curve which it describes

might be compared to the horn of a stag, or as it should seem,

with more propriety, to that of an ox. 11 The epithet of _golden_

was expressive of the riches which every wind wafted from the

most distant countries into the secure and capacious port of

Constantinople. The River Lycus, formed by the conflux of two

little streams, pours into the harbor a perpetual supply of fresh

water, which serves to cleanse the bottom, and to invite the

periodical shoals of fish to seek their retreat in that

convenient recess. As the vicissitudes of tides are scarcely felt

in those seas, the constant depth of the harbor allows goods to

be landed on the quays without the assistance of boats; and it

has been observed, that in many places the largest vessels may

rest their prows against the houses, while their sterns are

floating in the water. 12 From the mouth of the Lycus to that of

the harbor, this arm of the Bosphorus is more than seven miles in

length. The entrance is about five hundred yards broad, and a

strong chain could be occasionally drawn across it, to guard the

port and city from the attack of a hostile navy. 13

11 (return) [ Strabo, l. vii. p. 492, [edit. Casaub.] Most of the

antlers are now broken off; or, to speak less figuratively, most

of the recesses of the harbor are filled up. See Gill. de

Bosphoro Thracio, l. i. c. 5.]

12 (return) [ Procopius de Ædificiis, l. i. c. 5. His description

is confirmed by modern travellers. See Thevenot, part i. l. i. c.

15. Tournefort, Lettre XII. Niebuhr, Voyage d’Arabie, p. 22.]

13 (return) [ See Ducange, C. P. l. i. part i. c. 16, and his

Observations sur Villehardouin, p. 289. The chain was drawn from

the Acropolis near the modern Kiosk, to the tower of Galata; and

was supported at convenient distances by large wooden piles.]

Between the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, the shores of Europe

and Asia, receding on either side, enclose the sea of Marmara,

which was known to the ancients by the denomination of Propontis.

The navigation from the issue of the Bosphorus to the entrance of

the Hellespont is about one hundred and twenty miles.

Those who steer their westward course through the middle of the

Propontis, may at once descry the high lands of Thrace and

Bithynia, and never lose sight of the lofty summit of Mount

Olympus, covered with eternal snows. 14 They leave on the left a

deep gulf, at the bottom of which Nicomedia was seated, the

Imperial residence of Diocletian; and they pass the small islands

of Cyzicus and Proconnesus before they cast anchor at Gallipoli;

where the sea, which separates Asia from Europe, is again

contracted into a narrow channel.

14 (return) [ Thevenot (Voyages au Levant, part i. l. i. c. 14)

contracts the measure to 125 small Greek miles. Belon

(Observations, l. ii. c. 1.) gives a good description of the

Propontis, but contents himself with the vague expression of one

day and one night’s sail. When Sandy’s (Travels, p. 21) talks of

150 furlongs in length, as well as breadth we can only suppose

some mistake of the press in the text of that judicious

traveller.]

The geographers who, with the most skilful accuracy, have

surveyed the form and extent of the Hellespont, assign about

sixty miles for the winding course, and about three miles for the

ordinary breadth of those celebrated straits. 15 But the

narrowest part of the channel is found to the northward of the

old Turkish castles between the cities of Sestus and Abydus. It

was here that the adventurous Leander braved the passage of the

flood for the possession of his mistress. 16 It was here

likewise, in a place where the distance between the opposite

banks cannot exceed five hundred paces, that Xerxes imposed a

stupendous bridge of boats, for the purpose of transporting into

Europe a hundred and seventy myriads of barbarians. 17 A sea

contracted within such narrow limits may seem but ill to deserve

the singular epithet of _broad_, which Homer, as well as Orpheus,

has frequently bestowed on the Hellespont. 1711 But our ideas of

greatness are of a relative nature: the traveller, and especially

the poet, who sailed along the Hellespont, who pursued the

windings of the stream, and contemplated the rural scenery, which

appeared on every side to terminate the prospect, insensibly lost

the remembrance of the sea; and his fancy painted those

celebrated straits, with all the attributes of a mighty river

flowing with a swift current, in the midst of a woody and inland

country, and at length, through a wide mouth, discharging itself

into the Ægean or Archipelago. 18 Ancient Troy, 19 seated on a an

eminence at the foot of Mount Ida, overlooked the mouth of the

Hellespont, which scarcely received an accession of waters from

the tribute of those immortal rivulets the Simois and Scamander.

The Grecian camp had stretched twelve miles along the shore from

the Sigæan to the Rhætean promontory; and the flanks of the army

were guarded by the bravest chiefs who fought under the banners

of Agamemnon. The first of those promontories was occupied by

Achilles with his invincible myrmidons, and the dauntless Ajax

pitched his tents on the other. After Ajax had fallen a sacrifice

to his disappointed pride, and to the ingratitude of the Greeks,

his sepulchre was erected on the ground where he had defended the

navy against the rage of Jove and of Hector; and the citizens of

the rising town of Rhæteum celebrated his memory with divine

honors. 20 Before Constantine gave a just preference to the

situation of Byzantium, he had conceived the design of erecting

the seat of empire on this celebrated spot, from whence the

Romans derived their fabulous origin. The extensive plain which

lies below ancient Troy, towards the Rhætean promontory and the

tomb of Ajax, was first chosen for his new capital; and though

the undertaking was soon relinquished the stately remains of

unfinished walls and towers attracted the notice of all who

sailed through the straits of the Hellespont. 21

15 (return) [ See an admirable dissertation of M. d’Anville upon

the Hellespont or Dardanelles, in the Mémoires tom. xxviii. p.

318—346. Yet even that ingenious geographer is too fond of

supposing new, and perhaps imaginary _measures_, for the purpose

of rendering ancient writers as accurate as himself. The stadia

employed by Herodotus in the description of the Euxine, the

Bosphorus, &c., (l. iv. c. 85,) must undoubtedly be all of the

same species; but it seems impossible to reconcile them either

with truth or with each other.]

16 (return) [ The oblique distance between Sestus and Abydus was

thirty stadia. The improbable tale of Hero and Leander is exposed

by M. Mahudel, but is defended on the authority of poets and

medals by M. de la Nauze. See the Académie des Inscriptions, tom.

vii. Hist. p. 74. elem. p. 240. Note: The practical illustration

of the possibility of Leander’s feat by Lord Byron and other

English swimmers is too well known to need particularly

reference—M.]

17 (return) [ See the seventh book of Herodotus, who has erected

an elegant trophy to his own fame and to that of his country. The

review appears to have been made with tolerable accuracy; but the

vanity, first of the Persians, and afterwards of the Greeks, was

interested to magnify the armament and the victory. I should much

doubt whether the _invaders_ have ever outnumbered the _men_ of

any country which they attacked.]

1711 (return) [ Gibbon does not allow greater width between the

two nearest points of the shores of the Hellespont than between

those of the Bosphorus; yet all the ancient writers speak of the

Hellespontic strait as broader than the other: they agree in

giving it seven stadia in its narrowest width, (Herod. in Melp.

c. 85. Polym. c. 34. Strabo, p. 591. Plin. iv. c. 12.) which make

875 paces. It is singular that Gibbon, who in the fifteenth note

of this chapter reproaches d’Anville with being fond of supposing

new and perhaps imaginary measures, has here adopted the peculiar

measurement which d’Anville has assigned to the stadium. This

great geographer believes that the ancients had a stadium of

fifty-one toises, and it is that which he applies to the walls of

Babylon. Now, seven of these stadia are equal to about 500 paces,

7 stadia = 2142 feet: 500 paces = 2135 feet 5 inches.—G. See

Rennell, Geog. of Herod. p. 121. Add Ukert, Geographie der

Griechen und Romer, v. i. p. 2, 71.—M.]

18 (return) [ See Wood’s Observations on Homer, p. 320. I have,

with pleasure, selected this remark from an author who in general

seems to have disappointed the expectation of the public as a

critic, and still more as a traveller. He had visited the banks

of the Hellespont; and had read Strabo; he ought to have

consulted the Roman itineraries. How was it possible for him to

confound Ilium and Alexandria Troas, (Observations, p. 340, 341,)

two cities which were sixteen miles distant from each other? *

Note: Compare Walpole’s Memoirs on Turkey, v. i. p. 101. Dr.

Clarke adopted Mr. Walpole’s interpretation of the salt

Hellespont. But the old interpretation is more graphic and

Homeric. Clarke’s Travels, ii. 70.—M.]

19 (return) [ Demetrius of Scepsis wrote sixty books on thirty

lines of Homer’s catalogue. The XIIIth Book of Strabo is

sufficient for _our_ curiosity.]

20 (return) [ Strabo, l. xiii. p. 595, [890, edit. Casaub.] The

disposition of the ships, which were drawn upon dry land, and the

posts of Ajax and Achilles, are very clearly described by Homer.

See Iliad, ix. 220.]

21 (return) [ Zosim. l. ii. [c. 30,] p. 105. Sozomen, l. ii. c.

3. Theophanes, p. 18. Nicephorus Callistus, l. vii. p. 48.

Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 6. Zosimus places the new city

between Ilium and Alexandria, but this apparent difference may be

reconciled by the large extent of its circumference. Before the

foundation of Constantinople, Thessalonica is mentioned by

Cedrenus, (p. 283,) and Sardica by Zonaras, as the intended

capital. They both suppose with very little probability, that the

emperor, if he had not been prevented by a prodigy, would have

repeated the mistake of the _blind_ Chalcedonians.]

We are at present qualified to view the advantageous position of

Constantinople; which appears to have been formed by nature for

the centre and capital of a great monarchy. Situated in the

forty-first degree of latitude, the Imperial city commanded, from

her seven hills, 22 the opposite shores of Europe and Asia; the

climate was healthy and temperate, the soil fertile, the harbor

secure and capacious; and the approach on the side of the

continent was of small extent and easy defence. The Bosphorus and

the Hellespont may be considered as the two gates of

Constantinople; and the prince who possessed those important

passages could always shut them against a naval enemy, and open

them to the fleets of commerce. The preservation of the eastern

provinces may, in some degree, be ascribed to the policy of

Constantine, as the barbarians of the Euxine, who in the

preceding age had poured their armaments into the heart of the

Mediterranean, soon desisted from the exercise of piracy, and

despaired of forcing this insurmountable barrier. When the gates

of the Hellespont and Bosphorus were shut, the capital still

enjoyed within their spacious enclosure every production which

could supply the wants, or gratify the luxury, of its numerous

inhabitants. The sea-coasts of Thrace and Bithynia, which

languish under the weight of Turkish oppression, still exhibit a

rich prospect of vineyards, of gardens, and of plentiful

harvests; and the Propontis has ever been renowned for an

inexhaustible store of the most exquisite fish, that are taken in

their stated seasons, without skill, and almost without labor. 23

But when the passages of the straits were thrown open for trade,

they alternately admitted the natural and artificial riches of

the north and south, of the Euxine, and of the Mediterranean.

Whatever rude commodities were collected in the forests of

Germany and Scythia, and far as the sources of the Tanais and the

Borysthenes; whatsoever was manufactured by the skill of Europe

or Asia; the corn of Egypt, and the gems and spices of the

farthest India, were brought by the varying winds into the port

of Constantinople, which for many ages attracted the commerce of

the ancient world. 24

[See Basilica Of Constantinople]

22 (return) [ Pocock’s Description of the East, vol. ii. part ii.

p. 127. His plan of the seven hills is clear and accurate. That

traveller is seldom unsatisfactory.]

23 (return) [ See Belon, Observations, c. 72—76. Among a variety

of different species, the Pelamides, a sort of Thunnies, were the

most celebrated. We may learn from Polybius, Strabo, and Tacitus,

that the profits of the fishery constituted the principal revenue

of Byzantium.]

24 (return) [ See the eloquent description of Busbequius,

epistol. i. p. 64. Est in Europa; habet in conspectu Asiam,

Egyptum. Africamque a dextrâ: quæ tametsi contiguæ non sunt,

maris tamen navigandique commoditate veluti junguntur. A sinistra

vero Pontus est Euxinus, &c.]

The prospect of beauty, of safety, and of wealth, united in a

single spot, was sufficient to justify the choice of Constantine.

But as some decent mixture of prodigy and fable has, in every

age, been supposed to reflect a becoming majesty on the origin of

great cities, 25 the emperor was desirous of ascribing his

resolution, not so much to the uncertain counsels of human

policy, as to the infallible and eternal decrees of divine

wisdom. In one of his laws he has been careful to instruct

posterity, that in obedience to the commands of God, he laid the

everlasting foundations of Constantinople: 26 and though he has

not condescended to relate in what manner the celestial

inspiration was communicated to his mind, the defect of his

modest silence has been liberally supplied by the ingenuity of

succeeding writers; who describe the nocturnal vision which

appeared to the fancy of Constantine, as he slept within the

walls of Byzantium. The tutelar genius of the city, a venerable

matron sinking under the weight of years and infirmities, was

suddenly transformed into a blooming maid, whom his own hands

adorned with all the symbols of Imperial greatness. 27 The

monarch awoke, interpreted the auspicious omen, and obeyed,

without hesitation, the will of Heaven. The day which gave birth

to a city or colony was celebrated by the Romans with such

ceremonies as had been ordained by a generous superstition; 28

and though Constantine might omit some rites which savored too

strongly of their Pagan origin, yet he was anxious to leave a

deep impression of hope and respect on the minds of the

spectators. On foot, with a lance in his hand, the emperor

himself led the solemn procession; and directed the line, which

was traced as the boundary of the destined capital: till the

growing circumference was observed with astonishment by the

assistants, who, at length, ventured to observe, that he had

already exceeded the most ample measure of a great city. “I shall

still advance,” replied Constantine, “till He, the invisible

guide who marches before me, thinks proper to stop.” 29 Without

presuming to investigate the nature or motives of this

extraordinary conductor, we shall content ourselves with the more

humble task of describing the extent and limits of

Constantinople. 30

25 (return) [ Datur hæc venia antiquitati, ut miscendo humana

divinis, primordia urbium augustiora faciat. T. Liv. in proœm.]

26 (return) [ He says in one of his laws, pro commoditate urbis

quam æterno nomine, jubente Deo, donavimus. Cod. Theodos. l.

xiii. tit. v. leg. 7.]

27 (return) [ The Greeks, Theophanes, Cedrenus, and the author of

the Alexandrian Chronicle, confine themselves to vague and

general expressions. For a more particular account of the vision,

we are obliged to have recourse to such Latin writers as William

of Malmesbury. See Ducange, C. P. l. i. p. 24, 25.]

28 (return) [ See Plutarch in Romul. tom. i. p. 49, edit. Bryan.

Among other ceremonies, a large hole, which had been dug for that

purpose, was filled up with handfuls of earth, which each of the

settlers brought from the place of his birth, and thus adopted

his new country.]

29 (return) [ Philostorgius, l. ii. c. 9. This incident, though

borrowed from a suspected writer, is characteristic and

probable.]

30 (return) [ See in the Mémoires de l’Académie, tom. xxxv p.

747-758, a dissertation of M. d’Anville on the extent of

Constantinople. He takes the plan inserted in the Imperium

Orientale of Banduri as the most complete; but, by a series of

very nice observations, he reduced the extravagant proportion of

the scale, and instead of 9500, determines the circumference of

the city as consisting of about 7800 French _toises_.]

In the actual state of the city, the palace and gardens of the

Seraglio occupy the eastern promontory, the first of the seven

hills, and cover about one hundred and fifty acres of our own

measure. The seat of Turkish jealousy and despotism is erected on

the foundations of a Grecian republic; but it may be supposed

that the Byzantines were tempted by the conveniency of the harbor

to extend their habitations on that side beyond the modern limits

of the Seraglio. The new walls of Constantine stretched from the

port to the Propontis across the enlarged breadth of the

triangle, at the distance of fifteen stadia from the ancient

fortification; and with the city of Byzantium they enclosed five

of the seven hills, which, to the eyes of those who approach

Constantinople, appear to rise above each other in beautiful

order. 31 About a century after the death of the founder, the new

buildings, extending on one side up the harbor, and on the other

along the Propontis, already covered the narrow ridge of the

sixth, and the broad summit of the seventh hill. The necessity of

protecting those suburbs from the incessant inroads of the

barbarians engaged the younger Theodosius to surround his capital

with an adequate and permanent enclosure of walls. 32 From the

eastern promontory to the golden gate, the extreme length of

Constantinople was about three Roman miles; 33 the circumference

measured between ten and eleven; and the surface might be

computed as equal to about two thousand English acres. It is

impossible to justify the vain and credulous exaggerations of

modern travellers, who have sometimes stretched the limits of

Constantinople over the adjacent villages of the European, and

even of the Asiatic coast. 34 But the suburbs of Pera and Galata,

though situate beyond the harbor, may deserve to be considered as

a part of the city; 35 and this addition may perhaps authorize

the measure of a Byzantine historian, who assigns sixteen Greek

(about fourteen Roman) miles for the circumference of his native

city. 36 Such an extent may not seem unworthy of an Imperial

residence. Yet Constantinople must yield to Babylon and Thebes,

37 to ancient Rome, to London, and even to Paris. 38

31 (return) [ Codinus, Antiquitat. Const. p. 12. He assigns the

church of St. Anthony as the boundary on the side of the harbor.

It is mentioned in Ducange, l. iv. c. 6; but I have tried,

without success, to discover the exact place where it was

situated.]

32 (return) [ The new wall of Theodosius was constructed in the

year 413. In 447 it was thrown down by an earthquake, and rebuilt

in three months by the diligence of the præfect Cyrus. The suburb

of the Blanchernæ was first taken into the city in the reign of

Heraclius Ducange, Const. l. i. c. 10, 11.]

33 (return) [ The measurement is expressed in the Notitia by

14,075 feet. It is reasonable to suppose that these were Greek

feet, the proportion of which has been ingeniously determined by

M. d’Anville. He compares the 180 feet with 78 Hashemite cubits,

which in different writers are assigned for the heights of St.

Sophia. Each of these cubits was equal to 27 French inches.]

34 (return) [ The accurate Thevenot (l. i. c. 15) walked in one

hour and three quarters round two of the sides of the triangle,

from the Kiosk of the Seraglio to the seven towers. D’Anville

examines with care, and receives with confidence, this decisive

testimony, which gives a circumference of ten or twelve miles.

The extravagant computation of Tournefort (Lettre XI) of

thirty-tour or thirty miles, without including Scutari, is a

strange departure from his usual character.]

35 (return) [ The sycæ, or fig-trees, formed the thirteenth

region, and were very much embellished by Justinian. It has since

borne the names of Pera and Galata. The etymology of the former

is obvious; that of the latter is unknown. See Ducange, Const. l.

i. c. 22, and Gyllius de Byzant. l. iv. c. 10.]

36 (return) [ One hundred and eleven stadia, which may be

translated into modern Greek miles each of seven stadia, or 660,

sometimes only 600 French toises. See D’Anville, Mesures

Itineraires, p. 53.]

37 (return) [ When the ancient texts, which describe the size of

Babylon and Thebes, are settled, the exaggerations reduced, and

the measures ascertained, we find that those famous cities filled

the great but not incredible circumference of about twenty-five

or thirty miles. Compare D’Anville, Mém. de l’Académie, tom.

xxviii. p. 235, with his Description de l’Egypte, p. 201, 202.]

38 (return) [ If we divide Constantinople and Paris into equal

squares of 50 French _toises_, the former contains 850, and the

latter 1160, of those divisions.]

Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part II.

The master of the Roman world, who aspired to erect an eternal

monument of the glories of his reign could employ in the

prosecution of that great work, the wealth, the labor, and all

that yet remained of the genius of obedient millions. Some

estimate may be formed of the expense bestowed with Imperial

liberality on the foundation of Constantinople, by the allowance

of about two millions five hundred thousand pounds for the

construction of the walls, the porticos, and the aqueducts. 39

The forests that overshadowed the shores of the Euxine, and the

celebrated quarries of white marble in the little island of

Proconnesus, supplied an inexhaustible stock of materials, ready

to be conveyed, by the convenience of a short water carriage, to

the harbor of Byzantium. 40 A multitude of laborers and

artificers urged the conclusion of the work with incessant toil:

but the impatience of Constantine soon discovered, that, in the

decline of the arts, the skill as well as numbers of his

architects bore a very unequal proportion to the greatness of his

designs. The magistrates of the most distant provinces were

therefore directed to institute schools, to appoint professors,

and by the hopes of rewards and privileges, to engage in the

study and practice of architecture a sufficient number of

ingenious youths, who had received a liberal education. 41 The

buildings of the new city were executed by such artificers as the

reign of Constantine could afford; but they were decorated by the

hands of the most celebrated masters of the age of Pericles and

Alexander. To revive the genius of Phidias and Lysippus,

surpassed indeed the power of a Roman emperor; but the immortal

productions which they had bequeathed to posterity were exposed

without defence to the rapacious vanity of a despot. By his

commands the cities of Greece and Asia were despoiled of their

most valuable ornaments. 42 The trophies of memorable wars, the

objects of religious veneration, the most finished statues of the

gods and heroes, of the sages and poets, of ancient times,

contributed to the splendid triumph of Constantinople; and gave

occasion to the remark of the historian Cedrenus, 43 who

observes, with some enthusiasm, that nothing seemed wanting

except the souls of the illustrious men whom these admirable

monuments were intended to represent. But it is not in the city

of Constantine, nor in the declining period of an empire, when

the human mind was depressed by civil and religious slavery, that

we should seek for the souls of Homer and of Demosthenes.

39 (return) [ Six hundred centenaries, or sixty thousand pounds’

weight of gold. This sum is taken from Codinus, Antiquit. Const.

p. 11; but unless that contemptible author had derived his

information from some purer sources, he would probably have been

unacquainted with so obsolete a mode of reckoning.]

40 (return) [ For the forests of the Black Sea, consult

Tournefort, Lettre XVI. for the marble quarries of Proconnesus,

see Strabo, l. xiii. p. 588, (881, edit. Casaub.) The latter had

already furnished the materials of the stately buildings of

Cyzicus.]

41 (return) [ See the Codex Theodos. l. xiii. tit. iv. leg. 1.

This law is dated in the year 334, and was addressed to the

præfect of Italy, whose jurisdiction extended over Africa. The

commentary of Godefroy on the whole title well deserves to be

consulted.]

42 (return) [ Constantinopolis dedicatur pœne omnium urbium

nuditate. Hieronym. Chron. p. 181. See Codinus, p. 8, 9. The

author of the Antiquitat. Const. l. iii. (apud Banduri Imp.

Orient. tom. i. p. 41) enumerates Rome, Sicily, Antioch, Athens,

and a long list of other cities. The provinces of Greece and Asia

Minor may be supposed to have yielded the richest booty.]

43 (return) [ Hist. Compend. p. 369. He describes the statue, or

rather bust, of Homer with a degree of taste which plainly

indicates that Cadrenus copied the style of a more fortunate

age.]

During the siege of Byzantium, the conqueror had pitched his tent

on the commanding eminence of the second hill. To perpetuate the

memory of his success, he chose the same advantageous position

for the principal Forum; 44 which appears to have been of a

circular, or rather elliptical form. The two opposite entrances

formed triumphal arches; the porticos, which enclosed it on every

side, were filled with statues; and the centre of the Forum was

occupied by a lofty column, of which a mutilated fragment is now

degraded by the appellation of the _burnt pillar_. This column

was erected on a pedestal of white marble twenty feet high; and

was composed of ten pieces of porphyry, each of which measured

about ten feet in height, and about thirty-three in

circumference. 45 On the summit of the pillar, above one hundred

and twenty feet from the ground, stood the colossal statue of

Apollo. It was a bronze, had been transported either from Athens

or from a town of Phrygia, and was supposed to be the work of

Phidias. The artist had represented the god of day, or, as it was

afterwards interpreted, the emperor Constantine himself, with a

sceptre in his right hand, the globe of the world in his left,

and a crown of rays glittering on his head. 46 The Circus, or

Hippodrome, was a stately building about four hundred paces in

length, and one hundred in breadth. 47 The space between the two

_metæ_ or goals were filled with statues and obelisks; and we may

still remark a very singular fragment of antiquity; the bodies of

three serpents, twisted into one pillar of brass. Their triple

heads had once supported the golden tripod which, after the

defeat of Xerxes, was consecrated in the temple of Delphi by the

victorious Greeks. 48 The beauty of the Hippodrome has been long

since defaced by the rude hands of the Turkish conquerors; 4811

but, under the similar appellation of Atmeidan, it still serves

as a place of exercise for their horses. From the throne, whence

the emperor viewed the Circensian games, a winding staircase 49

descended to the palace; a magnificent edifice, which scarcely

yielded to the residence of Rome itself, and which, together with

the dependent courts, gardens, and porticos, covered a

considerable extent of ground upon the banks of the Propontis

between the Hippodrome and the church of St. Sophia. 50 We might

likewise celebrate the baths, which still retained the name of

Zeuxippus, after they had been enriched, by the munificence of

Constantine, with lofty columns, various marbles, and above

threescore statues of bronze. 51 But we should deviate from the

design of this history, if we attempted minutely to describe the

different buildings or quarters of the city. It may be sufficient

to observe, that whatever could adorn the dignity of a great

capital, or contribute to the benefit or pleasure of its numerous

inhabitants, was contained within the walls of Constantinople. A

particular description, composed about a century after its

foundation, enumerates a capitol or school of learning, a circus,

two theatres, eight public, and one hundred and fifty-three

private baths, fifty-two porticos, five granaries, eight

aqueducts or reservoirs of water, four spacious halls for the

meetings of the senate or courts of justice, fourteen churches,

fourteen palaces, and four thousand three hundred and

eighty-eight houses, which, for their size or beauty, deserved to

be distinguished from the multitude of plebeian inhabitants. 52

44 (return) [ Zosim. l. ii. p. 106. Chron. Alexandrin. vel

Paschal. p. 284, Ducange, Const. l. i. c. 24. Even the last of

those writers seems to confound the Forum of Constantine with the

Augusteum, or court of the palace. I am not satisfied whether I

have properly distinguished what belongs to the one and the

other.]

45 (return) [ The most tolerable account of this column is given

by Pocock. Description of the East, vol. ii. part ii. p. 131. But

it is still in many instances perplexed and unsatisfactory.]

46 (return) [ Ducange, Const. l. i. c. 24, p. 76, and his notes

ad Alexiad. p. 382. The statue of Constantine or Apollo was

thrown down under the reign of Alexius Comnenus. * Note: On this

column (says M. von Hammer) Constantine, with singular

shamelessness, placed his own statue with the attributes of

Apollo and Christ. He substituted the nails of the Passion for

the rays of the sun. Such is the direct testimony of the author

of the Antiquit. Constantinop. apud Banduri. Constantine was

replaced by the “great and religious” Julian, Julian, by

Theodosius. A. D. 1412, the key stone was loosened by an

earthquake. The statue fell in the reign of Alexius Comnenus, and

was replaced by the cross. The Palladium was said to be buried

under the pillar. Von Hammer, Constantinopolis und der Bosporos,

i. 162.—M.]

47 (return) [ Tournefort (Lettre XII.) computes the Atmeidan at

four hundred paces. If he means geometrical paces of five feet

each, it was three hundred _toises_ in length, about forty more

than the great circus of Rome. See D’Anville, Mesures

Itineraires, p. 73.]

48 (return) [ The guardians of the most holy relics would rejoice

if they were able to produce such a chain of evidence as may be

alleged on this occasion. See Banduri ad Antiquitat. Const. p.

668. Gyllius de Byzant. l. ii. c. 13. 1. The original

consecration of the tripod and pillar in the temple of Delphi may

be proved from Herodotus and Pausanias. 2. The Pagan Zosimus

agrees with the three ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius,

Socrates, and Sozomen, that the sacred ornaments of the temple of

Delphi were removed to Constantinople by the order of

Constantine; and among these the serpentine pillar of the

Hippodrome is particularly mentioned. 3. All the European

travellers who have visited Constantinople, from Buondelmonte to

Pocock, describe it in the same place, and almost in the same

manner; the differences between them are occasioned only by the

injuries which it has sustained from the Turks. Mahomet the

Second broke the under jaw of one of the serpents with a stroke

of his battle axe Thevenot, l. i. c. 17. * Note: See note 75, ch.

lxviii. for Dr. Clarke’s rejection of Thevenot’s authority. Von

Hammer, however, repeats the story of Thevenot without

questioning its authenticity.—M.]

4811 (return) [ In 1808 the Janizaries revolted against the

vizier Mustapha Baisactar, who wished to introduce a new system

of military organization, besieged the quarter of the Hippodrome,

in which stood the palace of the viziers, and the Hippodrome was

consumed in the conflagration.—G.]

49 (return) [ The Latin name _Cochlea_ was adopted by the Greeks,

and very frequently occurs in the Byzantine history. Ducange,

Const. i. c. l, p. 104.]

50 (return) [ There are three topographical points which indicate

the situation of the palace. 1. The staircase which connected it

with the Hippodrome or Atmeidan. 2. A small artificial port on

the Propontis, from whence there was an easy ascent, by a flight

of marble steps, to the gardens of the palace. 3. The Augusteum

was a spacious court, one side of which was occupied by the front

of the palace, and another by the church of St. Sophia.]

51 (return) [ Zeuxippus was an epithet of Jupiter, and the baths

were a part of old Byzantium. The difficulty of assigning their

true situation has not been felt by Ducange. History seems to

connect them with St. Sophia and the palace; but the original

plan inserted in Banduri places them on the other side of the

city, near the harbor. For their beauties, see Chron. Paschal. p.

285, and Gyllius de Byzant. l. ii. c. 7. Christodorus (see

Antiquitat. Const. l. vii.) composed inscriptions in verse for

each of the statues. He was a Theban poet in genius as well as in

birth:—Bæotum in crasso jurares aëre natum. * Note: Yet, for his

age, the description of the statues of Hecuba and of Homer are by

no means without merit. See Antholog. Palat. (edit. Jacobs) i.

37—M.]

52 (return) [ See the Notitia. Rome only reckoned 1780 large

houses, _domus;_ but the word must have had a more dignified

signification. No _insulæ_ are mentioned at Constantinople. The

old capital consisted of 42 streets, the new of 322.]

The populousness of his favored city was the next and most

serious object of the attention of its founder. In the dark ages

which succeeded the translation of the empire, the remote and the

immediate consequences of that memorable event were strangely

confounded by the vanity of the Greeks and the credulity of the

Latins. 53 It was asserted, and believed, that all the noble

families of Rome, the senate, and the equestrian order, with

their innumerable attendants, had followed their emperor to the

banks of the Propontis; that a spurious race of strangers and

plebeians was left to possess the solitude of the ancient

capital; and that the lands of Italy, long since converted into

gardens, were at once deprived of cultivation and inhabitants. 54

In the course of this history, such exaggerations will be reduced

to their just value: yet, since the growth of Constantinople

cannot be ascribed to the general increase of mankind and of

industry, it must be admitted that this artificial colony was

raised at the expense of the ancient cities of the empire. Many

opulent senators of Rome, and of the eastern provinces, were

probably invited by Constantine to adopt for their country the

fortunate spot, which he had chosen for his own residence. The

invitations of a master are scarcely to be distinguished from

commands; and the liberality of the emperor obtained a ready and

cheerful obedience. He bestowed on his favorites the palaces

which he had built in the several quarters of the city, assigned

them lands and pensions for the support of their dignity, 55 and

alienated the demesnes of Pontus and Asia to grant hereditary

estates by the easy tenure of maintaining a house in the capital.

56 But these encouragements and obligations soon became

superfluous, and were gradually abolished. Wherever the seat of

government is fixed, a considerable part of the public revenue

will be expended by the prince himself, by his ministers, by the

officers of justice, and by the domestics of the palace. The most

wealthy of the provincials will be attracted by the powerful

motives of interest and duty, of amusement and curiosity. A third

and more numerous class of inhabitants will insensibly be formed,

of servants, of artificers, and of merchants, who derive their

subsistence from their own labor, and from the wants or luxury of

the superior ranks. In less than a century, Constantinople

disputed with Rome itself the preëminence of riches and numbers.

New piles of buildings, crowded together with too little regard

to health or convenience, scarcely allowed the intervals of

narrow streets for the perpetual throng of men, of horses, and of

carriages. The allotted space of ground was insufficient to

contain the increasing people; and the additional foundations,

which, on either side, were advanced into the sea, might alone

have composed a very considerable city. 57

53 (return) [ Liutprand, Legatio ad Imp. Nicephornm, p. 153. The

modern Greeks have strangely disfigured the antiquities of

Constantinople. We might excuse the errors of the Turkish or

Arabian writers; but it is somewhat astonishing, that the Greeks,

who had access to the authentic materials preserved in their own

language, should prefer fiction to truth, and loose tradition to

genuine history. In a single page of Codinus we may detect twelve

unpardonable mistakes; the reconciliation of Severus and Niger,

the marriage of their son and daughter, the siege of Byzantium by

the Macedonians, the invasion of the Gauls, which recalled

Severus to Rome, the _sixty_ years which elapsed from his death

to the foundation of Constantinople, &c.]

54 (return) [ Montesquieu, Grandeur et Décadence des Romains, c.

17.]

55 (return) [ Themist. Orat. iii. p. 48, edit. Hardouin. Sozomen,

l. ii. c. 3. Zosim. l. ii. p. 107. Anonym. Valesian. p. 715. If

we could credit Codinus, (p. 10,) Constantine built houses for

the senators on the exact model of their Roman palaces, and

gratified them, as well as himself, with the pleasure of an

agreeable surprise; but the whole story is full of fictions and

inconsistencies.]

56 (return) [ The law by which the younger Theodosius, in the

year 438, abolished this tenure, may be found among the Novellæ

of that emperor at the end of the Theodosian Code, tom. vi. nov.

12. M. de Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 371) has

evidently mistaken the nature of these estates. With a grant from

the Imperial demesnes, the same condition was accepted as a

favor, which would justly have been deemed a hardship, if it had

been imposed upon private property.]

57 (return) [ The passages of Zosimus, of Eunapius, of Sozomen,

and of Agathias, which relate to the increase of buildings and

inhabitants at Constantinople, are collected and connected by

Gyllius de Byzant. l. i. c. 3. Sidonius Apollinaris (in Panegyr.

Anthem. 56, p. 279, edit. Sirmond) describes the moles that were

pushed forwards into the sea, they consisted of the famous

Puzzolan sand, which hardens in the water.]

The frequent and regular distributions of wine and oil, of corn

or bread, of money or provisions, had almost exempted the poorest

citizens of Rome from the necessity of labor. The magnificence of

the first Cæsars was in some measure imitated by the founder of

Constantinople: 58 but his liberality, however it might excite

the applause of the people, has incurred the censure of

posterity. A nation of legislators and conquerors might assert

their claim to the harvests of Africa, which had been purchased

with their blood; and it was artfully contrived by Augustus,

that, in the enjoyment of plenty, the Romans should lose the

memory of freedom. But the prodigality of Constantine could not

be excused by any consideration either of public or private

interest; and the annual tribute of corn imposed upon Egypt for

the benefit of his new capital, was applied to feed a lazy and

insolent populace, at the expense of the husbandmen of an

industrious province. 59 5911 Some other regulations of this

emperor are less liable to blame, but they are less deserving of

notice. He divided Constantinople into fourteen regions or

quarters, 60 dignified the public council with the appellation of

senate, 61 communicated to the citizens the privileges of Italy,

62 and bestowed on the rising city the title of Colony, the first

and most favored daughter of ancient Rome. The venerable parent

still maintained the legal and acknowledged supremacy, which was

due to her age, her dignity, and to the remembrance of her former

greatness. 63

58 (return) [ Sozomen, l. ii. c. 3. Philostorg. l. ii. c. 9.

Codin. Antiquitat. Const. p. 8. It appears by Socrates, l. ii. c.

13, that the daily allowance of the city consisted of eight

myriads of σίτου, which we may either translate, with Valesius,

by the words modii of corn, or consider us expressive of the

number of loaves of bread. * Note: At Rome the poorer citizens

who received these gratuities were inscribed in a register; they

had only a personal right. Constantine attached the right to the

houses in his new capital, to engage the lower classes of the

people to build their houses with expedition. Codex Therodos. l.

xiv.—G.]

59 (return) [ See Cod. Theodos. l. xiii. and xiv., and Cod.

Justinian. Edict. xii. tom. ii. p. 648, edit. Genev. See the

beautiful complaint of Rome in the poem of Claudian de Bell.

Gildonico, ver. 46-64.——Cum subiit par Roma mihi, divisaque

sumsit Æquales aurora togas; Ægyptia rura In partem cessere

novam.]

5911 (return) [ This was also at the expense of Rome. The emperor

ordered that the fleet of Alexandria should transport to

Constantinople the grain of Egypt which it carried before to

Rome: this grain supplied Rome during four months of the year.

Claudian has described with force the famine occasioned by this

measure:—

Hæc nobis, hæc ante dabas; nunc pabula tantum Roma precor:

miserere tuæ; pater optime, gentis: Extremam defende famem. Claud.

de Bell. Gildon. v. 34.—G.

It was scarcely this measure. Gildo had cut off the African as

well as the Egyptian supplies.—M.]

60 (return) [ The regions of Constantinople are mentioned in the

code of Justinian, and particularly described in the Notitia of

the younger Theodosius; but as the four last of them are not

included within the wall of Constantine, it may be doubted

whether this division of the city should be referred to the

founder.]

61 (return) [ Senatum constituit secundi ordinis; _Claros_

vocavit. Anonym Valesian. p. 715. The senators of old Rome were

styled _Clarissimi_. See a curious note of Valesius ad Ammian.

Marcellin. xxii. 9. From the eleventh epistle of Julian, it

should seem that the place of senator was considered as a burden,

rather than as an honor; but the Abbé de la Bleterie (Vie de

Jovien, tom. ii. p. 371) has shown that this epistle could not

relate to Constantinople. Might we not read, instead of the

celebrated name of the obscure but more probable word Bisanthe or

Rhœdestus, now Rhodosto, was a small maritime city of Thrace. See

Stephan. Byz. de Urbibus, p. 225, and Cellar. Geograph. tom. i.

p. 849.]

62 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. xiv. 13. The commentary of

Godefroy (tom. v. p. 220) is long, but perplexed; nor indeed is

it easy to ascertain in what the Jus Italicum could consist,

after the freedom of the city had been communicated to the whole

empire. * Note: “This right, (the Jus Italicum,) which by most

writers is referred with out foundation to the personal condition

of the citizens, properly related to the city as a whole, and

contained two parts. First, the Roman or quiritarian property in

the soil, (commercium,) and its capability of mancipation,

usucaption, and vindication; moreover, as an inseparable

consequence of this, exemption from land-tax. Then, secondly, a

free constitution in the Italian form, with Duumvirs,

Quinquennales. and Ædiles, and especially with Jurisdiction.”

Savigny, Geschichte des Rom. Rechts i. p. 51—M.]

63 (return) [ Julian (Orat. i. p. 8) celebrates Constantinople as

not less superior to all other cities than she was inferior to

Rome itself. His learned commentator (Spanheim, p. 75, 76)

justifies this language by several parallel and contemporary

instances. Zosimus, as well as Socrates and Sozomen, flourished

after the division of the empire between the two sons of

Theodosius, which established a perfect _equality_ between the

old and the new capital.]

As Constantine urged the progress of the work with the impatience

of a lover, the walls, the porticos, and the principal edifices

were completed in a few years, or, according to another account,

in a few months; 64 but this extraordinary diligence should

excite the less admiration, since many of the buildings were

finished in so hasty and imperfect a manner, that under the

succeeding reign, they were preserved with difficulty from

impending ruin. 65 But while they displayed the vigor and

freshness of youth, the founder prepared to celebrate the

dedication of his city. 66 The games and largesses which crowned

the pomp of this memorable festival may easily be supposed; but

there is one circumstance of a more singular and permanent

nature, which ought not entirely to be overlooked. As often as

the birthday of the city returned, the statue of Constantine,

framed by his order, of gilt wood, and bearing in his right hand

a small image of the genius of the place, was erected on a

triumphal car. The guards, carrying white tapers, and clothed in

their richest apparel, accompanied the solemn procession as it

moved through the Hippodrome. When it was opposite to the throne

of the reigning emperor, he rose from his seat, and with grateful

reverence adored the memory of his predecessor. 67 At the

festival of the dedication, an edict, engraved on a column of

marble, bestowed the title of Second or New Rome on the city of

Constantine. 68 But the name of Constantinople 69 has prevailed

over that honorable epithet; and after the revolution of fourteen

centuries, still perpetuates the fame of its author. 70

64 (return) [ Codinus (Antiquitat. p. 8) affirms, that the

foundations of Constantinople were laid in the year of the world

5837, (A. D. 329,) on the 26th of September, and that the city

was dedicated the 11th of May, 5838, (A. D. 330.) He connects

those dates with several characteristic epochs, but they

contradict each other; the authority of Codinus is of little

weight, and the space which he assigns must appear insufficient.

The term of ten years is given us by Julian, (Orat. i. p. 8;) and

Spanheim labors to establish the truth of it, (p. 69-75,) by the

help of two passages from Themistius, (Orat. iv. p. 58,) and of

Philostorgius, (l. ii. c. 9,) which form a period from the year

324 to the year 334. Modern critics are divided concerning this

point of chronology and their different sentiments are very

accurately described by Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv.

p. 619-625.]

65 (return) [ Themistius. Orat. iii. p. 47. Zosim. l. ii. p. 108.

Constantine himself, in one of his laws, (Cod. Theod. l. xv. tit.

i.,) betrays his impatience.]

66 (return) [ Cedrenus and Zonaras, faithful to the mode of

superstition which prevailed in their own times, assure us that

Constantinople was consecrated to the virgin Mother of God.]

67 (return) [ The earliest and most complete account of this

extraordinary ceremony may be found in the Alexandrian Chronicle,

p. 285. Tillemont, and the other friends of Constantine, who are

offended with the air of Paganism which seems unworthy of a

Christian prince, had a right to consider it as doubtful, but

they were not authorized to omit the mention of it.]

68 (return) [ Sozomen, l. ii. c. 2. Ducange C. P. l. i. c. 6.

Velut ipsius Romæ filiam, is the expression of Augustin. de

Civitat. Dei, l. v. c. 25.]

69 (return) [ Eutropius, l. x. c. 8. Julian. Orat. i. p. 8.

Ducange C. P. l. i. c. 5. The name of Constantinople is extant on

the medals of Constantine.]

70 (return) [ The lively Fontenelle (Dialogues des Morts, xii.)

affects to deride the vanity of human ambition, and seems to

triumph in the disappointment of Constantine, whose immortal name

is now lost in the vulgar appellation of Istambol, a Turkish

corruption of είς τήν πόλιω. Yet the original name is still

preserved, 1. By the nations of Europe. 2. By the modern Greeks.

3. By the Arabs, whose writings are diffused over the wide extent

of their conquests in Asia and Africa. See D’Herbelot,

Bibliothèque Orientale, p. 275. 4. By the more learned Turks, and

by the emperor himself in his public mandates Cantemir’s History

of the Othman Empire, p. 51.]

The foundation of a new capital is naturally connected with the

establishment of a new form of civil and military administration.

The distinct view of the complicated system of policy, introduced

by Diocletian, improved by Constantine, and completed by his

immediate successors, may not only amuse the fancy by the

singular picture of a great empire, but will tend to illustrate

the secret and internal causes of its rapid decay. In the pursuit

of any remarkable institution, we may be frequently led into the

more early or the more recent times of the Roman history; but the

proper limits of this inquiry will be included within a period of

about one hundred and thirty years, from the accession of

Constantine to the publication of the Theodosian code; 71 from

which, as well as from the _Notitia_ 7111 of the East and West,

72 we derive the most copious and authentic information of the

state of the empire. This variety of objects will suspend, for

some time, the course of the narrative; but the interruption will

be censured only by those readers who are insensible to the

importance of laws and manners, while they peruse, with eager

curiosity, the transient intrigues of a court, or the accidental

event of a battle.

71 (return) [ The Theodosian code was promulgated A. D. 438. See

the Prolegomena of Godefroy, c. i. p. 185.]

7111 (return) [ The Notitia Dignitatum Imperii is a description

of all the offices in the court and the state, of the legions,

&c. It resembles our court almanacs, (Red Books,) with this

single difference, that our almanacs name the persons in office,

the Notitia only the offices. It is of the time of the emperor

Theodosius II., that is to say, of the fifth century, when the

empire was divided into the Eastern and Western. It is probable

that it was not made for the first time, and that descriptions of

the same kind existed before.—G.]

72 (return) [ Pancirolus, in his elaborate Commentary, assigns to

the Notitia a date almost similar to that of the Theodosian Code;

but his proofs, or rather conjectures, are extremely feeble. I

should be rather inclined to place this useful work between the

final division of the empire (A. D. 395) and the successful

invasion of Gaul by the barbarians, (A. D. 407.) See Histoire des

Anciens Peuples de l’Europe, tom. vii. p. 40.]

Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part III.

The manly pride of the Romans, content with substantial power,

had left to the vanity of the East the forms and ceremonies of

ostentatious greatness. 73 But when they lost even the semblance

of those virtues which were derived from their ancient freedom,

the simplicity of Roman manners was insensibly corrupted by the

stately affectation of the courts of Asia. The distinctions of

personal merit and influence, so conspicuous in a republic, so

feeble and obscure under a monarchy, were abolished by the

despotism of the emperors; who substituted in their room a severe

subordination of rank and office from the titled slaves who were

seated on the steps of the throne, to the meanest instruments of

arbitrary power. This multitude of abject dependants was

interested in the support of the actual government from the dread

of a revolution, which might at once confound their hopes and

intercept the reward of their services. In this divine hierarchy

(for such it is frequently styled) every rank was marked with the

most scrupulous exactness, and its dignity was displayed in a

variety of trifling and solemn ceremonies, which it was a study

to learn, and a sacrilege to neglect. 74 The purity of the Latin

language was debased, by adopting, in the intercourse of pride

and flattery, a profusion of epithets, which Tully would scarcely

have understood, and which Augustus would have rejected with

indignation. The principal officers of the empire were saluted,

even by the sovereign himself, with the deceitful titles of your

_Sincerity_, your _Gravity_, your _Excellency_, your _Eminence_,

your _sublime and wonderful Magnitude_, your _illustrious and

magnificent Highness_. 75 The codicils or patents of their office

were curiously emblazoned with such emblems as were best adapted

to explain its nature and high dignity; the image or portrait of

the reigning emperors; a triumphal car; the book of mandates

placed on a table, covered with a rich carpet, and illuminated by

four tapers; the allegorical figures of the provinces which they

governed; or the appellations and standards of the troops whom

they commanded. Some of these official ensigns were really

exhibited in their hall of audience; others preceded their

pompous march whenever they appeared in public; and every

circumstance of their demeanor, their dress, their ornaments, and

their train, was calculated to inspire a deep reverence for the

representatives of supreme majesty. By a philosophic observer,

the system of the Roman government might have been mistaken for a

splendid theatre, filled with players of every character and

degree, who repeated the language, and imitated the passions, of

their original model. 76

73 (return) [ Scilicet externæ superbiæ sueto, non inerat notitia

nostri, (perhaps _nostræ;_) apud quos vis Imperii valet, inania

transmittuntur. Tacit. Annal. xv. 31. The gradation from the

style of freedom and simplicity, to that of form and servitude,

may be traced in the Epistles of Cicero, of Pliny, and of

Symmachus.]

74 (return) [ The emperor Gratian, after confirming a law of

precedency published by Valentinian, the father of his

_Divinity_, thus continues: Siquis igitur indebitum sibi locum

usurpaverit, nulla se ignoratione defendat; sitque plane

_sacrilegii_ reus, qui _divina_ præcepta neglexerit. Cod. Theod.

l. vi. tit. v. leg. 2.]

75 (return) [ Consult the _Notitia Dignitatum_ at the end of the

Theodosian code, tom. vi. p. 316. * Note: Constantin, qui

remplaca le grand Patriciat par une noblesse titree et qui

changea avec d’autres institutions la nature de la societe

Latine, est le veritable fondateur de la royaute moderne, dans ce

quelle conserva de Romain. Chateaubriand, Etud. Histor. Preface,

i. 151. Manso, (Leben Constantins des Grossen,) p. 153, &c., has

given a lucid view of the dignities and duties of the officers in

the Imperial court.—M.]

76 (return) [ Pancirolus ad Notitiam utriusque Imperii, p. 39.

But his explanations are obscure, and he does not sufficiently

distinguish the painted emblems from the effective ensigns of

office.]

All the magistrates of sufficient importance to find a place in

the general state of the empire, were accurately divided into

three classes. 1. The _Illustrious_. 2. The _Spectabiles_, or

_Respectable_. And, 3. the _Clarissimi;_ whom we may translate by

the word _Honorable_. In the times of Roman simplicity, the

last-mentioned epithet was used only as a vague expression of

deference, till it became at length the peculiar and appropriated

title of all who were members of the senate, 77 and consequently

of all who, from that venerable body, were selected to govern the

provinces. The vanity of those who, from their rank and office,

might claim a superior distinction above the rest of the

senatorial order, was long afterwards indulged with the new

appellation of _Respectable;_ but the title of _Illustrious_ was

always reserved to some eminent personages who were obeyed or

reverenced by the two subordinate classes. It was communicated

only, I. To the consuls and patricians; II. To the Prætorian

præfects, with the præfects of Rome and Constantinople; III. To

the masters-general of the cavalry and the infantry; and IV. To

the seven ministers of the palace, who exercised their _sacred_

functions about the person of the emperor. 78 Among those

illustrious magistrates who were esteemed coordinate with each

other, the seniority of appointment gave place to the union of

dignities. 79 By the expedient of honorary codicils, the

emperors, who were fond of multiplying their favors, might

sometimes gratify the vanity, though not the ambition, of

impatient courtiers. 80

77 (return) [ In the Pandects, which may be referred to the

reigns of the Antonines, Clarissimus is the ordinary and legal

title of a senator.]

78 (return) [ Pancirol. p. 12-17. I have not taken any notice of

the two inferior ranks, _Prefectissimus_ and _Egregius_, which

were given to many persons who were not raised to the senatorial

dignity.]

79 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. vi. tit. vi. The rules of

precedency are ascertained with the most minute accuracy by the

emperors, and illustrated with equal prolixity by their learned

interpreter.]

80 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. vi. tit. xxii.]

I. As long as the Roman consuls were the first magistrates of a

free state, they derived their right to power from the choice of

the people. As long as the emperors condescended to disguise the

servitude which they imposed, the consuls were still elected by

the real or apparent suffrage of the senate. From the reign of

Diocletian, even these vestiges of liberty were abolished, and

the successful candidates who were invested with the annual

honors of the consulship, affected to deplore the humiliating

condition of their predecessors. The Scipios and the Catos had

been reduced to solicit the votes of plebeians, to pass through

the tedious and expensive forms of a popular election, and to

expose their dignity to the shame of a public refusal; while

their own happier fate had reserved them for an age and

government in which the rewards of virtue were assigned by the

unerring wisdom of a gracious sovereign. 81 In the epistles which

the emperor addressed to the two consuls elect, it was declared,

that they were created by his sole authority. 82 Their names and

portraits, engraved on gilt tables of ivory, were dispersed over

the empire as presents to the provinces, the cities, the

magistrates, the senate, and the people. 83 Their solemn

inauguration was performed at the place of the Imperial

residence; and during a period of one hundred and twenty years,

Rome was constantly deprived of the presence of her ancient

magistrates. 84

81 (return) [ Ausonius (in Gratiarum Actione) basely expatiates

on this unworthy topic, which is managed by Mamertinus (Panegyr.

Vet. xi. [x.] 16, 19) with somewhat more freedom and ingenuity.]

82 (return) [ Cum de Consulibus in annum creandis, solus mecum

volutarem.... te Consulem et designavi, et declaravi, et priorem

nuncupavi; are some of the expressions employed by the emperor

Gratian to his preceptor, the poet Ausonius.]

83 (return) [ Immanesque... dentes Qui secti ferro in tabulas

auroque micantes, Inscripti rutilum cœlato Consule nomen Per

proceres et vulgus eant. —Claud. in ii. Cons. Stilichon. 456.

Montfaucon has represented some of these tablets or dypticks see

Supplement à l’Antiquité expliquée, tom. iii. p. 220.]

84 (return) [

Consule lætatur post plurima seculo viso Pallanteus apex:

agnoscunt rostra curules Auditas quondam proavis: desuetaque

cingit Regius auratis Fora fascibus Ulpia lictor. —Claud. in vi.

Cons. Honorii, 643.

From the reign of Carus to the sixth consulship of Honorius,

there was an interval of one hundred and twenty years, during

which the emperors were always absent from Rome on the first day

of January. See the Chronologie de Tillemonte, tom. iii. iv. and

v.]

On the morning of the first of January, the consuls assumed the

ensigns of their dignity. Their dress was a robe of purple,

embroidered in silk and gold, and sometimes ornamented with

costly gems. 85 On this solemn occasion they were attended by the

most eminent officers of the state and army, in the habit of

senators; and the useless fasces, armed with the once formidable

axes, were borne before them by the lictors. The procession moved

from the palace 87 to the Forum or principal square of the city;

where the consuls ascended their tribunal, and seated themselves

in the curule chairs, which were framed after the fashion of

ancient times. They immediately exercised an act of jurisdiction,

by the manumission of a slave, who was brought before them for

that purpose; and the ceremony was intended to represent the

celebrated action of the elder Brutus, the author of liberty and

of the consulship, when he admitted among his fellow-citizens the

faithful Vindex, who had revealed the conspiracy of the Tarquins.

88 The public festival was continued during several days in all

the principal cities in Rome, from custom; in Constantinople,

from imitation in Carthage, Antioch, and Alexandria, from the

love of pleasure, and the superfluity of wealth. 89 In the two

capitals of the empire the annual games of the theatre, the

circus, and the amphitheatre, 90 cost four thousand pounds of

gold, (about) one hundred and sixty thousand pounds sterling: and

if so heavy an expense surpassed the faculties or the

inclinations of the magistrates themselves, the sum was supplied

from the Imperial treasury. 91 As soon as the consuls had

discharged these customary duties, they were at liberty to retire

into the shade of private life, and to enjoy, during the

remainder of the year, the undisturbed contemplation of their own

greatness. They no longer presided in the national councils; they

no longer executed the resolutions of peace or war. Their

abilities (unless they were employed in more effective offices)

were of little moment; and their names served only as the legal

date of the year in which they had filled the chair of Marius and

of Cicero. Yet it was still felt and acknowledged, in the last

period of Roman servitude, that this empty name might be

compared, and even preferred, to the possession of substantial

power. The title of consul was still the most splendid object of

ambition, the noblest reward of virtue and loyalty. The emperors

themselves, who disdained the faint shadow of the republic, were

conscious that they acquired an additional splendor and majesty

as often as they assumed the annual honors of the consular

dignity. 92

85 (return) [ See Claudian in Cons. Prob. et Olybrii, 178, &c.;

and in iv. Cons. Honorii, 585, &c.; though in the latter it is

not easy to separate the ornaments of the emperor from those of

the consul. Ausonius received from the liberality of Gratian a

_vestis palmata_, or robe of state, in which the figure of the

emperor Constantius was embroidered. Cernis et armorum proceres

legumque potentes: Patricios sumunt habitus; et more Gabino

Discolor incedit legio, positisque parumper Bellorum signis,

sequitur vexilla Quirini. Lictori cedunt aquilæ, ridetque togatus

Miles, et in mediis effulget curia castris. —Claud. in iv. Cons.

Honorii, 5. —_strictaque_ procul radiare _secures_. —In Cons.

Prob. 229]

87 (return) [ See Valesius ad Ammian. Marcellin. l. xxii. c. 7.]

88 (return) [ Auspice mox læto sonuit clamore tribunal; Te fastos

ineunte quater; solemnia ludit Omina libertas; deductum Vindice

morem Lex servat, famulusque jugo laxatus herili Ducitur, et

grato remeat securior ictu. —Claud. in iv Cons. Honorii, 611]

89 (return) [ Celebrant quidem solemnes istos dies omnes ubique

urbes quæ sub legibus agunt; et Roma de more, et Constantinopolis

de imitatione, et Antiochia pro luxu, et discincta Carthago, et

domus fluminis Alexandria, sed Treviri Principis beneficio.

Ausonius in Grat. Actione.]

90 (return) [ Claudian (in Cons. Mall. Theodori, 279-331)

describes, in a lively and fanciful manner, the various games of

the circus, the theatre, and the amphitheatre, exhibited by the

new consul. The sanguinary combats of gladiators had already been

prohibited.]

91 (return) [ Procopius in Hist. Arcana, c. 26.]

92 (return) [ In Consulatu honos sine labore suscipitur.

(Mamertin. in Panegyr. Vet. xi. [x.] 2.) This exalted idea of the

consulship is borrowed from an oration (iii. p. 107) pronounced

by Julian in the servile court of Constantius. See the Abbé de la

Bleterie, (Mémoires de l’Académie, tom. xxiv. p. 289,) who

delights to pursue the vestiges of the old constitution, and who

sometimes finds them in his copious fancy]

The proudest and most perfect separation which can be found in

any age or country, between the nobles and the people, is perhaps

that of the Patricians and the Plebeians, as it was established

in the first age of the Roman republic. Wealth and honors, the

offices of the state, and the ceremonies of religion, were almost

exclusively possessed by the former who, preserving the purity of

their blood with the most insulting jealousy, 93 held their

clients in a condition of specious vassalage. But these

distinctions, so incompatible with the spirit of a free people,

were removed, after a long struggle, by the persevering efforts

of the Tribunes. The most active and successful of the Plebeians

accumulated wealth, aspired to honors, deserved triumphs,

contracted alliances, and, after some generations, assumed the

pride of ancient nobility. 94 The Patrician families, on the

other hand, whose original number was never recruited till the

end of the commonwealth, either failed in the ordinary course of

nature, or were extinguished in so many foreign and domestic

wars, or, through a want of merit or fortune, insensibly mingled

with the mass of the people. 95 Very few remained who could

derive their pure and genuine origin from the infancy of the

city, or even from that of the republic, when Cæsar and Augustus,

Claudius and Vespasian, created from the body of the senate a

competent number of new Patrician families, in the hope of

perpetuating an order, which was still considered as honorable

and sacred. 96 But these artificial supplies (in which the

reigning house was always included) were rapidly swept away by

the rage of tyrants, by frequent revolutions, by the change of

manners, and by the intermixture of nations. 97 Little more was

left when Constantine ascended the throne, than a vague and

imperfect tradition, that the Patricians had once been the first

of the Romans. To form a body of nobles, whose influence may

restrain, while it secures the authority of the monarch, would

have been very inconsistent with the character and policy of

Constantine; but had he seriously entertained such a design, it

might have exceeded the measure of his power to ratify, by an

arbitrary edict, an institution which must expect the sanction of

time and of opinion. He revived, indeed, the title of Patricians,

but he revived it as a personal, not as an hereditary

distinction. They yielded only to the transient superiority of

the annual consuls; but they enjoyed the pre-eminence over all

the great officers of state, with the most familiar access to the

person of the prince. This honorable rank was bestowed on them

for life; and as they were usually favorites, and ministers who

had grown old in the Imperial court, the true etymology of the

word was perverted by ignorance and flattery; and the Patricians

of Constantine were reverenced as the adopted _Fathers_ of the

emperor and the republic. 98

93 (return) [ Intermarriages between the Patricians and Plebeians

were prohibited by the laws of the XII Tables; and the uniform

operations of human nature may attest that the custom survived

the law. See in Livy (iv. 1-6) the pride of family urged by the

consul, and the rights of mankind asserted by the tribune

Canuleius.]

94 (return) [ See the animated picture drawn by Sallust, in the

Jugurthine war, of the pride of the nobles, and even of the

virtuous Metellus, who was unable to brook the idea that the

honor of the consulship should be bestowed on the obscure merit

of his lieutenant Marius. (c. 64.) Two hundred years before, the

race of the Metelli themselves were confounded among the

Plebeians of Rome; and from the etymology of their name of

_Cæcilius_, there is reason to believe that those haughty nobles

derived their origin from a sutler.]

95 (return) [ In the year of Rome 800, very few remained, not

only of the old Patrician families, but even of those which had

been created by Cæsar and Augustus. (Tacit. Annal. xi. 25.) The

family of Scaurus (a branch of the Patrician Æmilii) was degraded

so low that his father, who exercised the trade of a charcoal

merchant, left him only teu slaves, and somewhat less than three

hundred pounds sterling. (Valerius Maximus, l. iv. c. 4, n. 11.

Aurel. Victor in Scauro.) The family was saved from oblivion by

the merit of the son.]

96 (return) [ Tacit. Annal. xi. 25. Dion Cassius, l. iii. p. 698.

The virtues of Agricola, who was created a Patrician by the

emperor Vespasian, reflected honor on that ancient order; but his

ancestors had not any claim beyond an Equestrian nobility.]

97 (return) [ This failure would have been almost impossible if

it were true, as Casaubon compels Aurelius Victor to affirm (ad

Sueton, in Cæsar v. 24. See Hist. August p. 203 and Casaubon

Comment., p. 220) that Vespasian created at once a thousand

Patrician families. But this extravagant number is too much even

for the whole Senatorial order. unless we should include all the

Roman knights who were distinguished by the permission of wearing

the laticlave.]

98 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 118; and Godefroy ad Cod.

Theodos. l. vi. tit. vi.]

II. The fortunes of the Prætorian præfects were essentially

different from those of the consuls and Patricians. The latter

saw their ancient greatness evaporate in a vain title.

The former, rising by degrees from the most humble condition,

were invested with the civil and military administration of the

Roman world. From the reign of Severus to that of Diocletian, the

guards and the palace, the laws and the finances, the armies and

the provinces, were intrusted to their superintending care; and,

like the Viziers of the East, they held with one hand the seal,

and with the other the standard, of the empire. The ambition of

the præfects, always formidable, and sometimes fatal to the

masters whom they served, was supported by the strength of the

Prætorian bands; but after those haughty troops had been weakened

by Diocletian, and finally suppressed by Constantine, the

præfects, who survived their fall, were reduced without

difficulty to the station of useful and obedient ministers. When

they were no longer responsible for the safety of the emperor’s

person, they resigned the jurisdiction which they had hitherto

claimed and exercised over all the departments of the palace.

They were deprived by Constantine of all military command, as

soon as they had ceased to lead into the field, under their

immediate orders, the flower of the Roman troops; and at length,

by a singular revolution, the captains of the guards were

transformed into the civil magistrates of the provinces.

According to the plan of government instituted by Diocletian, the

four princes had each their Prætorian præfect; and after the

monarchy was once more united in the person of Constantine, he

still continued to create the same number of Four Præfects, and

intrusted to their care the same provinces which they already

administered. 1. The præfect of the East stretched his ample

jurisdiction into the three parts of the globe which were subject

to the Romans, from the cataracts of the Nile to the banks of the

Phasis, and from the mountains of Thrace to the frontiers of

Persia. 2. The important provinces of Pannonia, Dacia, Macedonia,

and Greece, once acknowledged the authority of the præfect of

Illyricum. 3. The power of the præfect of Italy was not confined

to the country from whence he derived his title; it extended over

the additional territory of Rhætia as far as the banks of the

Danube, over the dependent islands of the Mediterranean, and over

that part of the continent of Africa which lies between the

confines of Cyrene and those of Tingitania. 4. The præfect of the

Gauls comprehended under that plural denomination the kindred

provinces of Britain and Spain, and his authority was obeyed from

the wall of Antoninus to the foot of Mount Atlas. 99

99 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 109, 110. If we had not

fortunately possessed this satisfactory account of the division

of the power and provinces of the Prætorian præfects, we should

frequently have been perplexed amidst the copious details of the

Code, and the circumstantial minuteness of the Notitia.]

After the Prætorian præfects had been dismissed from all military

command, the civil functions which they were ordained to exercise

over so many subject nations, were adequate to the ambition and

abilities of the most consummate ministers. To their wisdom was

committed the supreme administration of justice and of the

finances, the two objects which, in a state of peace, comprehend

almost all the respective duties of the sovereign and of the

people; of the former, to protect the citizens who are obedient

to the laws; of the latter, to contribute the share of their

property which is required for the expenses of the state. The

coin, the highways, the posts, the granaries, the manufactures,

whatever could interest the public prosperity, was moderated by

the authority of the Prætorian præfects. As the immediate

representatives of the Imperial majesty, they were empowered to

explain, to enforce, and on some occasions to modify, the general

edicts by their discretionary proclamations. They watched over

the conduct of the provincial governors, removed the negligent,

and inflicted punishments on the guilty. From all the inferior

jurisdictions, an appeal in every matter of importance, either

civil or criminal, might be brought before the tribunal of the

præfect; but _his_ sentence was final and absolute; and the

emperors themselves refused to admit any complaints against the

judgment or the integrity of a magistrate whom they honored with

such unbounded confidence. 100 His appointments were suitable to

his dignity; 101 and if avarice was his ruling passion, he

enjoyed frequent opportunities of collecting a rich harvest of

fees, of presents, and of perquisites. Though the emperors no

longer dreaded the ambition of their præfects, they were

attentive to counterbalance the power of this great office by the

uncertainty and shortness of its duration. 102

100 (return) [ See a law of Constantine himself. A præfectis

autem prætorio provocare, non sinimus. Cod. Justinian. l. vii.

tit. lxii. leg. 19. Charisius, a lawyer of the time of

Constantine, (Heinec. Hist. Romani, p. 349,) who admits this law

as a fundamental principle of jurisprudence, compares the

Prætorian præfects to the masters of the horse of the ancient

dictators. Pandect. l. i. tit. xi.]

101 (return) [ When Justinian, in the exhausted condition of the

empire, instituted a Prætorian præfect for Africa, he allowed him

a salary of one hundred pounds of gold. Cod. Justinian. l. i.

tit. xxvii. leg. i.]

102 (return) [ For this, and the other dignities of the empire,

it may be sufficient to refer to the ample commentaries of

Pancirolus and Godefroy, who have diligently collected and

accurately digested in their proper order all the legal and

historical materials. From those authors, Dr. Howell (History of

the World, vol. ii. p. 24-77) has deduced a very distinct

abridgment of the state of the Roman empire]

From their superior importance and dignity, Rome and

Constantinople were alone excepted from the jurisdiction of the

Prætorian præfects. The immense size of the city, and the

experience of the tardy, ineffectual operation of the laws, had

furnished the policy of Augustus with a specious pretence for

introducing a new magistrate, who alone could restrain a servile

and turbulent populace by the strong arm of arbitrary power. 103

Valerius Messalla was appointed the first præfect of Rome, that

his reputation might countenance so invidious a measure; but, at

the end of a few days, that accomplished citizen 104 resigned his

office, declaring, with a spirit worthy of the friend of Brutus,

that he found himself incapable of exercising a power

incompatible with public freedom. 105 As the sense of liberty

became less exquisite, the advantages of order were more clearly

understood; and the præfect, who seemed to have been designed as

a terror only to slaves and vagrants, was permitted to extend his

civil and criminal jurisdiction over the equestrian and noble

families of Rome. The prætors, annually created as the judges of

law and equity, could not long dispute the possession of the

Forum with a vigorous and permanent magistrate, who was usually

admitted into the confidence of the prince. Their courts were

deserted, their number, which had once fluctuated between twelve

and eighteen, 106 was gradually reduced to two or three, and

their important functions were confined to the expensive

obligation 107 of exhibiting games for the amusement of the

people. After the office of the Roman consuls had been changed

into a vain pageant, which was rarely displayed in the capital,

the præfects assumed their vacant place in the senate, and were

soon acknowledged as the ordinary presidents of that venerable

assembly. They received appeals from the distance of one hundred

miles; and it was allowed as a principle of jurisprudence, that

all municipal authority was derived from them alone. 108 In the

discharge of his laborious employment, the governor of Rome was

assisted by fifteen officers, some of whom had been originally

his equals, or even his superiors. The principal departments were

relative to the command of a numerous watch, established as a

safeguard against fires, robberies, and nocturnal disorders; the

custody and distribution of the public allowance of corn and

provisions; the care of the port, of the aqueducts, of the common

sewers, and of the navigation and bed of the Tyber; the

inspection of the markets, the theatres, and of the private as

well as the public works. Their vigilance insured the three

principal objects of a regular police, safety, plenty, and

cleanliness; and as a proof of the attention of government to

preserve the splendor and ornaments of the capital, a particular

inspector was appointed for the statues; the guardian, as it

were, of that inanimate people, which, according to the

extravagant computation of an old writer, was scarcely inferior

in number to the living inhabitants of Rome. About thirty years

after the foundation of Constantinople, a similar magistrate was

created in that rising metropolis, for the same uses and with the

same powers. A perfect equality was established between the

dignity of the _two_ municipal, and that of the _four_ Prætorian

præfects. 109

103 (return) [ Tacit. Annal. vi. 11. Euseb. in Chron. p. 155.

Dion Cassius, in the oration of Mæcenas, (l. lvii. p. 675,)

describes the prerogatives of the præfect of the city as they

were established in his own time.]

104 (return) [ The fame of Messalla has been scarcely equal to

his merit. In the earliest youth he was recommended by Cicero to

the friendship of Brutus. He followed the standard of the

republic till it was broken in the fields of Philippi; he then

accepted and deserved the favor of the most moderate of the

conquerors; and uniformly asserted his freedom and dignity in the

court of Augustus. The triumph of Messalla was justified by the

conquest of Aquitain. As an orator, he disputed the palm of

eloquence with Cicero himself. Messalla cultivated every muse,

and was the patron of every man of genius. He spent his evenings

in philosophic conversation with Horace; assumed his place at

table between Delia and Tibullus; and amused his leisure by

encouraging the poetical talents of young Ovid.]

105 (return) [ Incivilem esse potestatem contestans, says the

translator of Eusebius. Tacitus expresses the same idea in other

words; quasi nescius exercendi.]

106 (return) [ See Lipsius, Excursus D. ad 1 lib. Tacit. Annal.]

107 (return) [ Heineccii. Element. Juris Civilis secund ordinem

Pandect i. p. 70. See, likewise, Spanheim de Usu. Numismatum,

tom. ii. dissertat. x. p. 119. In the year 450, Marcian published

a law, that _three_ citizens should be annually created Prætors

of Constantinople by the choice of the senate, but with their own

consent. Cod. Justinian. li. i. tit. xxxix. leg. 2.]

108 (return) [ Quidquid igitur intra urbem admittitur, ad P. U.

videtur pertinere; sed et siquid intra contesimum milliarium.

Ulpian in Pandect l. i. tit. xiii. n. 1. He proceeds to enumerate

the various offices of the præfect, who, in the code of

Justinian, (l. i. tit. xxxix. leg. 3,) is declared to precede and

command all city magistrates sine injuria ac detrimento honoris

alieni.]

109 (return) [ Besides our usual guides, we may observe that

Felix Cantelorius has written a separate treatise, De Præfecto

Urbis; and that many curious details concerning the police of

Rome and Constantinople are contained in the fourteenth book of

the Theodosian Code.]

Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part IV.

Those who, in the imperial hierarchy, were distinguished by the

title of _Respectable_, formed an intermediate class between the

_illustrious_ præfects, and the _honorable_ magistrates of the

provinces. In this class the proconsuls of Asia, Achaia, and

Africa, claimed a preëminence, which was yielded to the

remembrance of their ancient dignity; and the appeal from their

tribunal to that of the præfects was almost the only mark of

their dependence. 110 But the civil government of the empire was

distributed into thirteen great Dioceses, each of which equalled

the just measure of a powerful kingdom. The first of these

dioceses was subject to the jurisdiction of the _count_ of the

east; and we may convey some idea of the importance and variety

of his functions, by observing, that six hundred apparitors, who

would be styled at present either secretaries, or clerks, or

ushers, or messengers, were employed in his immediate office. 111

The place of _Augustal præfect_ of Egypt was no longer filled by

a Roman knight; but the name was retained; and the extraordinary

powers which the situation of the country, and the temper of the

inhabitants, had once made indispensable, were still continued to

the governor. The eleven remaining dioceses, of Asiana, Pontica,

and Thrace; of Macedonia, Dacia, and Pannonia, or Western

Illyricum; of Italy and Africa; of Gaul, Spain, and Britain; were

governed by twelve _vicars_ or _vice-præfects_, 112 whose name

sufficiently explains the nature and dependence of their office.

It may be added, that the lieutenant-generals of the Roman

armies, the military counts and dukes, who will be hereafter

mentioned, were allowed the rank and title of _Respectable_.

110 (return) [ Eunapius affirms, that the proconsul of Asia was

independent of the præfect; which must, however, be understood

with some allowance. the jurisdiction of the vice-præfect he most

assuredly disclaimed. Pancirolus, p. 161.]

111 (return) [ The proconsul of Africa had four hundred

apparitors; and they all received large salaries, either from the

treasury or the province See Pancirol. p. 26, and Cod. Justinian.

l. xii. tit. lvi. lvii.]

112 (return) [ In Italy there was likewise the _Vicar of Rome_.

It has been much disputed whether his jurisdiction measured one

hundred miles from the city, or whether it stretched over the ten

thousand provinces of Italy.]

As the spirit of jealousy and ostentation prevailed in the

councils of the emperors, they proceeded with anxious diligence

to divide the substance and to multiply the titles of power. The

vast countries which the Roman conquerors had united under the

same simple form of administration, were imperceptibly crumbled

into minute fragments; till at length the whole empire was

distributed into one hundred and sixteen provinces, each of which

supported an expensive and splendid establishment. Of these,

three were governed by _proconsuls_, thirty-seven by _consulars_,

five by _correctors_, and seventy-one by _presidents_. The

appellations of these magistrates were different; they ranked in

successive order, and the ensigns of and their situation, from

accidental circumstances, might be more or less agreeable or

advantageous. But they were all (excepting only the pro-consuls)

alike included in the class of _honorable_ persons; and they were

alike intrusted, during the pleasure of the prince, and under the

authority of the præfects or their deputies, with the

administration of justice and the finances in their respective

districts. The ponderous volumes of the Codes and Pandects 113

would furnish ample materials for a minute inquiry into the

system of provincial government, as in the space of six centuries

it was approved by the wisdom of the Roman statesmen and lawyers.

It may be sufficient for the historian to select two singular and

salutary provisions, intended to restrain the abuse of authority.

1. For the preservation of peace and order, the governors of the

provinces were armed with the sword of justice. They inflicted

corporal punishments, and they exercised, in capital offences,

the power of life and death. But they were not authorized to

indulge the condemned criminal with the choice of his own

execution, or to pronounce a sentence of the mildest and most

honorable kind of exile. These prerogatives were reserved to the

præfects, who alone could impose the heavy fine of fifty pounds

of gold: their vicegerents were confined to the trifling weight

of a few ounces. 114 This distinction, which seems to grant the

larger, while it denies the smaller degree of authority, was

founded on a very rational motive. The smaller degree was

infinitely more liable to abuse. The passions of a provincial

magistrate might frequently provoke him into acts of oppression,

which affected only the freedom or the fortunes of the subject;

though, from a principle of prudence, perhaps of humanity, he

might still be terrified by the guilt of innocent blood. It may

likewise be considered, that exile, considerable fines, or the

choice of an easy death, relate more particularly to the rich and

the noble; and the persons the most exposed to the avarice or

resentment of a provincial magistrate, were thus removed from his

obscure persecution to the more august and impartial tribunal of

the Prætorian præfect. 2. As it was reasonably apprehended that

the integrity of the judge might be biased, if his interest was

concerned, or his affections were engaged, the strictest

regulations were established, to exclude any person, without the

special dispensation of the emperor, from the government of the

province where he was born; 115 and to prohibit the governor or

his son from contracting marriage with a native, or an

inhabitant; 116 or from purchasing slaves, lands, or houses,

within the extent of his jurisdiction. 117 Notwithstanding these

rigorous precautions, the emperor Constantine, after a reign of

twenty-five years, still deplores the venal and oppressive

administration of justice, and expresses the warmest indignation

that the audience of the judge, his despatch of business, his

seasonable delays, and his final sentence, were publicly sold,

either by himself or by the officers of his court. The

continuance, and perhaps the impunity, of these crimes, is

attested by the repetition of impotent laws and ineffectual

menaces. 118

113 (return) [ Among the works of the celebrated Ulpian, there

was one in ten books, concerning the office of a proconsul, whose

duties in the most essential articles were the same as those of

an ordinary governor of a province.]

114 (return) [ The presidents, or consulars, could impose only

two ounces; the vice-præfects, three; the proconsuls, count of

the east, and præfect of Egypt, six. See Heineccii Jur. Civil.

tom. i. p. 75. Pandect. l. xlviii. tit. xix. n. 8. Cod.

Justinian. l. i. tit. liv. leg. 4, 6.]

115 (return) [ Ut nulli patriæ suæ administratio sine speciali

principis permissu permittatur. Cod. Justinian. l. i. tit. xli.

This law was first enacted by the emperor Marcus, after the

rebellion of Cassius. (Dion. l. lxxi.) The same regulation is

observed in China, with equal strictness, and with equal effect.]

116 (return) [ Pandect. l. xxiii. tit. ii. n. 38, 57, 63.]

117 (return) [ In jure continetur, ne quis in administratione

constitutus aliquid compararet. Cod. Theod. l. viii. tit. xv.

leg. l. This maxim of common law was enforced by a series of

edicts (see the remainder of the title) from Constantine to

Justin. From this prohibition, which is extended to the meanest

officers of the governor, they except only clothes and

provisions. The purchase within five years may be recovered;

after which on information, it devolves to the treasury.]

118 (return) [ Cessent rapaces jam nunc officialium manus;

cessent, inquam nam si moniti non cessaverint, gladiis

præcidentur, &c. Cod. Theod. l. i. tit. vii. leg. l. Zeno enacted

that all governors should remain in the province, to answer any

accusations, fifty days after the expiration of their power. Cod

Justinian. l. ii. tit. xlix. leg. l.]

All the civil magistrates were drawn from the profession of the

law. The celebrated Institutes of Justinian are addressed to the

youth of his dominions, who had devoted themselves to the study

of Roman jurisprudence; and the sovereign condescends to animate

their diligence, by the assurance that their skill and ability

would in time be rewarded by an adequate share in the government

of the republic. 119 The rudiments of this lucrative science were

taught in all the considerable cities of the east and west; but

the most famous school was that of Berytus, 120 on the coast of

Phœnicia; which flourished above three centuries from the time of

Alexander Severus, the author perhaps of an institution so

advantageous to his native country. After a regular course of

education, which lasted five years, the students dispersed

themselves through the provinces, in search of fortune and

honors; nor could they want an inexhaustible supply of business

in a great empire already corrupted by the multiplicity of laws,

of arts, and of vices. The court of the Prætorian præfect of the

east could alone furnish employment for one hundred and fifty

advocates, sixty-four of whom were distinguished by peculiar

privileges, and two were annually chosen, with a salary of sixty

pounds of gold, to defend the causes of the treasury. The first

experiment was made of their judicial talents, by appointing them

to act occasionally as assessors to the magistrates; from thence

they were often raised to preside in the tribunals before which

they had pleaded. They obtained the government of a province;

and, by the aid of merit, of reputation, or of favor, they

ascended, by successive steps, to the _illustrious_ dignities of

the state. 121 In the practice of the bar, these men had

considered reason as the instrument of dispute; they interpreted

the laws according to the dictates of private interest and the

same pernicious habits might still adhere to their characters in

the public administration of the state. The honor of a liberal

profession has indeed been vindicated by ancient and modern

advocates, who have filled the most important stations, with pure

integrity and consummate wisdom: but in the decline of Roman

jurisprudence, the ordinary promotion of lawyers was pregnant

with mischief and disgrace. The noble art, which had once been

preserved as the sacred inheritance of the patricians, was fallen

into the hands of freedmen and plebeians, 122 who, with cunning

rather than with skill, exercised a sordid and pernicious trade.

Some of them procured admittance into families for the purpose of

fomenting differences, of encouraging suits, and of preparing a

harvest of gain for themselves or their brethren. Others, recluse

in their chambers, maintained the dignity of legal professors, by

furnishing a rich client with subtleties to confound the plainest

truths, and with arguments to color the most unjustifiable

pretensions. The splendid and popular class was composed of the

advocates, who filled the Forum with the sound of their turgid

and loquacious rhetoric. Careless of fame and of justice, they

are described, for the most part, as ignorant and rapacious

guides, who conducted their clients through a maze of expense, of

delay, and of disappointment; from whence, after a tedious series

of years, they were at length dismissed, when their patience and

fortune were almost exhausted. 123

119 (return) [ Summâ igitur ope, et alacri studio has leges

nostras accipite; et vosmetipsos sic eruditos ostendite, ut spes

vos pulcherrima foveat; toto legitimo opere perfecto, posse etiam

nostram rempublicam in par tibus ejus vobis credendis gubernari.

Justinian in proem. Institutionum.]

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179 (return) [ The ancient, and perhaps authentic, account of the