145. The final _e_ in _Rome_ is pronounced, as in l. 142; but the words
_the ende_ are to be run together, forming but _one_ syllable, _thende_,
according to Chaucer's usual practice; cf. note to l. 255. Indeed in ll.
423, 965, it is actually so spelt; just as, in l. 150, we have
_thexcellent_, and in l. 151, _themperoures_.
151. _themperoures_, the emperor's. Gower calls him Tiberius Constantine,
who was Emperor (not of Rome, but) of the East, A. D. 578, and was
succeeded, as in the story, by Maurice, A. D. 582. His capital was
Constantinople, whither merchants from Syria could easily repair; but the
greater fame of Rome caused the substitution of the Western for the Eastern
capital.