The free citizens of Athens and Rome enj_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)

cases, the invaluable privilege of being tried by their country.

201 1. The administration of justice is the most ancient office

of a prince: it was exercised by the Roman kings, and abused by

Tarquin; who alone, without law or council, pronounced his

arbitrary judgments. The first consuls succeeded to this regal

prerogative; but the sacred right of appeal soon abolished the

jurisdiction of the magistrates, and all public causes were

decided by the supreme tribunal of the people. But a wild

democracy, superior to the forms, too often disdains the

essential principles, of justice: the pride of despotism was

envenomed by plebeian envy, and the heroes of Athens might

sometimes applaud the happiness of the Persian, whose fate

depended on the caprice of a single tyrant. Some salutary

restraints, imposed by the people or their own passions, were at

once the cause and effect of the gravity and temperance of the

Romans. The right of accusation was confined to the magistrates.

A vote of the thirty five tribes could inflict a fine; but the

cognizance of all capital crimes was reserved by a fundamental

law to the assembly of the centuries, in which the weight of

influence and property was sure to preponderate. Repeated

proclamations and adjournments were interposed, to allow time for

prejudice and resentment to subside: the whole proceeding might

be annulled by a seasonable omen, or the opposition of a tribune;

and such popular trials were commonly less formidable to

innocence than they were favorable to guilt. But this union of

the judicial and legislative powers left it doubtful whether the

accused party was pardoned or acquitted; and, in the defence of

an illustrious client, the orators of Rome and Athens address

their arguments to the policy and benevolence, as well as to the

justice, of their sovereign. 2. The task of convening the

citizens for the trial of each offender became more difficult, as

the citizens and the offenders continually multiplied; and the

ready expedient was adopted of delegating the jurisdiction of the

people to the ordinary magistrates, or to extraordinary

inquisitors. In the first ages these questions were rare and

occasional. In the beginning of the seventh century of Rome they

were made perpetual: four praetors were annually empowered to sit

in judgment on the state offences of treason, extortion,

peculation, and bribery; and Sylla added new praetors and new

questions for those crimes which more directly injure the safety

of individuals. By these inquisitors the trial was prepared and

directed; but they could only pronounce the sentence of the

majority of judges, who with some truth, and more prejudice, have

been compared to the English juries. 202 To discharge this

important, though burdensome office, an annual list of ancient

and respectable citizens was formed by the praetor. After many

constitutional struggles, they were chosen in equal numbers from

the senate, the equestrian order, and the people; four hundred

and fifty were appointed for single questions; and the various

rolls or decuries of judges must have contained the names of some

thousand Romans, who represented the judicial authority of the

state. In each particular cause, a sufficient number was drawn

from the urn; their integrity was guarded by an oath; the mode of

ballot secured their independence; the suspicion of partiality

was removed by the mutual challenges of the accuser and

defendant; and the judges of Milo, by the retrenchment of fifteen

on each side, were reduced to fifty-one voices or tablets, of

acquittal, of condemnation, or of favorable doubt. 203 3. In his

civil jurisdiction, the praetor of the city was truly a judge,

and almost a legislator; but, as soon as he had prescribed the

action of law, he often referred to a delegate the determination

of the fact. With the increase of legal proceedings, the tribunal

of the centumvirs, in which he presided, acquired more weight and

reputation. But whether he acted alone, or with the advice of his

council, the most absolute powers might be trusted to a

magistrate who was annually chosen by the votes of the people.

The rules and precautions of freedom have required some

explanation; the order of despotism is simple and inanimate.

Before the age of Justinian, or perhaps of Diocletian, the

decuries of Roman judges had sunk to an empty title: the humble

advice of the assessors might be accepted or despised; and in

each tribunal the civil and criminal jurisdiction was

administered by a single magistrate, who was raised and disgraced

by the will of the emperor.

201 (return) [The important subject of the public questions and

judgments at Rome, is explained with much learning, and in a

classic style, by Charles Sigonius, (l. iii. de Judiciis, in Opp.

tom. iii. p. 679—864;) and a good abridgment may be found in the

Republique Romaine of Beaufort, (tom. ii. l. v. p. 1—121.) Those

who wish for more abstruse law may study Noodt, (de Jurisdictione

et Imperio Libri duo, tom. i. p. 93—134,) Heineccius, (ad

Pandect. l. i. et ii. ad Institut. l. iv. tit. xvii Element. ad

Antiquitat.) and Gravina (Opp. 230—251.)]

202 (return) [ The office, both at Rome and in England, must be

considered as an occasional duty, and not a magistracy, or

profession. But the obligation of a unanimous verdict is peculiar

to our laws, which condemn the jurymen to undergo the torture

from whence they have exempted the criminal.]

203 (return) [ We are indebted for this interesting fact to a

fragment of Asconius Pedianus, who flourished under the reign of

Tiberius. The loss of his Commentaries on the Orations of Cicero

has deprived us of a valuable fund of historical and legal

knowledge.]

A Roman accused of any capital crime might prevent the sentence

of the law by voluntary exile, or death. Till his guilt had been

legally proved, his innocence was presumed, and his person was

free: till the votes of the last century had been counted and

declared, he might peaceably secede to any of the allied cities

of Italy, or Greece, or Asia. 204 His fame and fortunes were

preserved, at least to his children, by this civil death; and he

might still be happy in every rational and sensual enjoyment, if

a mind accustomed to the ambitious tumult of Rome could support

the uniformity and silence of Rhodes or Athens. A bolder effort

was required to escape from the tyranny of the Caesars; but this

effort was rendered familiar by the maxims of the stoics, the

example of the bravest Romans, and the legal encouragements of

suicide. The bodies of condemned criminals were exposed to public

ignominy, and their children, a more serious evil, were reduced

to poverty by the confiscation of their fortunes. But, if the

victims of Tiberius and Nero anticipated the decree of the prince

or senate, their courage and despatch were recompensed by the

applause of the public, the decent honors of burial, and the

validity of their testaments. 205 The exquisite avarice and

cruelty of Domitian appear to have deprived the unfortunate of

this last consolation, and it was still denied even by the

clemency of the Antonines. A voluntary death, which, in the case

of a capital offence, intervened between the accusation and the

sentence, was admitted as a confession of guilt, and the spoils

of the deceased were seized by the inhuman claims of the

treasury. 206 Yet the civilians have always respected the natural

right of a citizen to dispose of his life; and the posthumous

disgrace invented by Tarquin, 207 to check the despair of his

subjects, was never revived or imitated by succeeding tyrants.

The powers of this world have indeed lost their dominion over him

who is resolved on death; and his arm can only be restrained by

the religious apprehension of a future state. Suicides are

enumerated by Virgil among the unfortunate, rather than the

guilty; 208 and the poetical fables of the infernal shades could

not seriously influence the faith or practice of mankind. But the

precepts of the gospel, or the church, have at length imposed a

pious servitude on the minds of Christians, and condemn them to

expect, without a murmur, the last stroke of disease or the

executioner.

204 (return) [Footnote 204: Polyb. l. vi. p. 643. The extension

of the empire and city of Rome obliged the exile to seek a more

distant place of retirement.]

205 (return) [ Qui de se statuebant, humabanta corpora, manebant

testamenta; pretium festinandi. Tacit. Annal. vi. 25, with the

Notes of Lipsius.]

206 (return) [ Julius Paulus, (Sentent. Recept. l. v. tit. xii.

p. 476,) the Pandects, (xlviii. tit. xxi.,) the Code, (l. ix.

tit. l.,) Bynkershoek, (tom. i. p. 59, Observat. J. C. R. iv. 4,)

and Montesquieu, (Esprit des Loix, l. xxix. c. ix.,) define the

civil limitations of the liberty and privileges of suicide. The

criminal penalties are the production of a later and darker age.]

207 (return) [ Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxvi. 24. When he fatigued his

subjects in building the Capitol, many of the laborers were

provoked to despatch themselves: he nailed their dead bodies to

crosses.]

208 (return) [ The sole resemblance of a violent and premature

death has engaged Virgil (Aeneid, vi. 434—439) to confound

suicides with infants, lovers, and persons unjustly condemned.

Heyne, the best of his editors, is at a loss to deduce the idea,

or ascertain the jurisprudence, of the Roman poet.]

The penal statutes form a very small proportion of the sixty-two

books of the Code and Pandects; and in all judicial proceedings,

the life or death of a citizen is determined with less caution or

delay than the most ordinary question of covenant or inheritance.

This singular distinction, though something may be allowed for

the urgent necessity of defending the peace of society, is

derived from the nature of criminal and civil jurisprudence. Our

duties to the state are simple and uniform: the law by which he

is condemned is inscribed not only on brass or marble, but on the

conscience of the offender, and his guilt is commonly proved by

the testimony of a single fact. But our relations to each other

are various and infinite; our obligations are created, annulled,

and modified, by injuries, benefits, and promises; and the

interpretation of voluntary contracts and testaments, which are

often dictated by fraud or ignorance, affords a long and

laborious exercise to the sagacity of the judge. The business of

life is multiplied by the extent of commerce and dominion, and

the residence of the parties in the distant provinces of an

empire is productive of doubt, delay, and inevitable appeals from

the local to the supreme magistrate. Justinian, the Greek emperor

of Constantinople and the East, was the legal successor of the

Latin shepherd who had planted a colony on the banks of the

Tyber. In a period of thirteen hundred years, the laws had

reluctantly followed the changes of government and manners; and

the laudable desire of conciliating ancient names with recent

institutions destroyed the harmony, and swelled the magnitude, of

the obscure and irregular system. The laws which excuse, on any

occasions, the ignorance of their subjects, confess their own

imperfections: the civil jurisprudence, as it was abridged by

Justinian, still continued a mysterious science, and a profitable

trade, and the innate perplexity of the study was involved in

tenfold darkness by the private industry of the practitioners.

The expense of the pursuit sometimes exceeded the value of the

prize, and the fairest rights were abandoned by the poverty or

prudence of the claimants. Such costly justice might tend to

abate the spirit of litigation, but the unequal pressure serves

only to increase the influence of the rich, and to aggravate the

misery of the poor. By these dilatory and expensive proceedings,

the wealthy pleader obtains a more certain advantage than he

could hope from the accidental corruption of his judge. The

experience of an abuse, from which our own age and country are

not perfectly exempt, may sometimes provoke a generous

indignation, and extort the hasty wish of exchanging our

elaborate jurisprudence for the simple and summary decrees of a

Turkish cadhi. Our calmer reflection will suggest, that such

forms and delays are necessary to guard the person and property

of the citizen; that the discretion of the judge is the first

engine of tyranny; and that the laws of a free people should

foresee and determine every question that may probably arise in

the exercise of power and the transactions of industry. But the

government of Justinian united the evils of liberty and

servitude; and the Romans were oppressed at the same time by the

multiplicity of their laws and the arbitrary will of their

master.

Chapter XLV: State Of Italy Under The Lombards.—Part I.

Reign Of The Younger Justin.—Embassy Of The Avars.—Their Settlement On

The Danube.—Conquest Of Italy By The Lombards.—Adoption And Reign Of

Tiberius.—Of Maurice.—State Of Italy Under The Lombards And The

Exarchs.—Of Ravenna.—Distress Of Rome.—Character And Pontificate Of

Gregory The First.

During the last years of Justinian, his infirm mind was devoted

to heavenly contemplation, and he neglected the business of the

lower world. His subjects were impatient of the long continuance

of his life and reign: yet all who were capable of reflection

apprehended the moment of his death, which might involve the

capital in tumult, and the empire in civil war. Seven nephews 1

of the childless monarch, the sons or grandsons of his brother

and sister, had been educated in the splendor of a princely

fortune; they had been shown in high commands to the provinces

and armies; their characters were known, their followers were

zealous, and, as the jealousy of age postponed the declaration of

a successor, they might expect with equal hopes the inheritance

of their uncle. He expired in his palace, after a reign of

thirty-eight years; and the decisive opportunity was embraced by

the friends of Justin, the son of Vigilantia. 2 At the hour of

midnight, his domestics were awakened by an importunate crowd,

who thundered at his door, and obtained admittance by revealing

themselves to be the principal members of the senate. These

welcome deputies announced the recent and momentous secret of the

emperor’s decease; reported, or perhaps invented, his dying

choice of the best beloved and most deserving of his nephews, and

conjured Justin to prevent the disorders of the multitude, if

they should perceive, with the return of light, that they were

left without a master. After composing his countenance to

surprise, sorrow, and decent modesty, Justin, by the advice of

his wife Sophia, submitted to the authority of the senate. He was

conducted with speed and silence to the palace; the guards

saluted their new sovereign; and the martial and religious rites

of his coronation were diligently accomplished. By the hands of

the proper officers he was invested with the Imperial garments,

the red buskins, white tunic, and purple robe.

A fortunate soldier, whom he instantly promoted to the rank of

tribune, encircled his neck with a military collar; four robust

youths exalted him on a shield; he stood firm and erect to

receive the adoration of his subjects; and their choice was

sanctified by the benediction of the patriarch, who imposed the

diadem on the head of an orthodox prince. The hippodrome was

already filled with innumerable multitudes; and no sooner did the

emperor appear on his throne, than the voices of the blue and the

green factions were confounded in the same loyal acclamations. In

the speeches which Justin addressed to the senate and people, he

promised to correct the abuses which had disgraced the age of his

predecessor, displayed the maxims of a just and beneficent

government, and declared that, on the approaching calends of

January, 3 he would revive in his own person the name and liberty

of a Roman consul. The immediate discharge of his uncle’s debts

exhibited a solid pledge of his faith and generosity: a train of

porters, laden with bags of gold, advanced into the midst of the

hippodrome, and the hopeless creditors of Justinian accepted this

equitable payment as a voluntary gift. Before the end of three

years, his example was imitated and surpassed by the empress

Sophia, who delivered many indigent citizens from the weight of

debt and usury: an act of benevolence the best entitled to

gratitude, since it relieves the most intolerable distress; but

in which the bounty of a prince is the most liable to be abused

by the claims of prodigality and fraud. 4

1 (return) [ See the family of Justin and Justinian in the

Familiae Byzantine of Ducange, p. 89—101. The devout civilians,

Ludewig (in Vit. Justinian. p. 131) and Heineccius (Hist. Juris.

Roman. p. 374) have since illustrated the genealogy of their

favorite prince.]

2 (return) [ In the story of Justin’s elevation I have translated

into simple and concise prose the eight hundred verses of the two

first books of Corippus, de Laudibus Justini Appendix Hist.

Byzant. p. 401—416 Rome 1777.]

3 (return) [ It is surprising how Pagi (Critica. in Annal. Baron.

tom. ii. p 639) could be tempted by any chronicles to contradict

the plain and decisive text of Corippus, (vicina dona, l. ii.

354, vicina dies, l. iv. 1,) and to postpone, till A.D. 567, the

consulship of Justin.]

4 (return) [ Theophan. Chronograph. p. 205. Whenever Cedrenus or

Zonaras are mere transcribers, it is superfluous to allege their

testimony.]

On the seventh day of his reign, Justin gave audience to the

ambassadors of the Avars, and the scene was decorated to impress

the Barbarians with astonishment, veneration, and terror. From

the palace gate, the spacious courts and long porticos were lined

with the lofty crests and gilt bucklers of the guards, who

presented their spears and axes with more confidence than they

would have shown in a field of battle. The officers who exercised

the power, or attended the person, of the prince, were attired in

their richest habits, and arranged according to the military and

civil order of the hierarchy. When the veil of the sanctuary was

withdrawn, the ambassadors beheld the emperor of the East on his

throne, beneath a canopy, or dome, which was supported by four

columns, and crowned with a winged figure of Victory. In the

first emotions of surprise, they submitted to the servile

adoration of the Byzantine court; but as soon as they rose from

the ground, Targetius, the chief of the embassy, expressed the

freedom and pride of a Barbarian. He extolled, by the tongue of

his interpreter, the greatness of the chagan, by whose clemency

the kingdoms of the South were permitted to exist, whose

victorious subjects had traversed the frozen rivers of Scythia,

and who now covered the banks of the Danube with innumerable

tents. The late emperor had cultivated, with annual and costly

gifts, the friendship of a grateful monarch, and the enemies of

Rome had respected the allies of the Avars. The same prudence

would instruct the nephew of Justinian to imitate the liberality

of his uncle, and to purchase the blessings of peace from an

invincible people, who delighted and excelled in the exercise of

war. The reply of the emperor was delivered in the same strain of

haughty defiance, and he derived his confidence from the God of

the Christians, the ancient glory of Rome, and the recent

triumphs of Justinian. “The empire,” said he, “abounds with men

and horses, and arms sufficient to defend our frontiers, and to

chastise the Barbarians. You offer aid, you threaten hostilities:

we despise your enmity and your aid. The conquerors of the Avars

solicit our alliance; shall we dread their fugitives and exiles?

5 The bounty of our uncle was granted to your misery, to your

humble prayers. From us you shall receive a more important

obligation, the knowledge of your own weakness. Retire from our

presence; the lives of ambassadors are safe; and, if you return

to implore our pardon, perhaps you will taste of our

benevolence.” 6 On the report of his ambassadors, the chagan was

awed by the apparent firmness of a Roman emperor of whose

character and resources he was ignorant. Instead of executing his

threats against the Eastern empire, he marched into the poor and

savage countries of Germany, which were subject to the dominion

of the Franks. After two doubtful battles, he consented to

retire, and the Austrasian king relieved the distress of his camp

with an immediate supply of corn and cattle. 7 Such repeated

disappointments had chilled the spirit of the Avars, and their

power would have dissolved away in the Sarmatian desert, if the

alliance of Alboin, king of the Lombards, had not given a new

object to their arms, and a lasting settlement to their wearied

fortunes.

5 (return) [ Corippus, l. iii. 390. The unquestionable sense

relates to the Turks, the conquerors of the Avars; but the word

scultor has no apparent meaning, and the sole Ms. of Corippus,

from whence the first edition (1581, apud Plantin) was printed,

is no longer visible. The last editor, Foggini of Rome, has

inserted the conjectural emendation of soldan: but the proofs of

Ducange, (Joinville, Dissert. xvi. p. 238—240,) for the early use

of this title among the Turks and Persians, are weak or

ambiguous. And I must incline to the authority of D’Herbelot,

(Bibliotheque Orient. p. 825,) who ascribes the word to the

Arabic and Chaldaean tongues, and the date to the beginning of

the xith century, when it was bestowed by the khalif of Bagdad on

Mahmud, prince of Gazna, and conqueror of India.]

6 (return) [ For these characteristic speeches, compare the verse

of Corippus (l. iii. 251—401) with the prose of Menander,

(Excerpt. Legation. p 102, 103.) Their diversity proves that they

did not copy each other their resemblance, that they drew from a

common original.]

7 (return) [ For the Austrasian war, see Menander (Excerpt.

Legat. p. 110,) Gregory of Tours, (Hist. Franc. l. iv. c 29,) and

Paul the deacon, (de Gest. Langobard. l. ii. c. 10.)]

While Alboin served under his father’s standard, he encountered

in battle, and transpierced with his lance, the rival prince of

the Gepidae. The Lombards, who applauded such early prowess,

requested his father, with unanimous acclamations, that the

heroic youth, who had shared the dangers of the field, might be

admitted to the feast of victory. “You are not unmindful,”

replied the inflexible Audoin, “of the wise customs of our

ancestors. Whatever may be his merit, a prince is incapable of

sitting at table with his father till he has received his arms

from a foreign and royal hand.” Alboin bowed with reverence to

the institutions of his country, selected forty companions, and

boldly visited the court of Turisund, king of the Gepidae, who

embraced and entertained, according to the laws of hospitality,

the murderer of his son. At the banquet, whilst Alboin occupied

the seat of the youth whom he had slain, a tender remembrance

arose in the mind of Turisund. “How dear is that place! how

hateful is that person!” were the words that escaped, with a

sigh, from the indignant father. His grief exasperated the

national resentment of the Gepidae; and Cunimund, his surviving

son, was provoked by wine, or fraternal affection, to the desire

of vengeance. “The Lombards,” said the rude Barbarian, “resemble,

in figure and in smell, the mares of our Sarmatian plains.” And

this insult was a coarse allusion to the white bands which

enveloped their legs. “Add another resemblance,” replied an

audacious Lombard; “you have felt how strongly they kick. Visit

the plain of Asfield, and seek for the bones of thy brother: they

are mingled with those of the vilest animals.” The Gepidae, a

nation of warriors, started from their seats, and the fearless

Alboin, with his forty companions, laid their hands on their

swords. The tumult was appeased by the venerable interposition of

Turisund. He saved his own honor, and the life of his guest; and,

after the solemn rites of investiture, dismissed the stranger in

the bloody arms of his son; the gift of a weeping parent. Alboin

returned in triumph; and the Lombards, who celebrated his

matchless intrepidity, were compelled to praise the virtues of an

enemy. 8 In this extraordinary visit he had probably seen the

daughter of Cunimund, who soon after ascended the throne of the

Gepidae. Her name was Rosamond, an appellation expressive of

female beauty, and which our own history or romance has

consecrated to amorous tales. The king of the Lombards (the

father of Alboin no longer lived) was contracted to the

granddaughter of Clovis; but the restraints of faith and policy

soon yielded to the hope of possessing the fair Rosamond, and of

insulting her family and nation. The arts of persuasion were

tried without success; and the impatient lover, by force and

stratagem, obtained the object of his desires. War was the

consequence which he foresaw and solicited; but the Lombards

could not long withstand the furious assault of the Gepidae, who

were sustained by a Roman army. And, as the offer of marriage was

rejected with contempt, Alboin was compelled to relinquish his

prey, and to partake of the disgrace which he had inflicted on

the house of Cunimund. 9

8 (return) [ Paul Warnefrid, the deacon of Friuli, de Gest.

Langobard. l. i. c. 23, 24. His pictures of national manners,

though rudely sketched are more lively and faithful than those of

Bede, or Gregory of Tours]

9 (return) [ The story is told by an impostor, (Theophylact.

Simocat. l. vi. c. 10;) but he had art enough to build his

fictions on public and notorious facts.]

When a public quarrel is envenomed by private injuries, a blow

that is not mortal or decisive can be productive only of a short

truce, which allows the unsuccessful combatant to sharpen his

arms for a new encounter. The strength of Alboin had been found

unequal to the gratification of his love, ambition, and revenge:

he condescended to implore the formidable aid of the chagan; and

the arguments that he employed are expressive of the art and

policy of the Barbarians. In the attack of the Gepidae, he had

been prompted by the just desire of extirpating a people whom

their alliance with the Roman empire had rendered the common

enemies of the nations, and the personal adversaries of the

chagan. If the forces of the Avars and the Lombards should unite

in this glorious quarrel, the victory was secure, and the reward

inestimable: the Danube, the Hebrus, Italy, and Constantinople,

would be exposed, without a barrier, to their invincible arms.

But, if they hesitated or delayed to prevent the malice of the

Romans, the same spirit which had insulted would pursue the Avars

to the extremity of the earth. These specious reasons were heard

by the chagan with coldness and disdain: he detained the Lombard

ambassadors in his camp, protracted the negotiation, and by turns

alleged his want of inclination, or his want of ability, to

undertake this important enterprise. At length he signified the

ultimate price of his alliance, that the Lombards should

immediately present him with a tithe of their cattle; that the

spoils and captives should be equally divided; but that the lands

of the Gepidae should become the sole patrimony of the Avars.

Such hard conditions were eagerly accepted by the passions of

Alboin; and, as the Romans were dissatisfied with the ingratitude

and perfidy of the Gepidae, Justin abandoned that incorrigible

people to their fate, and remained the tranquil spectator of this

unequal conflict. The despair of Cunimund was active and

dangerous. He was informed that the Avars had entered his

confines; but, on the strong assurance that, after the defeat of

the Lombards, these foreign invaders would easily be repelled, he

rushed forwards to encounter the implacable enemy of his name and

family. But the courage of the Gepidae could secure them no more

than an honorable death. The bravest of the nation fell in the

field of battle; the king of the Lombards contemplated with

delight the head of Cunimund; and his skull was fashioned into a

cup to satiate the hatred of the conqueror, or, perhaps, to

comply with the savage custom of his country. 10 After this

victory, no further obstacle could impede the progress of the

confederates, and they faithfully executed the terms of their

agreement. 11 The fair countries of Walachia, Moldavia,

Transylvania, and the other parts of Hungary beyond the Danube,

were occupied, without resistance, by a new colony of Scythians;

and the Dacian empire of the chagans subsisted with splendor

above two hundred and thirty years. The nation of the Gepidae was

dissolved; but, in the distribution of the captives, the slaves

of the Avars were less fortunate than the companions of the

Lombards, whose generosity adopted a valiant foe, and whose

freedom was incompatible with cool and deliberate tyranny. One

moiety of the spoil introduced into the camp of Alboin more

wealth than a Barbarian could readily compute. The fair Rosamond

was persuaded, or compelled, to acknowledge the rights of her

victorious lover; and the daughter of Cunimund appeared to

forgive those crimes which might be imputed to her own

irresistible charms.

10 (return) [ It appears from Strabo, Pliny, and Ammianus

Marcellinus, that the same practice was common among the Scythian

tribes, (Muratori, Scriptores Rer. Italic. tom. i. p. 424.) The

scalps of North America are likewise trophies of valor. The skull

of Cunimund was preserved above two hundred years among the

Lombards; and Paul himself was one of the guests to whom Duke

Ratchis exhibited this cup on a high festival, (l. ii. c. 28.)]

11 (return) [ Paul, l. i. c. 27. Menander, in Excerpt Legat. p.

110, 111.]

The destruction of a mighty kingdom established the fame of

Alboin. In the days of Charlemagne, the Bavarians, the Saxons,

and the other tribes of the Teutonic language, still repeated the

songs which described the heroic virtues, the valor, liberality,

and fortune of the king of the Lombards. 12 But his ambition was

yet unsatisfied; and the conqueror of the Gepidae turned his eyes

from the Danube to the richer banks of the Po, and the Tyber.

Fifteen years had not elapsed, since his subjects, the

confederates of Narses, had visited the pleasant climate of

Italy: the mountains, the rivers, the highways, were familiar to

their memory: the report of their success, perhaps the view of

their spoils, had kindled in the rising generation the flame of

emulation and enterprise. Their hopes were encouraged by the

spirit and eloquence of Alboin: and it is affirmed, that he spoke

to their senses, by producing at the royal feast, the fairest and

most exquisite fruits that grew spontaneously in the garden of

the world. No sooner had he erected his standard, than the native

strength of the Lombard was multiplied by the adventurous youth

of Germany and Scythia. The robust peasantry of Noricum and

Pannonia had resumed the manners of Barbarians; and the names of

the Gepidae, Bulgarians, Sarmatians, and Bavarians, may be

distinctly traced in the provinces of Italy. 13 Of the Saxons,

the old allies of the Lombards, twenty thousand warriors, with

their wives and children, accepted the invitation of Alboin.

Their bravery contributed to his success; but the accession or

the absence of their numbers was not sensibly felt in the

magnitude of his host. Every mode of religion was freely

practised by its respective votaries. The king of the Lombards

had been educated in the Arian heresy; but the Catholics, in

their public worship, were allowed to pray for his conversion;

while the more stubborn Barbarians sacrificed a she-goat, or

perhaps a captive, to the gods of their fathers. 14 The Lombards,

and their confederates, were united by their common attachment to

a chief, who excelled in all the virtues and vices of a savage

hero; and the vigilance of Alboin provided an ample magazine of

offensive and defensive arms for the use of the expedition. The

portable wealth of the Lombards attended the march: their lands

they cheerfully relinquished to the Avars, on the solemn promise,

which was made and accepted without a smile, that if they failed

in the conquest of Italy, these voluntary exiles should be

reinstated in their former possessions.

12 (return) [ Ut hactenus etiam tam apud Bajoarior um gentem,

quam et Saxmum, sed et alios ejusdem linguae homines..... in

eorum carmini bus celebretur. Paul, l. i. c. 27. He died A.D.

799, (Muratori, in Praefat. tom. i. p. 397.) These German songs,

some of which might be as old as Tacitus, (de Moribus Germ. c.

2,) were compiled and transcribed by Charlemagne. Barbara et

antiquissima carmina, quibus veterum regum actus et bella

canebantur scripsit memoriaeque mandavit, (Eginard, in Vit.

Carol. Magn. c. 29, p. 130, 131.) The poems, which Goldast

commends, (Animadvers. ad Eginard. p. 207,) appear to be recent

and contemptible romances.]

13 (return) [ The other nations are rehearsed by Paul, (l. ii. c.

6, 26,) Muratori (Antichita Italiane, tom. i. dissert. i. p. 4)

has discovered the village of the Bavarians, three miles from

Modena.]

14 (return) [ Gregory the Roman (Dialog. l. i. iii. c. 27, 28,

apud Baron. Annal Eccles. A.D. 579, No. 10) supposes that they

likewise adored this she-goat. I know but of one religion in

which the god and the victim are the same.]

They might have failed, if Narses had been the antagonist of the

Lombards; and the veteran warriors, the associates of his Gothic

victory, would have encountered with reluctance an enemy whom

they dreaded and esteemed. But the weakness of the Byzantine

court was subservient to the Barbarian cause; and it was for the

ruin of Italy, that the emperor once listened to the complaints

of his subjects. The virtues of Narses were stained with avarice;

and, in his provincial reign of fifteen years, he accumulated a

treasure of gold and silver which surpassed the modesty of a

private fortune. His government was oppressive or unpopular, and

the general discontent was expressed with freedom by the deputies

of Rome. Before the throne of Justinian they boldly declared,

that their Gothic servitude had been more tolerable than the

despotism of a Greek eunuch; and that, unless their tyrant were

instantly removed, they would consult their own happiness in the

choice of a master. The apprehension of a revolt was urged by the

voice of envy and detraction, which had so recently triumphed

over the merit of Belisarius. A new exarch, Longinus, was

appointed to supersede the conqueror of Italy, and the base

motives of his recall were revealed in the insulting mandate of

the empress Sophia, “that he should leave to men the exercise of

arms, and return to his proper station among the maidens of the

palace, where a distaff should be again placed in the hand of the

eunuch.” “I will spin her such a thread as she shall not easily

unravel!” is said to have been the reply which indignation and

conscious virtue extorted from the hero. Instead of attending, a

slave and a victim, at the gate of the Byzantine palace, he

retired to Naples, from whence (if any credit is due to the

belief of the times) Narses invited the Lombards to chastise the

ingratitude of the prince and people. 15 But the passions of the

people are furious and changeable, and the Romans soon

recollected the merits, or dreaded the resentment, of their

victorious general. By the mediation of the pope, who undertook a

special pilgrimage to Naples, their repentance was accepted; and

Narses, assuming a milder aspect and a more dutiful language,

consented to fix his residence in the Capitol. His death, 16

though in the extreme period of old age, was unseasonable and

premature, since his genius alone could have repaired the last

and fatal error of his life. The reality, or the suspicion, of a

conspiracy disarmed and disunited the Italians. The soldiers

resented the disgrace, and bewailed the loss, of their general.

They were ignorant of their new exarch; and Longinus was himself

ignorant of the state of the army and the province. In the

preceding years Italy had been desolated by pestilence and

famine, and a disaffected people ascribed the calamities of

nature to the guilt or folly of their rulers. 17

15 (return) [ The charge of the deacon against Narses (l. ii. c.

5) may be groundless; but the weak apology of the Cardinal

(Baron. Annal Eccles. A.D. 567, No. 8—12) is rejected by the best

critics—Pagi (tom. ii. p. 639, 640,) Muratori, (Annali d’ Italia,

tom. v. p. 160—163,) and the last editors, Horatius Blancus,

(Script. Rerum Italic. tom. i. p. 427, 428,) and Philip

Argelatus, (Sigon. Opera, tom. ii. p. 11, 12.) The Narses who

assisted at the coronation of Justin (Corippus, l. iii. 221) is

clearly understood to be a different person.]

16 (return) [ The death of Narses is mentioned by Paul, l. ii. c.

11. Anastas. in Vit. Johan. iii. p. 43. Agnellus, Liber

Pontifical. Raven. in Script. Rer. Italicarum, tom. ii. part i.

p. 114, 124. Yet I cannot believe with Agnellus that Narses was

ninety-five years of age. Is it probable that all his exploits

were performed at fourscore?]

17 (return) [ The designs of Narses and of the Lombards for the

invasion of Italy are exposed in the last chapter of the first

book, and the seven last chapters of the second book, of Paul the

deacon.]

Whatever might be the grounds of his security, Alboin neither

expected nor encountered a Roman army in the field. He ascended

the Julian Alps, and looked down with contempt and desire on the

fruitful plains to which his victory communicated the perpetual

appellation of Lombardy. A faithful chieftain, and a select band,

were stationed at Forum Julii, the modern Friuli, to guard the

passes of the mountains. The Lombards respected the strength of

Pavia, and listened to the prayers of the Trevisans: their slow

and heavy multitudes proceeded to occupy the palace and city of

Verona; and Milan, now rising from her ashes, was invested by the

powers of Alboin five months after his departure from Pannonia.

Terror preceded his march: he found every where, or he left, a

dreary solitude; and the pusillanimous Italians presumed, without

a trial, that the stranger was invincible. Escaping to lakes, or

rocks, or morasses, the affrighted crowds concealed some

fragments of their wealth, and delayed the moment of their

servitude. Paulinus, the patriarch of Aquileia, removed his

treasures, sacred and profane, to the Isle of Grado, 18 and his

successors were adopted by the infant republic of Venice, which

was continually enriched by the public calamities. Honoratus, who

filled the chair of St. Ambrose, had credulously accepted the

faithless offers of a capitulation; and the archbishop, with the

clergy and nobles of Milan, were driven by the perfidy of Alboin

to seek a refuge in the less accessible ramparts of Genoa. Along

the maritime coast, the courage of the inhabitants was supported

by the facility of supply, the hopes of relief, and the power of

escape; but from the Trentine hills to the gates of Ravenna and

Rome the inland regions of Italy became, without a battle or a

siege, the lasting patrimony of the Lombards. The submission of

the people invited the Barbarian to assume the character of a

lawful sovereign, and the helpless exarch was confined to the

office of announcing to the emperor Justin the rapid and

irretrievable loss of his provinces and cities. 19 One city,

which had been diligently fortified by the Goths, resisted the

arms of a new invader; and while Italy was subdued by the flying

detachments of the Lombards, the royal camp was fixed above three

years before the western gate of Ticinum, or Pavia. The same

courage which obtains the esteem of a civilized enemy provokes

the fury of a savage, and the impatient besieger had bound

himself by a tremendous oath, that age, and sex, and dignity,

should be confounded in a general massacre. The aid of famine at

length enabled him to execute his bloody vow; but, as Alboin

entered the gate, his horse stumbled, fell, and could not be

raised from the ground. One of his attendants was prompted by

compassion, or piety, to interpret this miraculous sign of the

wrath of Heaven: the conqueror paused and relented; he sheathed

his sword, and peacefully reposing himself in the palace of

Theodoric, proclaimed to the trembling multitude that they should

live and obey. Delighted with the situation of a city which was

endeared to his pride by the difficulty of the purchase, the

prince of the Lombards disdained the ancient glories of Milan;

and Pavia, during some ages, was respected as the capital of the

kingdom of Italy. 20

18 (return) [ Which from this translation was called New

Aquileia, (Chron. Venet. p. 3.) The patriarch of Grado soon

became the first citizen of the republic, (p. 9, &c.,) but his

seat was not removed to Venice till the year 1450. He is now

decorated with titles and honors; but the genius of the church

has bowed to that of the state, and the government of a Catholic

city is strictly Presbyterian. Thomassin, Discipline de l’Eglise,

tom. i. p. 156, 157, 161—165. Amelot de la Houssaye, Gouvernement

de Venise, tom. i. p. 256—261.]

19 (return) [ Paul has given a description of Italy, as it was

then divided into eighteen regions, (l. ii. c. 14—24.) The

Dissertatio Chorographica de Italia Medii Aevi, by Father

Beretti, a Benedictine monk, and regius professor at Pavia, has

been usefully consulted.]

20 (return) [ For the conquest of Italy, see the original

materials of Paul, (l. p. 7—10, 12, 14, 25, 26, 27,) the eloquent

narrative of Sigonius, (tom. il. de Regno Italiae, l. i. p.

13—19,) and the correct and critical review el Muratori, (Annali

d’ Italia, tom. v. p. 164—180.)]

The reign of the founder was splendid and transient; and, before

he could regulate his new conquests, Alboin fell a sacrifice to

domestic treason and female revenge. In a palace near Verona,

which had not been erected for the Barbarians, he feasted the

companions of his arms; intoxication was the reward of valor, and

the king himself was tempted by appetite, or vanity, to exceed

the ordinary measure of his intemperance. After draining many

capacious bowls of Rhaetian or Falernian wine, he called for the

skull of Cunimund, the noblest and most precious ornament of his

sideboard. The cup of victory was accepted with horrid applause

by the circle of the Lombard chiefs. “Fill it again with wine,”

exclaimed the inhuman conqueror, “fill it to the brim: carry this

goblet to the queen, and request in my name that she would

rejoice with her father.” In an agony of grief and rage, Rosamond

had strength to utter, “Let the will of my lord be obeyed!” and,

touching it with her lips, pronounced a silent imprecation, that

the insult should be washed away in the blood of Alboin. Some

indulgence might be due to the resentment of a daughter, if she

had not already violated the duties of a wife. Implacable in her

enmity, or inconstant in her love, the queen of Italy had stooped

from the throne to the arms of a subject, and Helmichis, the

king’s armor-bearer, was the secret minister of her pleasure and

revenge. Against the proposal of the murder, he could no longer

urge the scruples of fidelity or gratitude; but Helmichis

trembled when he revolved the danger as well as the guilt, when

he recollected the matchless strength and intrepidity of a

warrior whom he had so often attended in the field of battle. He

pressed and obtained, that one of the bravest champions of the

Lombards should be associated to the enterprise; but no more than

a promise of secrecy could be drawn from the gallant Peredeus,

and the mode of seduction employed by Rosamond betrays her

shameless insensibility both to honor and love. She supplied the

place of one of her female attendants who was beloved by

Peredeus, and contrived some excuse for darkness and silence,

till she could inform her companion that he had enjoyed the queen

of the Lombards, and that his own death, or the death of Alboin,

must be the consequence of such treasonable adultery. In this

alternative he chose rather to be the accomplice than the victim

of Rosamond, 21 whose undaunted spirit was incapable of fear or

remorse. She expected and soon found a favorable moment, when the

king, oppressed with wine, had retired from the table to his

afternoon slumbers. His faithless spouse was anxious for his

health and repose: the gates of the palace were shut, the arms

removed, the attendants dismissed, and Rosamond, after lulling

him to rest by her tender caresses, unbolted the chamber door,

and urged the reluctant conspirators to the instant execution of

the deed. On the first alarm, the warrior started from his couch:

his sword, which he attempted to draw, had been fastened to the

scabbard by the hand of Rosamond; and a small stool, his only

weapon, could not long protect him from the spears of the

assassins. The daughter of Cunimund smiled in his fall: his body

was buried under the staircase of the palace; and the grateful

posterity of the Lombards revered the tomb and the memory of

their victorious leader.

21 (return) [ The classical reader will recollect the wife and

murder of Candaules, so agreeably told in the first book of

Herodotus. The choice of Gyges, may serve as the excuse of

Peredeus; and this soft insinuation of an odious idea has been

imitated by the best writers of antiquity, (Graevius, ad Ciceron.

Orat. pro Miloue c. 10)]

Chapter XLV: State Of Italy Under The Lombards.—Part II.

The ambitious Rosamond aspired to reign in the name of her lover;

the city and palace of Verona were awed by her power; and a

faithful band of her native Gepidae was prepared to applaud the

revenge, and to second the wishes, of their sovereign. But the

Lombard chiefs, who fled in the first moments of consternation

and disorder, had resumed their courage and collected their

powers; and the nation, instead of submitting to her reign,

demanded, with unanimous cries, that justice should be executed

on the guilty spouse and the murderers of their king. She sought

a refuge among the enemies of her country; and a criminal who

deserved the abhorrence of mankind was protected by the selfish

policy of the exarch. With her daughter, the heiress of the

Lombard throne, her two lovers, her trusty Gepidae, and the

spoils of the palace of Verona, Rosamond descended the Adige and

the Po, and was transported by a Greek vessel to the safe harbor

of Ravenna. Longinus beheld with delight the charms and the

treasures of the widow of Alboin: her situation and her past

conduct might justify the most licentious proposals; and she

readily listened to the passion of a minister, who, even in the

decline of the empire, was respected as the equal of kings. The

death of a jealous lover was an easy and grateful sacrifice; and,

as Helmichis issued from the bath, he received the deadly potion

from the hand of his mistress. The taste of the liquor, its

speedy operation, and his experience of the character of

Rosamond, convinced him that he was poisoned: he pointed his

dagger to her breast, compelled her to drain the remainder of the

cup, and expired in a few minutes, with the consolation that she

could not survive to enjoy the fruits of her wickedness. The

daughter of Alboin and Rosamond, with the richest spoils of the

Lombards, was embarked for Constantinople: the surprising

strength of Peredeus amused and terrified the Imperial court:

2111 his blindness and revenge exhibited an imperfect copy of the

adventures of Samson. By the free suffrage of the nation, in the

assembly of Pavia, Clepho, one of their noblest chiefs, was

elected as the successor of Alboin. Before the end of eighteen

months, the throne was polluted by a second murder: Clepho was

stabbed by the hand of a domestic; the regal office was suspended

above ten years during the minority of his son Autharis; and

Italy was divided and oppressed by a ducal aristocracy of thirty

tyrants. 22

2111 (return) [ He killed a lion. His eyes were put out by the

timid Justin. Peredeus requesting an interview, Justin

substituted two patricians, whom the blinded Barbarian stabbed to

the heart with two concealed daggers. See Le Beau, vol. x. p.

99.—M.]

22 (return) [ See the history of Paul, l. ii. c. 28—32. I have

borrowed some interesting circumstances from the Liber

Pontificalis of Agnellus, in Script. Rer. Ital. tom. ii. p. 124.

Of all chronological guides, Muratori is the safest.]

When the nephew of Justinian ascended the throne, he proclaimed a

new aera of happiness and glory. The annals of the second Justin

23 are marked with disgrace abroad and misery at home. In the

West, the Roman empire was afflicted by the loss of Italy, the

desolation of Africa, and the conquests of the Persians.

Injustice prevailed both in the capital and the provinces: the

rich trembled for their property, the poor for their safety, the

ordinary magistrates were ignorant or venal, the occasional

remedies appear to have been arbitrary and violent, and the

complaints of the people could no longer be silenced by the

splendid names of a legislator and a conqueror. The opinion which

imputes to the prince all the calamities of his times may be

countenanced by the historian as a serious truth or a salutary

prejudice. Yet a candid suspicion will arise, that the sentiments

of Justin were pure and benevolent, and that he might have filled

his station without reproach, if the faculties of his mind had

not been impaired by disease, which deprived the emperor of the

use of his feet, and confined him to the palace, a stranger to

the complaints of the people and the vices of the government. The

tardy knowledge of his own impotence determined him to lay down

the weight of the diadem; and, in the choice of a worthy

substitute, he showed some symptoms of a discerning and even

magnanimous spirit. The only son of Justin and Sophia died in his

infancy; their daughter Arabia was the wife of Baduarius, 24

superintendent of the palace, and afterwards commander of the

Italian armies, who vainly aspired to confirm the rights of

marriage by those of adoption. While the empire appeared an

object of desire, Justin was accustomed to behold with jealousy

and hatred his brothers and cousins, the rivals of his hopes; nor

could he depend on the gratitude of those who would accept the

purple as a restitution, rather than a gift. Of these

competitors, one had been removed by exile, and afterwards by

death; and the emperor himself had inflicted such cruel insults

on another, that he must either dread his resentment or despise

his patience. This domestic animosity was refined into a generous

resolution of seeking a successor, not in his family, but in the

republic; and the artful Sophia recommended Tiberius, 25 his

faithful captain of the guards, whose virtues and fortune the

emperor might cherish as the fruit of his judicious choice. The

ceremony of his elevation to the rank of Caesar, or Augustus, was

performed in the portico of the palace, in the presence of the

patriarch and the senate. Justin collected the remaining strength

of his mind and body; but the popular belief that his speech was

inspired by the Deity betrays a very humble opinion both of the

man and of the times. 26 “You behold,” said the emperor, “the

ensigns of supreme power. You are about to receive them, not from

my hand, but from the hand of God. Honor them, and from them you

will derive honor. Respect the empress your mother: you are now

her son; before, you were her servant. Delight not in blood;

abstain from revenge; avoid those actions by which I have

incurred the public hatred; and consult the experience, rather

than the example, of your predecessor. As a man, I have sinned;

as a sinner, even in this life, I have been severely punished:

but these servants, (and he pointed to his ministers,) who have

abused my confidence, and inflamed my passions, will appear with

me before the tribunal of Christ. I have been dazzled by the

splendor of the diadem: be thou wise and modest; remember what

you have been, remember what you are. You see around us your

slaves, and your children: with the authority, assume the

tenderness, of a parent. Love your people like yourself;

cultivate the affections, maintain the discipline, of the army;

protect the fortunes of the rich, relieve the necessities of the

poor.” 27 The assembly, in silence and in tears, applauded the

counsels, and sympathized with the repentance, of their prince

the patriarch rehearsed the prayers of the church; Tiberius

received the diadem on his knees; and Justin, who in his

abdication appeared most worthy to reign, addressed the new

monarch in the following words: “If you consent, I live; if you

command, I die: may the God of heaven and earth infuse into your

heart whatever I have neglected or forgotten.” The four last

years of the emperor Justin were passed in tranquil obscurity:

his conscience was no longer tormented by the remembrance of

those duties which he was incapable of discharging; and his

choice was justified by the filial reverence and gratitude of

Tiberius.

23 (return) [ The original authors for the reign of Justin the

younger are Evagrius, Hist. Eccles. l. v. c. 1—12; Theophanes, in

Chonograph. p. 204—210; Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiv. p. 70-72;

Cedrenus, in Compend. p. 388—392.]

24 (return) [ Dispositorque novus sacrae Baduarius aulae.

Successor soceri mox factus Cura-palati.—Cerippus. Baduarius is

enumerated among the descendants and allies of the house of

Justinian. A family of noble Venetians (Casa Badoero) built

churches and gave dukes to the republic as early as the ninth

century; and, if their descent be admitted, no kings in Europe

can produce a pedigree so ancient and illustrious. Ducange, Fam.

Byzantin, p. 99 Amelot de la Houssaye, Gouvernement de Venise,

tom. ii. p. 555.]

25 (return) [ The praise bestowed on princes before their

elevation is the purest and most weighty. Corippus has celebrated

Tiberius at the time of the accession of Justin, (l. i. 212—222.)

Yet even a captain of the guards might attract the flattery of an

African exile.]

26 (return) [ Evagrius (l. v. c. 13) has added the reproach to

his ministers He applies this speech to the ceremony when

Tiberius was invested with the rank of Caesar. The loose

expression, rather than the positive error, of Theophanes, &c.,

has delayed it to his Augustan investitura immediately before the

death of Justin.]

27 (return) [ Theophylact Simocatta (l. iii. c. 11) declares that

he shall give to posterity the speech of Justin as it was

pronounced, without attempting to correct the imperfections of

language or rhetoric. Perhaps the vain sophist would have been

incapable of producing such sentiments.]

Among the virtues of Tiberius, 28 his beauty (he was one of the

tallest and most comely of the Romans) might introduce him to the

favor of Sophia; and the widow of Justin was persuaded, that she

should preserve her station and influence under the reign of a

second and more youthful husband. But, if the ambitious candidate

had been tempted to flatter and dissemble, it was no longer in

his power to fulfil her expectations, or his own promise. The

factions of the hippodrome demanded, with some impatience, the

name of their new empress: both the people and Sophia were

astonished by the proclamation of Anastasia, the secret, though

lawful, wife of the emperor Tiberius. Whatever could alleviate

the disappointment of Sophia, Imperial honors, a stately palace,

a numerous household, was liberally bestowed by the piety of her

adopted son; on solemn occasions he attended and consulted the

widow of his benefactor; but her ambition disdained the vain

semblance of royalty, and the respectful appellation of mother

served to exasperate, rather than appease, the rage of an injured

woman. While she accepted, and repaid with a courtly smile, the

fair expressions of regard and confidence, a secret alliance was

concluded between the dowager empress and her ancient enemies;

and Justinian, the son of Germanus, was employed as the

instrument of her revenge. The pride of the reigning house

supported, with reluctance, the dominion of a stranger: the youth

was deservedly popular; his name, after the death of Justin, had

been mentioned by a tumultuous faction; and his own submissive

offer of his head with a treasure of sixty thousand pounds, might

be interpreted as an evidence of guilt, or at least of fear.

Justinian received a free pardon, and the command of the eastern

army. The Persian monarch fled before his arms; and the

acclamations which accompanied his triumph declared him worthy of

the purple. His artful patroness had chosen the month of the

vintage, while the emperor, in a rural solitude, was permitted to

enjoy the pleasures of a subject. On the first intelligence of

her designs, he returned to Constantinople, and the conspiracy

was suppressed by his presence and firmness. From the pomp and

honors which she had abused, Sophia was reduced to a modest

allowance: Tiberius dismissed her train, intercepted her

correspondence, and committed to a faithful guard the custody of

her person. But the services of Justinian were not considered by

that excellent prince as an aggravation of his offences: after a

mild reproof, his treason and ingratitude were forgiven; and it

was commonly believed, that the emperor entertained some thoughts

of contracting a double alliance with the rival of his throne.

The voice of an angel (such a fable was propagated) might reveal

to the emperor, that he should always triumph over his domestic

foes; but Tiberius derived a firmer assurance from the innocence

and generosity of his own mind.

28 (return) [ For the character and reign of Tiberius, see

Evagrius, l v. c. 13. Theophylact, l. iii. c. 12, &c. Theophanes,

in Chron. p. 2 0—213. Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiv. p. 72. Cedrenus,

p. 392. Paul Warnefrid, de Gestis Langobard. l. iii. c. 11, 12.

The deacon of Forum Juli appears to have possessed some curious

and authentic facts.]

With the odious name of Tiberius, he assumed the more popular

appellation of Constantine, and imitated the purer virtues of the

Antonines. After recording the vice or folly of so many Roman

princes, it is pleasing to repose, for a moment, on a character

conspicuous by the qualities of humanity, justice, temperance,

and fortitude; to contemplate a sovereign affable in his palace,

pious in the church, impartial on the seat of judgment, and

victorious, at least by his generals, in the Persian war. The

most glorious trophy of his victory consisted in a multitude of

captives, whom Tiberius entertained, redeemed, and dismissed to

their native homes with the charitable spirit of a Christian

hero. The merit or misfortunes of his own subjects had a dearer

claim to his beneficence, and he measured his bounty not so much

by their expectations as by his own dignity. This maxim, however

dangerous in a trustee of the public wealth, was balanced by a

principle of humanity and justice, which taught him to abhor, as

of the basest alloy, the gold that was extracted from the tears

of the people. For their relief, as often as they had suffered by

natural or hostile calamities, he was impatient to remit the

arrears of the past, or the demands of future taxes: he sternly

rejected the servile offerings of his ministers, which were

compensated by tenfold oppression; and the wise and equitable

laws of Tiberius excited the praise and regret of succeeding

times. Constantinople believed that the emperor had discovered a

treasure: but his genuine treasure consisted in the practice of

liberal economy, and the contempt of all vain and superfluous

expense. The Romans of the East would have been happy, if the

best gift of Heaven, a patriot king, had been confirmed as a

proper and permanent blessing. But in less than four years after

the death of Justin, his worthy successor sunk into a mortal

disease, which left him only sufficient time to restore the

diadem, according to the tenure by which he held it, to the most

deserving of his fellow-citizens. He selected Maurice from the

crowd, a judgment more precious than the purple itself: the

patriarch and senate were summoned to the bed of the dying

prince: he bestowed his daughter and the empire; and his last

advice was solemnly delivered by the voice of the quaestor.

Tiberius expressed his hope that the virtues of his son and

successor would erect the noblest mausoleum to his memory. His

memory was embalmed by the public affliction; but the most

sincere grief evaporates in the tumult of a new reign, and the

eyes and acclamations of mankind were speedily directed to the

rising sun. The emperor Maurice derived his origin from ancient

Rome; 29 but his immediate parents were settled at Arabissus in

Cappadocia, and their singular felicity preserved them alive to

behold and partake the fortune of their august son. The youth of

Maurice was spent in the profession of arms: Tiberius promoted

him to the command of a new and favorite legion of twelve

thousand confederates; his valor and conduct were signalized in

the Persian war; and he returned to Constantinople to accept, as

his just reward, the inheritance of the empire. Maurice ascended

the throne at the mature age of forty-three years; and he reigned

above twenty years over the East and over himself; 30 expelling

from his mind the wild democracy of passions, and establishing

(according to the quaint expression of Evagrius) a perfect

aristocracy of reason and virtue. Some suspicion will degrade the

testimony of a subject, though he protests that his secret praise

should never reach the ear of his sovereign, 31 and some failings

seem to place the character of Maurice below the purer merit of

his predecessor. His cold and reserved demeanor might be imputed

to arrogance; his justice was not always exempt from cruelty, nor

his clemency from weakness; and his rigid economy too often

exposed him to the reproach of avarice. But the rational wishes

of an absolute monarch must tend to the happiness of his people.

Maurice was endowed with sense and courage to promote that

happiness, and his administration was directed by the principles

and example of Tiberius. The pusillanimity of the Greeks had

introduced so complete a separation between the offices of king

and of general, that a private soldier, who had deserved and

obtained the purple, seldom or never appeared at the head of his

armies. Yet the emperor Maurice enjoyed the glory of restoring

the Persian monarch to his throne; his lieutenants waged a

doubtful war against the Avars of the Danube; and he cast an eye

of pity, of ineffectual pity, on the abject and distressful state

of his Italian provinces.

29 (return) [ It is therefore singular enough that Paul (l. iii.

c. 15) should distinguish him as the first Greek emperor—primus

ex Graecorum genere in Imperio constitutus. His immediate

predecessors had in deed been born in the Latin provinces of

Europe: and a various reading, in Graecorum Imperio, would apply

the expression to the empire rather than the prince.]

30 (return) [ Consult, for the character and reign of Maurice,

the fifth and sixth books of Evagrius, particularly l. vi. c. l;

the eight books of his prolix and florid history by Theophylact

Simocatta; Theophanes, p. 213, &c.; Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiv. p.

73; Cedrenus, p. 394.]

31 (return) [ Evagrius composed his history in the twelfth year

of Maurice; and he had been so wisely indiscreet that the emperor

know and rewarded his favorable opinion, (l. vi. c. 24.)]

From Italy the emperors were incessantly tormented by tales of

misery and demands of succor, which extorted the humiliating

confession of their own weakness. The expiring dignity of Rome

was only marked by the freedom and energy of her complaints: “If

you are incapable,” she said, “of delivering us from the sword of

the Lombards, save us at least from the calamity of famine.”

Tiberius forgave the reproach, and relieved the distress: a

supply of corn was transported from Egypt to the Tyber; and the

Roman people, invoking the name, not of Camillus, but of St.

Peter repulsed the Barbarians from their walls. But the relief

was accidental, the danger was perpetual and pressing; and the

clergy and senate, collecting the remains of their ancient

opulence, a sum of three thousand pounds of gold, despatched the

patrician Pamphronius to lay their gifts and their complaints at

the foot of the Byzantine throne. The attention of the court, and

the forces of the East, were diverted by the Persian war: but the

justice of Tiberius applied the subsidy to the defence of the

city; and he dismissed the patrician with his best advice, either

to bribe the Lombard chiefs, or to purchase the aid of the kings

of France. Notwithstanding this weak invention, Italy was still

afflicted, Rome was again besieged, and the suburb of Classe,

only three miles from Ravenna, was pillaged and occupied by the

troops of a simple duke of Spoleto. Maurice gave audience to a

second deputation of priests and senators: the duties and the

menaces of religion were forcibly urged in the letters of the

Roman pontiff; and his nuncio, the deacon Gregory, was alike

qualified to solicit the powers either of heaven or of the earth.

The emperor adopted, with stronger effect, the measures of his

predecessor: some formidable chiefs were persuaded to embrace the

friendship of the Romans; and one of them, a mild and faithful

Barbarian, lived and died in the service of the exarchs: the

passes of the Alps were delivered to the Franks; and the pope

encouraged them to violate, without scruple, their oaths and

engagements to the misbelievers. Childebert, the great-grandson

of Clovis, was persuaded to invade Italy by the payment of fifty

thousand pieces; but, as he had viewed with delight some

Byzantine coin of the weight of one pound of gold, the king of

Austrasia might stipulate, that the gift should be rendered more

worthy of his acceptance, by a proper mixture of these

respectable medals. The dukes of the Lombards had provoked by

frequent inroads their powerful neighbors of Gaul. As soon as

they were apprehensive of a just retaliation, they renounced

their feeble and disorderly independence: the advantages of real

government, union, secrecy, and vigor, were unanimously

confessed; and Autharis, the son of Clepho, had already attained

the strength and reputation of a warrior. Under the standard of

their new king, the conquerors of Italy withstood three

successive invasions, one of which was led by Childebert himself,

the last of the Merovingian race who descended from the Alps. The

first expedition was defeated by the jealous animosity of the

Franks and Alemanni. In the second they were vanquished in a

bloody battle, with more loss and dishonor than they had

sustained since the foundation of their monarchy. Impatient for

revenge, they returned a third time with accumulated force, and

Autharis yielded to the fury of the torrent. The troops and

treasures of the Lombards were distributed in the walled towns

between the Alps and the Apennine. A nation, less sensible of

danger than of fatigue and delay, soon murmured against the folly

of their twenty commanders; and the hot vapors of an Italian sun

infected with disease those tramontane bodies which had already

suffered the vicissitudes of intemperance and famine. The powers

that were inadequate to the conquest, were more than sufficient

for the desolation, of the country; nor could the trembling

natives distinguish between their enemies and their deliverers.

If the junction of the Merovingian and Imperial forces had been

effected in the neighborhood of Milan, perhaps they might have

subverted the throne of the Lombards; but the Franks expected six

days the signal of a flaming village, and the arms of the Greeks

were idly employed in the reduction of Modena and Parma, which

were torn from them after the retreat of their transalpine

allies. The victorious Autharis asserted his claim to the

dominion of Italy. At the foot of the Rhaetian Alps, he subdued

the resistance, and rifled the hidden treasures, of a sequestered

island in the Lake of Comum. At the extreme point of the

Calabria, he touched with his spear a column on the sea-shore of

Rhegium, 32 proclaiming that ancient landmark to stand the

immovable boundary of his kingdom. 33

32 (return) [ The Columna Rhegina, in the narrowest part of the

Faro of Messina, one hundred stadia from Rhegium itself, is

frequently mentioned in ancient geography. Cluver. Ital. Antiq.

tom. ii. p. 1295. Lucas Holsten. Annotat. ad Cluver. p. 301.

Wesseling, Itinerar. p. 106.]

33 (return) [ The Greek historians afford some faint hints of the

wars of Italy (Menander, in Excerpt. Legat. p. 124, 126.

Theophylact, l. iii. c. 4.) The Latins are more satisfactory; and

especially Paul Warnefrid, (l iii. c. 13—34,) who had read the

more ancient histories of Secundus and Gregory of Tours. Baronius

produces some letters of the popes, &c.; and the times are

measured by the accurate scale of Pagi and Muratori.]

During a period of two hundred years, Italy was unequally divided

between the kingdom of the Lombards and the exarchate of Ravenna.

The offices and professions, which the jealousy of Constantine

had separated, were united by the indulgence of Justinian; and

eighteen successive exarchs were invested, in the decline of the

empire, with the full remains of civil, of military, and even of

ecclesiastical, power. Their immediate jurisdiction, which was

afterwards consecrated as the patrimony of St. Peter, extended

over the modern Romagna, the marshes or valleys of Ferrara and

Commachio, 34 five maritime cities from Rimini to Ancona, and a

second inland Pentapolis, between the Adriatic coast and the

hills of the Apennine. Three subordinate provinces, of Rome, of

Venice, and of Naples, which were divided by hostile lands from

the palace of Ravenna, acknowledged, both in peace and war, the

supremacy of the exarch. The duchy of Rome appears to have

included the Tuscan, Sabine, and Latin conquests, of the first

four hundred years of the city, and the limits may be distinctly

traced along the coast, from Civita Vecchia to Terracina, and

with the course of the Tyber from Ameria and Narni to the port of

Ostia. The numerous islands from Grado to Chiozza composed the

infant dominion of Venice: but the more accessible towns on the

Continent were overthrown by the Lombards, who beheld with

impotent fury a new capital rising from the waves. The power of

the dukes of Naples was circumscribed by the bay and the adjacent

isles, by the hostile territory of Capua, and by the Roman colony

of Amalphi, 35 whose industrious citizens, by the invention of

the mariner’s compass, have unveiled the face of the globe. The

three islands of Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily, still adhered to

the empire; and the acquisition of the farther Calabria removed

the landmark of Autharis from the shore of Rhegium to the Isthmus

of Consentia. In Sardinia, the savage mountaineers preserved the

liberty and religion of their ancestors; and the husbandmen of

Sicily were chained to their rich and cultivated soil. Rome was

oppressed by the iron sceptre of the exarchs, and a Greek,

perhaps a eunuch, insulted with impunity the ruins of the

Capitol. But Naples soon acquired the privilege of electing her

own dukes: 36 the independence of Amalphi was the fruit of

commerce; and the voluntary attachment of Venice was finally

ennobled by an equal alliance with the Eastern empire. On the map

of Italy, the measure of the exarchate occupies a very inadequate

space, but it included an ample proportion of wealth, industry,

and population. The most faithful and valuable subjects escaped

from the Barbarian yoke; and the banners of Pavia and Verona, of

Milan and Padua, were displayed in their respective quarters by

the new inhabitants of Ravenna. The remainder of Italy was

possessed by the Lombards; and from Pavia, the royal seat, their

kingdom was extended to the east, the north, and the west, as far

as the confines of the Avars, the Bavarians, and the Franks of

Austrasia and Burgundy. In the language of modern geography, it

is now represented by the Terra Firma of the Venetian republic,

Tyrol, the Milanese, Piedmont, the coast of Genoa, Mantua, Parma,

and Modena, the grand duchy of Tuscany, and a large portion of

the ecclesiastical state from Perugia to the Adriatic. The dukes,

and at length the princes, of Beneventum, survived the monarchy,

and propagated the name of the Lombards. From Capua to Tarentum,

they reigned near five hundred years over the greatest part of

the present kingdom of Naples. 37

34 (return) [ The papal advocates, Zacagni and Fontanini, might

justly claim the valley or morass of Commachio as a part of the

exarchate. But the ambition of including Modena, Reggio, Parma,

and Placentia, has darkened a geographical question somewhat

doubtful and obscure Even Muratori, as the servant of the house

of Este, is not free from partiality and prejudice.]

35 (return) [ See Brenckman, Dissert. Ima de Republica

Amalphitana, p. 1—42, ad calcem Hist. Pandect. Florent.]

36 (return) [ Gregor. Magn. l. iii. epist. 23, 25.]

37 (return) [ I have described the state of Italy from the

excellent Dissertation of Beretti. Giannone (Istoria Civile, tom.

i. p. 374—387) has followed the learned Camillo Pellegrini in the

geography of the kingdom of Naples. After the loss of the true

Calabria, the vanity of the Greeks substituted that name instead

of the more ignoble appellation of Bruttium; and the change

appears to have taken place before the time of Charlemagne,

(Eginard, p. 75.)]

In comparing the proportion of the victorious and the vanquished

people, the change of language will afford the most probably

inference. According to this standard, it will appear, that the

Lombards of Italy, and the Visigoths of Spain, were less numerous

than the Franks or Burgundians; and the conquerors of Gaul must

yield, in their turn, to the multitude of Saxons and Angles who

almost eradicated the idioms of Britain. The modern Italian has

been insensibly formed by the mixture of nations: the awkwardness

of the Barbarians in the nice management of declensions and

conjugations reduced them to the use of articles and auxiliary

verbs; and many new ideas have been expressed by Teutonic

appellations. Yet the principal stock of technical and familiar

words is found to be of Latin derivation; 38 and, if we were

sufficiently conversant with the obsolete, the rustic, and the

municipal dialects of ancient Italy, we should trace the origin

of many terms which might, perhaps, be rejected by the classic

purity of Rome. A numerous army constitutes but a small nation,

and the powers of the Lombards were soon diminished by the

retreat of twenty thousand Saxons, who scorned a dependent

situation, and returned, after many bold and perilous adventures,

to their native country. 39 The camp of Alboin was of formidable

extent, but the extent of a camp would be easily circumscribed

within the limits of a city; and its martial inhabitants must be

thinly scattered over the face of a large country. When Alboin

descended from the Alps, he invested his nephew, the first duke

of Friuli, with the command of the province and the people: but

the prudent Gisulf would have declined the dangerous office,

unless he had been permitted to choose, among the nobles of the

Lombards, a sufficient number of families 40 to form a perpetual

colony of soldiers and subjects. In the progress of conquest, the

same option could not be granted to the dukes of Brescia or

Bergamo, or Pavia or Turin, of Spoleto or Beneventum; but each of

these, and each of their colleagues, settled in his appointed

district with a band of followers who resorted to his standard in

war and his tribunal in peace. Their attachment was free and

honorable: resigning the gifts and benefits which they had

accepted, they might emigrate with their families into the

jurisdiction of another duke; but their absence from the kingdom

was punished with death, as a crime of military desertion. 41 The

posterity of the first conquerors struck a deeper root into the

soil, which, by every motive of interest and honor, they were

bound to defend. A Lombard was born the soldier of his king and

his duke; and the civil assemblies of the nation displayed the

banners, and assumed the appellation, of a regular army. Of this

army, the pay and the rewards were drawn from the conquered

provinces; and the distribution, which was not effected till

after the death of Alboin, is disgraced by the foul marks of

injustice and rapine. Many of the most wealthy Italians were

slain or banished; the remainder were divided among the

strangers, and a tributary obligation was imposed (under the name

of hospitality) of paying to the Lombards a third part of the

fruits of the earth. Within less than seventy years, this

artificial system was abolished by a more simple and solid

tenure. 42 Either the Roman landlord was expelled by his strong

and insolent guest, or the annual payment, a third of the

produce, was exchanged by a more equitable transaction for an

adequate proportion of landed property. Under these foreign

masters, the business of agriculture, in the cultivation of corn,

wines, and olives, was exercised with degenerate skill and

industry by the labor of the slaves and natives. But the

occupations of a pastoral life were more pleasing to the idleness

of the Barbarian. In the rich meadows of Venetia, they restored

and improved the breed of horses, for which that province had

once been illustrious; 43 and the Italians beheld with

astonishment a foreign race of oxen or buffaloes. 44 The

depopulation of Lombardy, and the increase of forests, afforded

an ample range for the pleasures of the chase. 45 That marvellous

art which teaches the birds of the air to acknowledge the voice,

and execute the commands, of their master, had been unknown to

the ingenuity of the Greeks and Romans. 46 Scandinavia and

Scythia produce the boldest and most tractable falcons: 47 they

were tamed and educated by the roving inhabitants, always on

horseback and in the field. This favorite amusement of our

ancestors was introduced by the Barbarians into the Roman

provinces; and the laws of Italy esteemed the sword and the hawk

as of equal dignity and importance in the hands of a noble

Lombard. 48

38 (return) [ Maffei (Verona Illustrata, part i. p. 310—321) and

Muratori (Antichita Italiane, tom. ii. Dissertazione xxxii.

xxxiii. p. 71—365) have asserted the native claims of the Italian

idiom; the former with enthusiasm, the latter with discretion;

both with learning, ingenuity, and truth. Note: Compare the

admirable sketch of the degeneracy of the Latin language and the

formation of the Italian in Hallam, Middle Ages, vol. iii. p. 317

329.—M.]

39 (return) [ Paul, de Gest. Langobard. l. iii. c. 5, 6, 7.]

40 (return) [ Paul, l. ii. c. 9. He calls these families or

generations by the Teutonic name of Faras, which is likewise used

in the Lombard laws. The humble deacon was not insensible of the

nobility of his own race. See l. iv. c. 39.]

41 (return) [ Compare No. 3 and 177 of the Laws of Rotharis.]

42 (return) [ Paul, l. ii. c. 31, 32, l. iii. c. 16. The Laws of

Rotharis, promulgated A.D. 643, do not contain the smallest

vestige of this payment of thirds; but they preserve many curious

circumstances of the state of Italy and the manners of the

Lombards.]

43 (return) [ The studs of Dionysius of Syracuse, and his

frequent victories in the Olympic games, had diffused among the

Greeks the fame of the Venetian horses; but the breed was extinct

in the time of Strabo, (l. v. p. 325.) Gisulf obtained from his

uncle generosarum equarum greges. Paul, l. ii. c. 9. The Lombards

afterwards introduced caballi sylvatici—wild horses. Paul, l. iv.

c. 11.]

44 (return) [ Tunc (A.D. 596) primum, bubali in Italiam delati

Italiae populis miracula fuere, (Paul Warnefrid, l. iv. c. 11.)

The buffaloes, whose native climate appears to be Africa and

India, are unknown to Europe, except in Italy, where they are

numerous and useful. The ancients were ignorant of these animals,

unless Aristotle (Hist. Anim. l. ii. c. 1, p. 58, Paris, 1783)

has described them as the wild oxen of Arachosia. See Buffon,

Hist. Naturelle, tom. xi. and Supplement, tom. vi. Hist. Generale

des Voyages, tom. i. p. 7, 481, ii. 105, iii. 291, iv. 234, 461,

v. 193, vi. 491, viii. 400, x. 666. Pennant’s Quadrupedes, p. 24.

Dictionnaire d’Hist. Naturelle, par Valmont de Bomare, tom. ii.

p. 74. Yet I must not conceal the suspicion that Paul, by a

vulgar error, may have applied the name of bubalus to the

aurochs, or wild bull, of ancient Germany.]

45 (return) [ Consult the xxist Dissertation of Muratori.]

46 (return) [ Their ignorance is proved by the silence even of

those who professedly treat of the arts of hunting and the

history of animals. Aristotle, (Hist. Animal. l. ix. c. 36, tom.

i. p. 586, and the Notes of his last editor, M. Camus, tom. ii.

p. 314,) Pliny, (Hist. Natur. l. x. c. 10,) Aelian (de Natur.

Animal. l. ii. c. 42,) and perhaps Homer, (Odyss. xxii. 302-306,)

describe with astonishment a tacit league and common chase

between the hawks and the Thracian fowlers.]

47 (return) [ Particularly the gerfaut, or gyrfalcon, of the size

of a small eagle. See the animated description of M. de Buffon,

Hist. Naturelle, tom. xvi. p. 239, &c.]

48 (return) [ Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. i. part ii. p. 129.

This is the xvith law of the emperor Lewis the Pious. His father

Charlemagne had falconers in his household as well as huntsmen,

(Memoires sur l’ancienne Chevalerie, par M. de St. Palaye, tom.

iii. p. 175.) I observe in the laws of Rotharis a more early

mention of the art of hawking, (No. 322;) and in Gaul, in the

fifth century, it is celebrated by Sidonius Apollinaris among the

talents of Avitus, (202—207.) * Note: See Beckman, Hist. of

Inventions, vol. i. p. 319—M.]

Chapter XLV: State Of Italy Under The Lombards.—Part III.

So rapid was the influence of climate and example, that the

Lombards of the fourth generation surveyed with curiosity and

affright the portraits of their savage forefathers. 49 Their

heads were shaven behind, but the shaggy locks hung over their

eyes and mouth, and a long beard represented the name and

character of the nation. Their dress consisted of loose linen

garments, after the fashion of the Anglo-Saxons, which were

decorated, in their opinion, with broad stripes or variegated

colors. The legs and feet were clothed in long hose, and open

sandals; and even in the security of peace a trusty sword was

constantly girt to their side. Yet this strange apparel, and

horrid aspect, often concealed a gentle and generous disposition;

and as soon as the rage of battle had subsided, the captives and

subjects were sometimes surprised by the humanity of the victor.

The vices of the Lombards were the effect of passion, of

ignorance, of intoxication; their virtues are the more laudable,

as they were not affected by the hypocrisy of social manners, nor

imposed by the rigid constraint of laws and education. I should

not be apprehensive of deviating from my subject, if it were in

my power to delineate the private life of the conquerors of

Italy; and I shall relate with pleasure the adventurous gallantry

of Autharis, which breathes the true spirit of chivalry and

romance. 50 After the loss of his promised bride, a Merovingian

princess, he sought in marriage the daughter of the king of

Bavaria; and Garribald accepted the alliance of the Italian

monarch. Impatient of the slow progress of negotiation, the

ardent lover escaped from his palace, and visited the court of

Bavaria in the train of his own embassy. At the public audience,

the unknown stranger advanced to the throne, and informed

Garribald that the ambassador was indeed the minister of state,

but that he alone was the friend of Autharis, who had trusted him

with the delicate commission of making a faithful report of the

charms of his spouse. Theudelinda was summoned to undergo this

important examination; and, after a pause of silent rapture, he

hailed her as the queen of Italy, and humbly requested that,

according to the custom of the nation, she would present a cup of

wine to the first of her new subjects. By the command of her

father she obeyed: Autharis received the cup in his turn, and, in

restoring it to the princess, he secretly touched her hand, and

drew his own finger over his face and lips. In the evening,

Theudelinda imparted to her nurse the indiscreet familiarity of

the stranger, and was comforted by the assurance, that such

boldness could proceed only from the king her husband, who, by

his beauty and courage, appeared worthy of her love. The

ambassadors were dismissed: no sooner did they reach the confines

of Italy than Autharis, raising himself on his horse, darted his

battle-axe against a tree with incomparable strength and

dexterity. “Such,” said he to the astonished Bavarians, “such are

the strokes of the king of the Lombards.” On the approach of a

French army, Garribald and his daughter took refuge in the

dominions of their ally; and the marriage was consummated in the

palace of Verona. At the end of one year, it was dissolved by the

death of Autharis: but the virtues of Theudelinda 51 had endeared

her to the nation, and she was permitted to bestow, with her

hand, the sceptre of the Italian kingdom.

49 (return) [ The epitaph of Droctulf (Paul, l. iii. c. 19) may

be applied to many of his countrymen:— Terribilis visu facies,

sed corda benignus Longaque robusto pectore barba fuit. The

portraits of the old Lombards might still be seen in the palace

of Monza, twelve miles from Milan, which had been founded or

restored by Queen Theudelinda, (l. iv. 22, 23.) See Muratori,

tom. i. disserta, xxiii. p. 300.]

50 (return) [ The story of Autharis and Theudelinda is related by

Paul, l. iii. 29, 34; and any fragment of Bavarian antiquity

excites the indefatigable diligence of the count de Buat, Hist.

des Peuples de l’Europe, ton. xi. p. 595—635, tom. xii. p. 1-53.]

51 (return) [ Giannone (Istoria Civile de Napoli, tom. i. p. 263)

has justly censured the impertinence of Boccaccio, (Gio. iii.

Novel. 2,) who, without right, or truth, or pretence, has given

the pious queen Theudelinda to the arms of a muleteer.]

From this fact, as well as from similar events, 52 it is certain

that the Lombards possessed freedom to elect their sovereign, and

sense to decline the frequent use of that dangerous privilege.

The public revenue arose from the produce of land and the profits

of justice. When the independent dukes agreed that Autharis

should ascend the throne of his father, they endowed the regal

office with a fair moiety of their respective domains. The

proudest nobles aspired to the honors of servitude near the

person of their prince: he rewarded the fidelity of his vassals

by the precarious gift of pensions and benefices; and atoned for

the injuries of war by the rich foundation of monasteries and

churches. In peace a judge, a leader in war, he never usurped the

powers of a sole and absolute legislator. The king of Italy

convened the national assemblies in the palace, or more probably

in the fields, of Pavia: his great council was composed of the

persons most eminent by their birth and dignities; but the

validity, as well as the execution, of their decrees depended on

the approbation of the faithful people, the fortunate army of the

Lombards. About fourscore years after the conquest of Italy,

their traditional customs were transcribed in Teutonic Latin, 53

and ratified by the consent of the prince and people: some new

regulations were introduced, more suitable to their present

condition; the example of Rotharis was imitated by the wisest of

his successors; and the laws of the Lombards have been esteemed

the least imperfect of the Barbaric codes. 54 Secure by their

courage in the possession of liberty, these rude and hasty

legislators were incapable of balancing the powers of the

constitution, or of discussing the nice theory of political

government. Such crimes as threatened the life of the sovereign,

or the safety of the state, were adjudged worthy of death; but

their attention was principally confined to the defence of the

person and property of the subject. According to the strange

jurisprudence of the times, the guilt of blood might be redeemed

by a fine; yet the high price of nine hundred pieces of gold

declares a just sense of the value of a simple citizen. Less

atrocious injuries, a wound, a fracture, a blow, an opprobrious

word, were measured with scrupulous and almost ridiculous

diligence; and the prudence of the legislator encouraged the

ignoble practice of bartering honor and revenge for a pecuniary

compensation. The ignorance of the Lombards in the state of

Paganism or Christianity gave implicit credit to the malice and

mischief of witchcraft, but the judges of the seventeenth century

might have been instructed and confounded by the wisdom of

Rotharis, who derides the absurd superstition, and protects the

wretched victims of popular or judicial cruelty. 55 The same

spirit of a legislator, superior to his age and country, may be

ascribed to Luitprand, who condemns, while he tolerates, the

impious and inveterate abuse of duels, 56 observing, from his own

experience, that the juster cause had often been oppressed by

successful violence. Whatever merit may be discovered in the laws

of the Lombards, they are the genuine fruit of the reason of the

Barbarians, who never admitted the bishops of Italy to a seat in

their legislative councils. But the succession of their kings is

marked with virtue and ability; the troubled series of their

annals is adorned with fair intervals of peace, order, and

domestic happiness; and the Italians enjoyed a milder and more

equitable government, than any of the other kingdoms which had

been founded on the ruins of the Western empire. 57

52 (return) [ Paul, l. iii. c. 16. The first dissertations of

Muratori, and the first volume of Giannone’s history, may be

consulted for the state of the kingdom of Italy.]

53 (return) [ The most accurate edition of the Laws of the

Lombards is to be found in the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom.

i. part ii. p. 1—181, collated from the most ancient Mss. and

illustrated by the critical notes of Muratori.]

54 (return) [ Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, l. xxviii. c. 1. Les

loix des Bourguignons sont assez judicieuses; celles de Rotharis

et des autres princes Lombards le sont encore plus.]

55 (return) [ See Leges Rotharis, No. 379, p. 47. Striga is used

as the name of a witch. It is of the purest classic origin,

(Horat. epod. v. 20. Petron. c. 134;) and from the words of

Petronius, (quae striges comederunt nervos tuos?) it may be

inferred that the prejudice was of Italian rather than Barbaric

extraction.]

56 (return) [ Quia incerti sumus de judicio Dei, et multos

audivimus per pugnam sine justa causa suam causam perdere. Sed

propter consuetudinom gentem nostram Langobardorum legem impiam

vetare non possumus. See p. 74, No. 65, of the Laws of Luitprand,

promulgated A.D. 724.]

57 (return) [ Read the history of Paul Warnefrid; particularly l.

iii. c. 16. Baronius rejects the praise, which appears to

contradict the invectives of Pope Gregory the Great; but Muratori

(Annali d’ Italia, tom. v. p. 217) presumes to insinuate that the

saint may have magnified the faults of Arians and enemies.]

Amidst the arms of the Lombards, and under the despotism of the

Greeks, we again inquire into the fate of Rome, 58 which had

reached, about the close of the sixth century, the lowest period

of her depression. By the removal of the seat of empire, and the

successive loss of the provinces, the sources of public and

private opulence were exhausted: the lofty tree, under whose

shade the nations of the earth had reposed, was deprived of its

leaves and branches, and the sapless trunk was left to wither on

the ground. The ministers of command, and the messengers of

victory, no longer met on the Appian or Flaminian way; and the

hostile approach of the Lombards was often felt, and continually

feared. The inhabitants of a potent and peaceful capital, who

visit without an anxious thought the garden of the adjacent

country, will faintly picture in their fancy the distress of the

Romans: they shut or opened their gates with a trembling hand,

beheld from the walls the flames of their houses, and heard the

lamentations of their brethren, who were coupled together like

dogs, and dragged away into distant slavery beyond the sea and

the mountains. Such incessant alarms must annihilate the

pleasures and interrupt the labors of a rural life; and the

Campagna of Rome was speedily reduced to the state of a dreary

wilderness, in which the land is barren, the waters are impure,

and the air is infectious. Curiosity and ambition no longer

attracted the nations to the capital of the world: but, if chance

or necessity directed the steps of a wandering stranger, he

contemplated with horror the vacancy and solitude of the city,

and might be tempted to ask, Where is the senate, and where are

the people? In a season of excessive rains, the Tyber swelled

above its banks, and rushed with irresistible violence into the

valleys of the seven hills. A pestilential disease arose from the

stagnation of the deluge, and so rapid was the contagion, that

fourscore persons expired in an hour in the midst of a solemn

procession, which implored the mercy of Heaven. 59 A society in

which marriage is encouraged and industry prevails soon repairs

the accidental losses of pestilence and war: but, as the far

greater part of the Romans was condemned to hopeless indigence

and celibacy, the depopulation was constant and visible, and the

gloomy enthusiasts might expect the approaching failure of the

human race. 60 Yet the number of citizens still exceeded the

measure of subsistence: their precarious food was supplied from

the harvests of Sicily or Egypt; and the frequent repetition of

famine betrays the inattention of the emperor to a distant

province. The edifices of Rome were exposed to the same ruin and

decay: the mouldering fabrics were easily overthrown by

inundations, tempests, and earthquakes: and the monks, who had

occupied the most advantageous stations, exulted in their base

triumph over the ruins of antiquity. 61 It is commonly believed,

that Pope Gregory the First attacked the temples and mutilated

the statues of the city; that, by the command of the Barbarian,

the Palatine library was reduced to ashes, and that the history

of Livy was the peculiar mark of his absurd and mischievous

fanaticism. The writings of Gregory himself reveal his implacable

aversion to the monuments of classic genius; and he points his

severest censure against the profane learning of a bishop, who

taught the art of grammar, studied the Latin poets, and

pronounced with the same voice the praises of Jupiter and those

of Christ. But the evidence of his destructive rage is doubtful

and recent: the Temple of Peace, or the theatre of Marcellus,

have been demolished by the slow operation of ages, and a formal

proscription would have multiplied the copies of Virgil and Livy

in the countries which were not subject to the ecclesiastical

dictator. 62

58 (return) [ The passages of the homilies of Gregory, which

represent the miserable state of the city and country, are

transcribed in the Annals of Baronius, A.D. 590, No. 16, A.D.

595, No. 2, &c., &c.]

59 (return) [ The inundation and plague were reported by a

deacon, whom his bishop, Gregory of Tours, had despatched to Rome

for some relics The ingenious messenger embellished his tale and

the river with a great dragon and a train of little serpents,

(Greg. Turon. l. x. c. 1.)]

60 (return) [ Gregory of Rome (Dialog. l. ii. c. 15) relates a

memorable prediction of St. Benedict. Roma a Gentilibus non

exterminabitur sed tempestatibus, coruscis turbinibus ac terrae

motu in semetipsa marces cet. Such a prophecy melts into true

history, and becomes the evidence of the fact after which it was

invented.]

61 (return) [ Quia in uno se ore cum Jovis laudibus, Christi

laudes non capiunt, et quam grave nefandumque sit episcopis

canere quod nec laico religioso conveniat, ipse considera, (l.

ix. ep. 4.) The writings of Gregory himself attest his innocence

of any classic taste or literature]

62 (return) [ Bayle, (Dictionnaire Critique, tom. ii. 598, 569,)

in a very good article of Gregoire I., has quoted, for the

buildings and statues, Platina in Gregorio I.; for the Palatine

library, John of Salisbury, (de Nugis Curialium, l. ii. c. 26;)

and for Livy, Antoninus of Florence: the oldest of the three

lived in the xiith century.]

Like Thebes, or Babylon, or Carthage, the names of Rome might

have been erased from the earth, if the city had not been

animated by a vital principle, which again restored her to honor

and dominion. A vague tradition was embraced, that two Jewish

teachers, a tent-maker and a fisherman, had formerly been

executed in the circus of Nero, and at the end of five hundred

years, their genuine or fictitious relics were adored as the

Palladium of Christian Rome. The pilgrims of the East and West

resorted to the holy threshold; but the shrines of the apostles

were guarded by miracles and invisible terrors; and it was not

without fear that the pious Catholic approached the object of his

worship. It was fatal to touch, it was dangerous to behold, the

bodies of the saints; and those who, from the purest motives,

presumed to disturb the repose of the sanctuary, were affrighted

by visions, or punished with sudden death. The unreasonable

request of an empress, who wished to deprive the Romans of their

sacred treasure, the head of St. Paul, was rejected with the

deepest abhorrence; and the pope asserted, most probably with

truth, that a linen which had been sanctified in the neighborhood

of his body, or the filings of his chain, which it was sometimes

easy and sometimes impossible to obtain, possessed an equal

degree of miraculous virtue. 63 But the power as well as virtue

of the apostles resided with living energy in the breast of their

successors; and the chair of St. Peter was filled under the reign

of Maurice by the first and greatest of the name of Gregory. 64

His grandfather Felix had himself been pope, and as the bishops

were already bound by the laws of celibacy, his consecration must

have been preceded by the death of his wife. The parents of

Gregory, Sylvia, and Gordian, were the noblest of the senate, and

the most pious of the church of Rome; his female relations were

numbered among the saints and virgins; and his own figure, with

those of his father and mother, were represented near three

hundred years in a family portrait, 65 which he offered to the

monastery of St. Andrew. The design and coloring of this picture

afford an honorable testimony that the art of painting was

cultivated by the Italians of the sixth century; but the most

abject ideas must be entertained of their taste and learning,

since the epistles of Gregory, his sermons, and his dialogues,

are the work of a man who was second in erudition to none of his

contemporaries: 66 his birth and abilities had raised him to the

office of præfect of the city, and he enjoyed the merit of

renouncing the pomps and vanities of this world. His ample

patrimony was dedicated to the foundation of seven monasteries,

67 one in Rome, 68 and six in Sicily; and it was the wish of

Gregory that he might be unknown in this life, and glorious only

in the next. Yet his devotion (and it might be sincere) pursued

the path which would have been chosen by a crafty and ambitious

statesman. The talents of Gregory, and the splendor which

accompanied his retreat, rendered him dear and useful to the

church; and implicit obedience has always been inculcated as the

first duty of a monk. As soon as he had received the character of

deacon, Gregory was sent to reside at the Byzantine court, the

nuncio or minister of the apostolic see; and he boldly assumed,

in the name of St. Peter, a tone of independent dignity, which

would have been criminal and dangerous in the most illustrious

layman of the empire. He returned to Rome with a just increase of

reputation, and, after a short exercise of the monastic virtues,

he was dragged from the cloister to the papal throne, by the

unanimous voice of the clergy, the senate, and the people. He

alone resisted, or seemed to resist, his own elevation; and his

humble petition, that Maurice would be pleased to reject the

choice of the Romans, could only serve to exalt his character in

the eyes of the emperor and the public. When the fatal mandate

was proclaimed, Gregory solicited the aid of some friendly

merchants to convey him in a basket beyond the gates of Rome, and

modestly concealed himself some days among the woods and

mountains, till his retreat was discovered, as it is said, by a

celestial light.

63 (return) [Gregor. l. iii. epist. 24, edict. 12, &c. From the

epistles of Gregory, and the viiith volume of the Annals of

Baronius, the pious reader may collect the particles of holy iron

which were inserted in keys or crosses of gold, and distributed

in Britain, Gaul, Spain, Africa, Constantinople, and Egypt. The

pontifical smith who handled the file must have understood the

miracles which it was in his own power to operate or withhold; a

circumstance which abates the superstition of Gregory at the

expense of his veracity.]

64 (return) [ Besides the epistles of Gregory himself, which are

methodized by Dupin, (Bibliotheque Eccles. tom. v. p. 103—126,)

we have three lives of the pope; the two first written in the

viiith and ixth centuries, (de Triplici Vita St. Greg. Preface to

the ivth volume of the Benedictine edition,) by the deacons Paul

(p. 1—18) and John, (p. 19—188,) and containing much original,

though doubtful, evidence; the third, a long and labored

compilation by the Benedictine editors, (p. 199—305.) The annals

of Baronius are a copious but partial history. His papal

prejudices are tempered by the good sense of Fleury, (Hist.

Eccles. tom. viii.,) and his chronology has been rectified by the

criticism of Pagi and Muratori.]

65 (return) [ John the deacon has described them like an

eye-witness, (l. iv. c. 83, 84;) and his description is

illustrated by Angelo Rocca, a Roman antiquary, (St. Greg. Opera,

tom. iv. p. 312—326;) who observes that some mosaics of the popes

of the viith century are still preserved in the old churches of

Rome, (p. 321—323) The same walls which represented Gregory’s

family are now decorated with the martyrdom of St. Andrew, the

noble contest of Dominichino and Guido.]

66 (return) [ Disciplinis vero liberalibus, hoc est grammatica,

rhetorica, dialectica ita apuero est institutus, ut quamvis eo

tempore florerent adhuc Romæ studia literarum, tamen nulli in

urbe ipsa secundus putaretur. Paul. Diacon. in Vit. St. Gregor.

c. 2.]

67 (return) [ The Benedictines (Vit. Greg. l. i. p. 205—208)

labor to reduce the monasteries of Gregory within the rule of

their own order; but, as the question is confessed to be

doubtful, it is clear that these powerful monks are in the wrong.

See Butler’s Lives of the Saints, vol. iii. p. 145; a work of

merit: the sense and learning belong to the author—his prejudices

are those of his profession.]

68 (return) [ Monasterium Gregorianum in ejusdem Beati Gregorii

aedibus ad clivum Scauri prope ecclesiam SS. Johannis et Pauli in

honorem St. Andreae, (John, in Vit. Greg. l. i. c. 6. Greg. l.

vii. epist. 13.) This house and monastery were situate on the

side of the Caelian hill which fronts the Palatine; they are now

occupied by the Camaldoli: San Gregorio triumphs, and St. Andrew

has retired to a small chapel Nardini, Roma Antica, l. iii. c. 6,

p. 100. Descrizzione di Roma, tom. i. p. 442—446.]

The pontificate of Gregory the Great, which lasted thirteen

years, six months, and ten days, is one of the most edifying

periods of the history of the church. His virtues, and even his

faults, a singular mixture of simplicity and cunning, of pride

and humility, of sense and superstition, were happily suited to

his station and to the temper of the times. In his rival, the

patriarch of Constantinople, he condemned the anti-Christian

title of universal bishop, which the successor of St. Peter was

too haughty to concede, and too feeble to assume; and the

ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Gregory was confined to the triple

character of Bishop of Rome, Primate of Italy, and Apostle of the

West. He frequently ascended the pulpit, and kindled, by his

rude, though pathetic, eloquence, the congenial passions of his

audience: the language of the Jewish prophets was interpreted and

applied; and the minds of a people, depressed by their present

calamities, were directed to the hopes and fears of the invisible

world. His precepts and example defined the model of the Roman

liturgy; 69 the distribution of the parishes, the calendar of the

festivals, the order of processions, the service of the priests

and deacons, the variety and change of sacerdotal garments. Till

the last days of his life, he officiated in the canon of the

mass, which continued above three hours: the Gregorian chant 70

has preserved the vocal and instrumental music of the theatre,

and the rough voices of the Barbarians attempted to imitate the

melody of the Roman school. 71 Experience had shown him the

efficacy of these solemn and pompous rites, to soothe the

distress, to confirm the faith, to mitigate the fierceness, and

to dispel the dark enthusiasm of the vulgar, and he readily

forgave their tendency to promote the reign of priesthood and

superstition. The bishops of Italy and the adjacent islands

acknowledged the Roman pontiff as their special metropolitan.

Even the existence, the union, or the translation of episcopal

seats was decided by his absolute discretion: and his successful

inroads into the provinces of Greece, of Spain, and of Gaul,

might countenance the more lofty pretensions of succeeding popes.

He interposed to prevent the abuses of popular elections; his

jealous care maintained the purity of faith and discipline; and

the apostolic shepherd assiduously watched over the faith and

discipline of the subordinate pastors. Under his reign, the

Arians of Italy and Spain were reconciled to the Catholic church,

and the conquest of Britain reflects less glory on the name of

Caesar, than on that of Gregory the First. Instead of six

legions, forty monks were embarked for that distant island, and

the pontiff lamented the austere duties which forbade him to

partake the perils of their spiritual warfare. In less than two

years, he could announce to the archbishop of Alexandria, that

they had baptized the king of Kent with ten thousand of his

Anglo-Saxons, and that the Roman missionaries, like those of the

primitive church, were armed only with spiritual and supernatural

powers. The credulity or the prudence of Gregory was always

disposed to confirm the truths of religion by the evidence of

ghosts, miracles, and resurrections; 72 and posterity has paid to

his memory the same tribute which he freely granted to the virtue

of his own or the preceding generation. The celestial honors have

been liberally bestowed by the authority of the popes, but

Gregory is the last of their own order whom they have presumed to

inscribe in the calendar of saints.

69 (return) [ The Lord’s Prayer consists of half a dozen lines;

the Sacramentarius and Antiphonarius of Gregory fill 880 folio

pages, (tom. iii. p. i. p. 1—880;) yet these only constitute a

part of the Ordo Romanus, which Mabillon has illustrated and

Fleury has abridged, (Hist. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 139—152.)]

70 (return) [ I learn from the Abbe Dobos, (Reflexions sur la

Poesie et la Peinture, tom. iii. p. 174, 175,) that the

simplicity of the Ambrosian chant was confined to four modes,

while the more perfect harmony of the Gregorian comprised the

eight modes or fifteen chords of the ancient music. He observes

(p. 332) that the connoisseurs admire the preface and many

passages of the Gregorian office.]

71 (return) [ John the deacon (in Vit. Greg. l. ii. c. 7)

expresses the early contempt of the Italians for tramontane

singing. Alpina scilicet corpora vocum suarum tonitruis altisone

perstrepentia, susceptae modulationis dulcedinem proprie non

resultant: quia bibuli gutturis barbara feritas dum inflexionibus

et repercussionibus mitem nititur edere cantilenam, naturali

quodam fragore, quasi plaustra per gradus confuse sonantia,

rigidas voces jactat, &c. In the time of Charlemagne, the Franks,

though with some reluctance, admitted the justice of the

reproach. Muratori, Dissert. xxv.]

72 (return) [ A French critic (Petrus Gussanvillus, Opera, tom.

ii. p. 105—112) has vindicated the right of Gregory to the entire

nonsense of the Dialogues. Dupin (tom. v. p. 138) does not think

that any one will vouch for the truth of all these miracles: I

should like to know how many of them he believed himself.]

Their temporal power insensibly arose from the calamities of the

times: and the Roman bishops, who have deluged Europe and Asia

with blood, were compelled to reign as the ministers of charity

and peace. I. The church of Rome, as it has been formerly

observed, was endowed with ample possessions in Italy, Sicily,

and the more distant provinces; and her agents, who were commonly

sub-deacons, had acquired a civil, and even criminal,

jurisdiction over their tenants and husbandmen. The successor of

St. Peter administered his patrimony with the temper of a

vigilant and moderate landlord; 73 and the epistles of Gregory

are filled with salutary instructions to abstain from doubtful or

vexatious lawsuits; to preserve the integrity of weights and

measures; to grant every reasonable delay; and to reduce the

capitation of the slaves of the glebe, who purchased the right of

marriage by the payment of an arbitrary fine. 74 The rent or the

produce of these estates was transported to the mouth of the

Tyber, at the risk and expense of the pope: in the use of wealth

he acted like a faithful steward of the church and the poor, and

liberally applied to their wants the inexhaustible resources of

abstinence and order. The voluminous account of his receipts and

disbursements was kept above three hundred years in the Lateran,

as the model of Christian economy. On the four great festivals,

he divided their quarterly allowance to the clergy, to his

domestics, to the monasteries, the churches, the places of

burial, the almshouses, and the hospitals of Rome, and the rest

of the diocese. On the first day of every month, he distributed

to the poor, according to the season, their stated portion of

corn, wine, cheese, vegetables, oil, fish, fresh provisions,

clothes, and money; and his treasurers were continually summoned

to satisfy, in his name, the extraordinary demands of indigence

and merit. The instant distress of the sick and helpless, of

strangers and pilgrims, was relieved by the bounty of each day,

and of every hour; nor would the pontiff indulge himself in a

frugal repast, till he had sent the dishes from his own table to

some objects deserving of his compassion. The misery of the times

had reduced the nobles and matrons of Rome to accept, without a

blush, the benevolence of the church: three thousand virgins

received their food and raiment from the hand of their

benefactor; and many bishops of Italy escaped from the Barbarians

to the hospitable threshold of the Vatican. Gregory might justly

be styled the Father of his Country; and such was the extreme

sensibility of his conscience, that, for the death of a beggar

who had perished in the streets, he interdicted himself during

several days from the exercise of sacerdotal functions. II. The

misfortunes of Rome involved the apostolical pastor in the

business of peace and war; and it might be doubtful to himself,

whether piety or ambition prompted him to supply the place of his

absent sovereign. Gregory awakened the emperor from a long

slumber; exposed the guilt or incapacity of the exarch and his

inferior ministers; complained that the veterans were withdrawn

from Rome for the defence of Spoleto; encouraged the Italians to

guard their cities and altars; and condescended, in the crisis of

danger, to name the tribunes, and to direct the operations, of

the provincial troops. But the martial spirit of the pope was

checked by the scruples of humanity and religion: the imposition

of tribute, though it was employed in the Italian war, he freely

condemned as odious and oppressive; whilst he protected, against

the Imperial edicts, the pious cowardice of the soldiers who

deserted a military for a monastic life. If we may credit his own

declarations, it would have been easy for Gregory to exterminate

the Lombards by their domestic factions, without leaving a king,

a duke, or a count, to save that unfortunate nation from the

vengeance of their foes. As a Christian bishop, he preferred the

salutary offices of peace; his mediation appeased the tumult of

arms: but he was too conscious of the arts of the Greeks, and the

passions of the Lombards, to engage his sacred promise for the

observance of the truce. Disappointed in the hope of a general

and lasting treaty, he presumed to save his country without the

consent of the emperor or the exarch. The sword of the enemy was

suspended over Rome; it was averted by the mild eloquence and

seasonable gifts of the pontiff, who commanded the respect of

heretics and Barbarians. The merits of Gregory were treated by

the Byzantine court with reproach and insult; but in the

attachment of a grateful people, he found the purest reward of a

citizen, and the best right of a sovereign. 75

73 (return) [ Baronius is unwilling to expatiate on the care of

the patrimonies, lest he should betray that they consisted not of

kingdoms, but farms. The French writers, the Benedictine editors,

(tom. iv. l. iii. p. 272, &c.,) and Fleury, (tom. viii. p. 29,

&c.,) are not afraid of entering into these humble, though

useful, details; and the humanity of Fleury dwells on the social

virtues of Gregory.]

74 (return) [ I much suspect that this pecuniary fine on the

marriages of villains produced the famous, and often fabulous

right, de cuissage, de marquette, &c. With the consent of her

husband, a handsome bride might commute the payment in the arms

of a young landlord, and the mutual favor might afford a

precedent of local rather than legal tyranny]

75 (return) [ The temporal reign of Gregory I. is ably exposed by

Sigonius in the first book, de Regno Italiae. See his works, tom.

ii. p. 44—75]

Chapter XLVI: Troubles In Persia.—Part I.

Revolutions On Persia After The Death Of Chosroes On Nushirvan.—His Son

Hormouz, A Tyrant, Is Deposed.—Usurpation Of Baharam.—Flight And

Restoration Of Chosroes II.—His Gratitude To The Romans.—The Chagan Of

The Avars.—Revolt Of The Army Against Maurice.—His Death.—Tyranny Of

Phocas.—Elevation Of Heraclius.—The Persian War.—Chosroes Subdues

Syria, Egypt, And Asia Minor.—Siege Of Constantinople By The Persians

And Avars.—Persian Expeditions.—Victories And Triumph Of Heraclius.

The conflict of Rome and Persia was prolonged from the death of

Craesus to the reign of Heraclius. An experience of seven hundred

years might convince the rival nations of the impossibility of

maintaining their conquests beyond the fatal limits of the Tigris

and Euphrates. Yet the emulation of Trajan and Julian was

awakened by the trophies of Alexander, and the sovereigns of

Persia indulged the ambitious hope of restoring the empire of

Cyrus. 1 Such extraordinary efforts of power and courage will

always command the attention of posterity; but the events by

which the fate of nations is not materially changed, leave a

faint impression on the page of history, and the patience of the

reader would be exhausted by the repetition of the same

hostilities, undertaken without cause, prosecuted without glory,

and terminated without effect. The arts of negotiation, unknown

to the simple greatness of the senate and the Caesars, were

assiduously cultivated by the Byzantine princes; and the

memorials of their perpetual embassies 2 repeat, with the same

uniform prolixity, the language of falsehood and declamation, the

insolence of the Barbarians, and the servile temper of the

tributary Greeks. Lamenting the barren superfluity of materials,

I have studied to compress the narrative of these uninteresting

transactions: but the just Nushirvan is still applauded as the

model of Oriental kings, and the ambition of his grandson

Chosroes prepared the revolution of the East, which was speedily

accomplished by the arms and the religion of the successors of

Mahomet.

1 (return) [ Missis qui... reposcerent... veteres Persarum ac

Macedonum terminos, seque invasurum possessa Cyro et post

Alexandro, per vaniloquentiam ac minas jaciebat. Tacit. Annal.

vi. 31. Such was the language of the Arsacides. I have repeatedly

marked the lofty claims of the Sassanians.]

2 (return) [ See the embassies of Menander, extracted and

preserved in the tenth century by the order of Constantine

Porphyrogenitus.]

In the useless altercations, that precede and justify the

quarrels of princes, the Greeks and the Barbarians accused each

other of violating the peace which had been concluded between the

two empires about four years before the death of Justinian. The

sovereign of Persia and India aspired to reduce under his

obedience the province of Yemen or Arabia 3 Felix; the distant

land of myrrh and frankincense, which had escaped, rather than

opposed, the conquerors of the East. After the defeat of Abrahah

under the walls of Mecca, the discord of his sons and brothers

gave an easy entrance to the Persians: they chased the strangers

of Abyssinia beyond the Red Sea; and a native prince of the

ancient Homerites was restored to the throne as the vassal or

viceroy of the great Nushirvan. 4 But the nephew of Justinian

declared his resolution to avenge the injuries of his Christian

ally the prince of Abyssinia, as they suggested a decent pretence

to discontinue the annual tribute, which was poorly disguised by

the name of pension. The churches of Persarmenia were oppressed

by the intolerant spirit of the Magi; 411 they secretly invoked

the protector of the Christians, and, after the pious murder of

their satraps, the rebels were avowed and supported as the

brethren and subjects of the Roman emperor. The complaints of

Nushirvan were disregarded by the Byzantine court; Justin yielded

to the importunities of the Turks, who offered an alliance

against the common enemy; and the Persian monarchy was threatened

at the same instant by the united forces of Europe, of Aethiopia,

and of Scythia. At the age of fourscore the sovereign of the East

would perhaps have chosen the peaceful enjoyment of his glory and

greatness; but as soon as war became inevitable, he took the

field with the alacrity of youth, whilst the aggressor trembled

in the palace of Constantinople. Nushirvan, or Chosroes,

conducted in person the siege of Dara; and although that

important fortress had been left destitute of troops and

magazines, the valor of the inhabitants resisted above five

months the archers, the elephants, and the military engines of

the Great King. In the mean while his general Adarman advanced

from Babylon, traversed the desert, passed the Euphrates,

insulted the suburbs of Antioch, reduced to ashes the city of

Apamea, and laid the spoils of Syria at the feet of his master,

whose perseverance in the midst of winter at length subverted the

bulwark of the East. But these losses, which astonished the

provinces and the court, produced a salutary effect in the

repentance and abdication of the emperor Justin: a new spirit

arose in the Byzantine councils; and a truce of three years was

obtained by the prudence of Tiberius. That seasonable interval

was employed in the preparations of war; and the voice of rumor

proclaimed to the world, that from the distant countries of the

Alps and the Rhine, from Scythia, Maesia, Pannonia, Illyricum,

and Isauria, the strength of the Imperial cavalry was reenforced

with one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers. Yet the king of

Persia, without fear, or without faith, resolved to prevent the

attack of the enemy; again passed the Euphrates, and dismissing

the ambassadors of Tiberius, arrogantly commanded them to await

his arrival at Caesarea, the metropolis of the Cappadocian

provinces. The two armies encountered each other in the battle of

Melitene: 412 the Barbarians, who darkened the air with a cloud

of arrows, prolonged their line, and extended their wings across

the plain; while the Romans, in deep and solid bodies, expected

to prevail in closer action, by the weight of their swords and

lances. A Scythian chief, who commanded their right wing,

suddenly turned the flank of the enemy, attacked their rear-guard

in the presence of Chosroes, penetrated to the midst of the camp,

pillaged the royal tent, profaned the eternal fire, loaded a

train of camels with the spoils of Asia, cut his way through the

Persian host, and returned with songs of victory to his friends,

who had consumed the day in single combats, or ineffectual

skirmishes. The darkness of the night, and the separation of the

Romans, afforded the Persian monarch an opportunity of revenge;

and one of their camps was swept away by a rapid and impetuous

assault. But the review of his loss, and the consciousness of his

danger, determined Chosroes to a speedy retreat: he burnt, in his

passage, the vacant town of Melitene; and, without consulting the

safety of his troops, boldly swam the Euphrates on the back of an

elephant. After this unsuccessful campaign, the want of

magazines, and perhaps some inroad of the Turks, obliged him to

disband or divide his forces; the Romans were left masters of the

field, and their general Justinian, advancing to the relief of

the Persarmenian rebels, erected his standard on the banks of the

Araxes. The great Pompey had formerly halted within three days’

march of the Caspian: 5 that inland sea was explored, for the

first time, by a hostile fleet, 6 and seventy thousand captives

were transplanted from Hyrcania to the Isle of Cyprus. On the

return of spring, Justinian descended into the fertile plains of

Assyria; the flames of war approached the residence of Nushirvan;

the indignant monarch sunk into the grave; and his last edict

restrained his successors from exposing their person in battle

against the Romans. 611 Yet the memory of this transient affront

was lost in the glories of a long reign; and his formidable

enemies, after indulging their dream of conquest, again solicited

a short respite from the calamities of war. 7

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 50 / 79 章

The free citizens of Athens and Rome enjoyed, in all criminal