39 (return) [ Cassiodorus, who quotes Ta_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)

the unlettered savages of the Baltic, (Var. v. 2,) describes the

amber for which their shores have ever been famous, as the gum of

a tree, hardened by the sun, and purified and wafted by the

waves. When that singular substance is analyzed by the chemists,

it yields a vegetable oil and a mineral acid.]

40 (return) [ Scanzia, or Thule, is described by Jornandes (c. 3,

p. 610—613) and Procopius, (Goth. l. ii. c. 15.) Neither the Goth

nor the Greek had visited the country: both had conversed with

the natives in their exile at Ravenna or Constantinople.]

41 (return) [ Sapherinas pelles. In the time of Jornandes they

inhabited Suethans, the proper Sweden; but that beautiful race of

animals has gradually been driven into the eastern parts of

Siberia. See Buffon, (Hist. Nat. tom. xiii. p. 309—313, quarto

edition;) Pennant, (System of Quadrupeds, vol. i. p. 322—328;)

Gmelin, (Hist. Gen des. Voyages, tom. xviii. p. 257, 258;) and

Levesque, (Hist. de Russie, tom. v. p. 165, 166, 514, 515.)]

42 (return) [ In the system or romance of Mr. Bailly, (Lettres

sur les Sciences et sur l’Atlantide, tom. i. p. 249—256, tom. ii.

p. 114—139,) the phoenix of the Edda, and the annual death and

revival of Adonis and Osiris, are the allegorical symbols of the

absence and return of the sun in the Arctic regions. This

ingenious writer is a worthy disciple of the great Buffon; nor is

it easy for the coldest reason to withstand the magic of their

philosophy.]

43 (return) [ Says Procopius. At present a rude Manicheism

(generous enough) prevails among the Samoyedes in Greenland and

in Lapland, (Hist. des Voyages, tom. xviii. p. 508, 509, tom.

xix. p. 105, 106, 527, 528;) yet, according to Orotius Samojutae

coelum atque astra adorant, numina haud aliis iniquiora, (de

Rebus Belgicis, l. iv. p. 338, folio edition) a sentence which

Tacitus would not have disowned.]

The life of Theodoric represents the rare and meritorious example

of a Barbarian, who sheathed his sword in the pride of victory

and the vigor of his age. A reign of three and thirty years was

consecrated to the duties of civil government, and the

hostilities, in which he was sometimes involved, were speedily

terminated by the conduct of his lieutenants, the discipline of

his troops, the arms of his allies, and even by the terror of his

name. He reduced, under a strong and regular government, the

unprofitable countries of Rhaetia, Noricum, Dalmatia, and

Pannonia, from the source of the Danube and the territory of the

Bavarians, 44 to the petty kingdom erected by the Gepidae on the

ruins of Sirmium. His prudence could not safely intrust the

bulwark of Italy to such feeble and turbulent neighbors; and his

justice might claim the lands which they oppressed, either as a

part of his kingdom, or as the inheritance of his father. The

greatness of a servant, who was named perfidious because he was

successful, awakened the jealousy of the emperor Anastasius; and

a war was kindled on the Dacian frontier, by the protection which

the Gothic king, in the vicissitude of human affairs, had granted

to one of the descendants of Attila. Sabinian, a general

illustrious by his own and father’s merit, advanced at the head

of ten thousand Romans; and the provisions and arms, which filled

a long train of wagons, were distributed to the fiercest of the

Bulgarian tribes. But in the fields of Margus, the eastern powers

were defeated by the inferior forces of the Goths and Huns; the

flower and even the hope of the Roman armies was irretrievably

destroyed; and such was the temperance with which Theodoric had

inspired his victorious troops, that, as their leader had not

given the signal of pillage, the rich spoils of the enemy lay

untouched at their feet. 45 Exasperated by this disgrace, the

Byzantine court despatched two hundred ships and eight thousand

men to plunder the sea-coast of Calabria and Apulia: they

assaulted the ancient city of Tarentum, interrupted the trade and

agriculture of a happy country, and sailed back to the

Hellespont, proud of their piratical victory over a people whom

they still presumed to consider as their Roman brethren. 46 Their

retreat was possibly hastened by the activity of Theodoric; Italy

was covered by a fleet of a thousand light vessels, 47 which he

constructed with incredible despatch; and his firm moderation was

soon rewarded by a solid and honorable peace. He maintained, with

a powerful hand, the balance of the West, till it was at length

overthrown by the ambition of Clovis; and although unable to

assist his rash and unfortunate kinsman, the king of the

Visigoths, he saved the remains of his family and people, and

checked the Franks in the midst of their victorious career. I am

not desirous to prolong or repeat 48 this narrative of military

events, the least interesting of the reign of Theodoric; and

shall be content to add, that the Alemanni were protected, 49

that an inroad of the Burgundians was severely chastised, and

that the conquest of Arles and Marseilles opened a free

communication with the Visigoths, who revered him as their

national protector, and as the guardian of his grandchild, the

infant son of Alaric. Under this respectable character, the king

of Italy restored the praetorian præfecture of the Gauls,

reformed some abuses in the civil government of Spain, and

accepted the annual tribute and apparent submission of its

military governor, who wisely refused to trust his person in the

palace of Ravenna. 50 The Gothic sovereignty was established from

Sicily to the Danube, from Sirmium or Belgrade to the Atlantic

Ocean; and the Greeks themselves have acknowledged that Theodoric

reigned over the fairest portion of the Western empire. 51

44 (return) [ See the Hist. des Peuples Anciens, &c., tom. ix. p.

255—273, 396—501. The count de Buat was French minister at the

court of Bavaria: a liberal curiosity prompted his inquiries into

the antiquities of the country, and that curiosity was the germ

of twelve respectable volumes.]

45 (return) [ See the Gothic transactions on the Danube and the

Illyricum, in Jornandes, (c. 58, p. 699;) Ennodius, (p.

1607-1610;) Marcellmus (in Chron. p. 44, 47, 48;) and

Cassiodorus, in (in Chron and Var. iii. 29 50, iv. 13, vii. 4 24,

viii. 9, 10, 11, 21, ix. 8, 9.)]

46 (return) [ I cannot forbear transcribing the liberal and

classic style of Count Marcellinus: Romanus comes domesticorum,

et Rusticus comes scholariorum cum centum armatis navibus,

totidemque dromonibus, octo millia militum armatorum secum

ferentibus, ad devastanda Italiae littora processerunt, ut usque

ad Tarentum antiquissimam civitatem aggressi sunt; remensoque

mari in honestam victoriam quam piratico ausu Romani ex Romanis

rapuerunt, Anastasio Caesari reportarunt, (in Chron. p. 48.) See

Variar. i. 16, ii. 38.]

47 (return) [ See the royal orders and instructions, (Var. iv.

15, v. 16—20.) These armed boats should be still smaller than the

thousand vessels of Agamemnon at the siege of Troy. (Manso, p.

121.)]

48 (return) [ Vol. iii. p. 581—585.]

49 (return) [ Ennodius (p. 1610) and Cassiodorus, in the royal

name, (Var. ii 41,) record his salutary protection of the

Alemanni.]

50 (return) [ The Gothic transactions in Gaul and Spain are

represented with some perplexity in Cassiodorus, (Var. iii. 32,

38, 41, 43, 44, v. 39.) Jornandes, (c. 58, p. 698, 699,) and

Procopius, (Goth. l. i. c. 12.) I will neither hear nor reconcile

the long and contradictory arguments of the Abbe Dubos and the

Count de Buat, about the wars of Burgundy.]

51 (return) [ Theophanes, p. 113.]

The union of the Goths and Romans might have fixed for ages the

transient happiness of Italy; and the first of nations, a new

people of free subjects and enlightened soldiers, might have

gradually arisen from the mutual emulation of their respective

virtues. But the sublime merit of guiding or seconding such a

revolution was not reserved for the reign of Theodoric: he wanted

either the genius or the opportunities of a legislator; 52 and

while he indulged the Goths in the enjoyment of rude liberty, he

servilely copied the institutions, and even the abuses, of the

political system which had been framed by Constantine and his

successors. From a tender regard to the expiring prejudices of

Rome, the Barbarian declined the name, the purple, and the

diadem, of the emperors; but he assumed, under the hereditary

title of king, the whole substance and plenitude of Imperial

prerogative. 53 His addresses to the eastern throne were

respectful and ambiguous: he celebrated, in pompous style, the

harmony of the two republics, applauded his own government as the

perfect similitude of a sole and undivided empire, and claimed

above the kings of the earth the same preeminence which he

modestly allowed to the person or rank of Anastasius. The

alliance of the East and West was annually declared by the

unanimous choice of two consuls; but it should seem that the

Italian candidate who was named by Theodoric accepted a formal

confirmation from the sovereign of Constantinople. 54 The Gothic

palace of Ravenna reflected the image of the court of Theodosius

or Valentinian. The Praetorian præfect, the præfect of Rome, the

quaestor, the master of the offices, with the public and

patrimonial treasurers, 5411 whose functions are painted in gaudy

colors by the rhetoric of Cassiodorus, still continued to act as

the ministers of state. And the subordinate care of justice and

the revenue was delegated to seven consulars, three correctors,

and five presidents, who governed the fifteen regions of Italy

according to the principles, and even the forms, of Roman

jurisprudence. 55 The violence of the conquerors was abated or

eluded by the slow artifice of judicial proceedings; the civil

administration, with its honors and emoluments, was confined to

the Italians; and the people still preserved their dress and

language, their laws and customs, their personal freedom, and two

thirds of their landed property. 5511 It had been the object of

Augustus to conceal the introduction of monarchy; it was the

policy of Theodoric to disguise the reign of a Barbarian. 56 If

his subjects were sometimes awakened from this pleasing vision of

a Roman government, they derived more substantial comfort from

the character of a Gothic prince, who had penetration to discern,

and firmness to pursue, his own and the public interest.

Theodoric loved the virtues which he possessed, and the talents

of which he was destitute. Liberius was promoted to the office of

Praetorian præfect for his unshaken fidelity to the unfortunate

cause of Odoacer. The ministers of Theodoric, Cassiodorus, 57 and

Boethius, have reflected on his reign the lustre of their genius

and learning. More prudent or more fortunate than his colleague,

Cassiodorus preserved his own esteem without forfeiting the royal

favor; and after passing thirty years in the honors of the world,

he was blessed with an equal term of repose in the devout and

studious solitude of Squillace. 5711

52 (return) [ Procopius affirms that no laws whatsoever were

promulgated by Theodoric and the succeeding kings of Italy,

(Goth. l. ii. c. 6.) He must mean in the Gothic language. A Latin

edict of Theodoric is still extant, in one hundred and fifty-four

articles. * Note: See Manso, 92. Savigny, vol. ii. p. 164, et

seq.—M.]

53 (return) [ The image of Theodoric is engraved on his coins:

his modest successors were satisfied with adding their own name

to the head of the reigning emperor, (Muratori, Antiquitat.

Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. ii. dissert. xxvii. p. 577—579.

Giannone, Istoria Civile di Napoli tom. i. p. 166.)]

54 (return) [ The alliance of the emperor and the king of Italy

are represented by Cassiodorus (Var. i. l, ii. 1, 2, 3, vi. l)

and Procopius, (Goth. l. ii. c. 6, l. iii. c. 21,) who celebrate

the friendship of Anastasius and Theodoric; but the figurative

style of compliment was interpreted in a very different sense at

Constantinople and Ravenna.]

5411 (return) [ All causes between Roman and Roman were judged by

the old Roman courts. The comes Gothorum judged between Goth and

Goth; between Goths and Romans, (without considering which was

the plaintiff.) the comes Gothorum, with a Roman jurist as his

assessor, making a kind of mixed jurisdiction, but with a natural

predominance to the side of the Goth Savigny, vol. i. p. 290.—M.]

55 (return) [ To the xvii. provinces of the Notitia, Paul

Warnefrid the deacon (De Reb. Longobard. l. ii. c. 14—22) has

subjoined an xviiith, the Apennine, (Muratori, Script. Rerum

Italicarum, tom. i. p. 431—443.) But of these Sardinia and

Corsica were possessed by the Vandals, and the two Rhaetias, as

well as the Cottian Alps, seem to have been abandoned to a

military government. The state of the four provinces that now

form the kingdom of Naples is labored by Giannone (tom. i. p.

172, 178) with patriotic diligence.]

5511 (return) [ Manso enumerates and develops at some length the

following sources of the royal revenue of Theodoric: 1. A domain,

either by succession to that of Odoacer, or a part of the third

of the lands was reserved for the royal patrimony. 1. Regalia,

including mines, unclaimed estates, treasure-trove, and

confiscations. 3. Land tax. 4. Aurarium, like the Chrysargyrum, a

tax on certain branches of trade. 5. Grant of Monopolies. 6.

Siliquaticum, a small tax on the sale of all kinds of

commodities. 7. Portoria, customs Manso, 96, 111. Savigny (i.

285) supposes that in many cases the property remained in the

original owner, who paid his tertia, a third of the produce to

the crown, vol. i. p. 285.—M.]

56 (return) [ See the Gothic history of Procopius, (l. i. c. 1,

l. ii. c. 6,) the Epistles of Cassiodorus, passim, but especially

the vth and vith books, which contain the formulae, or patents of

offices,) and the Civil History of Giannone, (tom. i. l. ii.

iii.) The Gothic counts, which he places in every Italian city,

are annihilated, however, by Maffei, (Verona Illustrata, P. i. l.

viii. p. 227; for those of Syracuse and Naples (Var vi. 22, 23)

were special and temporary commissions.]

57 (return) [ Two Italians of the name of Cassiodorus, the father

(Var. i. 24, 40) and the son, (ix. 24, 25,) were successively

employed in the administration of Theodoric. The son was born in

the year 479: his various epistles as quaestor, master of the

offices, and Praetorian præfect, extend from 509 to 539, and he

lived as a monk about thirty years, (Tiraboschi Storia della

Letteratura Italiana, tom. iii. p. 7—24. Fabricius, Bibliot. Lat.

Med. Aevi, tom. i. p. 357, 358, edit. Mansi.)]

5711 (return) [ Cassiodorus was of an ancient and honorable

family; his grandfather had distinguished himself in the defence

of Sicily against the ravages of Genseric; his father held a high

rank at the court of Valentinian III., enjoyed the friendship of

Aetius, and was one of the ambassadors sent to arrest the

progress of Attila. Cassiodorus himself was first the treasurer

of the private expenditure to Odoacer, afterwards “count of the

sacred largesses.” Yielding with the rest of the Romans to the

dominion of Theodoric, he was instrumental in the peaceable

submission of Sicily; was successively governor of his native

provinces of Bruttium and Lucania, quaestor, magister, palatii,

Praetorian præfect, patrician, consul, and private secretary,

and, in fact, first minister of the king. He was five times

Praetorian præfect under different sovereigns, the last time in

the reign of Vitiges. This is the theory of Manso, which is not

unencumbered with difficulties. M. Buat had supposed that it was

the father of Cassiodorus who held the office first named.

Compare Manso, p. 85, &c., and Beylage, vii. It certainly appears

improbable that Cassiodorus should have been count of the sacred

largesses at twenty years old.—M.]

As the patron of the republic, it was the interest and duty of

the Gothic king to cultivate the affections of the senate 58 and

people. The nobles of Rome were flattered by sonorous epithets

and formal professions of respect, which had been more justly

applied to the merit and authority of their ancestors. The people

enjoyed, without fear or danger, the three blessings of a

capital, order, plenty, and public amusements. A visible

diminution of their numbers may be found even in the measure of

liberality; 59 yet Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, poured their

tribute of corn into the granaries of Rome; an allowance of bread

and meat was distributed to the indigent citizens; and every

office was deemed honorable which was consecrated to the care of

their health and happiness. The public games, such as the Greek

ambassador might politely applaud, exhibited a faint and feeble

copy of the magnificence of the Caesars: yet the musical, the

gymnastic, and the pantomime arts, had not totally sunk in

oblivion; the wild beasts of Africa still exercised in the

amphitheatre the courage and dexterity of the hunters; and the

indulgent Goth either patiently tolerated or gently restrained

the blue and green factions, whose contests so often filled the

circus with clamor and even with blood. 60 In the seventh year of

his peaceful reign, Theodoric visited the old capital of the

world; the senate and people advanced in solemn procession to

salute a second Trajan, a new Valentinian; and he nobly supported

that character by the assurance of a just and legal government,

61 in a discourse which he was not afraid to pronounce in public,

and to inscribe on a tablet of brass. Rome, in this august

ceremony, shot a last ray of declining glory; and a saint, the

spectator of this pompous scene, could only hope, in his pious

fancy, that it was excelled by the celestial splendor of the new

Jerusalem. 62 During a residence of six months, the fame, the

person, and the courteous demeanor of the Gothic king, excited

the admiration of the Romans, and he contemplated, with equal

curiosity and surprise, the monuments that remained of their

ancient greatness. He imprinted the footsteps of a conqueror on

the Capitoline hill, and frankly confessed that each day he

viewed with fresh wonder the forum of Trajan and his lofty

column. The theatre of Pompey appeared, even in its decay, as a

huge mountain artificially hollowed, and polished, and adorned by

human industry; and he vaguely computed, that a river of gold

must have been drained to erect the colossal amphitheatre of

Titus. 63 From the mouths of fourteen aqueducts, a pure and

copious stream was diffused into every part of the city; among

these the Claudian water, which arose at the distance of

thirty-eight miles in the Sabine mountains, was conveyed along a

gentle though constant declivity of solid arches, till it

descended on the summit of the Aventine hill. The long and

spacious vaults which had been constructed for the purpose of

common sewers, subsisted, after twelve centuries, in their

pristine strength; and these subterraneous channels have been

preferred to all the visible wonders of Rome. 64 The Gothic

kings, so injuriously accused of the ruin of antiquity, were

anxious to preserve the monuments of the nation whom they had

subdued. 65 The royal edicts were framed to prevent the abuses,

the neglect, or the depredations of the citizens themselves; and

a professed architect, the annual sum of two hundred pounds of

gold, twenty-five thousand tiles, and the receipt of customs from

the Lucrine port, were assigned for the ordinary repairs of the

walls and public edifices. A similar care was extended to the

statues of metal or marble of men or animals. The spirit of the

horses, which have given a modern name to the Quirinal, was

applauded by the Barbarians; 66 the brazen elephants of the Via

sacra were diligently restored; 67 the famous heifer of Myron

deceived the cattle, as they were driven through the forum of

peace; 68 and an officer was created to protect those works of

art, which Theodoric considered as the noblest ornament of his

kingdom.

58 (return) [ See his regard for the senate in Cochlaeus, (Vit.

Theod. viii. p. 72—80.)]

59 (return) [ No more than 120,000 modii, or four thousand

quarters, (Anonym. Valesian. p. 721, and Var. i. 35, vi. 18, xi.

5, 39.)]

60 (return) [ See his regard and indulgence for the spectacles of

the circus, the amphitheatre, and the theatre, in the Chronicle

and Epistles of Cassiodorus, (Var. i. 20, 27, 30, 31, 32, iii.

51, iv. 51, illustrated by the xivth Annotation of Mascou’s

History), who has contrived to sprinkle the subject with

ostentatious, though agreeable, learning.]

61 (return) [ Anonym. Vales. p. 721. Marius Aventicensis in

Chron. In the scale of public and personal merit, the Gothic

conqueror is at least as much above Valentinian, as he may seem

inferior to Trajan.]

62 (return) [ Vit. Fulgentii in Baron. Annal. Eccles. A.D. 500,

No. 10.]

63 (return) [ Cassiodorus describes in his pompous style the

Forum of Trajan (Var. vii. 6,) the theatre of Marcellus, (iv.

51,) and the amphitheatre of Titus, (v. 42;) and his descriptions

are not unworthy of the reader’s perusal. According to the modern

prices, the Abbe Barthelemy computes that the brick work and

masonry of the Coliseum would now cost twenty millions of French

livres, (Mem. de l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p.

585, 586.) How small a part of that stupendous fabric!]

64 (return) [ For the aqueducts and cloacae, see Strabo, (l. v.

p. 360;) Pliny, (Hist. Natur. xxxvi. 24; Cassiodorus, Var. iii.

30, 31, vi. 6;) Procopius, (Goth. l. i. c. 19;) and Nardini,

(Roma Antica, p. 514—522.) How such works could be executed by a

king of Rome, is yet a problem. Note: See Niebuhr, vol. i. p.

402. These stupendous works are among the most striking

confirmations of Niebuhr’s views of the early Roman history; at

least they appear to justify his strong sentence—“These works and

the building of the Capitol attest with unquestionable evidence

that this Rome of the later kings was the chief city of a great

state.”—Page 110—M.]

65 (return) [ For the Gothic care of the buildings and statues,

see Cassiodorus (Var. i. 21, 25, ii. 34, iv. 30, vii. 6, 13, 15)

and the Valesian Fragment, (p. 721.)]

66 (return) [ Var. vii. 15. These horses of Monte Cavallo had

been transported from Alexandria to the baths of Constantine,

(Nardini, p. 188.) Their sculpture is disdained by the Abbe

Dubos, (Reflexions sur la Poesie et sur la Peinture, tom. i.

section 39,) and admired by Winkelman, (Hist. de l’Art, tom. ii.

p. 159.)]

67 (return) [ Var. x. 10. They were probably a fragment of some

triumphal car, (Cuper de Elephantis, ii. 10.)]

68 (return) [ Procopius (Goth. l. iv. c. 21) relates a foolish

story of Myron’s cow, which is celebrated by the false wit of

thirty-six Greek epigrams, (Antholog. l. iv. p. 302—306, edit.

Hen. Steph.; Auson. Epigram. xiii.—lxviii.)]

Chapter XXXIX: Gothic Kingdom Of Italy.—Part III.

After the example of the last emperors, Theodoric preferred the

residence of Ravenna, where he cultivated an orchard with his own

hands. 69 As often as the peace of his kingdom was threatened

(for it was never invaded) by the Barbarians, he removed his

court to Verona 70 on the northern frontier, and the image of his

palace, still extant on a coin, represents the oldest and most

authentic model of Gothic architecture. These two capitals, as

well as Pavia, Spoleto, Naples, and the rest of the Italian

cities, acquired under his reign the useful or splendid

decorations of churches, aqueducts, baths, porticos, and palaces.

71 But the happiness of the subject was more truly conspicuous in

the busy scene of labor and luxury, in the rapid increase and

bold enjoyment of national wealth. From the shades of Tibur and

Praeneste, the Roman senators still retired in the winter season

to the warm sun, and salubrious springs of Baiae; and their

villas, which advanced on solid moles into the Bay of Naples,

commanded the various prospect of the sky, the earth, and the

water. On the eastern side of the Adriatic, a new Campania was

formed in the fair and fruitful province of Istria, which

communicated with the palace of Ravenna by an easy navigation of

one hundred miles. The rich productions of Lucania and the

adjacent provinces were exchanged at the Marcilian fountain, in a

populous fair annually dedicated to trade, intemperance, and

superstition. In the solitude of Comum, which had once been

animated by the mild genius of Pliny, a transparent basin above

sixty miles in length still reflected the rural seats which

encompassed the margin of the Larian lake; and the gradual ascent

of the hills was covered by a triple plantation of olives, of

vines, and of chestnut trees. 72 Agriculture revived under the

shadow of peace, and the number of husbandmen was multiplied by

the redemption of captives. 73 The iron mines of Dalmatia, a gold

mine in Bruttium, were carefully explored, and the Pomptine

marshes, as well as those of Spoleto, were drained and cultivated

by private undertakers, whose distant reward must depend on the

continuance of the public prosperity. 74 Whenever the seasons

were less propitious, the doubtful precautions of forming

magazines of corn, fixing the price, and prohibiting the

exportation, attested at least the benevolence of the state; but

such was the extraordinary plenty which an industrious people

produced from a grateful soil, that a gallon of wine was

sometimes sold in Italy for less than three farthings, and a

quarter of wheat at about five shillings and sixpence. 75 A

country possessed of so many valuable objects of exchange soon

attracted the merchants of the world, whose beneficial traffic

was encouraged and protected by the liberal spirit of Theodoric.

The free intercourse of the provinces by land and water was

restored and extended; the city gates were never shut either by

day or by night; and the common saying, that a purse of gold

might be safely left in the fields, was expressive of the

conscious security of the inhabitants.

69 (return) [See an epigram of Ennodius (ii. 3, p. 1893, 1894) on

this garden and the royal gardener.]

70 (return) [ His affection for that city is proved by the

epithet of “Verona tua,” and the legend of the hero; under the

barbarous name of Dietrich of Bern, (Peringsciold and Cochloeum,

p. 240,) Maffei traces him with knowledge and pleasure in his

native country, (l. ix. p. 230—236.)]

71 (return) [ See Maffei, (Verona Illustrata, Part i. p. 231,

232, 308, &c.) His amputes Gothic architecture, like the

corruption of language, writing &c., not to the Barbarians, but

to the Italians themselves. Compare his sentiments with those of

Tiraboschi, (tom. iii. p. 61.) * Note: Mr. Hallam (vol. iii. p.

432) observes that “the image of Theodoric’s palace” is

represented in Maffei, not from a coin, but from a seal. Compare

D’Agincourt (Storia dell’arte, Italian Transl., Arcitecttura,

Plate xvii. No. 2, and Pittura, Plate xvi. No. 15,) where there

is likewise an engraving from a mosaic in the church of St.

Apollinaris in Ravenna, representing a building ascribed to

Theodoric in that city. Neither of these, as Mr. Hallam justly

observes, in the least approximates to what is called the Gothic

style. They are evidently the degenerate Roman architecture, and

more resemble the early attempts of our architects to get back

from our national Gothic into a classical Greek style. One of

them calls to mind Inigo Jones inner quadrangle in St. John’s

College Oxford. Compare Hallam and D’Agincon vol. i. p.

140—145.—M]

72 (return) [ The villas, climate, and landscape of Baiae, (Var.

ix. 6; see Cluver Italia Antiq. l. iv. c. 2, p. 1119, &c.,)

Istria, (Var. xii. 22, 26,) and Comum, (Var. xi. 14; compare with

Pliny’s two villas, ix. 7,) are agreeably painted in the Epistles

of Cassiodorus.]

73 (return) [ In Liguria numerosa agricolarum progenies,

(Ennodius, p. 1678, 1679, 1680.) St. Epiphanius of Pavia redeemed

by prayer or ransom 6000 captives from the Burgundians of Lyons

and Savoy. Such deeds are the best of miracles.]

74 (return) [ The political economy of Theodoric (see Anonym.

Vales. p. 721, and Cassiodorus, in Chron.) may be distinctly

traced under the following heads: iron mine, (Var. iii. 23;) gold

mine, (ix. 3;) Pomptine marshes, (ii. 32, 33;) Spoleto, (ii. 21;)

corn, (i. 34, x. 27, 28, xi. 11, 12;) trade, (vi. 7, vii. 9, 23;)

fair of Leucothoe or St. Cyprian in Lucania, (viii. 33;) plenty,

(xii. 4;) the cursus, or public post, (i. 29, ii. 31, iv. 47, v.

5, vi 6, vii. 33;) the Flaminian way, (xii. 18.) * Note: The

inscription commemorative of the draining of the Pomptine marshes

may be found in many works; in Gruter, Inscript. Ant. Heidelberg,

p. 152, No. 8. With variations, in Nicolai De’ bonificamenti

delle terre Pontine, p. 103. In Sartorius, in his prize essay on

the reign of Theodoric, and Manse Beylage, xi.—M.]

75 (return) [ LX modii tritici in solidum ipsius tempore fuerunt,

et vinum xxx amphoras in solidum, (Fragment. Vales.) Corn was

distributed from the granaries at xv or xxv modii for a piece of

gold, and the price was still moderate.]

A difference of religion is always pernicious, and often fatal,

to the harmony of the prince and people: the Gothic conqueror had

been educated in the profession of Arianism, and Italy was

devoutly attached to the Nicene faith. But the persuasion of

Theodoric was not infected by zeal; and he piously adhered to the

heresy of his fathers, without condescending to balance the

subtile arguments of theological metaphysics. Satisfied with the

private toleration of his Arian sectaries, he justly conceived

himself to be the guardian of the public worship, and his

external reverence for a superstition which he despised, may have

nourished in his mind the salutary indifference of a statesman or

philosopher. The Catholics of his dominions acknowledged, perhaps

with reluctance, the peace of the church; their clergy, according

to the degrees of rank or merit, were honorably entertained in

the palace of Theodoric; he esteemed the living sanctity of

Caesarius 76 and Epiphanius, 77 the orthodox bishops of Arles and

Pavia; and presented a decent offering on the tomb of St. Peter,

without any scrupulous inquiry into the creed of the apostle. 78

His favorite Goths, and even his mother, were permitted to retain

or embrace the Athanasian faith, and his long reign could not

afford the example of an Italian Catholic, who, either from

choice or compulsion, had deviated into the religion of the

conqueror. 79 The people, and the Barbarians themselves, were

edified by the pomp and order of religious worship; the

magistrates were instructed to defend the just immunities of

ecclesiastical persons and possessions; the bishops held their

synods, the metropolitans exercised their jurisdiction, and the

privileges of sanctuary were maintained or moderated according to

the spirit of the Roman jurisprudence. 80 With the protection,

Theodoric assumed the legal supremacy, of the church; and his

firm administration restored or extended some useful prerogatives

which had been neglected by the feeble emperors of the West. He

was not ignorant of the dignity and importance of the Roman

pontiff, to whom the venerable name of Pope was now appropriated.

The peace or the revolt of Italy might depend on the character of

a wealthy and popular bishop, who claimed such ample dominion

both in heaven and earth; who had been declared in a numerous

synod to be pure from all sin, and exempt from all judgment. 81

When the chair of St. Peter was disputed by Symmachus and

Laurence, they appeared at his summons before the tribunal of an

Arian monarch, and he confirmed the election of the most worthy

or the most obsequious candidate. At the end of his life, in a

moment of jealousy and resentment, he prevented the choice of the

Romans, by nominating a pope in the palace of Ravenna. The danger

and furious contests of a schism were mildly restrained, and the

last decree of the senate was enacted to extinguish, if it were

possible, the scandalous venality of the papal elections. 82

76 (return) [ See the life of St. Caesarius in Baronius, (A.D.

508, No. 12, 13, 14.) The king presented him with 300 gold

solidi, and a discus of silver of the weight of sixty pounds.]

77 (return) [ Ennodius in Vit. St. Epiphanii, in Sirmond, Op.

tom. i. p. 1672—1690. Theodoric bestowed some important favors on

this bishop, whom he used as a counsellor in peace and war.]

78 (return) [ Devotissimus ac si Catholicus, (Anonym. Vales. p.

720;) yet his offering was no more than two silver candlesticks

(cerostrata) of the weight of seventy pounds, far inferior to the

gold and gems of Constantinople and France, (Anastasius in Vit.

Pont. in Hormisda, p. 34, edit. Paris.)]

79 (return) [ The tolerating system of his reign (Ennodius, p.

1612. Anonym. Vales. p. 719. Procop. Goth. l. i. c. 1, l. ii. c.

6) may be studied in the Epistles of Cassiodorous, under the

following heads: bishops, (Var. i. 9, vii. 15, 24, xi. 23;)

immunities, (i. 26, ii. 29, 30;) church lands (iv. 17, 20;)

sanctuaries, (ii. 11, iii. 47;) church plate, (xii. 20;)

discipline, (iv. 44;) which prove, at the same time, that he was

the head of the church as well as of the state. * Note: He

recommended the same toleration to the emperor Justin.—M.]

80 (return) [ We may reject a foolish tale of his beheading a

Catholic deacon who turned Arian, (Theodor. Lector. No. 17.) Why

is Theodoric surnamed After? From Vafer? (Vales. ad loc.) A light

conjecture.]

81 (return) [ Ennodius, p. 1621, 1622, 1636, 1638. His libel was

approved and registered (synodaliter) by a Roman council,

(Baronius, A.D. 503, No. 6, Franciscus Pagi in Breviar. Pont.

Rom. tom. i. p. 242.)]

82 (return) [ See Cassiodorus, (Var. viii. 15, ix. 15, 16,)

Anastasius, (in Symmacho, p. 31,) and the xviith Annotation of

Mascou. Baronius, Pagi, and most of the Catholic doctors,

confess, with an angry growl, this Gothic usurpation.]

I have descanted with pleasure on the fortunate condition of

Italy; but our fancy must not hastily conceive that the golden

age of the poets, a race of men without vice or misery, was

realized under the Gothic conquest. The fair prospect was

sometimes overcast with clouds; the wisdom of Theodoric might be

deceived, his power might be resisted and the declining age of

the monarch was sullied with popular hatred and patrician blood.

In the first insolence of victory, he had been tempted to deprive

the whole party of Odoacer of the civil and even the natural

rights of society; 83 a tax unseasonably imposed after the

calamities of war, would have crushed the rising agriculture of

Liguria; a rigid preemption of corn, which was intended for the

public relief, must have aggravated the distress of Campania.

These dangerous projects were defeated by the virtue and

eloquence of Epiphanius and Boethius, who, in the presence of

Theodoric himself, successfully pleaded the cause of the people:

84 but if the royal ear was open to the voice of truth, a saint

and a philosopher are not always to be found at the ear of kings.

The privileges of rank, or office, or favor, were too frequently

abused by Italian fraud and Gothic violence, and the avarice of

the king’s nephew was publicly exposed, at first by the

usurpation, and afterwards by the restitution of the estates

which he had unjustly extorted from his Tuscan neighbors. Two

hundred thousand Barbarians, formidable even to their master,

were seated in the heart of Italy; they indignantly supported the

restraints of peace and discipline; the disorders of their march

were always felt and sometimes compensated; and where it was

dangerous to punish, it might be prudent to dissemble, the

sallies of their native fierceness. When the indulgence of

Theodoric had remitted two thirds of the Ligurian tribute, he

condescended to explain the difficulties of his situation, and to

lament the heavy though inevitable burdens which he imposed on

his subjects for their own defence. 85 These ungrateful subjects

could never be cordially reconciled to the origin, the religion,

or even the virtues of the Gothic conqueror; past calamities were

forgotten, and the sense or suspicion of injuries was rendered

still more exquisite by the present felicity of the times.

83 (return) [ He disabled them—alicentia testandi; and all Italy

mourned—lamentabili justitio. I wish to believe, that these

penalties were enacted against the rebels who had violated their

oath of allegiance; but the testimony of Ennodius (p. 1675-1678)

is the more weighty, as he lived and died under the reign of

Theodoric.]

84 (return) [ Ennodius, in Vit. Epiphan. p. 1589, 1690. Boethius

de Consolatione Philosphiae, l. i. pros. iv. p. 45, 46, 47.

Respect, but weigh the passions of the saint and the senator; and

fortify and alleviate their complaints by the various hints of

Cassiodorus, (ii. 8, iv. 36, viii. 5.)]

85 (return) [ Immanium expensarum pondus...pro ipsorum salute,

&c.; yet these are no more than words.]

Even the religious toleration which Theodoric had the glory of

introducing into the Christian world, was painful and offensive

to the orthodox zeal of the Italians. They respected the armed

heresy of the Goths; but their pious rage was safely pointed

against the rich and defenceless Jews, who had formed their

establishments at Naples, Rome, Ravenna, Milan, and Genoa, for

the benefit of trade, and under the sanction of the laws. 86

Their persons were insulted, their effects were pillaged, and

their synagogues were burned by the mad populace of Ravenna and

Rome, inflamed, as it should seem, by the most frivolous or

extravagant pretences. The government which could neglect, would

have deserved such an outrage. A legal inquiry was instantly

directed; and as the authors of the tumult had escaped in the

crowd, the whole community was condemned to repair the damage;

and the obstinate bigots, who refused their contributions, were

whipped through the streets by the hand of the executioner. 8611

This simple act of justice exasperated the discontent of the

Catholics, who applauded the merit and patience of these holy

confessors. Three hundred pulpits deplored the persecution of the

church; and if the chapel of St. Stephen at Verona was demolished

by the command of Theodoric, it is probable that some miracle

hostile to his name and dignity had been performed on that sacred

theatre. At the close of a glorious life, the king of Italy

discovered that he had excited the hatred of a people whose

happiness he had so assiduously labored to promote; and his mind

was soured by indignation, jealousy, and the bitterness of

unrequited love. The Gothic conqueror condescended to disarm the

unwarlike natives of Italy, interdicting all weapons of offence,

and excepting only a small knife for domestic use. The deliverer

of Rome was accused of conspiring with the vilest informers

against the lives of senators whom he suspected of a secret and

treasonable correspondence with the Byzantine court. 87 After the

death of Anastasius, the diadem had been placed on the head of a

feeble old man; but the powers of government were assumed by his

nephew Justinian, who already meditated the extirpation of

heresy, and the conquest of Italy and Africa. A rigorous law,

which was published at Constantinople, to reduce the Arians by

the dread of punishment within the pale of the church, awakened

the just resentment of Theodoric, who claimed for his distressed

brethren of the East the same indulgence which he had so long

granted to the Catholics of his dominions. 8711 At his stern

command, the Roman pontiff, with four illustrious senators,

embarked on an embassy, of which he must have alike dreaded the

failure or the success. The singular veneration shown to the

first pope who had visited Constantinople was punished as a crime

by his jealous monarch; the artful or peremptory refusal of the

Byzantine court might excuse an equal, and would provoke a

larger, measure of retaliation; and a mandate was prepared in

Italy, to prohibit, after a stated day, the exercise of the

Catholic worship. By the bigotry of his subjects and enemies, the

most tolerant of princes was driven to the brink of persecution;

and the life of Theodoric was too long, since he lived to condemn

the virtue of Boethius and Symmachus. 88

86 (return) [ The Jews were settled at Naples, (Procopius, Goth.

l. i. c. 8,) at Genoa, (Var. ii. 28, iv. 33,) Milan, (v. 37,)

Rome, (iv. 43.) See likewise Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, tom. viii.

c. 7, p. 254.]

8611 (return) [ See History of the Jews vol. iii. p. 217.—M.]

87 (return) [ Rex avidus communis exitii, &c., (Boethius, l. i.

p. 59:) rex colum Romanis tendebat, (Anonym. Vales. p. 723.)

These are hard words: they speak the passions of the Italians and

those (I fear) of Theodoric himself.]

8711 (return) [ Gibbon should not have omitted the golden words

of Theodoric in a letter which he addressed to Justin: That to

pretend to a dominion over the conscience is to usurp the

prerogative of God; that by the nature of things the power of

sovereigns is confined to external government; that they have no

right of punishment but over those who disturb the public peace,

of which they are the guardians; that the most dangerous heresy

is that of a sovereign who separates from himself a part of his

subjects because they believe not according to his belief.

Compare Le Beau, vol viii. p. 68.—M]

88 (return) [ I have labored to extract a rational narrative from

the dark, concise, and various hints of the Valesian Fragment,

(p. 722, 723, 724,) Theophanes, (p. 145,) Anastasius, (in

Johanne, p. 35,) and the Hist Miscella, (p. 103, edit. Muratori.)

A gentle pressure and paraphrase of their words is no violence.

Consult likewise Muratori (Annali d’ Italia, tom. iv. p.

471-478,) with the Annals and Breviary (tom. i. p. 259—263) of

the two Pagis, the uncle and the nephew.]

The senator Boethius 89 is the last of the Romans whom Cato or

Tully could have acknowledged for their countryman. As a wealthy

orphan, he inherited the patrimony and honors of the Anician

family, a name ambitiously assumed by the kings and emperors of

the age; and the appellation of Manlius asserted his genuine or

fabulous descent from a race of consuls and dictators, who had

repulsed the Gauls from the Capitol, and sacrificed their sons to

the discipline of the republic. In the youth of Boethius the

studies of Rome were not totally abandoned; a Virgil 90 is now

extant, corrected by the hand of a consul; and the professors of

grammar, rhetoric, and jurisprudence, were maintained in their

privileges and pensions by the liberality of the Goths. But the

erudition of the Latin language was insufficient to satiate his

ardent curiosity: and Boethius is said to have employed eighteen

laborious years in the schools of Athens, 91 which were supported

by the zeal, the learning, and the diligence of Proclus and his

disciples. The reason and piety of their Roman pupil were

fortunately saved from the contagion of mystery and magic, which

polluted the groves of the academy; but he imbibed the spirit,

and imitated the method, of his dead and living masters, who

attempted to reconcile the strong and subtile sense of Aristotle

with the devout contemplation and sublime fancy of Plato. After

his return to Rome, and his marriage with the daughter of his

friend, the patrician Symmachus, Boethius still continued, in a

palace of ivory and marble, to prosecute the same studies. 92 The

church was edified by his profound defence of the orthodox creed

against the Arian, the Eutychian, and the Nestorian heresies; and

the Catholic unity was explained or exposed in a formal treatise

by the indifference of three distinct though consubstantial

persons. For the benefit of his Latin readers, his genius

submitted to teach the first elements of the arts and sciences of

Greece. The geometry of Euclid, the music of Pythagoras, the

arithmetic of Nicomachus, the mechanics of Archimedes, the

astronomy of Ptolemy, the theology of Plato, and the logic of

Aristotle, with the commentary of Porphyry, were translated and

illustrated by the indefatigable pen of the Roman senator. And he

alone was esteemed capable of describing the wonders of art, a

sun-dial, a water-clock, or a sphere which represented the

motions of the planets. From these abstruse speculations,

Boethius stooped, or, to speak more truly, he rose to the social

duties of public and private life: the indigent were relieved by

his liberality; and his eloquence, which flattery might compare

to the voice of Demosthenes or Cicero, was uniformly exerted in

the cause of innocence and humanity. Such conspicuous merit was

felt and rewarded by a discerning prince: the dignity of Boethius

was adorned with the titles of consul and patrician, and his

talents were usefully employed in the important station of master

of the offices. Notwithstanding the equal claims of the East and

West, his two sons were created, in their tender youth, the

consuls of the same year. 93 On the memorable day of their

inauguration, they proceeded in solemn pomp from their palace to

the forum amidst the applause of the senate and people; and their

joyful father, the true consul of Rome, after pronouncing an

oration in the praise of his royal benefactor, distributed a

triumphal largess in the games of the circus. Prosperous in his

fame and fortunes, in his public honors and private alliances, in

the cultivation of science and the consciousness of virtue,

Boethius might have been styled happy, if that precarious epithet

could be safely applied before the last term of the life of man.

89 (return) [ Le Clerc has composed a critical and philosophical

life of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boetius, (Bibliot. Choisie,

tom. xvi. p. 168—275;) and both Tiraboschi (tom. iii.) and

Fabricius (Bibliot Latin.) may be usefully consulted. The date of

his birth may be placed about the year 470, and his death in 524,

in a premature old age, (Consol. Phil. Metrica. i. p. 5.)]

90 (return) [ For the age and value of this Ms., now in the

Medicean library at Florence, see the Cenotaphia Pisana (p.

430-447) of Cardinal Noris.]

91 (return) [ The Athenian studies of Boethius are doubtful,

(Baronius, A.D. 510, No. 3, from a spurious tract, De Disciplina

Scholarum,) and the term of eighteen years is doubtless too long:

but the simple fact of a visit to Athens is justified by much

internal evidence, (Brucker, Hist. Crit. Philosoph. tom. iii. p.

524—527,) and by an expression (though vague and ambiguous) of

his friend Cassiodorus, (Var. i. 45,) “longe positas Athenas

intrioisti.”]

92 (return) [ Bibliothecae comptos ebore ac vitro * parietes,

&c., (Consol. Phil. l. i. pros. v. p. 74.) The Epistles of

Ennodius (vi. 6, vii. 13, viii. 1 31, 37, 40) and Cassiodorus

(Var. i. 39, iv. 6, ix. 21) afford many proofs of the high

reputation which he enjoyed in his own times. It is true, that

the bishop of Pavia wanted to purchase of him an old house at

Milan, and praise might be tendered and accepted in part of

payment. * Note: Gibbon translated vitro, marble; under the

impression, no doubt that glass was unknown.—M.]

93 (return) [ Pagi, Muratori, &c., are agreed that Boethius

himself was consul in the year 510, his two sons in 522, and in

487, perhaps, his father. A desire of ascribing the last of these

consulships to the philosopher had perplexed the chronology of

his life. In his honors, alliances, children, he celebrates his

own felicity—his past felicity, (p. 109 110)]

A philosopher, liberal of his wealth and parsimonious of his

time, might be insensible to the common allurements of ambition,

the thirst of gold and employment. And some credit may be due to

the asseveration of Boethius, that he had reluctantly obeyed the

divine Plato, who enjoins every virtuous citizen to rescue the

state from the usurpation of vice and ignorance. For the

integrity of his public conduct he appeals to the memory of his

country. His authority had restrained the pride and oppression of

the royal officers, and his eloquence had delivered Paulianus

from the dogs of the palace. He had always pitied, and often

relieved, the distress of the provincials, whose fortunes were

exhausted by public and private rapine; and Boethius alone had

courage to oppose the tyranny of the Barbarians, elated by

conquest, excited by avarice, and, as he complains, encouraged by

impunity. In these honorable contests his spirit soared above the

consideration of danger, and perhaps of prudence; and we may

learn from the example of Cato, that a character of pure and

inflexible virtue is the most apt to be misled by prejudice, to

be heated by enthusiasm, and to confound private enmities with

public justice. The disciple of Plato might exaggerate the

infirmities of nature, and the imperfections of society; and the

mildest form of a Gothic kingdom, even the weight of allegiance

and gratitude, must be insupportable to the free spirit of a

Roman patriot. But the favor and fidelity of Boethius declined in

just proportion with the public happiness; and an unworthy

colleague was imposed to divide and control the power of the

master of the offices. In the last gloomy season of Theodoric, he

indignantly felt that he was a slave; but as his master had only

power over his life, he stood without arms and without fear

against the face of an angry Barbarian, who had been provoked to

believe that the safety of the senate was incompatible with his

own. The senator Albinus was accused and already convicted on the

presumption of hoping, as it was said, the liberty of Rome. “If

Albinus be criminal,” exclaimed the orator, “the senate and

myself are all guilty of the same crime. If we are innocent,

Albinus is equally entitled to the protection of the laws.” These

laws might not have punished the simple and barren wish of an

unattainable blessing; but they would have shown less indulgence

to the rash confession of Boethius, that, had he known of a

conspiracy, the tyrant never should. 94 The advocate of Albinus

was soon involved in the danger and perhaps the guilt of his

client; their signature (which they denied as a forgery) was

affixed to the original address, inviting the emperor to deliver

Italy from the Goths; and three witnesses of honorable rank,

perhaps of infamous reputation, attested the treasonable designs

of the Roman patrician. 95 Yet his innocence must be presumed,

since he was deprived by Theodoric of the means of justification,

and rigorously confined in the tower of Pavia, while the senate,

at the distance of five hundred miles, pronounced a sentence of

confiscation and death against the most illustrious of its

members. At the command of the Barbarians, the occult science of

a philosopher was stigmatized with the names of sacrilege and

magic. 96 A devout and dutiful attachment to the senate was

condemned as criminal by the trembling voices of the senators

themselves; and their ingratitude deserved the wish or prediction

of Boethius, that, after him, none should be found guilty of the

same offence. 97

94 (return) [ Si ego scissem tu nescisses. Beothius adopts this

answer (l. i. pros. 4, p. 53) of Julius Canus, whose philosophic

death is described by Seneca, (De Tranquillitate Animi, c. 14.)]

95 (return) [ The characters of his two delators, Basilius (Var.

ii. 10, 11, iv. 22) and Opilio, (v. 41, viii. 16,) are

illustrated, not much to their honor, in the Epistles of

Cassiodorus, which likewise mention Decoratus, (v. 31,) the

worthless colleague of Beothius, (l. iii. pros. 4, p. 193.)]

96 (return) [ A severe inquiry was instituted into the crime of

magic, (Var. iv 22, 23, ix. 18;) and it was believed that many

necromancers had escaped by making their jailers mad: for mad I

should read drunk.]

97 (return) [ Boethius had composed his own Apology, (p. 53,)

perhaps more interesting than his Consolation. We must be content

with the general view of his honors, principles, persecution,

&c., (l. i. pros. 4, p. 42—62,) which may be compared with the

short and weighty words of the Valesian Fragment, (p. 723.) An

anonymous writer (Sinner, Catalog. Mss. Bibliot. Bern. tom. i. p.

287) charges him home with honorable and patriotic treason.]

While Boethius, oppressed with fetters, expected each moment the

sentence or the stroke of death, he composed, in the tower of

Pavia, the Consolation of Philosophy; a golden volume not

unworthy of the leisure of Plato or Tully, but which claims

incomparable merit from the barbarism of the times and the

situation of the author. The celestial guide, whom he had so long

invoked at Rome and Athens, now condescended to illumine his

dungeon, to revive his courage, and to pour into his wounds her

salutary balm. She taught him to compare his long prosperity and

his recent distress, and to conceive new hopes from the

inconstancy of fortune. Reason had informed him of the precarious

condition of her gifts; experience had satisfied him of their

real value; he had enjoyed them without guilt; he might resign

them without a sigh, and calmly disdain the impotent malice of

his enemies, who had left him happiness, since they had left him

virtue. From the earth, Boethius ascended to heaven in search of

the Supreme Good; explored the metaphysical labyrinth of chance

and destiny, of prescience and free will, of time and eternity;

and generously attempted to reconcile the perfect attributes of

the Deity with the apparent disorders of his moral and physical

government. Such topics of consolation so obvious, so vague, or

so abstruse, are ineffectual to subdue the feelings of human

nature. Yet the sense of misfortune may be diverted by the labor

of thought; and the sage who could artfully combine in the same

work the various riches of philosophy, poetry, and eloquence,

must already have possessed the intrepid calmness which he

affected to seek. Suspense, the worst of evils, was at length

determined by the ministers of death, who executed, and perhaps

exceeded, the inhuman mandate of Theodoric. A strong cord was

fastened round the head of Boethius, and forcibly tightened, till

his eyes almost started from their sockets; and some mercy may be

discovered in the milder torture of beating him with clubs till

he expired. 98 But his genius survived to diffuse a ray of

knowledge over the darkest ages of the Latin world; the writings

of the philosopher were translated by the most glorious of the

English kings, 99 and the third emperor of the name of Otho

removed to a more honorable tomb the bones of a Catholic saint,

who, from his Arian persecutors, had acquired the honors of

martyrdom, and the fame of miracles. 100 In the last hours of

Boethius, he derived some comfort from the safety of his two

sons, of his wife, and of his father-in-law, the venerable

Symmachus. But the grief of Symmachus was indiscreet, and perhaps

disrespectful: he had presumed to lament, he might dare to

revenge, the death of an injured friend. He was dragged in chains

from Rome to the palace of Ravenna; and the suspicions of

Theodoric could only be appeased by the blood of an innocent and

aged senator. 101

98 (return) [ He was executed in Agro Calventiano, (Calvenzano,

between Marignano and Pavia,) Anonym. Vales. p. 723, by order of

Eusebius, count of Ticinum or Pavia. This place of confinement is

styled the baptistery, an edifice and name peculiar to

cathedrals. It is claimed by the perpetual tradition of the

church of Pavia. The tower of Boethius subsisted till the year

1584, and the draught is yet preserved, (Tiraboschi, tom. iii. p.

47, 48.)]

99 (return) [ See the Biographia Britannica, Alfred, tom. i. p.

80, 2d edition. The work is still more honorable if performed

under the learned eye of Alfred by his foreign and domestic

doctors. For the reputation of Boethius in the middle ages,

consult Brucker, (Hist. Crit. Philosoph. tom. iii. p. 565, 566.)]

100 (return) [ The inscription on his new tomb was composed by

the preceptor of Otho III., the learned Pope Silvester II., who,

like Boethius himself, was styled a magician by the ignorance of

the times. The Catholic martyr had carried his head in his hands

a considerable way, (Baronius, A.D. 526, No. 17, 18;) and yet on

a similar tale, a lady of my acquaintance once observed, “La

distance n’y fait rien; il n’y a que lo remier pas qui coute.”

Note: Madame du Deffand. This witticism referred to the miracle

of St. Denis.—G.]

101 (return) [ Boethius applauds the virtues of his

father-in-law, (l. i. pros. 4, p. 59, l. ii. pros. 4, p. 118.)

Procopius, (Goth. l. i. c. i.,) the Valesian Fragment, (p. 724,)

and the Historia Miscella, (l. xv. p. 105,) agree in praising the

superior innocence or sanctity of Symmachus; and in the

estimation of the legend, the guilt of his murder is equal to the

imprisonment of a pope.]

Humanity will be disposed to encourage any report which testifies

the jurisdiction of conscience and the remorse of kings; and

philosophy is not ignorant that the most horrid spectres are

sometimes created by the powers of a disordered fancy, and the

weakness of a distempered body. After a life of virtue and glory,

Theodoric was now descending with shame and guilt into the grave;

his mind was humbled by the contrast of the past, and justly

alarmed by the invisible terrors of futurity. One evening, as it

is related, when the head of a large fish was served on the royal

table, 102 he suddenly exclaimed, that he beheld the angry

countenance of Symmachus, his eyes glaring fury and revenge, and

his mouth armed with long sharp teeth, which threatened to devour

him. The monarch instantly retired to his chamber, and, as he

lay, trembling with aguish cold, under a weight of bed-clothes,

he expressed, in broken murmurs to his physician Elpidius, his

deep repentance for the murders of Boethius and Symmachus. 103

His malady increased, and after a dysentery which continued three

days, he expired in the palace of Ravenna, in the thirty-third,

or, if we compute from the invasion of Italy, in the

thirty-seventh year of his reign. Conscious of his approaching

end, he divided his treasures and provinces between his two

grandsons, and fixed the Rhone as their common boundary. 104

Amalaric was restored to the throne of Spain. Italy, with all the

conquests of the Ostrogoths, was bequeathed to Athalaric; whose

age did not exceed ten years, but who was cherished as the last

male offspring of the line of Amali, by the short-lived marriage

of his mother Amalasuntha with a royal fugitive of the same

blood. 105 In the presence of the dying monarch, the Gothic

chiefs and Italian magistrates mutually engaged their faith and

loyalty to the young prince, and to his guardian mother; and

received, in the same awful moment, his last salutary advice, to

maintain the laws, to love the senate and people of Rome, and to

cultivate with decent reverence the friendship of the emperor.

106 The monument of Theodoric was erected by his daughter

Amalasuntha, in a conspicuous situation, which commanded the city

of Ravenna, the harbor, and the adjacent coast. A chapel of a

circular form, thirty feet in diameter, is crowned by a dome of

one entire piece of granite: from the centre of the dome four

columns arose, which supported, in a vase of porphyry, the

remains of the Gothic king, surrounded by the brazen statues of

the twelve apostles. 107 His spirit, after some previous

expiation, might have been permitted to mingle with the

benefactors of mankind, if an Italian hermit had not been

witness, in a vision, to the damnation of Theodoric, 108 whose

soul was plunged, by the ministers of divine vengeance, into the

volcano of Lipari, one of the flaming mouths of the infernal

world. 109

102 (return) [ In the fanciful eloquence of Cassiodorus, the

variety of sea and river fish are an evidence of extensive

dominion; and those of the Rhine, of Sicily, and of the Danube,

were served on the table of Theodoric, (Var. xii. 14.) The

monstrous turbot of Domitian (Juvenal Satir. iii. 39) had been

caught on the shores of the Adriatic.]

103 (return) [ Procopius, Goth. l. i. c. 1. But he might have

informed us, whether he had received this curious anecdote from

common report or from the mouth of the royal physician.]

104 (return) [ Procopius, Goth. l. i. c. 1, 2, 12, 13. This

partition had been directed by Theodoric, though it was not

executed till after his death, Regni hereditatem superstes

reliquit, (Isidor. Chron. p. 721, edit. Grot.)]

105 (return) [ Berimund, the third in descent from Hermanric,

king of the Ostrogoths, had retired into Spain, where he lived

and died in obscurity, (Jornandes, c. 33, p. 202, edit.

Muratori.) See the discovery, nuptials, and death of his grandson

Eutharic, (c. 58, p. 220.) His Roman games might render him

popular, (Cassiodor. in Chron.,) but Eutharic was asper in

religione, (Anonym. Vales. p. 723.)]

106 (return) [ See the counsels of Theodoric, and the professions

of his successor, in Procopius, (Goth. l. i. c. 1, 2,) Jornandes,

(c. 59, p. 220, 221,) and Cassiodorus, (Var. viii. 1—7.) These

epistles are the triumph of his ministerial eloquence.]

107 (return) [ Anonym. Vales. p. 724. Agnellus de Vitis. Pont.

Raven. in Muratori Script. Rerum Ital. tom. ii. P. i. p. 67.

Alberti Descrittione d’ Italia, p. 311. * Note: The Mausoleum of

Theodoric, now Sante Maria della Rotonda, is engraved in

D’Agincourt, Histoire de l’Art, p xviii. of the Architectural

Prints.—M]

108 (return) [ This legend is related by Gregory I., (Dialog. iv.

36,) and approved by Baronius, (A.D. 526, No. 28;) and both the

pope and cardinal are grave doctors, sufficient to establish a

probable opinion.]

109 (return) [ Theodoric himself, or rather Cassiodorus, had

described in tragic strains the volcanos of Lipari (Cluver.

Sicilia, p. 406—410) and Vesuvius, (v 50.)]

Chapter XL: Reign Of Justinian.—Part I.

Elevation Of Justin The Elder.—Reign Of Justinian.—I. The Empress

Theodora.—II. Factions Of The Circus, And Sedition Of

Constantinople.—III. Trade And Manufacture Of Silk.—IV. Finances And

Taxes.—V. Edifices Of Justinian.—Church Of St. Sophia.—Fortifications

And Frontiers Of The Eastern Empire.—Abolition Of The Schools Of

Athens, And The Consulship Of Rome.

The emperor Justinian was born 1 near the ruins of Sardica, (the

modern Sophia,) of an obscure race 2 of Barbarians, 3 the

inhabitants of a wild and desolate country, to which the names of

Dardania, of Dacia, and of Bulgaria, have been successively

applied. His elevation was prepared by the adventurous spirit of

his uncle Justin, who, with two other peasants of the same

village, deserted, for the profession of arms, the more useful

employment of husbandmen or shepherds. 4 On foot, with a scanty

provision of biscuit in their knapsacks, the three youths

followed the high road of Constantinople, and were soon enrolled,

for their strength and stature, among the guards of the emperor

Leo. Under the two succeeding reigns, the fortunate peasant

emerged to wealth and honors; and his escape from some dangers

which threatened his life was afterwards ascribed to the guardian

angel who watches over the fate of kings. His long and laudable

service in the Isaurian and Persian wars would not have preserved

from oblivion the name of Justin; yet they might warrant the

military promotion, which in the course of fifty years he

gradually obtained; the rank of tribune, of count, and of

general; the dignity of senator, and the command of the guards,

who obeyed him as their chief, at the important crisis when the

emperor Anastasius was removed from the world. The powerful

kinsmen whom he had raised and enriched were excluded from the

throne; and the eunuch Amantius, who reigned in the palace, had

secretly resolved to fix the diadem on the head of the most

obsequious of his creatures. A liberal donative, to conciliate

the suffrage of the guards, was intrusted for that purpose in the

hands of their commander. But these weighty arguments were

treacherously employed by Justin in his own favor; and as no

competitor presumed to appear, the Dacian peasant was invested

with the purple by the unanimous consent of the soldiers, who

knew him to be brave and gentle, of the clergy and people, who

believed him to be orthodox, and of the provincials, who yielded

a blind and implicit submission to the will of the capital. The

elder Justin, as he is distinguished from another emperor of the

same family and name, ascended the Byzantine throne at the age of

sixty-eight years; and, had he been left to his own guidance,

every moment of a nine years’ reign must have exposed to his

subjects the impropriety of their choice. His ignorance was

similar to that of Theodoric; and it is remarkable that in an age

not destitute of learning, two contemporary monarchs had never

been instructed in the knowledge of the alphabet. 411 But the

genius of Justin was far inferior to that of the Gothic king: the

experience of a soldier had not qualified him for the government

of an empire; and though personally brave, the consciousness of

his own weakness was naturally attended with doubt, distrust, and

political apprehension. But the official business of the state

was diligently and faithfully transacted by the quaestor Proclus;

5 and the aged emperor adopted the talents and ambition of his

nephew Justinian, an aspiring youth, whom his uncle had drawn

from the rustic solitude of Dacia, and educated at

Constantinople, as the heir of his private fortune, and at length

of the Eastern empire.

1 (return) [ There is some difficulty in the date of his birth

(Ludewig in Vit. Justiniani, p. 125;) none in the place—the

district Bederiana—the village Tauresium, which he afterwards

decorated with his name and splendor, (D’Anville, Hist. de

l’Acad. &c., tom. xxxi. p. 287—292.)]

2 (return) [ The names of these Dardanian peasants are Gothic,

and almost English: Justinian is a translation of uprauda,

(upright;) his father Sabatius (in Graeco-barbarous language

stipes) was styled in his village Istock, (Stock;) his mother

Bigleniza was softened into Vigilantia.]

3 (return) [ Ludewig (p. 127—135) attempts to justify the Anician

name of Justinian and Theodora, and to connect them with a family

from which the house of Austria has been derived.]

4 (return) [ See the anecdotes of Procopius, (c. 6,) with the

notes of N. Alemannus. The satirist would not have sunk, in the

vague and decent appellation of Zonaras. Yet why are those names

disgraceful?—and what German baron would not be proud to descend

from the Eumaeus of the Odyssey! Note: It is whimsical enough

that, in our own days, we should have, even in jest, a claimant

to lineal descent from the godlike swineherd not in the person of

a German baron, but in that of a professor of the Ionian

University. Constantine Koliades, or some malicious wit under

this name, has written a tall folio to prove Ulysses to be Homer,

and himself the descendant, the heir (?), of the Eumaeus of the

Odyssey.—M]

411 (return) [ St. Martin questions the fact in both cases. The

ignorance of Justin rests on the secret history of Procopius,

vol. viii. p. 8. St. Martin’s notes on Le Beau.—M]

5 (return) [ His virtues are praised by Procopius, (Persic. l. i.

c. 11.) The quaestor Proclus was the friend of Justinian, and the

enemy of every other adoption.]

Since the eunuch Amantius had been defrauded of his money, it

became necessary to deprive him of his life. The task was easily

accomplished by the charge of a real or fictitious conspiracy;

and the judges were informed, as an accumulation of guilt, that

he was secretly addicted to the Manichaean heresy. 6 Amantius

lost his head; three of his companions, the first domestics of

the palace, were punished either with death or exile; and their

unfortunate candidate for the purple was cast into a deep

dungeon, overwhelmed with stones, and ignominiously thrown,

without burial, into the sea. The ruin of Vitalian was a work of

more difficulty and danger. That Gothic chief had rendered

himself popular by the civil war which he boldly waged against

Anastasius for the defence of the orthodox faith, and after the

conclusion of an advantageous treaty, he still remained in the

neighborhood of Constantinople at the head of a formidable and

victorious army of Barbarians. By the frail security of oaths, he

was tempted to relinquish this advantageous situation, and to

trust his person within the walls of a city, whose inhabitants,

particularly the blue faction, were artfully incensed against him

by the remembrance even of his pious hostilities. The emperor and

his nephew embraced him as the faithful and worthy champion of

the church and state; and gratefully adorned their favorite with

the titles of consul and general; but in the seventh month of his

consulship, Vitalian was stabbed with seventeen wounds at the

royal banquet; 7 and Justinian, who inherited the spoil, was

accused as the assassin of a spiritual brother, to whom he had

recently pledged his faith in the participation of the Christian

mysteries. 8 After the fall of his rival, he was promoted,

without any claim of military service, to the office of

master-general of the Eastern armies, whom it was his duty to

lead into the field against the public enemy. But, in the pursuit

of fame, Justinian might have lost his present dominion over the

age and weakness of his uncle; and instead of acquiring by

Scythian or Persian trophies the applause of his countrymen, 9

the prudent warrior solicited their favor in the churches, the

circus, and the senate, of Constantinople. The Catholics were

attached to the nephew of Justin, who, between the Nestorian and

Eutychian heresies, trod the narrow path of inflexible and

intolerant orthodoxy. 10 In the first days of the new reign, he

prompted and gratified the popular enthusiasm against the memory

of the deceased emperor. After a schism of thirty-four years, he

reconciled the proud and angry spirit of the Roman pontiff, and

spread among the Latins a favorable report of his pious respect

for the apostolic see. The thrones of the East were filled with

Catholic bishops, devoted to his interest, the clergy and the

monks were gained by his liberality, and the people were taught

to pray for their future sovereign, the hope and pillar of the

true religion. The magnificence of Justinian was displayed in the

superior pomp of his public spectacles, an object not less sacred

and important in the eyes of the multitude than the creed of Nice

or Chalcedon: the expense of his consulship was esteemed at two

hundred and twenty-eight thousand pieces of gold; twenty lions,

and thirty leopards, were produced at the same time in the

amphitheatre, and a numerous train of horses, with their rich

trappings, was bestowed as an extraordinary gift on the

victorious charioteers of the circus. While he indulged the

people of Constantinople, and received the addresses of foreign

kings, the nephew of Justin assiduously cultivated the friendship

of the senate. That venerable name seemed to qualify its members

to declare the sense of the nation, and to regulate the

succession of the Imperial throne: the feeble Anastasius had

permitted the vigor of government to degenerate into the form or

substance of an aristocracy; and the military officers who had

obtained the senatorial rank were followed by their domestic

guards, a band of veterans, whose arms or acclamations might fix

in a tumultuous moment the diadem of the East. The treasures of

the state were lavished to procure the voices of the senators,

and their unanimous wish, that he would be pleased to adopt

Justinian for his colleague, was communicated to the emperor. But

this request, which too clearly admonished him of his approaching

end, was unwelcome to the jealous temper of an aged monarch,

desirous to retain the power which he was incapable of

exercising; and Justin, holding his purple with both his hands,

advised them to prefer, since an election was so profitable, some

older candidate. Not withstanding this reproach, the senate

proceeded to decorate Justinian with the royal epithet of

nobilissimus; and their decree was ratified by the affection or

the fears of his uncle. After some time the languor of mind and

body, to which he was reduced by an incurable wound in his thigh,

indispensably required the aid of a guardian. He summoned the

patriarch and senators; and in their presence solemnly placed the

diadem on the head of his nephew, who was conducted from the

palace to the circus, and saluted by the loud and joyful applause

of the people. The life of Justin was prolonged about four

months; but from the instant of this ceremony, he was considered

as dead to the empire, which acknowledged Justinian, in the

forty-fifth year of his age, for the lawful sovereign of the

East. 11

6 (return) [ Manichaean signifies Eutychian. Hear the furious

acclamations of Constantinople and Tyre, the former no more than

six days after the decease of Anastasius. They produced, the

latter applauded, the eunuch’s death, (Baronius, A.D. 518, P. ii.

No. 15. Fleury, Hist Eccles. tom. vii. p. 200, 205, from the

Councils, tom. v. p. 182, 207.)]

7 (return) [ His power, character, and intentions, are perfectly

explained by the court de Buat, (tom. ix. p. 54—81.) He was

great-grandson of Aspar, hereditary prince in the Lesser Scythia,

and count of the Gothic foederati of Thrace. The Bessi, whom he

could influence, are the minor Goths of Jornandes, (c. 51.)]

8 (return) [ Justiniani patricii factione dicitur interfectus

fuisse, (Victor Tu nunensis, Chron. in Thesaur. Temp. Scaliger,

P. ii. p. 7.) Procopius (Anecdot. c. 7) styles him a tyrant, but

acknowledges something which is well explained by Alemannus.]

9 (return) [ In his earliest youth (plane adolescens) he had

passed some time as a hostage with Theodoric. For this curious

fact, Alemannus (ad Procop. Anecdot. c. 9, p. 34, of the first

edition) quotes a Ms. history of Justinian, by his preceptor

Theophilus. Ludewig (p. 143) wishes to make him a soldier.]

10 (return) [ The ecclesiastical history of Justinian will be

shown hereafter. See Baronius, A.D. 518—521, and the copious

article Justinianas in the index to the viith volume of his

Annals.]

11 (return) [ The reign of the elder Justin may be found in the

three Chronicles of Marcellinus, Victor, and John Malala, (tom.

ii. p. 130—150,) the last of whom (in spite of Hody, Prolegom.

No. 14, 39, edit. Oxon.) lived soon after Justinian, (Jortin’s

Remarks, &c., vol. iv p. 383:) in the Ecclesiastical History of

Evagrius, (l. iv. c. 1, 2, 3, 9,) and the Excerpta of Theodorus

Lector, (No. 37,) and in Cedrenus, (p. 362—366,) and Zonaras, (l.

xiv. p. 58—61,) who may pass for an original. * Note: Dindorf, in

his preface to the new edition of Malala, p. vi., concurs with

this opinion of Gibbon, which was also that of Reiske, as to the

age of the chronicler.—M.]

From his elevation to his death, Justinian governed the Roman

empire thirty-eight years, seven months, and thirteen days.

The events of his reign, which excite our curious attention by

their number, variety, and importance, are diligently related by

the secretary of Belisarius, a rhetorician, whom eloquence had

promoted to the rank of senator and præfect of Constantinople.

According to the vicissitudes of courage or servitude, of favor

or disgrace, Procopius 12 successively composed the history, the

panegyric, and the satire of his own times. The eight books of

the Persian, Vandalic, and Gothic wars, 13 which are continued in

the five books of Agathias, deserve our esteem as a laborious and

successful imitation of the Attic, or at least of the Asiatic,

writers of ancient Greece. His facts are collected from the

personal experience and free conversation of a soldier, a

statesman, and a traveller; his style continually aspires, and

often attains, to the merit of strength and elegance; his

reflections, more especially in the speeches, which he too

frequently inserts, contain a rich fund of political knowledge;

and the historian, excited by the generous ambition of pleasing

and instructing posterity, appears to disdain the prejudices of

the people, and the flattery of courts. The writings of Procopius

14 were read and applauded by his contemporaries: 15 but,

although he respectfully laid them at the foot of the throne, the

pride of Justinian must have been wounded by the praise of a

hero, who perpetually eclipses the glory of his inactive

sovereign. The conscious dignity of independence was subdued by

the hopes and fears of a slave; and the secretary of Belisarius

labored for pardon and reward in the six books of the Imperial

edifices. He had dexterously chosen a subject of apparent

splendor, in which he could loudly celebrate the genius, the

magnificence, and the piety of a prince, who, both as a conqueror

and legislator, had surpassed the puerile virtues of Themistocles

and Cyrus. 16 Disappointment might urge the flatterer to secret

revenge; and the first glance of favor might again tempt him to

suspend and suppress a libel, 17 in which the Roman Cyrus is

degraded into an odious and contemptible tyrant, in which both

the emperor and his consort Theodora are seriously represented as

two daemons, who had assumed a human form for the destruction of

mankind. 18 Such base inconsistency must doubtless sully the

reputation, and detract from the credit, of Procopius: yet, after

the venom of his malignity has been suffered to exhale, the

residue of the anecdotes, even the most disgraceful facts, some

of which had been tenderly hinted in his public history, are

established by their internal evidence, or the authentic

monuments of the times. 19 1911 From these various materials, I

shall now proceed to describe the reign of Justinian, which will

deserve and occupy an ample space. The present chapter will

explain the elevation and character of Theodora, the factions of

the circus, and the peaceful administration of the sovereign of

the East. In the three succeeding chapters, I shall relate the

wars of Justinian, which achieved the conquest of Africa and

Italy; and I shall follow the victories of Belisarius and Narses,

without disguising the vanity of their triumphs, or the hostile

virtue of the Persian and Gothic heroes. The series of this and

the following volume will embrace the jurisprudence and theology

of the emperor; the controversies and sects which still divide

the Oriental church; the reformation of the Roman law which is

obeyed or respected by the nations of modern Europe.

12 (return) [ See the characters of Procopius and Agathias in La

Mothe le Vayer, (tom. viii. p. 144—174,) Vossius, (de Historicis

Graecis, l. ii. c. 22,) and Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. l. v. c.

5, tom. vi. p. 248—278.) Their religion, an honorable problem,

betrays occasional conformity, with a secret attachment to

Paganism and Philosophy.]

13 (return) [ In the seven first books, two Persic, two Vandalic,

and three Gothic, Procopius has borrowed from Appian the division

of provinces and wars: the viiith book, though it bears the name

of Gothic, is a miscellaneous and general supplement down to the

spring of the year 553, from whence it is continued by Agathias

till 559, (Pagi, Critica, A.D. 579, No. 5.)]

14 (return) [ The literary fate of Procopius has been somewhat

unlucky.

1. His book de Bello Gothico were stolen by Leonard Aretin, and

published (Fulginii, 1470, Venet. 1471, apud Janson. Mattaire,

Annal Typograph. tom. i. edit. posterior, p. 290, 304, 279, 299,)

in his own name, (see Vossius de Hist. Lat. l. iii. c. 5, and the

feeble defence of the Venice Giornale de Letterati, tom. xix. p.

207.)

2. His works were mutilated by the first Latin translators,

Christopher Persona, (Giornale, tom. xix. p. 340—348,) and

Raphael de Volaterra, (Huet, de Claris Interpretibus, p. 166,)

who did not even consult the Ms. of the Vatican library, of which

they were præfects, (Aleman. in Praefat Anecdot.) 3. The Greek

text was not printed till 1607, by Hoeschelius of Augsburg,

(Dictionnaire de Bayle, tom. ii. p. 782.)

4. The Paris edition was imperfectly executed by Claude Maltret,

a Jesuit of Toulouse, (in 1663,) far distant from the Louvre

press and the Vatican Ms., from which, however, he obtained some

supplements. His promised commentaries, &c., have never appeared.

The Agathias of Leyden (1594) has been wisely reprinted by the

Paris editor, with the Latin version of Bonaventura Vulcanius, a

learned interpreter, (Huet, p. 176.)

* Note: Procopius forms a part of the new Byzantine collection

under the superintendence of Dindorf.—M.]

15 (return) [ Agathias in Praefat. p. 7, 8, l. iv. p. 137.

Evagrius, l. iv. c. 12. See likewise Photius, cod. lxiii. p. 65.]

16 (return) [ Says, he, Praefat. ad l. de Edificiis is no more

than a pun! In these five books, Procopius affects a Christian as

well as a courtly style.]

17 (return) [ Procopius discloses himself, (Praefat. ad Anecdot.

c. 1, 2, 5,) and the anecdotes are reckoned as the ninth book by

Suidas, (tom. iii. p. 186, edit. Kuster.) The silence of Evagrius

is a poor objection. Baronius (A.D. 548, No. 24) regrets the loss

of this secret history: it was then in the Vatican library, in

his own custody, and was first published sixteen years after his

death, with the learned, but partial notes of Nicholas Alemannus,

(Lugd. 1623.)]

18 (return) [ Justinian an ass—the perfect likeness of

Domitian—Anecdot. c. 8.—Theodora’s lovers driven from her bed by

rival daemons—her marriage foretold with a great daemon—a monk

saw the prince of the daemons, instead of Justinian, on the

throne—the servants who watched beheld a face without features, a

body walking without a head, &c., &c. Procopius declares his own

and his friends’ belief in these diabolical stories, (c. 12.)]

19 (return) [ Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur et la

Decadence des Romains, c. xx.) gives credit to these anecdotes,

as connected, 1. with the weakness of the empire, and, 2. with

the instability of Justinian’s laws.]

1911 (return) [ The Anecdota of Procopius, compared with the

former works of the same author, appear to me the basest and most

disgraceful work in literature. The wars, which he has described

in the former volumes as glorious or necessary, are become

unprofitable and wanton massacres; the buildings which he

celebrated, as raised to the immortal honor of the great emperor,

and his admirable queen, either as magnificent embellishments of

the city, or useful fortifications for the defence of the

frontier, are become works of vain prodigality and useless

ostentation. I doubt whether Gibbon has made sufficient allowance

for the “malignity” of the Anecdota; at all events, the extreme

and disgusting profligacy of Theodora’s early life rests entirely

on this viratent libel—M.]

I. In the exercise of supreme power, the first act of Justinian

was to divide it with the woman whom he loved, the famous

Theodora, 20 whose strange elevation cannot be applauded as the

triumph of female virtue. Under the reign of Anastasius, the care

of the wild beasts maintained by the green faction at

Constantinople was intrusted to Acacius, a native of the Isle of

Cyprus, who, from his employment, was surnamed the master of the

bears. This honorable office was given after his death to another

candidate, notwithstanding the diligence of his widow, who had

already provided a husband and a successor. Acacius had left

three daughters, Comito, 21 Theodora, and Anastasia, the eldest

of whom did not then exceed the age of seven years. On a solemn

festival, these helpless orphans were sent by their distressed

and indignant mother, in the garb of suppliants, into the midst

of the theatre: the green faction received them with contempt,

the blues with compassion; and this difference, which sunk deep

into the mind of Theodora, was felt long afterwards in the

administration of the empire. As they improved in age and beauty,

the three sisters were successively devoted to the public and

private pleasures of the Byzantine people: and Theodora, after

following Comito on the stage, in the dress of a slave, with a

stool on her head, was at length permitted to exercise her

independent talents. She neither danced, nor sung, nor played on

the flute; her skill was confined to the pantomime arts; she

excelled in buffoon characters, and as often as the comedian

swelled her cheeks, and complained with a ridiculous tone and

gesture of the blows that were inflicted, the whole theatre of

Constantinople resounded with laughter and applause. The beauty

of Theodora 22 was the subject of more flattering praise, and the

source of more exquisite delight. Her features were delicate and

regular; her complexion, though somewhat pale, was tinged with a

natural color; every sensation was instantly expressed by the

vivacity of her eyes; her easy motions displayed the graces of a

small but elegant figure; and either love or adulation might

proclaim, that painting and poetry were incapable of delineating

the matchless excellence of her form. But this form was degraded

by the facility with which it was exposed to the public eye, and

prostituted to licentious desire. Her venal charms were abandoned

to a promiscuous crowd of citizens and strangers of every rank,

and of every profession: the fortunate lover who had been

promised a night of enjoyment, was often driven from her bed by a

stronger or more wealthy favorite; and when she passed through

the streets, her presence was avoided by all who wished to escape

either the scandal or the temptation. The satirical historian has

not blushed 23 to describe the naked scenes which Theodora was

not ashamed to exhibit in the theatre. 24 After exhausting the

arts of sensual pleasure, 25 she most ungratefully murmured

against the parsimony of Nature; 26 but her murmurs, her

pleasures, and her arts, must be veiled in the obscurity of a

learned language. After reigning for some time, the delight and

contempt of the capital, she condescended to accompany Ecebolus,

a native of Tyre, who had obtained the government of the African

Pentapolis. But this union was frail and transient; Ecebolus soon

rejected an expensive or faithless concubine; she was reduced at

Alexandria to extreme distress; and in her laborious return to

Constantinople, every city of the East admired and enjoyed the

fair Cyprian, whose merit appeared to justify her descent from

the peculiar island of Venus. The vague commerce of Theodora, and

the most detestable precautions, preserved her from the danger

which she feared; yet once, and once only, she became a mother.

The infant was saved and educated in Arabia, by his father, who

imparted to him on his death-bed, that he was the son of an

empress. Filled with ambitious hopes, the unsuspecting youth

immediately hastened to the palace of Constantinople, and was

admitted to the presence of his mother. As he was never more

seen, even after the decease of Theodora, she deserves the foul

imputation of extinguishing with his life a secret so offensive

to her Imperial virtue. 2611

20 (return) [ For the life and manners of the empress Theodora

see the Anecdotes; more especially c. 1—5, 9, 10—15, 16, 17, with

the learned notes of Alemannus—a reference which is always

implied.]

21 (return) [ Comito was afterwards married to Sittas, duke of

Armenia, the father, perhaps, at least she might be the mother,

of the empress Sophia. Two nephews of Theodora may be the sons of

Anastasia, (Aleman. p. 30, 31.)]

22 (return) [ Her statute was raised at Constantinople, on a

porphyry column. See Procopius, (de Edif. l. i. c. 11,) who gives

her portrait in the Anecdotes, (c. 10.) Aleman. (p. 47) produces

one from a Mosaic at Ravenna, loaded with pearls and jewels, and

yet handsome.]

23 (return) [ A fragment of the Anecdotes, (c. 9,) somewhat too

naked, was suppressed by Alemannus, though extant in the Vatican

Ms.; nor has the defect been supplied in the Paris or Venice

editions. La Mothe le Vayer (tom. viii. p. 155) gave the first

hint of this curious and genuine passage, (Jortin’s Remarks, vol.

iv. p. 366,) which he had received from Rome, and it has been

since published in the Menagiana (tom. iii. p. 254—259) with a

Latin version.]

24 (return) [ After the mention of a narrow girdle, (as none

could appear stark naked in the theatre,) Procopius thus

proceeds. I have heard that a learned prelate, now deceased, was

fond of quoting this passage in conversation.]

25 (return) [ Theodora surpassed the Crispa of Ausonius, (Epigram

lxxi.,) who imitated the capitalis luxus of the females of Nola.

See Quintilian Institut. viii. 6, and Torrentius ad Horat.

Sermon. l. i. sat. 2, v. 101. At a memorable supper, thirty

slaves waited round the table ten young men feasted with

Theodora. Her charity was universal. Et lassata viris, necdum

satiata, recessit.]

26 (return) [ She wished for a fourth altar, on which she might

pour libations to the god of love.]

2611 (return) [ Gibbon should have remembered the axiom which he

quotes in another piece, scelera ostendi oportet dum puniantur

abscondi flagitia.—M.]

In the most abject state of her fortune, and reputation, some

vision, either of sleep or of fancy, had whispered to Theodora

the pleasing assurance that she was destined to become the spouse

of a potent monarch. Conscious of her approaching greatness, she

returned from Paphlagonia to Constantinople; assumed, like a

skilful actress, a more decent character; relieved her poverty by

the laudable industry of spinning wool; and affected a life of

chastity and solitude in a small house, which she afterwards

changed into a magnificent temple. 27 Her beauty, assisted by art

or accident, soon attracted, captivated, and fixed, the patrician

Justinian, who already reigned with absolute sway under the name

of his uncle. Perhaps she contrived to enhance the value of a

gift which she had so often lavished on the meanest of mankind;

perhaps she inflamed, at first by modest delays, and at last by

sensual allurements, the desires of a lover, who, from nature or

devotion, was addicted to long vigils and abstemious diet. When

his first transports had subsided, she still maintained the same

ascendant over his mind, by the more solid merit of temper and

understanding. Justinian delighted to ennoble and enrich the

object of his affection; the treasures of the East were poured at

her feet, and the nephew of Justin was determined, perhaps by

religious scruples, to bestow on his concubine the sacred and

legal character of a wife. But the laws of Rome expressly

prohibited the marriage of a senator with any female who had been

dishonored by a servile origin or theatrical profession: the

empress Lupicina, or Euphemia, a Barbarian of rustic manners, but

of irreproachable virtue, refused to accept a prostitute for her

niece; and even Vigilantia, the superstitious mother of

Justinian, though she acknowledged the wit and beauty of

Theodora, was seriously apprehensive, lest the levity and

arrogance of that artful paramour might corrupt the piety and

happiness of her son. These obstacles were removed by the

inflexible constancy of Justinian. He patiently expected the

death of the empress; he despised the tears of his mother, who

soon sunk under the weight of her affliction; and a law was

promulgated in the name of the emperor Justin, which abolished

the rigid jurisprudence of antiquity. A glorious repentance (the

words of the edict) was left open for the unhappy females who had

prostituted their persons on the theatre, and they were permitted

to contract a legal union with the most illustrious of the

Romans. 28 This indulgence was speedily followed by the solemn

nuptials of Justinian and Theodora; her dignity was gradually

exalted with that of her lover, and, as soon as Justin had

invested his nephew with the purple, the patriarch of

Constantinople placed the diadem on the heads of the emperor and

empress of the East. But the usual honors which the severity of

Roman manners had allowed to the wives of princes, could not

satisfy either the ambition of Theodora or the fondness of

Justinian. He seated her on the throne as an equal and

independent colleague in the sovereignty of the empire, and an

oath of allegiance was imposed on the governors of the provinces

in the joint names of Justinian and Theodora. 29 The Eastern

world fell prostrate before the genius and fortune of the

daughter of Acacius. The prostitute who, in the presence of

innumerable spectators, had polluted the theatre of

Constantinople, was adored as a queen in the same city, by grave

magistrates, orthodox bishops, victorious generals, and captive

monarchs. 30

27 (return) [ Anonym. de Antiquitat. C. P. l. iii. 132, in

Banduri Imperium Orient. tom. i. p. 48. Ludewig (p. 154) argues

sensibly that Theodora would not have immortalized a brothel: but

I apply this fact to her second and chaster residence at

Constantinople.]

28 (return) [ See the old law in Justinian’s Code, (l. v. tit. v.

leg. 7, tit. xxvii. leg. 1,) under the years 336 and 454. The new

edict (about the year 521 or 522, Aleman. p. 38, 96) very

awkwardly repeals no more than the clause of mulieres scenicoe,

libertinae, tabernariae. See the novels 89 and 117, and a Greek

rescript from Justinian to the bishops, (Aleman. p. 41.)]

29 (return) [ I swear by the Father, &c., by the Virgin Mary, by

the four Gospels, quae in manibus teneo, and by the Holy

Archangels Michael and Gabriel, puram conscientiam germanumque

servitium me servaturum, sacratissimis DDNN. Justiniano et

Theodorae conjugi ejus, (Novell. viii. tit. 3.) Would the oath

have been binding in favor of the widow? Communes tituli et

triumphi, &c., (Aleman. p. 47, 48.)]

30 (return) [ “Let greatness own her, and she’s mean no more,”

&c. Without Warburton’s critical telescope, I should never have

seen, in this general picture of triumphant vice, any personal

allusion to Theodora.]

Chapter XL: Reign Of Justinian.—Part II.

Those who believe that the female mind is totally depraved by the

loss of chastity, will eagerly listen to all the invectives of

private envy, or popular resentment which have dissembled the

virtues of Theodora, exaggerated her vices, and condemned with

rigor the venal or voluntary sins of the youthful harlot. From a

motive of shame, or contempt, she often declined the servile

homage of the multitude, escaped from the odious light of the

capital, and passed the greatest part of the year in the palaces

and gardens which were pleasantly seated on the sea-coast of the

Propontis and the Bosphorus. Her private hours were devoted to

the prudent as well as grateful care of her beauty, the luxury of

the bath and table, and the long slumber of the evening and the

morning. Her secret apartments were occupied by the favorite

women and eunuchs, whose interests and passions she indulged at

the expense of justice; the most illustrious personages of the

state were crowded into a dark and sultry antechamber, and when

at last, after tedious attendance, they were admitted to kiss the

feet of Theodora, they experienced, as her humor might suggest,

the silent arrogance of an empress, or the capricious levity of a

comedian. Her rapacious avarice to accumulate an immense

treasure, may be excused by the apprehension of her husband’s

death, which could leave no alternative between ruin and the

throne; and fear as well as ambition might exasperate Theodora

against two generals, who, during the malady of the emperor, had

rashly declared that they were not disposed to acquiesce in the

choice of the capital. But the reproach of cruelty, so repugnant

even to her softer vices, has left an indelible stain on the

memory of Theodora. Her numerous spies observed, and zealously

reported, every action, or word, or look, injurious to their

royal mistress. Whomsoever they accused were cast into her

peculiar prisons, 31 inaccessible to the inquiries of justice;

and it was rumored, that the torture of the rack, or scourge, had

been inflicted in the presence of the female tyrant, insensible

to the voice of prayer or of pity. 32 Some of these unhappy

victims perished in deep, unwholesome dungeons, while others were

permitted, after the loss of their limbs, their reason, or their

fortunes, to appear in the world, the living monuments of her

vengeance, which was commonly extended to the children of those

whom she had suspected or injured. The senator or bishop, whose

death or exile Theodora had pronounced, was delivered to a trusty

messenger, and his diligence was quickened by a menace from her

own mouth. “If you fail in the execution of my commands, I swear

by Him who liveth forever, that your skin shall be flayed from

your body.” 33

31 (return) [ Her prisons, a labyrinth, a Tartarus, (Anecdot. c.

4,) were under the palace. Darkness is propitious to cruelty, but

it is likewise favorable to calumny and fiction.]

32 (return) [ A more jocular whipping was inflicted on

Saturninus, for presuming to say that his wife, a favorite of the

empress, had not been found. (Anecdot. c. 17.)]

33 (return) [ Per viventem in saecula excoriari te faciam.

Anastasius de Vitis Pont. Roman. in Vigilio, p. 40.]

If the creed of Theodora had not been tainted with heresy, her

exemplary devotion might have atoned, in the opinion of her

contemporaries, for pride, avarice, and cruelty. But, if she

employed her influence to assuage the intolerant fury of the

emperor, the present age will allow some merit to her religion,

and much indulgence to her speculative errors. 34 The name of

Theodora was introduced, with equal honor, in all the pious and

charitable foundations of Justinian; and the most benevolent

institution of his reign may be ascribed to the sympathy of the

empress for her less fortunate sisters, who had been seduced or

compelled to embrace the trade of prostitution. A palace, on the

Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, was converted into a stately and

spacious monastery, and a liberal maintenance was assigned to

five hundred women, who had been collected from the streets and

brothels of Constantinople. In this safe and holy retreat, they

were devoted to perpetual confinement; and the despair of some,

who threw themselves headlong into the sea, was lost in the

gratitude of the penitents, who had been delivered from sin and

misery by their generous benefactress. 35 The prudence of

Theodora is celebrated by Justinian himself; and his laws are

attributed to the sage counsels of his most reverend wife whom he

had received as the gift of the Deity. 36 Her courage was

displayed amidst the tumult of the people and the terrors of the

court. Her chastity, from the moment of her union with Justinian,

is founded on the silence of her implacable enemies; and although

the daughter of Acacius might be satiated with love, yet some

applause is due to the firmness of a mind which could sacrifice

pleasure and habit to the stronger sense either of duty or

interest. The wishes and prayers of Theodora could never obtain

the blessing of a lawful son, and she buried an infant daughter,

the sole offspring of her marriage. 37 Notwithstanding this

disappointment, her dominion was permanent and absolute; she

preserved, by art or merit, the affections of Justinian; and

their seeming dissensions were always fatal to the courtiers who

believed them to be sincere. Perhaps her health had been impaired

by the licentiousness of her youth; but it was always delicate,

and she was directed by her physicians to use the Pythian warm

baths. In this journey, the empress was followed by the

Praetorian præfect, the great treasurer, several counts and

patricians, and a splendid train of four thousand attendants: the

highways were repaired at her approach; a palace was erected for

her reception; and as she passed through Bithynia, she

distributed liberal alms to the churches, the monasteries, and

the hospitals, that they might implore Heaven for the restoration

of her health. 38 At length, in the twenty-fourth year of her

marriage, and the twenty-second of her reign, she was consumed by

a cancer; 39 and the irreparable loss was deplored by her

husband, who, in the room of a theatrical prostitute, might have

selected the purest and most noble virgin of the East. 40

34 (return) [ Ludewig, p. 161—166. I give him credit for the

charitable attempt, although he hath not much charity in his

temper.]

35 (return) [ Compare the anecdotes (c. 17) with the Edifices (l.

i. c. 9)—how differently may the same fact be stated! John Malala

(tom. ii. p. 174, 175) observes, that on this, or a similar

occasion, she released and clothed the girls whom she had

purchased from the stews at five aurei apiece.]

36 (return) [ Novel. viii. 1. An allusion to Theodora. Her

enemies read the name Daemonodora, (Aleman. p. 66.)]

37 (return) [ St. Sabas refused to pray for a son of Theodora,

lest he should prove a heretic worse than Anastasius himself,

(Cyril in Vit. St. Sabae, apud Aleman. p. 70, 109.)]

38 (return) [ See John Malala, tom. ii. p. 174. Theophanes, p.

158. Procopius de Edific. l. v. c. 3.]

39 (return) [ Theodora Chalcedonensis synodi inimica canceris

plaga toto corpore perfusa vitam prodigiose finivit, (Victor

Tununensis in Chron.) On such occasions, an orthodox mind is

steeled against pity. Alemannus (p. 12, 13) understands of

Theophanes as civil language, which does not imply either piety

or repentance; yet two years after her death, St. Theodora is

celebrated by Paul Silentiarius, (in proem. v. 58—62.)]

40 (return) [ As she persecuted the popes, and rejected a

council, Baronius exhausts the names of Eve, Dalila, Herodias,

&c.; after which he has recourse to his infernal dictionary:

civis inferni—alumna daemonum—satanico agitata spiritu-oestro

percita diabolico, &c., &c., (A.D. 548, No. 24.)]

II. A material difference may be observed in the games of

antiquity: the most eminent of the Greeks were actors, the Romans

were merely spectators. The Olympic stadium was open to wealth,

merit, and ambition; and if the candidates could depend on their

personal skill and activity, they might pursue the footsteps of

Diomede and Menelaus, and conduct their own horses in the rapid

career. 41 Ten, twenty, forty chariots were allowed to start at

the same instant; a crown of leaves was the reward of the victor;

and his fame, with that of his family and country, was chanted in

lyric strains more durable than monuments of brass and marble.

But a senator, or even a citizen, conscious of his dignity, would

have blushed to expose his person, or his horses, in the circus

of Rome. The games were exhibited at the expense of the republic,

the magistrates, or the emperors: but the reins were abandoned to

servile hands; and if the profits of a favorite charioteer

sometimes exceeded those of an advocate, they must be considered

as the effects of popular extravagance, and the high wages of a

disgraceful profession. The race, in its first institution, was a

simple contest of two chariots, whose drivers were distinguished

by white and red liveries: two additional colors, a light green,

and a caerulean blue, were afterwards introduced; and as the

races were repeated twenty-five times, one hundred chariots

contributed in the same day to the pomp of the circus. The four

factions soon acquired a legal establishment, and a mysterious

origin, and their fanciful colors were derived from the various

appearances of nature in the four seasons of the year; the red

dogstar of summer, the snows of winter, the deep shades of

autumn, and the cheerful verdure of the spring. 42 Another

interpretation preferred the elements to the seasons, and the

struggle of the green and blue was supposed to represent the

conflict of the earth and sea. Their respective victories

announced either a plentiful harvest or a prosperous navigation,

and the hostility of the husbandmen and mariners was somewhat

less absurd than the blind ardor of the Roman people, who devoted

their lives and fortunes to the color which they had espoused.

Such folly was disdained and indulged by the wisest princes; but

the names of Caligula, Nero, Vitellius, Verus, Commodus,

Caracalla, and Elagabalus, were enrolled in the blue or green

factions of the circus; they frequented their stables, applauded

their favorites, chastised their antagonists, and deserved the

esteem of the populace, by the natural or affected imitation of

their manners. The bloody and tumultuous contest continued to

disturb the public festivity, till the last age of the spectacles

of Rome; and Theodoric, from a motive of justice or affection,

interposed his authority to protect the greens against the

violence of a consul and a patrician, who were passionately

addicted to the blue faction of the circus. 43

41 (return) [ Read and feel the xxiid book of the Iliad, a living

picture of manners, passions, and the whole form and spirit of

the chariot race West’s Dissertation on the Olympic Games (sect.

xii.—xvii.) affords much curious and authentic information.]

42 (return) [ The four colors, albati, russati, prasini, veneti,

represent the four seasons, according to Cassiodorus, (Var. iii.

51,) who lavishes much wit and eloquence on this theatrical

mystery. Of these colors, the three first may be fairly

translated white, red, and green. Venetus is explained by

coeruleus, a word various and vague: it is properly the sky

reflected in the sea; but custom and convenience may allow blue

as an equivalent, (Robert. Stephan. sub voce. Spence’s Polymetis,

p. 228.)]

43 (return) [ See Onuphrius Panvinius de Ludis Circensibus, l. i.

c. 10, 11; the xviith Annotation on Mascou’s History of the

Germans; and Aleman ad c. vii.]

Constantinople adopted the follies, though not the virtues, of

ancient Rome; and the same factions which had agitated the

circus, raged with redoubled fury in the hippodrome. Under the

reign of Anastasius, this popular frenzy was inflamed by

religious zeal; and the greens, who had treacherously concealed

stones and daggers under baskets of fruit, massacred, at a solemn

festival, three thousand of their blue adversaries. 44 From this

capital, the pestilence was diffused into the provinces and

cities of the East, and the sportive distinction of two colors

produced two strong and irreconcilable factions, which shook the

foundations of a feeble government. 45 The popular dissensions,

founded on the most serious interest, or holy pretence, have

scarcely equalled the obstinacy of this wanton discord, which

invaded the peace of families, divided friends and brothers, and

tempted the female sex, though seldom seen in the circus, to

espouse the inclinations of their lovers, or to contradict the

wishes of their husbands. Every law, either human or divine, was

trampled under foot, and as long as the party was successful, its

deluded followers appeared careless of private distress or public

calamity. The license, without the freedom, of democracy, was

revived at Antioch and Constantinople, and the support of a

faction became necessary to every candidate for civil or

ecclesiastical honors. A secret attachment to the family or sect

of Anastasius was imputed to the greens; the blues were zealously

devoted to the cause of orthodoxy and Justinian, 46 and their

grateful patron protected, above five years, the disorders of a

faction, whose seasonable tumults overawed the palace, the

senate, and the capitals of the East. Insolent with royal favor,

the blues affected to strike terror by a peculiar and Barbaric

dress, the long hair of the Huns, their close sleeves and ample

garments, a lofty step, and a sonorous voice. In the day they

concealed their two-edged poniards, but in the night they boldly

assembled in arms, and in numerous bands, prepared for every act

of violence and rapine. Their adversaries of the green faction,

or even inoffensive citizens, were stripped and often murdered by

these nocturnal robbers, and it became dangerous to wear any gold

buttons or girdles, or to appear at a late hour in the streets of

a peaceful capital. A daring spirit, rising with impunity,

proceeded to violate the safeguard of private houses; and fire

was employed to facilitate the attack, or to conceal the crimes

of these factious rioters. No place was safe or sacred from their

depredations; to gratify either avarice or revenge, they

profusely spilt the blood of the innocent; churches and altars

were polluted by atrocious murders; and it was the boast of the

assassins, that their dexterity could always inflict a mortal

wound with a single stroke of their dagger. The dissolute youth

of Constantinople adopted the blue livery of disorder; the laws

were silent, and the bonds of society were relaxed: creditors

were compelled to resign their obligations; judges to reverse

their sentence; masters to enfranchise their slaves; fathers to

supply the extravagance of their children; noble matrons were

prostituted to the lust of their servants; beautiful boys were

torn from the arms of their parents; and wives, unless they

preferred a voluntary death, were ravished in the presence of

their husbands. 47 The despair of the greens, who were persecuted

by their enemies, and deserted by the magistrates, assumed the

privilege of defence, perhaps of retaliation; but those who

survived the combat were dragged to execution, and the unhappy

fugitives, escaping to woods and caverns, preyed without mercy on

the society from whence they were expelled. Those ministers of

justice who had courage to punish the crimes, and to brave the

resentment, of the blues, became the victims of their indiscreet

zeal; a præfect of Constantinople fled for refuge to the holy

sepulchre, a count of the East was ignominiously whipped, and a

governor of Cilicia was hanged, by the order of Theodora, on the

tomb of two assassins whom he had condemned for the murder of his

groom, and a daring attack upon his own life. 48 An aspiring

candidate may be tempted to build his greatness on the public

confusion, but it is the interest as well as duty of a sovereign

to maintain the authority of the laws. The first edict of

Justinian, which was often repeated, and sometimes executed,

announced his firm resolution to support the innocent, and to

chastise the guilty, of every denomination and color. Yet the

balance of justice was still inclined in favor of the blue

faction, by the secret affection, the habits, and the fears of

the emperor; his equity, after an apparent struggle, submitted,

without reluctance, to the implacable passions of Theodora, and

the empress never forgot, or forgave, the injuries of the

comedian. At the accession of the younger Justin, the

proclamation of equal and rigorous justice indirectly condemned

the partiality of the former reign. “Ye blues, Justinian is no

more! ye greens, he is still alive!” 49

44 (return) [ Marcellin. in Chron. p. 47. Instead of the vulgar

word venata he uses the more exquisite terms of coerulea and

coerealis. Baronius (A.D. 501, No. 4, 5, 6) is satisfied that the

blues were orthodox; but Tillemont is angry at the supposition,

and will not allow any martyrs in a playhouse, (Hist. des Emp.

tom. vi. p. 554.)]

45 (return) [ See Procopius, (Persic. l. i. c. 24.) In describing

the vices of the factions and of the government, the public, is

not more favorable than the secret, historian. Aleman. (p. 26)

has quoted a fine passage from Gregory Nazianzen, which proves

the inveteracy of the evil.]

46 (return) [ The partiality of Justinian for the blues (Anecdot.

c. 7) is attested by Evagrius, (Hist. Eccles. l. iv. c. 32,) John

Malala, (tom ii p. 138, 139,) especially for Antioch; and

Theophanes, (p. 142.)]

47 (return) [ A wife, (says Procopius,) who was seized and almost

ravished by a blue-coat, threw herself into the Bosphorus. The

bishops of the second Syria (Aleman. p. 26) deplore a similar

suicide, the guilt or glory of female chastity, and name the

heroine.]

48 (return) [ The doubtful credit of Procopius (Anecdot. c. 17)

is supported by the less partial Evagrius, who confirms the fact,

and specifies the names. The tragic fate of the præfect of

Constantinople is related by John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 139.)]

49 (return) [ See John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 147;) yet he owns

that Justinian was attached to the blues. The seeming discord of

the emperor and Theodora is, perhaps, viewed with too much

jealousy and refinement by Procopius, (Anecdot. c. 10.) See

Aleman. Praefat. p. 6.]

A sedition, which almost laid Constantinople in ashes, was

excited by the mutual hatred and momentary reconciliation of the

two factions. In the fifth year of his reign, Justinian

celebrated the festival of the ides of January; the games were

incessantly disturbed by the clamorous discontent of the greens:

till the twenty-second race, the emperor maintained his silent

gravity; at length, yielding to his impatience, he condescended

to hold, in abrupt sentences, and by the voice of a crier, the

most singular dialogue 50 that ever passed between a prince and

his subjects. Their first complaints were respectful and modest;

they accused the subordinate ministers of oppression, and

proclaimed their wishes for the long life and victory of the

emperor. “Be patient and attentive, ye insolent railers!”

exclaimed Justinian; “be mute, ye Jews, Samaritans, and

Manichaeans!” The greens still attempted to awaken his

compassion. “We are poor, we are innocent, we are injured, we

dare not pass through the streets: a general persecution is

exercised against our name and color. Let us die, O emperor! but

let us die by your command, and for your service!” But the

repetition of partial and passionate invectives degraded, in

their eyes, the majesty of the purple; they renounced allegiance

to the prince who refused justice to his people; lamented that

the father of Justinian had been born; and branded his son with

the opprobrious names of a homicide, an ass, and a perjured

tyrant. “Do you despise your lives?” cried the indignant monarch:

the blues rose with fury from their seats; their hostile clamors

thundered in the hippodrome; and their adversaries, deserting the

unequal contest spread terror and despair through the streets of

Constantinople. At this dangerous moment, seven notorious

assassins of both factions, who had been condemned by the

præfect, were carried round the city, and afterwards transported

to the place of execution in the suburb of Pera. Four were

immediately beheaded; a fifth was hanged: but when the same

punishment was inflicted on the remaining two, the rope broke,

they fell alive to the ground, the populace applauded their

escape, and the monks of St. Conon, issuing from the neighboring

convent, conveyed them in a boat to the sanctuary of the church.

51 As one of these criminals was of the blue, and the other of

the green livery, the two factions were equally provoked by the

cruelty of their oppressor, or the ingratitude of their patron;

and a short truce was concluded till they had delivered their

prisoners and satisfied their revenge. The palace of the præfect,

who withstood the seditious torrent, was instantly burnt, his

officers and guards were massacred, the prisons were forced open,

and freedom was restored to those who could only use it for the

public destruction. A military force, which had been despatched

to the aid of the civil magistrate, was fiercely encountered by

an armed multitude, whose numbers and boldness continually

increased; and the Heruli, the wildest Barbarians in the service

of the empire, overturned the priests and their relics, which,

from a pious motive, had been rashly interposed to separate the

bloody conflict. The tumult was exasperated by this sacrilege,

the people fought with enthusiasm in the cause of God; the women,

from the roofs and windows, showered stones on the heads of the

soldiers, who darted fire brands against the houses; and the

various flames, which had been kindled by the hands of citizens

and strangers, spread without control over the face of the city.

The conflagration involved the cathedral of St. Sophia, the baths

of Zeuxippus, a part of the palace, from the first entrance to

the altar of Mars, and the long portico from the palace to the

forum of Constantine: a large hospital, with the sick patients,

was consumed; many churches and stately edifices were destroyed

and an immense treasure of gold and silver was either melted or

lost. From such scenes of horror and distress, the wise and

wealthy citizens escaped over the Bosphorus to the Asiatic side;

and during five days Constantinople was abandoned to the

factions, whose watchword, Nika, vanquish! has given a name to

this memorable sedition. 52

50 (return) [ This dialogue, which Theophanes has preserved,

exhibits the popular language, as well as the manners, of

Constantinople, in the vith century. Their Greek is mingled with

many strange and barbarous words, for which Ducange cannot always

find a meaning or etymology.]

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) · 第 42 / 79 章

39 (return) [ Cassiodorus, who quotes Tacitus to the Aestians,