THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL THE ROMAN EMPIRE. BY EDWARD GIBBON. H'rTH VARIORUM NOTES, INCLUDING THOSE OF GUIZOT, WENCK, SCHREITER, AND HUGO. VOL. V. LONDON : GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1S91. PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING eR05S. 0& 311 nil v.? CONTENTS OF THE FIFTH VOLUME. CHAPTER X LI v.— IDEA op the eoman jurisprudence. — the laws OF THE KINGS. — TUE TWELVE TABLES OF THE DECEMVIRS. — THE LAWS OF THE TEOPLE. — THE DECREES OF THE SENATE. — THE EDICTS OF THE MAGISTRATES AND EMPERORS. — AUTHORITY OF THE CIVILIANS. — CODE, PANDECTS, NOVELS, AND INSTITUTES OP JUSTINIAN : — I. RIGHTS OP PERSONS. — II. RIGHTS OF THINGS. — UI. PRIVATE INJURIES AND ACTIONS. — IV. CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS. AD. The Civil or Eoman Law Laws of the Kings of Kome . The Twelve Tables of the Decemvirs Their Character and Influence Laws of the People Decrees of the Senate Edicts of the Praetors . The Perpetual Edict Constitutions of the Eaiperors Their Legislative Power Their Rescripts Forms of the Roman Law Succession of the Civil Lawyers 303—648. The First Period 648—988. Second Period 988—1230. Third Period Their Philosophy Authority Sects 627. Reformation of the Roman Law by Justinian 527—546. Tribonian . 528, 529. Tlie Code of Justinian . 630—533. The Pandects or Digest Praise and Censure of the Code and Pandects Loss of the Ancient Jurisprudence Legal Inconstancy of Justinian 534. Second Edition of the Code , 634—565. The Novels . 633. The Institutes PAGE 1 4 6 10 12 14 15 17 18 20 21 22 24 25 25 26 27 29 32 33 34 35 36 38 40 4-2 43 43 44 IV CONTENTS. iV.D. T. Of Persons. Freemen aud Slaves Fathers and Children Limitations of the Paternal Authority Husbands and AVives The Religious Putes of Marriage . Freedom of the Matrimonial Contract Liberty and Abuse of Divorce Limitatious of the Liberty of Divorce Incest, Concubines, and Bastards . Guardians and Wards . II. Of Things. Eight of Property Of Inheritance and Succession Civil Degrees of Kindred Introduction and Liberty of Testaments Legacies Codicils and Trusts III. Op Actions . Promises Benefits Interest of Money Injuries IV. Of Crimes and Punishments . Severity of the Twelve Tables Abolition or Oblivion of Penal Laws Eevival of Capital Punishments ^Measure of Guilt , . . . Unnatural Vice .... Piigour of the Christian Emperors . Judgments of the People Select Judges .... Assessors A^'oluntary Exile and Death . Abuses of Civil Jurisprudence PAGE . 44 . 47 . 48 . 61 . 51 . 62 . 54 . 56 . 68 . 60 . 61 . 65 . 66 . 68 . 69 . 70 . 71 . 72 . 73 . 74 . 76 . 77 . 78 . 81 . 83 . 85 . 86 . 87 . 88 . 90 . 90 . 91 . 92 OH. XLV. — EEIGN of the TOUNGER 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. 565. Death of Justinian ........ 94 565 — 574. lieign of Justin II. or the Younger . . . .95 566. His Consulship 95 Embassy of the Avars 96 Alboin, King of the Lombards— his Valour, Love, and Revenge 97 The Lombards and Avars destroy the King and Kingdom of the Gcpidee 99 B67. Alboin undertakes the Conquest of Italy .... 101 Disaffection and Death ol 2J arses 102 CONTENTS. A.D. 6G8- 574. 578. 571- 682- 584- 643, -570. Conquest of a Great Tart of Italy by the Lombards Alboin is Ahirdercd by his Wife Rosamond . Her Fliglit and Death Clepho, Kinu' of the Lombards Weakness of tiio Emperor Justin . Association of Tiberius .... Deatli of Justin II -582. Yic'ign of Tiberius II His Virtues ...... -602. Tiic Ileign of Mauriee Distress of Italy -590. Autharis, King of the Lombards The Exarchate of Ravenna .... The Kingdom of the Lombards . Language and Manners of the Lombards Dress and JMarriage .... Government Laws • • Miserj' of Rome ...... The Tombs and Relics of the Apostles . Birth and Profession of Gregory the Roman -G04. Pontificate of Gregory the Great His Spiritual Ufiice And Temporal Government His Estates .... And Alms .... The Saviour of Rome . PAGB l(i4 107 107 103 108 101+ 110 111 112 11'; 114 11.5 IKJ lis 11!) 123 125 12(> 127 129 130 132 132 134 134 135 13« CH. XLVL— REVOLUTIONS OF PERSIA AFTER THE DEATH OF CH0SR0E3 OR NUSHIRVAN.— HIS SON HORMOUZ, A TYRANT, IS DEPOSED. — USUR- PATION OF BAHRAM. — FLIGHT AND RESTORATION OF CHOSROES II. — HIS GRATITUDE TO THE ROMANS. — THE CHAGAN OF THE AVARS. — REVOLT OP THE ARMY AGAINST MAURICE, — HIS DEATH.— TYRANNY OP PHOOAS.— 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. Contest of Rome and Persia . . . 570. Conquest of Yemen by Nushirvan 572. His last War with the Romans 579. His Death 579—590. Tyranny and Vices of his Son Hormouz 590. Exploits of Huhram His Rebellion Hormouz is Deposed and Imprisoned . Elevation of his Sou Chosrocs Death of Hormouz ..... Chosroes Flies to the Romans 136 137 139 140 . 141 m;! i-ii; 14(3 147 148 149 a o VI CONTEXTS. A.D. 591 570 595 602. 602 610, 610 603 611 614 616 610 621. 622. 62.3, 626. 627. 628. His Eeturn And Final Victory Death of Bah ram ....... —603. Restoration and Policy of Chosroes . — 600. Pride, Policy, and Power of the Chagan of the Avars —602. "Wars of Maurice against the Avars . State of the Roman Armies . Their Discontent .... And Rebellion .... Election of Phocas Revolt of Constantinople Death of Maurice and his Children -610. Phocas Emperor His Character .... And Tyranny .... His Fall and Death -642. Reign of Heraclius Chosroes Invades the Roman Empire His Conquest of Syria . Of Palestine .... Of Egypt Of Asia Minor .... His Reign and Magnificence -622. Distress of Heraclius . He Solicits Peace His Preparations for War First Expedition of Heraclius against 624, 625. His Second Expedition Deliverance of Constantinople from the Alliances and Conquests of Heraclius His Third Expedition . And Victories Flight of Chosroes He is Deposed And Murdered by his Son Siroes Treaty of Peace between the two Empires the Persians Persians and Avars PAGB 150 150 150 151 153 157 159 160 161 161 161 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 172 173 175 177 178 180 182 186 188 190 191 192 194 194 195 CH. XLVH. — THEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE INCAR- NATION. — THE HUMAN AND DIVINE NATURE OF CHRIST. — ENMITY OF THE PATRIARCHS OF ALEXANDRIA AND CONSTANTINOPLE. — ST. CYRIL AND NESTORIUS. — THIRD GENERAL COUNCIL OP EPHESUS. — HERESY OF EUTYCHES. — FOURTH GENERAL COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON. — CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL DISCORD. — INTOLERANCE OF JUSTINIAN. — THE THREE CHAPTERS. — THE MONOTHELITE CONTROVERSY.— STATE OF THE ORIENTAL SECTS. — I. THE NESTORIANS. — n. THE JACOBITES. — HI. THE MAKONITES. IV. THE ARMENIANS. — V. THE COPTS AND ABYSSINIANa The Incarnation of Christ . I. A Pure Man to the Ebionites 197 199 CONTENTS. Vll A.D. His Birth and Elevation II. A Pure God to tiie Docetes . His Incorruptible Body III. Double Nature of Ccrinthus . IV. Divine Incarnation of Apollinaris V. Orthodox Con^fcnt and Verbal Disputes 412—444. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria . 413, 415, His Tyranny 428. Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople 429—431. His Heresy .... 431. First Council of Ephesus Condemnation of Nestorius . Opposition of the Orientals . 431—435. Victory of Cyril 435. Exile of Nestorius .... 448. Heresy of Eutyches .... 449. Second Council of Ephesus . 451. Council of Chalcedon .... Faith of Chalcedon .... 451_4S2. Discord of the East . 482. The Henoticoa df Zeno 508—518. The Thsagion. and Peligious War till the Death of Anastasius 614. First Religious War . 519 — 565. Theological Character and Government of Justinian His Persecution of Heretics Of Pagans Of Jews Of Samaritans .... His Orthodoxy .... 532—698. The Three Chapters . 553. Vth Genend Council : Ild of Constantinopl 564. Heresy of Justinian 629. The Monothelite Controversy 639. The Ecthesis of Heraclius . 648. The Type of Constans . 680—681. Vlth General Council : Ild. of Constantinople Union of the Greek and Latin Churches Perpetual Separation of the Oriental Sects I. The Nestorians .... 500. Sole Masters of Persia 500—1200. Tiieir Missions in Tartary, India, China, &c. 883. The Christians of St. Thomas in India II. The Jacobites III. The Makonites ... IV. The Armenians . V. The Copts or Egyptians 637—568. The Patriarch Theodosius . 638. Paul page 200 202 204 205 206 209 210 212 214 216 218 220 221 222 224 228 229 231 233 23 4 236 239 241 242 243 244 245 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 251 252 253 254 256 258 259 262 264 267 269 271 272 272 VI u CONTENTS. A.D. 551. ApoUinaris 680. Eulogius 609. John Their Separation and Decay 625 — 661. Benjamin, the Jacobite Patriarch VI. The Abyssinians and Nubians . 530. Church of Abyssinia .... 1525 — 1550. The Portuguese in Abyssinia . 1557. Mission of the Jesuits 1626. Conversion of the Emperor 1632. Final Expulsion of the Jesuits . CH. XLVIII. — PLAN OF THE REMAINDER OF THE WORK. — SUCCESSION AND CHARACTERS OF THE GREEK EMPERORS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, FROM THE TIME OF HERACLIUS TO THE LATIN CONQUEST. Defects of the Byzantine History Its Connexion with the Revolutions of the World Plan of the remainder of the Work . Second Marriage and Death of Heraclius 641 Constantine III. Heracleonas Punishment of Martina and Heracleonas Constans II. . . . 668. Constantine IV. Pogonatus 685. Justinian II. . . . 695—705. His Exile 705 — 711. His Restoration and Death 711. Philippicus 713. Anastasius II. . 716. TheodosiusIIl. . 718. Leo III. the Isaurian . 741. Constantine V. Copronymus 775. Leo IV 780. Constantine VI. and Irene . 792. Irene 802. Nicephorus I. . . . 811. Stauracius . Michael I. Rhangabe . 813. Leo V. the Armenian 820. Michael II. the Stammerer 829. Theophilus 842. Michael IIL 867. Basil I. the Macedonian 886. Leo VI. the Philosopher . 911. Alexander, Constantine VII. Porphyrogenitus 919. Romanus I. Lecapenus Christopher, Stephen, Constantine VIII CONTENTS. IZ &.D. 945. Constantine VII 959. Eomanus II. junior .... 963. Niceplioru.s II. Tliocas 909. John Zimisces, Basil II. Constantine IX. 976. Basil II. and Constantine IX. . 1025. Constantine IX 1028. Komauus HI. Ar2:ynis 1034. Michael IV. the I'aphlagonian . 1041. Michael V. Calaphatcs J042.Zoe and Theodora .... Constantine X. Mouomachus . 1054. Theodora 1056. Michael VI. Stratioticus . 1057. Isaac I. Conincnu.s .... 1059. Constantine XI. Ducaa 1067. Eudocia ...... liomanus III. Diogenes 1071. Michael VII. Parapinaces, Andronicus I. Constantiae 1078. Nicephorus III. Botoniates lOSI. Alexius I. Comnenus 1118. John, or Calo-Johannes 1143. Manuel 1180. Alexius II Character and First Adventures of Andronicus 1183. Andronicus I. Comnenus . 1185. Isaac II. Angelus .... XII. FACE 324 325 326 327 329 3.30 831 331 332 332 332 333 333 334 335 335 336 337 338 339 342 344 346 347 354 356 CH. XLIX. — INTRODUCTION, -WORSHIP, AND PERSECUTION OP IMAGES. — REVOLT OF ITALY AND ROME. — TEMPORAL DOMINION OF THE POPES. — CONQUEST OF ITALY BY THE FRANKS. — ESTABLISHMENT OF IMAGES. — CHARACTER AND CORONATION OP CHARLEMAGNE. — RESTORATION AND DECAY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST. — INDEPENDENCE OP ITALY. — CONSTITUTION OF THE GERMANIC BODY. Introduction of Images into the Christian Church Their Worship The Image of Edessa Its Copies Opposition to Image Worship 726 — 840. Leo the Iconoclast, and his Successors 754. Their Synod of Constantinople Their Creed 726 — 775. Their Persecution of the Images and Monks State of Italy 727. Epistles of Gregorj' II. to the Emperor 728. Kevolt of Italy . ... Kepublic of Kome ...... 730 — 752. Rome Attacked by the Lombards . 754. Her Deliverance by Pepin .... 359 361 362 364 365 367 368 369 370 372 374 377 380 382 384 CONTENTS. A.D. 774. 761. 780. 787. 842. 794. 774- 800. Conquest of Lombardy by Charlemagne .... 753. 768. Pepin and Charlemagne, Kings of France Patricians of Home ........ Donations of Pepin and Charlemagne to the Popes . Forgery of the Donation of Constantine .... IJestoration of Images in the East by the Empress Irene . VI I th General Council : Ilnd of Nice Final Establishment of Images by the Empress Theodora . Reluctance of the Franks and of Charlemagne . -800. Final Separation of the Popes from the Eastern Empire Emperor of Eome and of as Coronation of Charlemagne the West 768 — 814. Reign and Character of Charlemagne Extent of his Empire In France Spain . Italy 814- Germany Hungary' His Neighbours and Enemies His Successors -887. In Italy . 911. In Germany 987. In France 814 — 840. Lewis the Pious 840—856. Lothaire I. . 856—875. Lewis II. 888. Division of the Empire . 962. Otho, King of Germany, Restores and Appropriates the Western Empire ....... Transactions of the Western and Eastern Eminres 800 — 1060. Authority of the Emperors in the Elections of the Popes ......... Disorders .......... 1073. Reformation and Claims of the Church . . . . Authority of the Emperors in Rome ..... 932. Revolt of Alberic 967. Of Pope John XII 998. Of the Consul Crescentius 774—1250. The Kingdom of Italy 1152— 1190. Frederic I 1198-1250. Frederic II 854 — 1250. Independence of the Princes of Germany 1250. The Germanic Constitution ...... 1347 — 1378. Weakness and Poverty of the German Emperor Charles IV 1356. His Ostentation ........ Contrast of the Power and Modesty of Augustus PAGH 886 387 388 390 393 396 396 397 398 400 402 404 408 408 409 419 410 410 411 413 413 414 414 414 414 414 414 415 416 418 419 421 422 422 423 424 425 427 428 429 431 432 434 434 CONTENTS. XI CII. L. — DESCRIPTION OP ARABIA AND ITS INHABITANTS. — BIRTH, CHA- RACTER, AND DOCTRINE OF MAHOMET. — HE PREACHES AT MECCA. — • FLIES TO MEDINA. — PROPAGATES HIS RELIGION BY THE SWORD. — VOLUNTARY OR RELUCTANT SUBMISSION OF THE ARABS. — HIS DEATH AND SUCCESSORS. — THE CLAIMS AND FORTUNES OP ALI AND HIS DESCENDANTS. A.D. Description of Arabia The Soil and Climate Division of the Sandy, the Stony, and the Happy Manners of the Bedoweens, or Pastoral Arabs The Horse The Camel Cities of Arabia Mecca Her Trade National Independence of the Arabs . Their Domestic Freedom and Character Civil Wars and Private Revenge Annual Truce ..... Their Social Qualifications and Virtues Love of Poetry ..... Examples of Generosity Ancient Idolatry .... The Caaba, or Temple of Jlecca . Sacrifices and Rites .... Introduction of the Sabians The Magians ..... The Jews ...... The Christians ..... 669 — 609. Birth and Education of Mahomet Deliverance of Mecca Qualifications of the Prophet One God Mahomet the Apostle of God, and the Last of the Moses ....... Jesus ....... The Koran Miracles ....... Precepts of Mahomet — Prayer, Fasting, Alms Resurrection ...... Hell and Paradise ..... 606. Mahomet Preaches at Mecca 613—622. Is Opposed by the Koreish 622. And Driven from Jlecca .... 622. Received as Prince of Medina 622—632. His Reiral Digiuty .... He Declares AVar against the lufideis . Arabia Prophets PAGB 435 437 438 439 440 440 441 443 443 444 447 450 4.51 452 453 454 455 456 458 459 460 461 461 463 464 465 468 470 471 472 473 475 477 480 481 485 487 488 489 491 4?2 Xll CONTENTS. A.D. KIs Defensive ^ars against the Koreish of Mecca 623. Battle of Bcdcr .... Of Ohud C25. Of tlie Nations, or the Ditch C23— 627. Mahomet Subdues the Jews of Arabia C 29. Submission of Mecca . 629 — 632. Conquest of Arabia . 629, 630. First War of the Mahometans against the Empire ..... 632. Death of Mahomet .... His Character Private Life of Mahomet . His Wives ...... And Children Character of Ali .... 632. Reign of Abul)eker .... 634. of Omar 644. of Othman .... Discord of the Turks and Persians 655. Death of Othman .... 655—660. Reign of Ali .... 655, or 661—680. Reign of Moawiyah Death of Hosein .... Posterity of Mahomet and Ali . Permanency of his Religion HiB ilerit towards his Country . . 495 496 497 49S 493 501 502 omau 509 510 513 514 516 517 618 519 519 520 522 523 626 629 5.30 633 t34 THE niSTOET OF THE DECLINE AXD FALL or TEE EOMAX EMPIEE. CHAPTER XLIY. ItEA OF THE ROMAN JURISPRUDENCE. — THK LAWS OF THE KINGS. THE TWELVE TABLKS OF THE DECE.MVIRS. — THE LaWS OF THE PEOPLE. — THE DECRKES 01' THE SENATE. — THE EDICTS OP THE MAGISTRATES AND EMPERORS. — \UTnOR:TY OP THE CIVILIANS. CODE, PANDECTS, NOVELS, AND INSTITUTES, OP JUSTINIAN. — I. RIGHTS OP PERSONS. IL RIGHTS OF THINGS. — IIL PRIVATE INJURIES AND ACTIONS. — IV. CRIMES AND PaNISHMENTS. TnE vain titles of the victories of Justinian are crumbled into dust : but the name of the leji;islator is inscribed on a fair and everlasting monument. Under his reign, and by bis care, the civil jurisprudence was digested in the immortal works of the Code, the Pa>"dects, and the Institutes ;* the public reason of the Komans has been silently or stu * The civilians of the darker ages have established an absurd and incomprehensible mode of quotation, which is supported by autliority and custom. In their references to the Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes, they mention the number, not of the book, but only of the law; and content themselves with reciting the first words of the title to which it belongs ; and of these titles there are more than a thousand. Ludwig (Vit. Justiniani, p. 2GS) wishes to shake oft' thi:"- pedantic yoke; and I have dared to adopt the simplo and mtional method of numbering tho book, tho title, and the law [Tliis chapter has much ■•ugaged the VOL. T. B 2 THE CITIL, OR, [CH. XLIT. diously transfused into the domestic institutions of Europe,* and the laws of Justinian still command the respect or obedience of independent nations. Wise or fortunate is the prince who connects his own reputation with the honour and interest of a perpetual order of men. The defence of their founder is the first caube, which in every age has exercised the zeal and industry of the civilians. They piously commemorate his virtues ; dissamble or deny his failings ; and fiercely chastise the guilt or folly of the rebels who presume to sully the majesty of the purple. The idolatry of love has provoked, as it usually happens, the rancour of opposition ; the character of Justinian has been exposed to the blind vehemence of flattery and invective, and the injustice of a sect (the Anti-Trihonians) has refused attention of German jurists. In 1789, Professor Hugo published a translation of it, with original notes, and in 1821 appeared another by Professor Warnkonig. Hugo says that Gibbon's form of quotation is most convenient tor unprofessional men ; but that for German lawyers, who must appear to know, at least, the Pandects and Institutes by heart, their mode of citing is the best. — Ed.] * Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, and Scotland, have received them as common law or reason ; in France, Italy, &c. they possess a direct or indirect influence ; and they were respected in England, from Stephen to Edward I, our national Justinian, (Duck, de Usil et Aucto- ritate Juris Civilis, 1. 2, c. 1, 8 — 15. Heineccius, Hist. Juris Ger manici, c. 3, 4. No. 55 — 124) and the legal historians of each country. [It has been disputed in France, whether the Roman law was founded on positive edicts or only raison ecrite. In Germany the latest or Justinian's enactments supersede the older. — Hugo.] [There were none but imperfect treatises on Roman law in Gibbon's time. That of Arthur Duck is very trifling. More light has been thrown on it by the interesting researches of Sarti, Tiraboschi, Fantuzzi, Savioli, and M. de Savigny. It was always preserved from the time of Justinian, but the Glossators, by their unwearied ardour, made it known throughout Europe. — "Warnkonig.] [The Italian jurists, who fiz-st wrote on Roman law, were called " Glossatores," Explainers or Interpreters, from the title of " Glossse,'' which Bulgarus, the leader of them, gave to his book De Jure Civil!. He, together with Jacobus Bononiensis, who had the cognomen of " the Old Glossator," and Ugolino ii, Porta, another of them, were employed by the emperor Frederic Barbarossa, as his legal advocates at Roncaglia in 1158, to support his claims on Italy. This gave them and their studies greater importance. Mr. Hal- lam informs us (Middle Ages, vol. iii, p. 513 — 520), that early in the twelfth century, Guarnarius opened a school of civil law at Bologna, and the Glossators were his pupils. But Mr. Hallam declined " to dwell on the forgotten teachex-a of a science that is likely soon to be forgotten." — Ed.] en. XLIV.; ROMAN LAW. 3 all praise and merit to the prince, his ministers, and his laws.* Attached to no party, interested only for the truth and candour of history, and directed by the most temperate and skilful f^uides,t I enter with just difliiience on the subject of civil law, which has exhausted so many learned lives, and clothed the walls of sucli spacious libraries. In a single, if possible in a short chapter, I shall trace the Roman jurisprudence from Romulus to Justinian,^ appre- ciate the labours of that emperor, and pause to contemplate the principles of a science so important to the peace and happiness of society. The laws of a nation form the most instructive portion of its history ; and, although I have devoted myself to write the annals of a declining monarchy, I shall embrace the occasion to breathe the pure aad invigo- rating air of the republic. The primitive government of Rome§ was composed, with * Francis Hotoman, a learned and acute lawyer of the sixteenth century, wished to mortify Cujacius, and to please the Chancellor de I'Hopital. His Anti-Tribonianus (which I have never been able to procure), was published in French in 1609 : and his sect was pro- pagated in Germany. (Heineccius, 0pp. torn, iii, sylloge 3, p. 171 — 183.) t At the head of these guides I shall respectfully place the learned and perspicuous Heineccius, a German professor, who died at Halle in the year 1741 (see his Eloge in the Nouvelle Biblioth&que Germanique, torn, ii, p. 51 — 64). His ample works have been collected in eight volumes in 4to. Geneva, 1743 — 1748. The treatises which I have separately used are, 1. Historia Juris Romani et Germanici, Lugd. Batav. 1740, in 8vo. 2. Syntagma Antiquatatum Romanam Jurispru- dentiam lUustrantium, 2 vols, in Svo. Traject. ad Rhenum. 3. Ele- menta Juris Civilis secundum Oi-dinem Institutionum, Lugd. Bat. 1751, in 8vo. 4. Elementa J. C. secundum Ordinem Pandectarum, Traject. 1772, in Svo. 2 vols. [Heineccius had the merit of bringing into notice the works of French and Dubch jurists. Bach is excellent when he exposes prevailing errors. — Hugo.] [Not being himself a lawyer, Gibbon could only be guided by the opinions of the writers whose authority then stood the highest. Heineccius was reputed to have studied deeply the Roman law ; but he knew nothing more of it than what he had gathered from the compilations of othere. Gibbon was thus betrayed into errors, which we have now the means of correcting. Yet none but a pen like his can impart to those more accurate acqui- sitions, the lustre, force, and vivacity, with which he has invested the opinions of Heineccius and his contemporarijs. — Warnkonig.] J Our original text is a fragment de Origiue Juris (Pandect. 1. 1, tit. 2) of Pomponius, a Roman lawyer, who lived under the Antonine>- (Heinecc. tom. iii, syll. 3, p. 66 — 126.) It has been abridged ami probably coi-rupted, by Tribouian, and since restored by Bynkershoek. (Jpp. tom. i, p. 27a — 304.) J The constitutional B 2 4 LAWS OF THE [ciI. XLIV. some political sldll, of an elective king, a council of nobles, ana a general assembly of the people. AVar and religioa were administered by the supreme magistrate : and he alone proposed the laws, which were debated in the senate, and Hually ratified or rejected by a majority of votes in the thirty curice or parishes of the city. Romulus, Numa, and Servius Tullius, are celebrated as the most ancient legislators ; and each of them claims his peculiar part in the threefold divi- sion of Jurisprudence.* The laws of marriage, the educa- tion of children, and the authority of parents, which may seem to draw their origin from nature itself, are ascribed to the untutored wisdom of Eomulus. The law of nations and of religious worship, which Numa introduced, was derived from his nocturnal converse with the nymph Egeria. The civil law is attributed to the experience of IServius ; he balanced the rights and fortunes of the seven classes of citizens ; and guarded, by fifty new regulations, the observ- ance of contracts and the punishment of crimes. The state, which he had inclined towards a democracy, was changed by the last Tarquin into lawless despotism ; and when the jiingly office was abolished, the patricians engrossed the benefits of freedom. The royal laws became odious or obso- lete ; the mysterious deposit was silently preserved by the priests and nobles ; and, at the end of sixty years, the citizens of Eome still complained that they were ruled by the arbitrary sentence of the magistrates. Yet the posi- tive institutions of tiie kings had blended themselves with the public and private manners of the city ; some fragments history of the kings of Rome may be studied in the first book of Livy, and more copiously in Diouysius Halicarnussensis (1. 2, p. 83 — 96. 119 — 130; 1. 4, p. 198 — 2'20), who sometimes betrays the character of a rhetorician and a Greek. [On this subject the writings of Beaufort, Niebuhr, and Wachsmuth should be consulted. — Warnkonig.J [Beaufort's "Dissertation sur I'lncertitude des cinq premiers siccles de I'Histoire Romaine," came out in 1738, and his Republique Ro- maine, which was from the first highly appreciated, in 1766. They are both qtioted by Gibbon. Niebuhr (Lectures, 1, p. 3 and 72) acknowledges Beaufort's work to be " the basis of all that has since been advanced on the same subject." — Ed.] * This threefold division of the law was applied to the three Roman kings by Justus Lipsius (Op. torn, iv, p. 279), is adopted by Graviua (Origines Juris Civilis, p. 28, edit. Lips. 1737), and is reluctantly admitted by Mascou, his German editor. [The Jus Gentium refers to the geates of the Romans, who were divisions of their own people. CII. XLIV.] KINGS OF HOME. 5 of that venerable jurisprudence* were compiled by the dilipjence of antiquarians, t and above twenty texts still speak, the rudeness ot the I'elasglc idiom of the Latins. ;|; See Niebuhr's Lectures, 1, p. 156 — 161. But Hugo oV)jects to this elassiticatiou of the Roman law, and says that it cau scarcely be regarded as a serious sugt;estion. — Ed.] * The most ancient code or digest was styled Jus Papirianum, from the first compiler, Papirius, who flourished somewhat before or after the Regifugium. (Pandect 1. 1, tit. 2.) The best judicial critics, even Bynkershoek (torn, i, p. 284, 285) and Heineccius (Hist. J. C. R. 1. 1, c. 16, 17, and Op. torn, viii, sylloge 4, p. 1 — 8), give credit to this tale of Pumponius, without F.ufficiently adverting to the value and rarity of such a monument of the third century of the illiterate city. I much suspect that the Caius Papirius, the Pontifex Maximus, who revived the laws of Numa (Dionys. Hal. 1. 3, p. 171), left only an oral tradition; and that the Jus Pajiirianum of Granius Flaccus (Pandect. 1. 50, tit. 16, leg. 144), was not a commentary, but an original work, compiled in the time of Cresar. (Censorin. de Die Natali, 1. 3, p. 13. Duker, de Latinitate J.C. p. 157.) [The unimportant fragments which we possess of the Jus Papirianum, as well as of the Commentary on it, cannot be made serious subjects of discussion. The latter, also, according to Censorinus, as above cited, treated chiefly "De Indigita- meutis." Varro, as quoted by Servius in his note on Virgil ((Jeorg. 1. 21), says that these were the Libri Pontificales in which were prescribed the forms of offering sacrifices and invoking the gods. — Ed.] f A pomjjous, though feeble, attempt to restore the original, is made in the Histoire de la Jurisprudence Romaine of Terasson, p. 22 — 72. Paris, 17oU, in folio; a work of more promise than performance. X In the year 1444, seven or eight tables of brass were dug up between Cortona and Gubio. A part of these, for the rest is Etruscan, rei)re8euts the primitive state of the Pflasgic letters and language, which are ascribed bj' Herodotus to that district of Italy (1. 1, c. 56 — 58), though this difficult passage maj' be explained of a Crest-ona in Thrace. (Notes de Larcher, tom. i, p. 256 — 261.) The savage dialect of the Eugubine tables has exercised, and may still elude, the divina- tion of criticism ; but the root is undoubtedly Latin, of the same age and character as the Saliare Carmen, which, in the time of Horacv.. none could understand. The Roman idiom, by an infusion of Doric and zEohc Greek, was gradually rijiened into the style of the twelve tables, of the Duillian column, of Ennius, of Terence, and of Cicero. (Gruter, Insci-ipt. tom. i, p. 142, Scipion Maffei, Istoria Diplomatica, p. 241—258. Biblioth^que llalique, torn, iii, p. 30—41. 174—205; torn, xiv, p. 1 — 52.) [Eugnbium, or Iguvium, was an ancient town of the Umbri, who became subject to Rome, a. U. c. 434, or 320 B. C. ; the modern Gubbio now occupies its site. It is call-ed Ikovina and Jovina, in the celebrated tables, which were discovered in a subterranean vault, by a peasant of the neighbouring village of La Schioggia. They are made of the purest copper, of different dimensions, fi'om 1^ to 2f feet in height, and fium 1 to Ij broad. The iuov-riptious we very 6 THE TWELVE TABLES OP [CK. XLIV I shall not repeat tbe well-known story of the decemvirs,* who sullied by their actions the honour of inscribing? on brass, or wood, or ivory, the twelye tables of the Eoman distinctly and legibly engraven. These were long a mystery to the most learned. But within the last twenty years, German industry and skill have succeeded in furnishing an interpretation. 0. Miiller's "Die Etrusker " led the way, in 1828, to the first correct view of them. He was followed by Dr. R. Lepsins, whose treatise " De Tabulis Eugu- binia " was published at Berlin in 1833. In the same year came out at Bonn, Professor Lasser's, "Beitriige zur Deutung der Eugubinischen Tafeln." Next appeared G. F. Grotefend's " Rudimenta Linguse Um- bricse ex Inscriptiouibus Antiquis enodata." Hanov. 1835 — 1839 (in eight parts). Two years later, issued from the press of Leipzig, another work of Dr. Lepsius, entitled "Inscriptiones Umbricse et Oscse, quotquot adhuc repertse sunt omnes." This last mentioned writer, who during a visit to Italy had inspected and copied these monuments of antiquity, supplied professors Ersch and Gruber with the article on them, which is inserted in their work (Allgem. Encyc. Part 39, p. 49). This contains the latest and most authentic explanation of what Gibbon, although so imperfectly understood, considered to be worthy of this particular notice. The subject matter of these inscrip- tions scarcely remunerates the labour bestowed on deciphering them. They merely record sacrifices ofFsred to different deities, and the forms of prayer used on those occasions, varied by a single contract for a division of lands between two colleges of priests. Still they illustrate the progress by which " a savage dialect" was refined into a polished and noble language. The first four are supposed to have been inscribed about 400 B. C, or nearly a century antecedent to the Roman conquest. The dialect is the old Umbrian or Oscan, in which there is some affinity to Latin, but the characters used are Pelasgic, derived from the Etruscans. The sixth and seventh are about tv/o hundred years later, and approach much more nearly to the Latin, the letter r generally taking the place of «, and ce that of ai ; the characters are also Roman. The fifth marks a more imperfect state of transition between the two periods. Niebuhr (Lectures, 1. 105) con- siders Latin to be a fusion of Oscan and Siculo-Pelasgic. The former had, perhaps, the same relation to the Celtic as th-e latter to the Greek, and each of them its provincial varieties, which, as Rome grew into importance, flowed into it as a common centre. In this investigation the Eugubian Tables are valuable aids. — Ed.] * Compare Livy (1. 3, a, 31 — 59) with Dionysius Halicarnassensis (1. 10, jj. 644 ; 11, p. 691). How concise and a.nimated is the Roman — how prolix and lifeless the Greek ! Yet he has admirably judged the masters, and defined the rules, of historical composition. [Since Gibbon's days Dionysius has risen in the estimation of the best judges, and has been more largely and advantageously consulted. The masterly parallel drawn between him and Livy, in Niebuhr'a Lectures (1, p. 38 — 40), is particularly worthy of attention as regards Dionysius. — Ed.j CH. XLTV.'J THE DECEMVIRS. 7 laws.* They were dictated by the rigid and Jealous spinb of an aristocracy, \Yhich had yielded with reluctance to the just demands of the people. But the substance of the twelve tables was adapted to the state of the city ; and the Konians had emcrji^ed from barbarism, since they were capa- ble of studying and embracing the institutions of their more enlightened neighbours. A wise Ephesian was driven by envy from his native country : before he could reach the shores of Latium, he had observed the various forms of human nature and civil society ; he imparted his knowledge to the legislators of Home, and a statue was erected in the Forum to tlie perpetual memory of Hermodorus.f The * From the historians, Heineccius (Hist. J. C. R. 1. 1, No. 26) main- tains that the twelve tables were of brass — seneas : in the text of Poniponius we mad eboreas ; for which Scaliger has substituted roboreas (Bynkershoek, p. 286). Wood, brass, and ivory might be successively employed. [It is far more important to incjuire whether the laws of the twelve tables were brought from Greece. Gibbon's opinion that they were not, is now generally adopted, particularly by MM. Niebuhr and Hugo. See my " Institutiones Juris Romani privati," p. 311. — WarnkoNIG.] [Niebuhr, in his Lectures (i, 295), has somewhat qualified his former decision. " I now retract," he says, "the opinion which I expressed in the first edition of my Roman History," and then proceeds to show, that though the Roman laws were not derived from the Attic, still that envoys were probably deputed from Rome to Athens for the purpose of gaining information. —Ed,] + His exile is mentioned by Cicero (Tusculan. Qugestion. 5, 36), his statue by Pliny (Hist. Nat. 34, 11). The letter, dream, and prophecy of Heraclitus, are alike spurious (Epistolre GrjEC. Divers, p. 337). [Refer to the Mdm. de I'Acad. des Inscrip. (tom. xxii. p. 48.) That one Hermodorus was concerned in framing the laws of the twelve tables cannot well be denied. Pomponius says, that he was the author of the two last, and Pliny terms him Interpreter to the Decemviri, which we may suppose to mean, that he assisted their labours. M. Gratama (Aunal. Acad. Giitt. 1817—1818) has too boldly ascribed them wholly to him. The Patricians of Rome were not at that time likely to let their laws be dictated by an exiled foreigner. — WarnkoNIG.] [It will be well to note the last opinions of a man like Niebuhr on this subject, as recorded in his Lectures (i. 297). His conclusions are, that Hermodorus, in his wanderings, happened to visit Rome at the time when the people were seriously agitating for a reform of their laws : that, being consulted, he recommended them to obtain information respecting the codes of Greece ; that commis- sioners, not a formal embassy, were sent for that purpose ; that these brought back copies of various legal systems, which, being in Greek, were translated by Hermodorus, of whose office Pliuy's " Int*rpres " was therefore not a figurative, but a literal designation ; that he was 8 THE TWELVE TABLES OF [CII. XLIV. names and divisions of the copper money, the sole coin of the infant state, were of Dorian origin :* the harvests of Campania and Sicily relieved the -wants of a people whose agriculture was often interrupted by war and faction ; and since the trade was established, t the deputies, who sailed from the Tiber, might return from the same harbours with a more precious cargo of political wisdom. The colonies of Great Greece had transported and improved the arts of their mother-country. Cumae and Ehegium, Crotona and Tarentum, Agrigentum and Syracuse, were in the rank of the most flourishing cities. The disciples of Pythagoras applied philosophy to the use of government ; the unwritten laws of Charondas accepted the aid of poetry and music,:J: and Zaleucus framed the republic of the Locrians, which stood without alteration above two hundred years. § From found to be a, valuable and instructive adviser, to whom the public gratitude was expressed and commemorated ; but that the Romans, instead of modelling their laws on the procured documents, adapted them to their own habits. — Ed.] * This intricate subject of the Sicilian and Roman money is ably discussed by Dr. Bentley (Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris, p. 427 — 479), whose powers in this controversy were called forth by honour and resentment. + The Romans, or their allies, sailed as far as the Fair Promontory of Africa (Polyb. 1. iii, p. 177, edit. Casaubon, in folio). Their voyages to Cumae, &c., are noticed by Livy and Dionysius. [When Polybius wrote, the point of Africa, over against the south-eastern or Lilybaian cape of Sicily, was called the Fair Promontory. It was afterwards the Mercurii Promontorium of the Latins (Cellarius, 2, 887), and is now Cape Bon. The circumstances in which mention is made of it by Polybius, are very derogatory to the nautical character of the Romans. In the first years of their Republic a treaty was concluded between them and the Carthaginians, which stipulated, that, unless driven by stress of weather or hostile pursuit, no ship belonging to Rome or any of its allies, should sail beyond this point, and if compelled to pass it, should not remain more than five day.s. This humiliating concession was exacted by the Carthaginians to conceal from Europeans the fruitfulness of Byzacium and the adjacent districts, which were said to reward agricultural toil by a hundred-fold produce (Sil. Ital. 9, 204). — Ed.] + This circumstance would alone prove the antiquity of Charondas, the legislator of Rhegium and (Jatana, who, by a strange error of Diodorus Siculus (torn, i, 1. 12, p. 48.5 — 492), is celebrated long after- wards as the author of the policy of Thurium. § Zaleucus, whose existence has been rashly attacked, had the merit and glory of converting a band of outlaws (the Locrians) into the most virtuous and orderly of the Greek rejjublics. (See two Memoirs of the Baron de St. Croix, sur la Legislation de la Grande en. XLIV.J THE BECEMVIHS. 9 a similar motive of national pruTe, both Livv and Dionysiua are willinf^ to believe, that the deputies of Rome visited Athens under the wise and splendid administration of Peri- cles ; and the laws of Solon were transfused into the twelve tables. If such an embassy had indeed been received from the barbarians of llesperia, the Human name would have been familiar to the Greeks before the reign of Alexander,* and the faintest evidence would have been explored and celebrated by the curiosity of succeeding times. But the Grhce ; Mem. de rAcad^mie, torn, xlii, p. 276 — 333.) But the law.s of Zaleucus and Charondag, which imposed on Diodorus and Stobaeus, ai'e the spurious composition of a Pythagorean .sophist, whose fraud has been detected by the critical sagacity of Bentley (p. 335 — 377). * I seize the opportunity of tracing the progress of this national intercourse : 1. Herodotus and Thucydides (a. u. c. 300 — 350) appear ignorant of the name and existence of Rome (Joseph, contra Apion, torn, ii, lib. 1, c. 12, p. 444, edit. Havercamp). 2. Theopompua (a. U. c. 400, Plin. 3. 9) mentions the invasion of the Gauls, which is noticed in looser terms by Heraclides Pouticus (Plutarch in Camillo, p. 292, edit. H. Stephan.). 3. The real or fabulous emba-^sy of the Romans to Alexander (a. u. c. 430) is attested by Clitarchus (Plin. 3. 9), by Aristus and Asclepiades (Arrian. 1. 7, p. 294, 295), and by Memnon of Heraclea (apud Photium, cod. 224, p. 72.'«), though tacitly denied by Livy. 4. Theophrastus (a. V. C. 440) primus exteruorum aliqua de Romania diligeutius scripsit (Plin. 3. 9). 5. Lycophrou (a. u. c. 480 — 500) scattered the first seed of a Trojan colony and the fable of the ^neidj Cassandra, 122(3—1280 — r/Jf (cai OaXdafftiQ ff/c/^Trrpa Kal fiovapxiav A bold prediction before the end of the first Funic war. [The earliest relations between Rome and the Greeks, are traced by Niebuhr (Lectures 1. 458), and (p. 469) he argues strongly for the embassy to the Macedonian Alexander. Clitarchus, he says, by whom the state- ment has been handed down to us, was an elegant author, who wrote immediately after the event. The generally dark and mysterious character of Lycophron's " Alexandra" has caused very unreasonable doubts i-especting the passage here quoted by Gibbon and the " bold prediction," which Cas.^andra is made to utter. This poet wrote in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who died 246 B. C. The Romans were at that time well known in the East, having entered into treaties of alliance with that monarch, 273 B. c. Pyrrhus, after his defeat at Tarentum (274 B. c.) had spread the fame of their valour among the Greeks. Soon after that event, they were masters of nearly all Italy, and formed " the most powerful and compact state in all the world then known" (Nieb. Lee. 1, 571). The naval victory of Duilliu.s was gained 259 B. C, and two years afterwards that of JIanlius and Regulus, near Ecnomus, was followed by the landing of the con- querors in Africa. In thits state oi the aflaira of so rising an empire, 10 CHAEACTEE OF THE TWELVE TABLES, [CH. XLIV. Athenian raoriuments are silent ; nor will it seem credible that the patricians should undertake a long and perilous navigation to copy the purest model of a democracy. In the com.parison of the tables of Solon with those of the decemvirs, some casual resemblance may be found ; some rules which nature and reason have revealed to every society; some proofs of a common descent from Egypt or Phoenicia.* But in all the great lines of public and private jurisprudence, the legislators of Rome and Athens appear to be strangers or adverse to each other. Whatever might be the origin or the merit of the twelve tableSjt they obtained among the Romans that blind and partial reverence which the lawyers of every country delight to bestow on their municipal institutions. The study is recommended by Cicero J as equally pleasant and instruc- there was nothing extraordinary in the prediction which Gibbon thought so " bold," and which learned critics have imagined must have been written at a later period, and by some other poet. Clinton (F. H. iii, 13) makes Lycophron to have been distinguished from 280 B. 0. to 250 B. c— Ed.] * The tenth table, de modo sepulturje, was borrowed from Solon : (Cicero de Legibus, 2, 23 — 26), the furtum per lancem et licium con- ceptum, is derived by Heineccius from the manners of Athens. (Antiquitat. Rom. tom. ii, p. 167 — 175.) The right of killing a noc- turnal thief was declared by Moses, Solon, and the decemvirs (Exodus, xxii, 3). (Demosthenes contra Timocratem, tom. i, j). 736, edit. Kei'jka Macrob. Saturnalia, lib. 1, c. 4. Collatio Legum Mosaicarum et Romanarum, tit. 7, No. 1, p. 218, edit. Cannegieter.) [Are not the earliest stages of polity, among all nations, marked by the same resemblance of their laws ? — Warnkonig.] f Buaxfwr icai aTTfpirrwf is the praise of Diodorus (tom. i, 1. 12, p. 494), which may be fairly translated by the eleganti atque absoluta brevit^ate verborum of Aulus Gellius (Noct. Attic. 21, 1). ^ Listen to Cicero (de Legibus, 2, 23) and his representative Crassus (de Oratore, 1, 43, 44). [Attentive readers of this chapter may be assisted by the following titles oi' these Laws, as given by Jacob Gothofredus, in his collection of their fragments : — TABLE L De in Jus vocando ..... n. De Judiciis et Furtis .... in. De Rebus Creditis IV. De J ure Patrio et Jure Connubii V. De Hajreditatibus et Tutelis VI. De Jure Dominii et Posaessiouis VII. De Delictis VIII. De Juribus Praediorunj - • • LAWS. CHAP 3 10 4 IG 4 y o 4 3 6 7 8 6 16 7 11 CH. ILIV.] AND THEIR IKPLUENCE. 11 tive. " They amuse tlie mind by the remembrance of old words and the portrait of ancient manners ; they inculcate the soundest principles of governmeut and morals ; and I am not afraid to alllrm, that the brief composition of the decemvirs surpasses in genuine value the libraries of Gre- cian philosopliy. How admirable," says Tully, with honest or atfccted prejudice, "is the wisdom of our ancestors. We alone are the masters of civil prudence, and our superiority is the more conspicuous, if we deign to cast our eyes on the rude and almost ridiculous jurisprudence of Draco, ot Solon, and of Lycurgus.' ' The twelve tables were committed to the memoryof the young, and the meditation of the old ; they were transcribed and illustrated with learned diligence; they had escaped the Hames of the Gauls, they subsisted in the age of Justinian, and their subsequent loss has been imperfectly restored by the labours of modem critics,* But although these venerable monuments were considered as the rule of right, and the fountain of justice,t they were over- whelmed by the weight and variety of new laws, which, at the end of five centuries, became a grievance more intole- rable than the vices of the city. J Three thousand brass plates, the acts of the senate and people, were deposited in XABLE LAWS. CHAP, IX. De Jure Publico - 7 7 X. De Jure Sacro. De Jurejurando. De Sepulchria 12 XI. Supplementum 5 Prinruin ... - 3 3 XII. Idem 5 Posterioruai .... 4 4 —Ed.] • See Heineccius (Hist. J. R. No. 29—33). I Lave followed the restoration of the Twelve Tables by Gravina (Origiues J. C. p. 280 — 307) and Terasson (Hist, de la Juri.sprudence Romaine, p. 94 — 205). + Fiuis acqui juris (Tacit. Aniial. 3, 27). Fons omnis public! et privati juris (T. Liv. 3, 34). [Commentators have put various con- structions on these three words of Tacitus, which are plainly intelli- gible if taken in connection with his preceding chapter. The meaning is, that these tables, as far as they guarded liberty and established concord, by repressing Patrician cabals, accomplished "the object of equitable law." Horace teaches us what is implied by " sequa lege." (Carm. 3, 1.)— Ed.] q: De principiis juris, et quibus modis ad banc multitudinem infi- nitam ac varietatem legum perventum sit altius disseram (Tacit. Annal. 3, 25). This deep disquisition fills only two pages, but they are the pages of Tacitus. \Vith etpial sense, but with less energy, Livy (3, 34) had complained, in boo immeuso aliarum super alias acervataruin legum cmnulo, &c. 12 LAWS OF THE PEOPLE. [CR XLIV. the Capitol ;* and some of the acts, as the Julian law against extortion, surpassed the number of a hundred chapters.t The decemvirs had neglected to import the sanction of Zaleucus which so long maintained the integrity of his republic. A Locrian, who proposed any new law, stood forth in the assembly of the people with a cord round his neck, and if the law was rejected, the innovator was instantly strangled. The decemvirs had been named, and their tables were approved, by an assembly of the centuries, in which riches preponderated against numbers. To the first class of Bomans, the proprietors of one hundred thousand pounds of copper,;}; ninety-eight votes were assigned, and only ninety-five were left for the six inferior classes, distributed according to their substance by the artful policy of Servius. But the tribunes soon established a more specious and popular maxim, that every citizen has an equal right to enact the laws which he is bound to obey. Instead of the centuries, they convened the tribes; and the patricians, after au impotent struggle, submitted to the decrees of an assembly, in which their votes were confounded with those of the meanest olebciaus. Yet as long as the tribes sueces- Bively passed over narrow bridges,^ and gave their voices * Suetonius in Vespasiano, c. 8. + Cicero ad Familiares, 8, 8. J Dionysius, with Arbuthnot, and most of tiie moderns (except Eisenschmidt de Ponderibus, &c., p. 137 — 140), represent the one hundred thousand asses by ten thousand Attic drachma), or somewhat more than three hundred pounds sterling. But their calculation can apply only to the later times, when the as was diminished to one twenty-fourth of its ancient weight : nor can I believe that in the first ages, however destitute of tlie precious metals, a single ounce of silver could have been exchanged for seventy pounds of copper or brass. A more simple and rational method is, to value the copper itself according to the present rate, and, after comparing the mint and the market price, the Roman and avoirdupois weight, the primitive as or Roman pound of copper may be appreciated at one English shilling, and the one hundred thousand asses of the first class amounted to five thousand pounds sterling. It will appear from the same reckon- ing, that an ox was sold at Rome for bl., a sheep for 10s., and 9 quarter of wheat for 1^. 10«. (Festus, p. 330, edit. Dacier; Plin. Hist. Natnr. 18, 4); nor do I see any reason to reject these consequences, which moderate our ideas of the poverty of the first Romans. § Consult the common writers on the Roman Comitia, especially Sigonius and Beaufort. Spanheim (de Pra,'stantia et Usu Numis- matum, torn. ii. dissert. 10, p. 192, 193) shews, on a curious medal, CII. XLIV.] LAWS OF THE PEOPLE. 13 aloud, the conduct of each citizen was exposed to the eyes and ears of his friends and countrvmcn. The insolvent debtor consulted the wishes of his creditor ; the client would have blushed to oppose the views of his patron ; the general was followed by his veterans, and the aspect of a grave magistrate was a li\ang lesson to the multitude. A new method of secret ballot abolished the influence of fear and shame, of honour and interest, and the abuse of freedom a<^celerated the progress of anarchy and despotism.* The Eomans had aspired to be equal ; they were levelled by the equality of servitude ; and the dictates of Augustus were patiently ratified by the formal consent of tlie tribes or centuries. Once, and once only, he experienced a sincere and strenuous opposition. His subjects had resigned all political liberty ; they defended the freedom of domestic life. A law which enforced the obligation, and strengthened the bonds of marriage, was clamorously rejected: Propertius, in the arms of Delia, applauded the victory of licentious love ; and the project of reform was suspended till a new and more tractable generation had arisen in the world. t Such an example was not necessary to instruct a prudent usurper of the mischief of popular assemblies; and their abolition, which Augustus had silently prepared, was accomplished without resistance, and almost without notice, on the acces- the Cista, Pontes, Sept.o, Diribitor, iS:c. [The ^pfa were divisions or enclosures in the forum, one for each tribe to assemble in, also called ovilia, or sheep folds (Lucan. Phars. 2. 197). At first they were separated merely by ropesv, then by wooden partitions, and at last by walls of marble. From each septum, after secret voting had been introduced, an elevated, narrow plank, termed the pons, or bridge, conducted to the cista, the urn or balloting-box. At the entrance of this passage stood the diribitor, or scrutineer, who summoned each individual in his turn, anel gave him his tabclLe, or voting-tickets, one of which was to be deposited, as the expression of his will, in the cista. The pontes would have been useless, and can scarcely have existed, when votes were given vivd voce. — Ed.] * Cicero (de Legibus, 3. 16 — 18) debates this constitutional question, and assigns to his brother Quintus the most unpopular side. [The ballot did not nurture in Rome a virtuous constituency, nor save the people from the phrenzy of contending factions, the horrors of civil wars, and eventual submission to despotic rule. — Ed.] t Prae tumuitu recusautium perferre non potuit (Sueton. in August, c 34). See Propertius, 1. 2, eleg. 6. Heineccius, in a separate history, has exhausted the whole subject of the Julian and Papian-Poppaeac 14 LAWS OF THE PEOPLE. [CH. XLIV- Bion of his successor.* Sixty thousand plebeian legislators, whom numbers made formidable, and poverty secure, were supplanted by six hundred senators, who held their honours, their fortunes, and their lives, by the clemency of the empe- ror. The loss of executive power was alleviated by the gift of legislative authority; and Ulpian might assert, after the practice of two hundred years, that the decrees of the senate obtained the force and validity of laws. In the times of freedom, the resolves of the people had often been dictated by the passion or error of the moment : the Cornelian, Pom- peian, and Julian laws, were adapted by a single hand to the prevailing disorders ; but the senate, under the reign of the Csesars, was composed of magistrates and lawyers ; and in questions of private jurisprudence, the integrity of their judgment was seldom perverted by fear or interest.f laws (Op. torn, vii, P. 1, p. 1—479). * Tacit. Annal. 1. 15. Lipsias, Excursus E. in Taciturn. [Some laws were passed by the people in the time of Tiberius. The Oomitia, which he transferred to the Senate, were the annual meetings for the appointment of public officers. — Hugo.] [Gibbon is wrong here. During the reigns both of Tiberius and Claudius, there were laws enacted by the people. The Lex Julia Norbana, the Villeia, and the Claudia de tutela femi- narum, are proofs of this. The Comitia were gradually laid aside with the other forms of the republic. — Warnkonig.1 [Gibbon's conciseness is here verbally inaccurate, though substantially (?orrect. At the utmost he only ante-d-ates, by a few years, a consummation already in progress. The same had been previously said, almost in the same words (ch. 3), and is not contradicted as an error by Prof. Wenck. In his note he merely observes, that the forms of the Comitia were afterwards continued, but ascribes to them no power. They assembled, for some purposes, as late s& the time of M. Antoninus ; Aulus Gellius (5. 19) describes the arrogatio, or adoption of an heir, as an act then performed at such public meetings of the people ; " per populi roga- tionem fit." This is confirmed by two passages in Niebuhr's Lectures (3, p. 118, 119, and 169). In the last he says : " Soon after Tiberius commenced his reign, a great change took place. Popular elections were abolished, and the right transferred to the senate. Yet was this change so merely a form and a farce, that Tacitus bestows on it scarcely a word." — Ed.] + Non amV)igitur senatum jus facere posse, is the decision of Ulpian (1.16, ad Edict, in Pandect, lib. 1, tit. 3, leg. 9). Pomponius taxes the comitia of the people as a turba hominum (Pandect. 1. 1, tit. 2, leg. 9). [The Senate, during the Republic, passed laws, as well as the people in their Comitia. See Bach, Hist. Jurisp. Rom. 1. 2, c. 2, tec. '2. — Hugo.] [It seems to be here maintained by Gibbon, that the Senate never took any part in legislati.(m before the time of the emperors. Senatua-consulta, with regard to civil rights, during the CII. XLIV.] EDICTS OF THE PBjETOKS. 15 The silence or ambiguity of tlie laws was supplied by the occasional KnicTs ot" tliose magistrates who were invested with the honours of the state.* This ancient prerogative ot Repiiblic, are still extant. They were more frequent in the imperial ages, becaiiae the Senatoi-s were then gratified by the right of discus- sing such matters as did not interfere with the emperor's executive authority. — WarnkoNIG.] [The legislative power of the Senate, during the Republic, is described by Niebuhr (Lectures 1. 271) as a veto, which, however, they were generally afraid of exercising. " When a resolution had been passed by the Tribes it might be rejected by the Patricians, as in Great Britain the Upper House, or the King, may refuse assent to a Bill adopted by the Commons. Yet, when the people are earnestly and decidedly bent on carrying a measure, it is dangerous, if not impossible to resist them. The Senators always endeavoured to avoid such an extremity by contriving to defeat, in ita fii-st stage, a motion which they disapproved." — Ed.] * The jus honorarium of the prcctors and other magistrates is strictly defined in the Latin text of the Institutes (1. 1, tit. 2, No. 7), and more loosely explained in the Greek paraphrase of Theophilus (p. 33 — 3S, edit. Reitz), who drops the important word honorarium. [The author was here guided by Heineccius, who subscribed to the doctrine of his master, Thomasius, that magisti-ates, invested with judicial functions, ought not to have any legislative power. This made him condemn the Prastorian edicts (see his Hist. Juris. Rom., p. 69). But Heineccius took an altogether incorrect view of this important institution among the Romans, to which the excellence of their jurispi-udence is greatly to be ascribed. His opiuions have, therefore, been controverted by Professor Ritter of Wittenberg, by the learned Bach, and by M. Hugo. They have shown, that legis- lative enactments were thus harmonized with the spirit of the age. The true voice of public opinion was heard in that of the Prcetor. He summoned to his aid all the most eminent legal practitioners of Rome when he prepared his annual law. This was not a power usurped by him ; when he entered on his office he was required to make a proclamation of the principles by which his decisions would be guided, so as to prevent any suspicion of partiality. If he issued a partial edict he was liable to be accused by the tribunes. So gene- rally respected were these edicts, that they were seldom set aside by any enactment of the people. Whenever a public statute was found inefficient, not adapted to the popular habits, or not consonant to the spirit of a more advanced age, the Praetor, while adhering to the letter of the law, endeavoured to meet the exigency of the case by some fiction suited to the purpose. These edicts embrace the whole system of Roman legislation; from their very nature they had no uniformity; and hence to comment on them became the occui>ation of the most distinguished lawyers. This comprehensive collection is therefore the groundwork of the Digest of Justinian. This is the view which M. Schrader has taken of this important legislatorial proceeding, and he recommends it for our imitation, so far as it may bo 16 EDICTS OF THE PE^TOES [CH. XLIV. the Eoman kings was transferred, in their respective offices, to the consuls and dictators, the censors and prsetors ; and a similar right was assumed by the tribunes of the people, the ediies, and the proconsuls. At Rome, and in the pro- vinces, the duties of the subject, and the intentions of the governor, were proclaimed ; and the civil jurisprudence was reformed by the annual edicts of the supreme judge, the praetor of the city. As soon as he ascended his tribunal, he announced by the voice of the crier, and afterwards inscribed on a white wall, the rules which he proposed to follow in the decision of doubtful cases, and the relief which his equity would afford from the precise rigour of ancient statutes. A principle of discretion more congenial to mo- narchy was introduced into the republic : the art of re- specting the name, and eluding the efficacy, of the laws, was improved by successive praetors ; subtleties and fictions were invented to defeat the plainest meaning of the decemvirs, and where the end was salutary, the means were frequently absurd. The secret or probable wish of the dead was suf- fered to prevail over the order of succession and the forms of testaments ; and the claimant, who was excluded from the character of heir, accepted with equal pleasure from an indulgent praetor, the possession of the goods of his late kinsman or benefactor. In the redress of private wrongs, compensations and fines were substituted to the obsolete rigour of the twelve tables ; time and space were annihilated by fanciful suppositions ; and the plea of youth, or fraud, or violence, annulled tlie obligation, or excused the per- formance, of an inconvenient contract. A jurisdiction thus vague and arbitrary was exposed to the most dangerous abuse : the substance, as well as the form of justice, were often sacrificed to the prejudices of virtue, the bias of laudable affection, and the grosser seductions of interest or found consistent with our customs, and in accordance with our political institutions, to the end that premature decrees may not become per- manent evils. The Institutiones Literarise of Haubold point out the works which afford the best information relative to the framing and f(^rm of these edicts. — Waknkonig.] [The opinions of our judges and decrees of our Chancery courts seem to partake of the nature of the Prcctorian Edicts. The union of judicial and legislative power in the Bame hands, which is exhibited by them, and which some consider to be dangerous, prevails also throughout the whole frame of our corxatir tutional polity. — Ed.] CH. XLIV.] THE PEBPETUAL EDICT 17 resentme-nt. But the errors or vices of eacli praetor expired with his annual ollice ; such maxims alone as had beeii approved by reason and practice were copied by succeeding fudges; the rule of proceeding was defined by the solutioa of new cases; and tlie temptations of injustice were removed by the Cornelian law, which compelled the praetor of the year to adhere to the letter and spirit of his lirst proclamjv tion.* It was reserved for the curiosity and learning of Hadrian, to accomplish the design which had been conceived by the genius of Caesar; and the pra:'torship of JSalvius Julian, an eminent lawyer, was immortalized by the compo- sition of the PERPETUAL EDICT. This well digested cude was ratified by tlie emperor and the senate ; the long divorce of law and equity was at length reconciled ; and, instead of the twelve tables, the perpetual edict was fixed as the inva- riable standard of civil jurisprudence. t • Dion Cassias (torn, i, 1. 36, p. ]00) fixes the perpetual edicts in tire year of Rome 6S6. Their institution, however, is ascribed to the year 585 in the Acta Dlurua, which have been published from the papers of Ludovicus Vives. Their authenticity is supported or allowed by Pighius (Anual. Roman, torn, ii, p. 377, 378), Gr.xvius (ad Sueton. p. 778), Dodwell (Pnelection. Camden, p. 665), and Heineccius ; but a single word, Scutum Cimbricum, detects the forgery. (Moyle's Works, vol. i, p. 303.) t The history of edicts is composed, and the text of the perpetual edict is restored, by the master-hand of Heineccius (0pp. torn, vii, P. ii, p. 1 — 564), in whose researches I might safely acquiesce. In the Academy of Inscriptions, M. Bouchaud has given a series of memoirs to this interesting subject of law and literature. [This restoration is an unfinished work of Heineccius, ■which was found among his papers, and published after his death. Gibbon thought too highly of it, as well as of the perpetual edict. Caesar's design went much farther. — Hugo.] [Here, again, misled by Heiueccius, Gibbon, with the greater part of the literary world, misconceived the meaning of what is called the perpetual edict of Hadrian. The Cornelian law made all the edicts so far perpetual, that they could not be changed, during their tenure of office, by the praetors who issued them. These were collected, under the authority ot Haih-ian, by the civilian Julianus, or with his assistance, as had been done before by Ufilius. But there is no satisfactory proof to authorize the common belief, that Hadrian declared them to be per- petually unalterable. Neither the Institutes of Gaius, nor any works on law, advert to such a change, which they could not have failed tb notice, if it had taken place. In their subsequent commentaries, law- yers appear always to have to'.Iowed the text of their predecessors. The labours of so many eminent men had perfected the edict to such » degree, that farther improvement would have been difficult. Con- sult the learned Didsertatiou of il. Bieuer, De Sal vii Juliani mentis, iu YOU V. 18 CONSTITUTIONS OF [CH. XLIV. From AuG;ustus to Trajan, the modest Caesars were con- tent to pronnilgate their edicts in the various characters of a Eoman magit^trate : and, in the decrees of tl\e senate, the episth's and orations of the prince were respectfully inserted. Hadrian* appears to have been the first who assumed, with- out disguise, the plenitude of legislative power. And this innovation, so agreeable to his active mind, was countenanced by the patience of the times, and his long absence from the seat of government. The same policy was embraced by succeeding monarchs, and, according to the liarsh metaphor of Tertullian, " the gloomy and intricate forest of ancient laws was cleared away by the axe of royal mandates and constitutions. "t During four centuries, from Hadrian to Justinian, the public and private jurisprudence was moulded by the will of the sovereign ; and few institutions, either human or divine, were peruiitted to stand on their former basis. The origin of imperial legislation was concealed by Edict. Prset. ajstimandis, 4to, Lipsire, 1809. — Warnkonig.] [Niebuhr has taken a different view of these questions. (See Lectures, iii, 78 and 231.) lie says, " Among the remarkable features of Hadrian's reign, is the new foundation laid for the system of Roman jurisprudence, in its later form. This was eiTected by the edictum perpetuum, and the development of the law by imperial edicts ; it marks a new epoch in Roman legislation." Surely, however, the word " perpetuum " does not imply " perpetually unalterable," as construed by M. Warnkonig. It merely denoted constant or permanent, in opposition to that want of uniformity which, as admitted by him, had given occasion to the comments and disputations of so many law-sects. — Ed.] * His laws are the first in the Code. See Dodwell (Praelect. Cam- den, p. 319 — 340), who wanders from the subject in confused reading and feeble paradox. [Following the same guide, Gibbon and others have, in this instance, been once more led astray. Their error con- sists in mistaking the unimportant edict of Hadrian, inserted in Jus- tinian's Code (1. vi. tit. 23, c. 11) for the first " constitutio principis," regardless of the Pandects, where are found so many constitutions of the emperors, beginning with Julius Caesar. M. Hugo has remarked (Hist. Juris. Rom. torn, ii, i^. 24 — 27), that the Acta of Sj'lla, approved by the senate, were equivalent with the constitutions of those who after him usurped absolute sovereignty. — vVarnkonig.] [" Sylla was the first who placed administrative and criminal legislation on even a tolerable footing." (Niebuhr, Lectures, ii, 388.) These were the Acta above referred to.— Ed.] t Totam illam veterem et squallentem sylvam legum novis princi- palium rescrij)torum et edictorum securibup truncatis et ca?ditis. (Apo- loget. c. 4, ]). fjU, edit. Havercamp.) He proceeds to praise the recent tirmness of Severus, who repealed the useless or pernicioua laws, rn. XLiv.] THE EMr£noii3. 19 the darkness of apjcs and the terrors of armed despotism; and a double fiction was propatoninus Caracalla alone two hundred constitutions are extant in the Code, and with his father one hundred and sixty. These two princes are quoted fifty times in the Pandects, and eight in the Institutes. (Terasson, p. 265.) en. XLIV.] THEIR nr,SCRIi'T3. 21 A daf^i^er terminated tlie crimes of Doinitian ; but tlio pru- dence of Nerva contirmed liis acts, wliicii, in tlu' joy ot'tlicir deliverance, had been rescinded by an indii;;iiant senate.* Yet in the rescripts,f replies to the consultations of the magistrates, the wisest of princes might be deceived by a partial exposition ot the case. Andtliis abuse, wiiich placed their hasty decisions on the same level witli mature and deliberate acts of le<^ishitioii, was inelFectually condemned by the sense and example of Trajan. The rescripts of the emperor, his grants and dscrees, his edicts and pragmatic sanctions, were subscribed in purple ink,+ and transmitted to the provinces as general or special laws, whicli the magis- trates were bound to execute, and the people to obey. But as their number continually multiplied, the rule of obedience became each day more doubtful and obscure, till the will of the sovereign was iixed and ascertained in the Gregorian, the llermogenian, and the Theodosian codes. The two first, of which some fragments have escaped, were framed by two private lawyers, to preserve the constitutions of the Pagan emperors from Hadrian to Constantine. The third, which is still extant, was digested in sixteen books by the order of the younger Theodosius, to consecrate the laws of the Chris- tian princes from Constautineto his own reign. But the three codes obtained an equal autliority in the tribunals ; and any act which was not included in the sacred deposit, might be disregarded by tiie judge as spurious or obsolete. § Among savage nations, the want of letters is imperfectly supplied by the use of visible signs, which awaken atten- tion, and perpetuate the remembrance of any public or private transaction. The jurisprudence of the first Romans exhibited the scenes of a pantomime; the words were adapted * Plin. Secund. Epistol. 10, QG. Sueton. in Domitian. c. 23. + It was a ina.xiin of Coiistautine, contra jus rescripta uon valeant. (.Cod. Theodos. 1. i, tit. 2, leg. 1.) The emperors reluctantly allow some scrutiny into the law and the tact, some delay, petition, &c.; but these iasufficient remedies are too muck iu the discretion and at the peril of the judge. + A compound of vermilion and cinnabar, which marks the imperial diplomas from Leo. I, (a.d. 470^ to the fall of the Greek emjiire. (Ribliotheque Kaisonuee de la Diplu- matique, tom. i, p. 509 — 51-t. Lami. de Eruditioue Apostoloruni. torn, ii, p. 720 — 726.) § Schulting, Jurisprudentia Anta .lustinianea, p. 681 — 718. Cujacius assigned to Gregory the reign» from Hadrian to Gallienus, and the continuation to his fellowdabonrer Hermogoues. This general division may be just; but they often 22 rOUMS OF THE L^H- XLIV. to the gesjtures, and the slipihtest error or neglect in the forms of proceeding was sufficient to annul the substance of tlie fairest claim. The communion of the marriage-life was denoted by the necessary elements of fire and water:* and the divorced wife resigned the bunch of keys, by the delivery of which she had been invested with the government of the familv. The manumission of a son, or a slave, was performed by turning him round with a gentle blow on the cheek: a work was prohibited by the casting of a stone ; prescription was interrupted by the breaking of a branch ; the clenched fist was the symbdl of a pledge or deposit ; the right hand was the gift" of faith and confidence. The indenture of covenants was a broken straw : weights and scales were introduced into every payment, and the heir who accepted a testament, was sometimes obliged to snap his fingers, to cast away his garments, and to leap and dance with real or affected transport.f If a citizen pursued any stolen goods into a neighbour's house, he concealed his nakedness with a linen towel, and hid his face with a mask or basin, lest h? should encounter the eyes of a virgin or a matron. J In a trespassed on each other's ground. * Scsevola, most pro- bably Q. Cervidius Screvola, the master of Papinian, considers this acceptance of fire and water as the essence of mari'iage. (Pandect. 1. 24, tit. 1, leg. 66. See Heinecciu.s, Hist. J. R. No. 317.) t Cicero (de OflBciis, 3, 19) may state an ideal case, but St. Ambrose (de Officiis, 3, 2) appeals to the practice of his own times, which he understood as a lawyer and a magistrate. (Schulting, ad Ulpian. Frag- ment, tit. 22, No. 28, p. 643, 644.) [In all solemn transfers of property a sale and purchase were supposed, and weighing of money. Gibbon has here brought together all the symbolical law - formalities that he could discover. In this search he has grievously misunderstood the passage in Cicero. — Hugo.] [Schulting, who is hei-e appealed to, distinctly protests against the foolish construction put on Cicero'a words, and refers to the correct interpretation of them given by Grajvius. The form of the cretio Juereditatis may be found in Gains. (Instit. 1. ii, p. 166.) — Warnkonig.] [We have here an instructive instance of the propagation of error. Cicero ridiculed tlie avidity of legacy hunters, and the low arts to which they were ready to demean themselves in the pursuit of their object. Cujacius mistook this for a serious description of the form of acquiring heirsliip. Gravina believed him, and was not unwilling to provoke a smile at ancient legal nonsense. It was probably by this last writer that Gibbon was deceived, and referred by mistake to Schulting. If he had consulted the original, he would perhaps have seen how indignant Grajvius was, that Tully should be so " plucked by the beard." — Ed.] J The furtum lance licioque conceptum was no longer understood CH. XLIV.] BOMAX LAW. 23 civil action, tlie plaintifT touched the ear of hia witnc^^a, seized his reluctant adversary by the neck, and implored, iu solemn lamentation, the aid of his fellow-citizens. The two competitors grasped each other's hand as if they stood pre- pared for combat before the tribunal of the praetor : he com- manded them to produce the object of the dispute ; they went, they returned, with measured steps, and a clod of earth was cast at his feet to represent the field for which they contended. This occult science of the words and actions of law was the inheritance of the pontiffs and the patricians. Like the Chaldean astrologers, they announced to their clients the days of business and repose ; these im- portant trifles were interwoven with the religion of Numa ; and, after the publication of the twelve tables, the Koman people was still enslaved by the ignorance of judicial pro- ceedings. The treachery of some plebeian officers at length revealed the profitable mystery : in a more enlightened age, the legal actions were derided and observed ; and the same antiquity which sanctified the practice, obliterated the use and meaning, of this primitive language.* in the time of the Autonines. (Aulua Gellius, 16, 10.) The Attic derivation of Heineccius (Antiquitat. Rom. 1. 4, tit. 1, No. 13 — 21) is supported by the evidence of Aristophanes, his scholiast, and Pollii.K. [Of this procedure no more is known. It had become contemptible in the time of Gaius. (See 1. 3, p. 192, a. 293.) It is evident from this passage, that the ba.sin was not used to cover the person, as most authors, on the authority of Festus, have imagined. — Warxkonig.] * In his oration for Mureua (c. 9 — 13), Cicero turns into ridicule the forms and mysteries of the civilians, which are represented with more candour by Aulus Gellius (Noct. Attic. 20, 10), Gravina (0pp. p. 265 — 267), and Heineccius (Antiquitat. 1. 4, tit. 6). [It was by these forms that the early Roman patrons made law comprehen- sible to their clients. The heavy responsibilities of the first caused them to exact a strict observance of ceremonies, which were binding on their rude inferiors. When the jurists became a distinct class, into which plebeians also had admittance, custom retained what had once been useful, but had become superfluous. — Hugo.] [The law formali- ties of ancient R'lnie are too severely condemned by Gibbon. Among all nations, the certainty of law has been based on such solemnities. Their nature may be learned from M. de Savigny's work On the Vocation of our Age for Legislation and Jurisprudence, Heidelberg, 1814, p. 9, 10. — W.iUNKoNiG.] [The presenting the ear to be touched was the form iu which a bystander, when appealed to, assented to the arrest of a defendant out on bail. It was thus that Horace escaped from his annoying companion on the Sacred Way. " Lices •ntestai'i .? Ego vero oppouo auriculam." (Sat. i. 9, 76.) — Ed.] [Murena 24 SUCCESSION OF CIYIL LAWYERS. [011. XLIV. A more liberal art was cultivated, however, by the sages of Eoine, wlio, in a stricter sense, inay be considered as the authors of the civil law. The alteration of the idiom and manners of the Komans rendered the style of the twelve tables less familiar to each rising generation, and the doubtful passages were imperfectly explained by the study of legal antiquarians. To define the ambiguities, to circumscribe the latitude, to apply the principles, to extend the conse- quences, to reconcile the real or apparent contradictions, was a much nobler and more important task ; and the pro- vince of legislation was silently invaded by the expounders of ancient statutes. Their subtle interpretations concurred with the equity of the praetor, to reform the tyranny of the darker ages : however strange or intricate the means, it was the aim of artificial jurisprudence to restore the simple dictates of nature and reason, and the skill of private citizens was usefully employed to undermine the public institutions of their country. The revolution of almost one thousand years, from the twelve tables to the reign of Justinian, may be divided into three periods almost equal in duration, and distinguished from each other by the mode of instruction and the character of the civilians.* Pride and ignorance contributed, during the first period, to confine within was accused of having obtained the consulship by bribery. As the candidate who had opposed him was a jurist, Cicero strove to make it appear, that a soldier was the more popular character. His sallies against the practitioners of the Forum have, therefore, supplied abundant materials for the assailants of Roman law. — Hugo.] * The series of the civil lawyers is deduced by Pomponius (de Origine Juris Pandect. 1. 1, tit. 2). The moderns have discussed, with learning and criticism, this branch of literary history ; and among these I have chiefly been guided by Gravina (p. 41 — 79) and Heinec- cius. (Hist. J. R. No. 113 — 351.) Cicero, more especially in his booka de Oratore, de Claris Oratoribus, de Legibus, and the Clavis Cice- roniana of Ernesti, (under the names of Mucius, &c.) afford much genuine and pleasing information. Horace often alludes to the morning labours of the civilians. (Serm. i, 1, 10, Epist. ii, 1, 103, &c.) Agricolam laudat juris legumque peritus Sub galli cautum, consultor ubi ostia pulsat. ***** Komse dulce diu fuit et solemne reclusa Mane domo vigilare, olienti promere jura. [The epochs into which the history of Roman jurisprudence is here divided, manifest Gibbon's clear and comprehensive view of the sub- jeok. They were adopted by M. Hugo in his history. — Wabukoniq.] ClI. XLIV.] THE FinST AND SECOIfl^ PERIOD, 25 narrow limits the science of the Eoman law. On the public days of market or assembly, the masters of the art were seen walking iu the Forum, ready to impart the needful advice to the meanest of their fellow-citizens, from wliose votes, on a future occasion, tliey might solicit a grateful return. As their years and honours increased, they seated themselves at home on a chair or throne, to expect with patient gravity tlie visits of their clients, who at the dawn of day, from the town and country, began to thunder at their door. The duties of social life, and the incidents of judicial proceeding, were the ordinary subjects of these consultations, and tlie verbal or written opinion of the juris- co)isiiIfs was I'raiiied according to the rules of prudence and hiw. The youths of their own order and family were per- mitted to listen ; their children enjoyed the benefit of more private lessons, and the Mucian race was long renowned for the hereditary knowledge of the civil law. The second period, the learned and splendid age of jurisprudence, may be extended from the birth of Cicero to the reign of Severus Alexander. A system was formed, schools were instituted, books were composed, and both the living and the dead became subservient to the instruction of the student. The tripartite of ^Elius Paetus, surnamed Catus, or the Cunning, was preserved as the oldest work of jurisprudence, Cato the censor derived some additional fame from his legal studies, and those of liis son : the kindred appellation of Mucins Scajvola was illustrated by three sages of the law;* but the perfection of the science was ascribed to Servius Sulpicius their disciple, and the friend of Tully ; and the long succession, which shone with equal lustre under tlie republic and under the Caesars, is linally closed by the respectable characters of Papinian, of Paul, and of Ulpian. Their names, and the various titles of their ])roductions, have been minutely preserved, and the example of Labeo may suggest some idea of their diligence and fecundity. That eminent lawyer of the Augustan age divided the year * [It was under this eminent lawj-er that Cicero studied. The orator had no systematio legal knowledge ; but he was so well grounded, by attending in the atrium of his master, that when ha was once reproached fur this deficiency, he replied : " If I wanted to get it up, it would cost me only a lew moutlia' application." (Xiebuhr'a Lectures, iii, Id.) — Ed.] 26 THE THIRD PERIOD. [CH. XLIV. between the cily and country, between business and compo- sition ; and four hundred books are enumerated as the fruit of liis retirement. Of the collections of his rival Capito, the two hundred and fifty-ninth book is expressly quoted ; and few teachers could deliver their opinions in less than a century of volumes. In the third period, between the reigns of Alexander and Justinian, the oracles of jurisprudence were almost mute. The measure of curiosity had been filled ; the throne was occupied by tyrants and barbarians ; the active spirits were diverted by religious disputes, and the professors of Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus, werb humbly content to repeat the lessons of their more enlight- ened predecessors, From the slow advances and rapid decay of these legal studies, it may be inferred that they require a state of peace and refinement. From the multi- tude of voluminous civilians who fill the intermediate space, it is evident that such studies may be pursued, and such works may be performed, with a common share of judgment, experience, and industry. The genius of Cicero and Virgil was more sensibly felt, as each revolving age had been found incapable of producing a similar or a second: but the most eminent teachers of the law were assured of leaving disciples equal or superior to themselves in merit and reputation. The jurisprudence which had been grossly adapted to the ■wants of the first Eomans, was polished and improved in the seventh century of the city, by the alliance of Grecian philosophy. The "Scsevolas had been taught by use and experience ; but Servius Sulpicius was the first civilian who established his art on a certain and general theory.* Eor * Crassus, or rattier Cicero himself, proposes (de Oratore, 1. 41, 42,) an idea of the art or science of juiiapnidonce, which the eloquent, tut illiterate, Antonius (1. 58) affects to deride. It was partly executed by Servius Su'.picius, (iu Bruto, c. 41,) whose praises are elegantly varied in the classic latinity of the Roman Gravina. (p. 60.) [M. Hugo is of opinion that Servius Sulpicius originated the ingenious system of the Institutes, adopted by many ancient lawyers, before it was used by Justinian. (Histoire du Droit Remain, torn, ii, p. 119.)— Warnkonig.] [The " friend of Tully," here noticed, was called Servius Sulpicius Leovina Rufus. Amid the factions by which society was then torn he perservcd such impartiality and laboured so siucerely to restore concord, that be was styled " Defensor Pacis " and " Pacificator." While Antony was besieging Decius Brutus in Mutina, he _ urged the Senate to send an embassy, for the purpose of conciliating the hostile leaders, aud was himself deputed as the negotiator. But en. XLiv.] pniLOsoniY of the civil lawtebs, 27 •J the discernment of truth and fiilseliood, he applied, as an int'ullible rule, the logic oi" Aristotle and the Stoics, reduced jxirticular cases to general principles ; and dillused over the shapeless mass the liglit ot order and eloquence. Cicero, his conteniporarv and friend, declined the reputation of a j)rofessed lawyer; but the jurisprudence of his country was adorned by his incomparable genius, which converts into gold every object that it touches. After the example of Plato, he composed a republic; and, for the use of his republic, a treatise of laws ; in which he labours to deduce, from a celestial origin, the wisdom and justice of the Eoman constitution. The whole universe, according to his sublime hypotiiesis, forms one immense commonwealth: gods and men, who participate of the same essence, are members of the same community ; reason pri'scribes the law of nature and nations ; and all positive institutions, however moditied by accident or custom, are drawn from the rule of right, which the Deity has inscribed on every virtuous mind. From these j)lulosophical mysteries, he mildly excludes the Sceptics who refuse to believe, and the Epicureans who are unwilling to act. The latter disdain the care of the republic ; he advises them to slumber in their shady gardens. But he humbly entreats that the new academy would be silent, since her bold objections would too soon destroy the fair and well- ordered structure of his lofty system.* Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno, he represents as tlie only teachers who arm and instruct a citizen for the duties of social life. Of these, the armour of the Stoicsf was found to be of the firmest temper; and it was chielly worn, both for use and ornament, in the schools of jurisprudence. From the portico, the Homan the fatigues of the journey exhausted a frame weakened by previoua illness, and he died on his arrival in Antony's camp. The Senate decreed him a public funeral and were moved by Cicero's eloquence, in his ninth Pbilijipic (c. 7,) to honour his memory by a bronze statue in the Forum. — -Ed.] * Perturbatricem autem omnium harum rerum academiam, banc ab Arcesila et Carneade recentem, exoremus ut sileat, nam si invaserit in htcc, qua; satis scite instructa et composita viileantur, nimis edet ruinaa, quam quidem ego placare cupio, submovere non audeo (de Legibus, i. 13). From this passage alone Bentley (Remarks on Free- thinking, p. 250,) might have learned how tirmly Cicero believed in the specious doctrines which he has adorned. + The Stoio jihilosoiihy was first t^iught at Kome by Tansetius, the friend of the younger Scipio. (See his life in the Mem. de I'AcadiJmie des Inscrip- 28 PHILOSOPHY OF THE CIYIL LIWYERS. [CH. XLIV. civilians learned to live, to reason, and to die : but tliey imbibed iu some degree the prejudices of the sect; the love of paradox, the pertinacious habits of dispute, and a minute attachment to words and verbal distinctions. The supe- riority of /brw^ to matter, was introduced to ascertain tlie right of property; and the equality of crimes is countenanced by an opinion of Trebatius,* that he who touches the ear, touches the whole body ; and that he who steals from a tions, torn, x, p. 75 — 89.) * As he is quoted by Ulpian (leg. 40, ad Sabinum in Pandect. 1. 47, tit. 2, leg. 21). Yet Trebatius, after he was a leading civilian, qui familiam duxit, became an Epi- curean. (Cicero ad Fam. 7. 5.) Perhaps he was not constant or sin- cere in his new sect. [Warnkonig says here that Cicero has been entirely misunderstood. But his explanation, which was first sug- gested by G. Menage (Amoenit. Juris Civilis. c. 14,) and repeated in Kcheller's Dictionary, v. Familia. and in Hugo's History of the Roman Law, is not satisfactory. Cicero's character of Trebatius was given in a letter to Julius Cassar, recommending his young friend, then joining the army in Gaul (Epist. ad div. 7. 4,) and at that time no longer " a student of civil law ;" his " singularis memoria " was not mentioned as a qualification for that pursuit, but for i-etaining what he had learned from P. Cornelius Maximus, under whom his high attain- ments, "summa scientia," had gathered round him admirers, fol- lowers and pupils, who were the "familia" that he led. On the other hand, he was not then the " leading civilian," supposed by Gibbon, nor did he become so during the life of Cicero. He attached himself closely to Cfcsar ; and it was during liis military career that the friendly letters, which have been preserved, were addressed to him by the orator. The style of these is most familiar and jocose. In one of them (7. 11) the writer says, " de re severissima tecum, ut soleo, jocor." When he received no answers, he invented facetious reasons for his correspondent's silence. At one time he was too much occu- pied by military exploits in Britain ; at another engaged with "juris- consulti Britanuici ;" till at last (7.12) he said, Pansa had informed him that his friend was become an Epicurean, and too much absorbed in his search for pleasure to have time for writing. In this lively banter, grave critics have found a serious assertion, that Trebatius had become a disciple of a particular school of philosophy. With equal reason they might have inferred, that Britain had in those days courts of justice and barristers. When Trebatius returned to Rome, he resumed his application to the law ; but had not become eminent before Cicero was put to death. Eighteeu years after that tragic event, Horace, in the first Satire of his second book, introduced Tre- batius, as dissuading him from poetical writing ; and it must have been at a still later period, that Augustus consulted him on the vali- dity of the codicils. All these facts ought to dissipate the fallacies that have been constructed out of Cicero's intelligible language, and restore its simple, unperverted meaning. Trebatius could only rise by the usual gradations, to that emiueuce, where he became an ClI. XLIV.] THEIE AUTTIOniTT. 29 heap of corn, or a hogshead of wine, is guilty of the entire theft.* Arms, eloquence, and the study of tlie civil law, promoted a citizen to the honours of the Koman state ; and the three professions were soinetiniea more conspicuous by their union in the same character. Jn tlie composition of the edict, a learned praetor gave a sanction and preference to his private sentiments: the opinion of a censor, or a consul, was entertained with respect : and a doubtful interpretation of the laws might be supported by the virtues or triumphs of the civilian. The patrician arts were long protected by the veil of mystery; and in more enliglitened times, the freedom of inquiry established the general pi'inciples of jurisprudence. Subtle and intricate cases were elucidated by the disputes of the I'orum ; rules, axioms, and detini- tions,t were admitted as the genuine dictates of reason; and the consent of the legal professors was interwoven into the practice of the tribunals. But these interpreters could neither enact nor execute the laws of the re[niblic ; and the judges might disi-egard the authority of the .Sctevolas them- selves, which was often overthrown by tlie eloquence or sophistry of an ingenious pleader.^ Augustus and Tiberius were the first to adopt, as a useful engine, the science of the civilians ; and their servile labours accommodated the old system to the spirit and views of despotism. Under the fair pretence of securing the dignity of the art, the privilege of subscribing legal and valid opinions was confined to the sages of senatorian or equestrian rank, who had been pre- viously approved by the judgment of the prince; and this monopoly prevailed, till Hadrian restored the fn>edom of the profession to every citizen conscious of his abilities and knowledge. The discretion of the praetor was now governed by the lessons of his teachers ; the judges were enjoined to obey the comment as well as the text of the law ; and the authority, still respected in the fourth century, as we learn from Amniiauus Marcellinus. (30. 4). — Ed.] * See Graviua (p. 45 — ol,) and the ineffectual cavils of Mascou. Heinecciua (Hisit. J. 11. No. 125,) quotes ami approves a dissertation of Everard Otto, de Stoica Jurisconsultorum Philosophia. + We have heard of the Catonian rule, the Aquilian stipulation, and the Manilian forms, of two hundred and eleven maxims, and ol two hundred and forty-seven definitions. (Pandect. 1. 50, tit. lU, 17 ) J Read Cicero, 1. 1, de Oratore, Topica, i>ro Mureua. 30 THE PEOCULIANS [CH. XLIT. use of codicils was a memorable innovation, which Augustus ratiiled by the advice of the civilians.* The most absolute mandate could only require that the judges should agree with the civilians, if the civilians agreed among themselves. But positive institutions are often the result of custom and prejudice ; laws and language are am- biguous and arbitrary ; where reason is incapable of pro- nouncing, the love of argument is inflamed by the envy of rivals, the vanity of masters, the blind attachment of their disciples ; and the Roman jurisprudence was divided by the once famous sects of the Proculians and Sabinians.f Two sages of the law, Ateius Capito and Antistius Labeo,J * See Pomponius (de Origine Juris Pandect. 1. 1, tit. 2, leg. 2, No. 27) Heineeciua (ad Institut. 1. 1, tit. 2, No. 8 ; 1. 2, tit. 25, in Element, et Antiqviitat.), and Gravina (p. 41 — 45). Yet the monoply of Augustus, a harsh measure, would ajipear, with some softening, in contem- porary evidence ; and it was probably veiled by a decree of the senate. [The opinion of Heineccius, which then prevailed, is here Gibbon's guide. Apparent confii-mation of it is foiind in the Digest and Insti- tutes, which refer to a privilege enjoyed by particular lawyers from the time of Augustus to that of Hadrian. M. Hugo rejected the con- clusions drawn from this by Heineccius, Bach, and almost all his pre- decessors. But we possess the Institutes of Gains, which prove, that the " Responsa Pruaentum" were the opinions of those " quibus con- cessum est jus condere." These had in certain cases the force of laws, which was regulated and confirmed by the " Rescriptum Hadriani." Against this and the passage quoted from Pomponius, the objection of M. Hugo cannot be sustained. It cannot be disputed, that the civi- lians who were consulted by the judges had received from the empe- rors some provisional authority. But to what extent, is a question to which no historic evidence furnishes a precise answer. — Warnkonig.] [The Institutes of Gaius had been read by Niebuhr, and it must have been on them that he founded the opinion cited in a former note from his Lectures (3. 231.)— Ed.] t I have perused the diatribe of Gotfridus Mascovius, the learned Mascou, de Sectis Jurisconsultorum, (Lipsia;, 1728, in 12mo, p. 276,) a learned treatise on a narrow and barren ground. [The distinction is here well marked between Gottfried and Johann Jacob Mascou. — Hogg.] X !^ee the character of Antistius Labeo in Tacitus (Annal. 3. 75,) and in an epistle of Ateius Capito (Aul. Gellius, 13. 12,) who accuses his rival of libertas nimia et vecors. Yet Horace would not have lashed a virtuous and respectable senator ; and I must adopt the 'emendation of Bentley, who reads Labiono insanior. (Serm. 1. 3. 82.) nee Mascou, de Sectis. (c. l,p. 1 — 24.) [The fir.st book of Horace's Satires was his earliest publication. The greater part, if not the whole, was written before the battle of Actium and the assumption of impe- rial power by Augustus. This has not been taken into couaidei'ation Ca. XLIV.] A>'D 8ABINIAN8. 81 adorned the peace of the Augustaa aIS. (1. 2, c. 3, p. 117 — 130.) It is composed of two quarto volumes with large margins, on a thin paichment, and the Latin cluu-acters betray the hand of a Greek scribe. X Brenckman, at the end of his history, has inserted two dissertations on the republic of Amalphi, and the I'isan war in the year 1135, &c. § The discovery of the Pandects at Amaljihi, (a.D. 1137,) is first noticed (m 15ul) by Ludovicus Bologuinus (Brenckman, (1. 1, c. 11- p 73, 74. 1. 4, c. 2, p. 417 — ^25), on the faith of a Pisan cnronicia (p. 4U9, 410), without a name or a date. The whole story, thoug'i unknown to the twelfth century, embellished by ignorant ages, and suspected by rigid criticism, is not, however, destitute of much internal ])robability (1. 1, c. 4 — 8, p. 17 — 5U). The Liber Pandectarum of Pisa was undoubtedly consulted in the fourteenth century by the great Bartolus (p. 406, 407. See 1. 1, c. 9, p. 50--62). [This discovery, Mr. Hallam says, " though not impi'obable, seems not to rest upon suf- ficient evidence." Yet it was from this time, that the Giossatorea revived the study of the Roman law. 'Whether this was caused by the Pandects, or whether it caused them to be brought forth out of the 42 LEGAL INCONSTANCY [CII. XLIV. and Florence,* and is now deposited as a sacred relict in the ancient palace of the republic. J It is the first care of a reformer to prevent any future reformation. To maintain the text of the Pandects, the In- stitutes, and the Code, the use of ciphers and abbreviations was rigorously proscribed; and as Justinian recollected, that the perpetual edict had been buried under the weight of commentators, he denounced the punishment of forgery against the rash civilians who should presume to interpret or pervert the will of their sovereign. The scholars of Accursius, of Bartolus, of Cujacius, should blush for their accumulated guilt, unless they dare to dispute his right of binding the authority of his successors, and the native free- dom of the mind. But the emperor was unable to fix his own inconstaTicy ; and while he boasted of renewing the exchange of Diomede, of transumting brass into gold,§ he discovered the necessity of purifying his gold from the mix- ture of baser alloy. Six years had not elapsed from the publi- obscurity in which they had b'jen reposing, are questions between which there is but a shadowy difference. The re-organization of society was commencing, and of this, the security of property was per- ceived to be a necessary element. The want of " a more extensive and accurate code of written laws " was therefore felt. Up to that period, the gi-eater part of Western Europe had only " the compilation from the Theodosian Code, made by order of Alaric, king of the Visigoths, about the year 500." The insufficiency of this directed the attention of lawyers to Justinian's system of jurisprudence, and the re-introduc- tion of the Pandects was tantamount to a discovery of them. (Middle Ages, vol. ii, p. 513— 515.)— Ed.] * Pisa was taken by the Florentines in the year 1406 ; and in 1411 the Pandects were transported to the capital. These events are authentic and famous. t They were new bound in purple, dejiosited in a rich casket, and shewn to curious travellers by the monks and magistrates bareheaded, and with liglited tapers. (Brenckman, 1. 1, c. 10 12, p. 62 — 93.) + After the collations of Politian, Bologninus, and Antoninus Augustinus, and the splendid edition of the Pandects by Taurellus (in 1551), Henry Brenckman, a Dutchman, undertook a pilgrimage to Florence, where he employed several years in the study ol a single manuscript. His Historia Pandectarum Fiorentinoruin (Utrecht, 1722, in quarto), though a monument of industry, is a small portion of his original design. § Xnvutn xaJ^Kfuui', £(caro/t/3ot' hn'uiiiuioji', apud Homerum patrem onmis" virtutis (1st Prwfat. ad Pandect.). A line of Milton or Tasso would surprise us in an act of parliament. Qute omnia obtinere san- eimus in omne revum. Of the first code, he says, (2d Praefat.) in (eternum valiturum. Man, and for ever ! A.D. 534-5G5.] OF JUSTINIAN. 43 cation of the Code, before he condemned the imperfect attempt, by a new and more accurate edition of the same work, which he enriched with two hundred of his own laws, and fiftj' decisions of the darkest and most intricate points of jurisprudence. Every year, or according to Procopius, each day of his long reign, was marked by some legal inno- vation. Many of his acts were rescinded by himself; many were rejected by his successors, many have been obliterated by time ; but the number of sixteen edicts, and one hun- dred and sixt3'-eiglit novels,* has been admitted into the authentic body of the civil jurisprudence. In the opinion of a philosopher, superior tn the prejudices of his profession, these incessant, and for the most part trifling, alterations, can be only ex|dained by the venal spirit of a prince, who sold without shame his judgments and his laws.t Tlie charge of the secret historian is indeed explicit and vehe- ment ; but the sole instance which he produces may be ascribed to the devotion as well as to the avarice of Jus- tinian. A wealthy bigot had bequeathed his inheritance to the church of Emesa ; and its value was enhanced by the dexterity of an artist, whc subscribed confessions of debt and promises of payment witli the names of the ricliest Syrians. The}' pleaded the established prescription of thirty or forty years ; but their defence was overruled by a retro- spective edict, which extended the claims of the church to the term of a century ; an edict so pregnant with injustice and disorder, that after serving this occasional jjurpose, it was prudently abolished in the same reign. J If candour will acquit the emperor himself, and transfer the corruption, to his wife and favourites, the suspicion of so foul a vice> must still degrade the majesty of his laws : and the advo- cates of Justinian may ackno-vledge, that such levity, what- soever be the motive, is unworthy of a legislator and a man. * Novellpc is a classic adjective, but a barbarous substantive (Lud- wig. p. 245). Justiuiau never collected them himself: the nine colla- tions, the legal standard of modern tribunals, consist of ninety-eight novels ; but the number was increased by the diligence of Julian, Halo' nnder, and Contius. (Ludwig, p. 249. 258. Alemun. Not. in Anecdot p. 98.) t Montestiuieu, Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Decadence des llomains, c. 20, tom. iii, p. 501, in 4to. On this occasion he thi'ows aside the gown and cap of a president a mortier. i Procopius, Auecdot. c. 23. A similar privilege was granted to 44 THE INSTITUTES — OF PERSONS. [CH, XLIV. Moaarchs seldom condescend to become the preceptors of their subjects; and some praise is due to Justinian, by whose command an ample system was reduced to a short and elementary treatise. Among the various institutes of the Eomau law,* tliose of Caiusf were the most popular in the East and West; and their use may be considered as an evi- dence of their merit. They were selected by the imperial delegates, Triboniau, Theophilus, and Dorotheus ; and the freedom and purity of the Antonines was incrusted with the coarser materials of a degenerate age. The same volume which introduced the youth of Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus, to tlie gradual study of the Code and Pandects, is still precious to the historian, the philosopher, and the magistrate. The institutes of Justinian ai'e divided into four books : they proceed, with no contemptible method, from I. Persons, to II. Tlnn(^s, and from things, to III. Actions ; and tlie article IV. of Private Wrongs, is termi- nated by the principles of Criminal Law.X I. The distinction of ranks and persons, is the firmest basis of a mixed and limited government. In France, the remains of liberty are kept alive by the spirit, the honours, and even the prejudices, of fifty thousand nobles. § Two the chnrch of Rome. (Novel. 9.) For the general repeal of these mischievous indulgences, see Novel. Ill, and edict. 5. * Lactantius, in his Institutes of Christianity, an elegant and specious work, proposes to imitate the title and method of the civilians. Quidam prudentes et arbitri asquitatis Institutiooes Civilis Juris compositas ediderunt. (Institut. Divin. 1. 1, e. 1.^ Such as TJlpian, Paul, Florentinus, Marciau. + The emperor Justinian calls him suum, though he died before tne end of the second century. His Institutes are quoted by Servius, Boethius, Priscian, &c. and the Epitome by Arrian is still extant. (See the prolegomena and notes to the edition of Schultiug, in the Jurisprudentia Aute-Justi- nianea, Lugd. Bat. 1717. Heineccius, Hist. J. R. No. 31.3. Ludwig. in Vit. Just. p. 199.) J [.Justinian made only three divisions of his Institutes, 1. Personal rights, as — slavery, marriage, paternal power, and guardianship. 2. The rights of property or ownership ; and 3. The injuries or causes of complaint, as well on the part of individuals as of the State. Sections of the second and third parts are taken by Gibbon to make up a fourth. — Hugo.] [In this division of the Institutes, Gibbon has made the apjiendix of the criminal law in the last title, into a fourth and separate part. — Warn- KONIG.] tj See the Annales Politiques de I'Abbo de St. Pierre, tom. i, p. 25, who dat(!S in the year IT'Ao. The most ancient families claim the immemorial possession of arms and fiefs. Since the crusades, some. A.D. 533.] FEEEMEN AKD SLAVES. 45 hundred families supply, in lineal descent, the second branch of the English legislature, which maintains, hctweeii tliu king and commons, the balance of the constitution.* A gradation of patricians and plebeians, of strangers and sub- jects, has supported the aristocracy of Genoa, Venice, and ancient Eome. The perfect equality of men is the point in which the extremes of democracy and despotism are con- founded, since the majesty of the prince or people would be offended, if any heads were exalted above the level of their fellow-slaves or fellow-citizens. In the decline of the Eomau empire, the proud distinctions of the republic were gradually abolished, and the reason or instinct of Justinian completed the simple form of an absolute monarchy. The emperor could not eradicate the popular reverence which always waits on the possession of hereditary wealth, or the memory of famous ancestors. He delighted to honour with titles and emoluments, his generals, magistrates, and senators ; and his precarious indulgence communicated some rays of their glory to the persons of their wives and children. But in the eye of the law, all Eoman citizens were equal, and all subjects of the empire were citizens of Eome. That inesti- mable character was degraded to an obsolete and empty name. The voice of a Eomau could no longer enact his laws, or create the annual ministers of his power ; his con- stitutional rights might have checked the arbitrary will of a master; and the bold adventurer from Germany or Arabia was admitted, with equal favour, to the civil and military command, which the citizen alone had been once entitled to assume over the conquests of his fathers. The first Caesars had scrupulously guarded the distinction of inr/enuous, and servile birth, which was decided by the condition of the the most truly respectable, have been created by the king, for merit and services. The recent and vulgar crowd is derived from tha multitude of venal offices without trust or dignity, which continually ennoble the wealthy plebeians. * [The House of Peers including the episcopal bench, now consists of more than four hundred and fifty members, in addition to which, there are twenty-four Scotch and ninety-four Irish jieers, who have no seats in the legislature. There is no form in which a country can so gracefully reward true merit, as by perpetuated title. But the dignity is lowered and its purity sullied, when it only ennobles mere wealth, or purchases po- litical adherents for the minister of the day. If high hereditary r;ink were ouj/ given to commemorate great public services and transmit a glorious name to after times, it would be of inestimable worth. — Eo.J 4(5 FREEMEN AN'D SLATES, [CH liLIT. mother ; and the candour of the laws was satisfied, if her freedom could be ascertained during a single moment be- tween the conception and the delivery. The siaves who were liberated by a generous master immediately entered into the middle class of lihertines or freedmen : but they could never be enfranchised from the duties of obedience and gratitude : whatever were the fruits of their industry their patron and his family inherited the third part ; or even the whole of their fortune, if they died without chil- dren and without a testament. Justinian respected the rights of patrons ; but his indulgence removed the badge of disgrace from tlie two inferior orders of freedmen : whoever ceased to be a slave, obtained without reserve or delay, the station of a citizen ; and at lengtli the dignity of an inge- nuous birth, which nature had refused, was created, or sup- posed, by the omnipotence of the emperor. "Whatever restraints of age, or forms, or numbers, had been formerly introduced to check the abuse of manumissions, and the too rapid increase of vile and indigent liomans, he finally abolished ; and the spirit of his laws promoted the ex- tinction of domestic servitude. Yet the Eastern provinces were filled, in the time of Justinian, with multitudes of slaves, either born or purchased for the use of their masters ; and the price, from ten to seventy pieces of gold, was deter- mined by their age, their strength, and their education.* But the hardships of this dependent state were continually diminished by the influence of government and religion ; and the pride of a subject was no longer elated by his absolute dominion over the life and happiness of his bondsmau.f • If the ofjiion of a slave was bequeathed to several legatees, they drew lots, and the losers were entitled to their share of his value ; ten pieces of gold for a common servant or maid under ten years ; if above that age, twenty ; if they knew a trade, thirty ; notaries or writers, fifty ; midwives or physicians, sixty ; eunuchs under ten years, thirty pieces; above, fifty; if tradesmen, seventy. (Cod. 1. 6, tit. 43, leg. 3.) These legal prices are generally below those of the market. + For the state of slaves and freedmen, see Institutes, 1. 1, tit. 3 — 8; 1. 2, tit. 9 ; 1. 3, tit. 8, 9. Pandects or Digest, 1. 1, tit. 5, 6 ; 1. 38, tit. 1 — i, and the whole of the fortieth book : Code, 1. 6, tit. 4,5; 1. 7, tit. 1 — 23. Be it henceforward understood that, with the original text of the Institutes and Pandects, the correspondent articles in the Antiquities and Elements of Hcineccius are implicitly quoted; and, with the twenty-seven first books of the Pandects, the learned and rational Commentaries of Gerard Noodt. (Opera, torn, ii, p. 1 — 500, A.D. 533-5G5.] FATIIEBS AND CniLDRETT. 47 The law of nature instructs most animals to cherish and educate their infant progeny. The law of reason inculcates to tlie human species the returns of filial piety. But the exclusive, absolute and perpetual dominion of the father over his children is peculiar to the Eoman jurisprudence,* and seems to be coeval with the foundation of the city-t The paternal power was instituted or conlirmed by llomulus himself; and after the practice of three centuries, it was inscribed on the fourth table of the decemvirs. In the Poruiu, the senate, or the camp, the adult son of a liomau citizen enjoyed the public and private rights o^ a person: in his father's house, he was a mere tJiint/ ; confounded by the laws with the moveables, the cattle, and the slaves, whom the capricious master might alienate or destroy with- out being responsible to any earthly tribunal. The hand which bestowed the daily sustenance might resume the voluntary gift, and whatever was acquired by the labour or fortune of the son, was immediately lost in the property of the lather. Ilis stolen goods (his oxen or his chikhvn) might be recovered by the same action of tlieft ;:J: and if either had been guilty of a trespass, it was in his own option to compensate the damage, or resign to the injured party the obnoxious animal. At the call of indigence or avarice, the master of a family could dispose of his children or his slaves. But the condition of the slave was far more advantageous, since he regained by the first manumission his alienated freedom : the sou was again restored to his the end. Liigd. Bat. 1724.) * See the patria potestas in the Institutes (1. 1, tit. 9), the Pandects (1. 1, tit. 6, 7), and the Code (1. 8, tit. 47 — i9). Jus potestatis quod in liberos habemus proprium est civium Romanoi'um. Nulii enim alii sunt homiues qui talem iu liberos habeant potestatem qualem nos habemus. t Dionysius Hal. 1. 2, p. 94, 95. Gravina (0pp. p. 23G) produces the words of the twelve tables. Papinian ^in CoUatione Legum Jioman. et Mosaicarum, tit. 4, p. 204) styles this patria potestas, lex regia : Ulpian (ad Sabiu. 1. 2(5, in Pandect. 1. 1, tit. 6, leg. 8) says, jus potestatia moribus receptum ; and furiosus filiuni iu ))ote3tate habebit. How eacred — or rather, how absurd! [This accoi'ds perfectly with the Koman character. — Warnkonig.] [The laws of the Romans on this point not only encouraged, but enforced, a brutal ferociousness. In the Twelve Tables, a father was commanded to put to death a deformed jhild. Tabula 4 directs, "Pater insignem ad detormitatem puerum cito necato." — Ed.] J Pandect. 1. 47, tit. 2, leg. 14, Xu. 13; leg. 33, No. 1. Such w« 48 FATHEES AND CHILDEKN. [CH. XLIT. unnatural father ; lie might be condemned to servitude a second and a third time, and it was not till after tlie third sale and deliverance,* that he was enfranchised from the domestic power which liad been so repeatedly abused. According to his discretion, a fatlier might chastise the real or imaginary foults of liis children, by stripes, by imprison- ment, by exile, by sending them to the country to work in cliains among the meanest of his servants. The majesty of a parent was armed with the power of life and death ;t and the example of such bloody executions, which were some- times praised and never punished, may be traced in the annals of Rome, beyond the times of Pompey and Augustus. Neither age, nor rank, nor the consular office, nor the honours of a triumph, could exempt the most illustrious citizen from the bonds of filial subjection :J his own de- scendants were included in the family of their common ancestor; and the claims of adoption were not less sacred or less rigorous than those of nature. Without fear, though not witliout danger of abuse, the Roman legislators had reposed an unbounded confidence in the sentiments of pa- ternal love ; and the oppression was tempered by the assu- rance, that each generation must succeed in its turn to the awful dignity of parent and master. The first limitation of paternal power is ascribed to the justice and humanity of JNuma : and the maid, who with his father's consent, had espoused a freeman, was protected from the disgrace of becoming the wife of a slave. In the first ages, when the city was pressed, and often famished by the decision of Ulpian and Paul. • The trina mancipatio is most clearly defined by Ulpian (Fi-agraent. 10, p. 591, 592, edit. Schnlting), and best illustrated in the Antiqui*-.ies of Heineccius. [The son, when sold by his father, did not become fal'" a slave ; he remained " statu liber," that is, he might claim manumission at any time, by repaying the sum for which he was purchased. — WahnkoNig.] t By Justinian, the old law, the jus necis of the Roman father (lustitut. 1. 4, tit. 9, No. 7), is reported and reprobated. Some legal vestiges are left in the Pandects (1. 43, tit. 29, leg. 3, No. 4) and the Collatio Legum Romanarum et Mosaicarum (tit. 2, No. 3, p. 189). X Except on public occasions, and in the actual exercise of hia ofiBce. In pnblicis locis atque muneribus, atque actionibus patrum, jura cum filiorum qui in magistratu sunt, potestatibus collata inter- quiescere paululum et connivere, &c. (Aul. Gellius, Noctes Atticae, 2. 2.) The lessons of the philosopher Taurus were justified by the old and memorable example of Fabius ; and we may contemplate the >.D. 533-5G5.] LIMITATIONS OF PATERNAL AtmrORITV, 49 her Latin and Tuscan neiglibours, the sale of children mip:ht be a frequent practice ; but as a Koman could not legally purchase the liberty of his fellow -citizen, the market must gradually fail, and the trade would be destroyed by the con- quests of the republic. An imperfect rit^ht of property was at length communicated to sons ; and the threefold dis- tinction of projectitious, adoentitious, and professional, was ascertained by the jurisprudence of the Code and Pandects.* Of all that proceeded from the father, he imparted only the use, and reserved the absolute dominion ; yet if his goods were sold, the filial portion was excepted, by a favourable interpretation, from the demands of the creditors. In what- ever accrued by marriage, gift, or collateral succession, the property was secured to the son ; but the father, unless he had been specially excluded, enjoyed the usufruct during his life. As a just and prudent reward of military virtue, the spoils of the enemy were acquired, possessed, and be- queathed by the soldier alone ; and the fair analogy was exteiuled to the emoluments of any liberal profession, the salary of public service, and the sacred liberality of the em- peror or the empress. The life of a citizen was less ex- posed than his fortune to the abuse of paternal power. Yet his life might be adverse to the interest or passions of an unworthy father : the same crimes that flowed from the corruption, were more sensibly felt by the humanity, of the Augustan age ; and tlie cruel Erixo, who whipped his son till he expired, was saved by the emperor from the just fury of the multitude. t The Eoman father, from the license of servile dominion, was reduced to the gravity and modera- tion of a judge. The presence and opinion of Augustus confirmed the sentence of exile pronounced against an inten- tional parricide by the domestic tribunal of Arius. Hadrian transported to an island tlie jealous parent, who, like a robber, had seized the opportunity of hunting, to assassinate a youth, the incestuous lover of his stepmother.^ A private same story in the style of Livy (24. 44), and the homely idiom of Claudius Quadrigariiis the annalist. * See the gradual enlargement and security of the filial peculium in the Institutes (1. 2, tit. 9), the Pandects (1. 15, tit. 1 ; 1. 41, tit. 1), and the Code. (1. 4, tit. 2(), 27). i The examples of Ei-ixo and Arius are related by Seneca (de dementia, 1. 4. lo), the former with horror, the latter with ajiplause. :J: Quod latronia magis <]uam pairia jure eum iuterfecit^ nam patria potest&s in pitttate debet uon ixi YOL. V. J£ 50 EXPOSITION OF IKFANTS. [CH. XLIV. iurisdiction is repugnant to the spirit of monarchy ; the parent was again reduced from a judge to an accuser; and the magistrates were enjoined by vSeverus Alexander to hear his complaints and execute his sentence. He could no longer take the life of a son without incurring the guilt and punishment of murder: and the pains of parricide, from which he had been excepted by the Pompeian law, were finally inflicted by the justice of Constantine.* The same protection was due to every period of existence : and reason must applaud the humanity of Paulus, for imputing the crime of murder to the father, who strangles, or starves, or abandons his new-born infant; or exposes him in a public place to find the mercy which he himself had denied. But the exposition of children was the prevailing and stubborn vice of antiquity ; it was sometimes prescribed, often per- mitted, almost always practised with impunity, by the na- tions who never entertained the Roman ideas of paternal power ; and the dramatic poets, who appeal to the human heart, represent with indifference a popular custom which was palliated by the motives of economy and compassion. t If the fatlier could subdue his own feelings, he might escape, though not the censure, at least the chastisement, of the laws : and the Eoman empire was stained with the blood of infants, till sucb murders were included, by Valentinian and his colleagues, in the letter and spirit of the Cornelian law. The lessons of jurisprudence^ and Christianity had been insufiicieut to eradicate this inhuman practice, till their atrocitate consistere. (Marcian, Institut. 1. 14, in Pandect. L 48, tit. 9. leg. 5.) * The Pompeian and Cornelian laws de sicariis and parricidis, are repeated, or rather abridged, with the last supplements of Alexander Severus, Constantine, and Valentinian, in the Pandects (1. 48, tit. 8, 9) and Code. (L 9, tit. 16, 17). See likewise the Theodosian Code (1. 9, tit. 14, 15), with Godefroy's Commentary (tom. iii, p. 84 — 113), who pours a flood of ancient and modern learn- ing over these penal laws. + When the Chremes of Terence reproaches his wife for not obeying his orders and exposing their infant, he speaks like a father and a master, and silences the scruples of a foolish woman. See Apuleius (Metamorph. 1. 10, p. 337, edit Delphin.). J The opinion of the lawyers, and the discretion of the magistrates, had introduced in the time of Tacitus Bome legal restraints, which might support his contrast of the boni mores of the Germans to the bonse leges alibi — that is to Bay, at Rome (De Moribus Germanorum, c. 19). Tertullian (ad Natione.s, 1. 1, c. 15), I'efutee lii£ own chai'ges and those of his brethren against the heathen A.D. 533 5G5.] HUSBANDS AND WIVES. 51 gentle influence was fortified by the terrors of capital jninishiiuMit.* Experience has proved tliat savages are the tyrants of the female sex, and that the condition of women is usually softened by the refinements of social life.t In the hope of a robust progeny, Lycurgus had didayed tlie season of mar- riage ; it was fixed by Xuma at tlie tender age of twelve years, that the Koman husband might educate to his will a pure and obedient virgin. J According to the custom of antiquity, he bought his bride of her parents, and she ful- filled the coemption, by purchasing with three pieces of copper, a just introduction to his house and household deities. A sacrifice of fruits was offered by the pontiffs in the presence of ten witnesses ; the contracting parties were seated on the same sheepskin ; they tasted a salt cake ot far or rice ; and this confarreation,% which denoted the ancient food of Italy, served as an emblem of their mystic union of mind and body. But this union on the side of the woman was rigorous and unequal ; and she renounced the jurisprudence. * The wise and humane sentence of the civilian Paul (1. 2, Sententiarum, in Pandect. 1. 25, tit. 3, leg. 4), is represented as a mere moral precept by Gerard Noodt (0pp. torn, i, in Julias Paulus, p. 567 — 588, and Amica Respousio, p. 591 — 606), who maintains the opinion of Justus Lipsius (0pp. torn, ii, p. 409, ad Belgas, cent. 1, epist. 85), and as a positive binding law by Bynker- shoek (de Jure occidendi Liberos, 0pp. tom. i, p. 318 — 340. Curre Secundte, p. 391 — 427). In a learned but angry conti'oversy, the two friends deviated into the opposite extremes. + [Yet it was by the savage Germans that woman was held in respect, and by the refined Jlomans that she was tyrannized over and torrupted. Through all succeeding ages, we find, too, that among the descendants of those savages, the female sex has always been placed highest in the social scale. Even French gallantry has never habitually won such domestic partners as those who cheer and consecrate the Gothic fire-side. — Ed.] X Dionys. Hal. 1. 2, p. 92, 93. Plutarch, in Numa, p. 140, 141. To aCjixa Kal TO yOoQ KaGapov Kai d9i.K-or iiri rift yafiovvTi yiviaOai. § Among the winter frumenta, the (riticum, or bearded wheat ; the tiligo, or the unbearded : the far, adorea, oryza, whose description perfectly tallies with the rice of Spain and Italy. I adopt this identity on the credit of M. Paucton in his useful and laborious Mdtrologie (p. 517 — 529). [Rice was brought into southern Eui'ope from the East, whence also its name is derived. In Arabian it is aruz, and in the Malabar tongue arisi. Thence the Greeks and Latins gave it the form of ori/za. The Spaniards call it arroz, taught, most pro- bftbly, by their Arabian conquero»:3. Adeluag (Worterbuch, 3. 1385) £2 52 TEEEDOM OF THE [CH. XLIV. name and worsln'p of her father's house, to embrace a new servitude decorated only by the title of adoption. A fiction of the kw, neither rational nor elegant, bestowed on the mother of a family* (her proper appellation) the strange characters of sister to her own children, and of daughter to her husband or master, who was invested with the plenitude of paternal power. By his judgment or caprice her beha- viour was a])proved, or censured, or chastised ; he exercised the jurisdiction of life and death ; and it was allowed, that in the cases of adultery or drunkenness,t the sentence might be properly inflicted. She acquired and inherited for the sole profit of her lord ; and so clearly was woman defined, not as a person, but as a tJiing, that if the original title were deficient, she might be claimed, like other moveables, by the ^lse and possession of an entire year. The inclination of the Eoman husband discharged or withheld the conjugal debt, so scrupulously exacted by the Athenian and Jewish laws -.J but as polygamy was unknown he could never admit to his bed a fairer or more favoured partner. After the Punic trium])hs, the matrons of Rome aspired to the common benefits of a free and opulent republic : their wishes were gratified by the indulgence of fathers and conjectures that the name was derived, in a very early stage of lan- guage, from a common source with the Greek py)nativ and the German leissen, and denoted the removing or tearing off the husk before tha grain was fit for use. — Ed.] * Aulus Gellius (Noctes Atticac, 18. 6) gives a ridiculous definitioa of .iElius Melissus, Matrona, quae semel materfamilias quae ssepiua peperit, as porcetra and scropha in the sow kind. He then adds the genuine meaning, quae in matrimonium vel in manum convenerat. [The meaning of Aulus Gellius is quite imperfect, without the remain- ing part of his sentence, " quoad in eo matrimonio maneret, etiamsi liberi nondum nati forent; dictamque esse ita a matris nomine, uon adepta jam, sed cum spe et omiue mox adipiscendi." Not the mere entering into the married state, but the remaining in it, constituted the matron. — Ed.] + It was enough to have tasted wine, or to have stolen the key of the cellar. (Plin. Hist. Nat. 14. 14.) + Solon requires three payments per mouth. By the Misna, a daily debt was imposed uu an idle, vigorous young husband ; twice a-week on a citizen ; once on a peasant; once in thirty days on a camel-driver; once in six months on a seaman. But the student or doctor was free from tribute; and no wife, if she received a vjeeHy sustenance, could sue for a divorce : for one week a vow of abstinence was allowed. Polygamy divided, without multiplying, the duties of the husband, (Seidell. Uxor Ebraica. 1 3, c. 6, iu his works, vol. ii, p. 717 — 720.) A.D. 533-5G5.] MATRIMONIAL CONTEACT. 53 lovers, and their anibitiou was unsuccessfully re3isted by the gravity of Cato the Censor.* They declined the solemnities of the old nuptials, defeated the annual prescription by au absence of tliree days, and without losing their name or independence, subscribed tlie liberal and definite terms of a marriage-contract. Of their private fortunes, they commu- nicated the use, and secured the property ; the estates of a wife could neither be alienated nor mortgaged by a pro- digal husband ; their mutual gifts were prohibited by the jealousy of the laws ; and the misconduct of either pany might aftbrd, under another name, a future subject I'ur an action of theft. To this loose and voluntary compact, reli- gious and civil rites were no longer essential ; and, between persons of a similar rank, the apparent community of life was allowed as suflicieut evidence of their nuptials. The dignity of marriage was restored by the Christians, who derived all spiritual grace from the prayers of the faithful and the benediction of the priest or bishop. The origin, validity, and duties of the holy institution were regulated by tlie tradition of the synagogue, the precepts of the Gospel, and the canons of general or provincial synods ;t and the conscience of the Christians was awed by the decrees and censures of their ecclesiastical rulers. Yet tlie magis- trates of Justinian were not subject to the authority of the church : the emperor consulted the unbelieving civilians of antiquity, and the choice of matrimonial laws in tlie Code and Pandects, is directed by the earthly motives of justice, policy, and the natural freedom of both sexes. J Besides the agreement of the parties, the essence of every • On the Oppian law we may hear the mitigating speech of Valerius Flaccus, and tlie severe censorial oration of the elder Cato (Liv. .34, 1 — S). But we shall rather hear the polished hi.storian of the eighth, than the rough orators of the sixth, century of Home. The jirinciples, and even the style, of Cato are more accurately preserved by Aulus Gellius (10. 23). f For the system of Jewish and Catholic matrimony, see Selden (Uxor Ebraica, Op. vol. ii, p. 529 — 860), Bingham (Christian Antiquities, 1. 22), and Chardon (Hist, des Sacremens, torn vi). t The civil laws of marriage are exposed in the Institutes (1. 1, tit. 10), the Pandects (1. 23 — 25), and the Code (1. 5), but as the title De ritu nuptiarum is yet imperfect, we are obliged to explore the fragments of Ulpian (tit. 9, p. 590, 591) and the CoUatio Legum Mosaicaruni (tit. 16, p. 790, 791) with the notes of Pithicus and Schulting. They find, in the Commentary of Servius (ou the first Georgic and the fourth ^Eueid), two curious passages. 54 LIBEETT AlfD ABUSE [CH. XLIV. rational contract, tlie Eoman mai'riage required the previous approbation of the parents. A father might be forced by some recent laws to supply the wants of a mature daughter ; but even his insanity was not generally allowed to supersede the necessity of his consent. The causes of the dissolution of matrimony have varied among the Eomans ; * but the most solemn sacrament, the confarreation itself, might always be done away by rites of a contrary tendency. In the first ages, the father of a family might sell his children, and his wife was reckoned in the number of his children : the domestic judge might pronounce the death of the offen- der, or his mercy might expel her from his bed and house ; but the slavery of the wretched female was hopeless and perpetual, unless he asserted for his own convenience the manly prerogative of divorce. The warmest applause has been lavished on the virtue of the B-omans, who abstained from the exercise of this tempting privilege above five hundred years :t but the same fact evinces the unequal terms * According to Plutarch (p. 57), Romulus allowed only three grounds of a divorce — drunkeiinesg, adultery, and false keys. Other- wise, the husband who abused his supremacy, forfeited half his goods to the wife, and half to the goddess Ceres, and offered a sacrifice (with the remainder) to the terrestrial deities. This strange law was either imaginary or transient. + In the year of Rome 523, Spurius Carvilius Ruga repudiated a fair, a good, but a barren wife. (Dionysius Hal. 1. 2, p. 93. Plutarch in Numa, p. 141. Valerius Maximus, 1. 2, c. 1. Aulas Gellius, 4. 3.) He was questioned by the censors and hated by the people ; but his divorce stood unimpeached in law. [This is narrated and explained differently by Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois, liv. 16, c. 16. — Hugo.] [Plutarch does not confirm the fact of five hundred years having passed without a divorce at Rome. That of Carvilius is twice mentioned by him ; first, in his comparison between Romulus and Theseus, and then in that between Numa and Lycurgus (Op. tom. i, p. 15.5 and 3C'9, edit. Reiske). In both passages, he gives the dat^ of a.u.C. 230, adding in the last, that it was during the reign of the second Tarquin. All the other writers say A.U.C. 520 or 523. Among them the most to be trusted is Aulus Gellius, for ho Btates that he took the fact from a book of Servius Sulpicius, De Dotibus. The high character of this lawyer, recently alluded to in the present chapter, is a pledge for his accuracy. Montesquieu accepts Phitarch's date, and then very unnecessarily quotes from Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the advice of Coriolanus when guing into exile, that his wife should look out for another husband. As Volumuia did not take him at his word, this is no proof of a divorce. But after having asserted the correctness of the date, a.U.c. 230, he argues that the auger of the people was excited agaiuat Cai'vilius, not on accouut of 4 D. 533 -5G5.] OF DIVORCE. 55 of a connection in wliich tlie slave was unable to renounce her tyrant, and the tyrant was unwilling to relinquish his slave. When the Koman matrons became the equal and voluntary companions of their lords, a new jurisprudence was introduced, that marriage, like other partnerships, might be dissolved by the abdication of one of the associates. In three centuries of prosperity and corruption, this principle was enlarged to frequent practice and pernicious abuse. Passion, interest, or caprice, suggested daily motives for the dissolution of marriage ; a word, a sign, a message, a letter, the mardate of a freedman, declared the separation; the most tender of human connections was degraded to a tran- sient society of profit or pleasure. According to the various conditions of life, both sexes alternately felt the disgrace and injury ; an inconstant spouse transferred her wealth to a new family, abandoning a numerous, perhaps a spurious, progeny to the paternal authority and care of her late hus- band ; a beautiful virgin might be dismissed to the world, old, indigent, and friendless ; but the reluctance of the Romans, when they were pressed to marriage by Augustus, sufficiently marks, that the prevailing institutions were least favourable to the males.* A specious theory is con- the repudiation of his wife, but because he had submitted to the orders of the censors, officers that were not known in Rome till A.U.C. 443. There is also error in his concluding antithesis : " Plu- tarque a examind un fait, les autres ont racont^ une merveille." So intelligent, matter-of-fact a lawyer as Servius Sulpicius, would not have dealt in the marvellous and left the true to be discovered by Plutarch two centuries afterwards. Gibbon also has erred in saying that Carvilius was " questioned by the censors." Aulus Gellius states, that thej' insisted on the divorce; "a censoribus coactus est;'' nor do the words of Valerius Maximiis, " reprehensione non tamen caruit," warrant the strong expression that the severer of the nuptial tie was "hated by the people." Niebuhr, however, (Hist, of Rome, ch. 61) says that divorce was practised among the Romans at an earlier period, and that L. Antonius was expelled from the senate, A.U.C. 446, for having dismissed his wife out of wedlock without observing the usual forms. — Ed.] * [This reluctance is ascribed by Niebuhr to a very different cause. He says : " Marriage, although it was so easy to dissolve, was dis- tasteful to most men. An aversion to lawful wedlock had sprung up widely. The degeneracy and profligacy of the freeborn female Romans were so awful, that many a citizen, who was no profligate, found a much more faithful and estimable partner in a slave than in a high- bom lady, aud thuB it was looked upon as a point of conscience not to 56 LIMTTATIONS OF THE [CH. XLIT. fated by this free and perfect experiment, which deTr;on- strates, that the liberty of divorce does not contribute to happiness and virtue. The facility of separation would destroy all mutual confidence, and inflame every trifling dispute : the minute diff'erence between a husband and a stranger, which might so easily be removed, might still more easily be forgotten ; and the matron, who in five years can submit to the embraces of eight husbands, must cease to reverence the chastity of her own person.* Insufficient remedies followed , with distant and tardy steps, the rapid progress of the evil. The ancient worship of the Romans afforded a peculiar goddess to hear and reconcile the complaints of a married life ; but her epithet of Viriplaca,-\ the appeaser of husbands, too clearly indicates on which side submission and repentance were always ex- pected. Every act of a citizen was subject to the judgment of the censors ; the first who used the privilege of divorce assigned, at their command, the motives of his conduct •,J marry. The offspring of this concubinage were likewise slaves, and mostly remained so, or at least became freedmen. The many lihertini whose names are found in the inscriptions of that period, are the children whom the masters had by their female slaves. In all this the evil most deplored, was the diminution of the free population, or of those who were born citizens. To remedy this, the right of manu- mission was restricted; such laws were enacted as the ^lia Sentia, the Julia de Adulteno, and the Papia Poppcea ; but they were most ■wretched make-shifts — honour and the jus trium liherorum were equally disregarded." (Lectures, vol. iii, p. 122. 163. 187.) Such was woman, trained by lords who regarded her " not as a person, but as a thing that might be claimed like other moveables by the use and pos- session of an entire year ;" and over which the law gave an unbounded right of capricious chastisement and the jurisdiction of life and death. —Ed.] * sic fiunt octo mariti Quinque per auctumnos. Juvenal. Satir. 6. 229—230. A rapid succession which may yet be credible, as well as the non con- silium numero, sed maritorum annos suos computant, of Seneca (De Beneficiis, 3. 16). Jerome saw at Rome a triumphant husband bury his twenty-first wite, who had interred twenty-two of his less sturdy predecessors. (Op. tom. i, p. 90, ad Geroutiam.) But the ten husbands in a month of the poet Martial is an extravagant hyperbole (1. 4, epigram 7). + Sacellum Viriplacjc (Valerius Maximus, 1. 2, c. 1) in the Palatine region, appears in the time of Theodosius, in the description of Home by Publius Victor. J Valerius Maximus, 1. 2, c. 9. With some propriety he judgea A.D. 533-565.] ltbeutt of divorce. 67 and a senator was expelled for dismissing his virgin spousB without tlie knowledge or advice ot" his friends. Wlienever an action was instituted for the recovery of a marriage portion, the prcetor, as the guardian of equity, examined the cause and the characters, and gently inclined the scale in favour of the guiltless and injured party. Augustus, wlio united the powers of both magistrates, adopted their different modes of repressing or chastising the licence of divorce.* The presence of seven Roman witnesses was reqB.ired for the validity of this solemn and deliberate act : if any ade- quate provocation had been given by the husband, instead of the delay of two years, he was compelled to refund imme- diately, or in the space of six months ; but if he could arraign the manners of his wife, her guilt or levity was expiated by the loss of the sixth or eighth part of her mar- riage portion. The Christian princes were the first who specified the just causes of a private divorce ; their institu- tions, from Constantine to Justinian, appear to fluctuate between the custom of the empire and the wishes of the church, t and the author of the Novels too frequently reforms the jurisprudence of the Code and Pandects. In the most rigorous laws, a wife was condemned to support a gamester, a drunkard, or a libertine, unless he were guilty of homicide, poison, or sacrilege, in which cases the marriage, as it should seem, might liave been dissolved by the hand of the execu- tioner. But the sacred right of tlie husband was invariably maintained to deliver his name and family from the disgrace of adultery : the list of mortal sins, either male or female, was curtailed and enlarged by successive regulations, and the obstacles of incurable impotence, long absence, and monastic profession, were allowed to rescind the matrimonial obligation. AVhoever transgressed the permission of the law, was subject to various and heavy penalties. The woman was stripped of her wealth and ornaments, without excepting tlie bodkin of her hair: if the man introduced a new bride into his bed, her fortune might be lawfully seized divorce more criminal thau celibacy : illo namque conjugalia sacra epreta tantum, hoc etiam iujuriose tractata. * See the la\v.s of Augustus and his successors, in Heineccius, ad Legem Papiam Poppicam, c. 19, in Op. torn, vi, P. 1, p. 323 — 333. -f Alia; sunt leges Cwsarum, alia; Christi ; aliiid I'a]iiiiianns, allutl Paulas noster prajcipit. (Jeroui. torn, i, p. 19tJ. Seldeu, Uxor Ebraica, 1. 3, c. 31, p. 847— 853J 58 INCBST. [CH. XLTV. by the vengeance of his exiled wife. Forfeiture was some- times commuted to a fine ; the fine was sometimes aggra- vated by transportation to an island, or imprisonment in a monastery: the injured party was released from the bonds of marriage ; but the offender, during life or a term of years, was disabled from the repetition of nuptials. The successoir of Justinian yielded to the prayers of his unhappy subjects, and restored the liberty of divorce by mutual consent ; the civilians were unanimous,* the tlieologians were divided, t and the ambiguous word, which contains the precept of Christ, is flexible to any interpretation that the wisdom of a legislator can demand. The freedom of love and marriage was restrained among the Romans by natural and civil impediments. An instinct, almost innate and universal, appears to prohibit the inces- tuous commerce^ of parents and children in the infinite series of ascending and descending generations. Concern- ing the oblique and collateral branches, nature is indiiferent, reason mute, and custom various and arbitrary. In Egypt, the marriage of brothers and sisters was admitted without scruple or exception : a Spartan might espouse the daughter of his father, an Athenian that of his mother; and the nup- * The Institutes are silent, but we may consult the Codes of Theo- dosius (1. 3, tit. 16, with Godefroy's Commentary, torn, i, p. 310 — 315), and Justinian (1. 5, tit. 17) ; the Pandects (1. 24, tit. 2), and the Novels (22, 117, 127, 134, 140). Justinian fluctuated to the last between civil and ecclesiastical law. t In pure Greek, TTopvtia is not a common word ; nor can the proper meaning, fornica- tion, be strictly applied to matrimonial sin. In a figurative sense, how far, and to what offences, may it be extended ? Did Christ speak the Rabbinical or Syriac tongue ? Of what original word is Tropviia the translation ? How variously is that Greek work translated in the versions ancient and modern ! There are two (Mark x. 11 ; Luke xvi. 18) to one (Matt. xix. 9) that such ground of divorce was not accepted by Jesus. Some critics have presumed to think, by an evasive answer, he avoided the giving offence either to the school of Sammai, or to that of Hillel. (Selden, Uxor Ebraica, 1. 3, c. 18—22, 28, 31.) [Here, again, we have additional reason to deplore the loss of Matthew's original memoir. Had that been preserved, no ambiguous word in the Greek Gospels could not have been satisfactorily explained. — Ed.] + The principles of the Roman jurisprudence are exposed by Jus- tinian (Institut. 1. 1, tit. 10), and the laws and manners of the diffe- rent nations of antiquity concerning forbidden degi-ees, &c,, are copi- ously explained by Dr. Taylor, in his Elements of Civil Law (p. 108, 314 — 339), a work of amusing, though various reading; but which cannot be praised for philosophical precision. A.D. nSS-SGo.] CONCUBINES AND BASTATID8. 59 tials of an uncle with his niece were applauded at Athena as a happy union of the dearest relations. The profane lawgivers of Home were never tempted by interest or super- stition to multiply the forbidden degrees: but they inflexibly condemned the marriage of sisters and brothers, hesitated whether first-cousins should be touched by the same inter- dict ; revered the parental character of aunts and uncles, and treated affinity and adoption as a just imitation of the ties of blood. According to the proud maxims of the repub- lic, a legal marriage could only be contracted by free citizens; an honourable, at least an ingenuous, birth was required for the spouse of a senator : but the blood of kings could never mingle in legitimate nuptials with the blood of a Roman ; and the name of stranger degraded Cleopatra and Berenice,* to live the concubines of Mark Antony and Titus.f This appellation, indeed, so injurious to the majesty, cannot without indulgence be applied to the manners, of these Oriental queens. A concubine in the strict sense of the civilians was a woman of servile or plebeian extraction, the sole and faithful companion of a Roman citizen, who con- tinued in a state of celibacy. Her modest station, below the honours of a wife, above the infamy of a prostitute, was acknowledged and approved by the laws ; from the age of Augustus to the tenth century, the use of this secondary marriage prevailed both in the West and East, and the humble virtues of a concubine were often preferred to the pomp and insolence of a noble matron. In this connection, the two Antoniues, the best of princes and of men, enjoyed the comforts of domestic love ; the example was imitated by many citizens impatient of celibacy, but regardful of their families. If at any time they desired to legitimate their natural children, the conversion was instantly performed by the celebration of their nuptials with a partner whose fruit- fulness and fidelity they had already tried. J By this epithet * When her father Agrippa died (a.d. 44), Berenice was sixteen years of age. (Joseph, toni. i, Antiquit. Judaic. 1. 19, c. 9, p. 952, edit. Havercamp.) She was therefore above fifty years old when Titus (a.d. 79) invitus iuvitam invisit. This date would not have adorned the tragedy or pastoral of the teuder Racine. f The ^Egyptia conjux of Virgil (rEiieid. 8, 688) seems to be num- bered among the monsters who warred with Mark Antony against Augustus, the senate, and the gods of Italy. X [This right was first given by one of Constantine's laws, for 60 GUAEDTANS [Cll. XLTV. oi natural, the oifspring of the concubine were distinguished from the spurious brood of adultery, prostitution, and incest, to whom Justinian reluctantly grants the necessary aliments of life ; and these natural children alone were capable of succeeding to a sixth part of the inheritance of tlieir reputed father. According to the rigour of law, bastards were entitled only to the name and condition of their mother, from whom they might derive the character of a slave, a stranger, or a citizen. The outcasts of every family were adopted without reproach as the children of the State.* The relation of guardian and ward, or, in Eoman words, of tutor and pupil, whicli covers so many titles of the Institutes and Pandects,t is of a very simple and uniform nature. The person and property of an orphan must always be trusted to the custody of some discreet friend. If the deceased father had not signified his choice, the agnats, or paternal kindred of the nearest degree, were compelled to act as the natural guardians : the Athenians were apprehen- sive of exposing the infant to the power of those most interested in his death ; but an axiom of Koman jurispru- dence has pronounced, that the charge of tutelage should constantly attend the emolument of succession. If the clioice of the father, and the line of consanguinity, afforded no efficient guardian, the failure was supplied by the nomi- nation of the praetor of the city, or the president of the Augustus had prohibited concubinage with any female who might be taken for a wife. Subsequent marriage made no new rights for children previously born. Recourse was then had to adoption, or more proi)erly to arrogation. — Hugo.] [The arrogatio could not take place till the adopted was of full :ige, vesticeps, had assumed the toga virilis, and was competent to answer for himself. The parties had to appear before the Comitia, where the questions were put from which the ceremony had its name. "Arrogatio per populi ro^afiowem. fit.' See Aulus Gellius, 5, 19, where the uhole form of the proceeding is described. From this it is evident, that these popular assemblie'- continued to be held for .some purposes in his days. Diocletian trans- ferred the ceremony to the Praitor ; this was probably the final death- blow of the Comitia. — Ed.] * The humble but legal rights of concubines and natural childreu, are stated in the Institutes (1. 1, tit. 10), the Pandects (1. 1, tit. 7), the Code (1. 5, tit. 2^)), and the Novels (1. 74, 89). The researches ot Heineccius and Giannone (ad Legem .Juliam et Papiam-Poppream, c. 4, J). \M — 17 — Opere Posthume, p. 108 — 158) illustrate this interesting and domestic subject. + See the article of Guardians and Wards in the Institutes (1. 1, tit. 13- -26), the Pandects (1. 26, 27), A.D. 533-505.] AXD WAED8. 01 province. But the person whom they named to this pvhJie oflice niiglit be legally excused by insanity or blindness, by ignorance or inability, by previous enmity or adverse interest, by the number of children or guardianships with which he was already burdened, and by the immunities which were granted "to the useful labours of magistrates, lawyers, physicians, and professors. Till the infant could speak and think, he was represented by the tutor, whose authority was finally determined by the age of puberty. Without his consent, no act of the pupil could bind himself to his own prejudice, though it might oblige others for his personal benelit. It is needless to observe that the tutor often gave security, and always rendered an account ; and tliat the want of diligence or integrity exposed him to a civil and almost criminal action for the violation of his sacred trust. The age of puberty had been rashly fixed by the civilians at fourteen ;* but as the faculties of tlie mind ripen more slowly than those of the body, a curator was inter- ])0sed to guard the fortunes of the Eoman youth from his own inexperience and headstrong passions. 8uch a trustee had been first instituted by the praetor, to save a family iVom the blind havoc of a prodigal or madman ; and the minor was compelled by the laws, to solicit the same pro- tection to give validity to his acts till he accomplished the full period of twenty-live years. Women were condemned to the perpetual tutelage of parents, husbands, or guardians; a sex created to please and obey was never supposed to have attained the age of reason and experience. Such at least was the stern and haughty spirit of the ancient law, whicli had been insensibly mollilied before the time of Justinian. II. The original right of property can only be justitied and the Code (1. 5, tit. 28—70). * [The civilians had not " rashly fixed tiie age of puberty at fourteen." There was no law on this subject before that of Justiuiau. Uljsian relates the discussions which took place respecting it, among the various law-sects. See the Institutes (1. 1, tit. 22), and Ulpian's Fragments. Xor was every minor obliged to have a guardian. — W.vknkonig.] [If no law fixed the age of majority, custom appears to have made a man his own master at a very early time of life. According to Horace, the " beardless youth" was freed from restraint of guardians, and at liberty to do as ha pleased. Imberbis juvenis, tandem custode remote, Gaudet « « * mouitoribus asper. — De Arte Poet. 161. — Ed.] 62 ORIGIN AND EIGHTS [CH. XLIV bj'' the accident or merit of prior occupancy ; and on this foundation it is wisely established by the philcsophy of the civilians.* The savage who hollows a tree, inserts a sharp stone into a wooden handle, or applies a string to an elastic branch, becomes in a state of nature the just proprietor of the canoe, the bow, or the hatchet. The materials were common to all ; the new form, the produce of his time and simple industry, belongs solely to himself. His hungry brethren cannot, without a sense of their own injustice, pxtort from the hunter the game of the forest overtaken or slain by his personal strength and dexterity. If his provi- dent care preserves and multiplies the tame animals, whose nature is tractable to the arts of education, he acquires a perpetual title to tiie use and service of their numerous progeny, which derives its existence from him alone. If he encloses and cultivates a field for their sustenance and his own, a barren waste is converted into a fertile soil ; the seed, the manure, the labour, create a new value, and the rewards of harvest are painfully earned by the fatigues of the revolving year. In the successive states of society, the hunter, the shepherd, the husbandman, may defend their possessions by two reasons which forcibly appeal to the feelings of the human mind — that whatever they enjoy is the fruit of their own industry ; and, that every man who envies their felicity, may purchase similar acquisitions by the exer- cise of similar diligence. Such, in truth, may be the free- dom and plenty of a small colony cast on a fruitful island. But the colony multiplies while the space still continues the same ; the common rights, the equal inheritance of mankind, are engrossed by the bold and crafty ; each field and forest is circumscribed by the landmarks of a jealous master ; and it is the peculiar praise of the Koman jurisprudence, that it asserts the claim of the first occupant to the wild animals of the earth, the air, and the waters. In the progress from primitive equity to final injustice, the steps are silent, the shades are almost imperceptible, and the absolute monopoly is guarded by positive laws and artificial reason. The active insatiate principle of self-love can alone supply the arts of * Institut. 1. 2, tit. 1, 2. Compare tlie pure and precise reasoning of Cains and Heineccius (1. 2, tit. 1, p. 69 — 91) with the loose prolixity of Theophilns (p. 207 — 265). The opinions of Ulpian are preserved iu the Pandects (L 1, tit. 8, leg. 41, No. 1). A.D. 533-oG5.] OF phopeett. 63 life and tlie waives of industry ; and as soon as civil govern- ment and exclusive property have been introduced, they become necessary to the existence of the human race. Except in the singular institutions of Sparta, the wisest legislators have disapproved an Agrarian law as a false and dangerous innovation. Among the Eomans, the enormous disproportion of wealth surmounted the ideal restraints of a doubtful tradition, and an obsolete statute ; a tradition \hat the poorest follower of Komulus had been endowed with the perpetual inlieritance of two jitgera ;* a statute which confined the richest citizen to the measure of five hundred jugera, or three hundred and twelve acres of land. The original territory of Eome consisted only of some miles of wood and meadow along the banks of the Tiber ; and * The heredium of the first Romans is defined by Varro (de Re Rustica, i. 1, c. 2, p. 141 ; c. 10, p. 160, 161, edit. Gesner), and clouded by Pliny's declamation. (Hist. Natur. 18, 2.) A just and learned com- ment is given in the Administration des Terres chez les Komains (p. 12 — 66). [Niebuhr's dissert;itions on the Jus Agrarium (Lectures, vol. i, p. 249 — 257, 393 ; ii, p. 271 — 277) are worthy of attention, as this subject led him to his Critical Researches in Roman history. He there shows, that the limitations here referred to by Gibbon, applied only to the aijer publicus, or public lands, which were the portions of conquered territories — generally a third — that were taken possession of by the State. Wherever it seemed to be desirable, three hundred colonists, one from each yens, were sent, and to each of them a garden of two jugera was allotted. But they could hire parts of the remaining lands to cultivate, these being let or granted by the State, for an annual payment of decuma, or a tenth part on corn, quinta, or a fifth of fruit, and other rates on pasture grounds and cattle. Favoured by the authorities, the patricians divided so large a share of these among themselves, that it gave rise to the well-known protracted disputes between them and the plebes. About the year a.U.C. 380, the Licinian law was enacted, prohibitmg any one individual to hold more than 500 jugera. This law being evaded or neglected, long dis- cussions again followed, and about 240 years afterwards, it was re- vived by Tiberius Gracchus, but so far modified, that in addition to bis own share, a father of a family might hold 250 jugera for each of two sons still in patria potestate, making a thousand in all. This was not, therefore, such a violation or restriction of private property as has been supposed, as it secured only a more general distribution of the ager pahlicus. Any other estate a citizen was at liberty to acquire as he could. To this Niebuhr adds : " Five hundred jugera are equal to seventy mbbii now, which in Italy is considered to be a respectablo property. In that country a larger is not required. Where tha district is fertile, such an estate, well managed, produces a net annual income of five thousand crowns, by letting it out in farms." — Ed.J 61 EIGHTS or PROPEETT. [CH. XLIV. domestic exchange could add nothing to the national stock. But the goods of an alien or enemy were lawfully exposed to the first hostile occupier; the city was enriched by the profitable trade of war ; and the blood of her sons was the only price that was paid for the Volscian sheep, the slaves of Britain, or the gems and gold of Asiatic kingdoms. In the language of ancient jurisprudence, which was corrupted and forgotten before the age of Justinian, these spoils were distinofuished by the name of vwnccps or mancipium, taken with the hand ; and whenever they were sold or emancipated, tlie purchaser required some assurance that they had been the property of an enemy, and not of a fellow-citizen.* A citizen could only forfeit his rights by apparent dereliction, and such dereliction of a valuable interest could not easily be presumed. Yet, according to the Twelve Tables, a pre- scription of one year for moveables, and of two years for immoveables, abolished the claim of the ancient master, if * The res mancipi is explained, from faint and remote lights, by Ulpian (Fragment, tit. 18, p. 618, 619) and Bynkershoek (0pp. torn, i, p. 306 — 315). The definition is somewhat arbitrary ; and as none except myself have assigned a reason, I am diffident of my own. [To determine ownership, the Roman law held no transfers to be valid that did not take place publicly, or in the presence of duly appointed commissioners. This was found to be impracticable in such transac- tions as the purchase of provisions, clothing, &c., and was, therefore, dispensed with. Hence arose the distinction between res mancipi, or property, in the acquisition of which the ceremony had been observed, and the nee mancipi, which pertained to that enjoyed by the common tenure of possession. The former included all articles of value, such as lands, houses, slaves, and cattle ; and as buildings in the midst of Rome were so classed, this disproves Gibbon's theory of their being the spoils of war. None but a citizen was competent to go through the forms of mancipation, so that aliens were excluded from holding Buch property. — Hugo.] [M. Warnkonig's note on this subject is too long to be added here, and was intended only for the lawyers of his country. He has drawn from the Institutes of Gaius many minute details not generally useful. M. Hugo's shorter explanation is clear, but does not give the real signification of the term. The mancipatio required the j)reseuce of five full-aged Eoman citizens as witne.sses, and a sixth, called the lihripens, to hold a pair of brass scales. The purchaser placed his money in these, and laid his hand on what he bought, repeating a prescribed form of words. This was the in manum capcre, whence the term was derived. In a following page Gibbon has referred to this ceremony, as observed in the disposal of estates. But mancipia continued to denote servi homines in the middle ages (Ducange, 4, 390), and hence hberation from servitude was designated manumisaio and cmandpatio. — Ed.] A.D. o33-5G5.] INill-UlTANCE AND SUCCE8SIOX. G5 the actual possessor had acquired them by a fair transaction from the person wliom he believed to be the lawful pro- ])rietor.* Such conscientious injustice, without any mixture ot fraud or force, could seldom injure the members of a small republic : but the various periods of three, of ten, or ot twenty years, determined by Justinian, are more suitable to the latitude of a great em])ire. It is only in the term of prescription that the distinction of real and personal fortune has been remarked by the civilians, and tlieir general idea of property is that of simple, uniform, and absolute liominion. Tlie subordinate exceptions of line, of nsi(/ruct,f of servitudes, X imposed for the benefit of a neighbour on laiuls and liouscs, are abundantly explained by the professors of jurisprudence. The claims of property, as far as they are altered, by the mixture, the division, or the transformation of substances, are investigated with metaphysical subtlety by tlie same civilians. The personal title of the first proprietor must be deter- mined by his death ; but the possession, without any appear- ance of change, is peaceably continued in his children, the associates of his toil and the partners of his wealth. Thijs luitural inheritance has been protected by the legislators of every climate and age, and the father is encouraged to per- severe in slow and distant improvenu;iits, by the tender hope, that a long posterity will enjoy the fruits of his labour. The principle of hereditary succession is universal, but the order has been variously established by convenience or caprice, by the spirit of national institutions, or by some partial example, which was originally decided by fraud or violence. The jurisprudence of the Komans appears to have deviated from the equality of nature, much less than the * From this short prescription, Hume (Essays, vol. i, p. 423) infers that there could not then be more oriler and settlement in Italy thau now amongst the Tartars. By the civilian of his adversary Wallace, he is reproached, and not without reason, for overlooking the condi- tions. (Institut. 1. 2, tit. 6.) t See the Institutes (1. 1, tit. 4, 5), and the Pandects (1. 7). Noodt has composed a learned and distinct treatise de UsutVuctu (0pp. torn, i, p. 387 — 478). X The questions de Servitutibus are di.scussed in the Institutes, (1. 2, tit. 3), and Pandects (1. 8). Cicero (pro Murena, c. 9) and Lactantius (Institut. Divin. 1. 1, c. 1) afi'ect to laugh at the in.>;ignili- cant doctrine, de aqua pluvia arcenda, &c. Yet it might be of fre- quent use among litigious neighbours, both iu town and cmutry. VOL. V. V 6G CITIL DEOEEES [CH. XLIT. Jewisli,* the Athenian,t or the English institutions. :J: On the death of a citizen, all his descendants, unless they were already treed from his paternal power, were called to the inheritance of his possessions. The insolent prerogative of primogeniture was unknown : the two sexes were placed on a just level; all the sons and daughters were entitled to an equal portion of the patrimonial estate; and if any of the sous had been intercepted by a premature death, his person was represented, and his share was divided by his surviving children. On the failure of the direct line, the right of succession must diverge to the collateral branches. The degrees of kindred§ are numbered by the civilians, ascending from the last possessor to a common parent, and descending from the common parent to the next heir: my father stands in the first degree, my brother in the second, his children in the third, and the remainder of the series may be con- ceived by fancy, or pictured in a genealogical table. In this computation, a distinction was made, essential to the laws and even the constitution of Rome ; the arjnats, or persons connected by a line of males, were called, as they stood in the nearest degree, to an equal partition ; but a female was incapable of transmitting any legal claims ; and * Among the patriarchs, the first-bom enjoyed a mystic and spiritual primogeniture. (Gen. xxv. 31.) In the land of Canaan he was entitled to a double jjortion of inheritance. (Deut. xxi. 17, with Le Clerc's judicious Commentary.) + At Athens the sous were equal, but the poor daughters were endowed at the discretion of their brothers. See the KX»'/p(/coi pleadings of Isicus (in the seventh volume of the Greek Orators), illustrated by the version and comment of Sir William Jones, a scholar, a lawyer, and a man of genius. J In England, the eldest son alone inherits all the land ; a law, says the orthodox judge Blackstone (Commentaries on the Laws of England, vol. ii, p. 215), unjust only in the opinion of younger brothers. It may be of some political use in sharpening their industry. [Gibbon here refers to heritable lands, not those devised by will. He should have added, that unsettled landed property can be divided by a parent among all his children, and that even entails may be barred. There are also manors, in which the old Kentish law or custom of Gavelkind still divides unwilled lands equally among all the Kons of the deceased lord; and others, in which that of Borowjh- Enylisk gives them to the youngest. — Ed.] § Blackstone's Tables (vol. ii, p. 202) represent and compare the degrees of the civil with those of the canon and common law. A separate tract of Julius Paulus. de f^i-adibus et affinibus, is inserted t)r abridged in the Pandects (1. 38, tit. 10). In the seventh degrees Ue computes (No. 18) one thousand and twenty-four persons. A.D. 533-565.1 OF KINDRED. 67 the coqnats of every rank, wltliout excepting the dear rela- tion of a mother and a son, were disinherited by the Twelve Tables, as strangers and aliens. Among the Romans, a gens or lineage was united by a common name, and domestic rites : the various cognomens or surnames of 8oipio or Mar- cellus, distinguished from each other the subordinate brandies or families of the Cornelian or Claudian race : the default of the agnats, of the same surname, was supplied by the larger denomination of Gentiles ; and the vigilance of the laws maintained, in the same name, the perpetual descent of religion and property. A similar principle dic- tated the Voconian law ;* which abolished the right of female inheritance. As long as virgins were given or sold in marriage, the adoption of the wile extinguished the hopes of the daughter. But the equal succession of independent matrons supported their pride and luxury, and might trans- port into a foreign house the riches of their fathers. While the maxims of Catof were revered, they tended to per- petuate in each family a just and virtuous mediocrity ; till lemale blandishments insensibly triumphed, and every salu- tary restraint was lost in the dissolute greatness of the republic. The rigour of the decemvirs was tempered by the equity of the praetors. Their edicts restored emancipated and posthumous children to the rights of nature; and upon the failure of the agnats, they preferred the blood of the cognats to the name of the Gentdes, whose title and cha- racter were insensibly covered with oblivion. The reci- procal inheritance of mothers and sons was established in the TertuUian and Orphitian decrees by the humanity of the senate. A new and more impartial order was intro- duced bv the Novels of Justinian, who ailected to revive the jurisprudence of the Twelve Tables. The lines of masculine and female kindred were confounded : the descending, ascending, and collateral series, was accurately defined ; and each degree, according to the proximity of blood and afl'ec- • The Voconian law was enacted in the year of Rome 584. The younger Scipio, who was then seventeen years of age (Freinshemius, Supplement. Livian. 46. 40), found an occasion of exercising his gene- rosity to his mother, sisters, &c. (Polybius, torn, ii, 1. 31, p. 1453 — 1464, edit. Gronov. — a domestic witness.) t Legem Voconiam (Ernesti, Clavis Ciceroniana) magna voce bonis lateribus (at sixty-five years of age) suasissem, say.s old Cato. (Do Senectute, c. 5.) Aulas GeUius (7, 13, 17, 6) has saved some passages. (i8 INTRODUCTION AND LIBERTY [CH. XLIV tion, succeeded to the vacant possessions of a Roman citizen.* The order of succession is regulated by nature, or at least by the general and permanent reason of the lawgiver ; but this order is frequently violated by the arbitrary and partial tcills which prolong the dominion of the testator beyond the grave. f In the simple state of society, this last use or abuse of the right of property is seldom indulged: it was introduced at Athens by the laws of Solon ; and the private testaments of tlie father of a family are authorized by the Twelve Tables. Before the time of the decemvirs, J a Eoman citizen exposed his wishes and motives to the assembly of the thirty curiae or parishes, and the general law of inheritance was suspended by an occa- sional act of the legislature. After the permission of the decemvirs, each private lawgiver promulgated his verbal or written testament in the presence of live citizens, who represented the five classes of the Eoman people ; a sixth witness attested their concurrence ; a seventh weighed the copper money, which was paid by an imaginary purchaser ; and the estate was emancipated by a fictitious sale and immediate release. This singular ceremony, § which excited the wonder of the Greeks, was still practised in the age of Severus ; but the praetors had already approved a more simple testament, for which they required the seals and signatures of seven witnesses, free from all legal exception, * See the law of succession in the Institutes of Caius (1. 2, tit. 8, p. 130 — 144), and Justinian (1. 3, tit. 1 — 6 with the Greek version of Theophilus, p. 515—575, 588—600), the Pandects (1. 38, tit. 6—17), the Code (1. 6, tit. 55—60), and the Novels (118). •f- That succession was the rule, testament the exception, is proved by Taylor (Elements of Civil Law, p. 519 — 527), a learned, rambling, spirited writer. In the second and third books the method of the Institutes is doubtless preposterous ; and the chancellor Duquesseau (CEuvres, torn, i, p. 275) wishes his countryman Domat in the place of Tribonian. Yet covenants before successions is not surely the natural order of the civil laws. 'X Prior examples of testaments are perhaj)s fabulous. At Athens, a childless father only could make a will. (Plutarch, in Solon, torn, i, p. 164. See Isa3us and Jones.) § The testament of Augustus is specified by Suetonius (in August, c. 101, in Neron. c. 4), who may be studied as a code of Roman antiquities. Plutarch (Opuscul. torn, ii, p. 976) is sui-prised orcn' £k SuiOriKaQ y^tcKpiomi' irtnoiig fi(i> mroXtiiTovai KXrjpoi'onovc, tripoi C't ttioXovti Tcit; ovc'kiq. The language of Ulpian (Fragment, tit. 20, p. 627, edit. Schulting) is A.D. 533-5G5.] OF TESTAMENTS 69 and purposely summoned for the execution of that im- portant act. A domestic monarch, who reigned over the lives and fortunes of Ida cluldrcii, mi^lit distribute their respective shares according to the degrees of tlieir merit or his affection : his arbitrary displeasure chastised an un- worthy son by the loss of his inheritance and the mortify- ing preference of a stranger. But the experience of unnatural ])arents recommended some limitations of their testamentary powers. A son, or, by the laws of Justinian, even a daughter, could no longer be disinherited by their silence: tiiey were conipeiled to name tlie criminal, and to specify the offence; and the justice of the emperor enum- erated the sole causes that could justify such a violation ot the first principles of nature and society.* Unless a legi- timate portion, a fourth part, had been reserved for the children, they were entitled to institute an action or coin- phiint of inq'l/icious testament, to suppose that their father's understanding was impaired by sickness or age ; and respect- fully to appeal from his rigorous sentence to the deliberate wisdom of the magistrate. In the lloman jurisprudence, an essential distinction was admitted between the inherit- ance and the legacies. The heirs who succeeded to the entire unity, or to any of the twelve fractions of the sub- stance of the testator, represented his civil and religious character, asserted his rights, fulfilled his obligations, and discharged the gifts of friendship or liberality which his last will had bequeathed under the name of legacies. But as the imprudence or prodigality of a dying man might exhaust the inheritance, and leave only risk and labour to his successor, he was empowered to retain the Falcidiaii portion ; to deduct, before the payment of the legacies, a clear fourth for his own emolument. t A reasonable time almost too exclusive — solum in \i9u est. * Justinian ^ Novel. 115, No. 3, 4) enumerates only the public and private crimes, lor which a son might likewise disinherit his father. + [After the Twelve Tables had allowed the free testamentary dis- position of property, the privilege was greatly abused, to the injury of tamilies and lawful lieirs. So early as the year a.U.C. 4;")0, an attempt was made to check this by the Lc.c Furia Testanientaria (Xiebuiir's Lectures, 1. 303). In the last days ol the republic, about a.U.c. 7ir>, the tribune Falcidius proposed and carried a law, prohibiting a citizen to dispose of more than three-fourths of his jiroperty by bib will, and thus securing at least the other fourth to his rightful heir or 70 CODICILS [CH. ILIV. ■was allowed to examine the proportion between the debts and the estate, to decide whether he should accept or refuse the testament ; and if he vised the benefit of an inventory, the demands of the creditors could not exceed the valua- tion of the effects. The last will of a citizen might be altered during his life, or rescinded after his death : the persons whom he named might die before him, or reject the inheritance, or be exposed to some legal disqualification. In the contemplation of these events, he was permitted to substitute second and third heirs, to replace each other according to the order of the testament ; and the incapacity of a madman or an infant to bequeath his property, might be supplied by a similar substitution.* But the power of the testator expired with the acceptance of the testament : each Roman of mature age and discretion acquired the absolute dominion of his inheritance, and the simplicity of the civil law was never clouded by the long and intricate entails which confine the happiness and freedom of unborn generations. Conquest and the formalities of law established the use o( codicils. If a lioman was surprised by death in a remote province of the empire, he addressed a short epistle to hi a legitimate or testamentary heir ; who fulfilled with honour, or neglected with impunity, this last request, which the judges before the age of Augustus were not authorized to enforce. A codicil might be expressed in any mode, or in any language ; but the subscription of five witnesses must declare that it was the genuine composition of the author. His intention, however laudable, was sometimes illegal ; and the invention of Jidei-cominissa, or trusts, arose from the struggle between natural justice and positive jurisprudence. A stranger of Greece or Africa might be the friend or benefactor of a childless Roman, but none, except a fellow- citizen, could act as his heir. The Voconian law, which abolished female succession, restrained the legacy or in- heirs. This is the " Falcidian portion" to which Gibbon has alluded. —Ed.] * The substitutions Jidei-commissaires of the modern civil law is a feudal idea grafted on the Roman jurisprudence, and bears scarcely any resemblance to the ancient fidei commi?sa. (Institutions du Droit Fran9ois, torn, i, p. 347 — 383. Denissart, Ddcisions de Jui'isprudence, torn, iv, p. 577 — 604.) They were stretched to the fourth degree by an abuse of the one hundred and fifty-ninth Novel ; a partial, pei'plexed, 4..D. 533-5G5.] AND TEUSTS. 71 heritance of a woman to the sum of one hundred thousand sesterces;* and an only dau2;hter was condemned almost as an alien in her lather's liouse. The zeal of friendship and parental affection su^^gested a liberal artifice : a qualified citizen was named in the testament, with a prayer or in- junction that he would restore the inheritance to the per- son for whom it was truly intended. Various was the conduct of the trustees in this painful situation : they had sworn to observe the laws of their country, but honour prompted them to violate their oath ; and if they ])reterred their interest under the mask of patriotism, they forfeited the esteem of every virtuous mind. The declaration of Augustus relieved their doubts, gave a legal sanction to confidential testaments and codicils, and gently unravelled the forms and restraints of the republican jurisprudence.t liut as the new practice of trusts degenerated into some abuse, the trustee was enabled by the Trebellian and Pegasian decrees, to reserve one-fourth of the estate, or to transfer on the head of the real heir all the debts and actions of the succession. The interpretation of testaments was strictly literal ; but the language of trusts and codicils was delivered from the minute and technical accuracy ot tlie civilians. J III. The general duties of mankind are imposed by their declamatory law. * Dion Cassias (torn, ii, 1. 56, p. 814, with Reimar's Notes) specifies in Greek money the sum of twenty-five thousand drachms. [Many and widely different have been the inter- pretations of this law. Gibbon, by "temale succession," evidently means the general right of inheriting intestate property. Doujat, in his edition of Livy, " Ad usum Delphiui," maintains, by a long note on ICpitome, c. 41, that the exclusion extended only to the heiresses of first-class citizens — "non quorumvis civiuni. sed locupletiorum, prima; classis, qui 125 millia an-is, ampliusve, censi erant." Niebuhr, on the other hand, makes it prohibit even legacies of any an-ount. He must have overlooked the passage in Dion Cassius. The law, in relation to an only daughter, is thus exjilained bj' him in his Lectures (2. 225). " The Lex Voconia forbade all bequests of property to females, except in the case of an only daughter. This clause was founded on the relations of the clans, such a child being bound, as in Attica, to marry within her own r/ens, so that the fortune did not go into another." — Ed.] t The revolutions of the Koman laws of inheritance are finely, though sometimes fancifully, deduced by Montesquieu. (Esprit des Loix, 1. 27.) :;; Of the civil jurisprudence of successions, testaments, codicils, legacies, and trusts, the principles are ascertained in the Institutes of Caius (L 2, tit 2- -9, p. 91—141), Juttiuian (I. 2, 72 LEGAL ACTIONS — PllOMTSES. [CU. XLIV. public and private relations: but their specific ohlir/ations to each other can only be the ell'ect of, 1. a promise, 2. a benefit, or, 3. an injury: and when these obligations are ratified by law, the interested party may compel the per- lormance by a judicial action. On this principle the civil- ians of every country have erected a similar jurisprudence, the fair conclusion of universal reason and justice.* 1. The goddess of /aeV/i (of human and social fai*-ublic virtue (Essays, vol. i, p. 22, 23). I would rather say that such ebullitions of mischief (as in France in the year 1680) are accidents and prodigies which leave no marks on the manners of a nation. [Livy himself doubts the earliest of these : " non omnes auctores sunt." Great sickness and mortality prevailed in Rome a.U.C. 422, and the wives of 190 patricians are said to have been convicted on the evidence of an " ancilla," of having administered or prepared poison for all their families. No motive whatever is assigned for so diabolical a conspiracy, and the whole tale is so full of inconsistencies, that Niebuhr left it unnoticed. (See Appendix to A.D. 533-5G5.] TWELVE TABLES. 79 The parricide who violated the duties of nature and grati- tude, was cast into the river or the sea, enclosed iu a sack ; and a cock, a viper, a dog, and a monkey, were successively added as the most suitable companions.* Italy produces no monkeys ; but the want could never be lelt, till the middle of the sixth century first revealed the guilt of a par- ricide. f 4. The malice o^ an i/iceiuliari/. After the previous ceremony of wliipping, he himself was delivered to the flames ; and in this example alone our reason is tempted to applaud the justice of retaliation. 5. Judicial perjury. The corrupt or malicious witness was thrown headlong from the Tarpeian rock to expiate his falsehood, which was ren- dered still more fatal by the severity of the penal laws, and the deficiency of written evidence. G. The corruption of a judge, who accepted bribes, to pronounce an iniquitous sentence. 7. Libels and satires, whose rude straius some- times disturbed the peace of an illiterate city. The author was beaten with clubs, a worthy chastisement, but it is not certain that he was left to expire under the blows of the executioner.! 8. The nocturnal mischief of dania<2;infi' or destroying a neighbour's corn. The criminal was suspended as a grateful victim to Ceres. But the Sylvan deities were his History of Rome, vol. ii, p. 262, edit. Bohn.) The other i.s said to have occurred in Sardinia a.u.c. 674, when C. Mocnius was sent there as praetor. It is related with the most otf-hand indifference. If 3000 jiersons had bt^en implicated in such a crime, there would surely have been some formal record of their guilt and punishment. The criminals and their victims would have left the island almost uninhabited. — Ed.] * The Twelve Tables and Cicero (pro Roscio Amerino, c. 25, 26) are content with the sack ; Seneca (Excerpt. Controvers. 5, 4) adorns it with serpents ; Juvenal pities the guiltless monkey (innoxia simia — Satir. 13. 156) Hadrian (apud Dositheum Magi.strum, 1. 3, c. 16, p. 874 — 876, with Schulting's Note), Modestinus (Pandect. 48, tit. 9, leg. 9^, Constaiitine (Cod. 1. 9, tit. 17), and Justinian (Institut. 1. 4, tit. 18), enumerate all the companions of the parricide. But this fanciful execution was simplified in practice. Hodie tamen vivi exuruntur vel ad bestias dantur (Paul. Sentent. Recept. 1. 5, tit. 24, p. 512, edit. Schulting). f The first parricide at Rome was L. Ostius, after the second Punic war (Plutarch in Romulo, tom. i, p. 57). During the Cimbric, P. Malleolus was guilty of the first matricide (Liv. Epitom. 1. 66). t Horace talks of the formidine fustis (1. 2, epi.st. 2. 154); but Cicero de Republica (1. 4, apud Augustin, de Civitat. Dei, 1. 2, c. 9, in Fragment. Philosoph. tom. iii, p. 393, edit. Olivet) affirms, that the decemvirs made libels a capital offence : cum perpaucas res capite sanxissent — perpaucas I 80 SEfEElTl' OF THE TWELVE TABLES. [CU. XLIT. less implacable, and the extirpation of a more valuable tree was compensated by the moderate fine of twenty-five pounds of copper. 9. Magical incantations ; which had power, iu the opinion of the Latin shepherds, to exhaust the strengtli of an enemy, to extinguish his life, and to remove from their seats his deep-rooted plantations. The cruelty of the Twelve Tables against insolvent debtors still remains to be told ; and I shall dare to prefer the literal sense of antiquity, to the specious refinements of modern criticism.* After the judicial proof or confession of the debt, thirty days of grace were allowed before a Eoman was delivered into the power of his fellow-citizen. In this private prison, twelve ounces * Bynkershoek (Observat. Juris Rom. 1. 1, c. 1, in 0pp. torn, i, p. 9 — 11) labours to prove that the creditors divided not the body, but the price of the insolvent debtor. Yet his interpretation is one perpetual hai-sh metaphor : nor can he surmount the Roman autho- rities of Quintilian, Crecilius, Favonius, and Tertullian. See Aulas Gellius, Noct. Attic. 20. 1. [Aulus Gellius, in an imaginary conver- sation, satirizes the barbarisms of early language, by laughing at a literal interpretation of the word secanio in the twelve tables. Ctecilius and Favonius are only supposed interlocutors, and must not be mistaken for assertors of a horrid legal right which never existed. No Roman jurist ever contended for it, and Gibbon treats it with the same irony as Aulus Gellius, who concludes in the following words: " Dissectum esse autiquitus neminem, equidem, neque legi, neque audivi." Had the question ever been gravely regarded in a different light Montesquieu would not have failed to notice it, when he sc severely condemned the cruelty of the Roman law, for dooming an insolvent debtor even to slavery (Espi-it des Lois, 12. 21). Niebuhr, who in his History (c. 40) had taken the word secanto literally, after- wards placed in a very clear and correct light the Roman " Law of Debtors " (Lectures 1. 224 — 23S) : A borrower could pledge himself and his family for the debt incurred. In the event of his inability to pay, they all became slaves, or more properly nexi. Sometimes the debtor himself was imprisoned and harshly treated, in the hope that his kindred would pay the money and release him : or they were all sold; or they were allowed to work till the produce of their labour was equivalent to the demand of the creditors, and then freedom was regained. Iu the two latter cases, where there were several creditor?, each had his share ; and this was the division of the person, which, by straining the letter of the law, might be mi.'~taken for a dismember raeul of the body. The individual who thus came into bondage was not tei-med servus, but nexus, as being conditioually bound, and could at any time be restored to full liberty, by the payment of what he owed. This is quite incompatible with the cruel right of putting him to death. More justly might it have been imagined that Shakspeare had studied the Roman law for his defence of Antonio against Shyiock ; " Si plus minusve secuerint, se fraude esto." — Ed.] A..D. o3o-oG5.] AnoLiriON of penal laws. SI of rice were his daily food ; lie miglit be bound with a chain oftifteen pounds weight ; and his misery was thrice exposed iu the market-place, to solicit the compassion of his friends and countrymen. At the expiration of sixty days, the debt was discharged by tlie loss of liberty or life ; the insolvent debtor was either put to death, or sold in foreign slavery beyond the Tiber : but if several creditors were alike obsti- nate and unrelenting, they might legally dismember his bodv and satiate their revenge by this horrid partition. Tiie advocates for this savage law have insisted, that if- must strongly operate in deterring idleness and fraud from con- tracting debts which they were unable to discharge ; but experience would dissipate this salutary terror, by provinor that no creditor could be found to exact this unprofitable penalty of life or limb. As tlie manners of Rome were insensibly polished, the criminal code of the decemvirs was abolished by the humanity of accusers, witnesses, and judges; and impunity became the consequence of immo- derate rigour. The Porcian and Valerian laws prohibited the magistrates from inflicting on a free citizen any capital, or even corporal punishment ; and the obsolete statutes of blood were artfully, and perhaps truly, ascribed to the spirit, not of patrician, but of regal, tyranny. In the absence of penal laws and the insufficiency of civil actions, the peace and justice of the city were imperfectlv maintained by the private jurisdiction of the citizens. The malefactors who replenish our gaols are the outcasts of society, and the crimes for which they suffer may be com- monly ascribed to ignorance, poverty, and brutal appetite. For the perpetration of similar enormities, a vile plebeian might claim and abuse the sacred character of a member of the republic : but on the proof or suspicion of guilt, the slave, or the stranger, was nailed to a cross, and this strict and summary justice might be exercised without restraint over the greatest part of the populace of Eomc. Each family contained a domestic tribunal, which was not confined, like that of the praetor, to the cognizance of external actions: virtuous principles and habits were inculcated by the disci- ])line of education; and the Eoman father was accountable to the State for the manners of his children, since he disposed, without appeal, of their life, their liberty, and their inheri- tance, lu some pressing emergenciea, the citizen was VOL. V. a 82 ABOLITION OP PEFAL LAWS. [CH. XLIT. authorized to avenge his private or public wrongs. Tho consent of the Jewish, the Athenian, and the Roman laws, approved the slaughter of the nocturnal thief; though in open daylight a robber could not be slain without some previous evidence of danger and complaint. Whoever sur- prised an adulterer in his nuptial bed might freely exercise his revenge ;* the most bloody or wanton outrage was excused by the provocation ;t nor was it before the reign of Auijustus that the husband was reduced to weigh the rank of the oflender, or that the parent was condemned to sacri- fice his daughter with her guilty seducer. After the expulsion of the kings, the ambitious Eoman who should dare to assume their title, or imitate their tyranny, was devoted to the infernal gods : each of his fellow-citizens was armed with a sword of justice ; and the act of Brutus, how- ever repugnant to gratitude or prudence, had been already sanctified by the judgment of his country. J The barbarous practice of wearing arms in the midst of peace, § and the bloody maxims of honour, were unknown to the Romans ; and, during the two purest ages, from the establishment of equal freedom to the end of the Punic wars, the city was never disturbed by sedition, and rarely polluted with atro- cious crimes. The failure of penal laws was more sen- sibly felt when every vice was inflamed by faction at home and dominion abroad. In the time of Cicero, each private citizen enjoyed the privilege of anarchy ; each * The first speech of Lysias (Reiske, Orator. Grsec. torn, v, p. 2 — 48^ is in defence of a husband who had killed the adulterer. The right of husbands and fathers at Rome and Athens is discussed with much learumg by Dr. Taylor (Lectiones Lysiacae, c. 11, in Reiske, tom. vi, p. 301 — 308). t See Casaubon ad Athenajum (1. 1, c. 5, p. 19). Percurrent raphanique mugilesque (Catull. p. 41, 42, edit. Vossian.V Hunc mugilis intrat (Juvenal. Satir. 10. 317). Hunc perminxere caIones(Horat. 1. 1, Satir. 2. 44). Familire stuprandum dedit . . . fraudi non fuit (Val. Maxim. 1. 6, c. 1, No. 13.). J This law is noticed by Livy (2. 8) and Plutarch (in Publicola, tom. 1, p. 187); and it fully justifies the public opinion on the death of Caesar, which Suetonius could publish under the imperial government. Jure caesus existimatur (in Julio, c. 70). Read the lettei-s that passed between Cicero and Matius a few months after the ides of March (ad Fam. 11. 27, 28). § Ilpd/rot Cf A9r]valct ■^ov Tt aiCy]ciov KariOti'To. Thucydid. 1. 1, c. 6. The historian who considers this circumstance as the test of civilization, would disdain the barbarism of a European court. [Rival factious disregarded this, and carried their concealed weapons ready to be opportunely used. See Horace, Epod. 7. Carm. 4, 15. — Ed.] A.D. 533-505.] REYITAL OF CAriTAL PUHISIIMENT. 8.3 minister of the republic was exalted to the temptations of regal power, and their virtues are entitled to the warmest praise as the spontaneous fruits of nature or philosophy. After a triennial indulgence of lust, rapine, and cruelty, Verres, the tyrant of Sicily, could only be sued for the pecu- niary restitution of three hundred thousand pounds sterling; and such was the temper of the laws, the judges, and perhaps the accuser himself,* that on refunding a thirteenth part of his plunder, Verres could retire to an easy and luxurious exile.f The first imperfect attempt to restore the proportion of crimes and punishments, was made by the dictator Sylla, who in the midst of his sanguinary triumph, aspired to restrain the licence, rather than to oppress the liberty, of the Eomans. He gloried in the arbitrary proscription of four thousand seven hundred citizens. J But in the character of a legislator, he respected the prejudices of the times ; and instead of pronouncing a sentence of death against the rob- ber or assassin, the general who betrayed an army, or the magistrate who ruined a province, Sylla was content to aggravate the pecuniary damages by the penalty of exile, or, in more constitutional language, by the interdiction of fire • He first rated at millies (300,000Z.) the damages of Sicily (Divi- natio in Ciecilium, c. 5), which he afterwards reduced to quadrin- genties (320,000 — 1 Actio iu Verrem, c. 18), and was finally content with tricies (24,000^.). Plutarch in Ciceron. (torn. iii. p. lo84) has not dissembled the popular suspicion and repoi't. t Verres lived near thirty years after his trial, till the second triumvirate, when he was proscribed by the taste of Mark Antony for the sake of his Corinthian plate (Plin. Hist. Natur. 3-4. 3). J Such is the number assigned by Valerius Maximus (1. 9, c. 2, No. 1). Florus (4. 21) distinguishes two thousand senatoi-s and knights; Appian (de Bell. Civil. 1. 1, c. 95, torn, ii, p. 133, edit. SchweighKuser) more accurately computes forty victims of the senu torian rank, and one thousand six hundred of the equestrian census or order. [Proneness to bloodshed has been already noticed as a feature of Roman character. Sylla " set the first examjile of a pro- scription, that is, he first made out a list of those who might not only be killed with impunity, but on whose heads a price was set. Yet his victims were few compared with those of Marius and Cinna, although his revenge was fearful in the extent of suffering which it intiicted. His proscription afi"ected the lives of several thousands; it is said to have included two thousand four hundred knights alone ; but this number seems doubtful. Appian says, two thousand six hundred ; in these he included all who perished iu battle." (Niebuhr, Lectures, ii. 383.)— Ed.] G 2 / 84 EEVITAL OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. [CH. XLIT. and -water. The Cornelian, and afterwards the Ponipeian and Julian laws, introduced a new system of criminal juris- prudence ;* and the emperors, from Augustus to Justinian, disguised their increasing rigour under the names of the original authors. But the invention and frequent use of extraordinary pains, proceeded from the desire to extend and conceal the progress of despotism. In the condemnation of illustrious Romans, the senate was always prepared to confound, at the will of their masters, the judicial and legis- lative powers. It was the duty of the governors to maintain the peace of their province, by the arbitrary and rigid admi- nistration of justice; the freedom of the city evaporated in the extent of empire, and the Spanish malefactor, who claimed the privilege of a Roman, was elevated by the com- mand of Galba on a fairer and more lofty cross.f Occasional rescripts issued from the throne to decide the questions, which, by their novelty or importance, appeared to surpass the authority and discernment of a proconsul. Transpor- tation and beheading were reserved for honourable persons : meaner criminals were either hanged or burnt, or buried in the mines, or exposed to the wild beasts of the amphitheatre. Armed robbers were pursued and extirpated as the enemies ol' society ; the driving away horses or cattle was made a capital offence; J but simple theft was uniformly considered as a mere civil and private injury. The degrees of guilt, and the modes of punishment, were too often determined by the discretion of the rulers, and the subject was left in ignorance of the legal danger which he might incur by every action of his life. A sin, a vice, a crime, are the objects of theology, ethics, * For the penal laws (Leges Corneliso, Pompeiaj, Julise, of Sylla, Pompey, and the Csosars) see the sentences of Paulus (1. 4, tit. 18 — 30, p. 497 — 528, edit. Schulting^ ; the Gregorian Code (Fragment. 1. 19, p. 705, 706, in Schultiug) : the Collatio Legiini Mosaicarum et Roma- narum (tit. 1 — 15); the Theodosian Code (1. 9); the Code Justinian (1. 9); the Pandects (48); the Institutes (1. 4, tit. 18); and the Greek version of Theophilus (p. 917 — 926). t -It was a guardian who had poisoned liis ward. The crime was atrocious ; yet the punish- ment is reckoned by Suetonius (c. 9) among the acts in which Galba Bhewed himself acer, vehemens, et in delictis coerceudis immodicus. X The abactores or abigeatores, who drove one horse, or two mares or oxen, or five hogs, or ten goats, were subject to capital punishment (Paul. Sentent. Ilecept. 1. 4, tit. 18, p. 497, 498). Hadrian (ad Cof^l. Bcctica;), mo.st severe where the offence was most frequent, condemns A.D. 533-5G5.J MEASUEE OF GUILT. 86 and jurisprudence. Whenever their judgments agree, they corroborate each other ; but as often as they diti'er, a prudent legislator appreciates the guilt and puuishinent according to the measure of social injury. On this principle, the most daring attack C. the life and property of a private citizen, is judged less atrocious than the crime of treason or rebellion, which invades the majesty of the republic: the obsequious civilians unanimously pronounced, that the re- public is contained in the person of its chief: and the edge of the Julian law was sharpened by the incessant adigence of the emperors. The licentious commerce of the sexes may be tolerated as an impulse of nature, or forbidden as a source of disorder and corruption : but the fame, the fortunes, the family of the husband, are seriously injured by the adultery of the wife. The wisdom of Augustus, after curbing tlie freedom of revenge, applied to this domestic oftence the animadversion of the laws ; and the guilty parties, after the payment of heavy forfeitures and tines, were condemned to long or perpetual exile in two separate islands.* Keligion pronounces an equal censure against the infidelity of the husband ; but as it is not accompanied by the same civil effects, the wife was never permitted to vindicate her wrongs ;t and the distinction of simple or double adultery, so familiar and so important in the canon law, is unknown to the jurisprudence of the Code and Pan- dects. I touch with reluctance, and dispatch with impa- tience, a more odious vice, of which modesty rejects the name, and nature abominates the idea. The primitive Romans were infected by the example of the Etruscans^ the criminals ad gladiuni, liidi damnationem (Ulpian de Officio Pio- cousiili.s, 1. 8, in Collatione Legum Mosaic, et Horn. tit. 11, p. 23.')). * Till the publication of the Julius Paulus ot Schulting (1. 2, tit. 2o', p. 317 — 323,) it was affirmed and believed, that the Julian laws puui.shed adultery with death ; and the mistake arose from the fraud or error of Tribonian. Yet Lipsius had suspected the truth from the narrative of Tacitus (Annal. 2, 50. 3, 24. 4, 42.) and even from the practice of Augustus, who distinguished the treasonable frailties of his female kindred. f In cases of adultery, Severus confined to the husband the right of public accusation. (Cod. Justinian. 1. 9, tit. 9, leg. 1.) Nor is this privilege unjust — so different are the effects of male or female infidelity. + Timon (1. 1,) and Theo- fompus (1. 43, apud Athenaaum, 1. 12, p. 517,) describe the luxury and lust of the Etruscans : ttoXii \iiv roi y« \ai.^ov(^i nuvovrtc, tkHi; izatni Ka\ 7o7f ^uipuKiotc. About the same period, (a.c.c. 445,) the Romaa S6 TJNNATTJEAL VICE. [CH. XLIVe and Greeks ;* in the mad abuse of prosperity and power, every pleasure that is innocent was deemed insipid ; and the Scatiuian law,t which liad been extorted by an act of violence, was insensibly abolished by the lapse of time and the multitude of criminals. By this law, the rape, perhaps the seduction, of an ingenuous youth, was compensated, as a personal injury, by the poor damages of ten thousand yesterces, or Iburscore pounds ; the ravisher might be slain by the resistance or revenge of chastity ; and I wish to believe, that at Home, as in Athens, the voluntary and effeminate deserter of his sex was degraded from the honours and the rights of a citizen. J But the practice of vice was not discouraged by the severity of opinion : the indelible stain of manhood was confounded with the more venial transgressions of fornication and adultery, nor was the licentious lover exposed to the same dishonour which he impressed on the male or female partner of his guilt. From Catullus to Juvenal.§ the poets accuse and celebrate the degeneracy of the times, and the reformation of manners was feebly attempted by the reason and authority of the civilians, till the most virtuous of the Csesars proscribed the sin against nature as a crime against society.^ youth studied in Etruria. (Liv. 9. 36.) * The Persians had been cormpted in the same school : cnr' "EXXjjvwv fiaOovrtg naiai n'layovTai. (Herodot. 1. 1, c. 135.) A curious dissertation might be formed on the introduction of paederasty after the time of Homer, its progress among the Greeks of Asia and Europe, the vehemence of their jjassions, and the thin device of virtue and friendship which amused the philosophers of Athens. But, scelera ostendi oportet dum puniun- tur, abscondi flagitia. f The name, the date, and the pro- visions of this law, are equally doubtful. (Gravina, Op. p. 432, 433. Heineccius, Hist. Jur. Rom. No. 108. Ernesti, Clav. Ciceron. in Indice Legum.) But I will observe that the nefanda Venus of the honest German is styled aversa by the more polite Italian. J See the Oration of .Machines against the catamite Timarchus, (in Reiske, Orator. Grcec. tom. iii, p. 21 — 184.) § A crowd of disgraceful passages will force themselves on the memory of the classic reader : I will only remind him of the cool declaration of Ovid : — Odi concubitus qui non utrumque resolvunt. Hoc est quod puerum tangar amore minus. * % iEliuB Lampridius, in Vit. Heliogabal. in Hist. August, p. 112. Aurelius Victor, in Philippo, Codex Theodos. 1. 9, tit. 7, and leg. 7, and Godefroy's Commentary, tom. iii, p. 63. Theodosius abolished the sub- len'aneous brothels of Rome, in which the prostitution of both eexea A.D. 533-505.] KIGOUR OF THE EMPEEORS. 87 A new spirit of lep^islation, respectable even in its error, arose in the empire with the religion of Constantine.* The laws of Moses were received as the divine original of justice, and the Christian princes adapted their penal statutes to the degrees of moral and religious turpitude. Adultery was first declared to be a capital offence : the frailty of the sexes was assimilated to poison or assassination, to sorcery or parricide ; the same penalties were inflicted on the passive and active guilt of paederasty ; and all criminals of free or servile condition were either drowned, or beheaded, or cast alive into the avenging tlames. The adulterers were spared by the common sympathy of mankind ; but the lovers of their own sex were pursued by general and pious indigna- tion ; the impure manners of Greece still prevailed in the cities of Asia, and every vice was fomented by the celibacy oi the monks and clergy. Justinian relaxed the punish- ment at least of female infidelity; the guilty spouse was only condemned to solitude and penance, and at the end of two years she might be recalled to the arms of a forgiving husband. But the same emperor declared himself the implacable enemy of unmanly lust, and the cruelty of his persecution can scarcely be excused by the purity of his motives.f In defiance of every principle of justice, he stretched to past as well as future ofiences the operations of his edicts, with the previous allowance of a short respite for confession and pardon. A painful death was inflicted by the amputation of the sinful instrument, or the insertion of sharp reeds into the pores and tubes of most exquisite sensibility ; and Justinian defended the propriety of the execution, since the criminals would have lost their hands iiad they been convicted of sacrilege. In this state of dis- grace and agony, two bishops, Isaiah of Rhodes, and Alex- ander of Diospolis, were dragged through the streets of Constantinople, while their brethren were admonished by the voice of a crier, to observe this awful lesson, and not to pollute the sanctity of their character. Perhaps these pre- was acted with impunity. * See the laws of Constantine and his successors against adultery, sodomy, &c. in the Theodosiau (1. 9, tit. 7, leg. 7 ; 1. 11, tit. 36, leg.'l. 4,) and Justinian Codes (1. 9, tit. 9, leg. 30, 31). These princes speak the language of passion as well as of justice, and fraudulently ascribe their own severity to the first Cicsars. t Justinian, Novel. 77. 134. 141. Procopius, in Anecdot. c. 11. 16, with the Notes of Alemannus. Theophanes, p. 151. Cedrenus, p. 368, 88 JUDGMENTS OF [CH XLIV. iates were innocent. A sentence of death and infamy waa often foundea on the slight and suspicious evidence of ii child or a servant ; the guilt of the green faction, of the rich, and of the enemies of Theodoi"a, was presumed by the judges, and proderasty became the crime of those to whom JIG crime could be imputed. A Frencli pliilosopher* has dared to remark, that whatever is secret must be doubtful, and that our natural horror of vice may be abused as an engine of tyranny. But the favourable persuasion of the same writer, that a legislator may confide in the taste and reason of mankind, is impeached by the unwelcome discovery of the antiquity and extent of the disease.f The free citizens of Athens and Rome enjoyed, in all criminal cases, the invaluable privilege of being tried by their country. J 1. The administration of justice is the most ancient office of a prince: it was exercised by the Eoman 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, tiuperior to the forms, too often disdains the essential prin- ciples, of justice : the pride of despotism was envenomed by plebeian envy, and the heroes of Athens might some- Zonaras, 1. 14, p. 64. * Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, 1.12 c. 6. That eloquent philosopher conciliates the rights of liberty and of nature, which should never loe placed in opposition to each other. + For the corruption of Palestine, two thousand years before the Christian era, see the history and laws of Moses. Ancient Gaul is stigmatized by Diodorus Siculus (torn, i, 1. 5, p. 356) ; China by the Mahometan and Christian travellers, (Ancient llelations of India and China, p. 34, translated by Renaudot, and his bitter critic, the Pere Premare, Lettres Edifiantes, toni. xix, p. 43.5); and native America by the Spanish historians. (Garcilaso de la Vega, 1. 3, c. 1 3, Ryeaut's translation ; and Dictionnaii'e de Bayle, torn, iii, p. 88.) I believe, and hope, that the negroes, in their own country, were exempt from thia moral pestilence. J The important subject of the public 'piestions and judgments at Rome is explained with much learning, and in a classic style, by Charles Sigonius, (1. 3, de Judiciis, in Op. torn, iii, 679 — 364,) and a good abridgment may be found in the Rcpublique Romaine of Beaufort (tom. ii, 1. 5, p. ] — 12D. Those who wish for moi-e abstruse law, may study Noodt (de Jurisdictione et Imperio Libri duo, tom. i, p. 93 — 134), Heineccius (ad Pandec.t. L 1. et 2, ad Institut. I. 4, tit. 17. Element, de Antiquitat.) and Gravina A.D, 533-5(35.] TUE PEOPLE. 89 times applaud the happiness of the Persian, -whose fate depended on the caprice of a sinrjle tyrant. Some salutary restraints, imposed by the people on their own passions, were at once the cause and efiect of the gravity and tem- ])erance of the Eomans. The right of accusation was con- lined to the magistrates. A vote of tlie thirty-live tribes could inflict a tine : 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 for- midable to innocence, than they were favourable to guilt. But this union of the judicial and legislative powers left it doubtful whether the accused party was pardoned or ac- quitted; and in the defence of an illustrious client the orators of Eome and Athens addressed 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 diliicult 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 extra- ordinary inquiaitors. In the hrst ages these questions were rare and occasional. In the beginning of the seventh century of Rome they were made perpetual ; for prajtors were annually empowered to sit in judgment on the state offences of treason, extortion, peculation, and bribery ; and iSylla added new prretors 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 oi' judqet, who, with some trutii, and more prejudice, have been compared to the Engli.
  • 'TAIlT EXILE AND DEATH. 91 sunk to an empty title ; tlie humble advice of the assessors might bo 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. A Eoman accused of any capital crime might prevent tlie 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 countc-d and declared, he might peaceably secede to any of the allied cities of Italy, or Greece, or Asia.* His fame and fortunes were preserved, at least to his children, by this civil death ; and he might still be hapi)y in every rational and sensual enjoyment, if a mind accus- tomed to the ambitious tumult of Home 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 fomiliar by the maxims of the Stoics, the example of the bravest Eomans, and the legal encouragements of suicide. The bodies of condemned criminals were exposed to public ignominy, and their chil- dren, a more serious evil, were reduced to poverty by the confiscation of their fortunes. But if the victims of Tibe- rius and Nero anticipated the decree of the prince or senate, their courage and dispatch were recompensed by the applause of the public, the decent lionours of burial, and the validity of their testaments. f The exquisite avarice and cruelty of Domitian appears 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 tlie spoils of tlie deceased were seized by the inhuman claims of the treasury. J Yet the • Polyb. 1. 6, p. 643. The extension of the empire and city cf Rome, obliged the exile to seek a more distant place of retirement. [Gibbon's misconception of the Roman law on this subject has been pointed out, and its true import stated in a Note on ch. .38, vol. iv, p. 186. — Ed.] -f- Qui de se statuebant, humabantur corpora, manebant testamenta ; pretium festinandi. Tacit. Ainial. 6. 25, with the notes of Lipsius. :J: Julius Paulus (Sentent. Recei)t. 1. 5, tit. 12, p. 476), the Pandects 1. 48, tit. 21), the Code (1. 9, tit. 50), Bynkershoek (torn, i, p. 59. Ob- Btrvat. J. C R. 4. 4), and Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, 1. 29, c 9,) 92 ABUSES OF [CH. XLIT. civilians have always respected the natural right of a citizen to dispose of his life; and the posthumous disgrace invented by Tarquin* to check the despair of his subjects, was never revived or imitated by succeeding tyrants. The ])Owers of this world have indeed lost their dominion over him vrho 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 ;t 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 execu- tioner. The penal statutes form a very small proportion of the sixty -two books of the Code and Pandects ; and, in all judicial proceeding, the life or death of a citizen is deter- mined with less caution and delay than the most ordinary question of covenant or inheritance. This singular dis- tinction, 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 define the civil limitations of the liberty and privileges of suicide. The criminal penalties are the production of a later and darker age. [Byron, in *^he confession of his "Giaour," has stigmatized suicide as — "the self-accorded grave Of ancient fool and modern knave." This opprobrious designation of the deed will do more than lavsrs or penalties, to make it of less frequent recurrence. — Ed.] * Plin. Hist. Natur. 36. 24. When he fatigued his subjects in building the Capitol, many of the laboui'ers were provoked to dispatch themselves ; he nailed their dead bodies to crosses. + The sole resemblance of a violent and premature death has engaged Virgil (/Eneid, G. i'ii — 439) to confound suicides with infants, lovers, and persons unjustly condemned. Heyne, the best of his editors, i^ at a loss to deduce the idea, or ascertain the jurisprudence, of the lioaa m poet. A.D. 532-505.] CIVIL JURISPEtJDENCK. 93 promises; and the interpretation of voluntarj contiaets and testaments, wiiich 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 residenc-e of the parties in the distant provinces of an empire is pro- ductive of doubt, delay, and inevitable appeals from the local to the supreme magistrate. Justinian, the Greek emperor of Coustantluoplo and the East, was the legal successor of the Latian shepherd who had planted a colony on the banks of the Tiber. In a period of thirteen hundred years, the laws had reluctantly followed the changes of government and manners : and the laudable desire of con- ciliating 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 ex- ceeded 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 litiga- tion, 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 ex- changing our elaborate jurisprudence for the simple and summary decrees of a Turkish cadhi. Our calmer reflec- tion 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 anil dcterniine every question that may probably arise in the exercise of power and the transactions of industry. But the govern- ment of Justinian urJted the evils of liberty and servitude : 94 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE. and tlie Romans -were oppressed at the same time by the multiplicity of their laws, and the arbitrary will of their master. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE TO CH. XLIV. [Tlie subjects of the additional notes to the chapter here concluded, have been selected with a view to historical illustration rather than legal commentary. Other writers might have been quoted, and tedious dissertations copied or translated on more technical and abstruse points; bub the indifFerence of English readers to such matters is seen in the fact, that Dr. Cathcart, the translator of Saviguy's History of the Roman Law, found so limited a sale for the first volume, that he was discouraged from proceeding with the work. For practitioners in the ecclesiastical and Scotch courts, whei'e this system of jurisprudence still reigns, our own literature probably affords sufficient information : for general readers it must assume a more popular form. This it received from Gibbon, by whose forty- fourth chapter "the English civilians have all been totally eclipsed." Such at least is the opinion of Dr. Irving in his Introduction to the Study of the Civil Law (p. 188), a work which may be usefully con- sulted by those who wish for biographical and literary notices of the numerous writers referred to in this chapter. Some additional par- ticulars respecting the Glossators may also be found there (p. 7 n. and 273), and likewise on the discovery of the Pandects at Amalphi (p. 78). But it contains few expositions of facts to throw light on the Roman histoi*y, character, and manners. One exception to this is found (p. 12 — 20), in some observations on the origin of the Twelve Tables and the ^hare which Hermodorus had in preparing them. Inci- dentally to these remarks, the author has introduced a defence of the erroneous opinion, that the Roman law empowered creditors to cut in pieces and divide among themselves the body of an insolvent debtor. This question, he says, " gave rise to the most learned con- troversy that occurs in the annals of jurisprudence." If it were to be decided by the mere authority of names, those of Annajus Robertiis, Heroldus, Bynkershoek, and Lord Kames, who dissent from the opinion, will probably be thought to outweigh those of its advocates, Salmasius, Dr. Taylor, and Dr. Valpy. Into the scale of the former may be thrown the explanation of Dr. Geldart (see the heads of BUrrLEMENTABT NOTE. *03 his Lectures in hia edition of Dr. Hallifax's Analysis of the Civil Law (p. 75). No authority on this subject can, however, supersede that of Aulus Gellius (quoted ia the Editor's note, page 80 of this volume), to which it must appear strange that Dr. Irving makes no reference. The scctio bonorum, which the same law authorized (seo Hallifax's Analysis, p. 75), might as well have been supposed to give creditors the power of cutting up the bodies of the slaves belonging to their debtors. To the British public there are two interesting points in Roman law : 1. That which regulates the distribution of the estates of intes- tates ; and 2. That which regards contracts of marriage. On the former. Dr. Irving says (p. 9S), " The Statute Law of England is in a great measure borrowed from the eighteeuth Novel of Justinian ; and the Statute of Distribution is known to have been prepared by a professional civilian, Sir Leoline Jenkins, judge of the High Court of Admiralty." On the latter of these two points depends the validity of Scotch marriages. This is decided by the Digest (1. 1, tit. xvii. fr. 30), where it is enacted, Nuptiat non eoncubitus, scd consensus facit. But the same writer adds, " this consent must be real, not merely apparent; it must be free c^vosent, and not produced by fear or delusion." This concurs with che opinion of Dr. Uallifax (Analysis, c. 6, sec. 3). This last mentioned work in its execution corresponds with its title. The author of it was first the King's Professor of Civil Law at Cambridge, and afterwards in succession bishop of Gloucester and St. Asaph. To such authorities it is satisfactory to appeal for confirmation of the views taken of legal points in the Editor's notes to the foregoing chapter. It is sufficient to refer to Irving (p. 105) for the resemblance between early Roman legislation and our decrees of Chancery, pointed out at p. 16; to Hallifax (p. 15) for "the questionable piece of history " relating to divorces at Rome, discredited at p. 5-t ; to the same work (p. 30) for the distinction between the res mancipi and nee mancipi, as shown at p. 64; and again (p. 116. 138) for the Actio Familice erciscundcu, quoted at p. 32. The words which the Roman buyer repeated in the ceremony of mancipation, are not to be found in either of these works. In the purchase of a slave, the following was the form used : — Hunc ego hominem ex jure Qttiritium meum esse aio, isque mihi cmptus est hoc cere osnedque libra. (By the right of a Roman citizen, I hereby declare this man to be my propertj', for I have bought him with the money now weighed in these scales of brass.) This was varied according to the description of property acquired, and •hows the nature of the proceeding. — Ed.] 94* DEATH or JUSTINIAN. [CH. XLV. CHAPTER XLV. — keiqn op the younger justin. — embassy or TOB AVARS. — TnEIR SETTLEMENT ON THE DANUBE. CONQUEST OF ITALY BY TUE LOMBARDS. ADOPTION AND REIGN OP TIBERIUS. OF MAURICE. STATE OF ITALY UNDER THE LOMBARDS AND EXARCHS OP RAVENNA. — DISTRESS OP ROME. — CHARACTER AND PONTIFICATB OF GREGORY THE FIRST. DuEiNG 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* of the childish mon- arch, the sons or grandsons of his brother and sister, had been educated in the splendour of a princely fortune ; they had been shewn in high commands to the provinces and armies; their characters were known, their followers were zealous, and as the jealousy of age postponed the declara- tion 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 tlie friends of Justin, the son of Vigi- lantia.f At the liour of midniglit, 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 perliaps invented, his dying choice of the best beloved and the most deserving of his nephews, and conjured Justin to prevent the disorders * See the family of Ju.stin and Justinian in the Familioe Byzantinas of Ducange, p. 89—101. The devout civilians, Ludwig (in Vit. Jus- tinian, p. 131), and Heineceius (Hist. Juris. Jloman. p. 374), have since illu.strated the genealogy of their favourite prince. f 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 Corippu.s, De Laudibua Justini, Appendix Hist. Byzant. p. 401 — 416. A.D. 5G5.] EEION OF JUSTm II. 95 of the multitude, if they should i)erceive, with the return of light, that they Avere left without a master. After com- posing his countenance to surprise, sorrow, and dccenc modesty, Justin, by the advice of his wife Sophia, sub- mitted 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 accomplisihed. JJy the hands of the proper ofiicers 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 hrnj and erect to receive the adoration of his subjects ; and tlieir clioice was sanctified by the benediction of the patriarch, who imposed the diadem on the head of an orthodox prince. The liippodrome was already filled with innumerable multi- tudes ; and no sooner did the emperor appear on his throne, than the voices of the blue and green factions were con- founded in the same loyal acclamations. In the speeches which Justin addressed to the senate and people, he pro- mised to correct the abuses which had disgraced the age of his predecessor, displayed the maxims of a just and bene- ficent government, and declared, that on the approaching calends of January,* he would revive, in his own person, the name and liberality of a Roman consul. The immediate discharge of his uncle's debts exhibited a solid pledge of his faith and generosity ; a traiji of <)orters laden with bags of gold advanced into the midst of the hippodrome, and the hopeless creditors of Justinian accepted this equitable pay- ment 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.t Rome, 1777. * It is surprising how Pagi (Critica in AnnaL Barou. torn, ii, p. 639.^ could be tempted by any chronicles to con- tradict the plain and decisive text of Corippus (vicina dona, 1. 2, 354; vicina dies, L 4. 1,) and to postpone, till a.D. 667, the consulship of Juatin. t Theophau. Chronograph, p. '205 Whenever 96 EMBASSY OF THE AVAES. [CH. XLV. On the seventh clay 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 porticoes were lined with tlie lofty crests and gilt bucklers of the guards, who presented their spears and axes with more confidence than they would have shewn 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 ambas- sadors 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, ex- pressed 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 Home 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 Grod of the Christians, the ancient glory of Rome, and the recent triumphs of Jus- tinian. " The empire (said he) abounds with men and horses, and arms sufficient to defend our frontiers, and to chastise the barbarians. Tou ofier aid, you threaten hos- tilities : we despise your enmity and your aid. The con- querors of the Avars solicit our alliance ; shall we dread their fugitives and exiles?* The bountv of our uncle was Cedrenus or Zonaras are mere transcribers, it is superfluous to allege their testimony. * Corippus, 1. 3, 390. The unquestionable eejD^e relates to the Turks, the conquerors of the Avars ; but the %vord A.D. 5GfJ.] ALBOIN, KING OF THE LOMBARDS. 97 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 pai-dou, perhaps you will taste of our benevolence."* On the report of his ambassadors, the chagan was awed by the apparent iirninesa of a Konian emperor, of whose character and resources he was ignorant. Instead of exe- cuting his threats against the Kastern empire, he marched into tlie 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 sup- ply of corn and cattle.t 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. While Alboin served under his father's standard, he en- countered in battle, and transpierced with his lance, the rival prince of the Gepida?. The Lombards, who applauded such early prowess, requested his father, with unanimous acclamations, that the heroic youth, who had shared the dan- gers 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 tevltor has no apparent meaning, and the sole MS. of Corippus, from whence the first edition (l.'iSl, apiid Plantin) was printed, is no longer visible. The last editor, Foggini of Rome, has inserted the conjectural emendation of S'ddan: but the proofs of Ducange (Joinville, Dissert. 16, p. 23S — 240) for the early use of this title among the Turks and Persians, are weak or ambiguous. And I must incline to th« authority of D'Herbelot (Bibliothique Orient, p. 8'25,) who ascribei the word to the Arabic and Chaldean tongues, and the date to the beginning of the eleventh century, when it was bestowetl by the khalif of Bagdad on Mahmud, prince of Gazna, and conqueror of India. * For these characteristic speeches, comjiare the verse of Corippus fl. 3, 251 — 401,) with the prose of Mcuander ^Excerpt. Legation, p. 102, 103). Their diversity pro%'es that they did not copy each other; their resemblance, that they drew from a common oritjiual. t For the Austrasian war, see Menander (Excerpt Legat. p. 110), Gregory of Tours (Hist. Franc. 1. 4, c. 29), and Paul the deacon (de VOL. V. U 98 EARLY ADTENTURX8 OF ALBOIN. 'CH. ILT. till he has received his arms from a foreign and rojal 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 mur- derer of his son. At the banquet, whilst Alboin occupied the seat of the youth whom he had slain, a tender remen^- brance 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 Gepidse ; and Cunimund, his surviving son, was provoked by wine, or fra- ternal affection, to the desire of vengeance. " Tlie Lom- bards (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 Asfeld, and seek for the bones of thy brother: they are mingled with those of the vilest animals." The Gepidse, 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 interpo- sition of Turisund. He saved his own honour 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.* In this ex- traordinary visit he had probably seen the daughter of Cuni- mund, who soon after ascended the throne of the Gepida?. 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 grand-daughter of Clovis ; but the restraints of faith and policy soon yielded to the hope of possessing the fair Rosa- mond, and of insulting her family and nation. The arts of Gest. Langobard. 1. 2, c. 10). * Paul Warnefrid, the deacon of Friuli, de Gest. Langobard. 1. ], c. 23, 24. His pictures of national manners, though rudely sketched, are more lively auJ faithful than those of Bede, or Gregory of Toars. A.D. 5GG.] THE LOMBARDS A^B AVABd. 99 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 Gepidaj, who were sustained by a Koman army. And as the offer of marriage was rejected with contempt, Alboin was compelled to relinquish his prey, aud to partake of the disgrace which he had iuilicted on the house of Cunimund.* 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 aud policy of the bar- barians. In the attack of the GepidsB he had been prompted by the just desire of extirpating a people, whom their alli- ance 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, aud 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 sig- nified the ultimate price of his alliance, that the Lombards should immediately present him with the tithe of their cattle; that the spoils and ca])tives sliould be equally di- vided ; but that the lands of the Gepidie 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 * The story is told by an impostor (Theophylact Simocat. 1. 6, c 10,) but he had art enough to build his fictions on public and Doto« H 2 100 OVERTUUOW OF THE GEPLD^. [cH. XLV. perfidy of the Gepidfp, Justin abandoned that incorri- gible people to their fate, and remained the tranquil spec- tator of tills unequal conflict. The despair of Cunimund rtas active and dangerous. He was informed that the Avars had entered his confines ; but on the strong assurance, that, after tiie defeat of the Lombards, these foreign invaders would easily be repelled, he rushed forward to encounter the implacable enemy of his name and family. But the courage of the Gepidne could secure them no more than an lionourable death. The bravest of the nation fell in the field of battle ; the king of the Lombards contemplated with delight the bead of Cunimund ; and his skull was fashioned iui-o a cup, to satiate the hatred of the conqueror, or, per- ha[)s to comply with the savage custom of his country.* Alter this victory, no farther obstacle could impede the pro- gress of the confederates, and they faithfully executed the terms of their agreement.f The fair countries of Walachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, and the 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 splendour above two hundred and thirty years. The nation of the Gepida) 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 in- compatible 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 Kosamond was persuaded, or compelled, to acknowledge the rights of her victorious lover ; and the daughter of Cunimund ap- peared to forgive those crimes which might be imputed to her own irresistible charms. 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, rious facts. * It appears from Strabo, Pliny, and Ammi- anus Marcellinus, that the same practice was common among the Scythian tribes (Muratori, Scri|jtores Ker. Italic, tom. i, p. 424). The 6cal}is of North America are likewise trophies of valour. The skull of Cunimund was preserved above two hundred years among the Lom- bards; and Paul himself was one of the guests to whom duke Ratchis exhibifed this cup on a high festival (1. 2, c. 28). t Paul 1. 1, c. 27. Meuander, in Eicerjjt. Legat. p. 110, 111. A..T). 5G7.] ALBOIN PUEPAIIKS TO INVADE ITALY. 101 Btill repeated the 8onri;8 wliich described the heroic virtues, the valour, liberality, and fortune of the kin^^ of the Lom- bards.* But his ainbitiou was yet unsatisfied : and the conqueror of the Gepidae turned his eyes from the Danube to the richer banks of the Po and the Tiber. Fifteen years had not elapsed since his subjects, the confederates of Narses, had visited the pleasant climate of Italy : the moun- tains, the rivers, the highways, were familiar to their me- mory: the report of llieir 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 afTn'med, 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 Lombards 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 Gepidie, Bulgarians, ISariuatiaiis, and Bavarians, may be distinctly traced in the provinces of Italy. t 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. Tiie 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 barba- rians sacririced a she-goat, or perhaps a captive, to the gods • Ut hactenua etiam tarn apud Bajoiiriorum genteui, quaui et Saxouum, sed et alios ejusdem linguas homines .... in eoriiui car- minibus celebretur. Paul. 1. 1, c. 27. lie died a.d. 799. (Muratori, in Praefat. torn, i, p. 397.) These German songs, some of which might be as old as Tacitus (de Moribus Germ. c. 2,) were compiled and tran- scribed by Charlemagne. Barbara et antiquissima carmiua, quibus veterum regum actus et bella cauebantur, scrijisit, memoriaique mau- davit. ^Eginard, in Vit. Carol. Magu. c. 29, p. 130, 131.) The poems, which Goldast commends (Aiiimadvers. ad Egiuard. p. 2'l7,) appear to be recent and contemptible romances. + The other nations are rehearsed by Pavd (L 2, c. 6. 26). Muratori (Antichita Ita- liane, torn, i, diesertat. 1, p. 4,) has discovered tho village of the Bava- 102 DigAl-FECTION OF NABSES. [CH. XtT. of their fathers.* 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 oiTen- sive 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 volun- tary exiles should be reinstated in their former possessions. Tliey might have failed, if Narses had been the antago- nist of the Lombards ; and the veteran warriors, the asso- ciates 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 virtiies of Narses were stained with avarice ; and in his provincial reign of fifteen years he accumulated & treasure of gold and silver which surpassed the modesty of a private fortune. His government was oppressive or un- popular, and the general discontent was expressed with freedom by the deputies of Rome. Before the throne of Justin 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, Longiuus, was ap- pointed to supersede the conqueror of Italy ; and the base motives of his recall were revealed in the insulting mandate of the cn.press 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 distali' 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 ex- rians, three miles from Modena. * Gregory the Roman (Dialog. 1. 3, c. 27, 28, apud Baron. Annal. Eccles. A.D. 579, No. 10,) 8upf)oses that they likewise adored this she-goat. I know but ut one religion in which the god and the victim are the same. (I A.D. 567.] DEA.T11 OF .VARSES. 103 torted from the hero. Instead of attending, a slave and a victim, at tlie gate of the Byzantine palace, he retired to IS'aples, from whence (if any credit is due to the belief of the times) Narses invited the Lombards to chastise the in- gratitude of tlie prince and people.* 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 IS arses, assuming a milder aspect and a more dutiful language, consented to fix his residence in the Capitol. His death, t 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 dis- united 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. J AVhatever 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 LoM- BARDT. A faithful chieftain, and a select band, were * The charge of the deacon against Narses (1- 2, 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 (torn, ii, p. 639, 040), Muratori (Ann:di d'ltalia, torn, v, p. 160—163), and the last editors, Horatius Blancua (Script. Kerum Italic, torn, i, ]>. 427, 428), and Philip Argelatus (Sigon. Opera, torn, ii, p. 11, 12). The Narses who assisted at the coronation of Justin (Corippus, 1. 3. 221), is clearly understood to be a different person. + The death of Narses is mentioned by Paul, 1. 2, c. 11 ; Anastaa. in Vit. Johan. 3, p. 43 ; Agnellus, Liber Pontifical. Raven, in Script. Ker. Italicarum, toni. ii, part 1, 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? + The designs of Narses and of the Lombards for th« invasion of Italy, are exposed in the last chapter of the first book, and tho sevea tirst chapters of the secoud book, of Paul the deacon. 104 THE LOMBAEDS SETTLE IV ITALY. [CH. XLT. Btationed at Forum Julii, tlie modern Friuli, to guard the passes of the mountains. The Lombards respected the strength of Pavia, and listened to the prayers of the Tre- visans: 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 everywhere, 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 Aquiieia, removed his treasures, sacred and profane, to the isle of Grado,* and liis 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 credu- lously 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 Eavenna and Eome, the inland regions of Italy became, without a battle or a siege, the lasting patrimony of the Lombards. The sub- mission 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.f * Which from this translation was called New Aquiieia (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 honours; but the genius of the church has bowed to that of the State, and the govern- ment of a Catholic city is strictly presbyterian. Thomassin, Discipline de I'Eglise, torn, i, p. 156, 167. 161 — 165. Amelot de la Houssaye, Gou- vernement de Venise, torn. 1, p. 256^261. [The citizens of Aquiieia were said (ch. 35, vol. iv, p. 29) to have sought the refuge in these islands in 451, at which time they did not exist. In the course of a hundred and twenty years, two of them, Grado and Malamocco, had risen sufficiently out of the waters, to receive the fugitives. — Ed.] + Paul has given a description of Italy, as it was then divided into eigliteen regions. (1. 2, o. 14—24.) The Dissertatio Chorographica d« A.P 570.] BIEGE OF TAVIA. lO.*) One city which had been clilip;ently fortified by the Goths, resisted the arms of a new invader ; and wliile 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 miracu ions sign as the wrath of heaven : the conqueror paused and relented ; he sheathed his sword, and, peacefully repos- ing himself in the palace of Tlieodoric, proclaimed to the trembling multitude, that they sliould live and obey. De- lighted with the situation of a city, which was endeared to his pride by the difficulty of the purchase, the prince of tlie Lombards disdained the ancient glories of Milan ; and Pavia, during some ages, was respected as the capital of the kingdom of Italy.* The reign of the founder was splendid and transient ; and before he could regulate his new conquests, Alboin tell 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 ; intoxi- cation was the reward of valour, and the king himself was tempted by appetite, or vanity, to exceed the ordinary measure of his intemperance. After draining many capa- cious bowls of E.ha>tian or Ealernian wine, he called for the skull of Cunimund, the noblest and most precious orna- ment 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 con- queror, " fill it to the brim ; carry this goblet to the queen, Italia Medii .^vi, by father Beretti, a Benedictine monk, and Regiua professor at Pavia, has been usefully consulted. * For the conquest of Italy, see the original materials of Paul (1. 2, c. 7 — 10. 12. 14. 25 — 27), the eloquent narrative of Sigonius (torn, ii, de Regno Italic (1. 1, p. 13 — 19), and the correct and critical review of M'lratori (.'^uuali d'ltalia, tom. v, p. 16i — 180). 106 INFIDELITY OF EOSAMONB, [CH. XLT. and request in my name that she would rejoice with her father." In an agony of grief and rage, Eosamond had strength to utter, " Let the will of my lord be obeyed," and, touching it with her lips, pronounced a silent impreca- tion, that the insult should be washed away in the blood of Alboin. Some indulgence might be due to the resentment of a daughter, if slie 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 armour-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 honour 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 tliis alternative, he chose rather to be the accomplice than the victim of Rosamond,* whose undaunted spirit was incapable of fear or remorse. She expected, and soon found, a favourable 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 classical reader will recollect the wife and murder of Can- dailies, so agreeably told in the first book of Herodotus. The choice of Gyges, aliiiiToi avrbg Tripiilpai, may serve as the excuse of Pere- deus; and this soft insinuation of an odious idea has been imitated by the best writers of antiquity. (Graevius, ad Ciceron. Orat, pro MiloD% C.10.) A.I). 573.] DEATUS OF ALBOIN AND ROSAMOXD. 107 the chamber-door, and urged the reluctant conspirators to the inptant execution of tlie deed. On the lirst alarm, the warrior started from his couch ; his sword, which he attempted to draw, had been fastened to the scabbard by the hand of Eosamond ; and a small stool, his only weapon, could not lon<^ protect him frotn the spears of the assassins. The daui^hter of Cunimund smiled in his Ihll ; his body wag buried under the staircase of the palace, and the grateful posterity of the Lombards revered the tomb and the memory of their victorious leader. The ambitious Kosamond 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 Gepida; was pre- pared 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 unani- mous cries, that justice should be executed on the guilty spouse and the murderers of their king. ISlie 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 harbour of Kavenna. 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 ]iroposals : and she readily list- ened 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 easj and grateful sacrifice, and as lielmichis 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 Kosamond, convinced hin^ tiiat 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 liosamond, with the ri'.'hest spoils oi tlie Lombards, waa 108 WEAKNESS OF THE [CH. XLT. embarked for Constantinople ; the surprising strength of Peredeus amused and terrihed the imperial court ; his blind- ness and revenge exhibited an imperfect copy of the adven- feures 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 eigh- teen 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.* When the nephew of Justinian ascended the throne, he proclaimed a new era of happiness and glory. The annals of the second Justinf are marked with disgrace abroad and misery at home. In the AVest 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 tlie prince all the calamities of his times may be coun- tenanced by the historian as a serious truth or a salutary prejudice. Yet a candid suspicion will arise, that the sen- timents 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 shewed some symptoms of a discerning and even magnanimous spirit. The only son of Justin and Sophia died in his infancy : their ♦ See the history of Paul, L 2, c. 28 — 32. I have borrowed some interesting circumstances from the Liber Pontificalis of Agnellus, in Script. Ker. Ital. tom. ii, p. 124. Of all chronological guides, Muratori is the safest. + The original authors for the reign of Justin the Younger, are Evagriua, Hist. Kccles. 1. 5, c. 1 — 12. Theo- phaiies, in Chronograph, p. 20i — 210. Zonaras, tom. ii, L 14, p. 70— 72. Cedrenus, in Compend. p. 388—392. A.D. i573.] EMPEBOE JUSTIK. lOD daughter Arabia was the wife of Baduarius,* superintendent of the palace, and afterwards commander of the Italian armies, who vainly aspired to confirm the ric^hts of marriage by those of adoption. While tlie 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 com))etitors, 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 successoi, not in his family, but in the republic : and the artful Sophia recommended Tiberius,t 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 strentith of his mmd 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. J — " You behold," said the emperor, " the ensigns of supreme power. You arc about to receive them not from my hand, but from the hand of God. Honour them, and from them you will derive honour. Respect the empress your mother ; you are now her son ; * Dispositorqiie novus sacne Baduarius aulsc. Successor soceri mox factus cura-palati. Corippu3. 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 liiugs in Europe can produce a pedigree so ancient and illustrious. Ducange, Fam. Byzantin. p. 99. Amelot de la Houssaye, Gouvernement de Veuise, torn, ii, p). 655. + 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 (1. 1, 212 — 222). Yet even a captain of the guards might attract the flattery of an African exile. X Evagrius ^l. 5, c. 13) has added the reproach to his ministers. Ho applies this speech to the ceremony when Tiberius was invested with the rank of Caisar. The loose expression, rather than the positive error, of Theophanea, &c. has dehiyed it to his Augustan investiture 110 DEATH OF JUSTIN II. [CH. XLT-. 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 splendour of the diadem : be thou wise and modest ; remember what you have been, remember what- you are. Ton see around us your slaves and your children ; with the authorit)^, 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."* The assembly, in silence, and in tears, applauded the counsels, and sympathised 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 incanable of discharging : and his choice was justified by the filial reverence and gratitude of Tiberms. Among the virtues of Tiberius, f his beauty (he was one of the tallest and most comely of the Romans) might intro- duce him to the favour of Sophia ; and the widow of Justin was persuaded that she should preserve her station and influ- ence iinder the reign of a second and more youthful husband. immediately before the death of Juatin. * Theophyiact Simocatta (1. 3, 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 ueen incapable of producing such sentiments. t For the character and reign of Tiberius, see Evagrius, L 6, c. 13. Theophyiact, L 3, c. 12, &c. Theophaues, in Chron. p. 210—213. Zonaras, torn, ii, 1. 14, p. 72. Cedrenus, p. 392. Paul Wamefrid, de Oestis Langobard. 1. 3, c. 11, 12. The deacon of Forum Julii appears to have possessed some curious and authentic facta. A.D. 578-5S2.] KEIGN OF TIBERIUS II. IH But if the ambitious candidate liad 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 hip- podrome demanded, witli some impatience, the name of their new empress ; both the people and Sophia were asto- nished by tl>e proclamation of Anastasia, the secret, though lawful, wife of the emperor Tiberius. Whatever could alleviate the disappointment of Sophia, imperial honours, 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 motlier 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 rei^nino' house supported, with reluctance, the dominion of a stran- ger : the youth was deservedly popular ; his name after the death of Justin, had been mentioned by a tumultuous fac- tion ; and his own submiaeive 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 wortliy of the purple. His artful patroness had chosen the montli 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 con- spiracy was suppressed by his presence and firmness. From the pomp and honours which she had abused, Sopliia 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 Just:- nian 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 commonlv be- lieved, that the emperor entertained some thoughts of contracting a double alliance with the rival of his throne. 112 VIHTUES or TIBEEIUS. [CH. XLT. The voice of an angel (such a fable was propagated) might reveal to the emperor, that he sliould always triumph over his domestic foes ; but Tiberius derived a firmer assurance from the innocence and generosity of his ovrn mind. With the odious name of Tiberius, he assumed the more popular appellation of Coustantine, 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 contem- plate 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. Eor 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 compen- sated 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 bles- sing. But in less than four years after the death of Justin, his worthy successor sank 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 ; A.D. 5b2-G02.] TKE nEiQN or maueice. 113 he bestowed his daue^hter and the empire ; and his last advice was solemnly delivered by the voice of the qusestor. 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 alUiction ; 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 IMaurice derived his origin from ancient Eome,* 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 favourite legion of twelve thousand confederates ; his valour and conduct were signalized in the Persian war ; and he returned to Constantinople to accept, as his just reward, the inheritance of the empire. IMaurice ascended the throne at the mature age of forty-three years ; and he reigned above twenty years over the East and over himself ;t 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, J and some failings seem to place the character of Maurice below the purer merit of his prede- cessor. His cold and reserved demeanour might be im- puted to arrogance ; his justice was not always exempt * It is therefore singular enough that Paul (I. 3, c 15) should dis- tinguish him as the fii'st Greek emperor — primus ex Gnccorum genera in imperio constitutus. His immediate predecessors had indeed been born iu the Latin pro\'iuces of Europe ; and a various reading, iu Graecorum imperio, would apply the expression to the empire rather than the prince. + Consult for the character and reign of Maurice, the fifth and sixth books of Evagrius, particularly 1. C, i;. 1, the eight books of his prolix and florid history by Theophylact Simo- catta. Theophanes, p. 213, &c. Zonaras, tom. ii, 1. 1-1, p. 73. Cedreuus, p. 394. X AiiroKpurwp ovrtog yti'oixti'oQ ti)v fiiv o^Xo- Kpnriiav ruJv Tradaiv tK riig oimiag t^i})i\dri](jt »r'i'X')c ' apicrTOKi>a- riiav OS iv rolg iavrov Xoy((T/(oTc KaTcinrijiraixei'og. Evagrius com- posed his history in the twelfth year of JIaurice ; and he had been »o wisely indiscreet, that the emperor knew and rewarded his favourablo Dpinion (1. 6, o. 24). Vt)L. V. I 114 DISTEESS OF ITALY. [011. XLV. 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 intro- duced so complete a separation between the offices of kiug 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 doubtfid war against the Avars of the Danube ; and he cast an eye of pity, of ineifectual pity, on the abject and distressful state of his Italian provinces. From Italy the emperors were incessantly tormented by tales of misery and demands of succour, which extorted the humiliating confession of their own weakness. The expiring dignity of Eome 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 Lom- bards, save us at least from the calamity of famine." Tiberius forgave the reproach, and relieved the distress : a supply of com was transported from Egypt to the Tiber ; and the Eoman 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, dispatched 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, Eome 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 Spoletc. Maurice gave audience to a second deputation of priests and senators ; the duties aud the menaces of religion A.D. 584-590.] AUTHARIS. ] 15 were forcibly urf];cd in the letters of the Eoman pontiff; and his nuncio, the deacon Gregory, was alilic quahfied 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 exarch : the passes of the Alps were delivered to the Franks ; and tlie 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 nielials. The dukes of the Lombards had provoked by frequent inroads their powerful neighbours of Gaul. As isoon as they were apprehensive of a just retaliation, they renounced their feeble and disorderly independence: the advantages of regal government, union, secrecy, and vigour, were unanimously confessed ; and Autharis, the son of Clepho, had already attained the strength and reputation 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 Allemanni. In the second they were vanquished in a bloody battle, with more loss and dishonour 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 tlie torrent. Tlie troops and treasures of the Lombards were distributed in the walled towns between the Alps and the Apcnnine. A nation, less sensible of danger than of fatigue and delay, soon murmured against the folly of their twenty commanders ; and the hot vapours 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 is"ere more than sufficient for the desolation of the countrv ; I 2 116 THE EXAECnATE [CH. XLT. nor could the trembling natives distinguish between their enemies and their deliverers. If the junction of the Mero- vingian and imperial forces had been effected in the neigh- bourhood of Milan, perhaps they might liave subverted the throne of the Lombards ; but the Franks expected six days the signal of a flaming village, and the arms of the Grreeks were idly employed in the reduction of Modena and Parma, which were torn from them after the retreat of their trans- alpine allies. The victorious Autharis asserted his claim to the dominion of Italy. At the foot of the Rhaetian Alps, lie subdued the resistance, and rifled the hidden treasures, of a sequestered island in the lake of Comum. At the extreme point of Calabria he touched with his spear a column on the sea-shore of Rhegium,* proclaiming that ancient land-mark to stand the immoveable boundary of his kingdom.t During a period of two hundred years, Italy was un- equally divided between the kingdom of the Lombards and the exarchate of Ravenna. The oflices and professions, which the jealousy of Constantino had separated, were united by the indulgence of Justinian ; and eighteen suc- cessive exarchs were invested, in the decline of the empire, with the full remains of civil, of military, and even of eccle- siastical power. Their immediate jurisdiction, which was afterwards consecrated as the patrimony of St. Peter, ex- tended over the modern Romagna, the marshes or valleys of Ferrara and Commachio ;J five maritime cities from Rimini * 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. torn, ii, p. 1295. Lucas Holsten. Annotat. ad Cluver. p. 301. Wesseling, Itinerar. p. 106. [The Columna jRhegina was the termination of the Antonini Iter through the whole length of Italy from Mediolannm. The site of this column is now marked by the village of Catona, where the small river Cessis flows into the straits of Messina. — Ed.] t The Greek historians afford some faint hints of the wars of Italy. (Menander, in Excerpt. Legat. jj. 124. 126. Theophylact, 1. 3, c. 4.) The Latins are more satisfactory; and especially Paul Warnefrid (1. 3, c. 13 — 34), who had read the more ancient histories of Secundus and Gregory of Tours. Baronius pro- duces some letters of the popes, &c. and the times are measured by tlie accurate scale of Pagi and Muratori. J 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 IL.D. oSl-ZiOO.] OF EAVEK^yA.. 117 to Ancona, and a second inland Pentapolis, between the Adriatic coast and the hills of the Apennine. Three sub- ordinate provinces, of Eome, of Venice, and of Naples, which were divided by hostile lands from the palace of Kavenna, acknowledged, both in peace and war, the supre- macy of the exarch. The duchy of Eonie appears to have included the Tuscan, Sabine, and Latian 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 Tiber from Aroeria 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 im- potent fury a new caj)ital 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 Koman colony of Amalphi,* whose industrious geograpliical question somewhat doubtful and obscure. Even Mura- tori, as the servant of the house of Este, is not free from partiality and prejudice. [Tasso has marked the situation of Commachio, " dove impaluda Ne' seni di Commachio il nostro mar." Gerusalemme Liberata, 7. 46. It was one of the early islands, formed by two branches of the Po, now called di Volana and di Primaro ; and received from the Gaula the usual Celtic de.siguatiou of a '* meeting of waters." — Ed.] * See Brenckman, Dissert. Ima de Republiea Amalphitana, p. 1 — 42, ad calcem Hist. Pandect. Flo rent. [The invention of the mariner'a compass at Amalphi in 1302, by Flavio Gioja, is now generally dis- credited. It is very improbable that such a disco vei'y should have been made in a fallen city, which had ceased to be commercially active since its capture by the Pisaus more than a century and a half before (a.D. 1137, Sismoudi, Itepub. du Moyeu Age, tom. i, p. 303), when it was completely ruined. The English reader may refer to Mr. Hallam's authorities (Middle Ages, iii. 394) for this important aid to navigation having been known and mentioned so early as 1100 ; and the German student may be instructed by M. Wachsmuth's Disserta-'^v tion (Ersch und Gruber. Allg. Encyc. 3. 302), which carries it back only to 1250, when it was among the scientific novelties patronized by Birger Jarl, the regent of Sweden. The Italians derived their term bmsolu, from the French boussole, which was taken from the Dutch or Flemish boxd (biichse or box), whence we no doubt have our boxing the compass. Some early merchant-adventurer of the Netherlands probably bi'ought it from a distant country, but never arrogated to himstlf the merit of the discovery. — Ed.] 118 KINGDOM OF THE LOMBAEDS, [CH. XLT. citizens, by the invention of the mariner's compass, have unveiled the face of the globe. The three islands of Sar- dinia, Corsica, and Sicily, still adhered to the empire ; and the acquisition of the farther Calabria removed the land- mark of Autharis from the shore of Rhegium to the isthmus of Consentia. In Sardinia, the savage mountaineers pre- served the liberty and religion of tlieir ancestors ; but the husbandmen of Sicily were chained to their rich and cul- tivated soil. Eome 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 ac- quired the privilege of electing her own dukes ;* the inde- pendence of Amalphiwas the fruit of commerce; and the voluntary attachment of Yenice was finally ennobled by an equal alliance with the Eastern empire. On the map of Italy, the measure of the exarchate occupies a very inade- quate 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 Mdan and Padua, were displayed in their respective quarters by the new inhabitants of Eavenna. 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 I'ar 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 Pirma 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. Prom Capua to Tarentum they reigned near five hundred years over the greatest part of the present kingdom of Naples.f • Gregor. Magn. 1. 3, epist. 23. 25—27. + I have described the state of Italy from the excellent Dissertation of Beretti. Giannone (Istoria Civile, torn, i, p. 374 — 387) has followed the learned Camillo Pellegrini in the geography of the kingdom ot Naples. After the loss of the true Calabria, the vauitj^ of the Greeks substituted that name instead of the more ignoble appellation of Brut- tium ; and the change appears to have taken place before the tiaie of A.B. 584-590.] THEIB LANGUAGE. 119 In comparing tlie proportion of the victorious and tliy vanquished ])eoplo, the change of language will afiord the most probable inference. According to this standard it will appear, tluit the Lombards of Italy, and the Visigoths of Spain, were less numerous than the Franks or Burgun- dians; and the conquerors of Gaul must yield, in their turn, to the multitude of Saxons and Angles who almost eradi- cated the idioms of Britain. The modern Italian has been insensibly formed by the mixture of nations : the awkward- ness of the barbarians in the nice management of declen- sions 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 tech- nical and familiar words is found to be of Latin derivation ;* Charlemagne (Eginard, p. 75). [Why was the name of Bruttium ignoble ? and how did that of Calabria gratify the vanity of the Greeks? The south-eastern peninsula of Italy was first called by them lapygia and then Messajjia. Calabria was of Latin invention. If antiquity ennobles, the Bruttii of the south-western peninsula share the glory, for they are among the most ancient people of the country (Niebuhr, Lee. 1, 120. 419). Their name adhered to that point of land through all Roman times. In the sixth century it is described by Cassiodorua (Var. viii, 31), and in the eighth by Paulus Diaconus. In the next century, Zonaras called the same district Calabria. The name was transferred about the time of the Saracenic invasions, and was probably carried by emigrants or fugitives, who left one peninsula to seek safety in the less accessible mountain-tracts of the other. The original Calabria is now La Terra di Otranto. The former Ager Bruttius is Calabi-ia Oltra, and the southern part of Lucania, Calabria Citra. —Ed.] * MaCFei (Verona Illustrata, part 1, p. 310 — 321) and Muratori (AntichiLi Italiane, torn, ii, Dissertazione 32, 33, p. 71 — 365), have asserted the native claims of the Italian idiom : the former with enthu- siasm, the latter with discretion ; both with learning, ingenuity, and truth. [Gibbon has here applied a very just test to decide the relative proportion of races in the different countries of Europe after the fall of the Roman empire. The retirement of the Celtic population into remote corners, the progress of the Gothic, and their commixture with the Latin and Latino-Celtic, are subjects that have often come under our notice. Mr. Hallam (iii. 313 — 330), has some excellent observations, particularly on the Roman pronunciation of their lan- guage. Of this, which is so necessary to a clear imderstanding of Latin and the modern dialects into which it has been variously infused, our most corrupt and barbarous mode of uttering it makes us very incompetent judges. (Juintilian (1. 9, c. 4) has given soma concise rules, which we ought not to have neglected. The treatise of Justus Lipsius, De Pronuutiatione Lingua: Latinw, may be use 120 MANNERS AND CONDUCT [ciI. XLV, 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 Kome. 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.* The camp of Alboiu was of formidable extent, but the extent of a camp would be easily circum- scribed within the limits of a city ; and its martial inhabi- tants must be thiidy scattered over the face of a large country. When Alboin descended from the Alps, he in- vested 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 familiesf to form a per- petual colony of soldiers and subjects. In the progress of conquest, the same option could not be granted to the dukes of Brescia or Bergamo, of Pavia or Turin, of Spoleto or Beneventum ; but each of these, and each of their col- fully consulted ; but his system is, in some jiarts, too iutricate and perplexed. — Ed.] * Paul, De Gest. Langobard. 1. 3, c. 5 — 7. + Paul, 1. 2, o. 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 i-ace. See 1. 4, c. 39. [What Goth has not reason to be proud of his lineage ? The term faras denoted, in primaeval nomade times, those who wandered or fared together. Its root is the Gothic fcera, whence the Anglo-Saxons had their yepan, the Germans their fahren, the Dutch their vaaren, the Italians their Faro di Messina, and we our thorough- fare, WAyfurer, ferry, &c. It first signified the moving of the person, and was afterwards extended (see Somner's Lexicon) by the wild wanderer, to the conveyance of his chattels with him. In Ingram's Saxou Chronicle (p. 178), yejibe is erroneously translated "forded." The modern use of the term is unquestionable ; and as the Germans employ r/rfdhrte, originally a fellow-traveller, to denote generally a companion, so of old the Lombards applied th(nr faras, or bands of wanderers, to express companies or families. F. Wachter, a name of repute in such inquiries, has given a long and learned dissertation on the word far (Allgem. Encyc. 41. 391 — 399), in which he alludes briefly to the Lombard use of it, and to its occurrence in the Frank name of Faramuud (the Protector of families or raceaV — Ed.] A.D. 584-590.] OF THE LOMBARDS. 121 leagues, settled iu his ap[)oiiite'iIE>'T [CH. XLV. pontiff lamented the austere duties ■which forbade In'm to partake the perils of their spiritual warfare. In less than two years he could announce to the archbishop of Alexan- dria, that they had baptised the king of Kent with ten thousand of his Anglo-Saxons ; and that the Roman mis- sionaries, 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 ;* and posterity has paid to Ms memory the same tribute, which he freely granted to the virtue of his own or the preceding generation. The celestial honours 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. Their temporal power insensibly arose from the calami- ties of the times : and the Eoman bishops, who have deluged Europe and Asia with blood, were compelled to reign as the ministers of charity and peace. I. The church of Kome, 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 subdeacons, had ac- quired a civil, and even criminal, jurisdiction over their tenants and husbandmen. The successor of St. Peter ad- ministered his patrimony with the temper of a vigilant and moderate landlord ;t 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.| * A French critic (Petrus Gussan villus, Opera, torn, ii, p. 105— 112,) has vindicated the right of Gregory to the entii-e nonsense of the Dialogues. Dupin (torn, 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. f 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 (torn, iv, 1. 3, p. '272, &c.) and Fleury (torn, 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. + I much suspect that this pecuniary fine on thts maiTiage of villains produced the famous, and often iabulous, right A.D. 590-001.] AND ALMS OF GREGORY. 135 The rent or the produce of these estates was transported to the mouth of the Tiber, at tlie 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 Ciiristian economy. On the four great i'estivals, lie divided their quarterly allowance to the clergy, to his domestics, to the monasteries, the churches, the places of burial, the alms-houses and the hospitals of llome, 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 pro- visions, clothes, and money; and his treasurers were con- tinually summoned to satisly, 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 eacb 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 Eome 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 Vati- can. Gregory might justly be styled the father of his country ; and such was the extreme sensibility of his con- science, 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 Home involved the apostolical pastor in the business of peace and war ; and it might be doubtful to himself, whether piety or ambition prom])ted him to supply the place of his absent sovereign, Gregory awakened the emperor from a long slumber, exposed tiie guilt or incapacity of the exarch and his inferior ministers, complained that the veterans de cuiggage, de marquette, &c. With the conseot of her husband, a handsome bride might commute the jiayment in the arms of a young landlord, and the mutual favour might aliord a precedent of local rather than legal tjruuui'. 136 • Preservation of eome. [ch. xlvi. were withdra^vn from Eome for the defence of Spoleto, en- couraged the Italians to guard their cities and altars, and condescended, in tlie crisis of danger, to name the tribunes, and to direct tlie 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 im- perial edicts, the pious cowardice of the soldiers who de- serted a military for a monastic life. If we may credit his own declarations, it would have been easy for Gregory to exterminate tlie Lombards by their domestic factions, with- out leaving a king, a duke, or a count, to save that unfor- tunate nation from the vengeance of their foes. As a Chris- tian 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 com- manded the respect of heretics and barbarians. The merits of Gregory were treated by the Byzantine court with re- proach 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.* CHAPTER XLVI. — revolutions op Persia after the death or CHOSROES OR NUSHIRVAN. HIS SON, HORMOUZ, A TYRANT, IS DEPOSED. — USURPATION OF BAHRAM. 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. — SIEGB OF CONSTANTINOPLE BY THE PERSIANS AND AVARS. PERSIAN EXPB- DITIONS. — VICTORIES AND TRIUMPH OF HERACLIUS. The conflict of Rome and Persia was prolonged form the death of Crassus to the reign of Heraclius. An experience * The temporal reign of Gregory I, is ably exposed by Sigonius io tlie first book, de Regno Italia. See hij works, torn, ii, p. 44 — 75. A.D. 570.] CONTESTS OF EOME AND PEESIA. 137 of seven hundred years mij^ht convince the rival nations of tlie impossibility of maintaiiiiii<^ their conquests, beyond the fatal limits of tlie Tii^ris and Euplirates. Yet the emulation of Trajan and Julian was awakened by the trophies of Alexander, and the sovereigns of Persia indulged the ambi- tious hope of restoring the empire of Cyrus.* Such extra- ordinary cflbrts 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, under- taken without cause, prosecuted without glory, and termi- nated 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 embassiesf repeat, with the same uniform prolixity, the language of falsehood and decla- mation, 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 JSTushirvan 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. In tlie 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 ArabiaJ Felix ; the distant land of myrrh and frankincense, * Missis qui . . . reposcerent . . . veteres Persarum ac Macedonum terniiiios, seque invasurum possessa Cyro et post Alexaiidro, per vani- loqueutiam ac miiias jaciebat. Tacit. Annal. 6. 31. Such was the lan- guage of the Arsacides ; I have repeatedly marked the lofty claims of the SassauiaiLs. f See the embassies of Menauder, extracted and pre.served in the tenth century by the order of Constantine Por- phyrogenitus. * The general independence of the Arabs, which cannot be admitted without many limitations, is bliiully asserted in a separate dissertation of the authors of the Uuiversaf History, vol. XX, p. 196 — 250. A perpetual miracle issupiiosed to have guarded the prophecy in favour of the posterity of Ishmael; and these iearnod 138 CONQUEST OF TEMEK. [cH, XLTI. which had escaped, rather than opposed, the conquerors of the East. After the defeat of Abrahah under the wall? of Mecca, the discord of his sons and brothers gave an easy entrance to the Persians : they chased the strangers of Abyssinia beyond the lied Sea ; and a native prince of the ancient Homerites was restored to the throne as the vassal or viceroy of the great Nushirvan.* But the nephew of Justinian declared his resolution to avenge the injuries of his Christian ally th" 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 : 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 Nush- irvan 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 mo- narchy was threatened at the same instant by the united forces of Europe, of Ethiopia, and of Scythia. At the age of fourscore, the sovereign of the East would perhaps have bigots are not afraid to risk the truth of Christianity on this frail and slippery foundation. * D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient, p. 477. Pocock, S])ecimen Hist. Arabum, p. 64, 65. Father Pagi (Critica, torn, ii, p. 646,) has proved that, after ten years' peace, the Persian war, which continued twenty years, was renewed A.D. 571. Mahomet was born a.D. 569, in the year of the elephant, or the defeat of Abrahah (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. i, p. 89, 90. 98) ; and this account allows two years for the conquest of Yemen. [The discrepancies between the Byzantine writers and the Abyssinian annals have been already remarked, (ch. 4'2, vol. iv, p. 494.) By the latter (Brace's Travels, i. 510) the " war of the elephant" is canned back to the joint reign of Abrahah and Atzbeha, between a.d. 333 and 360. The former of these princes has evidently been confounded with the governor of the Homerites, of the same name, who was ordered by Caled to protect the Christians of Yemen. What is called the " war of the elephant," was incidental to that contest, and its actual date about the year 521. In the above quoted work may be traced the connected course of events, which, by erroneous dates, have been mixed up with the last war between the Greek empire and Nushirvan. Neander (Hist, of Chris. 3. 171) could not reconcile the "conflicting notices" given of these events by Theophanes and Procopius, with those which Walch bad collected from Oriental writers; he might have formed a consistent narrative by the aid of the information which Bruce has afforded. — Ed.} 4.D. 570.] nushiUyan's last ^vab. 139 chosen the peaceful enjoyment of his f^lory and greatness ; but as soon as war beeaiiic iiu'vitable, he took the Held with the alacrity ot" youtli, wliils^t the ai,'gressor trembled in the palace of Constantinople. Nushirvan, or Chosroes, con- ducted in person the siege of Dara ; and altliough that im- portant fortress had been left destitute of troops and maga- zines, the valour 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 rhe 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 etiect 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 em- ployed in the preparations of war ; and the voice of rumour proclaimed to the world, that from the distant countries of the Alps and the Ixhine, from Scythia, INIaesia, Pannonia, Illyricum, and Isauria, the strength of the imperial cavalry ■was reintbrced with one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers. Yet the king of Persia, without fear, or without faith, re- solved 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 Csesarea, the metropolis of the Cappadocian provinces. The two armies encountered each other in the battle of Melitene ; the barbarians, who darkened the air with a clould of arrows, prolonged their line, and extended their wings across the plain ; while the liomans, 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 s[)oils of Asia, cut his wav through the Persian host, and returned with sonjis of victory to his friends, who had consumed the day in single combats, or ineffectual skirmishes. The darkness of the 140 DEATH OF i^ CSIIIRYAN. [CH. XLVI. night, and the separation of tlie Eomans, afforded the Per- sian monarch an opportunity of reveiifje ; 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, tlie vacant town of Mehtcne,* and, without consulting the safety of his troops, boldly swam the Eu- phrates 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 Eomans 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 withiii three days' march of the Caspian :t that inland sea was explored for the first time, by a hostile fleet,J 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 sank into the grave, and his last edict restrained his successors from exposing their person in a battle against the Eomans. Yet the memory of this transient aftront 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.§ * [The ill-fated city appears never to have recovered from this disaster. Its former celebrity, as Melitene, is lost under the modern name of Mazak. — Ed.] t He had vanquished the Alba- nians, who brought into the field twelve thousand horse and sixty thousand foot ; but he dreaded the multitude of venomous reptiles, whose existence may admit of some doubt, as well as that of the neigh- bouring Amazons. Plutarch, in Pompeio, torn, ii, p. 1165, 1166. :}: In the history of the world I can only perceive two navies on the Caspian. — 1. Of the Macedonians, when Patrocles, the admiral of the kings of Syria, Seleucus and Antiochus. descended most probably the river Oxus, from the confines of India. (Plin. Hist. Natur. 6. 21.) 2. Of the Russians, when Peter I. conducted a fleet and army from the neighVjoui'hood of Moscow to the coast of Persia. (Bell's Travels, vol. ii, p. 325 — 352.) He justly observes, that such martial pomp had never been displayed on the Volga. § For these Persian wars and treaties, see Menander, in Excerpt. Legat. p. 113—1^,5. Theophaues Byzant. apud Photium, cod. 64, p. 77. 80, 81. Evagrius, I 6. c. 7—15. Theophylact, 1. 3, c. 9—16. Agathias, 1. 4, p. 140. A.D. 579-590.] nis son houmouz. 141 The tlirojie of Chosroes Nushirvan was filled by ITormouz, or Hormisdas, the eldest or the most I'avoured of his sons, AV^ith the kinp;donis of Persia and India, he inherited the reputation and example of his father, the service, in every rank, of his wise and valiant ollicers, and a general system of administration, liarmonized by time and political wis- dom to promote the happiness of the prince and ])eople. But the royal youth enjoyed a still more valuable blessing, the friendsliip of a sage who had presided over his educa- tion, and who always preferred the honour to the interest of his pupil, his interest to his inclination. In a dispute with the Greek and Indian philosohers, Buzurg* had once maintained, that tlie most grievous misfortune of life is old age without the remembrance of virtue ; and our candour will presume that the same principle compelled him, during three years, to direct the councils of the Persian empire. His zeal was rewarded by the gratitude and docility of • Buzurg Mihir may be considered, in his character and station, as the Seneca of the East: but his virtues, and perhap.s his faults, are less known than those of the Roman, who appears to have been much more loquacious. The Persian sage was the person who imported from India the game of chess and the fables of Pilpay. Such has been the fiime of his wisdom and virtues, that the Christians claim him as a believer in the gospel ; and the Mahometans revere Buzurg as a premature Mussulman. D'Herbelot, Bibliothfeque Orientale, p. 218. [This wise man of the East was named Abouzurdhe Mihr, or more correctly Buzurdhe Jlihr, which in ancient Persian signified " agi-eat sun." He is evidently the same, whom Gibbon mentioned before (ch. 42, vol. iv, p. 469) as ''the physician Peroze.s." Another form, in which his name is given, is Burzouy^h or Bourzevych. The collection of fables and stories, which he olitained for Nushirvan, was not written by Pilpay or Bidpay, but by the Brachman Vishnu Sarma, under the title of Hitopadesa, or " Friendly Instruction." When the extension of our empire in India had made Sanskrit literature more accessible to scholars, cariosity was excited to discover the original of a work, which under the denomination of " Kalila and Dimna." and the humbler title of " Pilpay 's Fables," had made the tour of the old con- ' tiuent, and been translated into every cultivated Asiatic and European tongue." This was first made known to the English public, by Mr. Charles Wilkins, in his " Heetopades," 8vo. Bath, 1787. Sir W. Jones then directed further attention to it. In France it was illus- trated by De Sacy, and in Germany by Augustus Wm. Schlegel and Professor Lassen of Bonn. It is now a regular class book for Sanskrit students. The latest edition of the original text is in 4to. 1S47, by Professor Johnson of the East India College, to whose Preface and the " Notice of the Work," by Professor Wilson of Oxford, reference may be made for fuller information. — Ed.] 142 TTKANNT OF UORMOUZ. [chAlTI. Horinouz, who acknowledged himself more indebted to his preceptor than to liis parent; but when age and labour had impaired the atrength, and perliaps the faculties, of this prudent counsellor, he retired from court, and abandoned the youthful monarch to his own passions and those of his favourites. By the fatal vicissitude of human aifairs, the same scenes were renewed at Ctesiphon, which had been exhibited in Home after the death of Marcus Antoninus. The ministers of flattery and corruption, who had been banished by the father, were recalled and cherished by the son; the disgrace and exile of the friends of Nushirvan established their tyranny ; and virtue was driven by degrees from the mind of Hormouz, from his palace, and from the government of the State. The laithl'ul agents, the eyes and ears of the king, informed him of the progress of disorder, that the provincial governors flew to their prey with the derceness of lions and eaglea, and that their rapine and injustice would teach the most loyal of his subjects to abhor the name and authority of their sovereign. The sincerity of this advice was punished with death ; the mur- murs of the cities were despised, their tumults were quelled by military execution ; the intermediate powers between the throne and the people were abolished ; and the childish vanity of Hormouz, who affected the daily use of the tiara, was fond of declaring, that he alone would be the judge as well as the master of his kingdom. In evey word, and in every action, the son of Nushirvan degenerated from the virtues of his father. His avarice defrauded the troops ; his jealous caprice degraded the satraps ; the palace, the tribunals, the waters of the Tigris, were stained with the blood of the innocent, and the tyrant exulted in the suffer- ings and execution of thirteen thousand victims. As the excuse of his cruelty, he sometimes condescended to ob- serve, that the fears of the Persians would be productive of hatred, and that their hatred must terminate in rebellion ; but he forgot that his own guilt and folly had inspired the sentiments which he deplored, and prepared the event which he so justly apprehended. Exasperated by long and hopeless oppression, the provinces of Babylon, Susa, and Carmania, erected tlie standard of revolt ; and the princes of Arabia, India, and Scythia, refused the customary tribute to the unworthy successor of Nushirvan. The arms of the A.D. 590.] EXPLOITS OF BARR.Ur. 113 Komans, in slow sieges and frequent inroads, afflicted the frontiers of JNIcsopotainia and As^syria; one of their gene- rals professed himseU'thc disciple ot" Scipio, and the soldiers were animated by a miraculous image of Christ, whose mild aspect should never have been displayed in the front of battle.* At the same time the Eastern provinces of Persia were invaded by the great kiian, who passed the Oxus at the head of three or four hundred thousand Turks. The imprudent Hormouz accepted their perfidious and formid- able aid ; the cities of Kliorasan or Bactriana were com- manded to open their gates ; the march of the barbarians towards the mountains of ilyrcaiiia revealed the corre- spondence of the Turkish and Koman arms; and their union must have subverted the throne of the house of Sassan. Persia had been lost by a king; it was saved by a hero. After his revolt, Varanes or Bahrain is stigmatized by the son of Hormouz as an ungratefal slave ; the pntud and ambiguous ro])roach of despotism, since he was truly des- cended from the ancient princes of Kei,t one of the seven * See the imitation of Scipio in Theophylact. 1. 1, c. 14 ; the im.ige of of Christ, 1. 2, c. 3. Hereafter I shall speak more amply of the Christian images — I had almost said idols. This, if lam not mistaken, is the oldest dx£ipo7rou/roc,' of divine manufacture; but in the next thousand years, many others issued from the same workshop. t Raga;, or Rei, is mentioned in the apocryjihal book of Tobit as already tiourishing, seven hundred years before Christ, und>ir the Assyrian empire. Under the foreign names of Europus and Arsacia, this city, five hundred stadia to the south of the Caspian gates, was successively embellished by the Macedonians and Parthians. (Strabo, I. 11, p. 79(5.) Its grandeur and populousness in the ninth century is exaggerated beyond the bounds of credibility ; but Rei has been since ruined by wars and the unwholesomness of the air. Chardin, Voyage en Perse, torn, i, p. 279, 280. D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Oriental, p. 714. [According to Strabo (tom. ii, p. 524) Raga2 was one of the many cities, built in Asia by Seleucus Nicator, and was called by him Kuropu?, after a town in Macedonia (perhaps the place of his birth). But the Persian histories record its foundation by Houshong, long before the age of Cyrus. (Porter's Travels, 1. 357.) Not only does thw book of Tobit assign to it an em-ly date, but Arrian also proves that it existed before the reign of Seleucus, for he says (1. 3, c. 20) that Alexander encamped there. Cellarius (2- 670) reconciles these contra- dictions, by suggesting that there were two towns, the old and the new, which were after a time blended into one. Stejihanus Byzan- tiniis explains it better by stating, that the ancient city having been destroyed by an eai'thquake, Europus was raised on ita ruins, and 14:4i EXPLOITS 01" BAHEAM. [CH. XLTl, families whose splendid, as well as substantial pi'erogatives, exalted them above tlie heads of the Persian nobility.* At the siege of Dara, the valour of Bahrain was signalized nnder the eyes of Nvishirvan, and both the father and son fauccessively promoted him to the command of armies, the government of Media, and the superintendence of the palace. The popular prediction which marked him as the deliverer of Persia might be inspired by his past victories and extraordinary figure : the epithet Giuhin is expressive of the quality of dry ivood ; he had the strength and stature of a giant, and his savage countenance was fancifully com- pared to that of a wild cat. "While the nation trembled, while Hormouz disguised his terror by the name of suspi- cion, and his servants concealed their disloyalty under the mask of fear, Bahram alone displayed his undaunted cour- age and apparent fidelity ; and as soon as he found that no more than twelve thousand soldiers would ibllow him against the enemy, he prudently declared, that to this i'atal number. Heaven had reserved the honours of the triumph. The steep and narrow descent of the Pule l-iudbar,t or became so important that the Parthians made it their seat of government under the name of Arsacia. The people of the country, however, always preserved its early appellation, which was afterwards restored to it, in the form of Rei. Rhay or Hrey. After many ages of splendid importance, during which the birth of Harun al Raschid made it illustrious, it was destroyed by the immediate successors of Zingis Khan, so as to be " no more a residence of man." Sir R. K. Porter, who visited its ruins, about five miles south-east of Teheran, describes '■he remains of its walls as still of prodigious thickness, and many feet in height. They enclose a triangular space, ab(mt three English miles in length ; but beyond this, mounds and traces of buildings indicate the reports of its vast extent, though exaggerated, to have been well rounded. — Ed.] * Theophylact, 1. 3, c. 18. The story of the seven Persians is told in the third book of Herodotus ; and their noble descendants are often mentioned, especially in the fragments of Ctesias. Yet the independence of Otanes (Herodot. 1. 3, c. 83, 84,) is hostile to the spirit of despotism, and it may not seem probable that the seven families could survive the revolutions of eleven hundred years. They might, however, be represented by the seven ministers, (Brisson, de Regno Persico, 1. 1, p. 190) ; and some Persian nobles, like the kings of Pontus (Polyb. 1. 5, p. 540), and Cappadocia, (Diodor. Sicul. 1. 31, torn, ii, p. 517,) might claim their descent from the bold companions of Darius. + See an accurate description of this mountain by Olearius, (Voyage en Perse, p. 997, 998,) who ascended it with much difficulty and danger in his return from Ispahan to the Caspian sea. Sir R. K. Porter has described (Travels, L 2a9) the present aspect of A.T) 5f)0.J DEFEAT OF THE TURKS. 145 Hyrcanian rock, is the only pass through wliich an armv can penetrate into the territory of Kei and the plains of Media. From the coinmandiiig heights, a band of" resolute men might overwhelm with stones and darts the myriads of the Turkish host: their emperor and his son were trans- pierced witli arrows ; and the fugitives were left, without council or provisions, to the revenge of an injured people. The patriotism of the Persian general was stimulated hv his affection for the city of his forefathers ; in the hour of victory every peasant became a soldier, and every soldier a hero ; and their ardour was kindled by the gorgeous spec- tacle of beds, and thrones, and tables of massy gold, the spoils of Asia, and the luxury of the hostile camp. A prince of a less malignant temper could not easily have forgiven his benefactor, and the secret hatred of Hormouz was en- venomed by a malicious report, that Bahrain had privatelv retained the most precious fruits of his Turkish victory. But the approach of a Eoman army on the side of the Araxes compelled the implacable tyrant to smile and to applaud ; and the toils of Bahram were rewarded with the permission of encountering a new enemy, by their skill and discipline more formidable than a Scythian multitude. Elated by his recent success, he dispatched a herald with a bold defiance to the camp of the Eomans, requesting them to fix a day of battle, and to choose whether they would pass the river themselves, or allow a free passage to the arms of the great king. The lieutenant of the emperor IMaurice preferred the safer alternative, and this local cir- cumstance, which would have enhanced the victory of the Persians, rendered their defeat more bloody, and their escape more difficult. But the loss of his subjects, and the danger of his kingdom, Avere overbalanced in the mind of Hormouz by the disgrace of his personal enemy ; and no sooner had Bahram collected and reviewed his forces, than lie received from a royal messenger the insulting gift of a distaff, a spinning-wheel, and a complete suit of female apparel. Obedient to the will of his sovereign, he showed the precipitous ravines, commanding heights, and impregnable strong- holds, in the " Roodbar country," still bearing the name of " the san- guinary people, that rendered those passes formidable." Tlieee aiuf't have been tbo " Caspian Porta " of antiquity. — liD.J VOL. V. T 146 UOEMOUZ IS DEPOSED, [cil. SLTI. Limself to the soldiers in this unworthy disguise : they resented his ignominy and their own: a shout of rebellion rail through the ranks, and the general accepted their oath of fidelity and vows of revenge. A second messenger, who had been commanded to bring the rebel in chains, was trampled under the feet of an elephant, and manifestos were diligently eirculated, exhorting the Persians to assert their freedom against an odious and contemptible tyrant. The defection was rapid and universal; his loyal slaves were sacrificed to the public fury ; the troops deserted to the standard of Bahram ; and the provinces again saluted the deliverer of his coinitry. As the passes were faithfully guarded, Hormouz could only compute the number of his enemies by the testimony of a guilty conscience, and the daily defection of those who, in the hour of his distress, avenged their wrongs, or forgot their obligations. He proudly displayed the ensigns of royalty ; but the city and palace of Modain had already escaped from the hand of the tyrant. Among the victims of his cruelty. Bin does, a Sassanian prince, had been cast into a dungeon : his fetters were broken by the zeal and courage of a brother ; and he stood before the king at tlie head of those trusty guards who had been chosen as the ministers of his confinement, and perhaps of his death. Alarmed by the hasty intrusion and bold reproaches of the captive, Hormouz looked round, but in vain, for advice or assistance ; discovered that his strength consisted in the obedience of others, and patiently yielded to the single arm of Bindoes, who dragged him from the throne to the same dungeon in which he himself had been so lately con- fined. At the first tumult, Chosroes, the eldest of the sons of Hormouz, escaped from the city ; he was persuaded to return by the pressing and friendly invitation of Bindoes, who promised to seat him on his father's throne, and who expected to reign under the name of an inexperienced youth. In the just assurance that his accomplices could neither forgive nor hope to be forgiven, and that every Persian might be trusted as the judge and enemy of the tyrant, he instituted a public trial without a precedent and without a copy in the annals of the East. The son of Nushirvan, who had requested to plead in his own defence, 4.1). 590.] ELETATION OF CU0SI10E3. 1-47 was introduced as a criminal into the full assembly of the nobles and satraps.* He was heard with decent attention as long as he expatiated on the advantages of order and obedience, the danger of innovation, and the inevitable discord of those who had encouraged each otlier to trample on their lawful and hereditary sovereign. By a pathetic appeal to their humanity, he extorted that pity which is seldom refused to the fallen fortunes of a king : and while they beheld the abject posture and squalid appearance of the prisoner, his tears, his chains, and the marks of ignomi- nious stripes, it was impossible to forget how recently they had adored the divine splendour of his diadem and purple. But an angry murmur arose in the assembly as soon as he presumed to vindicate his conduct, and to applaud the victories of his reign. He defined the duties of a king, and the Persian nobles listened with a smile of contempt ; they were fired with indignation when he dared to vilify the character of Chosroes ; and by the indiscreet offer of resigning the sceptre to the second of his sons, he subscribed liis own condemnation, and sacrificed the life of his innocent favourite. The mangled bodies of the boy and his mother were exposed to the people ; the eyes of Hurmouz were pierced with a hot needle ; and the punish- ment of the father was succeeded by the coronation of his eldest son. Chosroes had ascended the throne witliout guilt, and his piety strove to alleviate the misery of the abdicated monarch : from the dungeon he removed Hormouz to an apartment of the palace, supplied with liberality the consolations of sensual enjoyment, and patiently endured the furious sallies of his resentment and despair. He might despise the resentment of a blind and unpopular tyrant, but the tiara was trembling on his head, till he could subvert the power, or acquire the friendship, of the great Bahram, who sternly denied the justice of a revolution in which himself and his soldiers, the true representatives of Pei'sia, had never been consulted. The offer of a general amnesty, and of the second rank in his kingdom, was answered by an epistle from Bahram, friend of the gods, conqueror of men, and enemy of tyrants, the satrap of Batraps, general of the Persian armies, and a prince adorned * The Orientals suppose that Bahram convened this assembly and proclaimed Chosroes; but Theophylact is, in this instance, more 1. 2 148 ©EATH OF nOKMOUZ. [CH. XLTI, with the title of eleven virtues.* He commands Chosroes, the son of Hormouz, to slmn the example and fate of his father, to confine the traitors who had been released from their chains, to deposit in some holy place the diadem which he had usurped, and to accept from his gracious benefactor the pardon of his faults and the gorernment of n province. The rebel miglit not be proud, and the kinf most assuredly was not humble; but the one was con-> sjcious of his strength, the other was sensible of his own weakness ; and even the modest language of his reply still left room for treaty and reconciliation. Chosroes led into the field the slaves of the palace and the populace of the capital : they beheld with terror the banners of a veteran army ; they were encompassed and surprised by the evolu- tions of the general ; and the satraps who had deposed Hormouz, received the punishment of their revolt, or expiated their first treason by a second and more criminal act of disloyalty. The life and liberty of Chosroes were saved, but he was reduced to the necessity of imploring aid or refuge in some foreign land ; and the implacable Bindoes, anxious to secure an unquestionable title, hastily returned to the palace, and ended, with a bow-string, the wretched existence of the son of Nushirvan.f AVhile Chosroes dispatched the preparations of his re- treat, he deliberated with his remaining friends,^ whether he should lurk in the valleys of mount Caucasus, or fly to the tents of the Turks, or solicit the protection of the emperor. The long emulation of the successors of Arta- xerxes and Constantino increased his reluctance to appear as a suppliant in a rival court ; but he weighed the forces distinct and credible. * See the words of Theophylact, lib. 4, C. 7. Mapafj. (piXog toIq Oeoig, viKrjTi'iQ ewi(pav7)g, rvpdvvwv i\Oi)oc, (TaTpa7n]Q jityKyruviov, riJQ UipmKTjg cipxojv Ivvafxtwg, k.c. In Lis answer, Chosroes styles himself Trj vvkti xapi^o/'fvoc ofinuTu . . . . o Tovg " AcTwvac (the genii) f^iiaOovptvog. This is genuine Oriental bombast. + Theophylact (1. 4, c. 7) imputes the death of Hormouz to his son, by whose command he was beaten to death with clubs. I have followed the milder account of Khondemir and Eutychius, and shall always be content with the slightest evidence to extenuate the crime of parracide. J After the battle of Pharsalia, the Pompey of Lucan (1. 8, 256 — 455) holds a similar debate. He was himself desirous of seeking the Parthians ; but his companions abhorred the unnatural alliance ; and the adverse pre- judices might operate as forcibly on Chosroea and bis companions, who A.D. 590.] cnosuoES flies to the bomans. l-i^) of the Eomans, and prudently considered that the neigh- bourhood of Syria would render his escape more easy, and their succours more effectual. Attended only by his con- cubines, and a troop of thirty guards, he secretly departed from the capital, followed the banks of the Euphrates, traversed the desert, and halted at the distance of ten miles from Circesium. About the third watch of the night the Eoman prefect was inlbrmed of his approach, and he introduced the royal stranger to the fortress at the dawn of day. From thence the king of Persia was conducted to the more honourable residence of Ilierapolis ; and Maurice dissembled his pride, and displayed his benevolence, at the reception of the letters and ambassadors of the grandson of Nusliirvan. They humbly represented tlie vicissitudes of fortune and the common interest of princes, exaggerated the ingratitude of Bahram, the agent of the evil principle, and urged, with specious argument, that it was ibr the advantage of the Komans themselves to support the two monarchies which balance the world, the two great lumi- minaries by wliose salutary influence it is vivified and ailorned. The anxiety of Cliosroes was soon relieved by the assurance that the emperor had espoiised the cause of justice and royalty; but Maurice prudently declined tlie expense and delay of his useless visit to Constantinople. In the name of his generous benefactor, a rich diadem was presented to the fugitive prince, with an inestimable gift of jewels and gold ; a powerful army was assembled on tlie froutiers of tSyria and Armenia, under the command of the valiant and faithful Narses,* and this general, of his own nation and his own choice, was directed to pass the Tigris and never to sheath his sword till he had restored Chosroes to the throne of his ancestors. The enterprise, however co'ild describe, with the same vehemence, the contrast of laws, religion, and manners, between the East and West. * lu this asje there were thi'ee warriors of the name of Narses, who have been ofti^u confounded. (P;i^i, Critica, torn, ii, p. 640.) 1. A Persarmenian, th« brother of Isaac and Armatius, who, after a successful action against Belisariua, deserted from his Persian sovereign, and afterwards served in the Italian war. 2. The eunuch who conquered Italy. 3. The v^storer of Chosroes, who is celebrated in the poem of Corippus (1. '6, ■^•20 — 227) as excelsus super omnia vertice agmiua .... haOitu tnodestus . . . morum probitate placens, vu'tute verendus ; luluiiueiij, cautus, vigilans, &a 150 DEATH OF BAHRAM. [CH. XLTL splendid, was less arduous than it might appear. Persia luid already repented of her fatal rashness, Avhich betrayed the heir of the house of Sassau to the ambition of a rebel- lious subject : and the bold refusal of the Magi to conse- cx'ate his usurpation, compelled Bahram to assume the sceptre, regardless of the laws and prejudices of the nation. 1'he palace was soon distracted with conspiracy, the city with tumult, the provinces with insurrection ; and the cruel execution of the guilty and the suspected served to irritate rather than subdue the public discontent. No sooner did the grandson of Nushirvan display his own and the Eoraan banners beyond the Tigris, than he was joined each day by the increasing multitudes of the nobility and people ; and as he advanced, he received from every side the grateful offerings of the keys of his cities and the heads of his enemies. As soon as Modain was freed from the presence of the usurper, the loyal inhabitants obeyed the first sum- mons of Mebodes at the head of only two thousand horse, and Chosroes accepted the sacred and precious ornaments of the palace as the pledge of their truth and a presage of his approaching success. After the junction of the imperial troops, which Eahram vainly struggled to prevent, the contest was decided by two battles on the banks of the Zab, and the confines of Media. The Eomaus, with the faithful subjects of Persia, amounted to sixty thousand, while the whole force of the usurper did not exceed forty thousand men : the two generals signalized their valour and ability, but the victory was finally determined by the prevalence of numbers and discipline. With the remnant of a broken army, Bahram fled towards the eastern pro- vinces of the Oxus : the enmity of Persia reconciled him to the Turks ; but his days were shortened by poison, perhaps the most incurable of poisons, the stings of remorse and despair, and the bitter remembrance of lost glory. Yet the modern Persians still commemorate the exploits of Bahram ; and some excellent laws have prolonged the duration of his troubled and transitory reign. The restoration of Chosroes was celebrated with feasts and executions ; and the music of the royal banquet was often disturbed by the groans of dying or mutilated criminals. A general pardon might have diffused comfort and tranquillity through a country which had been shaken A.D. 591-G03.] hestoration of ciioshoes. I.jI by the late revolutions ; yet before the sanguinary temper of Ciiosroes is blamed, we sliould learn wliother the Persians had not been aeciistonied cither to dread the rigour, or to despise the weakness, of their sovereign. The revolt ol Bah ram, and the conspiracy of the satraps, were impar- tially punished by the revenge or justice of the conqueror; the merits of Bindoes himself could not purify his hand from the guilt of royal blood ; and the son of Hormouz was desirous to assert his own innocence, and to vindicate the sanctity of kings. During the vigour of the lloman power, several princes were seated on the throne of Persia by the arms and the authority of the first Caesars. But their new subjects were soon disgusted with the vices or virtues which they liad imbibed in a foreign land ; the instability of their dominion gave birth to a vulgar observation, that the choice of liome was solicited and rejected with equal ardour bv the capricious levity of Oriental slaves.* But the glory ot Maurice was conspicuous in the long and fortunate reign of his son and his ally. A band of a thousand Eomans, who continued to guard the person of Chosroes, proclaimed his confidence in the fidelity of the strangers; his growing strength enabled him to dismiss this unpopular aid, but he steadily professed the same gratitude and reverence to his adopted father ; and till the death of Maurice, the peace and alliance of the two empires were faithfully maintained. Yet the mercenary friendship of the Koman prince had been purchased with costly and important gifts ; the strong cities of Martyropolis and Dara were restored, and the Persarmenians became the willing subjects of an empire, whose eastern limit was extended, beyond the example of former times, as far as the banks of the Araxes and the neighbourhood of the Caspian. A pious hope was indulged that the church, as well as the state, might triumph in this revolution : but if Chosroes had sincerely listened to the Christian bishops, the impression was erased by the zeal and eloquence of the Magi ; if he was armed with philosophic indifl'ereuce, he accommodated his belief, or rather his pro- * Experimentis coguitum est barbaros niallo RoniA petere re?es quam habere. These experiments are admirably represented in the invitation and expulsion of Vouones (Anual. 2, 1 — 3), Tiridatea (Anual. 6, 3'2— 44), and Meherdates (Annal. 11. 10. 12, 10—14). The eye of Tacitus seems to have transpierced the camp of the Pai-thiaus 152 HISTORY OP SIBA. [CH. XLYI, fessions, to the various circumstances of an esile and a sovereign. Tlie imaginary conversion of the king of Pei-siu was reduced to a local and superstitious veneration for Sergius,* one of the saints of Antioch, who heard his prayers and appeared to him in dreams ; he enriched the shrine with oiferings of gold and silver, and ascribed to this invi- sible patron, the success of his arms, and the pregnancy of JSira, a devout Christian, and the best beloved of his wives.i" The beauty of Sira or lSchirin,;J; her wit, her musical talents, are still famous in the history, or rather in the romances, of the East : her own name is expressive, in the Persian tongue, ot sweetness and grace ; and the epithet of Parviz alludes to the charms of her royal lover. Yet Sira never shared the passion which she inspired, and the bliss of Chosroea Avas tortured by a jealous doubt, that while he possessed her person, she had bestowed her affections on a meaner favourite. § and the walls of the haram. * Sergiua and his com ])anion Bacchus, who are said to have suffered in the per.seciitiou of Maximian, obtahied divine honour in France, Italy, Constantinople, and the East. Their tomb at Rasaphe was famous for miracles, and that Syrian town acquired the more hono\irable name of Sergiopolis. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. v, p. 491 — 496. Butler's Saints-, vol. x, p. 155. + Evagrius (1. 6, c. 21) and Theophylact (1. 5, c. 13, 14) have preserved the original letters of Chosroes, written ia Greek, signed with his own hand, and afterwards inscribed on crosses and tables of gold, which were deposited in the church of Sergiopolis. They had been sent to the bishop of Antioch, as jjrimate of Syria. + The Greeks only describe her as a Roman by birth, a Christian by religion ; but she is represented as the daughter of the emperor Maurice in the Persian and Tui-kish romances, which celebrate the love of Khosrou for Schirin, of Schirin for Ferhad, the most beautiful youth of the East. D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient, p. 789. 997. 998. § The whole series of the tyranny of Hormouz, the revolt of Bahram, and the flight and restoration of Chosroes, is related by two contemporary Greeks— more concisely by Evagrius (1. 6, c. 16 — 19) — - and most diffusely by Theophylact Simocatta (1. -3, c. 6 — 18 ; 1. 4, c. 1 — 16; 1. 5, c. 1 — 15): succeeding compilers, Zonaraa and Cedrenus, can only transcribe and abridge. The Chi-istian Arabs Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii, p. 200 — 208) and Abulpharagius (Dynast, p. 96 — 98), appear to have consulted some particular memoirs. The great Pei'sian historians of the fifteenth century, Mirkhond and Khoiidcmir, are only known to me by the imperfect extracts of Shikard (Tarikh, p. 150 — 155), Texeira, or rather Stevens (Hist, of Persia, p. 182—186), a Turkish MS. tran.s- lated by the abbd Fourmont (Hist, de I'Acaddmie des Inscriptions, tom. vii, p. 325 — 334) and D'Herbelot (aux mots Hormouz, p. 457 — 159 J jBahra/a, p. 174; KJwsrou Parviz, p. 996). Were I perfectly A.D. ,')70-G00.] THE CHAOAN OF THE AVAE3. 153 AVliiletlio majesty of the Roman name was revived in the East, the prospect of Europe is less pleasing and less glorious. By the departure of the Lombards, and the ruin of tlie Gepidte, the balance of power was destroyed on the Danube ; and the Avars spread their permanent dominion irom the foot of the Alps to the sea-coast of the Euxine. The reigu of Baian is the brightest era of their monarchy ; their chagan, who occupied the rustic palace of Attila, appears to have imitated his character and policy ;* but as the same scenes were repeated in a smaller circle, a minute represen- tation of the copy would be devoid of the greatness and novelty of the original. The pride of the second Justin, of Tiberius, and Maurice, was humbled by a proud barbarian, more prompt to inflict, than exposed to suffer, the injuries of war ; and as often as Asia was threatened by the Persian arms, Europe was oppressed by the dangerous inroads, or costly friendship, of the Avars. When the Koman envoys approached tlie presence of the chagan, they were com- manded to wait at the door of his tent, till, at the end perhaps of ten or twelve days, he condescended to admit them. If the substance or the style of their message was offensive to his ear, he insulted, with real or affected fury, their own dignity, and that of their prince : their baggage was plundered, and their lives were only saved by the promise of a richer present and a more respectful address. But his sacred ambassadors enjoyed and abused an un- bounded licence in the midst of Constantinople: they urged, with importunate clamours, the increase of tribute, or the restitution of captives and deserters ; and the majesty of the empire was almost equally degraded by a base compliance, or by the lalse and fearful excuses with which they eluded such insolent demands. The chagan had never seen an elephant ; and his curiosity was excited by the strange, and satisfied of their authority, I could wish these Oriental materials had been more copious. * A general idea of the pride and power of the chagan may Le taken from Meuander (Excerpt. Legat. p. 117, &c.) and Theo})hylact (1. 1, c. 3 ; 1. 7, c. 15), whose eight books are much more honourable to the Avar than to the Roman prince. The predecessors of Baian had tasted the liberality of Rome, and he survived the reign of Maurice. (Buat, Hist, des Peujiles Barbares, torn, xi, p. bia.) The chagan who invaded Italy, a.d. 611 (Muratori, Annali, torn, v, p. 305), was then juvenili ajtate floreutem (Paiil Waruefrid, De Gest. Laugoburd, 1. 5, c. 3S), the son, perhaps, or th« 151 PKIDE AND POWEU OF BAIAIST. [CH. XLVI, perhaps fabulous, portrait of that wonderful animal, At his command, one of the largest elephants of the imperial stables was equipped with stately caparisons, and conducted bj a numerous train to the royal village in the plains of Hungary. He surveyed the enormous beast with sur- prise, with disgust, and possibly with terror; and smiled at the vain industry of the Romans, who, in search of such useless rarities, could explore the limits of the land and sea. He wished, at tlie expense of the emperor, to repose in a golden bed. The wealth of Constantinople, and the skilful diligence of her artists, were instantly devoted to the grati- fication of his caprice ; but when the work was finished, he rejected with scorn a present so unworthy the majesty of a great king.* These were the casual sallies of his pride, but the avarice of the chagan was a more steady and tract- able passion ; a rich and regular supply of silk apparel, furniture, and plate, introduced the rudiments of art and luxury among the tents of the Scythians ; their appetite was stimulated by the pepper and cinnamon of India ;t the annual subsidy or tribute was raised from fourscore, to one liundred and twenty, thousand pieces of gold ; and after each liostile interruption, the payment of the arrears, with exorbitant interest, was always made the first condition of the new treaty. In the language of a barbarian with- out guile, the prince of the Avars afiected to complain of the insincerity of the Greeks; J yet he was not inferior to the most civilized nations in the refinements of dis- simulation and perfidy. As the successor of the Lombards, the chagan asserted his claim to the important city of Sirmium, the ancient bulwark of the lUyrian provinces. § The plains of the lower Hungary were covered with the grandson of Baian. [Chagan is ouly another form for Uian, a word more familiar to us. — Ed.] * Theophylact, 1. 1, c. 5, 6. f Even in the field, the chagan delighted in the use of these aromatics. He solicited as a gift, 'IvciKag KapvKiag, and received TTfTTfOt KCll piWoV 'ifCWJ', KCIffiuV TS Kdl TOl' XtynfltVOV KOOTOV. Theophylact, 1. 7, c. 13. The Europeans of the ruder ages consumed more spices in their meat and drink than is compatible with the delicacy of a modern palate. Vie priv^e des Frangois, torn, ii, p. 162, 163. X Theophylact, 1. 6, c. 6 ; 1. 7, c 15. The Greek Idstorian confesses the truth and justice of his reproach. § Menander (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 126 — 132. 174, 17.'J), describea Iho perjury of Baian and the surrender of Sirmium. We bave lost bis A.D. 570-GOO.] nis xnEACiiEUY. 155 Avar horse, and a fleet of large boats was bnilt in tlie llorcynian wood, to descend the ])anube. and to transport into the Save the materials of a bridge. But as the strong garrison of Singidunum, which commanded the conflux of the two rivers, might have stopped their passage and bafiled his dc'jigns, he dispelled their apprehensions by a solemn oath, that his views were not hostile to the empire. He sworfi by his sword, the symbol of the god of war, that he tlid not, as the enemy of Home, construct a bridge upon the Save. " If I violate my oath," pursued the intrepid Baian, *' may I myself, and the last of my nation, perish by the sword : may the heavens and fire, the deity of the heavens, fall upon our heads ! may the forests and mountains bury us in their ruins! and the Save returning, against the laws of nature, to his source, overwhelm us in his angry waters !" After this barbarous imprecation, he calmly inquired, what oath was most sacred and venerable among the Christians, what guilt of perjury it was most dangerous to incur. The bishop of Singidunum presented tlie gospel, which the chagan received with devout reverence. " I swear," said he, "by the God who has spoiven in this holy book, that I have neither lalsehood on my tongue, nor treachery in my heart." As soon as he rose from his knees, he accelerated the labour of the bridge, and dispatched an envoy to pro- claim what he no longer wished to conceal. " Inform the emperor," said the perfidious Baian, "that Sirmium is invested on every side. Advise his prudence to withdraw the citizens and their eftects, and to resign a city which it is now impossible to relieve or defend." Without the hope of relief, the defence of Sirmium was prolonged above three years ; the walls were still untouched ; but famine was enclosed within the walls, till a merciful capitulation allowed the escape of the naked and hungry inhabitants. Singi- dunum, at the distance of fifty miles, experienced a more cruel fate ; the buildings were razed, and the vanquished people was condemned to servitude and exile. Yet the ruins of Sirmium are no longer visible ; the advantageous situation of Sin"[idunum soon attracted a new colony of Sclavouians, and the conflux of the Save and Danube is still guarded by the fortifications of Belgrade, or the Wliite City, liucount of the siege, which is commended by Theophylact, 1 1, c. 3. 1.J(3 HUMANITY OP BAIA!?. [CH. XLVl. BO often and so obstinately disputed by the Cliristian and Turkish arms.* From Belgrade to the walls of Constan- tinople, a line may be measured of six hundred miles ; that line was marked with flames and with blood ; the horses of the Avars were alternately bathed in the Euxiue and the Adriatic ; and the liomau poutift', alarmed by the approach of a more savage enemy ,t was reduced to cherish the Lom- bards as the protectors of Italy. The despair of a captive, whom his country refused to ransom, disclosed to the Avara the invention and practice of military engines ; J but in the first attempts, they were rudely framed and awkwardly managed ; and the resistance of Diocletianopolis and Beraia, of Philippopolis and Adrianople, soon exhausted the skill and patience of the besiegers. The warfare of Baian was that of a Tartar ; yet his mind was susceptible of a lunnaue and generous sentiment : he spared Anchialus, whose salu- tary waters had restored the health of the best beloved of his wives ; and the Komans confessed, that their starving army was fed and dismissed by the liberality of a foe. His empire extended over Hungary, Poland, and Prussia, from the mouth of the Danube to that of the Oder ;§ and his new subjects were divided and transplanted by tlie jealous policy of the conqueror.^ The eastern regions of Ger- many, which had been left vacant by the emigration of the Vandals, were replenished with Sclavonian colonists ; the same tribes are discovered in the neigiibourhood of tlie Adriatic and of the Baltic, and with the name of Baian * See D'Anville, in the Memoires de I'Acad. des Inscriptions, torn, xxviii, p. 412 — 443. The Sclavonic name of Belgrade is men- tioned in the tenth century by Constantiue Porphyrogenitus ; the Latin appellation of Alba Gi'seca is used by the Franks in the begin- ning of the ninth (p. 414). f Baron. Annal. Eccles. A.D. 600, No. 1. Paul Warnefrid (1. 4, c. 38) relates their irruption into Friuli, and (c. 39) the captivity of his ancestors about A.D. 632. The Sclavi traversed the Hadriatic, cum multitudine navium, and made a descent in the territory of Sipontum (c. 47). X Even the helepolis, or moveable turret. Theophylact, 1. 2, 16. 17. § The arms and alliances of the chagan reached to the neighbour- hood of a western sea, fifteen months' journey from Constantinople. The emperor Maurice conversed with some itinerant harpers from that remote country, and only seems to have mistaken a trade for a nation. Theophylact, I. 6, c. 2. II This is one of the most probable and luminous conjectures of the learned count de Bual (Hist, des Peuples Barbares, tom. xi, p. 546 — 568). The Tzechi and Serbi are found together near mount Caucasus, ia lUyricum, and ou the A.D. 59j-G02.] maetial ardoue of maubice. 157 himself, the lUyrian cities of K'eyss and Lissa are again found in the lieart of Silesia. In the disposition both of his troops and ])rovinces, the chagan exposed the vassals, whose lives he disregarded,* to the first assault; and the swords of the enemy were blunted belbre they encountered the native valour of the Avars, The Persian alliance restored the troops of the East to the defence of Europe ; and Maurice, who had su]iported ten years the insolence of the chagan, declared his reso- lution to march in person against the barbarians. In the space of two centuries, none of the successors of Theodosius had appeared in the field, their lives were supinely spent in the palace of Constantinople : and the Greeks could no longer understand that the name of emperor, in its primi- tive sense, denoted the chief of the armies of the republic. The martial ardour of iNfaurice was opposed by the grave flattery of the senate, the timid superstition of the patriarch, and the tears of the empress Constantina ; and they all con- jured him to devolve on some meaner general the fatigues and perils of a Scythian campaign. Deaf to their advice and entreaty, the emperor boldly advancedf seven miles from the capital ; the sacred ensign of the cross was displayed in the front, and Maurice reviewed, with conscious pride, the arms and numbers of the veterans who had fought and con- qucred beyond the Tigris. Anchialus saw the last term of his progress by sea and land : he solicited, without success, a miraculous answer to his nocturnal prayers ; his mind was confounded by the death of a favourite horse, the encounter of a wild boar, a storm of wind and rain, and tlie birth of a monstrous child ; and he forgot that the best of omens is to unsheath our sword in the defence of our country. J Under Lower Elbe. Even the wildest traditions of the Bohemians, &c. afford some colour to his hypothesis. * See Fredegarius, in the Historians of France, torn, ii, p. 432. Baian did not conceal his proud insensibility. "On toiovtovq (not roaovrovi;, according to a foolish emendation) tirntpiiaio ry 'riona'iicy iog ii Kai cvi.ii3ait] y£ a'STA>'XINOPLE. [CH. XLVI. of the circus, which lie repeated witli unusual pomp, IMau- ricc disguised, -with smiles of confidence, the anxiety of his heart, condescended to solicit the applause of the factions, and flattered their pride by accepting from their respective tribunes a list of nine hundred blues and fifteen hundred greens, whom he afl:ected to esteem as the solid pillars of his) throne. Their treacherous or languid support betrayed his weakness and hastened his fall ; the green faction were the secret accomplices of the rebels, and the blues recommended lenity and moderation in a contest with their Roman brethren. The rigid and parsimonious virtues of Maurice had long since alienated the hearts of his subjects : as he walked barefoot in a religious procession, he was rudely assaulted with stones, and his guards were compelled to present their iron maces in the defence of his person. A fanatic monk ran through the streets with a drawn sword, denouncing against him the wrath and the sentence of God ; and a vile plebeian, who represented his countenance and apparel, was seated on an ass, and pursued by the impreca- tions of the multitude.* The emperor suspected the popu- larity of Germanus with the soldiers and citizens ; he feared, he threatened, but he delayed to strike ; the patrician fled to the sanctuary of the church ; the people rose in his de- fence, the walls were deserted by the guards, and the lawless city was abandoned to the flames and rapine of a nocturnal tumult. In a small bark, the unfortunate Maurice, with his wife and nine children, escaped to the Asiatic shore ; but the violence of the wind compelled him to land at the church of St. Autonomus,t near Chalcedon, from whence he dispatched Theouosius, his eldest son, to implore the grati- tude and friendship of the Persian monarch. For himself * In their clamours against Maurice, the people of Constantinople branded him with the name of Marciouite or Marcionist : a heresy (says Theophylact, 1. 8, c. 9), fitTo. tivoq f^iMpai; tuXafitiai;, tvi^Qrjq ti kui KaraytXcKTTog. Did they only cast out a vague reproach, or had the erapercr really listened to some obscure teacher of those ancient Gnostics? t The church of St. Autonoraus (whom I have not the honour to know) was one hundred and fifty stadia from Constantinople. (Theophylact, 1. 8, c. 9.) The port of Eutropius, where Maurice and his children were murdered, is described by GvUius (De Bosphoro Thracio, 1. 3, c. 11) as one of the two harbours of Chalcedon. [Autonomus was a bishop in the time of Diocletian. He •ought refuge from persecution in Bithynia ; but suffered martyrdom A.D. C02.] Dr.vTn of maubice and nis sons. 16^ he refused to fly ; his body ^vas tortured with sciatic pains,* his mind was enfeebled by superstition; lie patiL-ntly awaited the event of the revolution, and addressed a fervent and public prayer to the Almighty, that the punishment of his sins might be inflicted in this world rather than in a future life. After the abdication of Maurice, the two factions disputed the choice of an emperor; but the favourite of the blues was rejected bv the icalousv of their antagonists, and Germanus himself was hurried along by the crowds, who rushed to the palace of Hebdomou, seven miles from the .nty, to adore the majesty of Phocas the centurion. A mo- dest wish of resigning the purple to the rank and merit of (xermanus was opposed by his resolution, more obstinate and equally sincere ; the senate and clergy obeyed his summons; and as soon as the patriarch was assured of his orthodox belief, he consecrated the successi'ul usurper in the church of St. John the Baptist. On the third day, amidst i he acclamations of a thoughtless people, Phocas made his public entry in a chariot drawn by four white horses ; the revolt of the troops was rewarded by a lavisli donative, and the new sovereign, after visiting the palace, beheld from his throne the games of the hippodrome. In a dispute of pre- cedency between the two factions, his partial judgment inclined in favour of the greens. " Kemember that Maurice is still alive," resounded from the opposite side ; and the indiscreet clamour of the blues admonished and stimulated the cruelty of the tyrant. The ministers of death were dis- patched to Chalcedon : they dragged the emperor from his sanctuary ; and the five sons of Maurice were successively murdered before the eyes of their agonizing parent. At each stroke, which he felt in his heart, he found strength to rehearse a pious ejaculation, — " Thou art just, O Lord ! and thy judgments are righteous." And such, in tlie last mo- ments, was his rigid attachment to truth and justice, that he revealed to the soldiers the pious falsehood of a nurse who presented her own child in the place of a royal infant. t in 290. — Ed.] * The inhabitants of Constantinople were generally subject to the voaoi nuUpiincti;; and Theophylact insinuates (1. 8, c. 9), that if it were consistent with the rules of history, he could assign the medical cause. Yet such a digression would m^t have been more impertinent than his inquiry (1. 7, c. 16, 17) into the annual inundations of the Nile, and alJ the opinions of the Greek philosof hers on that subject. "f* Froxu this geDerou.*; u 2 104 THE EMPEROR PHOCAS. [CH. XLTI. The tragic scene was finally closed by the execution of the emperor himself", in the twentieth year of his rtign, and the sixty-third of his age. The bodies of the father and his five sons were cast into the sea, their heads were exposed at Constantinople to the insults or pity of the multitude ; and it was not till some signs of putrefaction had appeared, that Phocas connived at the private burial of these venerable remains. In that grave the faults and errors of Maurice were kindly interred. His fate alone was remembered ; and at the end of twenty years, in the recital of the history of Theophylact, the mournful tale was interrupted by the tears of the audience.* Such tears must have flowed in secret, and such compas- sion would have been criminal, under the reign of Phocas, who was peaceably acknowledged in the provinces of the East and West. The images of the emperor and his wife, Leontia, were exposed in the Lateran to the veneration of the clergy and senate of Rome, and afterwards deposited in the palace of the Caesars, between those of Constantino and Theodosius. As a subject and a Christian, it was the duty of Gregory to acquiesce in the established government ; but the joyful applause with which he salutes the fortune of the assassin, has sullied with indelible disgrace the character of the saint. The successor of the apostles might have inculcated with decent firmness the guilt of blood, and the necessity of repentance ; he is content to celebrate the deliverance of the people and the fall of the oppressor; to rejoice that the piety and benignity of Phocas have been raised by Providence to the imperial throne ; to pray that his hands may be strengthened against all his enemies ; and to express a wish, perhaps a prophecy, that, after a long and triumphant reign, he may be transferred from a temporal to an everlasting kingdom .f I have already traced the steps attempt, Corneille has deduced the intricate web of his tragedy of Heraclius, which requires more than one representation to be clearly xuiderstood (Corneille de Voltaire, torn, v, p. 300) ; and which, after an interval of some years, is said to have puzzled the author himself. (Anecdotes Dramatiques, tom. i, p. 422.) * The revolt of Phocas and death of Maurice are told by Theophylact Simocatta (1. 8, c. 7—12), the Paschal Chronicle (p. 379, 380), theophanes (Chrono- graph, p. 238 — 244), Zonaras (tom. ii, 1. 14, p. 77 — 80), and Cedrenus (p. 399—404). t Gregor. 1. 11, epist. 38, indict. 6, Benignitatem vestra pietatis ad imperiale fastigium pervenisse gaude- mu.s. Leeteutur cccli et exultet terra, et do ve.-stris benigniB actibua A.D. G02.] nrs cii-Vracteb. 105 of a revolution so pleasiiifr, in Gregory's opinion, both to licaven aiul earth ; and Phocas does Jiot appear k's.s hatei'iil in the exercise than in the acquisition of power. The pencil of an impartial historian has delineated the portrait of a monster;* his dimunitive and detormed person, the close- ness of his shaggy eye-brows, his red hair, his beardless chin, and his cheek disfigured and discoloured by a formi- dable scar. Ignorant of letters, of laws, and even of arm?, he indulged in tlie supreme rank a more ample privilege oj: lust and drunkenness, and his brutal pleasures were either injurious to his subjects or disgraceful to himself. AVithout assuming the otllce of a prince, he renounced the protessioii of a soldier ; and the reign of Pliocas afflicted Europe witli ignominious peace, and Asia with desolating war. Hio savage temper was inflamed by passion, hardened by fear, exasperated by resistance or reproach. The flight of Theo- . 215), w at a loss to dfiteroiiue whether this pictur* 168 DEATH OF PlIOCAS. [CH. XLYl. less resistance to the landing of tlie Africans ; but the people, and even the guards, were determined by the well- timed defection of Crispus ; and the tyrant was seized by \ private enemy, -who boldly invaded the solitude of the palace. Stripped of the diadem and purple, clothed in a vile habit, and loaded with chains, he was transported in a small boat to the imperial galley of Heraclius, who reproached him ■with the crimes of his abominable reign. " Wilt thou govern better ?" were the last -words of the despair of Phocas. After suffering each variety of insult and torture, his head was severed from his body, the mangled trunk was cast into the flames, and the same treatment was inflicted on the statues of the vain usurper, and the seditious banner of the green faction. The voice of the clergy, the senate, and the people, invited Heraclius to ascend the throne which he had purified from guilt and ignominy ; after some graceful hesi- tation, he yielded to their entreaties. His coronation was accompanied by that of his wife Eudoxia ; and their pos- terity, till the fourth generation, continued to reign over the empire of the East. The voyage of Heraclius had been easy and prosperous, the tedious march of Nicetas was not accomplished before the decision of the contest : but he submitted without a murmur to the fortune of his friend, and his laudable intentions were rewarded with an eques- trian statue and a daughter of the emperor. It was more difficult to trust the fidelity of Crispus, whose recent services were recompensed by the command of the Cappa- docian army. His arrogance soon provoked, and seemed to excuse, the ingratitude of his new sovereign. In the pre- sence of the senate, the son-in-law of Phocas was con- demned to embrace the monastic life ; and the sentence was justified by the weighty observation of Heraclius, that the man who had betrayed his father, could never be faithful to his friend.* • Even after his death, the republic was afflicted by the crimes of Phocas, which armed with a pious cause the most formidable of her enemies. According to the friendly and equal forms of the Byzantine and Persian courts, he an- nounced his exaltation to the throne ; and his ambassador was an original or a copy. * See the tyranny of Phocas and the elevation of Heraclius, in Chron. Paschal, p. 380 — 383. Theophanes, p. 242—250. Nicephorus, p. 3 — 7. Cedreaua, p. 404— A.D. 003.] ciiosnoES ikvades the noir.vN empire. 1G9 Lilius, who liad presented him with the heads of Maurice and his sons, was the best qualified to describe the circum- stances of the trajric scene.* However it nii^ht be varni.'^lied by fiction or sophistry, Chosroes turned with horror from the assassin, ini|)risoned the pretended envoy, disclaimed the usurper, and declared himself the avenger of his father and benefactor. Tiiesentimentsof grief and resentment, which humanity would feel and honour would dictate, promoted, on this occasion, the interest of the Persian king ; and his interest was powerfully magnified by the national and religious prejudices of the Magi and satraps. In a strain of artful adulation, which assumed the language of freedom, they presumed to censure the excess of his gratitude and friendship for the Gi'eeks ; a nation with whom it was dangerous to conclude either peace or alliance ; whose superstition was devoid of truth and justice, and who must be incapable of any virtue, since they could perpetrate the most atrocious of crimes — the impious murder of their sovereign. t For the crime of an ambitious centurion, the nation which he oppressed was chastised with the calamities of war ; and the same calamities, at the end of twenty years, were retaliated and redoubled on the heads of the Persians. J The general who had restored Chosroes to the throne, still commanded in the East ; and the name of Xarses was the formidable sound with which the Assyrian mothers were accustomed to terrify their infants. It is not improbable, 407. Zonaras, torn, ii, 1. 14, p. 80— 82. * Theopbylact, 1. 8, c. 15. The life of Maurice was composed about the year G28 (1. 8, c. 13), by Theopbylact Simocatta, ex-prefect, a native of Egypt. Photius, who gives an ample extract of the work (Cod. 65, p. 81 — 100), gently reproves the affectation and allegory of the style. His preface is a dialogue between Philosophy and History ; they seat themselves under a plane-tree, and the latter touches her lyre. + Christianis nee pactum esse, nee fidera nee focdus .... quod si ulla illis tides fuisset, regem suum non occidissent. Eutych. Annales, torn, ii, p. 211, vers. Pocock. X ^^<^ must now, for some ages, take our leave of contemporary historians, and descend, if it be a descent, from the affectation of rhetoric to the rude simplicity of chronicles and abridgments. Those of Theophanes (Chronograph, p. '2ii — 279) and Nicepliorus (p. 3 — 16), supjily a regular, but imperfect, series of the Persian war; and for any additional facts I quote my special authorities. Theophanes, a courtier who became a monk, was born A.D. 748; Nicejjhorus, patriarch of Constantinople, who died A.D. 829, was somewhat younger: they both suliered in the cause of imagea. Haukius de iScriptoribus Byaautinis, p. 200 — 246. 170 CO-N QUEST OF SYRIA. [CH. XLVI. that a native subject of Persia sliould encourage his master and his Iriend to deliver and possess the provinces of Asia. It is still more probable, that Chosroes should animate his troops by the assurance that the sword which they dreaded the most would remain in its scabbard, or be drawn in their favour. The hero could not depend on the faith of a tyrant; and the tyrant was conscious how little he deserved the obedience of a hero. Narses was removed from his military command ; he reared an independent standard at Hierapolis in Syria : he was betrayed by fallacious promises, and burnt alive in the market-place of Constantinople. Deprived of the only chief whom they could fear or esteem, the bands which he had led to victory were twice broken by the cavalry, trampled by the elephants, and pierced by the arrows, of the barbarians; and a great number of the cap- tives were beheaded on the field of battle by the sentence of the victor, who might justly condemn these seditious mercenaries as the authors or accomplices of the death of Maurice. Under the reign of Phoeas, the fortifications of Merdin, Dara, Amida, and Edessa, were successively besieged, reduced, and destroyed, by the Persian monarch ; he passed the Euphrates, occupied the Syrian cities, Hiera- polis, Chalcis, and Beraea or Aleppo, and soon encom- ■^assed the walls of Antioch with his irresistible arms. The rapid tide of success discloses the decay of the empire, the incapacity of Phoeas, and the disaftection of his subjects ; and Chosroes provided a decent apology for their submission or revolt, by an impostor who attended his camp as the son of Maurice * and the lawful heir of the monarchy. The first intelligence from the East which Heracliua received,t was that of the loss of Antioch ; but the aged metropolis, so often overturned by earthquakes and pillaged by the enemy, could supply but a small and languid stream * The Persian historians have been themselves deceived ; but Theo- phanes (p. 244), accuses Chosroes of the fraud and falsehood; and Eutychius believes (Annal. torn, ii, p. 211), that the son of Maurice, who was saved from the assassins, lived and died a monk on mount ginai. + Eutychius dates all the losses of the empire under the reign of Phoeas ; an error which saves the honour of Hera- clius, whom he brings not from Carthage, but Salonica, with a fleet laden with vegetables for the relief of Constantinople. (Annal. tern, ii, p. 223, 224.) The other Christians of the East, Barhebraous (apud Assemau, Bibliothec. Oriental, torn, iii, p. 412, 413), Eimacin (Hiati AD. Gil.] CONQUEST OF PALESTINE. 171 of troasurc and blood. The Persians were equally successful and more furtunate in the sack of Ciesarea, the capital of Cappadocia ; and as they advanced beyond the ramparts of trie Irontier, the boundary of ancient war, they found a less obstinate resistance, and a more plentifid harvest. The pleasant vale of Damascus has been adorned in every age with a roy.il city : her obscure felicity has hitherto escaped the historian of the Eonian empire; but Chosroes reposed liis troops in the paradi^-e of Damascus before he ascended the hills of Libanus, or invaded the cities of the Phoenician coast. The conquest of Jerusalem,* which had been medi- tated by Nushirvan, was achieved by the zeal and avarice of his grandson ; the ruin of the proudest monument of Chris- tianity was vehemently urged by the intolerant spirit of the INIagi; and he could enlist, for this holy warfare, an army of six-and-twenty thousand Jews, whose furious bigotry might compensate, in some degree, for the want of valour and discipline. After the reduction of Galilee, and the region beyond the Jordan, whose resistance appears to have delayed the fate of the capital, Jerusalem itself was taken by assault. The sepulchre of Christ, and the stately churches of Helena and Constantine, were consumed, or at least damaged, by the flames ; the devout offerings of three huTulred years were rifled in one sacrilegious day ; the patriarch Zachariah, and the true cross, were transported into Persia; and the massacre of ninety thousand Christians is imputed to the Jews and Arabs who swelled the disorder of the Persian march. The fugitives of Palestine were entertained at Alexandria by the charity of John the arch- bishop, who is distinguished among a crowd of saints by the epithet oi alms-giver ;-\ and the revenues of the church, with a treasure of three hundred thousand pounds, were restored to the true proprietors, the poor of every country and every Saracen, p. 13 — 16), Abulpharagius (Dynast, p. 98, 99) are more sincere and accurate. The years of the Persian war are disposed in the chro- nology of Pagi. • * Un the conquest of Jeru.salem, an event 60 interesting to the church, see the Annals of Eutychius (torn, ii, p. 21 "2 — 223), and the lamentations of the monk Antiochus (apud Baro- ,iium, Annal. Eccles. a.D. tJ14, No. IG — 2(3), whose one hundred and twenty nine homilies are still extant, if what no one reads may be said to be extant. f Tlie life of this worthy saint is composed by Leontius, a contemporary bi.'^hop ; and I find in Baroniua (Annal. Eccles. a.d. CIO, No. 10, &c.) and Fleury (torn, viii, p. 235— 242), sufficient extracts of this edifying work. 172 CONQUEST OF A.SIA MINOH. [CH. XLVI. denomination. But Egypt itself, tlie only province which had been exempt, since the time of Diocletian, from foreign and domestic war, was again subdued by the successors of Cyrus. Pelusium, tlie key of that impervious country, was surprised by the cavalry of the Persians : they passed, with impunity, the innumerable channels of the Delta, and explored the long valley of the Nile, from the pyramids of Memphis to the confines of ^Ethiopia. Alexandria might have been relieved by a naval force, but the archbishop and the prefect embarked for Cyprus ; and Chosroes entered the second city of the empire, which still preserved a wealthy remnant of industry and commerce. His western trophy was erected, not on the walls of Carthage,* but in the neighbourhood of Tripoli ; the Greek colonies of Cyreue were finally extirpated ; and the conqueror, treading iu the footsteps of Alexander, returned in triumph through the sands of the Lybian desert. In the same campaign, another army advanced from the Euphrates to the Thracian Bos- phorus ; Chalcedon surrendered after a long siege, and a Persian camp was maintained above ten years in the pre- sence of Constantinople. The sea-coast of Pontus, the city of x\ncyra, and the isle of lihodes, are enumerated among the last conquests of the great king ; and if Chosroes had possessed any maritime power, his boundless ambition would have spread slavery and desolation over the provinces of Europe. From the long - disputed banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, the reign of the grandson of Nushirvan was suddenly extended to the Hellespont and the Nile, the ancient limits of the Persian monarchy. But the provinces, which had been fashioned by the habits of six hundred years to the virtues and vices of the Ivoman government, supported with reluctance the yoke of the barbarians. The idea of a republic was kept alive by the institutions, or at least by the writings, of the Greeks and Komans, and the subjects of Heraclius had been educated to pronounce the words of liberty and law. But it has always been the pride * The error of Baronins, and many others who have carried the arms of Chosroes to Carthage instead of Chalcedon, is founded on the near resemblance of the Greek words Kn\xiiCinva and KapxijSova, in the test of Theophanes, &c. which have been sometimes confounded by transcribers and sometimes by critics. [Theophanes (p. 2526 and c.) has XaAic/jroi'a, which is altered by Cedrenus (p. iOS c) into KapKrjroi'n. The material difl'erence between the initials of the two names was A.D, GIG.] HEIGN OF CIIOSROEB. 173 and policy of Oriental princes, to display the titles and attributes ot" their omnipotence; to upbraid a nation of slaves with their true name and abject condition, and to enforce, by cruel and insolent threats, the rigour of their absolute commands. The Christians of the East were scandalized by the worship of lire, and the impious doctrine of the two principles ; the Magi were not less intolerant than the bishops, and the martyrdom of some native Persians, who had deserted tlie religion of Zoroaster,* was conceived to be the prelude of a fierce and general persecution. By the oppressive laws of Justinian, the adversaries of the church were made the enemies of the State; the alliance of the Jews, Nestorians, and Jacobites, had contributed to the success of Chosroes, and his ]xirtial favour to the sectaries provoked the hatred and fears of the Catliolic clergy. Con- scious of their fear and hatred, the Persian conqueror governed his new subjects with an iron sceptre ; and as if he suspected the stability of his dominion, he exliaustcd their wealth by exorbitant tributes and licentious rapine, despoiled or demolished the temples of the East, and trans- ported to his hereditary realms the gold, the silver, the precious marbles, the arts, and the artists of the Asiatic cities. In the obscure picture of the calamities of the einpirc.t it is not easy to discern the figure of Chosroes himself, to separate his actions from tliose of his lieutenants, or to ascertain his personal merit in the general blaze of glory and magniticence. He enjoyed with ostentation the fruits of victory, and frequently retired from the hardships of war to the luxury of the palace. But in the space of twenty-four years, he was deterred by superstition or resent- ment from approaching the gates of Ctesiphon : and his favourite residence of Artemita, or Dastagerd, was situate beyond the Tigris, about sixty miles to the north of the capital. :J: The adjacent pastures were covered with flocks overlooked by Gibbon, and has hitherto been unnoticed by all his editors — Ed.] * The genuine acts of St. Anastasius are published in those of the seventh general council, from whence Baronius (Annal. Eccles. a. D. 614. (526, 027) and Butler (Lives of the Saints, vol. i, p. 212 — 24S), have taken their accounts. The holy martyr deserted from the Persian to the Honiaii army, became a monk at Jerusalem, and insulted the worship of the Magi, which was then estaV>li.shed at Cicsarea in Palestine. + Alinljiharagius, Dynast, p. 99. Elmaciii, Hist. Saracen, p. 14. :J: D'Auville, Meui. de I'Acadcmie dea Inscriptions, torn, xixii^ 174i MAGNIFICENCE OF CHOSHOES. [cil. XLVI. and herds: tlio paradise or park was replenished witli phea- sants, peacocks, ostriclies, roehucks, and wikl boars, and the noble game of lions and tigers was sometimes turned loose for the bolder pleasures of tlie chase. Nine hundred and sixty elephants were maintained for the use or splendour of the great king : his tents and baggage were carried into the field bv twelve thousand great camels and eight thousand of a smaller size ;* and the royal stables were filled with six tliousand mules and horses, among whom the names of Shebdiz and Barid are renowned for their speed or beauty Six thousand guards successively mounted before the palace- gate ; the service of the interior apartments was performed by twelve thousand slaves; and in the number of three thousand virgins, the fairest of Asia, some happy concubine might console her master for the age or indifterence of Sira. The various treasures of gold, silver, gems, silk, and aro- matics, were deposited in a hundred subterraneous vaults ; and the chamber Badaverd denoted the accidental gift of the winds Avhich had wafted the spoils of Heraclius into one of the Syrian harbours of his rival. The voice of flattery, and perhaps of fiction, is not ashamed to compute the thirty thousand rich hangings that adorned the walls, the forty thousand columns of silver, or more probably of marble, and plated wood, that supported the roof; and a thousand globes of gold suspended in the dome, to imitate the motions of the planets and the constellations of the zodiac. t While the Persian monarch contemplated the wonders of his art p. 568 — 571. [We are told by Cellarius, that Artemita was greatly admired of old — "a uiultis scriptoribus laudata" (2. 661). Yet those who so wrote of ib were very imperfectly acquainted with its situa- tion. Nor can Dastagerd be pointed ovit with any certainty. Gibbon's description of this palace is applied by Sir R. K. Porter (2. 186) to the ruins which he inspected at Tackt-i-Bostan, the throne of the garden, on the eastern side of Kermanshah. He afterwards visited other ruins of the same kind at Kisra SLirene (p. 212), which he considered to be the remains of the once splendid Dastagerd. Yet no traces of this name, or of Artemita, exist on either of these spots. The same traveller (p. 591) passed a village named Dastagird, on the banks of Lake Ouroomia, between the Araxes and the Tigris. He did not approach it, but de.scribes the surrounding scenery as beautiful. — Ed.] * The difi'urence between the two races con.sists in one or two humps ; the dromedary has only one ; the size of the proper camel is larger ; the country he comes from, Turkestan or Bactriana ; the dromedary is cc.ilined to Arabia and Africa. Bufibn, Hist. Naturelle, torn, xi, p. 211, &c. Aristot. Hi.st. Animal, torn, i, 1. 2, c. 1 ; torn, ii, p. 185. \ Theophuues, Chronograph, p. 268. D'Herbelot, A.D. G13-C22.] DISTRESS OF HEKACLTUS. 175 and power, lie received an epistle from an obscure citizen of IMecca, inviting him to acknowledge Mahomet as the apostle of God. lie I'ejected the invitation, and tore the epistle. "It is thus," (exclaimed the Arabian prophet) "that God will tear the kingdom, and reject the supplications of Chosroes.* Placed on the verge of the two great empires of the East, ]\I;iliomet observed with secret joy the progress of their mutual destruction ; and in the midst of the Persian triumphs, he ventured to foretell, that before many years should elapse, victory would again return to the banners of the liomans.f At the time when this prediction is said to have been delivered, no prophecy could be more distant from its ac- complishment, since the first twelve years of fleraclius announced the approaching dissolution of the empire. If the motives of Chosroes had been pure and honourable, he must have ended the quarrel with the death of Phocas, and he would have embraced, as his best ally, the fortunate African who had so generously avenged the injuries of his benefactor Maurice. The prosecution of the war revealed the true character of the barbarian; and the suppliant em- bassies of lleraclius to beseech his clemency, that he would spare the innocent, accept a tribute, and give peace to the world, were rejected with contemptuous silence or insolent menace. Syria, Egypt, and the provinces of Asia, were subdued by the Persian arms, while Europe, from the con- fines of Istria to the long wall of Thrace, was oppressed Biblioth6que Orientale, p. 997. The Greeks describe the decay, the Persians the splendour, of Liastagerd ; but the former speali from the modest witness of the eye, the latter from the vague report of the ear. • The historians of Mahomet, Abulfeda (iu Vit. Jlohammed. p. 92, 93), and Gagnier (Vie de Mahomet, tom. ii, p. 247), date this embassy in the seventh year of the Hegira, which commences A.D. 628, May 11. ^ Their chronology is erroneous, since Chosroes died in the month of February of the same year. (Tagi, Critica, tom. ii, p. 779.) The count de IJoulainvilliers (Vie de Mahomed, p. 327, 32S) places this embassy about A.D. 615, soon after the conquest of Palestine. Yet Mahomet would scarcely have ventured so soon on so bold a step. [July 16, A.D. 622, is now generally admitted to be the commencement of the Hegira. According to Ockley (p. 50, edit. Bohn), Mahomet, after this letter to Chosroes, sent one of the same purport to Heraclius. But their dates cannot be precisely determined. — Kd.] t See the thirtieth chapter of the Koran, entitled the Greeks. Our honest and learned translator, Sale (p. 330, 331), fairly states this con- jecture, guess, wager, of Mahomet; but Boulainvilliers (p. 329 — 344), with wicked intentions, labours to establish this evident prophecy of « 176 DISTRESS OF HEUACLITJS. [CH. XLVI. by the Avars, unsatiated witli the blood and rapine of the Italian •war. They had coolly massacred their male cap- tives in the sacred field of Paniionia; the women and children were reduced to servitude, and the noblest virgins were abandoned to the promiscuous lust of the barbarians. The amorous matron who opened the gates of Friuli passed a short night in the arms of her royal lover; the next even- ing Eomilda was condemned to the embraces of twelve Avars, and the third day the Lombard princess was impaled in the sight of the camp, while the chagan observed with a cruel smile, that such a husband was the fit recompense of her lewdness and perfidy.* By these implacable enemies, Heraclius, on either side, was insulted and besieged : and the Roman empire was reduced to the walls of Constan- tinople, with the remnant of Greece, Italy, and Africa, and some maritime cities, from Tyre to Trebizond, of the Asiatic coast. After the loss of Egypt, the capital was afflicted by famine and perstilence ; and the emperor, in- capable of resistance and hopeless of relief, had resolved to transfer his person and government to the more secure residence of Cartilage. His ships wei'e already laden witli the treasures of the palace ; but his flight was arrested by the patriarch, who armed the powers of religion in the defence of his country, led Heraclius to the altar of St. Sophia, and extorted a solemn oath, that he would live and die with the people whom God had intrusted to his care. The chagan was encamped in the plains of Thrace ; but he dissembled his perfidious designs, and solicited an inter- view with the emperor near the town of Heraclea. Their reconciliation was celebrated with equestrian games ; the senate and people in their gayest apparel resorted to the festival of peace; and the Avars beheld, with envy and desire, the spectncle of Eoman luxury. On a sudden the hippodrome was encompassed by the Scythian cavalry, who had pressed their secret and nocturnal march : the tremen- dous sound of the chagan's whip gave the signal of the assault ; and Heraclius, wrapping his diadem round his arm, was saved, with extreme hazard, by the fleetness of his horse. So rapid was the pursuit, that the Avars almost entered the golden gate of Constantinople with the flying future events which must, in his opinion, embarrass the Christiau polemics. * Paul Warnefrid, de Gestis Langobardorum, L 4, c. 38. 42. Muratori, Aanali d'ltalia, torn, v, p. 305, &c. A.D. G13-G22.] HE SOLICITS PEACE. 177 crowds;* but the plunder of the suburbs rewarded tlicip treason, and tliey transported beyond the Danube tv^o hundred and seventy tliousand captives. On tlie shore of Chalcedon, the emperor held a safer conference with a more honourable foe, who, before Heraclius descended from his galley, saluted with reverence and pity the majesty of the purple. The friendly ofter of Sain, the Persian 'general, to conduct an embassy to the presence of the great king, was accepted with the warmest gratitude, and the prayer for pardon and peace was humbly presented by the pra?- torian prefect, the prefect of the city, and one of the first ecclesiastics of the patriarchal church. f But the lieute- nant of Chosroes had fatally mistaken tlie intentions of his master. " It was not an embassy (said the tyrant of Asia), it was the person of Heraeliusj bound in chains, that he should have brought to the foot of my throne. I will never give peace to the emperor of Eome till he has abjured his crucified God, and embraced the worship of the sun." !Sain was flayed alive, according to the inhuman practice of his country; and the separate and rigorous confinement of the ambassadors violated the law of nations, and the faith of an express stipulation. Tet tlie experience of six years at k-ngth persuaded the Persian monarch to renounce the conquest of Constantinople, and to specify the annual tribute or ransom of the Koman empire : a thousand talents of gold, a thousand talents of silver, a thousand silk robes, a thousand horses, and a thousand virgins. Heraclius sub- scribed these ignominious terms ; but the time and space which he obtained to collect such treasures from the ])overty of the East, was industriously employed in the preparations of a bold and desperate attack. Of the characters conspicuous in history, that of Hera- clius is one of the most extraordinary and inconsistent. In the first and the last years of a long reign, the emperor ap- pears to be the slave of sloth, of pleasure, or of superstition, the careless and impotent spectator of the public calamities. * The Paschal Chronicle, which sometimes introrluces fraginents of history into a barren list of names and dates, gives the best account of the treason of the Avars, p. 3S9, 390. The number of captives is added by Nicephorus. t Some original pieces, such as the speech or letter of the Roman ambassadors (p. 3S6 — 388), likewise constitute the merit of the Paschal Chronicle, which was composed, ^rhaps at Alexandria, under the reign of Heraclius. VOL. A". jj 178 H£EACLIUS PEEPAEt^ [cH. XLVI. But tlie laiigiiiJ mists of the morning and evening are separated by the brightness of the meridian sun : the Arca- dius of the palace arose the Caesar of the camp ; and the honour of E-ome and Heracliiis was gloriously retrieved by the exploits and trophies of six adveiit-.irous campaigns. It was the duty of the Byzantine historians to have revealed the causes of his slumber and vigilance. At this distance we can only conjecture, that he was endowed with more personal courage than political resolution ; that he was detained by the charms, and perhaps the arts, of his niece Martina, with whom, after the death of Eudocia, he contracted an incestuous marriage ;* and that he yielded to the base advice of the counsellors, who urged as a funda- mental law, that the life of the emperor should never be exposed in the field. f Perhaps he was awakened by the last insolent demand of the Persian conqueror ; but at the moment when Heraclius assumed the spii'it of a hero, the only hopes of the Eomans were drawn from the vicissitudes of fortune which might threaten the pi'oud prosperity of Chosroes, and must be favourable to those who had attained the lowest period of depression. J To provide for the ex- penses of war was the first care of the emperor ; and for the purpose of collecting the tribute, lie was allowed to solicit the benevolence of the Eastern provinces. But the revenue no longer flowed in the usual channels ; the credit of an arbitrary prince ia annihilated by his power ; and the courage of Pleraclius was first displayed in daring to borrow the consecrated wealth of churches, under the solemn vow * Nicephorus (p. 10, 11), who brands this marriage with the namea tif uQtoixov and dOsfHTov, is happy to observe, that of two sons, its incestuous fruit, the elder was marked by Providence with a stiff neck, the younger with the loss of hearing. f George of Pisidia (Acroas. 1. 112 — 125, p. 5), who states the opinions, acquits the pusil- lanimous counsellors of any sinister views. Would he have excused the proud and contemptuous admonition of Cri.?pu3 ? 'ETriBajwru'^iot^ vijK t^ov jSaaiXtl tdaoKt KaTaXiinvavtiv jSaaiXtia, tcai To7g Troppo) iTrixojpiai^iH' SvvaiitTiv. J Et rag iir' uKpov rjpufvai^ tvt^iag 'Err(pa\fih'ac Xiyovaiv ovk airtiKOTMQ, KiinOuj "0 XoiTTov iv KaKolg ru IlfptnooQ, ' Aj'7((T7()(;^o;£; ft, &c. George Pisid. Acroas. 1. 51, &c. p. 4. The Orientals are not less fond of remarking this strange vicissitude ; wid 1 remember some st^vy of Khosrou Parviz, not very unlike th« A..D. G21.J Fon WAR. 179 of restorinj^, with usury, whatever he liad boon coinpelled to employ in tlie service of religiou and ol the empire. The clergy themselves appear to have sympathized with the public distress, and the discreet patriarch of Alexandria, without admitting the precedent of sacrilege, assisted his sovereign by the miraculous or seasonable revelation of a secret treasure.* Of the soldiers wlio had coiis])ired with Phocas, only two were found to have survived the stroke of time and of the barbarians ;t the loss, even of these seditious veterans, was imperfectly supplied by the new levies of Heraclius, and the gold of the sauctuary united, in the same camp, the names, and arms, and languages, of the East and West. He would have been content with the neutrality of the Avars ; and his friendly entreaty that the ciiagan would act, not as the enemy, but as the guardian, of the empire, was accompanied with a more persuasive dona- tive of two hundred thousand pieces of gold. Two davs after the festival of Easter, the emperor, exchanging his purple for the simple garb of a penitent and warrior,^ gave the signal of his departure. To the faith of the people Heraclius recommended his children ; the civil and military powers were vested in the most deserving hands, and the discretion of the patriarch and senate was authorized to save or surrender the city, if they should be oppressed in his absence by the superior forces of the enemy. The neighbouring heights of Chalcedon were covered with tents and arms : but if the new levies of Heraclius had been rashly led to the attack, the victory of the Persians in the sight of Constantinople might have been the last day of the Eomaii empire. As imprudent would it have been to advance into the provinces of Asia, leaving their in- ring of Polycrates of Saraos. * Baronius gravely relates this discovery, or rather transmutation, of barrels, not of honey, but of gold (Annal. Eccles. a.d. 620, No. 3, &c.). Yet the loan was arbitrary, since it was collected by soldiers, who were ordered to leave the patriarch of Alexandria no more than one hundred pounds of gold. NicephorLis (p. 11), two hundred years afterwards, speaks with ill- humour of this contribution, which the church of Constantinople might still feel. f Theophylact Simocatta, 1. 8, c. 12. This circumstance need not excite our surprise. The muster-roll of a regiment, even in time of peace, is renewed in less than twenty or twenty-fivo years. + He changed his purple, for black, buskins, and dyed them red in the blood ot the Persians (Georg. Pi.sid. A.cro:w. 3. 118. l-'l. 122. See th«s Notes of Foggiui, p. 35). J 80 FIRST EXPEDITION OF HEEACLIUS [cil. XITI. numerable cavalry to intercept liis convoys, and continiially to hang on the lassitude and disorder of his rear. But the (xreeks were still masters of the sea; a fleet of galleys, transports, and store-ships, was assembled in the harbour ; the barbarians consented to embark ; a steady wind carried them through the Hellespont ; the western and southern c^ast of Asia Minor lay on their left hand ; the spirit of their chief was first displayed in a storm ; and even the eunuchs of his train were excited to sufler and to work by the example of their master. He landed his troops on the confines of Syria and Cilicia, in the gulf of Scanderoon, where the coast suddenly turns to the south;* and his discernment was expressed in the choice of this important post.t From all sides, the scattered garrisons of the mari- time cities and the mountains might repair with speed and safety to his imperial standard. The natural fortifica- tions of Cilicia protected, and even concealed, the camp of Heraclius, which was pitched near Issus, on the same ground where Alexander had vanquished the host of Darius. The angle which the emperor occupied, was deeply indented into a vast semicircle of the Asiatic, Armenian, and Syrian provinces ; and to whatsoever point of the circumference he should direct his attack, it was easy for him to dissemble his own motions, and to prevent those of the enemy. In the camp of Issus, the Eoman general reformed the sloth and disorder of the veterans, and educated the new recruits in the knowledge and practice of military virtue. Unfolding * George of Pisidia (Acroas. 2, 10, p. 8) has fixed this important point of the Syrian and Cilician gates. They are elegantly described by Xenophon, who marched through them a thousand years before. A narrow pass of three stadia between steep high rocks (nsTpai j;X('/3arot) and the Mediterranean was closed at each end by strong gates, impregnable to the land (TrapiXBnv ovk ip' f3i(}), accessible by sea. (Anabasis, 1. 1, p. 35, 36, with Hutchinson's Geographical Dissertation, p. 6.) The gates were thirty-five parasangs, or leagues from Tarsus (Anabasis, 1. 1, p. 33, 34), and eight or ten from Antioch. (Compare Itinerar. Wesseliug. p. 580 — 581 ; Sclmltens, Index Geograph. ad cal- cem Vit. Saladin. p. 9 ; Voyage en Turquie et en Perse, par M. Otter, tom. i, p. 78, 79.) + Heraclius might write to a friend in ihe modest words of Cicero — " Castra habuimus ea ipsa quaj contra Darium habuerat apud Issum Alexander, imperator haud paulo rnelior quam aut tii aut ego." Ad Atticum, 5, 20. Issus, a rich and flourishing city in the time of Xenophon, was ruined by the prosperity 0-t Alexandria or Scanderoon on the other bide of the bay. A.D. G22.] AGM>-ST THE PERSIANS. 181 the miraculous iuiiiffc of Christ, lie urged them to revem/e the holy altars which had been profaned by the worshippers of tire; addressing them by the endearing appellations ol Bona and bretnren, he deplored the public and private wrongs of the republic. The subjects of a monarch wert persuaded that they fought in the cause of iVeedom ; and a similar enthusiasm was communicated to the foreign mer- cenaines, who must have viewed with equal indifference the interest of Kome and of Persia. Heraclius himself, with the skill and patience of a centurion, inculcated the lessons of the school of tactics, and the soldiers were assiduously trained in the use of their weapons, and the exercises and evolutions of the field. The cavalry and infantry, in light or heavy armour, were divided into two parties ; tlie trumpets were fixed in the centre, and their signals directed the march, the cliarge, the retreat, or pursuit ; the direct or oblique order, the deep or extended phalanx ; to represent in fictitious combat the operations of genuine war. What- ever hardship the emperor imposed on the troops, he inflicted with equal severity on himself; their labour, their diet, their sleep, were measured by the inflexible rules of disci pline ; and, without despising the enemy, they were taught to repose an implicit confidence in their own valour and the wisdom of their leader. Cilicia was soon encompassed with the Persian arms ; but their cavalry hesitated to enter the defiles of mount Taurus, till they were circumvented by the evolutions of Heraclius, who insensibly gained their rear, whilst he appeared to present his front in order of battle. By a false motion, which seemed to threaten Armenia, he drew them, against their wishes, to a general action. They were tempted by the artful disorder of his camp ; but when they advanced \o combat, the ground, the sun, and the expectation of both armies, were nnpropitious to the barba- rians ; the Eomans successfully repeated their tactics in a field of battle,* and the event of the day declared to the world, that the Persians were not invincible, and that a hero was invested with the purple. Strong iu victory and fame, Heraclius boldly ascended the heights of mount Taurus, * Foggiui (Annotat. p. 31) s.ispects that the Persians were deceived by the (paXay^ 7r£7rXj;y/if i'»/ of ^-Kliiin (Tactic, c. 48), an intricate spiral Qiotiou ot the army. He observes (p. 28), that the military descrip- tions of George of Fiaidia ai'e trauscribcd in the Tactxa of tli« 182 SECOND EXPEDITION [CH. XLTI. directeil Lis march through tlie plains of Cappadocia, and established his troops for the winter season in safe and plen- tiful quarters on the banks of the river Halys.* His soul was superior to the vanity of entertaining Constantinople with an imperfect triumph : but the presence of the emperor was indispensably required to sooth the restless and rapa- cious spirit of the Avars. Since the days of Scipio and Hannibal, no bolder enter- prise has been attempted than that which Heraclius achieved for the deliverance of the empire.f He permitted the Per- sians to oppress for awhile the provinces, and to insult with impunity the capital of the East ; while the Eoman em- peror explored his perilous way through the Black sea,J and the mountains of Annenia, penetrated into the heart of Persia, § and recalled the armies of the great king to the defence of their bleeding country. With a select band of five thousand soldiers, Heraclius sailed from Constanti- nople to Trebizond ; assembled his forces which had win- tered in the Pontic regions ; and from the mouth of the Phasis to the Caspian sea, encouraged his subjects and allies to march with the successor of Constantino under the faithful and victorious banner of the cross. When the legions of Lucullus and Pompey first passed the Euphrates, emperor Leo. * George of Pisidia, an eye-witness (Acroas. 2, 122, &e.), described in three acroaseis or cantos, the first expedition of Heraclius. The poem has been lately (1777) published at Rome ; but such vague and declamatory praise is far from corre- sponding with the sanguine hopes of I'agi, D'Anville, &c. f Theophanes (p. 256) carries Heraclius swiftly (icard tuxoq) into Armenia. Nicephorus (p. 11), though he confounds the two expedi- tions, defines the province of Lazica. Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii, p. 231) has given the five thousand men, with the more probable station of Trebizond. J From Coustantinojile to Trebizond, with a fair wind, four or five days ; from thence to Erzerom, five ; to Erivan, twelve; to Tauris, ten; in all, thirty-two. Such is the Itinerary of Tavernier (Voyages, torn, i, p. 12 — 56), who was perfectly conversant with the roads of Asia. Tournefort, who travelled with a jia.sha, spent ten or twelve days between Trebizond and Erzerom ; (Voyage du Levant, tom. iii, lettre 18), and Chardin (Voyages, tom. i, p. 249 — 254) gives the more correct distance of fifty -three para-sangs, each of five thousand paces (what paces?), between Erivan and Tauris. § The expedition of Heraclius into Persia is finely illustrated by M. D'Anville. (Memoires de TAcademie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii, p. 559 — 573.) He discovers the situation of Gandzaca, Thebarma, -Dastagerd, &c., with admirable skill and learning; but the obscure campaign of G24 he passes over in silence. A.D. 023-02."). J OF 1IER\CLIU8. 18:J they blushed at their easy victory over the natives of Arme- nia. But the long experience of war had hardened tlie minds and bodies of that etteminate people ; their zeal and bravery were approved in the service of a declining empire; they abhorred and feared the usurpation of the house of Sassan, and the memory of persecution envenomed their pious hatred of the enemies of Christ. The limits of Ar- menia, as it had been ceded to the emperor Maurice, ex- tended as far the Araxcs ; the river submitted to the indig- nity of a bridge;* and Heraclius, in the footsteps of iMark Antony, advanced towards the city of Tauris or (iandzaca,t tlic ancient and modern capital of one of the provinces of Media. At the head of forty thousand men, Chosroes himself had returned from some distant expe- dition to oppose the progress of the Eoman arms ; but he retreated on the approach of Heraclius, declining the gene- rous alternative of peace or battle. Instead of half a million of inhabitants, which have been ascribed to Tauris under tlie reign of the Sophys, the city contained no more than three thousand houses : but the value of the royal treasures was enhanced by a tradition, that they were the spoils of Croesus, which had been transported bv Cyrus from the citadel ot Sardes. The rapid conquests of Heraclius were suspended (inly by the winter-season ; a motive of prudence or super- stition;]: determined his retreat into tlie pi'ovince of Albania, along the shores of the Caspian ; and his tents were most probably pitched in the plains of Mogan,§ the favourite * Et pontem indiguatus Araxes. — Virgil, iEaeid 8, 728. The river Araxes is noisy, rapid, vehement, and, with the melting of the snows, irresistible; the strongest and most massy bridges are swept away by the current ; and its indir/nation is attested by th« ruins of many arches near the old town of Zulfa. (Voyages de Chardin. torn. i. p. 252.) [The Araxes, after rains and during the spring, is .still " an impassable torrent." Layard's Nineveh, and Babylon, p. 15. — Ed.] + Chardin, torn, i, p. 255—259. With the Orientals (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient, p. 834), he ascribes the foundation of Tauris, or Tebris, to Zobeido, the wile of the famous khalif Haroun Alrashid; but it appears to have been more ancient ; and the names of Gandzaca. Gazaca, Gaza, are expressive of the royal treasure. The number of five hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants is reduced by Chardin from one million one hundred thousand, the popular estimate. + He opened the gospel, and applied or interpreted the first casual passage to the name and situation of Albania. (Theophanes, p. 258.) § The heath of Mogan, between the Cyrus and the Araxes, is sixty parasangs iu length and twenty in breadth (Olearius, p. 1023, 10:^4), 3 SI GENEROSITY OF HEEACLIUS. [CU, XLVI, encampment of Oriental princes. In the course of this suc- cessful inroad, he signalized the zeal and revenge of a Chris- tian emperor: at his command, the soldiers extinguished the fire, and destroyed the temples of the Magi ; the statues of Chosroes, who aspired to divine honours, were abandoned to the flames ; and the ruin of Thebarma or Ormia,* which had given birth to Zoroaster himself, made some atone- ment for the injuries of the holy sepulchre. A purer spirit of religion was shewn in the relief and deliverance of fifty thousand captives. Heracliiis was rewarded by their tears and grateful acclamations ; but this wise measure, which spread the fame of his benevolence, diffused the murmurs of the Persians against the pride and obstinacy of their own sovereign. Amidst the glories of the succeeding campaign, Heraclius is almost lost to our eyes, and to those of the Byzantine liis- torians.f From the spacious and fruitful plains of Albania, the emperor appears to follow the chain of Hyrcanian moun- tains, to descend into the province of Media or Irak, and to carry his victorious arms as far as the royal cities of Casbin and Ispahan, which had never been approached by a Eoman conqueror. Alarmed by the danger of his kingdom, the powers of Chosroes were already recalled from the Nile and the Bosphorus, and three formidable armies surrounded, in abounding in waters and fruitfal pastures. (Hist, de Nadir Shah, traushited by Mr. Jones from a Persian MS. Part ii, p. 2, 3.) See the encampments of Timur (Hist, par Sherefeddin Ali, 1. 5, c. 37. 1. 6, c. 13), and the coronation of Nadir Shah. (Hist. Persanne, p. 3 — 13, and the English Life by Mr. Jones, p. 64, 65.) * Thebarma and Ormia, near the lake Spauta, are proved to be the same city by D'Anvillo. (Mcmoires de I'Academie, torn, xxviii, p. 564, 565.) It is honoured as the birtli-place of Zoroaster according to the Persians (Schultens, Index Geograph. p. 48), and their tradition is fortified by M. Perron d'Anquetil (M^m. de I'Acad. des Inscript. torn, xxxi, p. 375), with some texts from his or their Zendavesta. [This is now the city of Ouroomia, and gives its name to the hike. (Porters Travels, ii, 591.) Near it is the village of Dastagei'd, mentioned in a former note (p. 174), perhaps too remote from the seat of government to have been the celel)rated palace of Chosroes ; yet it was on the line ef military operations taken by Heraclius. — Ed.] t I cannot find, and (what is much more) M. D'Anville does not attempt to seek, the Salban, Tarentum, territory of the Huns, &c. mentioned by Theophanes (p. 260 — 262). Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 231, 232), an insufficient author, names Asphahan ; and Casbin is most probably the city of Sapor. Ispahan is twenty-four days' A.D. G23-G25.] uis ixtrepiditt. 1S5 a distant and hostile land, the cam]) of the cmptror. The Colohiaii allies prepared to desert his standard; and the fears of the bravest veterans were expressed, rather than concealed, by their, desponding; silence. "Be not terrified (said the intrepid Heraclius) by the multitude of your foes. \Vitli the aid of Heaven, one Roman may triumph over a tliousand barbarians. But if \re devote our lives for the sal- vatiou of our brethren, we shall obtain the crown of martyr- dom, and our immortal reward will be liberally paid by God and posterity." These magnanimous sentiments were sup- ported by the vigour of his actions. lie repelled the three- fold attack of the Persians, improved the divisions of their chiefs, and by a well-concerted train of marches, retreats, and successful actions, finally chased them from the field into the fortified cities of Media and Assyria. In the severity of the winter season, Sarbaraza deemed himself secure in the walls of Salban ; he was surprised by the activity of Hera- clius who divided his troops and performed a laborious march in the silence of the night. The flat roofs of the houses were defended with useless valour agaiust the darts and torches of the Romans : the satraps and nobles of Persia, with their wives and children, and the flower of their martial youth, were either slain or made prisoners. The general escaped by a precipitate flight, but his golden armour was the prize of the conqueror ; and the soldiers of Heraclius enjoyed the wealth and repose which they had so nobly deserved. On the return of spring, the emperor traversed in seven days the mountains of Curdistan, and passed with- out resistance the rapid stream of the Tigris. Oppressed by the weight of their spoils and captives, the Roman army Jialted under the walls of Amida ; and Heraclius informed the senate of Constantinople of his safety and success, which they had already felt by the retreat of the besiegers. The bridges of the Euphrates were destroyed by the Persians ; but as soon as the emperor had discovered a ford, they hastily retired to defend the banks of the Sarus,* in Cilicia. That river, an impetuous torrent, was about three hundred journey from Tauris, and Casbin half-way between them. (Voyages da Taveruier, tom. i. p. 63 — 82.) * At ten parasaiig.s from Tarsus, the army of the younger Cyrus passed the Sarus, three plethra in breadth : the Pyrnmus, a stadium in breadtli, ran five parasaugi farther to the eaat. (Xenophon, Auabas. 1. 1, u. 'i'i, ;jl.) ISO COKSIANTINOPLE DELITEEED FEOM [cil, XLYl. feet brond; the bridge was fortified with strong turrets, and tlie banks were lined with barbarian archers. After a bloody conflict which continued till the evening, the Eo- mansprevailod in the assault, and a Persian of gigantic size was slain and thrown into the Sarus by the hand of the em- peror himself. The enemies were dispersed and dismayed : Jreraclius pursued his march to Sebaste in Cappadocia; and at the expiration of three years, the same coast of the Euxine applauded his return from a long and victorious expe- dition.* Instead of skirmishing on the frontier, the two monarchs who disputed the empire of the east, aimed their desperate strokes at the heart of their rival. The military force of Persia was wasted by the marches and combats of twenty years, and many of the veterans, who had survived the perils of the sword and the climate, were still detained in the fortresses of Egypt and Syria. But the revenge and ambition of Chosroes exhausted his kingdom; and the new levies of subjects, strangers, and slaves, were divided into three formidable bodies.t The first army of fifty thousand men, illustrious by the ornament and title of the golden spears, was destined to march against Heraclius ; the second was stationed to prevent his junction witli the troops of his brother Theodorus ; and the third was commanded to besiege Constantinople, and to second the operations of the chagan, with whom the Persian king had ratified a treaty of alliance and partition. Sarbar, the general of the third army, pene- trated through the provinces of Asia to the well known camp of Chalcedon, and amused himself with the destruc- tion of the sacred and profane buildings of the Asiatic suburbs, while he impatiently waited the arrival of his Scythian friends on the opposite side of the Bosphorus. On the 29th of June, thirty thousand barbarians, the vanguard of the Avars, forced the long wall, and drove into the capital a promiscuous crowd of peasants, citizens, and soldiers. Fourscore thousand^ of his native subjects, and of tho * George of Pisidia (Bell. Abaricum, 246—265, p. 49) celebrates with truth the persevering courage of the three campaigns (rptT^ ■Kindooiiovc) against the Persians. t Petavius (Annota- tiones ad Nicephorum, p. 62 — 64) diijcriminates the names and actions of five Persian generals who were successively sent against Heraclius. X This number of eight myriads is specified by George of Pisidia. A..D. ()2G.] THE TEnSIAKS AND ATARS, 187 vassal tribes of Gepidre, Eussians, Bulgarians, and Sclavo niuns, advanced under the standard of tlie chagan ; a month was spent in marches and nep;otiations, but the whole city- was invested on the 31st of July, from the suburbs of Peru, and Galata to the Blachernto and seven towers; and the inhabitants descried with terror the flaming signals of the European and Asiatic shores. In the meanwhile the magis- trates of Constantinople repeatedly strove to purchase the retreat of the chagan ; but their deputies were rejected and insulted ; and he suffered the patricians to stand before his throne, while the Persian envoys, in silk robes, were seated by his side. — "You see," said the haughty barbarian, "the proofs of my perfect union with the great king ; and his^ lieutenant is ready to send into my camp a select band of three thousand wai'riors. Presume no longer to tempt your master with a partial and inadequate ransom: your wealth and your city are the only presents worthy of my acceptance. For yourselves, I shall permit you to depart, each with an under-garment and a shirt ; and, at my entreaty, my friend Sarbarwill not refuse a passage through his lines. Your absent prince, even now a captive or fugitive, has left Constantinople to its fate ; nor can you escape the arms of the Avars and Persians, unless yon could soar into the air like birds, unless like fishes you could dive into the waves."* During ten successive days, the capital was assaulted by the Avars, who had made some progress in the science of attack ; they advanced to sap or batter the wall, under the cover of the impenetrable tortoise ; their engines discharged a perpetual volley of stones and darts ; and twelve lolty towers of wood exalted the combatants to the height of the neighbouring ramparts. But the senate and people were animated by the spirit of Heraclius, who had detached to their relief a body of twelve thousand cuirassiers ; the powers of fire and me- (Bell. Abar. 219.) The poet (50—88) clearly indicates that the old chagau lived till the reign of Heraclius, and that his sou and successor was boru of a foreign mother. Yet Foggiui (Annotat. p. 57) has given another interpretation to this passage. * A bird, a frog, a mouse, and five arrows, had been the present of the Scythian king to Darius. (Herodot. 1. 4, c. 131, 132.) Substituez mie lettre h, ces signes (says Kousseau, with much good taste) plus elle sera menacante moins elle eflrayera : ce ne sera qu'une fanfarronado dont Darius u'eut fait que rire. ^limile, torn, iii, p. 14C.) Yet I much 188 ALLIANCES AND COITQUESTS [cil. XLTI. chaiiics were used wiili superior art and success in the defence of Constantinople ; and the galleys, with two and three ranks of oars, coranianded the Bosphorus, and ren- dered the Persians the idle spectators of the defeat of their allies. The Avars were repulsed ; a fleet of Sclavouian canoes was destroyed in the harbour; the vassals of the cliagan threatened to desert, his provisions were exhausted, and after burning his engines, he gave the signal of a slow and formidable retreat. The devotion of the Eomans ascribed this signal deliverance to the Virgin Mary ; but the mother of Christ would surely have condemned their inhuman murder of the Persian envoys, who were entitled to the rights of humanity, if they were not protected by the laws of nations.* After the division of his army, Heraclius prudently retired to the banks of the Phasis, from whence he maintained a defensive war against the fifty thousand gold spears of Persia. His anxiety was relieved by the deliverance of Constantinople ; his hopes were confii-med by a victory of his brother Theodorus ; and to the hostile league of Chos- roes with the Avars, the Eoman emperor opposed the useful and honourable alliance of the Turks. At his liberal invi- tation, the horde of Chozars t transported their tents from the plains of the Volga to the mountains of Georgia; Hera- clius received them in the neighbourhood of Teflis, and the khan with his nobles dismounted from their horses, if we may credit the Greeks, and fell prostrate on the ground, to adore the purple of the Caesar. Such voluntary homage and important aid were entitled to the warmest acknowledg- ments ; and the emperor, taking off his own diadem, placed it on tlie head of the Turkish prince, whom lie saluted with a tender embrace and the appellation of son. After a question whether the senate and people of Constantinople laughed at this message of the chagan. * The Paschal Chronicle (p. 392 — 397) gives a minute and authentic nai-rative of the siege and deliverance of Constantinople. Theophanes (p. 264) adds some cir- cumstances; and a faint light may be obtained from the smoke of George of Pisidia, who has composed a poem (de Bello Abarico, p. 45 ■ — 54) to commemorate this auspicious event. ■f- The power of the Chozars pi-evailed in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries. They were known to the Greeks, the Arabs, and, irider the name of Kosa, to the Chinese themselves. De Guignes, Hist dea Huns, touj. ij, part 2, p. 507 — 509. A.D. G2G.] OF HEUACLIUS. 189 eumptuous banquet ho presented Zicbcl with tlie plate and oruaments, the i^okl, the gems, and tlie silk, which liad been u?ed at tlie imperial table, and, with his own hand, dis- tributed rich jewels and earrint^s to his new allies. In a secret interview he produced the portrait of his dau2;hter Eudocia,* condescended to flatter the barbarian with the promise of a fair and august bride, obtained an immediate succour of forty thousand horse, and necfotiated a stronc^ diversion of tlie Turkish arms on the siilc of the Oxus.t The Persians, in their turn, retreated with precipitation; in the camp of Edessa, Heraclius reviewed an army of seventy thousand Eomans and strangers ; and some months were successfully employed in the recovery of the cities of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Armenia, whose fortifications had been imperfectly restored. Sarbar still maintained the important station of Clialcedon ; but the jealousy of Clio-sroes, or the artifice of Heraclius, soon alienated the mind of that powerful satrap from the service of his king and country. A mes- senger Avas intercepted with a real or fictitious mandate to the cadarigan, or second in command, directing liim to send, without delay, to the throne, the head of a guilty or unfor- tunate general. The dispatches were transmitted to Sarbar himself; and as soon as he read the sentence of his own death, be dexterously inserted the names of four hundred officers, assembled a military council, and asked the cada- rigan, whether he was prepared to execute the commands of their tyrant ? The Persians unanimously declared, that Chosroes had forfeited the sceptre ; a separate treat}^ was concluded with the government of Constantinople ; and if some considerations of honour or policy restrained Sarbar from joining the standard of Heraclius, the emperor was assured that he might prosecute, without interruption, his designs of victory- and peace. * Epiphania, or Eudocia, the only daughter of Heraclius and his first wife Eudocia, was boru at Constantinople on the 7th of July, A.D. 611 ; baptized the 15th of August, and crowned (in the oratory of St. Stephen in the palace) the 4th of October in the same year. At this time she was about fifteen. J]udocia was afterwards sent to her Turkish husband, but the news of his death stopped her journey and prevented the consummation. (Ducaiige, Familirc Byzantin. p. IIS.) + Elmacin (Hist. Saracen, p. 13 — 16) gives some curious and pro- bable facts: but his numbers are rather too high — three hundred thousand Romans assembled at Edes.sa — five hundred thousand Per* 190 THIRD EXPEDITION [CH. X1AT. Deprived of liis firmest support, and doubtful of tlie fide- lity of his subjects, tbe greatness of Chosroes was still con- spicuous in its ruins. Tbe number of five hundred thou- sand maybe interpreted as an Oriental metaphor, to describe the men and arms, the horses and elephants, that covered Media and Assyria against the invasion of Heraclius. Yet the Komans boldly advanced from the Araxes to the Tigris, and the timid prudence of lihazates was content to follow them by forced marches through a desolate country, till he received a peremptory mandate to risk the fate of Persia in a decisive battle. Eastward of the Tigris, at the end of the bridge of Mosul, the great Nineveh had formerly been erected :* the city, and even the ruins of the city, had long since disappeared :t the vacant space afforded a spacious field for the operations of the two armies. But these ope- rations are neglected by the Byzantine historians, and, like the authors of epic poetry and romance, they ascribe the victory, not to the military conduct, but to the personal valour, of their favourite hero. On this memorable day, Heraclius, on his horse Phallus, surpassed the bravest of his warriors : his lip was pierced with a spear, the steed was wounded in the thigh, but he carried his master safe and victorious through the triple phalanx of the barbarians. In the heat of the action, three valiant chiefs were successively slain by the sword and lance of the emperor; among these sians killed at Nineveh. The abatement of a cipher is searcely enough to restore his sanity. * Ctesias (apud Diodor. Sicul. torn. 1, 1. 2. p. 115, edit. Wesseling) assigns four hundred and eighty .stadia (perhaps only thirty-two miles) for the circumference of Nineveh. Jonas talks of three days' journey ; the one hundred and twenty thousand persons described by the prophet as incapable of discerning their right hand from their left, may afford about seven hundred thousand persons of all ages for the inhabitants of that ancient capital (Goguet, Origines des Loix, &c. torn, iii, part 1, p. 92, 93) which ceased to exist six hundred years before Christ. The western suburb still subsisted, and is mentioned under the name of Mosul, in the first age of the Arabian caliphs. t Niebuhr (Voyage en Arable, &c. torn, ii, p. 286) passed over Nineveh without perceiving it. He mistook for a ridge of hills the old rampart of brick or earth. It is said to have been one hundred feet high, Hanked vs^ith fifteen hundred towers, each of the height of two hundred feet. [Some of those mounds have now been explored by Mr. Layard, who has familiarized Nineveh and its remains to English readers. The arts and manners of Assyria may now be studied in the various monuments taken troia the repose of ages and deposited in the British Museum. — Ed.J A.D. G27.] OF nERACLIUS. 101 was Rliazatcs himself; lie fell like a soldier, but the sight of his head scattered grief and despair through the faintiug ranks of the Persians. His armour of pnre and massy gold, the shield of one hundred and twenty plates, the sword and belt, the saddle and cuirass, adorned the triumph of Hera- cbus ; and if lie had not been faithful to Christ and his mother, the cham])ion of Eome might have offered the fourth opime spoils to the Jupiter of tlie Capitol.* In the battle oi Nineveh, -which was tiercely fought from day-break to tho eleventh hour, twenty-eight standards, besides those which might be broken or torn, were taken from the Persians ; the greatest part of their army was cut in pieces, and the victors, concealing their own loss, passed the night on the field. They acknowledged, that on this occasion it was less difficult to kill than to discomfit the soldiers of Chosrocs ; amidst tlie bodies of their friends, no more tlian two bow-shot from the enemy, the remnant of the Persian cavalry stood firm till the seventh hour of the night; about the eighth hour they retired to tlicir unrified camp, collected their baggage, and dispersed on all sides, from the want of orders rather than of resolution. The diligence of Heraclius was not less admirable in the use of victory ; by a march of Ibrty-eight miles in four-and-twenty hours, his vanguard occupied the bridges of the great and the lesser Zab ; and the cities and palaces of Assyria were open for the first time to the Komans. By a just gradation of magnificent scenes, they penetrated to the royal seat of Dastngerd, and though much of the treasure had been removed, and much had been expended, the remaining wealth appears to have exceeded their hopes, and even to have satiated their avarice. AVhat- ever could not be easily transported, they consumed with fire, that Chosroes might feel the anguish of those wounds which he had so often inflicted on the provinces of the empire : and justice might allow the excuse, if the deso- lation had been confined to the works of regal luxury, if national hatred, military licence, and religious zeal, had not * Rex regia arma fero (says Romulus, in the first consecration) . . . bina postea (continues Livy, 1, 10) inter tot bella, opima parta sunt spolia, adeo rara ejus fortuna decoris. If VaiTO (apud Pomp. Festum, p. 306, edit. Dacieri could justify his liberality in granting the opime spoils even to a common soldier who had slain the king or general of the enemy, the honour would have been much more cheap and common. 192 TLionT or chosroes. [ch. xlvt. wasted with equal rage the habitations and the temples of tlie guiltless subject. The recovery of three hundred Eoman standards,' and the deliverance of the numerous cap- tives of Edessa and Alexandria, reflect a purer glory on the arms of Heraclius. From the palace of Dastagerd, he pur- sued his march within a few miles of Modain or Ctesiphon, till he was stopped on the banks of the Arba, by the difli- culty of the passage, the rigour of the season, and perhaps the fame of an impregnable capital. The return of the emperor is marked by the modern name of the city of Sherhzour ; he fortunately passed Mount Zara before the snow, which fell incessantly* thirty-four days ; and the citi- zens of Grandzaca, or Tauris, were compelled to entertain his soldiers and their horses with an hospitable reception.* When the ambition of Chosroes was reduced to the defence of his hereditary kingdom, the love of glory, or even the sense of shame, should have urged him to meet his rival in the field. In the battle of Nineveh, his courage might have taught the Persians to vanquish, or he might have fallen with honour by the lance of a Eoman emperor. The successor of Cyrus chose rather, at a secure distance, to expect the event, to assemble the relics of the defeat, and to retire by measured steps before the march of Hera- clius, till he beheld with a sigh the once-loved mansions oi Dastagerd, Both his friends and enemies were persuaded that it was the intention of Chosroes to bury himself under the ruins of the city and palace : and as both might have been equally adverse to his flight, the monarch of Asia, with Sira, and three concubines, escaped through a hole in the wall nine days before the arrival of the Romans. The slow and stately procession in which he showed himself to the prostrate crowd, was changed to a rapid and secret journey ; and the first evening he lodged in the cottage of a peasant, whose humble door would scarcely give admit- tance to the great king.f His superstition was subdued * In describing this last expedition of Heraclius, the facts, the places, and the dates, of Theophanes (p. 265—271), are so accurate and authentic that he must have followed the original letters of the emperor, of which the Paschal Chronicle has preserved (p. 398 — 102) ■\ viry curious specimen. t The words of Theophanes are rsmarkable : ttffijXQe Xoapo/jc £iC oUov ytiopyov nr]da^ivoxi fiilrai, bv ,Y<"P'3^"C '»' ^y TovTov Ovpa, ^v I'^wv laxaTov 'BpaKXtios AD. G27.] COKSriRACT OF STU0E3. 193 by fear: on the third da}', lie entorod with joy the fortifi- uatious of Ctcsiphoii; yet he still doubted of his safety till he had opposed the river Tigris to the \ ursuit of the Konians. The discovery of his flight agitat >d with terror and tumult the palace, the city, and the camp, of Dastagerd: the satraps hesitated whether they had most to fear from their sovereign or the enemy; and the females of the haram were astonished and pleased by the sight of mankind, till the jealous husband of three thousand wives again con- fined them to a more distant castle. At his command the army of Dastagerd retreated to a new camp: the front was covered by the Arba, and a line of two hundred elephants ; the troops of the more distant provinces successively arrived, and the vilest domestics of the king and satraps were enrolled for the last defence of the throne. It was still in the power of Cbosroes to obtain a reasonable peace ; and he was repeatedly pressed by the messengers of Heraclius to spare the blood of his subjects, and to relieve a humane conqueror from the painful duty of cari'ying fire and sword through the fairest countries of Asia. But the pride of the Persian had not yet sunk to the level of his fortune ; he derived a momentary confidence from the retreat of the emperor ; he wept with impotent rage over the ruins of his Assyrian palaces, and disregarded too long the rising mur- murs of the nation, who complained that their lives and fortunes were sacrificed to the obstinacy of an old man. That unhappy old man was himself tortured with the sharpest pains both of mind and body ; and, in the con- sciousness of his approaching end, he resolved to fix the tiara on the head of Merdaza, the most favoured of his sons. But the will of Cbosroes was no longer revered, and Siroes, who gloried in the rank and merit of his mother iSira, bad conspired with the malcontents to assert and anticipate the rights of primogeniture.* Twentv-two satraps, they styl*^d themselves patriots, were tempted by tlie wealth and honours of a new reign ; to the soldiers, the heir of Cbosroes promis-^d an increase of pay; to the Christians, the free exercise of their religion ; to the cap- lOaiifiaaiv (]\ 209). Young princes who discover a propensity to war Bhould repeatedly transcribe and translate such salutary texts. • The authentic narrative of the fall of Chosroes is contained iu the letter of Heraclius (Chron. Paschal, p. 39S), and the history of VOL. V. O 194 DEATH OF CIIOSEOES. [CJI. XLYI. tives, liberty and rewards ; and to the nation, instant peace and the reduction of taxci. It was determined by the conspirators that Siroes, with the ensigns of royalty, should appear in the camp ; and if tlie enterprise should fail, his escape was contrived to the imperial court. But the new monarch was saluted with unanimous acclamations ; the flight of Chosroes (yet where could he have fled ?) was rudely arrested, eighteen sons were massacred before his face, and he was thrown into a dungeon, where he expired on the fifth day. The Greeks and modern Persians mi- nutely describe how Chosroes was insiilted, and famished, and tortured, by the command of an inhuman son, who so far surpassed the example of his father : but at the time of his death, what tongue would relate the stor}^ of the parri- cide ? what eye could penetrate into the tower of darkness? According to the faith and mercy of his Christian enemies, he sank without hope into a still deeper abyss ;* and it will not be denied that tyrants of every age and sect are the best entitled to such infernal abodes. The glory of tht house of Sassan ended with the life of Chosroes ; liis unua tural son enjoyed only eight months the fruit of his crimes . and in the spac^e of four years the regal title was assumec by nine candidates, who disputed with the sword or dagger the fragments of an exhausted monarchy. Every province, and each city of Persia, was the scene of independence, of discord, and of blood ; and the state of anarchy pre- vailed about eight years longer, till the factions were Theophanes (p. 271). * On the first rumour of the death of Chosroes, an Heracliad in two cantos was instantly published at Constantinople by George of Pisidia (p. 97 — 105). A priest and a poet might very properly exult in the damnation of the public enemy {tpLTTtryuiv T(ij Tcifj-dptij, V. 5G); but such mean revenge is unworthy of a king and a conqueror ; and I am sorry to find so much black superstition {Otoixdxog Xotrpvtjg 'iirtaiv Kcii tTrroji-iaTicOri elg ra KiiTox^ovia .... tig to iriip to aKaTdajSicrrov, &c.) in the letter of Heraclius ; he almost applauds the parricide of Siroes as an act of ])iety and justice. [The close of this unfortunate monarch's career is differently related in Persia. There the story is, that Siroes, en- amoured of his stepmother Shirene, caused his father to be put to death in the palace of Dastagerd, and then wooed the widow for his bride. Before she would consent, she stipulated for pei'mission to view the dead body of her husband. This being granted, at the sight »he stabbed herself and died by his side. (Porter's Travels, ii, 212.J A.D. G28.] TREA.TT OF PEACK. ] (),-, pilonced aud united under the common yoke of the Arabian caliphs.* As soon as the mountains became passable, the emperor received the welcome news of the success of the conspiracy, the death of Chosroes, and the elevation of his eldest son to the throne of Persia. The authors of the revolution, eager to display their merits in the court or camp of Tauris, preceded the ambassadors of Siroes, who delivered the letters of their master to his brother the empei'or of the Eomans.f In the language of the usurpers of every age, lie imputes his own crimes to the Deity, and, without degrading liis equal majesty, he offers to reconcile the long discord of the two nations, by a treaty of peace and alliance more durable than brass or iron. Tlie conditions of the treaty were easily defined and faithfully executed. In the recovery of the standards and prisoners which had fallen into the hands of the Persians, the emperor imitated the example of Augustus : their care of the national dignity was celebrated by the poets of the times, but the decay of genius may be measured by the distance between Horace and George of Pisidia ; the subjects and brethren of Hera- clius were redeemed from persecution, slavery, and exile; but instead of the Eoman eagles, the true wood of the holy cross was restored to the importunate demands of the suc- cessor of Constantino. Tiie victor was not ambitious of enlarging the weakness of the empire ; the son of Chosroes abandoned without regret the conquests of his father; the Persians who evacuated the cities of Syria and Egypt were honourably conducted to the frontier, aud a war wliicb had wounded the vitals of the two monarchies, produced no change in their external and relative situation. The return of Heraclius from Tauris to Constantinople was a perpetual • The best Oriental accounts of this last period of the Sasf^aiiian kings are found in Eutychius (Annal. torn, ii, p. 251 — 256), who dissembles the parricide of Siroes ; D'Herbelot (Biblioth5que Orientale p. 789), and Assemanuus (Biblioth. Oriental, torn, iii, p. 415 i20). [Gibbon's term of eight years applies to the defeat of the Persians at Jaloulah, aud Yezdegerd's retirement to Ferganah in 637. (Ockley, J). "215, edit. Bohn.) The final extinction of the Sassanides did not take place till 651. — Ea] t The letter of Siroes in the Paschal Chronicle (p. 402), unfortu- nately ends before he proceeds to business. The treaty appears in it? ejocutiou in the histories of Theophaues and Niceuhorus. o 2 106 POTERTT OF nERACLTUS. [CH. XLTl. triumph ; and after the exploits of six glorious campaigns, he peaceably enjoyed the sabbath of his toils. After a long impatience, the senate, the clergy, and the people, went forth to meet their hero, with tears and acclamations, with olive-branches and innumerable lamps ; he entered the capital in a chariot drawn by four elephants ; and as soon as the emperor could disengage himself from the tumult of public joy, he tasted more genuine satisfaction in the embraces of his mother and his son.* The succeeding year was illustrated by a triumph of a very different kind, the restitution of the true cross to the holy sepulchre. Heraclius performed in person the pilgrimage of Jerusalem, the identity of the relic was verified by tlie discreet patriarch,t and this august ceremony has been commemorated by the annual festival of the exaltation of the cross. Before the emperor presumed to tread the con- secrated ground, he was instructed to strip himself of the diadem and purple, the pom]) and vanity of the world : but in the judgment of his clergy, the persecution of the Jews was more easily reconciled with the precepts, of the gospel. He again ascended his throne to receive the congratulations of the ambassadors of Prance and India : and the fame of Moses, Alexander, and Hercules, J was eclipsed, in the popular estimation, by the superior merit and glory of the great Heraclius. Yet the deliverer of the East was indigent and feeble. Of the Persian spoils, the most valuable portion had been expended in the war, distributed to the soldiers, or buried, by an unlucky tempest, in the waves of the Euxine. The conscience of the emperor was oppressed by * The burden of Corneille's song — " Montrez Heraclius au peuple qui I'attencl," is much better suited to the present occasion. See his triumph in Theophanes (p. 272, 273), and Nicephorus (p. 15, 16). The life of the mother and tenderness of the son are attested by George of Pisidia (Bell. Abar. 255, &c. p. 49). The metaphor of the sabbath is used, somewhat profanely, by these Byzantine Christians. + See Baronius (Annal. Eccles. a.d. 628, No. 1 — 4), Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii, p. 240 — 248), Nicephorus (Brev. p. 15). The seals of the case had never been broken ; and this preservation of the cross is ascribed (under God) to the devotion of queen Sira. Ij: George of Pisidia, Acroas. 3, de Expedit. contra Persas, 415, &c. and Henicleid. Acroas. 1, 65—138. I neglect the meaner parallels of Daniel, Timotheus, &c. Chosroes and the chagan wei'e of course com< pared to Belshazzar, Pharaoh, the old serpent, &c. CH. XLVII.] EXHAUSTION' OF TlIE EMPIRE. 197 the obligation of restoring the wealth of the clergy, which he hiul borrowed for their own defence: a perpetual fund was required to satisfy these inexorable creditors ; the provinces, already wasted by the arms and avarice of the Persians, were eompelled to a second payment of the same taxes ; and the arrears of a simple citizen, the treasurer of Damascus, were commuted to a fine of one hundred thousand pieces of gold. The loss of two hundred thousand soldiers* who had fallen by the sword, was of less fatal importance than the decay of arts, agriculture, and population, in this long and destructive war : and although a victorious army had been formed under the standard of Ileraclius, the unnatural effort appears to have exhausted rather than exercised their strength. While tlie emperor triumphed at Constantinople or Jerusalem, an obscure town on the confines of Syria was pillaged by the Saracens, and they cut in pieces some troops who advanced to its relief: an ordinary and trilling occurrence, had it not been the prelude of a mighty revolution. These robbers were the apostles of ^Mahomet; their fanatic valour had emerged from tho desert; and in the last eight years of his reign, Ileraclius lost to the Arabs the same provinces which he had rescued from the Persians. CHAPTER XLVII. — theological HisronY of the doctrine of THE INCARN.VTION. — THE HUMAN AND DIVINE NATURE OF CHRIST. — ENMITY Oh- THE PATUIARCHS OF ALKXANDRIA AND CONSTAN- TINOl'LE. — ST. CYRIL AND NESTORIUS. — THIRD GENERAL COUNCIL OP EPHESUS. — HERESY OP EUTYCHES. — FOURTH GENERAL COUNCIL OP CHALCEDON. — CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL DISCORD. — INTOLERANCE OF JUSTINIAN. —THE THREE CHAPTERS. — THE MONOTHELITE CONTROVERSY. — STATE OP THE ORIENTAL SECTS. 1. THE NESTORIANS. — XL THK JACOBITES. — III. THE MARONITES. — IV. THE ARMENIANS. — V. TUK COPTS AND ABYSSINIANS. After the extinction of Paganism, the Christians in peace and piety might have enjoyed their solitary triumph ; but the principle of discord was alive in their bosom, and they * Sniflas (in Excerpt. Hist. Byzant. p. 46) gives this number ; but either the Pei-.-siau must be read for the iBauriau war, or this passage do83 not belong to the emperor Heraclius. 198 THir INCAaNATION OF CHKIST. [cil. XLVIl. ■were more soliciloiis to explore the nature, than to practise the laws, of tlieir founder. I have already observed, that the disputes of the Trinity were succeeded by those of the Incarnation ; alilic scandalous to the church, alike pernicious to the State, still more minute in their origin, still more durable in their eftects. It is my design to comprise, in the present chapter, a religious war of two hundred and fifty vears, to represent the ecclesiastical and political schism of the oriental sects, and to introduce their clamorous or san- guinary contests, by a modest inquiry into the doctrines of the primitive church.* * By what means .shall I authenticate this previous inquiry, which I have studied to circumscribe and compress ? If I persist in support- ing each fact or reflection by its proper and special evidence, every line would require a string of testimonies, and eveiy note would swell to a critical dissertation. But the numberless passages of antiquity, which I have seen with my own eyes, are compiled, digested, and illustrated, by Petavius and Le Clerc, by Beausobre and Mosheim. I shall be content to fortify my narrative by the names and characters of these respectable guides ; and, in the contemplation of a minute or remote object, 1 am not ashamed to borrow the aid of the strongest glasses. — 1. The Dogmata Theologica of Petavius, is a work of incre- dible labour and compass; the volumes which relate solely to the incarnation (two folios, fifth and sixth, of eight hvmdred and thirty- seven pages) are divided into sixteen books — the finst of history, the remainder of controversy and doctrine. The Jesuit's learning is copious and correct ; his Latinity is pure, his method clear, his argu- ment profound and well connected : but he is the slave of the fathers, the scourge of heretics, and the enemy of truth and candour, as often as they are inimical to the Catholic cause. 2. The Arminian Le Clerc, who has composed, in a quarto volume (Amsterdam, 1716,) the eccle- siastical history of the two first centuries, was free both in his temper and situation; his sense is clear, but his thoughts are narrow; he reduces the reason or folly of ages to the standard of his private judg- ment, and his impartiality is sometimes quickened, and sometimes tainted, by his opposition to the fathers. See the heretics (Cerin- thians, 80. Ebionites, 103. Carpocratians, 120. Valentinians, 121. Basi- lidians, 12.3. Marcionitcs, 141, &c.,) under their proper dates. 3. The Histoire Critique du Manicheisme (Amsterdam, 1734, 1739, in two vols, in quarto, with a posthumous dissertation sur les Nazarenes, Lausanne, 1745,) of M. de Beausobre, is a treasure of ancient philo- sophy and theology. The learned historian spins with incomparable art the systematic thread of opinion, and transforms himself by tui-ns into the person of a saint, a sage, or a heretic. Yet his refinement is sometimes excessive ; he betrays an amiable partiality in favour of the weaker side, and while he guards against calumny, he does not allow sufficient scope for superstition and fanaticism. A copious table of Bontenta will dirjct the reader to any point that he wishes to eiamiue. CU. XLVII.] THE EBIOXITE DOCTEI>'E. 199 I. A liudablo regard for tho honour of tlie first proselytes, has coimtenanced tlie belief, the liope, tlie wish, that the Ebionites, or at least the Nazarenes, were distiiifjiiislied onlv by their obstinate perseverance in the practice of the Mosaic rites. Their churches have disappeared, their books are obliterated : their obscure freedom might allow a latitude of faith, and the softness of their infant creed ■would be vari- ously moulded by the zeal or ])riiil('nee of three hundred years. Yet the most charitable criticism must refuse these sectaries any knowledge of the pure and proper divinity of Ciirist. Educated in the school of Jewish prophecy and prejudice, they had never been taught to elevate their hopes above a human and temporal ^Messiah.* If they had courage to hail their king when he appeared in a plebeian garb, their grosser apprehensions were incapable of discerning their God, who had studiously disguised his celestial character under the name and person of a mortal.f The familiar com- panions of Jesus of Xazaretli coTiversed with their friend, and couuti'yman, who, in all the actions of rational and animal life, appeared of the same species with themselves. J lis progress from infancy to youth and. manhood was marked by a regular increase in stature and wisdom ; and, after a painful agony of mind and body, he expired on the cross. lie lived and died for the service of mankind ; but the life and death of Socrates had likewise been devoted to the cause of religion and justice; and although the Stoic or the hero may disdain the humble virtues of Jesus, the tears which he shed over his friend and country may be esteemed the purest 4. Less profound than Petavius, less independent than Le Clerc, less ingenious than Beixusobre, the historian Mosheim is full, rational, cor- rect, and moderate. In his learned work, De Kebus C'hristianis ante Constaniiuiim (Helmstadt, 1753, in quartOj) see the Nazarenes and Ebionites, p. 172 — 179. 328—332 ; the Gno.stics in general, p. 179, &c. ; Cerintluis, p.l9(J — 202; Basilidos, p. 352 — 3tJl ; Carpocrates, p. 363 — 3G7; Valentinus, p. 371 — 389; Marcion, p.40i — 410; the ilanicheeans, p. S29 — 837, &C. * Kai yaf) TTc'iiTtQ iif^itl^ Tov Xpiarbv dvOpuTTov tt av6pwTru)v TrponcoKw^ui' ytiyirnaOai, says the Jewish Tryphon (Justin. Dialog, p. 207.) in the name of his countrymen ; and the modern Jews, the few who divert their thoughts from money to religion, still hold the same language, and allege the literal sense of the projjhets. t Chrysostom (Basnage, Hist, des Juifs, torn, v, c. 9, p. 183,) and Athanasius (Petav. Uogniat. Theolog. torn, v, 1. 1, c. 2, p. 3,) are obliged to confess that the diviiiity of Christ ia I'arely mentioned by himself or Lis tip« sties. 200 bihth and elevatiok [cu. xlvil evidence of his humanity. The miracles of the gospel coulfl not astonish a people who held, Avith intrepid faith, the more splendid prodigies of the Mosaic law. The prophets of ancient days had cured diseases, raised the dead, divided the sea, stopped the sun, and ascended to heaven in a fiery chariot. And the metaphorical style of the Hebrews might ascribe to a saint and martyr, the adoptive title of Soil of God. Yet in the insufficient creed of the Nazarenes and the Ebionites, a distinction is faintly noticed between the here- tics, who confounded the generation of Christ in the common order of nature, and the less guilty schismatics, who revered the virginity of his mother, and excluded the aid of an earthly father. The incredulity of the former was counte- nanced by the visible circumstances of his birth, the legal mari'iage of his reputed parents, Joseph and Mary, and his lineal claim to the kingdom of David and the inheritance of Judah. But the secret and authentic history has been recorded in several copies of the Gospel according to St. Matthew,* which these sectaries long preserved in the ori- ginal Hebrew,t as the sole evidence of their faith. The natural suspicions of tlie husband, conscious of his own chastity, were dispelled by the assurance (in a dream) that his wife was pregnant of the Holy Ghost: and as this dis- tant and domestic prodigy could not fall under the personal observation of the historian, ho must have listened to the * The two first chapters of St. Matthew did not exist in the Ebionite copies (Epiphan. Ha3res. 30, 13); and the miraculous conception is one of the last articles which Di-. Priestley has curtailed from his scanty creed. f It is probable enough that the first of the gospels, for the use of the Jewish converts, was composed in the Hebrew or Syriac idiom ; the fact is attested by a chain of fathers — Papias, Irenseus, Origen, Jerome, &c. It is devoutly believed by the Catholics, and admitted by Casaubon, Grotjus, and Isaac Vossius, among the Protestant critics. But this Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew is most unaccountably lost; and we may accu.se the diligence or fidelity of the primitive churches, who have preferred the unauthorized version of some nameless Greek. Erasmus and his followers, who i-espect our Greek text as the original gospel, deprive themselves of the evidence which declares it to be the work of an apostle. See Simon, Hist. Critique, &c., torn, iii, c. 5 — 9, p. 47 — 101, and the Prolegomena of Mill and Wetstein to the New Testament. [The German editor here says that Matthew's Hebrew Gospel was more probably a trans- lation than an original, which is contrary both to internal evidence and to positive testimony. See ch. 1 5, vol ii, p. 69.— -Ed.] CH. ILVII.] OF THE MESSIAH. 201 same voice wliich dictated to Isaiah the future conception at' a virgin. Thu son of a virgin, generated by the inelliible operation of the Holy Spirit, waa a creature wlllioiit example or resemblance, superior in every attribute of mind and body to the children of Ailam. Since the introduction of the Greek or Chaldean pliilosophy,* the Jewsf were per.suaded of the pro-existence, transmigration, and immortality of souls; and Providence was justified by a supposition, that they were confined in their earthly prisons to expiate the stains which they had contracted in a former state. J But the degrees of purity and corruption are almost immeasur- able. It might be fairly presumed, that the most sublime and virtuous of human spirits was infused into the offspring of Mary and the Holy Ghost ;§ that his abasement was the result of his voluntary choice ; and that the object of his mission was to purify, not his own, but the sins of the world On his return to his native skies, he received the immense reward of his obedience; the everlasting kingdom of the Messiah, which had been darkly foretold by the prophets, * The metajilij-sic? of the soul are diseugaged by Cicero (Tusculan. 1. 1,) aud Maximus of Tyre (Dissertat. 1(5,) from the intricacies of dialogue, which sometimes amuse, and often perplex, the readers of the Phsedrus, the Pheedon, and the Laws of Plato. + The disciples of Jesus were persuaded that a man might have sinned before he was born (John ix. 2), and the Pharisees lield the transmigration of virtuous souls (Joseph, de Bell. Judaico, 1. 2, c. 7), and a modern rabbi is modestly assured that Hei'mes, Pythagoras, Plato, &c., derived their metaphysics from his illustrious countrymen. X Four ditferent opinions have been entertained concerning the origin of human souls. — 1 . That they are eternal and divine. — ti. That •:,hey were created in a separate state of existence, before their union with the body. — 3. That they have been propagated from the original stock of Adam, who contained m himself the mental as well as the corporeal seed of his posterity. — 4. That each soul is occasionally created and embodied in the moment of conception. The last of these sentiments appears to have prevailed among the moderns ; and our spiritual history is grown less sublime, without becoming more intel- ligible. [Previous existence, of which we are entirely unconscious, is tantamount to non-existence, and the belief in it has never gained ground, though sanctioned by great names. The growth of the intel- lectual principle through the successive stages of spirit, mind, aud soul, is taught us by the combined lessons of nature, experience, aud reli- gion. — Ed.] § "On >'; Tov Swrj/po^ •I'^'X')' '/ ''"^ 'ACtiji i) — was one of the fifteen heresies imputed to Origen, and denied by his apologist (Photius, Bib- liothec. Cod. 117, p. 296). Some of the rabbis attribute one aud thu same soul to the persons of Adam, David, aud the Messiah. 202 THE Pn A-NTASTIC THEOIir [CD. XI.VII. under the carnal images of peace, of conquest, and of domi- nion. Omnipotence coukl enlarge the human faculties of Christ to the exteiit of his celestial office. In the Ian- gunge of antiquity, the title of God has not been severely contined to the first parent ; and his incomparable minister, his only-begotten Son, might claim, without presumption, the religious, though secondary, worship of a subject world. II. The seeds of the faith, which had slowly arisen in the rocky and ungrateful soil of Judea, were transplanted, in lull maturity, to the happier climes of the Gentiles ; and the strangers of Kome or Asia, who never beheld the manhood, were the more readily disposed to embrace the divinity, of Christ. The Polytheist and the philosopher, tlie Greek and the barbarian, were alike accustomed to conceive a long succession, an infinite chain of angels, or demons, or deities, or aeons, or emanations, issuing from the throne of light. Nor could it seem strange or incredible, that the first of these seons, the Logos, or Word of God, of the same substance with the Father, should descend upon earth to deliver the human race from vice and error, and to conduct them iu the paths of life and immortality. But the prevailing doctrine of the eternity and inherent pravity of matter infected the primitive churches of the east. Many among the Gentile proselytes refused to believe that a celestial spirit, an undi- vided portion of the first essence, had been personally united with a mass of impure and contaminated flesh : and, in their zeal for the divinity, they piously abjured the huma- nity, of Christ. "While his blood was still recent on mount Calvary,* the Docetes, a numerous and learned sect of Asia- tics, invented the pliantastic system, which was afterwards propagated by the jNIarciouites, the Manichaeans, and the vari- ous names of the Gnostic heresy .f They denied the truth * Apostolis adhuc in seculo superstilibus, apud Judseam Christi sanguine recente, Phantasma domini corpus asserebatur. Hieronym. advers. Lucifer, c. 8. The epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnseans, and even the Gospel according to St. John, are levelled against the growing error of the Docetes, who had obtained too much credit in the world (I John iv. 1 — 5). + About the year 200 of the Christian era, Irenseua and Hippolytus refuted the thirty-two sects, riye Tptvow- vvfiov yvixjdtojQ, whicli had multiplied to fourscore in the time of Epi- phanius (Phot. Biblioth. Cod. 120— 122K The five books of IrenaMi.s exist only in barbarous Latin ; but the original might perhaps be found in some monastery of Greece. [It is very doubtful whether there ever was a Greek original of them. The opinion of Erasmus, that they were written ii- Latin, although generally dissented from, ia CH. iLVII.J AND IT9 SUPPORTEnS. 203 and authenticity of the gospels, as far as they relate the conception of ]Nrary, the birth of Clirist, and the thirty yf»nrs that preceded the exercise of his ministry. He first appeared on the banks of the Jordan in tlie form of perfect man- hood ; but it was a form only, and not a substance ; a human figure created by the hand of Omnipotence, to imitate the faculties and actions of a man, and to impose a perpetual illusion on the senses of his friends and enemies. Articulate sounds vibrated on the ears of the disciples ; but the image, which was impressed on their optic nerve, eluded the more stubborn evidence of the touch ; and they enjoyed the spi- ritual, not the corporeal, presence of the Son of God. The rage of the Jews was idly wasted against an impassive phantom ; and the mystic scenes of the passion and death, the resurrection and ascension of Christ, were represented on the theatre of Jerusalem lor the benefit of mankind. If it were urged, that such ideal mimicry, such incessant de- ception, was unworthy of the God of truth, the Docetes agreed with too many of their orthodox brethren in the jus- tification of pious falseh-ood. In the system of the Gnostics, the Jehovah of Israel, the creator of this lower world, was a rebellious, or at least an ignorant, spirit. The Son of God descended upon earth to abolish his temple and his law ; and, for the accomplishment of this salutary end, he dexter- ously transferred to his own person the hope and prediction of a temporal Messiah. One of the most subtle dis])utant3 of the Manichsean school has pressed the danger and indecency of supposing that the God of the Christians, in the state of a human highly probable. They were designed by Irenieus to check the pro- gress of Gnosticism in the Western provinces, where it had been introduced by Valentine, when he visited Home, and against -whom all the arguments are particularly directed. If Irenteus had ad- dressed the Christians around him in Greek, not one in a thousand would have understood him, nor could his work have made the impres- sion which it is said to have produced in his diocese. Its " barbarous Latin " is what might have been expected from a Greek, who had learned it at Lyons ; and his apologj', in his preface, for the inac- curacies of a style, formed amid so rude a population, woidd never have been applied by him to a composition in his mother-tongue, which he had acquired in all its purity by a careful Ionian education. Fragments of letters in Grecz, to some of his friends, prove nothing ; and the passages in the books Adv. liter, which are >ised by Eusebiua and oth 3rs, were, no doubt, translated by them. — Ed.] 20i THE DOCETES. [CII. XLVH. foetus, emere:ed at the end of nine months from a female \vomb. Tlie pious horror of his antagonists provoked them to disclaim all sensual circumstances of conception and delivery; to maintain that the divinity passed through Mary hke a sunbeam through a plate of glass, and to assert, that the seal of her virginity remained unbroken even at the mo- ment when she became the mother of Christ. But the rash- ness of these concessions has encouraged a milder senti- ment, of those of the Docetes, who taught, not that Christ was a phantom, but that he was clothed with an impassible and incorruptible body. Such, indeed, in the more orthodox system, he has acquired since his resurrection, and such he must have always possessed, if it were capable of pervading, without resistance or injury, the density of intermediate matter. Devoid of its most essential properties, it might be exempt from the attributes and infirmities of the flesh. A foetus, that could increase from an invisible point to its full maturity ; a child, that could attain the stature of perfect manhood, without deriving any nourishment from the ordi- nary sources, might continue to exist without repairing a daily waste by a daily supply of external matter. Jesus might share the repasts of his disciples without being sub- ject to the calls of thirst or hunger ; and his virgin purity was never sullied by the involuntary stains of sensual con- cupiscence. Of a body thus singularly constituted, a ques- tion would arise, by what means, and of what materials, it was originally framed ; and our sounder theology is startled by an answer which was not peculiar to the Gnostics, that both the form and the substance proceeded from the divine essence. The idea of pure and absolute spirit is a refine- ment of modern philosophy ; the incorporeal essence, ascribed by the ancients to human souls, celestial beings, and even the Deity himself, does not exclude the notion of extended space ; and their imagination was satisfied with a subtle nature of air, or fire, or ether, incomparably more perfect than the grossness of the material world. If we de- line the place, we must describe the figure, of the Deity. Our experience, perhaps our vanity, represents the powers of reason and virtue under a human form. The Anthropo- morphites who swarmed among the monks of Egypt, and the Catholics of Africa, could produce the express declara- tion of Scripture, that man was made after the image of hia en. XLTII.] DOCTEIXE OF CERIXTUUS. 205 Creator.* The venerable Serapion, one of tlie saints cf the Nitriun desert, relinquished, with niauy a tear, his darlinj^ prejudice, and bewailed, like an infant, his unlucky conver- sion, which had stolen away his God, and lel't his mind without any visible object of faith or devotion. f III. Such were the fleeting shadows of the Docetes. A more substantial, though less simple, hypothesis, was con- trived by Cerinthus of Asia,J who dared to oppose the la^t of the apostles. Placed on the confines of the Jewish and Gentile world, he laboured to reconcile the Gnostic with the Ebionite, by confessing in the same Messiah the super- natural union of a man and a God : and this mystic doctrine was adopted with many fanciful improvements by Carpo- crates, Basilides, and Valentine, § the heretics of the Egyp- tian school. In their eyes, Jesus of Nazareth was a mere * The pilgrim Cassian, who visited Egypt iu the beginning of the fifth century, observes and laments the reign of anthropomorphism among the monks, who were not conscious that they embraced the system of Epicurus. (Cicero, de Nat. Deorum, 1. IS — 34.) Ab uni- verso propemodum genere monachorum, qui per totam provinciam Egyptum morabantur, pro simplicitatis errore susceptum est, ut e contrario memoratum pontificem (Theopldlus) velut hseresi gravissima depravatum, pars maxima seniorum ab universe fraternitatis corpore decerueret detestaudum. (Cassian, Collation. 10. 2.) As long as St. Augustin remained a Manicha?an, he was scandalized by the anthropomorphism of the vulgar Catholics. t Ita est in oratione senex meute confusus, eo quod illam di 6|0u- TTojuofi^nv imaginem Deitatis, quam proponere sibi in oratione con- sueveret aboleri de suo corde sentiret, ut in amarissimos fletus, cre- brosque singultus repente prorumpens, in terram prostratus, cum ejulatu validissimo proclamaret: — " Heu me miserum ! tulerunt a me Deiira meum, et> quera nunc teneam non habeo, vel quem adorem, aut iuterpellem jam nescio." Cassian, Collat. 10. '1. X St. John and Cerinthus (a.d. 80, Cleric. Hist. Eccles. p. 493,) accidentally met in the public bath of Ephesus ; but the apostle fled fi-om the heretic, lest the building should tumble on their heads. This foolish story, reprobated by Dr. Middleton (Miscellaneous Works, vol. ii,) is related however by IreuKus (3. 3,) on the evidence of Poly- carp, and was probably suited to the time and residence of Cerinthus. The obsolete, yet probably the true, reading of I John iv. 3. — b \vu Tur 'Irjcrou}' — alludes to the double nature of that primitive heretic. § The Valentinians embraced a complex, and almost incoherent, system. — 1. Both Christ and Jesus were reous, though of difierent degrees ; the one acting as the rational soul, the other as the divine spirit, of the Saviour. 2. At the time of the passion, they both retired, and left only a sensitive soul and a human bod}-. 3. Even that body was ethereal and perhaps apparent. — Such are the laborious conclusioua 20Q rOCTRlNE OF CEEIKTHTJS [CH. XLVIl. mortal, the legitimate son of Joseph and Mary ; but he was the best and wisest of the human race, selected as the worthy instrument to restore upon earth the worship of the true and supreme Deity. Wlien he was baptized in the Jordan, the Christ, the firstof the aeons, the Son of God himself, descended on Jesus in the form of a dove, to inhabit his mind, and direct his actions, during the allotted period of his miuistry. "When the Messiah was delivered into the hands of the Jews, the Christ, an immortal and impassible being, forsook his earthly tabernacle, flew back to the pleroma or world of spirits, and left the solitary Jesus to suffer, to complain, and to expire. But the justice and generosity of such a desertion are strongly questionable ; and the fate of an innocent martyr, at first impelled, and at length abandoned, by his divine com- panion, might provoke the pity and indignation of the pro- fane. Their murmurs were variously silenced by the sectaries who espoused and modified the double system of Cerinthus. It was alleged, that when Jesus was nailed to the cross, he was endowed with a miraculous apatliy of mind and body, which rendered him insensible of his apparent sufferings. It was affirmed, that these momentary, though real, pangs would be abundantly repaid by the temporal reign of a thousand years, reserved for the Messiah in his kingdom of the New Jerusalem. It was insinuated, that if he suffered, he deserved to suffer ; that human nature is never absolutely perfect ; and that the cross and passion might serve to ex- piate the venial transgressions of the sou of Joseph, before his mysterious union with the Son of God.* IV. All those who believe the imuiateriality of the soul, a specious and noble tenet, must confess, from their pre- sent experience, the incomprehensible union of mind and matter. A similar union is not inconsistent with a much higher, or even with the highest, degree of mental faculties ; and the incarnation of an aeon or archangel, the most per- of Mosheim. But I much doubt whether the Latin translator iinder- ptood Irenscus, and whether Irenacus and the Valeutiuians understood themselves. * The heretics abused the passionate excla- mation of " My God, my God, why hast tliou forsaken me ! " Rous- eeau, who has drawn an eloquent, but indecent, parallel between Christ and Socrates, forgets that not a word of impatience or despair escaped from the mouth of the dying philosopher. In the Messiah, such senti- ments could be only apparent ; and such ill-sounding words ara properly expUiued as the application of a psalm and prophecy. CTT. XLVII.] AND OF AP0LLINAEI8. 207 feet of created spirits, does not involve any positive contra- diction or absurdity. In the age of religious freedom, which was determined by the council office, the dignity of Christ was measured by private judgment, according to tlie inde- finite rule of 8cri|)ture, or reason, or tradition. But when his pure and proper divinity had been establislied on the ruins of Arianiynt, the faith of the Catholics trembled on the edge of a precipice, wliere it was impossible to recede, dan- gerous to stand, dreadful to fall ; and the manifold incon- veniences of their creed were aggravated by the sublime character of their theology. They hesitated to pronounce, that God himself, the second person of an equal and consub- stantial trinity, was manifested in the flesh ;* that a being who pervades the universe, had been confined in the womb of iMary ; that his eternal duration had been marked by the days, and months, and years, of human existence ; that flie Almighty had been scourged and crucified ; that his impas- sible essence had felt pain and anguish ; ^/<«^ his omniscience was not exempt from ignorance, and that the source of life and immortality expired on mount Cabarv. These alarming consequences were aiUrmed with unblushing simplicity by Apolliuaris,t bishop of Laodicea, and one of the luminaries of the church. The son of a learned grammarian, he was skilled in all the sciences of Greece ; eloquence, erudition, * This strong expres.sion might be justified by the laugua^e of St. Paul (I Tim. iii. IG), but we are deceived hy our modern Bibles. The word o (which) was altered to Otoq (God) at Constantinople in the beginning of the sixth century : the true reading, which is visible in the Latin and Syriac versions, still exists in the reasoning of the Greek, as well as of the Latin fathers ; and this fraud, with that of the three witnesses of St. John, is admirably detected by Sir Isaac Newton. (See his two letters translated by M. de Missy, in the Journal Britan- nique, torn, xv, p. 14 8 — 190. 351 — 390.) I have weighed the argu- ments, and may yield to the authority, of the first of philosophers, who was deeplj- skilled in critical and theological studies. t For Apollinaris and his sect, see Socrates, 1. 2, c, 46; I. 3, c. 16. Sozomen, 1. 5, c. IS ; 1. 6, c. 25—27. Theodoret, 1. 5. 3. 10, 11. Tille- raont, Memoires Ecclosiastiques, tom. vii. p. 602 — 638. Note, p. 789 — 794, in quarto, Venise, 1732. The contemporary saints always men- tion the bishop of Laodicea as a friend and brother. The style of the more recent historians is harsh and hostile ; yet Philostorgius com- l>ares him (1. 8, c. 11 — 15,) to Basil and Gregory. [Neander (Hist, of Chris. 4. p. 98 — 106) has given an elaborate summary of the opinions of Apollinaris, usefully tracing the first form of tho^e abstruse specu- lations wliich were perverted to such evil ends. — Ed.J 20S DOCTRINE OF APOLLIXAEIS. [cH. XLVII. and philosophy, conspicuous in tlie volumes of Apollinarig, were luirably devoted to the service of religion. The worthy friend of Athanasius, the worthy antagonist of Julian, he bravely wrestled with the Arians and Polytheists, and, though he aftected the rigour of geometrical demonstration, his commentaries revealed the literal md allegorical sense of the Scriptures. A mystery, which had long floated in the looseness of popular belief, was defined by his perverse diligence in a technical form ; and he first proclaimed the memorable words, — One incarnate nature of Christ, which are still re-echoed with hostile clamours in the churches of Asia, Egypt, and Ethiopia. He taught that the Godhead was united or mingled with the body of a man ; and that the Logos, the eternal Wisdom, supplied in the flesh the place aud ofiice of a human soul. Yet as the profound doc- tor had been terrified at his own rashness, Apollinaris was heard to mutter some liiint accents of excuse and explana- tion. He acquiesced in the old distinction of the Greek philosophers, between the rational and sensitive soul of man ; that he might reserve the Logos for intellectual func- tions, and employ the subordinate human principle in the meaner actions of animal life. With the moderate Docetcs, he revered Mary as the spiritual, rather than as the carnal, mother of Christ, whose body either came from heaven, im- passible and incorruptible, or was absorbed, and as it were transform.ed, into the essence of the Deity. The system of Apollinaris was strenuously encountered by the Asiatics and vSyrian divines, whose schools are honoured by the names of ]3asil, Gregory, and Chrysostom, aud tainted by those of Diodorus, Theodore, and IN'estorius. But the per- son of the aged bishop of Laodicea, his character, and dig- nity, remained inviolate ; and his idvals, since we may not suspect them of the weakness of toleration, were astonished, perhaps, by the novelty of the argument, and diffident of rhe final sentence of the Catholic church. Her judgment at length inclined in their favour ; the heresy of Apollinaris was condemned, and the separate congregations of his disciples were proscribed by the imperial laws. But his principles were secretly entertained in the monasteries of Egypt, and hia enemies felt the hatred of Theophilus and Cyril, the successive patriarchs of Alexandria. V. 'J'he grovelling Ebiouite, and the phantastic Docetes, CH. n.vit.] ORxnoDOX vehbal disputes. 209 were rejected and forgotten ; the recent zeal against the errors of Apolliuaria reduced the Catholics to a seeming agreement with the double nature of Cerinthus. But, instead of a temporary and occasional alliance, iliet/ estab- lished, and tve still embrace, the substantial, indissoluble, and everlasting union of a perfect God with a perfect man, of the second person of the trinity with a reasonable soul and luiman ilesii. In tlie beginning of the fifth century, the unit// of the ttco natures was the prevailing doctrine of the clnirch. On all sides, it was confessed that the mode of their co-existence could neither be represented by our ideas, nor expressed by our language. Yet a secret and incurable discord was cherished between those who were most apprehensive of confounding, and those who were most fearful of separating, the divinity and the humanity of Christ. Impelled by religious frenzy, they fled with adverse haste from the error which they mutually deemed most destructive of truth and salvation. On either hand they were anxious to guard, they were jealous to defend, the union and the distinction of the two natures, and to invent such forms of speech, such symbols of doctrine, as were least susceptible of doubt or ambiguity. The poverty of ideas and language tempted them to ransack art and nature for every possible comparison, and each comparison misled their fancy in the explanation of an incomparable mystery. In the polemic microscope, an atom is enlarged to a monster, and eacli party was skilful to exaggerate the absurd or impious conclusions that might be extorted from the principles of their adversaries. To escape from each other, they wandered through many a dark and devious thicket, till they were astonished by the horrid phantoms of Cerinthus and Apollinaris, who guarded the opposite issues of the theological labyrinth. As soon as they beheld the twilight of sense and heresy, they started, measured back their steps, and were again involved in the gloom of impenetrable orthodoxy. To purge themselves from the guilt or reproach of damnable error, they disavowed their consequences, explained their principles, excused their in- discretions, and unanimously pronounced the sounds of concord and faith. Tet a latent and almost invisible spark still lurked among the embers of controversy ; by the breath of prejudice and passion it was quickly kindled to a VOL. V. P 210 CYRIL, PATRIAHCH OP [cH. XLVII. mighty flame, and the verbal disputes* of the Oriental sects have shaken the pillars of tlie church and state. The name of Cteil of Alexandria is famous in contro- versial story, and the title of saint is a mark that his opinions and his party have finally prevailed. In the house of his uncle, the archbishop Theophilus, he imbibed the orthodox lessons of zeal and dominion, and five years of his youth were profitably spent in the adjacent monasterier of Nitria. Under the tuition of the abbot Serapion, he applied himself to ecclesiastical studies, with such inde- fatigable ardour, that in the course of one sleepless night, he has perused the four gospels, the Catholic Epistles, and the Epistle to the Eomans. Origen he detested ; but the writings of Clemens and Dionysius, of Athanasius and Basil, were continually in his hands : by the theory and practice of dispute, his faith was confirmed, and his wit was sharpened: he extended round Ins cell the cobwebs ot scholastic theology, and meditated the works of allegory and metaphysics, whose remains, in seven verbose folios, now peaceably slumber by the side of their rivals. f Cyril prayed and fasted in the desert, but his thoughts (it is the reproach of a friend J) were still fixed on the world ; and the call of Theophilus, who summoned him to the tumult of cities and synods, was too readily obeyed by the aspiring hermit. With the approbation of his uncle, he assumed the office, and acquired the fame, of a popular preacher. * I appeal to the confession of two Oriental prelates, Gregory Abul- pharagius the Jacobite primate of the East, and Elias the Nestorian metropolitan of Damascus, (see Asseman. Bibliothec. Oriental, torn, ii, p. 291 ; torn, iii, p. 514, &c.,) that the Melchites, Jacobites, Nesto- lians, &c., agree in the doctrine, and difier only in the expression. Our most learned and rational divines — Basnage, Le Clerc, Beau- Bobre, La Croze, Mosheim, Jablonski — are inclined to favour this charitable judgment; but the zeal of Petavius is loud and angry, and the moderation of Dupin is conveyed in a whisper. •f- La Croze (Hist, du Christianisme des Indes, torn, i, p. 24,) avows his contempt for the genius and writings of Cyril. De tous les ouvrages des anciens, il y en a peu qu'on lise avec moins d'utilit^ ; and Dupin (Bibliotheque Eccldsiastique, torn, iv, p. 42 — 52,) in words of respect, teaches us to despise them. X Of Isidore of Pelusium (1 1, epist. 25, p. 8). As the letter is not of the most creditable sort> Tillemont, less sincere than the Bollandis^^s, aflects a doubt whether this Cyril is the nejthew of Theoj^hilus. (Mem. Ecclds. torn, xiv, p. 268.) [The character and proceedings of Cyril have been already considered A..D. 412-44t.] ALEXANDRIA. 211 His comely person adorned the pulpit, the haniiony of his voice resounded in the cathedral, his friends were stationed to lead or second the applause of the congregation,* and the hasty notes of the scribes preserved his discourses, which, in tlieir el't'ct, though not in their composition, might be compared with those of the Athenian orators. The death of Theophilus expanded and realized the hopes of his nepJiew. The clergy of Alexandria was divided; the soldiers and their general supported the claims of the archdeacon ; but a resistless multitude, with voices and with hands, asserted the cause of their favourite ; and, after a period of thirty-nine years, Cyril was seated on the throne of Athauasius.f The prize was not unworthy of his ambition. At a distance from the court, and at the head of an immense capital, the patriarch, as he was now styled, of Alexandria, had gradually usurped the state and authority of a civil magistrate. The public and private charities of the city were managed by his discretion ; his voice inflamed or ap- l^eased the passions of the multitude; his commands were blindly obeyed by his numerous fanatic paraboIani.X fami- liarized in their daily office with scenes of death ; and the prefects of Egypt were awed or provoked by the temporal power of these Christian pontiffs. Ardent in the prosecu- tion of heresy, Cyril auspiciously opened his reign by oppres- sing the Novatians, the most innocent and harmless of the sectaries. The interdiction of their religious worship ap- peared in his eyes a just and meritorious act ; and he con- (ch. 3^, vol. iii, p. 514.) — Ed.] * A grammarian is named by Socrates, (1. 7. 13) ciairvpoQ it aKpoaTfj^ rov iniaKorrov KvfjiWov KaO' tarutQ, Kal ntpi to Kp:')Toi'Q iv ra'ii; diCacKaXiai^ avTov iytlpnv 7]v airov- ^awToToQ. + See the youth and promotion of Cyril, in Socrates, (1. 7, c. 7,^ and Renaudot (Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 1 06—1 08.) The Abbe Renaudot drew his materials from the Arabic history of Severus, bishop of Herinopolis Magna, or Ashmunein, in the tenth century, who can never be trusted, unless our assent is extorted by the internal evi- dence of facts. J The paraholani of Alexandria were a charitablp cori)oration, instituted during the plague of Gallienus, to visit the sick and to bury the dead. They gradually enlarged, abused, and sold, the privileges of their order. Their outrageous conduct under the reign of Cyril provoked the emperor to deprive the patriarch of their nomi nation, and to restrain their number to five or six hundred. But theso restraints were transient and ineffectual. See the Theodosian Code, I. 16, tit 2, and Tillemout, ilem. Ecclcs. torn, xiv, p. 276 — 278. r2 212 TYRAXNT OF CTTITL. [cn. XLVTT. fiscated their holy vessels, without apprehending the guilt of sacrilege. Tlie toleration, and even the privileges, of the Jews, who had multiplied to the number of forty thousand, were secured by the laws of the Caesars and Ptolemies, and a long prescription of seven hundred years since the foun- dation of Alexandria. Without any legal sentence, without any royal mandate, the patriarch, at the dawn of day, led a seditious multitude to tlie attack of the synagogues. Un- armed and unprepared, the Jews were incapable of resistance; their houses of prayer were levelled with the ground, and the episcopal warrior, after rewarding his troops with the plunder of their goods, expelled from the city the remnant of the unbelieving nation. Perhaps he might plead the inso- lence of their prosperity, and their deadly hatred of the Christians, whose blood they had recently shed in a malicious or accidental tumult. Such crimes would have deserved the animadversion of the magistrate ; but in this promiscuous outrage the innocent were confounded with the guilty, and Alexandria was impoverished by the loss of a wealthy and industrious colony. The zeal of Cyril exposed him to the penalties of the Julian law ; but in a feeble government, and a superstitious age, he was secure of impunity, and even of praise. Orestes complained ; but his just complaints were too quickly forgotten by the ministers of Theodosius, and too deeply remembered by a priest who affected to pardon, and continued to hate, the prefect of Egypt. As he passed through the streets, his chariot was assaulted by a band of five hundred of the Nitrian monks ; his guards fled from the wild beasts of the desert ; his protestations, that he was a Christian and a Catholic, were answered by a volley of stones, and the face of Orestes was covered with blood. The loyal citizens of Alexandria hastened to his rescue ; he instantly satisfied his justice and revenge against the monk by whose hand he had been wounded, and Ammo- nius expired under the rod of the lictor. At the command of Cyril, his body was raised from the ground, and trans- ported in solemn procession to the cathedral ; the name of Ammonius was changed to that of Thaumasius.the wonderful; his tomb was decorated with the trophies of martyrdom, and the patriarch ascended the pulpit, to celebrate the magna- nimity of an assassin and a rebel. Such lionours might incite the faithful to combat and die under the banners of A.D. 413-415.] MUEDEll OF nTTATIA. 213 the saint; and he soon ])roinpted, or accepted, the sacrifice of a virgin, who professed the religion ot'tlie Greeks, and cul- tivated the friendship of Orestes. Hypatia, the daughter of Theon the matlieinatician,* was initiated in her lather's studies : her learned comments have elucidated the geometry of ApoUonius and Diophantus, and she publicly taught, both at Athens and Alexandria, the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. In the bloom of beauty, and in the maturity ot wisdom, the modest maid refused her lovers and instructed her disciples ; the persons most illustrious for their rank or merit were impatient to visit the female philosopher; and Cyril beheld with a jealous eye, the gorgeous train of horses and slaves who crowded the door of her academy. A rumoiir was spread among the Christians, that the daughter of Theon was the only obstacle to the reconciliation of the prefect and the archbishop ; and that obstacle was speedilv removed. On a fatal day, in the holy season of Lent, Hypatia was torn from her chariot, stripped naked, dragged to the church, and inhumanly butchered by the hands of Peter the reader, and a troop of savage and merciless fanatics : her flesh was scraped from her bones with sharp oyster-sbells,t and her quivering limbs were delivered to the flames. The just progress of inquiry and punishment was stopped by seasonable gifts; but the murder of Hypatia has imprinted an indelible stain on the character and religion of Cyril of Alexandria. J * For Theon, and his daughter Hypatia, see Fabricius, Bibliothec. torn, viii, p. 210, 211. Her article in the Lexicon of Suidas is curious and original. Hesychius (Meursii Opera, torn, vii, p. 29.i, 296,) observes, that she was persecuted f ui ti)v vniplidWovaav aoatia was mar- ried to the philosopher Isidorus. Clinton, F. R. i. 589. — Ed.] + 'Offrpa/coif dvtWov, Kai y.t\i]Cov CiaoTTaaavrtv, kc. Oyster-sheila were plentifully strewed on the sea-beach before the Cwsareum. I may therefore prefer the literal sense, without rejecting the metaphorical version of tegulae, tiles, which is used by M. de Valois. I am ignorant, and the assassins were probably regardless, whether their victim was yet alive. + These exploits of St. Cyril are recorded by Socrates (I- 7, c. 13 — 15,) and the most reluctant bigotry is compelled to copy an historian who coolly styles the murderers of Hypatia dj'Opff to '/ titoToKog TrapOivog i) uyia Mapia. Concil. torn, iii, p. 1102), yet it has been superseded by the claim of Jerusalem ; and her empti/ sepulchre, as it was shown to the pilgrims, produced the fable of her resurrection and assumption, m which the Greek and Latin churches have piously acquiesced. See Baronius (Annal. Eccles. a.d. 48, No. 6, &c.) and Tillemout (Mdm. Eccl^s. tom. i, p. 467 — 177). t The Acts of Chalcedon (Concil. torn iv, p. 1405. 1408) exhibit a lively picture of the blind, obstinate servitude of the bishops of Egypt to their patriarch. J Civil or ecclesiastical business detained the bishops at Antioch till the eighteenth of May. Ephesus was at the distance of thirty days' journey ; and ten days more may be fairly allowed for accidents and repose. The march of Xeuophon over the same ground enumerates above two hundred and sixty parasangs or leagues ; and this measure might be illustrated from ancient and modern itineraries, if I knew how to compare the speed of an army, a synod, and a caravan. John of Antioch is reluctantly acquitted by Tillemont himself. (Mem. Ecclds. tom. xiv, p. 386 — 389). [The boldness with which Cyril carried his measures at the council of Ephesus, is well exhibited by Neander (Hist, of Chris. 4. 151—169). His "arbitrary and ilJeg.al con- duct had created an impression very unfavourable to him in the imperial court at Coustautiuople." This caused hia summoaa to be 220 CONDEMVATION OF NESTOEIUS. [CH. XLVII Cyril announced the opening of the synod sixteen days alter the festival of Pentecost. Nestorius, who depended on the near approach of his eastern friends, persisted, like his predecessor Chrysostom, to disclaim the jurisdiction, and to disobey the summons, of his enemies : they hastened his trial, and liis accuser presided in the seat of judgment. Sixty-eight bishops, twenty-two of metropolitan rank, de- fended his cause by a modest and temperate protest ; they were excluded from the counsels of their brethren. Can- didian, in the emperor's name, requested a delay of four days ; the profiine magistrate was driven with outrage and insult from the assembly of the saints. The whole of this momentous transaction was crowded into the compass of a summer's day ; the bishops delivered their separate opi- nions ; but the uniformity of style reveals the influence or the hand of a master, who has been accused of cor- rupting the public evidence of their acts and subscriptions.* AVithout a dissenting voice, they recognized in the epistles of Cyril the Nicene creed and the doctrine of the fathers ; but the partial extracts from the letters and homilies of Nestorius were interrupted by curses and anathemas ; and the heretic was degraded from his episcopal and ecclesias- tical dignity. The sentence, maliciously inscribed to the new Judas, was affixed and proclaimed in the streets of Ephesus : the weary prelates, as they issued from the church of the mother of God, were saluted as her cham- pions; and her victory was celebrated by the illuminations, the songs, and the tumult of the night. On the fifth day, the triumph was clouded by the arrival and indignation of the eastern bishops. In a chamber of the inn, before he had wiped the dust from his sboes, John of Antioch gave audience to Candidian the imperial accompanied by the special letter to which Gibbon has alluded, and which Neander says " was drawn up with more good sense than could have been expected from Theodosius, and we can scarcely be mistaken in supposing that it was dictated by a wiser head." Yet Cyril dis- regarded the emperor's censures and commands, and, with daring defiance, mad? his own will paramount. — Ed.] * MiiJi(p6ixtrov fit] Kara, tu ctov rii tv 'E(pifTq) avvrtQl^vai virouvi)- fiara, iravovpyiq. Si Kai rivi dOs(Tfi({j KaivoTOfi'tcf, KvpiWov rtxvaZov- Tog. Evagrius, 1. 1, c. 7. The same imputation was urged by count Irenseus (torn, iii, p. 1249), and the orthodox critics do not find it an easy task to defend the purity of the Greek or Latin copies of tha A.l). 431.] OPPOSITION OF THE ORIENTALS. 221 minister ; wlio related liis ineffectual efforts to prevent or annul the hasty violence of the Egyptian. With equal haste and violence, the Oriental synod of fifty bishops degraded Cyril and Memnon from their episcopal honours, eoiidenmed, in tlie twelve anathemas, the purest venom of the ApoUinarian heresy, and described the Alexandrian primate as a monster, born and educated for the destruc- tion of the church.* His throne was distant and inac- cessible ; but they instantly resolved to bestow on the flock of Ephesus the blessing of a i'aithful shepherd. By the vigilance of Memnon, the churches were shut against them, and a strong garrison was thrown into the cathedral. The troops, under the command of Candidian, advanced to the assault; the out-guards were routed and put to the sword, but the place was impregnable: the besiegers retired; their retreat was pursued by a vigorous sally ; they lost their horses, and many of the soldiers were dangerously wounded with clubs and stones. Ephesus, the city of the Virgin, was defiled with rage and clamour, with sedition and blood ; the rival synods darted anathemas and excom- munications from their spiritual engines ; and the court of Tlieodosius was perplexed by the adverse and contradictory narratives of the Syrian and Egyptian factions. During a busy period of three months, the emperor tried every method, except the most effectual means of indifference and contempt, to reconcile this theological quarrel. He attempted to remove or intimidate the leaders by a common sentence of acquittal or condemnation ; he invested his representatives at Ephesus with ample power and military force ; he summoned from either party eight chosen deputies to a free and candid conference in the neighbourhood of the capital, far from the contagion of popular frenzy. But the Orientals refused to yield, and the Catholics, proud of their numbers and of their Latin allies, rejected all terms of union or toleration. The patience of the meek Theo- dosius was provoked, and he dissolved in anger this episcopal tumult, which, at the distance of thii-teen centui'ies, assumes Acts. * "O tl iir' oK'idciii} Twv ikkXijituZi' Ti\OfiQ Koi rpa^fi'c. After the coalition of John and Cyril, these invectives were mutually forgotten. The style of declamation must never be con- founded with the genuine sense which respectable enemies entertain ot tacb other's merit. (Coucil. tom. iii, p. 1-4-t.) 222 THE VICTORY [CD. XLVII. the venerable aspect of the third oecumenical council.* " God is my witness," said the pious prince, " that 1 am not the author of this confusion. His providence will discern and punish the guilty. Return to your provinces, and may your private virtues repair the mischief and scandal of your meeting." They returned to their provinces; but the same passions which had distracted the synod of Ephcsus were diffused over the Eastern world. After three obstinate and equal campaigns, John of Antioch and Cyril of Alexandria condescended to explain and embrace: but their seeming reunion must be imputed rather to prudence than to reason, to the mutual lassitude, rather than to the Christian charity, of the patriarchs. The Byzantine pontiff had instilled into the royal ear a baleful prejudice against the character and conduct of his Egyptian rival. An epistle of menace and invective,t which accompanied the summons, accused him as a busy, insolent, and envious priest, who perplexed the simplicity of the faith, violated the peace of the church and state, and, by his artful and separate addresses to the wife and sister of Theodosius, presumed to suppose, or to scatter, the seeds >f discord in the imperial family. At the stern command of his sovereign, Cyril had repaired to Ephesus, where he was resisted, threatened, and confined, by the magistrates in the interest of Nestorius and the Orientals ; who as- sembled the troops of Lydia and Ionia to suppress the fanatic and disorderly train of the patriarch. Without expecting the royal licence, he escaped from his guards, precipitately embarked, deserted the imperfect synod, and retired to his episcopal fortress of safety and indej)endence. * See the Acts of the Synod of Ephesus, in the original Greek, and a Latin version almost contemporary (Concil. tom. iii, p. 991 — 1339, with the Synodicon adversus Tragoediam Irengei, tom. iv, p. 235 — 497), the Ecclesiastical Histories of Socrates (1. 7, c. 34), and Evagrius (1. 1 , c. 3 — 5), and the Breviary of Liberatus (in Concil. tom. vi, p. 419 — 459, c. 5, 6), and the Mdmoires Eccl^s. of Tillemont (tom. xiv, p. 377—487). "t Tapaxvv (says the emperor in pointed language) to yt tTri cavrtfT Kui x'^P'"'/''"^ raig tK-K\/;oniiijQ irfpiiq evCnKifirj- iTiwg. I should be curious to know how much Neatorius paid for these expressions so mortifying to his rival A.D. 431-435. j OF CTEIL. 223 But his artful emissaries, both in the court anrl city, suceess- lully hibourec' to appease the resentment, and to conciliate the favour, of the emperor. The feeble son of Arcadius was alternately swayed by his wife and sister, by tlie eunuchs and women of the palace ; superstition and avarice were their ruling passions; and the orthodox chiefs were assiduous in their endeavours to alarm the former, and to gratify the latter. Constantinople and the suburbs were sanctified with frequent monasteries, and the holy abb(-ts, Dalmatius and Eutyches,* had devoted their zeal and fidelity to the cause of Cyril, the worship of Mary, and the unity of Christ. Prom the first moment of their monastic life, 'hey had never mingled with the world, or trod the pro- lane ground of tlie city. But in this awful moment of the danger of the church, their vow was superseded by a more sublime and indispensable duty. At the head of a long order of monks aud hermits, who carried burning tapers in their hands, and chanted litanies to the mother of God, they proceeded from their monasteries to the palace. The people was edified and inflamed by this extraordinary spectacle, and the trembling monarch listened to the pi'ayers and adjurations of the saints, who boldly pro- nouncd that none could hope for salvation, unless they embraced the person and the creed of the orthodox suc- cessor of Athanasius. At the same time every avenue of the throne was assaulted with gold. Under the decent names of eidogies and benedictions, the courtiers of both • Eutyches, the heresiarch Eutyches, is honourably named by Cyril fts a friend, a saint, and the strenuous defender of the faith. His bro- ther, thie abbot Dalmatius, is likewise employed to bind the emperor and all his chamberlains terribili conjuratione. Synodicon, c. 2U3, in Concil. tom. iv, p. 467. [Neauder (Hist, of Chris. 4. 164) quoting Harduin, says, that " Dalmatius was a writer in one of the imperial bureaux, and had a wife and children." He was persuaded by a ven© rated monk, Isacios, to join the fraternity, in which he obtained great influence and became Archimandrite. The emperor sometimes visited him in his cell ; but never could prevail upon him to leave his solitude, even to take part in the public penitential processions, when the fr© queut earthquakes tilled Constantinople with alarm. It was usual for new patriarchs to pay their respects to him. But Dalmatius refused to admit Nestorius, of whom he said, " An evil beast has come among us, to injure many by his doctrines." For eight and forty years he had never left his cell, till his hatred of the jiatriarch and the influence ol Cyril moved him to the extraordinary eflort here exhibited. — Eu.J 224 THE EXILE [CH. XLVIT. sexes were bribed according to the measure of their power and rapaciousness. But tlicir incessant demands despoiled the sanctuaries of Constantinople and Alexandria; and the authority of the patriarch was unable to silence the just nnirmur of his clergy, that a debt of 60,000Z. had already been contracted to support the expense of this scandalous corruption.* Pulcheria, who relieved her brother from the weight of an empire, was the firmest pillar of orthodoxy ; and so intimate was the alliance between the thunders of the synod and the whispers of the court, that Cyril was assured of success if he could displace one eunuch and substitute another in the favour of Theodosius. Yet the Egyptian could not boast of a glorious or decisive victory. The emperor, with unaccustomed firmness, adhered to his promise of protecting the innocence of the Oriental bishops; and Cyril softened his anathemas, and confessed, with am- biguity and reluctance, a twofold nature of Christ, before he was permitted to satiate his revenge against the unfor- tunate Nestorius-t The rash and obstinate Nestorius, before the end of the synod, was oppressed by Cyril, betrayed by the court, and faintly supported by his eastern friends. A sentiment of fear or indignation prompted him, while it was yet time, to affect the glory of a voluntary abdication ;J his wish, or at * Clerici qui hie sunt contristantur, quod ecclesia Alexandrina nudata sit hujus causa turbela3 ; et debet prseter ilia qnse hinc trans- missa sint auri libras mille quingentas. Et nunc ei scriptum est ut prsestet ; sed de tua ecclesia prassta avaritiae quorum nosti, &c. This curious and original letter, from Cyril's archdeacon to his creature, the new bishop of Constantinople, has been unaccountably preserved in an old Latin version. (Synodicon, c. 203. Concil. torn, iv, p. 465 — 468.) The mask is almost dropped, and the saints speak the honest language of interest and confederacy. [This letter from Epijjhauius to Maxi- mianus was preserved by Theodoret. (Neander. 4. 173.) — Ed.] t The tedious negotiations that succeeded the synod of Ephesus are diffusely related in the original Acts (Concil. tom. iii, p. 1339 — 1771, ad fin. vol. and the Synodicon, in tom. iv), Socrates (lib. 7, c. 28. 35. 40, 41), Evagrius (1. 1, c. 6—8. 12), Liberatus (c. 7—10), Tillemont (Mem. Ecclcs. tom. xiv, p. 487 — 676). The most patient reader will thank me for compressing so much nonsense and falsehood in a few lines. + AvTov Tt av Ser]6ti'Toc, tTrtrpnTr?) Kara to oiVfTov t7rava<^tv(Tai fiovanTvpiov. Evagrius, 1. 1, c. 7. The original letters in the Syno- dicon (c. 15. 24 — 26) justify the appearance of a voluntary resignation, ivliich is asiierted by Ebed-Jesu, a Nestorian writer, apud Asseman. A.U. -135.] OF NESTOniUS. 2'2-i least his rcqnosh, was readily granted; lie was conducted with honour I'roin Ephesus to liis old monastery of Antioch ; and after a short pause, his successors, Maximian and Pro- clus, were acknowledged as the lawful bishops of Constanti- nople. But in the silence of his cell, the degraded patriarch could no longer resume the innocence and security of a pri- vate monk. The past he regretted, he was discontented with the present, and the iiiture he had reason to dread : the Oriental bishops successively disengaged their cause from his unpopular name, and each day decreased the number of the schismatics who revered Nestorius as the confessor of the faith. After a residence at Antioch of four years, the hand, of Theodosius subscribed an edict,* which ranked him with {Simon the magician, proscribed his opinions and followers, condemned his writingi. to the ihimcs, and banished his per- son lirst to Petra in Arabia, and at length to Oasis, one of the islands of the Libyan desert.f Secluded from the church Bibliot. Oriental, torn, iii, p. 299 — 302. [Xestorius was deposed by an imperial edict; and at his own humble request, was permitted to return to his monastery at Antioch. — German Ed.] [The circum- atantial narrative of Neauder (4. 166 — 170) gives a very ditl'erent aspect to the fall of Nestorius. Wearied and harassed by the restless hos- tility of Cyril, he wrote to the iraj)erial chamberlain, Scholasticus, saying, that if "the maintenance of the true fiiitli could be secured, lie would gladly return to hia cloister and its blessed tranquillity." Obeying his sister Pulcheria and disturbed by the insinuations of Cyril's bi'ibed advocates, the weak Theodosius availed himself of this letter, and through the prrctorian prefect informed Nestorius, but without any manifestation of unfriendly feeling, that " the necessary orders had been given for his I'eturning, in the most convenient and desirable manner, to his cloister." In reply to this, the patriarch resigned his office, again commending to the emperor "the care of maintaining pure doctrine." There are no proofs of his having en- gaged in any intrigues after his retirement ; but he had many frienda in Constantinople ; and after the death of his successor Maximiauns the populace clamoured for his restoration. This induced his enemies to obtain an order for his removal to a greater distance, and his subse- quent persecutions. — Ed.] * See the imperial letters in the Acts of the synod of Ephesus. (Concil. torn, iii, p. 1730 — 1735.) The odious name of Sifnonians, which was affixed to the disciples of this TtpardjCovij cicacKaXia^, was designed die a.i> oi'ticicfi irpolSXi^Osvni; alwtnov virou'd'oitv rifnopiav ruii' ufutp~iij.idra>i>, Kat t-iiira ^aivrac Ttfxujpinc;, l^'lTt Oavovrag (irc/a'at; tKTog vTrcipxni'. Yet these were Christians ! who differed only in names and in shadows. t The metaphor of islands is applied by the grave civilians (Pandect. L 48, tit. 22, leg. 7,) to those happy spots which are discriminaied by VOL. V. (i 220 THE DEATH [cH. XLVII. and from the world, tlie exile was still pursued by the rag« of bigotry and war. A wanderinj^ tribe of the Blemmyes or Nubians invaded hi,3 solitary prison ; in their retreat they dismissed a crowd of useless captives ; but no sooner had Kestorius reached the banks of the Nile, than he would gladly have escaped from a Roman and orttiodox city to the milder servitude of the savages. His flight was punished as a new crime : the soul of the patriarch inspired the civil and ecclesiastical powers of Egypt ; the magistrates, the soldiers, the monks, devoutly tortured the enemy of Christ and St. Cyril ; and, as far as the confines of Ethiopia, the heretic was alternately dragged and recalled, till his aged body was broken by the hardships and accidents of these reiterated journeys. Yet his mind was still independent and erect ; the president of Thebais was awed by his pastoral letters ; he survived the Catholic tyrant of Alexandria, and, after sixteen years' banishment, the synod of Chalcedou would perhaps have restored him to the honours, or at least to the communion, of the church. The death of Nestorius prevented his obedience to their welcome summons ;* and water and verdure from the Libyan sands. Three of these under the common name of Oasis, or Alvahat — 1. The temple of Jupiter Ammon. 2. The middle Oasis, three days' journey to the west of Lycopolis. 3. The southern, where Nestorius was banished, in the first climate, and only three days' journey from the confines of Nubia. See a learned note of Michaelis (ad Descript. JEgypt. Abulfedte, p. 21 — 34). [The most sensible meaning, assigned to the word Oagig, derives it from Ouah, the plural of Wah, Arab, for a dwelling; so that it denotes an inhabited spot in the desert. Herodotus mentions but one, which he calls an " island of the blest." The three named by Gibbon, were known in the time of Strabo. Many more have since been disco- vered, which Browne, Burckhardt, Belzoni and other travellers have described. There is no satisfactory evidence that they were ever used as penal solitudes, prior to the building of Constantinople. The first on record who sent refractory opponents there is Constantius, and the emperor Julian is said to have imitated him. Fi-om that time, deportation to them was a punishment held to be second only to that of death. Justinian relaxed its severity into a " relegatio ad tempus." The Notitia Imperii proves that Roman garrisons were kept there. — Ed.] * The invitation of Nestorius to the synod of Chalcedon, is related by Zacharias, bishop of Melitene (Evagrius, 1. 2, o. 2. Asseman. Bibliot. Orient, torn, ii, p. 5o; and the famous Xenaiaa or Philoxenus, bishop of Hierapolis (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient, torn, ii, p. 40, &c.) ; denied by Evagrius and Asseman, and stoutly maintained by La Croze. (Thesaur. Epistol. torn, iii, p. 18L &c.) The ftict is not imi^rohable ; yet it was the interest- of the Mouophysites to spread tho A. D. 435.] OF KESTOETUS. 227 nis disease might afibrd some colour to the scandalous report, tliat his tongue, the organ ol" blasphemy, had been eaten by the worms. He was buried in a city of Upper Egypt, known by the names of Chcmmis, or Panopolis, or Akmim ;* but the immortal malice of the Jacobites has per- severed for ages to east stones against his sepulchre, and to projiagate the foolish tradition, that it was never watered by the rain of heaven, which equally descends on the righteous and the ungodly.f Humanity may drop a tear on the fate of Nestorius ; yet justice must observe, that he suffered the persecution which lie had approved and inflicted. J The death of the Alexandrian primate, after a reign of thirty-two years, abandoned the ("atholics to the intem- perance of zeal, and the abuse of victory. § The Monophysite invidious report ; and Eutycbius (torn, ii, p. 12,) affirms that Nestorius died after an exile of seven years, and consequently ten years before the synod of Chalcedon. * Consult D'Anville (Mdmoire sin- I'Egypte, p. 191), Pocock (Description of the East, vol. i, p. 76), Abulfeda (Descript. Epfypt. p. 14), and his commentator Michaelis (Not. p. 78 — S3), and the Nubian Geographer (p. 42), who mentions, in the twelfth century, the ruins and the sugar-canes of Akmim. [The ancient accounts of this place have been supposed to refer to two different towns. (Cellarius, 2.823.) Chemmis was its original designation. New settlers under the Ptolemies, finding their Pan, or some deity like him, worshipped there, gave the place its Greek name. Diodorus Siculus (T. 18) says that both have the same meaning, and Dr Lepsius says that Chem was the Pan of the Egyptians, but doubts whether the place had its original name from this. (Letters fi-om Egypt, p. 115, edit. Bohn.) Most writers mention it only as Panopolis, and the dis- trict around it was denominated Nomos Panopolitos. Strabo saj's, that, in his time, it was inhabited chiefly by linen-weavers and lapi- daries. Akmim, or, according to Lepsius, Echmtm, is the Arabian form given to its old name. — Ed.] t Eutycbius (Annal. tom. ii, p. 12) and Gregory Bar-Hebrrcus, or Abulpharagius (Asseman. tom. ii, p. 316) represent the credulity of the tenth and thirteenth centuries. + We are obliged to Evagrius (1. l,c. 7.) for some extracts from the letters of Nestorius; but the lively {licture of his sufferings is treated with insult by the hard and stupid fanatic. [In this sentiment Neander concurs. " The lu-art of Evagrius," he says (4. 182) "was so steeled by the power of dogmatic fanaticism, that he had no sense to perceive the composure and dignity of Nestorius; and could see nothing but pride and obsti- nacy, in the expressions of a noble sjiirit, unbowed to servility by all its misfortunes." — Ed.] § Dixi Cyrillum dum viveret, auctoritate sua eflecisse, ne Eutychianismus et Monophysitarum error in nervum erumperet : idque verum puto . . ahquo . . . honesto raodo na\ivii>Ciav cecinerat. The learned but cautious Jablonski did nut . A specimen of the wit and malice of the jieople is preserved in the Greek Anthology (1. 2, c. 5, p. 188, edit. Wechel), although the ajjplication was unknown to the editor Brodicus. The nameless efiignmimatist raises a tolei-able pun, by confounding the episcopal s;dutation of '' Peace he to all !" with the genuine or corrupted name of the bishop's concubine : — Eip)]vr) TTUVTiaaiv, tTriaKOTroi; iIttsv tTrtKGwv, IluJf Cvi'riTai TTUcnv, i'lv jxovoq tv?ov i%£i ; I am ignorant whether the patriarch, who seems to have been a jealous lover, is the Cimon of a preceding epigram, whose Tnbg torj^Koi; waa viewed with envy and wonder by I'riapus himself. A.D. 151.] FAITU OF CUALCEDON'. 233 approbation, of the fatlicrs. Their pruclence supposed, rather than pronounced, the heresy of Eutyches, wlio was never summoned before tlieir tribunal ; and they sat silent and abashed, when a bold Monophysite, casting at their feet a volume of Cyril, challenged them to anathematize in his person tlie doctrine of the saint. If we fairly peruse the acts of Chalcedon as they are recorded by the orthodox ])arty,* we shall iind that a great majority of the bisho[)s embraced the simple unity of Christ ; and the ambiguous concession, that he was formed of or from two natures, might imply either their previous existence, or their subsequent confusion, or some dangerous interval between the concep- tion of the man and the assumption of the God. The Eo- :nan theology, more positive and precise, adopted the term most oftensive to the ears of the Egyptians, that Christ existed in two natures : and this momentous particlef (which tlie memory, rather than the understandings must retain) had almost produced a schism among the Catholic bishops. The tome of Leo had been respectfully, perhaps sincerely, subscribed : but they protested, in two successive debates, that it was ueilher expedient nor lawful to transgress the sacred landmarks which had been fixed at Nice, Constan- tinople, and Ephesus, according to the rule of Scripture and tradition. At length they yielded to the importunities of their masters ; but their iniallible decree, after it had been ratified with deliberate votes and vehement acclamations, was overturned in the next session by the opposition of the le(j)'i)i;f TE rii\/u;f )}roi fivpiovQ, ni/t'fii /ii) fini'ot' Ti'iy y^v aXXii Kcii avrop tov at pa. Such is the hyperbcUo 236 THE nE>'OTICON [CH. XLVII. Christians of every degree were deprived of the substantial enjoyments of social lite, and of the invisible gifts of baptism and tlie holy communion. Perhaps an extravagant fable of the times may conceal an allegorical picture of these fanatics, who tortured each other, and themselves. " Under the consulship of Venantius and Celer," says a grave bishop, " the people of Alexandria, and all Eg}qDt, were seized with a strange and diabolical frenzy : great and small, slaves and freedmen, monks and clergy, the natives of the land, who opposed the synod of Chalcedon, lost their speech and reason, barked like dogs, and tore with their own teeth, the flesh from their hands and arms.*" The disorders of thirty years at length produced the famous HENOTicONt of the emperor Zeno, which in his language of the Henoticon. [While this competition for the rich prize of the Alexaudriau patriarchate exhausted society by perpe- tuated confusion and carnage, Palestine was equally disturbed. " The fanatical monk Theodosius ruled there supreme in the cloisters, and set all in commotion by his vehement fury against such as would not reject the decrees of the council of Chalcedon. .Tuvenalis, the patriarch of Jerusalem, was banished, and his place filled by Theo- dosius, who deposed and appointed bishops at his will. Similar occuri-ences were witnessed in other cities. The evil could not be checked without forcible measures, and provinces were laid waste by fire and sword." (Neander, iv, 232.)— Ed.] * See the Chronicle of Victor Tununeusis, in the Lectioues AntiqusB o-f Canisius, republished by Basnage, torn, i, p. 32(3. f The Henoticon is transcribed by Evagrius (1. 3, c. 13), and trans- lated by Liberatus. (Brev. c. 18.) Pagi (Critica, torn, ii, p. 411) and Asseman (Bibliot. Orient, torn. 1, p. 343) are satisfied that it is free from heresy; but Petavius (Dogmat. Theolog. tom. v, 1. 1, c. 13, p. 4U) most unaccountably affirms Chalcedonensem ascivit. An adversary would prove that he had never read the Henoticon. [The principal design of the Henoticon was, to tranquillize Egypt; but it was by no means generally acceptable to the people of that country. — German Ed.] [This " Concordat," as it is designated by Neander (4, 239), embraced wider aims ; it proposed "a basis for the peace of the whole church ;" and took a middle ground, on which " neither party should Rtigmatize the other as heretical." But here again the angi-y spirits involuntarily confessed, that peace and truth were not their object.s. " Far from closing the schism, the Henoticon made it wider than it was before. Instead of two parties, there were four — the zealots oa either side, and the moderates on both, who accepted the compromise. On the death of Zeno, Anastasius, only desirous of preserving peace, and of silencing the heretic-makers on both sides, would not abandon the treaty of coalition. But his moderation made him an object of Buspicion, and was even represented as persecution. Serious distui'b- A.D. 4S2.1 or ZEXO. 237 roifrn, antl in tliat of Anastasius, was sifjncd by all the bi.shop.s of the East, under ;he penalty of de<2;radation and exile, if they rejected or i jfringed this salutary and lunda- jnental law. The clergy may smile or groan at the pre- Bumptiou of a layman wlio deliiics the articles of faitii : yet if he stoops to the humiliating task, his mind is less infected by prejudice or interest, and the authority of the magistrate can only be maintained by the concord of the people. It is in ecclesiastical story, that Zcno appears least contemptible ; and I am not able to discern any ^lanichncan or Eutychian cuilt in the frenerous saving of Anastasius, that it was un- worthy of an emperor to persecute the worshippers of Christ and the citizens of Kome. The Henoticon was most pleasing to the Egyptians ; yet the smallest blemish has not been dcsci'ied by the jealous and even jaundiced eyes of our orthodox schoolmen ; and it accurately represents the Ca- tholic faith of the incarnation, without adoi)ting or disclaim- ing the peculiar terms or tenets of the hostile sects. A solemn anathema is pronounced against Nestorius and Eutyches ; against all heretics by whom Christ is divided, or confounded, or reduced to a phantom. Without defining the number or the article of the word uaticre, the pure system of St. Cyril, the faith of Nice, Constantinople, and Ephesus, is respectfully confirmed; but, instead of bowing at the name of the fourth council, the subject is dismissed by the censure of all contrary doctrines, if any such have been taught either elsewhere or at Chalccdon. Under this ambiguous expression, the friends and the enemies of the last synod might unite in a silent embrace. The most reasonable Christians acquiesced in this mode of toleration ; but their reason was feeble and inconstant, and th.eir obe- dience was despised as timid and servile by the vehement spirit of their brethren. On a subject which engrossed the thoughts and discourses of men, it was difficult to preserve an exact neutrality ; a book, a sermon, a prayer, rekindled the flame of controversy ; and the bonds of communion were alternately broken and renewed by the private ari- niosity of the bishops. The space between Nestorius and Eutyches was filled by a thousand shades of language and ances, procccdiug from this struggle, broke out during lii.=« reigu iu Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Coustautiuople." — Ed ] 238 THE ACEPHALI OF EGYPT. [CH. XLTIL opinion ; the acepJiaU* of Egypt, and tlie Eoman pontiffs, of equal valour, thougli of unequal strength, may be found at tlie two extremities of the theological scale. The accphali, without a king or a bishop, were separated above three hun- dred years from the patriarchs of Alexandria, who had ac- cepted the communion of Constantinople, without exacting a formal condemnation of the synod of Chalcedon. For accepting the communion of Alexandria, without a for- mal approbation of the same synod, the patriarchs of Con- stantinople were anathematized by the popes. Their in- flexible despotism involved the most orthodox of the Grreek churches in this spiritual contagion, denied or doubted the validity of their sacraments,t and fomented thirty-five years, the schism of the East and "West, till they finally abolished the memory of four Byzantine pontilTs, who had dared to oppose the supremacy of St. Peter.J Before that period, the jn-ecarious truce of Constantinople and Egypt had been vio- lated by the zeal of the rival prelates. Macedonius, who was suspected of the Nestorian heresy, asserted, in disgrace and exile, the synod of Chalcedon ; while the successor of Cyril would have purchased its overthrow with a bribe of two thousand pounds of gold. + See Renaudot. (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 12S, 131, 145, 195, 247.) They were reconciled by the care of Mark I (a.d. 799 — SI 9); he pro- moted their chiefs to the bishoprics of Athribis and Talba (perhaps Tava, see D'Anville, p. 82), and supplied the sacraments, which had failed for want of an episcopal ordination. [The Acephaloi, or " head- less sect," were so denominated, because they had no chief or leader. (Neander, 4, 239.) They were the most zealous of the Monophysite party, and demanded an unqualified renunciation of the Chalcedon ian council. There was method in their madness, and system in their extravagance; or, it might be supposed, that they had received their name from wanting the seat of reason. — Ed.] + De his quos baptizavit, quos ordinavit Acacius, majorum tradi- tione confectam et veram, prsecipue religiosse solicitudini congruam jiKcbemus sine difficultate medicinara. (Gelasius, in epist. 1, ad Euphemium, Concil. tom. v, 286.) The offer of a medicine_ proves the disease, and numbers must have perished before the arrival of the lloraan physician. Tillemont himself (Mem. Ecclcs. tom. xvi, p. 372, 642, &c.) is shocked at the proud uncharitable temper of the popes; they are now glad, says he, to invoke St. Flavian of Antioch, St. Elias of Jerusalem, etc. to wh»m they refused communion whilst upon earth. But cardinal Baronius is firm and hard as the rock of St. Peter. J Their names were erased from the diptych of the church : ex veuerabili diptycho, in quo piai memorise transitum ad coelum haben- ' l.D. 508-51S.] THE TRISAGION. 239 In tlie fever of tlic times, the sense, or rather the sound of a syllable, was sullicient to disturb the peace of an empire. The TiiiSAGl0>'* (thrice holy), " Holy, holy, holy. Lord God of Hosts!" is supposed, by the Greeks, to be the identical hymn which the angels and cherubim eternally repeat before the throne of God, and which, about the middle of the fifth cen- tury, was miraculously revealed to the church of Constanti- nople. The devotion of Antioch soon added, " who was cruci- fied for us!" and this grateful address, either to Christ alone, or to the whole Trinity, may be justified by the rules of theology, and has been gradually adopted by the Catholics of the East and West. But it had been imagined by a Monophysite bishop :t the gift of an enemy was at first rejected as a dire and dangerous blasphemy, and the rash innovation had nearly cost the emperor Anastasius his throne and his life. J The people of Constantinople was de- void of any rational principles of freedom ; but they held, as a lawful cause of rebellion, the colour of a livery in tlie races, or the colour of a mystery in the schools. The Tris- agion, with and without this obnoxious addition, was chanted in the cathedral by two adverse choirs, and when their lungs were exhausted, they had recourse to the more solid arguments of sticks and stones : the aggressors were punished by the emperor, and defended by the patriarch ; tium episcoporum vocabula continentur. (Concil. torn, iv, p. 184G.) This ecclesiastical record was therefore equivalent to the book of life. * Petavius (Dogmat. Theolog. torn, v, 1. 5, c. 2 — 4, p. 217—225) and Tillemont (Mem. Ecclcs. torn, xiv, p. 713, &c. 799) represent the history and doctrine of the Trisagion. In the twelve centuries between Isaiah and St. Proclus's boj', who was taken up into heaven before the bishop and ]>eople of Constantinople, the song was con- siderably improved. The boy heard the angels sing "Holy God! Holy Strong ! Holy Immortal !" f Peter Gnapheus, the fuller (a trade which he had exercised in his monastery), patriarch of Antioch. His tedious story is discussed in the Annals of Pagi (A.D. 477 — 49iJ), and a dissertation of M. de Valois at the end of his Evagrius. [The elevation of Peter " the fuller" is wrongly attributed to Zeno by John Malalas and Nicephorus. He was apjiouited by the usurper Basiliscus in 476, and displaced on the return of Zeno in 477. After a succession of four patriarchs, he was restored in 485, and died in 488. (Clintou, H. R. ii. 553— 555.)— Ed.] X The troubles under the reign of Anastasius must be gathered from the chronicles of Victor, Marcellinus, and Theophanes. As the last was not published in the time of Barouius, his critic Pagi is more cojjious, as well as more cori'ect 210 TEIUMPH or MACEDONIUS. [CH. XLTIt. and the crown and mitre wore staked on the event o? this momentous quarrel. The streets were instantly crowded with innuuierahle swarms of men, women, and children; the legions of monks, in regular array, marched, and shouted, aud fought at their head: — " Christians! thi^? is the dav of martyrdom ; let us not desert our spiritual father ; anathema to the Manichiean tyrant; he is unworthy to reign." Such was the Catholic cry ; and the galleys of Anastasius lay upon their oars before the palace, till the patriarch had pardoned his penitent, and hushed the waves of the troubled multitude. The triumph of Macedonius was checked by a speedy exile ; but the zeal of his flock was again exasperated by the same question, — " Whether one of tiie Trinity had been crucified ? " On this momentous occasion, the blue and green factions of Constantinople sus- pended their discord, and the civil and military powers were annihilated in their presence. The keys of the city,^ and the standards of their guards, were deposited in the Forum_ of Constantine, the principal station and camp of the faithful. Day and night they were incessantly busied either in singing hymns to the honour of their god, or in pillaging and murder- ing the servants of their prince. The head of his favourite monk, the friend, as they styled him, of the enemy of the holy Trinity, was borne aloft on a spear ; and the firebrands, which had been darted against heretical structures, diffused the uudistinguishing flames over the most orthodox build- ino-s. The statues of the emperor were broken, and his person was concealed in a suburb, till, at the end of three days, he dared to implore the mercy of his subjects. AVitb- out his diadem, and in the posture of a suppliant, Anastasius appeared on the throne of the circus. The Catholics, before his face, rehearsed their genuine Trisagion ; they exulted in the offer which he proclaimed by the voice of a herald, of abdicating the purple ; they listened to the admonition, that since all could not reign, they should previously agree in the choice of a sovereign; and they accepted the blood of two unpopular ministers, whom their master without hesitation, condemned to the lions. These furious but transient sedi- tions were encouraged by the success of Vitalian, who, with an army of Huns and Bulgarians, for the most part idolaters, declared himself the champion of the Catholic faith. In this pious rebellion he depopulated Thrace, besieged Constauti- A.U. 514.] FIRST OF Tilt; RELIOIOUS WARS. 2il nople, extorminatod sixty-five tliousand of liis fellow-Cliris- iiaiis, till he obtained the reeall of the bishops, the satisfae- tion of the pope, and the establisliment of the council ot Chalcedon, an orthodox treaty, reluctantly signed by the ilyiug Anastasius, and more faithfully performed by the uncle of Justinian. And such was the event of the Jirst oi tiie religious war.s, which have been wa!T;ed in the namt;, and by the disciples, of tlie God of Peace.* Justinian has been already seeu in tlie various lights of a prince, a conqueror, and a lawgiver: the theologian t still remains, and it aHbrds an unfavourable prejudice that his theology should form a very prominent leature of his portrait. The sovereign sympathized with his subjects in * The general history, from the council of Chalcedon to the death of Anastasius, may be found in the Breviary of Liberatus (c. 14 — 19), the second and third boolcs of Evagrius, the Abstract of the two books o; Theodore the Reader, the Acts of the Synods, and the Epistles of the Popes. (Concil. torn, v.) The series is continued with some dis- order in the fifteenth and sixteenth tomes of the Mdmoires Eccldsias- tiques oi Tillemont. And here I must take leave for ever of that incomparable guide — whose bigotry is overbalanced by the merits of erudition, diligence, veracity, and scrupulous minuteness. He was I)reveuted by death from completing, as he designed, the sixth century of the church and empire. + The strain of the Anecdotes o. Procopius (c. 11, 13, 18, 27, 2S), with the learned remarks of Alemannus, is confirmed, rather than contradicted, by the Acts of the Councils, the fourth book of Evagrius, and the complaints of the African Facundus in his twelfth book — de tribus c^ipitulis, " cum videri doctus appetit importune .... spontaneis quajstionibua ecclesiara turbat." See Procop. de Bell. Goth. 1. 3, c. 35. [Of Jus- tinian Neander says (4, 214), "he meant to be considered a zealous champion of the Chalcedonian orthodoxy. Intermeddling in theo- logical disputes was with him a favourite passion ; and he would very wiUingly have been lawgiver to the church, in the same sense as he was to the State; but the more he acted, or supposed he acted, by his own impulse, the more he served as the tool of others ;" and in conclusion Neander adds (p. 288), "Justinian's long reign was the occasion of the greatest mischiefs in the Greek church." Anthimus, dissatisfied with his obscure bishopric of Trebizond, aspired to that of Constantino])le, which he obtained, by ingratiating himself wirii Theodora. Envious rivals accused him of unsound doctrine, and interested in their cause Agapetus, the head of the Western church, then among them as envoy from Theodoric to the Byzantine court. Tins pontift alarmed the conscience of Justinian ; Anthimus was deposed ; intrigues and troubles followed, which extended from Jeru- salem on one side, even to Rome on the other ; and the totteriu^; empire was still more weakened by these controversial shocks. — Ed.] VOL. V. K 242 THEOLOGICAL CnAPvACTErv AND [ciI. XLVII. tlieir superstitious rcToronco for living- and rlepavtcd saints; his Code, and more especially bis Novels, confirm and enlarge the privileges of the clergy ; and in every dispute between a monk aud a layman, the partial judge was inclined to pronounce that truth, and innocence, and justice, were always on the side of the church. In his public and priyato devotions, the emperor was assiduous and exemplary; his prayers, vigils, and fasts, displayed the austere penance of a monk ; his fancy wns amused by the hope, or belief, of personal inspiration ; he had secured the patronage of the Virgin and St. Michael the archangel: and his recovery from a dangerous disease was ascribed to the miraculous succour of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian. The capital and the provinces of the East were decorated with the monuments of his religion ;* and, though the far greater part of these costly structures may be attributed to his taste or ostentation, the zeal of the royal architect was probably quickened by a genuine sense of love and grati- tude towards his invisible benefactors. Among the titles of imperial greatness, the name of Pious was most pleasing to his ear; to promote the temporal and spiritual interests of the church was the serious business of liis life ; and the duty of father of his country was often sacrificed to that of defender of the faith. The controversies of the times were congenial to his temper and understanding; and the theolo- gical professors must inwardly deride the diligence of a stranger, who cultivated their art and neglected his own. " What can ye fear," said a bold conspirator to his asso- ciates, " from your bigoted tyrant ? Sleepless and unarmed he sits whole nights in his closet, debating with reverend grey-beards, and turning over the pages of ecclesiastical volumes." f The fruits of these lucubrations were dis- ])layed in many a conference, where Justinian might shine as the loudest and most subtle of the disputants ; in many a sermon, which, under the name of edicts and epistles, proclaimed to the empire the theology of their master * Procop. de Edificiis, 1. 1, c. 6, 7, &c. passim. i)/v Xnyia (T—ovct)v txfv. (Procop. de Bell. Goth. 1. 3, c. 32.) lu the liff of St. Eutychius (apud Aleman. ad Procop. Arcan. c. lb), the same character is given with a design to praise Justinian. JL.D. 519-5G.J.] GOTEBNMENT OF JUSTIXIAif. 2J3 ^Vhile the barbarians invaded the provinces, while the victorious legions marched under the banners of Bclisarius and Narses, the successor of Trajan, unknown to the cam]), was content to vanquish at the head of a synod. Had lir invited to these synods a disinterested aiul rational spec- tator, Justinian might have learned that "religious con- troversy is the offspring of arrogance and folly ; tJiat trui' l)iety is most laudably expressed by silence and submission; that man, ignorant of his own nature, should not presume to scrutinize the nature of his God ; and that it is sufficient for us to know, that power and benevolence are the perfect attributes of the Deity." * Toleration was not the virtue of the times, and indul- gence to rebels has seldom been the virtue of princes, lint when the prince descends to the narrow and peevish cliaracter of a disi)utant, he is easily provoked to supply the defect of argument by the plenitude of power, and to chastise without mercy the perverse blindness of those who wilfully shut their eyes against the light of demonstration. The reign of Justinian was a uniform yet various scene of persecution; and he appears to have surpassed his indolent predecessors, both in the contrivance of his laws and the rigour of their execution. The insufficient term of three months was assigned for the conversion or exile of all heretics ;t and if lie still connived at their precarious stav. they were deprived, under his iron yoke, not only of the benefits of society, but of the common birth-right of men and Christians. At the end of four hundred vears, the Montanists of Phrygia X still breathed the wild enthusiasm of perfection and prophecy, which they had imbibed fro:a * For these wise and moderate sentiments, Procopius (de Beil. Goth. 1. 1, c. 3) is scourged in the preface of Alemanuu.fj, who r.iuks him among tlio political Christians — sed longe verius hajresium omnium sentinas, prorsusque Atheos — abominable Atheists, who preached tlie imitation of God's mercy to man. (Ad Hist. Arcau. c. 13.) t This alternative, a precious cii'cumstance, is preserved by John Malalas (torn, ii, p. 63, edit. Venet. 1733), who deserves more credit as he draws towards his end. After numbering the heretics, Nesto- rians, Eutychians, &c. "ne expectent," says Justinian, " ut digni. veniti judicentur : jubemus, enim ut . . . . eonvicti et aperti hferetici justse et idoneaj animadversioni subjiciantur." Baroniua copies and applauds this edict of the Code (a.d. o27, No. 39, 40). X See the character and principles of the Montanists, in Mosheim, de Rehus Christ, ante Constautinum, p. 410 — 424. B 2 244 PEKSECUTION OF PAGAKS, [cil. XLVII, their male and female apostles, the special organs of tlie Paraclete. On the approach of tlie Catholic priests and soldiers, they grasped with alacrity the crown of niartvrdoiii ; the conventicle and the congregation perished in the flames; but these primitive fanatics were not extinguished three hundred years after the death of their tyrant. Under the protection of the Gothic confederates, the church of the Arians at Constantinople had braved the severity of the laws; their clergy equalled the wealth and magnificence of the senate ; and the gold and silver, which were seized by the rapacious hand of Justinian, might perhaps be claimed as the spoils of the provinces and the trophies of the bar- barians. A secret remnant of Pagans, who still lurked in the most refined and the most rustic conditions of mankind, excited the indignation of the Christians, who were perhaps unwilling that any strangers should be tlie witnesses of their intestine quarrels. A bishop was named us the inquisitor of the faith, and his diligence soon dis- covered in the court and city, the magistrates, lawyers, physicians, and sophists, who still cherished the superstition of the Greeks. They were sternly informed that they must choose without delay between the displeasiu-e of Jupiter or Justinian, and that their aversion to the gospel could no longer be disguised under the scandalous mask of indiffe- rence or impiety. The patrician Photius perhaps alone was resolved to live and to die like his ancestors : he enfranchised himself with the stroke of a dagger, and left his tyrant the poor consolation of exposing with ignominy the lifeless corpse of the fugitive. His weaker brethreji submitted to their earthly monarch, underwent the ceremony of baptism, and laboured, by their extraordinary zeal, to erase the suspicion, or to expiate the guilt, of idolatry. The native country of Homer, and the theatre of the Trojan war, still retained the last sparks of his mythology : by the care of the same bishop, seventy thousand Pagans were detected and converted in Asia, Phrygia, Lydia, and Caria ; ninety-six churches were built for the new proselytes; and linen vestments, Bibles, and liturgies, and vases of gold and silver, w'ere supplied by the pious munificence of Justinian.* The Jews, who had been gradually stripped * Theophati. Chron. p. 153. John, the Monophysite bishop of Asia, is a moi-e authentic witneijs of this transaction, in which he waj l.D. 519-505.] JEWS, AKD SAMAIIITAXS. 245 of their iiinminities, were oppressed by a vexatious law which compelled tiicin to ob-servc the festival of Easter tliu >saiiie day ou which it was celcbruted by the Christians.* And they might complain with the more reason, since the Catholics themselves did not agree with the astronomical calculations of their sovereign : the people of Constanti- nople delayed the beginning of their Lent a whole week utter it had been ordained by authority ; and they had the pleasure of tasting seven days, while meat was exposed tor sale by command of tl>e emperor. The Samaritans of Pa- lestine t were a motley race, an ambiguous sect, rejected as Jews by the Pagans, by the Jews as schismatics, and by the Christians as idolaters. The abomination ot the cross had already been planted on their holy mount of Garizim,J but the persecution of Justinian oflered only the alt-ernative of baptism or rebellion. They chose the latter: under the standard of a desperate leader, they rose in arms, and retali- ated their wrongs on the lives, the property, and the temples of a defenceless people. The Samaritans were finally subdued by the regular forces of the East ; twenty thousand were slain, twenty thousand were sold by the Arabs to the infidels of Persia and India, and the remains of that unhappy nation atoned for the crime of treason by the sin of hypocrisy. It has been computed that one hundred thousand Eoman sub- jects were extirpated in the Samaritan war,§ which converted himself employed by tbe emperor. (Asseman. Bib. Orient, torn, ii, ]>. ii5.\ • Compare Procopius (Hist. Areaii. c. 28, and Aleman'3 Notes) with Theoplianes (Chron. p. 190.) The council of Ni('e lias intrusted the patri;ircb, or rather the astronomers, of Alex- audria, with the annual proclamation of Easter; and we still read, or inther we do not read, many of the Paschal epistles of St. Cyril Since the reign of Monophysitisni in Egypt, the Catholics were per- plexed by such a fooii.-^h pi-ejudice as that which so long opposed, among the Protestants, the reception of the Gregorian style. + For the religion and history of the Samaritans, consult Basnage, Histoire des Juits, a learned and impartial work. * Sichem, Neapolis, A'aplous, the ancient and modem seat of the Sumaritaus, is situate in a valley between the barren Ebal, the moun- tjun of cursing, to the north, and the fruitful Garizim, or mountain of Iklessing, to the south, ten or eleven hours' travel from Jerusalem. See Jlaundrell, Journey from Aleppo, &c. p. 59 — 63. § Procop. Anecdot. c. 11; Theophau. Chron. p. lo2; John Malalas Chron. torn, ii, p. 62. I remember an observation, half philos[)hical, hidf 6uj>erstitious, that the jirovince which had been ruined by the bigotry oi JustiuiiUi, was the same through which the MahumetaiiJ 216 OExnoDOXT of justiniajt. [ch. xltii. the once fruitful province into a desolate and smoking Avilderness. But in the creed of Justinian, the guilt of murder could not be applied to the slaugliter of unbelievers ; and he piously laboured to establish with fire and sword the unity of the Christian faith. * With'these sentiments, it was incumbent on him, at least, to be always in tlie right. In the first years of his adminis- tration, he signalized his zeal as the disciple and patron of orthodoxy: the i-econciliation of the Greeks and Latins established the tome of St. Leo as the creed of the emperor and the empire ; the Nestorians and Eutychians were ex- posed, on either side, to the double edge of persecution ; and the four synods of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, were ratified by the code of a Catholic lawgiver.t But while Justinian strove to maintain the uniformity of faith and worship, his wife Theodora, whose vices were not incompatible with devotion, had listened to the Monophysite teachers ; and the open or clandestine enemies of the church revived and multiplied at the smile of their gracious pa- troness. The capital, the palace, the nuptial bed, were torn by spiritual discord : yet so doubtful was the sincerity of the joyal consorts, that their seeming disagreement was imputed by many to a secret and mischievous confederacy against tlie religion and happiness of their people. J The famous dispute of the theee cnAPTERS,§ which has filled more penetrated into the empire. _ * The expression of Pro- copius is remarkable: oh yap o'l ISokh ^ovog di'OpoJrrnjv tlvai, i'lv ys fii) TijQ aiiTov co^rig v't rtXft'rwi'rfC TV-)(oitv urrfg. Aiiecdot. c. 13. t See the Chronicle of Victor, p. 328, and the original evidence of the laws of Justinian. During the first years of his reign, Baronius himself is in extreme good humour with the emperor, who courted the popes, till he got them into his power. t Procopius, Anecdot. c. 13; Evagrius, 1. 4, c. 10. If the ecclesi- dstical never read the secret historian, their common suspicion jiroves ttt least the general hatred. § On the subject of the three chapters, the original acts of the fifth general council of Constan- ^•inoi^le supply much useless though authentic knowledge. (Concil. »om. vi, p. 1 — 194.) The Greek Evagrius is less copious and coi-rect U. 4, c. 38) than the three zealous Africans, Facundns (in his twelve rooks de tribus capitulis, which are most correctly published by Sirmond), Liberatus (in his Breviarum, c. 22—24), and Victor Tunu- nensis in his Chronicle (in torn, i, Antiq. Lect. Canisii, p. 330 — 334). The Liber Pontificalis, or Anastasius (in Vigilio Pelagio, &c.) is original Italian evidence. The modern reader will derive some information from Dnpin (Bibliot. Eccles. torn. 5. p. 189—207), and Basuage, (Hist. A..D. 532-G9S.] THE THKEE CHAPTEES. 247 volumes tlian it deserves lines, is deeply marked with this subtle and disin<:^(Miuous spirit. It was now three hundred years since the budy of Origen* had been eaten by the worms : his soul, of which he held the pre-existence, was in the hands of its Creator, but his writings were eagerly pe- rused by the monks of Palestine. In these writings, the piercing eye of Justinian descried more than ten metaphy- sical errors ; and the primitive doctor, in the company of Pythagoras and Plato, was devoted by the clergy to the fleruity of hell-lire, which he had presumed to deny. Under the cover of this precedent, a treacherous blow was aimed at the council of Ciialcedon. The fathers had listened with- out impatience to tiie praise of Theodore of Mopsuestia :t and their justice or indulgence had restored both Theodorefc of Cyrrhus, and Ibas of Edessa, to the communion of the church. But the characters of these Oriental bishojis were tainted witii the reproach of heresy ; the first had been the master, the two others were the friends of Nestorius : their most suspicious passages were accused under the title of the tJ.rec chapters ; and the condemnation of their memory must • nvolve the honour of a synod, whose name was pronounced with sincere or affected reverence by the Catholic world, if these bishops, whether innocent or guilty, were annihilated in the sleep of death, they would not probably be awakened by the clamour which after a hundred years was raised over their grave If they were already in the fangs of the demon, their torments could neither be aggravated nor assuaged by de I'Eglise, torn, i, p. 519 — 541); yet the latter is too firmly resolved to depreciate the authority and character of the pojies. [" The Three Chapters," is an incorrect translation of ttsoi tiuCji' ictTo~iQ o't XpicTiai'oi ciaf^icixoi'Tfit. He seems to promise an ecclcsiiidtical liistory. It would have been curiou** and impartial. A.U. 5Gi'.] HERESY OF JUtTIXIAN. 240 province.* But the religious discontent of the Italians had already promoted the conquests of the Lombards, and tlie llomans themselves were accustomed to suspect the faith, and to detest the government, of their Byzantine tyrant. Justinian was neither steady nor consistent in the nice process of fixing his volatile opinions and those of his subjects. In his youth he was otiended by the slightest deviation from the orthodox line ; in his old age he trans- gressed the measure of temperate heresy ; and the Jacobites, not less than the Catholics, were scandalized by his declara- tion that the body of Christ was incorruptible, and that his manhood was never subject to any wants and inlirniities, the inheritance of our mortal flesh. This p/ian^as/w opinion was announced in the last edicts of Justinian ; and at the moment of his seasonable departure, the clergy had refused to subscribe, the prince was prepared to persecute, and the ])eople were resolved to sufl'er or resist. A bishop of Treves, secure beyond the limits of his power, addressed the monarch of the East in the language of authority and attection. " Most gracious Justinian, remember your baptism and your creed ! Let not vour grey hairs be defiled with heresy. Recall your fathers from exile, and your followers from perdition. You cannot be ignorant, that Italy and Gaul, Spain and Africa, already deplore your fall, and anathematize your name. Unless, without delav, vou destroy wliat you havo taught; unless you exclaim with a loud voice, I have erred, I have sinned, anathema to Ncstorius, anathema to Eutyches, vou deliver your soul to the same flames in which they will eternally burn." He died and made no sign.f His death restored in some degree the peace of t'^e church, and t'le reigns of his four successors, Justin, IMberius, Maurice, and Phocas, are distinguished by a rare, though fortunate, vacancy, in the ecclesiastical history of the East. J * The bishops of the patriarchate of Aquileia were reconciled by I'ope Honorius, a.d. G3S (Muratori, Annali d'ltalia, torn, v, p. 37G); but they again relapsed, and the schism was not finally extinguished till tiyS. Fourteen y.?ars before, the church ol Spain had overlooked the tilth geneial council with contemptuous silence. (13 Concil. Toletan. in Concil. torn, vii, p. 4S7 — 494). t Nicetius, bishop of Treves (Uoncil. torn, vi, p. 511 — 513); he himself, like most of the Gallican jirelates (Gregor. Epist. 1. 7, ep. 5, in Concil. torn, vi, p. 1007), was separated from the communion of the four patriarchs by his refusal to condemn the three chapters. Baroniua almost pronounces the dam- nation of Justinian (a.d. 5G5, No. ti). J After relating tho 250 Mo:jfOTnELiTE co>'teoteiist. [on. xltii. The faculties of sense and reason are least capable of act- ing on tliemselves ; the eye is most inaccessible to the sight, tiie soul to the tlionght ; yet we think, and even feel, that one will, a sole principle of action, is essential to a rational and conscious being. When Heraclius returned from the Persian war, the orthodox hero consulted his bishops, whether the Christ whom he adored, of one person, but of two natures, was actuated by a single or a double will. They replied in the singular, and tlie emperor was encou- raged to hope that the Jacobites of Egypt and Syria might be reconciled by the profession of a doctrine, most certainly harmless, and most probably true, since it was taught even by the Nestorians tliemselves.* The experiment was tried without effect, and the timid or vehement Catholics con- demned even the semblance of a retreat in the presence of a subtle and audacious enemy. The orthodox (the prevail- ing) party devised new modes of speech, and argument, and interpretation : to either nature of Christ, they speciously applied a proper and distinct energy; but the dilference was no longer visible when they allowed that the human and the divine will were invariably the same.t The disease was attended with the customary symptoms ; but the Greek clergy, as if satiated with the endless controversy of the incarnation, instilled a healing counsel into the ear of the prince and people. They declared themselves monothe- LITES (assertors of the unity of will), but they treated the words as new, the questions as superfluous : and recom- last heresy of Justinian (1. 4, c. 39—41), and the edict of his successor (1. 5, c. 3,) the remainder of the history of Evagrius is filled with civii, instead of ecclesiastical, events. * This extraordinary, and perhaps inconsistent, doctrine of the Nestorians, had been observed by La Croze (Christianisme des Indes, torn, i, p. 19, 20), and is more fully exposed by Abulpharagius (Bibliot. Orient, tom. ii, p. 292, Hist. Dynast, p. 91, vers. Latin. Pocock.), and Asseman himself (tom. iv, ]j. 218). They seem ignorant that they might allege the positive authority of the ecthesis. 'O niai>og Nfffropiot Kciiirtp CuiipMv Tt)t> Otiav Tov Kvpiov ti'avBpwirr]l/ivrd\ii6i]i; is the expression of Theodore in his treatise of the incar- nation, p. 245. 247, as he is quoted by La Croze (Hist, du Christiani-sme d'Ethiopie et d'Armenie, p. 35), who exclaims, perhaps too hastily, " Quel pitoyable raisonnement !" Renaudot has touched (Hist. Patri- arch. Alex. p. 127 — 138) the Oriental account of Severus; and his authentic creed may be found in the epistle of John the Jacobite, patriarch of Antioch, in the tenth century, to his brother Mennas of Alexandria (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient, torn. ii. p. 132 — 141). X Epist. Archimandritarum et Monachorum Syrise Secundse ad Papam Hormisdam, Concil. torn. v. p. 598 — 602. The courage of St. Sabas, ut leo animosus, will justify the suspicion that the arms of these monks were not always spiritual or defensive. (Baronius, A.D. 513, No. 7, &c.) * Assemannus (Bibliot. Orient, torn. ii. ]). 10 — 46) and La Croze (Christianisme d'Ethiopie, p. 36 — 40), will supply the history of Xenaias or Philoxenus, bishop of Mabug, or Hierapolis, in Syria. He was a perfect master of the Syriac Wuguage, an i. the author or editor of a version of the New Testament. A.l). 518rl JACOB BARAD^US. 2C5 _) exile by the Melcliitca of Paplilfif^onia. Fifty-four bishops were swept tVoia their thrones, ei<;ht Inindred eeek'siastics were cast into prison,* and notwithstanding the ambiguous favour of Theodora, tlie Oriental flocks, deprived of their shepherds, must insensibly have been either famished or poisoned. In this spiritual distress, the expiring faction was revived, and united, and peq)etuated, by the labours of a monk ; and the name of James Barada?ust has been pre- served in the appellation of Jacobites; a familiar sound, which may startle the ear of an English reader. From the holy confessors in their prison of Constantinople, he received the powers of bishop of Edessa and apostle of the East, and the ordination of fourscore thousand bishops, priests, and deacons, is derived from the same inexhaustible source. The speed of the zealous missionary was promoted by the fleetest dromedaries of a devout chief of the Arabs ; the doctrine and discipline of the Jacobites were secretly esta- blished in tlie dominions of Justinian; and each Jacobite was compelled to violate the lav.'S and to hate the Eoman legis- lator. The successors of Sevenis, while they lurked in convents or villages, while they sheltered their proscribed heads in the caverns of hermits, or the tents of the Saracens, still asserted, as they now assert, their indefeasible right to the title, the rank, and the prerogatives, of the patriarch of Autioch ; under the milder yoke of the infldels, they reside about a league from Merdin, in the pleasant monasterv^ of Zapharan, which they have embellislied with cells, aqueducts, * The names and titles of fifty-four bishops, who were exiled by Justin, are preser^^ed in the Chronicle of Dionysius (apud Asseman. torn. ii. p. 54). Severus was personally summoned to Constantino[)le — for his trial, says Liberatus (Brev. c. ID), — that his tongue might be cut out, says Evagrius (1. 4, c. 4). The prudent patriarch did not stay to examine the difference. This eccle.siastiad revolution is fixed by Pagi to the month of September of the year 518. (Critica, torn. ii. p. 506.) t The obscure history of James, or Jacobua Baradajus, or Zanzalus, may be gathered from Eutychius (Annal. torn. ii. p. 144. 147), Renaudot (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 133), and Assemannus (Bibliot. Orient, torn. i. p. 424 ; torn. ii. p. 62 — 69. 324 — 332, p. 414 ; tom. iii. p. 385 — 383). He seems to be unknown to the Greeks. The Jacobites themselves had rather deduce their name and pedigree from St. James the apostle. [Jacob was a monk of Phasitla, in the district of Nisibis, a man inured to privations and hardship^: and of unshaken firmness and const:mcy. With great r.ijiidity, and through many perils, he traversed Syria and the adjacent provinces iu till' disguise of a beggar ; and from this he received the surmaue uf Al Baratlai, Baradasus, the man iu rags. (Neauder, 4. 272.) — ElJ.J 266 HiEEAUcnT of the jacobites. [ch. xltii, and plaiitatioBs. The secondary though honourable place is filled by the maphrian, who, in liis station at Mot^ul itself, defies the Nestorian CatJio/ic, with whom he contests the supremacy of the East. Under the patriarch and the ma- phrian, one hundred and fifty archbishops and bishops have been counted in the dift'erent ages of the Jacobite church ; but the order of the hierarchy is relaxed or dissolved, and the greater part of their dioceses is confined to the neigh- bourhood of the Euphrates and the Tigris. The cities of Aleppo and Amida, which are often visited by the patriarch, contain some wealthy merchants and industrious mechanics, but the multitude derive their scanty sustenance from their daily labour : and poverty, as well as superstition, may im- pose their excessive fasts, — five annual lents, during which both the clergy and laity abstain not only from flesh or eggs, but even from the taste of wine, of oil, and of fish. Their present numbers are esteemed from fifty to fourscore thou- sand souls, the remnant of a populous church, which has gradually decreased under the oppression of twelve centuries. Yet in that long period, some strangers of merit have been converted to the Monophysite faith, and a Jew was the father of Abulpharagius,* primate of the East, so truly eminent both in his life and death. In his life, he was an elegant writer of the Syriac and Arabic tongues, a poet, physician, and historian, a subtle phdosopher, and a moderate divine. In his death, his funeral was attended by his rival the Nestorian patriarch, with a train of Greeks and Arme- nians, who forgot their disputes, and mingled their tears over the grave of an enemy. • The sect which was honoured by the virtues of Abulpharagius, appears, however, to sink below the level of their Nestorian brethren. The super- stition of the Jacobites is more abject, their fasts more rigid,t their intestine divisions are more numerous, and their * The account of his person and writings is perhaps the most curious article in the Bibliotheca of Assemannus (torn. ii. p. 244 — 321, under the name of Gregorius Bar-Hebra3us). La Croze (Christianisme d'Ethiopie, p. 53 — 63) ridicules the ])rejudlce of the Spaniards against the Jewish blood, which secretly defiles their church and state. [The father, who bore the name of Harun (Aaron), was the convert to Christianity. The son, who was born in 1226, studied and practised medicine before he became an ecclesiastic. He was so eminent as a Bcholar and his character so estimable, that while he was bishop of Aleppo, the Mahometans among whcm he lived intrusted to him the education of their sous. — Ed. J f This excessive abstiiience A.D. 168.] THE MATIOKITES. 207 doctors (as far as I can measure the dcgreeg of nonsense) are more remote from the precincts of reason. Something may possibly be allowed for the rigour of the Monophysite theology; much more for the superior influence of the monastic order. In Syria, in Egypt, in ^Ethiopia, the Jaco- bite monks have ever been distinguished by the austerity of their penance and the absurdity of their legends. Alive or dead, they are worshipped as the favourites of the Deity; the crosier of bishop and patriarch is reserved for their venerable hands ; and they assume the government of men, while they ai'e yet reeking with the habits and prejudices of the cloister.* III. In the style of the Oriental Christ-ians, the Mono- thelites of every age are described under the appellation of Maronites,-\ a name which has been insensibly transferred from a hermit to a monastery, from a monastery to a nation. Maron, a saint or savage of the fifth century, displayed his religious madness in Syria ; the rival cities of Apamea and Emesa disputed his relics, a stately church was erected on his tomb, and six hundred of his disciples united their soli- tary cells on tlie banks of the Orontes. In the controversies of the incarnation, they nicely threaded the orthodox line between the sects of Nestorius and Eutyches ; but the un- fortunate question of one iciJl or operation in the two natures of Christ was generated by their curious leisure. Their proselyte, the emperor Heraclius, was rejected as a Maronite from the walls of Emesa ; he found a refuge in the monas- tery of his brethren ; and their theological lessons were repaid with the gift of a spacious and wealthy domain. The name and doctrine of this venerable school were propagated among the Greeks and Syrians, and their zeal is expressed by Macarius patriarch of Antioch, who declared before the is censured by La Croze (p. 352), and even by the Svrian Assemannus (torn. i. p. 226 ; torn. ii. p. 304, 305). * The state of the Monophysites is excellently illustrated iu a dissertation at the begin- ning of the second volume of Assemannus, which contains one hundred and forty-two pages. The Syriac Chronicle of Gregory Bar-Hebi-aius, or Abulpharagius (Bibliot. Orient, torn. ii. p. 321 — 4G3), pursues the double series of the Nestorian Catholics, and the Maphrians of the Jacobites. f The synonymous use of the; two words may be jiroved from Eutychius (Annal. torn. ii. p. 191. 2C7. 332), and many Bimilar passages which may be found in the methodical table of Pocock. He was not actuated by any prejudice against the Maronites of the tenth century ; and we may believe a Mekhite, whose testimony is 2G8 THE MAEOl^ITES. [CH. XLVII. synod of Constantinople, that sooner than subscribe the tivo tvills of Christ, he would submit to be hewn piecemeal, and cast into the sea.* A similar or a less cruel mode of persecu- tion soon converted the unresisting subjects of the plain, while the glorious title of Mardaites,\ or rebels, was bravely maintained by the hardy natives of mount Libanus. John Maron, one of the most learned and popular of the monks, assumed the character of patriarch of Antioch ; his nephew Abraham, at the head of the Maronites, defended their civil and religious freedom against the tyrants of the East. The son of the orthodox Constantino pursued with pious hatred a people of soldiers, who might have stood the bulwark of his empire against tlie common foes of Christ and of Rome. An army of Greeks invaded Syria ; the monastery of St. Maron was destroyed with fire ; the bravest chieftains were betrayed and murdered, and twelve thousand of their followers were transplanted to the distant frontiers of Ar- menia and Thrace. Yet the humble nation of the Maro- nites has survived the empire of Constantinople, and they still enjoy, under their Turkish masters, a free religion, and a mitigated servitude. Their domestic governors are chosen among the ancient nobility ; the patriarch, in his monastery of Canobin, still fancies himself on the throne of Antioch ; nine bishops compose his synod, and one hundred and fifty priests, who retain the liberty of marriage, are intrusted with the care of one hundred thousand souls. Their country extends from the ridge of mount Libanus to the shores of Tripoli ; and the gradual descent affords, in a narrow space, each variety of soil and climate, from the Holy Cedars, erect under the weight of snow, J to the vine, the mulberry, confirmed by the Jacobites and Latins. * Concil. torn. vii. p. 780. The Monothelite cause was supported with firmness and subtlety by Constantine, a Syrian priest of Apamea (p. 1040, &c.). t Theophanes (Chrou. p. 295, 296. 300. 302. 306), and Cedrenua (p. 437. 440) relate the exploits of the Mardaites : the name {Mard; in Syriac rebdlavit) is explained by La Roque (Voyage de la Syrie, torn. ii. p. 53), the dates are fixed by Pagi (a.d. 676, No. 4 — 14 ; A.D. 685, No. 3, 4), and even the obscure story of the patriarch John Maron (Aaaeman. Bibliot. Orient, torn. i. p. 496 — 520) illustrates, fc-om the year 686 to 707, the troubles of mount Libanus. X In the last century twenty large cedars still remained, (Voyage de la Roque, torn. i. p. 68 — 76,) at present they are reduced to four or five. (Volney, torn. i. p. 264). These trees, so famous in Scripture, were guarded by excommunication ; the wood was sparingly borrowed for small crosses, &c., an annual mass was chaunted under their A.D. 158.] THE A.niiE-vi.vNs. 269 and the olive trees of the fniitful valley. In the twelfth century, the INlaronites, abjuring the Monuthrlite error, were reconciled to the Latin churches of Antioch and Eome,* and tlie same alliance has been frequently renewed by the ambition of the po[)es and the distress of the Syrians. But it may reasonably be questioned, whether their union has ever been perfect or sincere ; and the learned Maronites of the collece of Kome have vainlv laboured to absolve their ancestors from the gui'.t of heresy and schism. t IV. Since the age of Constantine, the AemeniansJ had signalized their attachment to the religion and empire of the Christians. The disorders of their country, and their igno- rance of the Greek tongue, prevented their clergy from assisting at the synod of Chalcedon, and they floated eighty- four years, § in a state of indift'erence or suspense, till their shade ; and they were endowed by the Sj^riane with a sensitive power of erecting their branches to repel the nnow to which Mount Libanua is less faithful than it is painted by Tacitus ; inter ardores opacnm fidumque nivibus — a daring metaphor ! (Hisjt. v. 6.) [Dr. Lepsius, on his return from Egypt, crossed Labinus, and passed through " a venerable forest of cedars in a great level bay of the mountain range." He adds that there are others in more nortlieru tracts. Single stems of these gigantic trees are forty feet in circumference and ninety feet high. The largest are stated to be 3,000 yeai-s old. Letters from Egypt, p. 350, edit. Bohn. — Ed.] * The evidence of William of Tyre (Hi.«t. in Gestia Dei per Francos, 1. 22, c. 8, p. 1022,) is copied or confirmed by Jacques de Vitra. (Hist. Hierosolym. 1. 2, c. 77, p. 1093, lU9t). But this unnatural league expu'ed with the power of the Franks ; and Abulpharagius, (who died in 1286) considers the Maronites as a sect of Monothelites. (Bibliot. Orient, tom. ii. p. 292.) t I find a description and history of tlie Maronites in the Voyage de la Syrie et du Mont Liban par la Koque, (2 vols, in 12mo. Amsterdam, 1723, particularly tom. i. p. 42 — 17, p. 174 — 184 ; tom. ii, p. 10 — 120.) In the ancient part, he copies the prejudices of Nairou and the other Maronites of Rome, which Assemaunus is afraid to renounce, and ashamed to support. Jablon.ski (lustitut. Hist. Christ, tom. iii. p. 1S6), Niebuhr (Voyage de I'Arabie, &c.. tom. ii. p. 346. 370- 381), and, above all, the judicious Volney (Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie, tom. ii. p. 8 — 31. Paris, 1787,) may be consulted. J The religion of the Armenians is briefly described by La Croze (Hist, du Christ de I'Ethiopie ©t de I'Armeuie, p. 269 — 402.) He refers to the great Armenian History of Galaims (3 vols, in folio, Rome, 1650 — 1661), and conmiends the state of Armenia in the third volume of the Nouveaux Mcmoires des Mis- sions du Levant. The work of a Jesuit must have sterling merit when it is jiraised by La Croze. § The schism of the Armenians is placed eighty-four j'ears after the council of Chalcedon, (Pagi Cri- tica, ad a D. 535.) It was cou.sunjniated at the end uf seventeen ye;u-s; and it is from tha jcar of Chriat 552 that we date the era of th« 270 THE ABMENTANS. [CH. XLVlt. vacant faith was filially occupied by the missionaries of Julian of Halicariiassus,* who, in Egypt, their common exile, had been vanquished by the arguments or the influence of his rival Severus, the Monophysite patriarcli of Antioch. The Armenians alone are the pure disciplesof Eutyches, an un- fortunate parent, who has been renounced by the greater part of his spiritual progeny. They alone persevere in the opinion, tliatthemanhoodof Christ was created, or existed without crea- tion, of a divine and incorruptible substance. Their adversaries reproach them with the adoration of a phantom ; and they retort the accusation, by deriding or execrating the blas- phemy of the Jacobites, who impute to the Godhead the vile infirmities of the flesh, even the natural effects of nutri- tion and digestion. The religion of Armenia could not derive much glory from the learning or the power of its inhabitants. The royalty expired with the origin of their schism ; and their Christian kings, who arose and fell in the thirteenth century on the confines of Cilieia, were the clients of the Latins and the vassals of the Turkish sultan of Iconium. The helpless nation has seldom been permitted to enjoy the tranquillity of servitude. Erom the earliest period to the present hour, Armenia has been the theatre of perpetual war ; the lands between Tauris and Erivan were dispeopled by the cruel policy of the Sophis; and myriads of Christian families were transplanted to perish or to propagate in the distant provinces of Persia. Under the rod of oppression, the zeal of the Armenians is fervid and intrepid ; they have often preferred the crown of martyrdom to the white turban of Mahomet ; they devoutly hate the error and idolatry of the Greeks ; and their transient union with the Latins is not less devoid of truth, than the thousand bishops whom their patriarch off'ered at the feet of the lloman pontiff".t The Catholic or patriarch of the Arme- nians resides in the monastery of Ekmiasin, three leagues Armenians. (L'Art de verifier les Dates, p. 35.) [Religious persecution drove the Armenians to revolt and facilitated the Persian conquest of the country. Chosroes promoted their separation from the Greek church; and under his sanction, Nierses, their first bishop or Catholicus, held a synod at Thriven in 536, by which the Monophysite system was confirmed and the council of Chalcedon anathematized. (Neander. 4.271). — Ed.] * The sentiments and success of Julian of ilalicarnassus may be seen in Liberatus (Brev. c. 19), Renaudot (Hist, Patriarch. Alex. p. 132 — 303), and Assemannus. (Bibliot. Orient, tom. ii. Dissertat. de Monophysitis, c. 8, p. 286.) t See a remarkable fact of the twelfth century in the History of A.I>. G18.] C0PT8 on EGYPTIANS, 271 from Erivan. Forty-seven archbishops, each of whom may claim the obedience of four or five sulTragans, are conse- crated by his hand ; but the far greater part are only <^ituiar ])relatos, who dignify with their presence and service the tiiinplicity of his court. As soon as tliey have performed the liturgy, they cultivate the garden ; and our bishops will hear with surprise, that the austerity of their life increases in just proportion to the elevation of their rank. In the fourscore thousand towns or villages of his spiritual empire, the patriarch receives a small and voluntary tax from each person above the age of fifteen ; but the annual amount of six hundred thousand crowns is insufficient to sup])ly the incessant demands of charity and tribute. Since the begin- ning of the lust century, the Armenians have obtained a large and lucrative share of the commerce of the East : in their return from Europe, the caravan usually halts in the neighbourhood of Erivan ; the altars are enriched with the fruits of ther patient industry; and the faith of Eutyches is preached in theirrecentcongregationsofBarbaryand Poland.* V. In the rest of the Eoiiian empire, the despotism of the prince might eradicate or silence the sectaries of an obnoxious creed. But the stubborn temper of the Egyptians maintained their opposition to the synod of Chalcedon, and the policy of Justinian condescended to expect and to seize the opportu- jiity of discord. The Monophysite church of Alexandria! was Nicetas Choniates (p. 258). Yet three hundred years before, Photius (Epistol. 2, p. 49, edit. Montacut.)had gloried in the conversion of the Armenians — XaTotvn aiifitnov ooOoCo^wg. * The travelling Armenians are in the way of every traveller, and their mother-church is on the high road between Constantinople and Ispahan : for their present state, see Fabricius (Lux Evangelii, &c., c. 38, p. 40 — 61), Oleariiis (1. 4, c. 40), Chardin (vol. ii. p. 232), Tournefort (lettre 20), and, above all, Tavernier (torn. i. p. 28 — 37. 510 — 51S), that rambling jeweller, who had read nothing, but had seen so much and so well. [For the superstition, ignorance, and attempted reform of the pi'esent Armenians, see Layard, Kineveh and Babylon, p. 47. 392. 405 — 7. In one of their churches a rude picture rejiresents "a victorious St. (ieorge blowing out the brains of a formidable dragon, with a bright brass blunderlniss." — Ed.] t The history of the Alexandrian patriarchs, from Dioscorus to Benjamin, is taken from Renaudot (p. 114 — 164,) and the second tome uf the Annals of Eutychius. [Clinton, in his chronology of these patri- wchs (F. R. ii. p 544 — 548), has critically corrected the dates aod col- 272 PATRiAEons THEorosius, PAUL, &c. [en. XtVII. torn by the disputes of tlie corruptihles and incorruptihlea ; and on the death of the patriarch, the two factions upheld theii* respective candidates.* Gaian was the disciple of Julian, Theodosius had been the pupil of Severus : the claimr of the former were supported by the consent of the monks and senators, the city and the province ; the latter de- pended on the priority of his ordination, the favour of the empress Theodora, and the arms of the eunuch Narses, which might have been used in more honourable warfare. The exile of the popular candidate to Carthage and Sardinia inflamed the ferment of Alexandria ; and, after a schism of one hundred and seventy years, the Gaianites still revered the memory and doctrine of their founder. The strength of numbers and of discipline was tried in a desperate and bloody conflict ; the streets were filled with the dead bodies of citizens and soldiers ; the pious women ascending the roofs of their houses, showered down every sharp or pon- derous utensil on the heads of the enemy ; and the final victory of Narses was owing to the flames with which he wasted the third capital of the Roman world. But the lieutenant of Justinian had not conquered in the cause of a heretic ; Theodosius himself was speedily, though gently removed ; and Paul of Tanis, an orthodox monk, v.as raised to the throne of Athanasius. The powers of government were strained in his support ; he might appoint or displace the dukes and tribunes of Egypt ; the allowance of bread which Diocletian had granted, was suppressed, the churches were shut, and a nation of schismatics was deprived at once of their spiritual and canial food. In his turn the tyrant was excommunicated by the zeal and revenge of tlie people ; and none except his servile Melchites would salute him as a man, a Christian, or a bishop. Yet such is the blindness of ambition, that, when Paul was expelled on a charge of murder, he solicited, with a bribe of seven hundred pounds of gold, his restoration to the same station of hatred and ignominy. Hia successor Apollinai'is entered the hostile city in military array, alike qualified for prayer or for battle. lated the narratives of John Malalas, Theophanes, Victor Tununensi?, Kicephorus, Liberatus, and others; and he has attentively examined Pagi and Renaudot, and sup]3!ied some omissions. — Ed.] • Liberat. Brev c. 20—23. Victor. Chruu. p. 329, 330. Procop. Aaecdot. c, 26, 27 A D. 580-G09.] EULOGIUS A.ND JonK. 273 His troops under arms, were distributed throngTi the streets : the f^atcs of the cathedral were guarded, and a chosen band was stationed in the choir, to defend the person of their chief. He stood erect on his throne, and throwing aside the upper garment of a warrior, suddenly appeared before the eyes of the inultitude in the robes of patriarch of Alex- andria. Astonishment held them mute ; but no sooner liad ApoUinaris begun to read tiie tome of St. Leo, than a volley of curses, and invectives, and stones, assaulted the odious minister of the emperor and the synod. A charge was instantly sounded by the successor of the apostles; the soldiers waded to tlieir knees in blood, and two hundred thousand Christians are said to have fallen by the sword ; an incredible account, even if it be extended from the slaughter of a day to the eighteen years of the reign of Apolliuaris. Two succeeding patriarchs, Eulogius* and John,t laboured in the conversion of heretics, with arms and arguments more worthy of their evangelical profession. The tlieologi- cal knowledge of Eulogius was displayed in many a volume, which magnified the errors of Eutyches and Severus, and attempted to reconcile the ambiguous language of St. Cyril with the orthodox creed of pope Leo and the fathers of Chalcedon. The bounteous alms of John tlie eleemosynary were dictated by superstition, or benevolence, or policy. Seven thousand five hundred poor were maintained at his expense ; on liis accession, lie found eight thousand pounds of gold in the treasury of the church ; he collected ten tliousand from the liberality of the faithful ; yet the primate could boast in his testament, that he left behind him no more tlian the third pai't of the smallest of the silver coins. ♦ Eulogius, who had been a monk of Antioch, was more conspi- cuous for subtlety than eloquence. He proves that the enemies of the faith, the Gaiauites and Theodosians, ought not to be reconciled ; that the same proposition may be orthodox in the mouth of St. Cyril, here- tical in that of Severus .: that the opposite assertions of St. Leo are equally true, &c. His writings are no longer extant, except in the extracts of Photius, who had jierused them with care and satisfaction, Cod. 208. 225— '227. 230. 2S0. f See the life of John the eleemosynary by his contemporary Leontius, bishop of Neapolis in Cyprus, whose Cireek text, either lost or hidden, is reQected in the Latin version of Laronius (a.ii. Git), No. 'J; \.D. 629. No. 8). Pagi (Critica, torn. ii. p. 703) and Fabricius (1. 5, c II, torn. vii. p. 454;, have made some critical observations. VOL. V. I 274 SEPARATION AND DECAY [CH. SLTII. The churches of Alexandria were delivered to the Catholics, the religion of the Mouophysites was proscribed in Egypt, and a la«\v was revived which excluded the natives from the honours and emoluments of the state. A more important conquest still remained, of the patri- arch, the oracle and leader of the Egyptian church. Theo- dosius had resisted the threats and promises of Justinian with the spirit of an apostle or an enthusiast. " Such," replied the patriarch, "were the offers of the tempter when he shewed the kingdoms of the earth. But my soul is far dearer to me than life or dominion. The churches are in the hands of a prince who can kill the body ; but my con- science is my own ; and in exile, poverty, or chains, I will steadfastly adhere to the faith of my holy predecessors, Athanasius, Cyril, and Dioscorus. Anathema to the tome of Leo and the synod of Chalcedon ; Anathema to all who embrace their creed ! Anatliema to them now and for ever- more ! Naked came I out of my mother's womb, naked shall I descend into the grave. Let those who love God, follow me and seek their salvation." After comforting his brethren, he embarked for Constantinople, and sustained, in six successive interviews, the almost irresistible weight of the royal presence. His opinions were favourably enter- tained in the palace and the city ; the influence of Theodora assured him a safe conduct and honourable dismission ; and he ended his days, though not on the throne, yet in the bosom of his native country. On the news of his death, Apollinaris indecently feasted the nobles and the clergy ; but his joy was checked by the intelligence of a new elec- tion : and while he enjoyed the wealth of Alexandria, his rivals reigned in the monasteries of Thebais, and were main- tained by the voluntary oblations of the people. A per- petual succession of patriarchs arose from the ashes of Theo- dosius ; and the Monophysite chui'ches of Syria and Egypt were united by the name of Jacobites and the communion of the faith. But the same faith, which has been confined to a narrow sect of the Syrians, was difiused over the mass of the Egyptian or Coptic nation ; who almost unanimously rejected the decrees of the synod of Chalcedon. A thousand years were now elapsed since Egypt had ceased to be a king- dom, since the conquerors of Asia and Europe had trampled on the ready necks of a people, whose ancient wisdom and A.D. G09.] OF THESE SECTS. 275 power ascend beyond the records of history. The conflict of zeal and persecution rekindled some sparks of their national spirit. Tliey abjured, with a foreign heresy, the manners and language of the Greeks : every Melchite, in their eyes, was a stranger, every Jacobite a citizen ; the alliance of marriage, the offices of humanity, were con- demned as a deadly sin; tlic natives renounced all allegiance to the emperor; and his orders, at a distance from Alexan- dria, were obeyed only under the pressure of military force. A generous effort might have redeemed the religion and liberty of Egypt, and her six hundred monasteries might have poured forth their myriads of holy warriors, for whom death should have no terrors, since life had no comfort or »lelight. But experience has proved the distinction of active and passive courage ; the fanatic who endures without a groan the torture of the rack or the stake, would tremble and fly before the face of au armed enemy. The pusillani- mous temper of the Egyptians could only hope for a change of masters ; the arms of Chosroes depopulated the land ; yet under his reign the Jacobites enjoyed a short and pre- carious respite. The victory of Heraclius renewed and aggravated the persecution, and the Patriarch again escaped from Alexandria to the desert. In his flight, Benjamin was encouraged by a voice, which bade him expect, at the end of ten years, the aid of a foreign nation, marked like the Egyptians themselves with the ancient rite of circumcision. The character of these deliverers, and the nature of the de- liverance, will be hereafter explained ; and I shall step over the interval of eleven centuries to observe the present misery of the Jacobites of Egypt. The populous city of Cairo affords a residence, or rather a shelter, for their indigent patriarch and a remnant of ten bishops ; forty monasteries have survived the inroads of the Arabs ; and the progress of servitude and apostasy has reduced the Coptic nation to the despicable number of twenty -five or thirty thousand families ;* a race of illiterate beggars, whose only consolation * This number is taken from the curious Recherches eur les Egyp- Mens et les Chinois (torn. ii. p. 192, 193), and appears more probable than the six hundred thousand ancient, or fifteen thousand modern, Coi)ts of Gemelli Carreri. Cyril Lucar, the Protestant patriarch of Constantinople, laments that those heretics were ten times more nu- merous than hia orthodox Greeks, ingeniously applying the noWai kiv T 2 276 THE ABYSSINIANS [CH. XLTII. is derived from tlie superior wretchedness of the Greek, patriarch and his diminutive congregation.* VI. Tfie Coptic patriarch, a rebel to the Caesars, or a slave to the khalits, still gloried in the filial obedience of the kings of Nubia and Ethiopia. He repaid their homage by magnifying their greatness; and it was boldly asserted that they could bring into the field a hundred thousand horse with an equal number of camels ;t that their hand could pour or restrain the waters of the Nile ;'l and the peace and plenty of Egypt was obtained, even in this world, by the intercession of the patriarch. In exile at Constantinople, Theodosius recommended to his patroness the conversion of the black nations of Xubia,§ from the tropic of Cancer to ciKacig cevoiaro oivoxooio of Homer (Iliad. 2. 128), the most perfect expreission of contempt. (Fabric. Lux Evangelii, 740.) * The history of the Copts, their religion, manners, &c. may be found in the Abbe Renaudot's motley work, neither a translation nor an original ; the Chronicon Orientale of Peter, a Jacobite ; in the two versions of Abi-aham Ecchellensis, Paris, 1651, and John Simon Asseman, Venet. 1729. These annals descend no lower than the thirteenth century. The more recent accounts must be searched for in the travellers into Egypt, and the Nouveaux M^moires des Missions du Levant. In the last century, Joseph Abudacnus, a native of Cairo, published at Oxford, in thirty pages, a slight Historia Jacobi- tarum, 147 post 150. [The letters of Dr. Lepsius from Egypt in 1844, furnish the most recent account of the Copts; and place them in a far more respectable position. See p. 268 — 278, edit. Bohn. — Ed.] t About the year 737. See llenaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 221, 222. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen, p. 99. + Ludolph. Hist, -^thiopic. et Comment. 1. 1, c. 8. Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. 480, &c. This opinion, introduced into Egypt and Europe by the artifice of the Copts, the pride of the Abyssinians, the fear and ignorance of the Turks and Arabs, has not even the semblance of truth. The rains of ^ithiopia do not, in the increase of the Nile, consult the will of the monarch. If the river approaches at Napata, within three days' journey of the Red Sea (see iJ'Anville's maps), a canal that should divert its course would demand, and most probably surpass, the power of the Cscsars. [Lepsius (p. 223) says, that the ancient Napata was situated near the present town of Meraui, which is far inland and separated from the Red Sea by ridges of porphyry and wide sandy deserts. — Ed.] § The AVjyssinians, who still preserve the features and olive com- plexion of the Arabs, afford a proof that two thousand years are not sufficient to change the colour of the human race. The Nubians, an African race, ai'e pure negroes, as black as those of Senegal or Congo, with flat noses, thick lip.s, and woolly hair. (BufTon, Hist. Naturelle, torn. v. p. 117, 143, 144, 166, 219, edit, in 12mo, Paris, 1769.) The A.l) 5:30.] AND KUBIA.VS. 277 the confines of Abyssinia. Her design was suspected and emulated by tlie more orthodox emperor. The rival mis- sionaries, a Melchite and a Jacobite, embarked at the same time ; but the empress, from a motive of love or fear, was more effectually obeyed; and the Catholic priest was de tained by the president of Thebais, while the king of Nubia and his court were hastily baptized in the foith of Dioscorus. The tardy envoy of Justinian was received and dismissed with honour ; but when he accused the heresy and treason of the Egyptians, the negro convert was instructed to reply that he would never abandon his brethren, the true believers, to the persecuting ministers of the synod of Chalcedon.* During several ages, the bishops of Nubia were named and consecrated by the Jacobite patriarch of Alexandria : as late as the twelfth century, Christianity prevailed ; and some rites, some ruins, are still visible in the savage towns of Sennaar and Dongola.t But the Nubians at length executed their threats of returning to the worship of idols ; the climate required the indulgence of polygamy, and they have finally ancients beheld, without much attention, the extraordinary pheno- menon which has exercised the philosophers and theologians of modern times. [The conversion of Abyssinia, by Frumentius in the time of Athanasius, is related by Bruce, from the records of that country (Travels, i. 508), and by Neander (3, 169) from the ecclesiastical History of Rufinus (1. 1, c. 9). The two accounts do not materially differ till the latter cites the "Apologia Athanasii;" to show that the emperor Constantius "considered it necessary to persecute the dis- ciples of Athanasius, even in those remote regions." The traveller, on the contrary states, that the conversion was as quietly conducted as, at an earlier period, had been that of the same people from Paganism to the Jewish religion; that there were "no fanatic preachers, no wai-m eaints or madmen, and no persecution." — Ed.] * Assemau. Bibliot. Orient, torn. i. p. 329. + The Christianity of the Nubians, a.d. 1153, is attested by the Bherif al Edrisi, falsely described under the name of the Nubian geographer (p. IS), who represents them as a nation of Jacobites. The ravs of historical light that twinkle in the history of Kenaudot (p. ITS, 220—224, 281—286, 405, 434, 451, 464), are all previous to this era. See the modern state in the Lettres Edifiantes (Recueil 4), and Busching (tom. ix. p. 152 — 159, par Berenger). [For the present state of the Nubians, see the Letters of Lepsius, Nos. 15, 24, 26, 28, and tho physical geography of their country. Appendix, p. 516. He says, (p. 127), "the Nubians or Barabra (plur. of Berber!) are an intelligent and honest race, peaceful, but of a disposition anything but slavish, with well-formed bodies, and a skin of a light reddish brown colour." —Ed.] 278 CHUEcn of abtssinia. [ch. iltii. preferred the triuTfipli of the Koran to the abasement of the cross. A metaphysical religion may appear too refined for the capacity of the negro race : yet a black or a parrot might be tauglit to repeat the icords of the Chalcedonian or jV[ouo- physite creed. Christianity was more deeply rooted in the Abyssinian empire ; and, although the correspondence has been some- times interrupted above seventy or a hundred years, the mother-church of Alexandria retains her colony in a state of perpetual pupilage. Seven bishops once composed the ./Ethiopic synod : had their number amounted to ten, they might have elected an independent primate; and one of their kings was ambitious of promoting his brother to the ecclesiastical throne. But the event was foreseen, the in- crease was denied ; the episcopal office has been gradually confined to the ahuna* the head and author of the Abys- sinian priesthood ; the patriarch supplies each vacancy with an Egyptian monk ; and the character of a stranger appears more venerable in the eyes of the people, less dangerous in those of the monarch. In the sixth century, when the schism of Egypt was confirmed, the rival chiefs, with their patrons, Justinian and Theodora, strove to outstrip each other in the conquest of a remote and independent province. The industry of the empress was again victorious, and the pious Theodora has established in that sequestered church the faith and discipline of the Jacobites.t Encompassed on * The abuna is improperly dignified by the Latins with the title of patriarch. The Abyssinians acknowledge only the four patriarchs, and their chief is no more than a metropolitan, or national primate. (Ludolph. Hist. iEthiopic. et Comment. 1. 3, c. 7.) The seven bishops of Renaudot (p. 511), who existed a.d. 1131, are unknown to the historian. {Aluna, from the Arabian ah'» (father), v/as used by the Abyssinians to designate their chief priest. Their form of church government was very simple ; and having no rich bishopric?, they had no sects, heresies, councils, factions, or massacres. This tran- quillity remained undisturbed more than a thousand years. They had a convent, or rather a lodging-house for pilgrims and travellers, at Jerusalem. This connection with the church was the cause of their king, Zara Jacob, who reigned from 1434 to 1468, sending his representatives to the council of Florence. On their return, they were accompanied by some Frangi or Franks, who introduced the first religious disputes in Abyssinia. (Bruce's Travels, ii. p. 68.) — Ed.] t 1 know not why Assemannus (Bibliot. Orient, torn. ii. p. 3S4) should call in question these probable missions of Theodora into Nubia and A.D. 1525-1550.] THE PORTUGUESE IN ABTSSIKIA. 27{J all sides by tlie cnennes of their religion, the ^tliiopiaus slept near a thousand years, forgetful of the world, by whom they were forgotten. They were awakened by the Portu- guese, who, turning the southern promontory of Africa, ap- peared in India and the Ked Sea, as if they had descende i through the air from a distant planet.* In the first moments of their interview, the subjects of Rome and Alexandria observed the resemblance, rather than the difference of their faith; and each nation expected the most important benefits from an alliance with their Christian brethren. In their lonely situation, the Ethiopians had almost relapsed int ) the savage life. Their vessels, which had traded to Ceylon, .Ethiopia. The slight notices of Abyssinia till the vear 1500 are supplied by Renaudot (p. 33(3—341, 381, 382, 405, 443, &c. 452, 456, 4G3, 475, 4S0, 511, 525, 559 — 564) from the Coptic writers. The mind of Luddphus was a perfect blank. * [The Abyssinian annals record tlieir first intercourse with the Portuguese as having taken place in the time of their king Bicda Mariam, who reigned from 14fJ8 to 147S. Before the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, Prince Henry of Viseu.the originator of Portuguese enterprise, disjiatched two emissaries to obtain information respecting the practicability of a sea-route to India. They made their way to India, where one of them died. The other, Peter Covilham, while travelling homewards, penetrated into Abyssinia. According to the custom of the country, he was forcibly detained, but honourably treated, married, and ap])oiuted to eminent offices. In 1503, during the minority of David of Abyssinia, his mother Helena, being regent, was alarmed by the growing power of the Maho- metans around her. She consulted Covilham, and bj' his advice sent Matthew, an Armenian merchant, to ask assistance of the Portuguese in India, who, in the meantime, had accomplished their long desired passage, and established their empire at Goa. Albuquerque (the Por- tuguese viceroy at Goa) received the ambassador coldly, and after many delays, referred him to his sovereign at Lisb(m. There, Matthew was regarded with suspicion ; but his secret instructions to offer a cession of territorj', in return for afforded assistance, at last gained him a favourable hearing. After long negotiations, he returned, accompanied by an aged ambassador, who died during the passage. At Goa, Roderigo de Lima was appointed in his place, who, on arriving in Abyssinia, was, in his turn, very cavalierly treated. David had taken the government into his own hands, and completely defeated his Mahometan enemies in July 1518. No longer in want of an ally, he indignantly refused to ratify his mother's proposed abandonment of a jjortion of their lands. Roderigo was kept there five years, and only obtained permission to depart, by leaving some of his train. His chaplain, Alvarez, published a very false account of all these transactions, especially of the reception given to Roman Catholicism. (Bruce'a Travels, vol. ii. p. 87 — 107.)— Ei>.] 280 INTASIOB OF ABTSSINIANS, [CH. XLVII. scarcely presumed to navigate the rivers of Africa ; tbe ruins of Axume were deserted, the nation was scattered in villages, and the emperor (a pompous name) was content, both in peace and war, with the moveable residence of a camp. Conscious of their own indigence, the Abyssinians had formed the rational project of importing the arts and ingenuity of Europe,* and their ambassadors at Some and Lisbon were instructed to solicit a colony of smiths, car- penters, tilers, masons, printers, surgeons, and physicians, for the use of their country. But tlie public danger soon called for the instant and effectual aid of arms and soldiers to defend an unwarlike people from the barbarians who ravaged the inland country, and the Turks and Arabs who advanced from the sea-coast in more formidable array. ^Ethiopia was saved by four hundred and fifty Portuguese, who displayed in the field the native valour of Europeans, and the artificial powers of the musket and cannon. In a moment of terror, the emperor had promised to reconcile himself and his subjects to the Catholic faith; a Latin patriarch represented the supremacy of the pope ;t the empire, enlarged in a tenfold proportion, was supposed to contain more gold than ths mines of America; and the wildest hopes of avarice and zsal were built on the willing submission of the Christians of Africa. But the vows which pain had extorted, were forsworn on the return of health. The Abyssinians still adhered with unshaken constancy to the Mouophysite faith ; their languid * Ludolph. Hist. ^Ethiop. 1. 4, c. 5. The most necessary arts are now exercised by the Jews, and the foreign trade is in the hands of the Armenians. What Gregory principally admired and envied was the industry of Europe — artes et opificia. t John Bermudez, whose relation, printed at Lisbon, 1569, was translat'^d into English by Purchas (Pilgrims, 1. 7. c. 7, p. 1149, &c.), and from thence into French by La Croze (Christianisme d'^thiopie, p. 92 — 265). The piece is curious ; but the author may be suspected of deceiving Abyssinia, Rome, and Portugal. His title to the rank of patriarch is dark and doubtful. (Ludolph. Comment. No. 101, p. 473.) [Bermudez was a medical attendant on lloderigo de Lima, and one of those who were detained in Abyssinia. He accepted the vacant ofSce of abuna, on condition of being allowed to visit Rome, and receive ordination from the pope. This was granted; and Paul IIL appointed him patriarch of Abyssinia, Alexandria, and of the sea. When he returned, he attempted to rule the youthful prince, Claudius, whose moderation contrasted strikingly with " the fiery, brutal zeal of tUe A.D. 1557.] MISSION OP JESUITS. 281 belief was inflamed by the exorcise of dispute ; they branded tiie Latins with the names of Arians and Nestorians, and imputed the adoration of yo?TIxM: HI. — PUISISIIMEM OF [cil. XLTIII sons the equal heirs of the Eastern empire, and commanded them to lionour his widow Martina as their mother and their sovereign. When Martina first appeared on the throne with the name and attributes of royalty, she was checked by a firm, though respectful, opposition ; and the dying embers of freedom were kindled by the breath of superstitious pre- judice. " We reverence," exclaimed the voice of a citizen, " we reverence the mother of our princes ; but to those princes alone our obedience is due ; and Constantine, the elder emperor, is of an age to sustain, in his own hands, the weight of the sceptre. Tour sex is excluded by nature from the toils of government. How could you combat, how could you answer, the barbarians, who, with hostile or friendly intentions, may approach the royal city? May heaven avert from the Roman republic this national disgrace, which would provoke the patience of the slaves of Persia." Mar- tina descended from the throne with indignation, and sought a refuge in the female apartment of the palace. The reign of Constantine III. lasted only one hundred and three days :* he expired in the thirtieth year of his age, and, although his life had been a long malady, a belief was entertained that poison had been the means, and his cruel step-mother the author, of liis untimely fate. Martina reaped indeed tlie harvest of his death, and assumed the government in the name of the surviving emperor ; but the incestuous widow of Heraclius was uni- versally abhorred ; the jealousy of the people was awakened, and the two orphans whom Constantine had left became the objects of the public care. It was in vain that the son of Martina, who was no more than fifteen years of age, waa taught to declare himself the guardian of his nephews, one of whom he had presented at the baptismal font : it was in vain that he swore on the wood of the true cross, to defend them against all their enemies. On his death bed, the late em- peror had dispatched a trusty servant to arm the troops and provinces of the East in the defence of his helpless children • * [Constantine III. is the title given by numismatists to the emperor who was proclaimed in Britain, A.D. 407. (See vol. iii. p. 378; Eckhel, viii. 176; Humphreys' Manual, p. 651.) The son of Heraclius and Eudiicia is therefore styled Constantine IV. by some of the.se "R I'iter,-}, but by Eckhel, Heraclius il. — Ed.j A.D. Oil.] MA"RTINA AND HER-VCLEONAS. 291 the eloquence and liberality of Valentin had been success- ful, and, from his camp of Chalcedon, he boldly demanded the punishment of the assassins, and the restoration of the lawful heir. The licence of the soldiers, who devoured the grapes and drank the wine of their Asiatic vineyards, pro- voked the citizens of Constantinople aj^ainst the domestic authors of their calamities, and the dome of St. Sophia re-echoed, not with prayers and hymns, but with tlie clamours and imprecations of an enraged multitude. At their imperious command, Ileracleonas appeared in the pulpit with the eldest of the royal orphans ; Constaus alone was saluted as emperor of the Eomans, and a crown of gold, which had been taken from the tomb of Heraclius, was placed on his head, witii the solemn benediction of the patriarch. But in the tumult of joy and indignation, the church was pillaged, the sanctuary was polluted by a pro- miscuous crowd of Jews and Barbarians ; and tlie Mono- thelite Pyrrhus, a creature of the empress, after dropping a protestation on the altar, escaped by a prudent flight from the zeal of the Catholics. A more serious and bloody task was reserved for tlie senate, who derived a temporary strength from the consent of the soldiers and people. The spirit of Roman freedom revived the ancient and awful examples of the judgment of tyrants, and the imperial culprits were deposed and condemned as the authors of the death of Constantine. But the severity of the conscript fathers was stained by the indiscriminate punishment of the innocent and the guilty: Martina and ileracleonas were sentenced to the amputation, the former of her tongue, the latter of his nose ; and after this cruel execution they con- sumed the remainder of their days in exile and oblivion. The Greeks who were capable of reflection might find some consolation for their servitude, by observing the abuse of power when it was lodged for a moment in the hands of an aristocracy. We shall imagine ourselves transported five hundred years backwards, to the age of the Antonines, if we listen to the oration which Constaus II. pronounced in the twell'tii year of his age before the Byzantine senate. After return- ing his thanks for tlie just punishm(nit of the assassins who had intercepted the fairest hopes of his lather's reign, - '• By the Divine Providence," said the young emperor, "and u '2 292 coNSTANs: u. [cii. XLriii. bv TOur righteous decree, Martina and her incestuous pro- geny have been cast headlong from tlie throne. Your majesty and wisdom liave prevented the Roman state from degenerating into hiwless tyranny. I therefore exhort and beseech you to stand forth as the counsellors and judges of the common safety." Tlie senators were gratified by the respectful address and liberal donative of their sovereign ; but these servile Greeks were unworthy and regardless of Ireedom ; and in his mind, the lesson of an hour was quickly erased by the prejudices of the age and the habits of des- potism. He retained only a jealous fear lest the senate or people should one day invade the right of primogeniture, and seat his brother Theodosius on an equal throne. By the imposition of holy orders, the grandson of Heraclius was disqualified for the purple ; but this ceremony, which seemed to profane the sacraments of the church, was insuf- ficient to appease the suspicions of the tyrant, and the death of the deacon Theodosius could alone expiate the crime of his royal birth. His murder was avenged by the impreca- tions of the people, and the assassin, in the fulness of power, was driven from his capital into voluntary and perpetual exile. Constans embarked for Greece ; and, as if he meant to retort the abhorrence which he deserved, he is said, from the imperial galley, to have spit against the walls of his native city. After passing the winter at Athens, he sailed to Tarentum in Italy, visited Eome, and concluded a long pilgrimage of disgrace and sacrilegious rapine, by fixing his residence at Syracuse.* But if Constans could fly from hia people, he could not fly from himself. The remorse of his conscience created a phantom who pursued him by land and sea, by day and by night ; and the visionary Theodosius, presenting to his lips a cup of blood, said, or seemed to say, " Drink, brother, drink ;" a sure emblem of the aggra- vation of his guilt, since he had received from the hands of the deacon the mystic cup of the blood of Christ. Odious to himself and to mankind, Constans perished by domestic, perhaps by episcopal, treason, iu the capital of Sicily. A * [Muratori (Annali d'ltalia, ix. 336 — 347) censures the proceedings of Constans in Ital}', a.d. 063. Eeneventum was besieged, and, after a virtit of twelve days, the imperial robber cariied away with him whatever he could seize in Home, not sparing even the brazen tiles of the Pantheon, or church of !Sta. Maria ai Martiri. — Ed.] A.D. (JUS.] CONSTA>'TI>'E POGOXATrS. 293 servant wlio waited in the bath, after pouring warm water (111 liis licad, h-tnick him violently witli the vase. He It'll, stunned by the blow, and sull'oeatcd by the water ; and his attendants, wlio wondered at the tedious delay, beheld with iiidifFerence the corpse of their lifeless emperor. The troops of Sicily invested with the purple an obscure youth, whose inimitable beauty eluded (and it might easily elude) the declining art of the painters and sculptors of the age, Constans had left in the liyzantine palace three sons, the eldest of whom had been clothed in his infancy with the purple. AVhen the father summoned them to attend his person in Sicily, these precious hostages were detained by the Greeks, and a firm refusal informed him that they were the children of the State. The news of his murder was conveyed with almost supernatural speed from Syracuse to Constantinople ; and Constantine, the eldest of his sons, inherited his throne without being the heir of the public hatred. His subjects contributed, with zeal and alacrity, to chastise the guilt and presumption of a province which had usurped the rights of the senate and people ; the young emperor sailed from the Hellespont with a powerful fleet ; and the legions of Home and Carthage were assembled under his standard in the harbour of Syracuse. The defeat of the Sicilian tyrant was easy, his punishment just, and his beauteous head was exposed in the hippodrome: but I cainiot applaud the clemency of a prince, who, among a crowd of victims, coudennied the son of a patrician, J'or deploring with some bitterness the execution of a virtuous father. The youth was castrated ; ho survived the opera- tion, and the memory of this indecent cruelty is preserved by the elevation of Germauus to the rank of a patriarch and saint. After pouring this bloody libation on his father's tomb, Constantine returned to his capital, and the growth of his young beard during the Sicilian voyage, was an- nounced by the familiar surname of Pogonatus, to the Grecian world.* But liis reign, like that of his predecessor, was stained with fraternal discord. On his two brothers, lieraclius and Tiberius, he had bestowed the title of • [Eckhel (viii. 226) remarks, that, although auraamed Pogonatus, 8tiU the beard of this emperor, on his coins, is not like the " barba birta et expansa" which distinguishes his father Coiistau.s. He w called by Huiui)hr^ys (p. 654) Coustautine V. — Ed.] 294 JUSTINIAN Ji. [en. XLViii. Augustus; an empty title, for they continued to languish without trust or power in the solitude of the palace.* At their secret instigation, the troops of the Anatolian theme or province approached the city on the Asiatic side, demanded lor the royal brothers the partition or exercise of sovei'eignty, and supported their seditious claim by a theological argu- ment. They were Christians (they cried), and orthodox Catholics; the sincere votaries of the holy and undivided Trinity. Since there are three equal persons in heaven, it is reasonable there should be three equal persons upon earth. The emperor invited these learned divines to a friendly conference, in which they might propose tlieir arguments to the senate; they obeyed the summons, but tlie prospect of tlieir bodies hanging on the gibbet in the suburb of Galata, reconciled their companions to the unity of the reign of Constantino. He pardoned his brothers, and their names were still pronounced in the public acclama- tions ; but on tlie repetition or suspicion of a similar oflence, the obnoxious princes were de|)rived of their titles and noses, in the presence of the Catholic bishops who were assembled at Constantinople in the sixth general synod. In the close of his life, Pogonatus was anxious only to establish the right of primogeniture : the hair of his two sons, Justinian and Heraclius, was offered on the shrine of St. Peter, as a symbol of their spiritual adoption by the pope; but the elder was alone exalted to the rank of Augustus and the a!~surance of the empire. After the decease of his father, the inheritance of the Eoman world devolved to Justinian II. and the name of a triumphant lawgiver was dishonoured by the vices of a boy, who imitated his namesake only in the expensive luxury of building. His passions were strong ; his understanding was feeble ; and he was intoxicated with a foolish pride, that his birth had given him the command of millions, of whom the smallest community would not have chosen him for their local magistrate. His favourite ministers were two beings the least susceptible of human sympathy, a eunuch and a monk : to the one he abandoned the palace, to the other the * [These two princes received the title of Cajsar from their father, and it is only on the reverse of some of his coins, that their portraitsi are found. (E<-khel, viii. 226 , Humphreys, p. 654.) — Ed.j A.U. 086. j LEONTIUS II. 295 finances; the former corrected the emperor's mother witli a scourge, the hitter suspended the insolvent tributarit's, with their heads downwards, over a slow and smoky {ire. Since the days ot" Commodus and Caracalla, the cruelty of the liomau princes had most commonly been the effect o^ their fear; but Justinian, who possessed some vigour of character, euj father, are noticed by Humphreys, (p. >ai)ij) but overlooked by Eckhel. The unfortunate youth was muti- lated by Leo and confined in a mouAStery. — Ed.] A..D. 813.] LF.O THE ARMENIAN. 30J> and I'iital enterprise of the third. This prediction was verified, or rather was produced by the event. Ten years afterwards, when the Thracian camp rejected the husband of Procopia, the crown was presented to the same Leo, the first in military rank and the secret author of the mutiny. As he affected to hesitate — "with this sword," (said his companion Michael) " I will open the gates of Constan- tinople to your imperial sway; or instantly plun^^e it into your bosom, if you obstinately resist the just desires of your fellow-soldiers." The compliance of the Armenian was rewarded with the empire, and he reigned seven year.s and a half under the name of Leo V. Educated in a camp, and ignorant both of laws and letters, he introduced into his civil government the rigour and even cruelty of military discipline; but if his severity was sometimes dangerous to the innocent, it was always formidable to the guilty. His religious inconstancy was taxed by the epithet of chameleon, but the Catholics have acknowledged by the voice of a saint and confessors, that the life of the Iconoclast was useful to the republic. The zeal of his companion ]\Iichacl was repaid with riches, honours, and military command; and his subordinate talents were beneficially employed in the publ it- service. Yet the Phrygian was dissatisfied at receiving as a favour a scanty portion of the imperial prize, which he had bestowed on his equal ; and his discontent, which sometimes evaporated in a hasty discourse, at length assumed a more threatening and hostile aspect against a prince whom he represented as a cruel tyrant. That tyrant, however, re- peatedly detected, warned, and dismissed the old companion of his arms, till fear and resentment prevailed over gratitude; and Michael, alter a scrutiny into his actions and designs, was convicted of treason, and sentenced to be burnt alive in the furnace of the private baths. The devout humanity of the empress Theophano was fatal to her husband and family. A solemn day, the twenty-fifth of December, had been fixed for the execution ; she urged, that the anniversary of the Saviour's birth would be profaned by tiiis inhuman spectacle, and Leo consented with reluctance to a decent respite. But on the vigil of the feast, his sleepless anxiety prompted him to visit at the dead of night the chamber in which his enemy was confined: he beheld him released from his chain, and stretched on his jailer's bed in a profound slumber 310 MICHAEL II. [CH. XLVIIL Leo wns alarmed at these signs of security and intelligence; but though lie retired with silent steps, his entrance and departure were noticed by a slave who lay concealed in a corner of the prison. Under the pretence of requesting tlie spiritual aid of a confessor, Michael informed the con- spirators tliat their lives depended on his discretion, and that a few hours were left to assure their own safety by the deliverance of their friend and country. On the great festivals, a chosen band of priests and chanters was admitted into the palace by a private gate, to sing matins in the chapel ; and Leo, who regulated with the same strictness the discipline of the choir and of the camp, waa seldom absent from these early devotions. In the ecclesiastical habit, but with swords under their robes, the conspirators mingled with the procession, lurked in the angles of the chapel, and expected, as the signal of murder, the intonation of the first psalm by the emperor himself. The imperfect light, and the uniformity of dress, might have favoured his escape, while their assault was pointed against a harmless priest ; but they soon discovered their mistake, and encom- passed on all sides the royal victim. Without a weapon and without a friend, he grasped a weighty cross, and stood at bay against the hunters of his life ; but as he asked for mercy, — "This is the hour, not of mercy, but of vengeance," was the inexorable reply. The stroke of a well-aimed sword separated from his body the right arm and the cross, and Leo the Armenian was slain at the foot of the altar.* A memorable reverse of fortune was dit^played in Michael II. who, from a defect in his speech, was surnamed the Stammerer.t He was snatched from the fiery furnace to the sovereignty of an empire ; and as in the tumult a smith could not readily be found, the fetters remained on liis legs several hours after he was seated on the throne of * [Leo had a son and colleague, named Constantine, who, on his father's death, was mutilated and banished. See Eckhel (viii. 238) who does not however give this prince a place in his list of emperors ; and Humphreys ({). 6[>f>) who calls him Constantine VIII. Great con- fusion will be found from this time in the numbering of successive Constantines by different writers. — Ed.] t [Mirhael II. was the founder of the Amorian dynasty, so called from the place of hia birth, Amorium, a city of Phrygia. See ch. 52. —Ed.] 1..D. 829,] THEOPniLUS. 311" the Caesars. The royal blood which had been the price of his elevation, was unprofitably spent ; in the purple he retained the ignoble vices of his origin ; and JNIicliael lost his provinces with as supine indifFerence as if they had been tlie inheritance of his iatliers. His title was disputed by Thomas, the last of tlie military triumvirate, who transported into Europe fourscore thousand barbarians from the banks of the Tigris and the shores of the Caspian. He formed the siege of Constantinople; but the capital was defendi-d witli spiritual and carnal weapons; a Bulgarian king assaulted the camp of the Orientals, and Thomas had the misfortune, or the weakness, to fall alive into the power ot the conqueror. The hands and feet of the rebel were amputated ; he was placed on an ass, and, amidst the insults of the people, was led through the streets, which he sprinkled with his blood. The depravation of manners, as savage as they were corrupt, is marked by the presence of the emperor himself. l)eaf to the lamentations of a fellow-soldier, he nicessantly pressed the discovery of more accomplices, till his curiosity was cheeked by tlie question of an honest or guilty minister, — " Would you give credit to an enemy against the most faithful of your friends?" After the death of his first wife, the emperor, at the request of tlie senate, drew from her monastery Euphrosyne, the daughter of Constantino VI. Her august birth might justify a stipulation in the marriage-contract, that her cliildren should equally share the empire with their elder brother. But the nuptials of Michael and Euphrosyne were barren ; and she was content with the title of mother of Theophilus, his son and successor. The character of Tlieophilus is a rare example in which religious zeal has allowed, and perhaps magnified, the virtues of a heretic and a persecutor. His valour was often felt by the enemies, and his justice by the subjects, of the monarchy ; but the valour of Theophilus was rash and fruitless, and his justice arbitrary and cruel. He displayed the banner of the cross against the Saracens ; but his live expeditions were concluded by a signal overthrow; Amorium, the native city of his ancestors, was levelled with the ground, and from his military toils, he derived only the surname of the Unfortunate. The wisdom of a sovereign is comprised ill the institution of laws and the choice of magistrates, and S12 EXTRAOBDIKARY SEYERITV [CH. XLVIII. •wliile he seems without action, his civil governreent revolves round his centre with the silence and order of the planetary system. But tlie justice of Theophilus was fashioned on the model of the Oriental despots, who, in personal and irregular acts of authority, consult the reason or passion of the inouient, without measuring the sentence by the law, or the penalty by the offence. A poor woman threw fierself at the emperor's feet to complain of a powerful neighbour, the brother of the empress, who had raised his palace-wall to such an inconvenient height, that her humble dwelling was excluded from light and air! On the proof of the fact, instead of granting, like an ordinary judge, sufficient or ample damages to the plaintiff, the sovereign adjudged to her use and benefit the palace and the ground. Nor was Theophilus content with this extravagant satisfaction ; his zeal converted a civil trespass into a criminal act ; and the unfortunate patrician was stripped and scourged in the public place of Constantinople. For some venial offences, some defect of equity or vigilance, the principal ministers, a prefect, a qufestor, a captain of the guards, were banished, or mutilated, or scalded with boiling pitch, or burnt alive in the hippodrome; and as these dreadful examples might be the effects of error or caprice, they must have alienated from his service the best and wisest of the citizens. But tlie pride of the monarch was flattered in the exercise of power, or, as he thought, of virtue ; and the people, safe in tiieir obscurity, ap])lauded the danger and debasement of their superiors. This extraordinary rigour was justified, in some measure, by its salutary consequences ; since, after a scrutiny of seventeen days, not a complaint or abuse could be found in the court or city ; and it might be alleged that tlie Greeks could be ruled only with a rod of iron, anS that the public interest is the motive and law of the supreme judge. Yet in the crime, or the suspicion, of treason, that judge is of all others the most credulous and partial. Theo- piiilus might inflict a tardy vengeance on the assassins of Leo and the saviours of his father; but he enjoyed the fruits of their crime ; and his jealous tyranny sacrificed a brother and a prince to the future safety of his life. A Persian of the race of the Sassanides died in poverty and exile at Constantinople, leaving an only son, the issue of a plebeian marriage. At the age of twelve years, the royal A.D. 829.] OF TIIEOPniLUS. 313 birtli of Tlieophobus was revealed, and his merit was not unworthy of liis birth. lie was educated in the Byzantine pahiee, a" Christian and a soldier; advanced with rapid steps in tlie career of fortune and glory ; received the hand of the emperor's sister; and was promoted to the command of thirty thousand Persians, who, like his father, had fled from the Mahometan conquerors. These troops, doubly infected with mercenary and fanatic vices, were desirous of revolting against their benefactor, and erecting the standard of their native king: but the loyal Theophobus rejected their ofters, disconcerted their schemes, and escaped from their hands to the camp or palace of his royal brother. A generous con- lidence might have secured a faithful and able guardian for his wife and his infant son, to whom Theophilus, in the {lower of his age, was compelled to leave the inheritance of the empire.* But his jealousy was exasperated by envy ai>d disease : he feared the dangerous viitues which might either support or oppress their infancy and weakness ; and the dying emperor demanded the head of the Persian prince. AVith savage delight he recognized the familiar features of his brother: "Thou art no longer Theophobus," he said; and sinking on his couch, he added with a faultering voice, '• Soon, too soon, I shall be no more Theophilus!" The liussians, who have borrowed from the Greeks the greatest part of their civil and ecclesiastical policy, pre- served, till the last century, a singular institution in the marriage of the czar. They collected, not the virgins of every rank and of every province, a vain and romantic idea, but the daughters of the principal nobles, who awaited in the palace the choice of their sovereign. It is afBrmed, tiiat a similar method was adopted in the nuptials of Theo- philus. With a golden a[)ple in his hand, he slowly walked between two lines of contending beauties : his eye was detained bv the charms of Icasia, and, in the awkwardness of a iirst declaration, the prince could only observe, that in this world, women had been the cause of mucti evil: "And surely, sir," (she pertly replied), '"they have likewise been the • [Theophilus had another son, Constautine, whose name is found on coins. In Eckhel's enumeration he appears as Constantine VII. (vol. viii.p. 240. 52S); Humphreys (p. t)jj) givea his name only, without a number. — Ed.J 31^ MICHAEL ITT. [cn. XLVIII, occasion of much good." This affectation of unseasonable wit displeased the imperial lover : he turned aside in disgust ; Icasia concealed her mortification in a convent; and the modest silence of Theodora was rewarded with the golden apple. She deserved the love, but did not escape the severity, of her lord. From the palace garden he beheld a vessel deeply laden, and steering into the port : on the discovery that the precious cargo of Syrian luxury was the property of his wife, he condemned the ship to the flames, with a sharp reproach, that her avarice had degraded the character of an empress into that of a merchant. Yet his last choice intrusted her with the guardianship of the empire and her son Michael, who was left an orphan in the fifth year of his age. The restoration of images, and the final extirpation of the Iconoclasts, has endeared her name to the devotion of the Grreeks ; but in the fervour of religious zeal, Theodora entertained a grateful regard for the memory and salvation of her husband. After thirteen years of a prudent and frugal administration, she perceived the decline of her influence; but tlie second Irene imitated only the virtues of her predecessor. Instead of conspiring against the life or government of her sou, she retired, without a struggle, though not without a murmur, to the solitude of private life, deploring the ingratitude, the vices, and the inevitable ruin, of the worthless youth. Among the successors of Nero and Elagabalus, we have not hitherto found the imitation of their vices, the character of a Roman prince who considered pleasure as the object of life, and virtue as the enemy of pleasure. Whatever might have been the maternal care of Theodora in the education of Michael III. her unfortunate son was a king before he was a man. If the ambitious mother laboured to check the progress of reason, she could not cool the ebullition of passion ; and her selfish policy was justly repaid by the contempt and ingratitude of the headstrong youth. At the age of eighteen, he rejected her authority, without feel- ing his own incapacity to govern the empire and himself. With Theodora, all gravity and wisdom retired from the court: their place was supplied by the alternate dominion of vice and i'olly ; and it was impossible, without forfeiting the public esteem, to acquire or preserve the favour of the emperor. The millions of gold and silver which had beeu A.U. S12.] Ills EXTRATAQANCE. 315 accumulated for tlie service of the state, were lavished on the vilest of men, who flattered his passions and shared his pleasures; and in a re is;n of thirteen years, the richest of sovereigns was compelled to strip the p:dace and tlie cluirches of their precious furniture. Like Nero, he delighted in the amusements of the theatre, and sighed to he surpassed in the accomplishments in ■wliicli he should have blushed to excel. Tet the studies of Nero in music and poetry betrayed some symptoms of a liberal taste : the more ignoble arts of the son of Thcophilus were confined to the chariot-race of the hippodrome. The four factions which had agitated the peace, still amused the idleness, of the capital: for himself, the emperor assumed tlie blue livery; the three rival colours were distributed to his i'avourites, and in the vile though eager contention he forgot the lignity of his person and the safety of his dominions. He silenced the messenger of an invasion, who presumed to divert his attention in the most critical moment of the race; and, by his command, the importunate beacons were extin- guished, that too frequently spread the alarm from Tarsus to Constantinople. The most skilful cliariotcers obtained the first place in his confidence and esteem ; their merit was profusely rewarded ; the emperor feasted in their houses, and presented tlieir children at the baptismal font ; and, while he applauded his own popularity, he affected to blame the cold and stately reserve of his predecessors. The unnatural lusts which had degraded even the manhood of Nero were banished from the world ; yet the strength of ^lichael was consumed by the indulgence of love and in- temperance. In his midnight revels, when his passions were iiiflauied by wine, he was provoked to issue the most sanguinary commands; and, if any feelings of humanity were left, he was reduced, with the return of sense, to approve the salutary disobedience of his servants. But the most extraordinary feature in the character of Michael is tlie profane mockery of the religion of his country. The superstition of the Greeks might indeed excite the smile of a philosopher; but his smile would have been rational and temperate, and he must have condemned the ignorant folly of a youth who insulted the objects of public veneration. A buffoon of the court was invested in the robes of the pa^^riarch ; his twelve meti'opolitans, among whom the 316 BASIL I., [CH. XLVIII. emperor was ranked, assumed their ecclesiastical garments ; they used or abused the sacred vessels of the altar; and, in their bacchanalian feasts, the hoi}' communion was adminis- tered in a nauseous compound of vinegar and mustard. Nor were these impious spectacles concealed from the eyes of the city. On the day of a solemn festival, the emperor, will) his bishops or buffoons, rode on asses through the streets, encountered the true patriarch at the head of his clergy, and, by their licentious shouts and obscene gestures, disordered the gravity of the Christian procession. The devotion of Michael appeared only in some offence to reason or piety ; he received his theatrical crowns from the statue of the Virgin ; and an imperial tomb was violated for the sake of burning the bones of Constantine the Iconoclast. By this extravagant conduct, the son of Theophilus became as contemptible as he was odious; every citizen was im- patient for tlie deliverance of his country ; and even the favourites of the moment were apprehensive that a caprice might snatch away what a caprice had bestowed. In the thirtieth year of his age, and in the hour of intoxication and sleep, Michael III. was murdered in his chamber by the founder of a new dynasty, whom the emperor had raised to an equality of rank and power. The genealogy of Basil the Macedonian (if it be not the spurious offspring of pride and flattery) exhibits a genuine picture of the revolution of tlie most illustrious families. The Arsacides, the rivals of Home, possessed the sceptre of the East near four hundred years : a younger branch of these Parthian kings continued to reign in Armenia ; and their royal descendants survived the partition and servitude of that ancient monarchy. Two of these, Artabanus and Chlienes, escaped or retired to the court of Leo I. ; his bounty seated tliem in a safe and hospitable exile, in the province of Macedonia: Adrianople was their final settle- ment. During several generations they maintained the dignity of tlieir birth ; and their Eoman patriotism rejected the tempting offers of the Persian and Arabian powers, who recalled them to their native country. But their splendour was insensibly clouded by time and poverty ; and tlie father of Basil was reduced to a small farm, which he cultivated with his own hands ; yet he scorned to dis- grace the blood of the Arsacides by a plebeian alliance ; his A.I). 8G7.] THE MACEDOKIAX. 317 v/ife, a widow of Adrianople, was pleased to count among her ancestors the great Constantino; and their royal infant was connected by some tlark allinity of lineage or country with the Macedonian Alexander. JNo sooner was he born, than the cradle ot" Basil, his family, and his city, were swept away by an inundation of the Bulgarians ; he was educated a slave in a foreign land ; and, in this severe discipline, he acquired the hardiness of body and flexibility of mind which promoted his future elevation. In the age of youth or manhood he shared the deliverance of the Koman cap- tives, who generously broke their fetters, marched through Bulgaria to the shoi-es of the Euxine, defeated two armies of Jiarbarians, embarked in tlie ships which had been stationed for their reception, and returned to Constanti- nople, from whence they were distributed to their respective homes. But the freedom of Basil was naked and destitute : his farm was ruined by the calamities of war : after his father's death, his manual labour, or service, could no longer support a family of orphans ; and he resolved to seek a more conspicuous theatre, in wliich every virtue and every vice may lead to the paths of greatness. The first night of his arrival at Constantinople, without friends or mono}', the weary pilgrim slept on the steps of the church of St. Diomede; he was led by the casual hospi- tality of a monk ; and was introduced to tlie service of a cousin and namesake of the emperor Theo[)hilus, who, though himself of a diminutive persou, was always followed by a train of tall and handsome domestics. Basil attended his patron to the government of Peloponnesus ; eclipsed, by his personal merit, the birth and dignity of Thcophilus, and formed a useful connection with a wealthy and chari- table matron of Patras. Her spiritual or carnal love embraced the young adventurer, whom she adopted as her son. Danielis presented him witli thirty slaves ; and the produce of her boiuity was expended in the support of his brothers, and the purchase of some large estates in Mace- donia. His gratitude or ambition still attached him to the service of Theophilua ; and a lucky accident recommended him to the notice of the court. A famous wrestler, in the train of the Bulgarian ambassadors, had defied, at the royal banquet, the boldest and most robust of the Greeks. The strength of Basil was praised j he accepted the challenge ; 318 BASIL I., ICll. XLVIII. and the barbarian champion was overthrcm-n at the first onset. A beautiful but vicious horse was condemned to be hamstrung ; it was subdued by the dexterity and courage of the servant of Theophilus ; and his conqueror was pro- moted to an honourable rank in the imperial stables. _ But it was impossible to obtain the confidence of Michael, without complying with his vices ; and his new favourite, the great chamberlain of the palace, was raised and sup- ported by a disgraceful marriage with a royal concubine, and the dishonour of his sister who succeeded to her place. The public administration had been abandoned to the Caesar Bardas, the brother and enemy of Theodora; but tlie arts of female influence persuaded Michael to hate and to fear his uncle : he was drawn from Constantinople, under the pretext of a Cretan expedition, and stabbed in the tent of audience, by the sword of the chamberlain, and in the presence of the emperor. About a month after this execution, Basil was invested with the title of Augustus and the government of the empire. He supported this unequal association till his influence was fortified by po- pular esteem. His life was endangered by the caprice of the emperor; and his dignity was profaned by a second colleague, who had rowed in the galleys. Yet the murder of his benefactor must be condemned as an act of ingra- titude and treason; and the churches which he dedicated to the name of St. Michael were a poor and puerile expiation of his guilt. The different ages of Basil I. may be compared with those of Augustus. The situation of the Greek did not allow him in his earliest youth to lead an army against his country, or to proscribe the noblest of her sons ; but his aspiring genius stooped to the arts of a slave ; he dis- sembled his ambitio)! and even his virtues, and grasped, with the bloody hand of an assassin, the empire which he ruled with the wisdom and tenderness of a parent. A private citizen may feel his interest repugnant to his duty; but it must be i'rom a deficiency of sense or courage, that an absolute monarch can separate his happiness from his glory, or his glory from the public welfare. The life or panegyric of Basil has indeed been composed and published under' the long reign of his descendants ; but even their stability on the throne may be justly ascribed to the su- A.U. 8G7.] THE MACEDOxMAN. 319 perior merit of tlicir ancestor. In liis cliaracter, Iiis grand- son Coustantine has attempted to delineate a perfect image of royalty ; but that feeble prince, unless he had copied a real model, could not easily have soared so high above the level of his own conduct or conceptions. But the most solid praise of Basil is drawn from the comparison of a ruined and a flourishing monarchy, that which he wrested from the dissolute ^Michael, and that which he bequeathed to the Macedonian dynasty. The evils, which had been sanctified by time and example, were corrected by his master-hand ; and he revived, if not the national spirit, at least the order and majesty of the lloman empire. His application was indefatigable, his temper cool, his under- standing vigorous and decisive ; and in his practice he observed that rare and salutary moderation, which pursues each virtue, at an equal distance between the opposite vices. His military service had been confined to the palace ; nor was the emperor endowed with the spirit or the talents of a warrior. \et under his reign the Koman arms were again formidable to the Barbarians. As soon as he had formed a new army by discipline and exercise, he appeared in person on the banks of the Euphrates, curbed the pride of the Saracens, and suppressed the dangerous though just revolt of the Manichseans. His indignation against a rebel, who had long eluded his pursuit, provoked him to wish ai.d to pray, that, by the grace of God, he might drive tiiree arrows into the head of Chrysocheir. That odious head, wliich had been obtained by treason rather than by valour, was suspended from a tree, and thrice exposed to the dexterity of the imperial archer: a base revenge against the dead, more worthy of the times than of the character of Basil. But his principal merit was in the civil adminis- tration of the finances and of the laws. To replenish an exhausted treasury, it was proposed to resume the lavish and ill-placed gifts of his predecessor: his prudence abated one moiety of the restitution ; and a sum of 1,200,000/. was instantly procured to answer the most pressing de- mands, and to allow some space for the mature operations of economy. Among the various schemes for the improve- ment of the revenue, a new mode was suggested of capi- tation, or tribute, which would have too much depended on the arbitrary discretion of the assessors. A sutiicieut list 320 DEATH OF BASIL I. [cil. XLVIII. o^ honest and able agents was instantly produced by tlie minister ; but, on the more careful scrutiny of Basil himself, only two could be found who might be safely intrusted with such dangerous powers ; and they justified his esteem by declining: his confidence. But the serious and success- ful diligence of the emperor established by degrees an equitable balance of property and payment, of receipt and expenditure ; a peculiar fund was appropriated to each service ; and a public method secured the interest of the prince and the property of the people. After reforming the luxury, he assigned two patrimonial estates to supply tlie decent plenty, of the imperial table ; the contributions of the subject were reserved for his defence ; and the residue was employed in the embellishment of the capital and provinces. A taste for building, however costly, may deserve some praise and much excuse ; from thence in- dustry is fed, art is encouraged, and some object is attained of public emolument or pleasure ; the use of a road, an aqueduct, or an hospital, is obvious and solid; and the hundred churches that arose by the command of Basil were consecrated to the devotion of the age. In the cha- racter of a judge he was assiduous and impartial, desirous to save, but not afraid to strike ; the oppressors of the people were severely chastised ; but his personal foes, whom it might be unsafe to pardon, were condemned, after the loss of their eyes, to a life of solitude and repentance. The change of language and manners demanded a revision of the obsolete jurisprudence of Justinian : the voluminous body of his Institutes, Pandects, Code, and Novels, was digested under forty titles, in the Grreek idiom ; and the Basilics, which were improved and completed by his son and grandson, must be referred to the original genius of the founder of their race. This glorious reign was termi- nated by an accident in the chase. A furious stag en- tangled his horns in the belt of Basil, and raised him from his horse; he was rescued by an attendant, who cut the belt and slew the animal; but the fall, or the fever, exhausted the strength of the aged monarch, and he expired in the palace amidst the tears of his family and people. If he struck off the head of the faithful servant for pre suming to draw his sword against his sovereign, the pride of despotism which had lain dormant in his life, revived iu A.D. 886.] LEO VI., THE PniLOSOPnETl. 321 the last moments of despair, -when he no longeir wanted or valued the opinion of mankind. Of the ibur sons of the emperor, Constantine died before his father, wlioso grief and credulity were amused by a llattering impostor and a vain apparition.* Stephen, the youngest, was content with the honours of a patriarch and a saint ; both Leo and Alexander were alike invested with the purple, but the ])owers of government were solely exercised by the elder brother. The name of Leo VI. has been dignified with the title oi plnlosopher ; and the union of the prince and the sage, of the active and speculative virtues, would indeed constitute the perfection of human nature. But the claims of Leo are far short of this ideal excellence. Did he reduce his passions and appetites under tlie dominion of reason ? His life was spent in the pomp of the palace, in the society of his wives and concubines ; and even the clemency which he shewed, and the peace which he strove to preserve, must be imputed to the softness and indolence of his character. Did he subdue his prejudices, and those of his subjects? His mind was tinged with the most puerile superstition; the influence of tlie clergy, and the errors of tlie people, were consecrated by his laws ; and the oracles of Leo, which reveal, in pro- phetic style, the fates ot the empire, are founded on the arts of astrology and divination. H we still inquire the reason of his sage appellation, it can only be replied, that the son of Basil was less ignorant than the greater part of his contemporaries in church and state; that his education had been directed by the learned Photius ; and that several books of profane and ecclesiastical science were composed by the pen, or in the name, of the imperial plnlosopher. But the reputation of his philosophy and religion was overthrown by a domestic vice, the repetition of his nuptials. The primitive ideas of the merit and holiness of celibacy were preached by the monks and entertained by the Greeks. IMarriage was allowed as a necessary means for the propa- gation of mankind ; after the death of either party, the survivor might satisfy, by a second union, the weakness or • ("Constantine was proclaimed Augustus in 863 and died in 879 He was the Eigbth of the name according to Eckhel (viii.243,) and the Ninth of Humphreys (p. 656.)— Ed VOL. V. * 822 COXSTANTINE VII. [CH. XLVIII. the strengtli of the flesh ; but a third marriage was censured as a state of legal fornication ; and a fourth was a sin or scandal as yet unknown to the Christians of the East. In the beginning of his reign, Leo himself had abolished the state of concubines, and condemned, without annulling, third marriages ; but his patriotism and love soon compelled him to violate his own laws, and to incur the penance, which in a similar case he had imposed on his subjects. In his three tirst alliances, his nuptial bed was unfruitful ; the emperor required a female companion, and the empire a legitimate heir. The beautiful Zoe was introduced into the palace as a concubine; and after a trial of her fecundity, and the birth of Constantino, her lover declared his intention of legitimating the mother and the child, by the celebration of his fourth nuptials. But the patriarch Nicholas refused his blessing : the imperial baptism of the young prince was obtained by a promise of separation ; and the contumacious husband of Zoe was excluded from the communion of the faithful. Neither the fear of exile, nor the desertion of his brethren, nor the authority of the Latin church, nor the danger of failure or doubt in the succession to the empire, could bend the spirit of the inflexible monk. After the death of Leo, he was recalled from exile to the civil and ecclesiastical administration ; and the edict of union which was promulgated in the name of Constantino, condemned the future scandal of fourth marriages, and left a tacit imputation on his own birth. In the Greek language purple and porphyry are the same word : and as the colours of nature are invariable, we may learn, that a dark deep red was the Tyrian dye which stained the purple of the ancients. An apartment of the Byzantine palace was lined with porphyry : it was reserved for the use of the pregnant empresses ; and the royal birth of their chil- dren was expressed by the appellation oi porphyroyenite, or born in the purple. Several of the lioman princes had been blessed witli an heir ; but this peculiar sui'name was first ap- plied to Constantino VII.* His life and titular reign were of equal duration ; but of fifty-four years, six had elapsed before his father's death ; and the sou of Leo was ever the « [Eckhel (viii. 246) calls him Constantine X. and Humphreys (p. 656) Constantiue XI. In most Chronological Tables (Blair, Oxford, Kruse, &c.) he is numbered VII. — Eo.j A.D. 919.] I10MA.IIUS LECAPENUS. 323 voluntary or reluctant subject of those who oppressed his weakness or abused his contidence. His uncle Alexander, who had long been invested with the title of Aui^ustus, was the first colleague and governor of tlie young prince ; but in a rapid career of vice and folly, the brother of Leo already emulated the reputation of Michael ; and when he was extin- guished by a timely death, he entertained a project of cas- trating his nephew, and leaving the empire to a worthless favourite. The succeeding years of the minority of Con- stantine were occupied by his mother Zoe, and a succession or council of seven regents, who pursued their interest, gra- tified their passions, abandoned the republic, supplanted each other, and finally vanished in the presence of a soldier. From an obscure origin, lionianus Lecapenus had raised himself to the command of the naval armies ; and in the anarchy of the times, had deserved, or at least had obtained, the national esteem. With a victorious and aflectiouate fieet, he sailed from the mouth of the Danube into the har- bour of Constantinople, and was hailed as the deliverer of the people, and tlie guardian of the prince. His supreme office was at first defined by the new appellation of father of the emperor; but Somanus soon disdained the subordinate powers of a minister, and as^^umed with the titles of Caesar and Augustus, the full independence of royalty, which he held near five-and-twenty years. His three sons, Christo- pher, Stephen, and Constantino, were successively adorned with the same honours, and the lawful emperor was de- graded from the first to the fifth rank in this college of princes.* Tet, in the preservation of his life and crown, he might still applaud his own fortune and the clemency of the usurper. The examples of ancient and modern history would have excused the ambition of Eomanus : the powers and the laws of the empire were in his hand ; the spurious birth of Constantino would have justified his exclusion; and the grave or the monastery was open to receive the son of the concubine. But Lecapenus does not appear to have possessed either the virtues or the vices of a tyrant. The spirit and activity of his private life dissolved away in the sunshine of the throne ; and in his licentious pleasures, he * [This precedence makes the son of Romanus appear as Constan- tine IX. in Eckhel (viii. 245,) and as X. in Humphrej's (p. 656.) — Ed.] T 2 324 FALL OF EOMANUS. [CR. XL^TIT. forgot tlie safety both of the republic and of his family. Of a inild and religious character, he respected the sanctity of oaths, tlie innocence of the youth, the memory of his parents, and the attachment of the people. The studious temper and retirement of Constantine disarmed the jealousy of power : his books and music, his pen and his pencil, were a constant source of amusement; and, if he could improve a scanty allowance by the sale of his pictures, if their price was not enhanced by the name of the artist, he was endowed with a personal talent, which few princes could employ in the hour of adversity. The fall of Eomanus was occasioned by his own vices and those of his children. After the decease of Christopher his eldest son, the two surviving brothers quarrelled with each other, and conspired against their father. At the hour of noon, when all strangers were regularly excluded from the palace, they entered his apartment with an armed force, and conveyed him, in the habit of a monk to a small island in the Propontis, which was peopled by a religious commu- munity. The rumour of this domestic revolution excited a tumult in the city; but Porphyrogenitus alone, the true and lawful emperor, was the object of the public care ; and the sons of Lecapenus were taught, by tardy experience, that they had achieved a guilty and perilous enterprise for the benefit of their rival. Their sister Helena, the wife of Constantine, revealed, or supposed, their treacherous de- sign of assassinating her husband at the royal banquet. His loyal adherents were alarmed ; and the two usurpers were prevented, seized, degraded from the purple, and em- barked for the same island and monastery w^here their father had been so lately confined. Old Eomanus met them on the beach with a sarcastic smile, and, after a just re- proach of their folly and ingratitude, presented his imperial colleagues with an equal share of his water and vegetable diet. In the fortieth year of his reign, Constantine VII. obtained the possession of the Eastern world, which he ruled, or seemed to rule, near fifteen years. But he was nevoid oi'that energy of character which could emerge into a life of action and glory ; and the studies which had amused and dignified his leisure, were incompatible with the serious duties of a sovereign. The emperor neglected the prac1icridius, c. 29. Lardner, Heathen Testimonies, \(\. iii. p. 34.) + See this History, vol. ii. p. 351 — 533; vol. iii. p. 3U2 — SOG. CH. XLIX.] TUKIR WORSIIII'. 3C1 and almost religious honours; a reverence less ostentatious, but more sincere, was applied to tiie statues of sages and patriots; and these pruiatie vn-cues, these splendid sins, disappeared in the presence ot the holy men. who had died lor their celestial and everlasting country. At iirst the experiment was made with caution and scruple ; and the venerable pictures were discreetly allowed to instruct the Ignorant, to awaken tiie cold, and to gratify the prejudices of the heatlien proselytes. By a slow though inevitable progression, the honours of the original were transferred to the copy ; the devout Cln-istian prayed before the image of u saint; and the Pagan rites of genuflexion, luminaries, and incense, again stole into the Catliolic church. The scruples of reason or piety, were silenced by the strong evidence of visions and miracles; and the pictures which speak, and move, and bleed, must be endowed with a divine energy, and may be considered as the proper objects of religious adora- tion. The most audacious pencil might tremble in the rash attempt of dcflning, by forms and colours, the infinite Spirit, the eternal Father, who pervades and sustains the universe.* But the superstitious mind was more easily reconciled to jiaint and to worship the angels, and, above all, tlie Son of (xod, under the human shape, which, on earth, they have condescended to assume. The second person of the Trinity had been clothed with a real and mortal body; but that body had ascended into heaven, and, had not some similitude been presented to the eyes of his disciples, the spiritual worship of Christ might have been obliterated by the visible relics and representations of the saints. A similar indul- gence was requisite, and propitious, for the Virgin Mary : the place of her burial was unknown; and the assumption of l.er soul and body into heaven was adopted by the credulity of the Greeks and Latins. The use, and even the worship, of images, was firmly established before the end of the sixth century ; they were fondly cherished by the warm imagina- * Oil yap TO &110V uTrXovv vnapxov Kal aXtjiTTOv /iop^aic riai Kcii a\Ti^iacsiv aTTHKUL,o(iiv, uvri kjjp

    ifrrofidxov, fiKTc'tyiov. (torn, i, p. 306.) J In the narrative of this per- lecation from Theophanes and Cedrenu.s, Spanheim (p. '235 — 238,) is happy to compan; the Draco of Leo with the dragoons (Dracoius) of Louia XIV, and highly solaces himself with this controversial pun. 2bi: 372 8TATE OF ITALY. [CH. XLII. bliip of imagos was rigorously proscribed ; and it should seem, that a solemn abjuration of idolatry was exacted from the subjects, or at least from the clergy, of the Eastern empire.* The patient East abjured, with reluctance, her sacred images ; they were fondly cherished, and vigorously defended, by the independent zeal of the Italians. In ecclesiastical rank and jurisdiction, the patriarch of Constantinople and t!ie pope of liome were nearly equal. But the Greek pre- late was a domestic slave under the eye of his master, at A\hose nod he alternately passed from the convent to the throne, and I'rom the throne to the convent. A distant and dangerous station amidst the barbarians of the West, ex- cited the spirit and freedom of the Latin bishops. Their popular election endeared them to the Romans ; the public and private indigence was relieved by their ample revenue ; and the weakness or neglect of the emperors compelled them to consult, both in peace and war, the temporal safety of the city. In the school of adversity the priest insensibly im- bibed the virtues and the ambition of a prince ; the same cha- racter was assumed, the same policy was adopted, by the Italian, the Greek, or the Syrian, who ascended the chair of St. Peter ; and, after the loss of her legions and provinces, the genius and fortune of the popes again restored the supremacy of Home. It is agreed, that in the eighth century their dominion was founded on rebellion, and that the rebel- lion was produced and justified, by the heresy of the Icono- clasts ; but the conduct of the second and third Gregory, in this memorable contest, is variously interpreted by the wishes of their friends and enemies. The Byzantine writers unanimously declare, that, after a fruitless admonition, they pronounced the separation of the East and West, and de- prived the sacrilegious tyrant of the revenue and sovereignty of Italy. Their excommunication is still more clearly ex- pressed by the Greeks who beheld the accomplishment of the papal triumphs ; and as they are more strongly attached to their religion than to their country, they praise, instead * Tlpoypaijifia ycip l^iTr'ffJipe Kara ■Kurrav t^opx''^*' '"'"''' ^^^ ''T'" \iipb(^ avToi), TTUvrai; vTroypd\pai Kul o^ivvvaiTov dOtTriaai Tt)v rrpoaKv- vt](nv Twv atTTTi^v iiKovwv. (Damascen. Op. torn. i. p. 62.0.) This oath and subscription I do not i-emember to have seen in any moderu A.D. 72n-77o.] STATE OF ITALY. 373 of blaniinc;, tlie zeal and ortliodoxy of tliese apostolical men.* The modern champions ot lionie are eaf^er to accept the praise and the precedent ; this great and glorious example of the deposition of royal heretics ia celebrated by the car- dinals Earonius and Belhirmine :t and if they are asked, ■why the same thunders were not hurled against the Neros and Julians of antiquity, they reply, that the weakness of the primitive church was the sole cause of her patient loyalty. J On this occasion, the effects of love and hatred are the same ; and the zealous Protestants, who seek to kindle the indignation, and to alarm the fears, of princes and magistrates, expatiate on the insolence and treason ot the two Gregories against their lawful sovereign. § They are defended only by the moderate Catholics, for the most part, of the Gallicaii church,^ who respect the saint, with- out approving the sin. These common advocates of the crown and the mitre circumscribe tlie truth of facts by the rule of equity, Scripture, and tradition ; and appeal to th« compilation. * K«« r>)i' 'Pw/itji' avv Tzurrr) 'IraXi'n rj/c fiaai- \(iac nvrov aTricrrtjcTf, Bays Theophaues. (Chronograph, p. 3i3.) For this, Gregory is styled by Cedreniia avrip cnrotTToXiK-oi; (p. 450). Zonaras specifies the thunder ai'aOi)i^iari avi'i>hK. 154), the revenge of Justinian II. (p. 160, 161), the defeat of the Greeks (p. 170, 171), &c. I A.D. 72S.] EXCOMMUMCATIOX OF ICONOCLASTS. 379 The wonu'ii and clergy, in sackcloth and ashen, lay pros- trate in prayer; the men were in arms fur the dcience ol their country ; the common danger had united the factions, and the event of a battle was preferred to the slow miseries of a siege. In a hard-fought day, as the two armies alter- nately yielded and advanced, a phantom was seen, a voice was heard, and Kavenua was victorious by the assurance of victory. The strangers retreated to their ships, but the populous sea-coast poured I'urth a multitude of boats; the waters of the Po were so deeply infected with blood, that during six years, the public prejudice abstained from the llsh of the river ; and the institution of an annual feast ])erpetuated the worship of images, and the abhorrence of the Greek tyrant. Amidst the triumph of the Catholic arms, the Eolnan pontilf convened a synod of ninety-three bishops against the heresy of the Iconoclasts. With their consent he pronounced a general excommunication against all who by word or deed should attack the tradition of the lathers and the images of the saints; in this sentence the emperor was tacitly involved;* but the vote of a last and hopeless remonstrance may seem to imply that the anathema was yet suspended over his guilty head. No sooner had they confirmed their own safety, the worship of images, and the freedom of Kome and Italy, than the ])opes appear to liave relaxed of their severity, and to have spared the relics of the Byzantine dominion. Their moderate counsels delayed and prevented the election of a new emperor, and they exhorted the Italians not to separate from the body of the lioman monarchy. The exarch was permitted to reside within the walls of Eavenna, a captive rather than a master ; and till the imperial coronation of Charlemagne, the govern- ment of Eome and Italy was exercised in the name of the successors of Coustantine.f * Yet Leo was undoubtedly comprised in the si quia .... imaginum Bacraram .... destructor .... extiterit sit extorris a corpore D. N. Jesu Christ! vel totius ecclesia) uuitate. The cuuoniats m.iy decide whether the guilt or the name constitutes the excommunication ; and the decision is of the last imoortance to their safety, since, according to the oracle (Gratian. Caua. 23. p. 5, c. 47. apud Spanheim, Hist. Imag. p. 112), homicidaa non esse qui excommunicatos trucidant. + Compescuit tale consilium Pontifex, sperans conversionom prin- cipis (Anastas. p. 156). Sed ue desistereut ab amore et fide R. J. adnio- ntbat(p. 157). The popes style Leo and Coustautiue Coprouymua^ 380 EEPUBLIC OF EOME. [cH. XLI3L Tlie liberty of Eome, which had been oppressed by the arms and arts of Augustus, was rescued, after seven hundred and fifty years of servitude, from the persecution of Leo tlie Isaurian. By the Caesars, the triumphs of the consuls had been annihilated : in the decline and fall of the empire, the god Terminus, the sacred boundary, had insen- sibly receded from the ocean, the lihine, the Danube, and the Euphrates : and Eome was reduced to her ancient territory from Viterbo to Terracina, and from Narni to the mouth of the Tiber.* AVhen the kings were banished, the republic reposed on the firm basis which had been founded by their wisdom and virtue. Their perpetual jurisdiction was divided between two annual magistrates ; the senate continued to exercise the powers of administration and counsel ; and the legislative authority was distributed in the assemblies of the people, by a well-proportioned scale of property and service. Ignorant of the arts of luxury, the primitive Romans had improved the science of govern- ment and war: the will of the community was absolute: the rights of individuals were sacred : one hundred and thirty thousand citizens were armed for defence or con- quest ; and a band of robbers and outlaws was moulded into a nation, deserving of freedom, and ambitious of glory.t When the sovereignty of the Greek emperors was extinguished, the ruins of Eome presented the sad image of depopulation and decay ; her slayery was a habit, her liberty an accident ; the effect of superstition, and the object of her own amazement and terror. The last vestige of the substance, or even the forms, of the constitution, was obliterated from the practice and memory of the Eomans ; and they were devoid of knowledge, or virtue, Imperatores et Domini, with the strange epithet of Piissimi. A famous monaic of the Lateran (a.d. 798,) represents Christ, who delivers the keys to St. Peter and the banner to Constantino V. (Muratori, Annali d'ltalia, torn. vi. p. 337.) * I have traced the lioman duchy according to the maps, and the maps according to the excellent dissertation of father Baretti (de Chorographia Italia; Medii JEvi, sect. 20, p. 216 — 232). Yet I must nicely observe, that Viterbo is of Lombard fouudatioa (p. 211,) and that Terracina was usurped by the Greeks. t On the extent, population, &c. of the Roman kingdom, the reader may peruse, with jileasure, the Discours Prvliminaire to the Rdpublique Ilomaine of M. de Beaufort (torn, i.) who ft'ill cot be accused of too much credulity for the early ages of Rome. A.D. 728.] TEMPOTIAL SOTEKETa>'TT OF THE POPE. 381 afjain to build the fabric of a cominonwealth. Their scanty remnant, the otlsprin;,' of slaves and strancienj, was despi- cable in the eyes of the victorious barbarians. As often as the Franks or Lombards expressed their most bitter contempt of a foe, they called him a Eoman ; " and in this name (says the bishop Liutprand) we include whatever is base, whatever is cowjirdly, whatever is perfidious, the extrcnios of avarice and luxury, and every vice that can prostitute the di,ij;nity of human nature."* By the neces- sity of their situation, the inhabitants of Rome were cast into the rough model of a republican government ; they were compelled to elect some judges in peace, and some leaders in war; the nobles assembled to deliberate, and their resolves could not be executed without the union and consent of the multitude. The style of the Koman senate and people was revived,t but the spirit was fled ; and their new independence was disgraced by the tumultuous conflict of licentiousness and oppression. The want of laws could only be supplied by the influence of religion, and their foreign and domestic counsels were moderated by the authority of the bishop, llis alms, his sermons, his cor- respondence with the kings and prelates of the West, his recent services, their gratitude, and oath, accustomed the Eomans to consider him as the first magistrate or prince of tiie city. The Christian humility of the popes was not offended by the name of Dominiis, or Lord; and their face aud inscription are still apparent on the most ancient coins. ;J: Their temporal dominion is now confirmed by the * Qiios (TZomanos) nos, Langobardi scilicet, Saxonea, Franci, Lotha- ringi, Bajoari, Siievi, Burgundioaes, tanto dedignamur ut inimicos nos- tros couimoti, nil aliud contumeliarum uisi Romane, dicainus : hoc solo, id est Romauorum nomine, quicquid iguobilitati.s, quicquid tiini- ditatis, quicquid avaritiai, quicquid liixurirc, quicquid meudacii, immo qiiicquid vitiorum est compreheudentea. (Liutjiraud. in Legat. Script. Ital. torn. ii. pars 1, p. 481.) For the sins of Cato or Tully, Minos might have imposed, as a fit penance, the daily perusal of this bar- barous passage. + Pipino regi Francorum, omnis senatua atar8 2, ]>. ICO.) The names of senatus and senator were never totally extinct (Dissert. Choro- graph. p. 21G, 217); but in the middle ages they signified little more than nobiles. optimates, &c. (Ducange, Gloss. Latin.) X See Muratori Autiquit. Italian Medii ..Evi, lom. ii. dissertat. 27, p. 548. Vn one of these coins we read Hadriauua Pipa (a.d. 772) ; on 382 ROME ATTACKED BY [cn. XLtX. reverence of a thousand years ; and their noblest title is the free choice of a people, whom they had redeemed from slavery. In the quarrels of ancient Greece, the holy people of Elis enjoyed a perpetual peace, under the protection of Jupiter, and in the exercise of the Olympic games.* Happy would it have been for the Romans if a similar privilege had guarded the patrimony of St. Peter from the calamities of war ; if the Christians who visited the holy threshold, would have sheathed their swords in the pres- ence of the apostle and his successor. But this mystic circle could have been traced only by the wand of a legis- lator and a sage ; this pacific system was incompatible with the zeal and ambition of the popes ; the Eomans were not addicted, like the inliabitants of Elis, to the innocent and placid labours of agriculture ; and the Barbarians of Italy, though softened by the climate, were far below the Grecian states in the institutions of public and private life. A memorable example of repentance and piety was exhibited by Liutprand, king of the Lombards. In arms, at the gate of the V^atican, the conqueror listened to the voice of Gregory II. ,t withdrew his troops, resigned his conquests, 1 espectfully visited the church of St. Peter, and after per- forming his devotions, offered his sword and dagger, his cuirass and mantle, his silver cross and his crown of gold, on the tomb of the apostle. But this religous fervour was the illusion, perhaps the artifice, of the moment ; the sense the reverse, Vict. DDNN. with the word CONOB, which the P^re Joubert (Science des Medaillea, torn. ii. p. 42) explains by CON-atan- tinopoli Officina p' (secu)ida). [Seldom, in the history of the world, do we find a pecjple, " redeemed from slavery," but to be mastered by some sterner tyrant. Where secular and ecclesiastical power are divided, they may at times check each other. United in one hand, they fabri- cated for the Romans a heavier yoke, than any, which kings, patri- cians, triumvirs or emperors, had in succesnion imposed. Their Biibmission must not be called free choice; if no other title had maiuiained the popes, their throne would long ago have been sub« verted. To fit the many for freedom is a slow work, in which must be combined various elements, that are seldom found together. — Ed.] * See West's Dissertation on the Olympic Games (Pindar, vol. ii. p. 32 — 36, edition in duodecimo), and the judicious reflections of Polybiua (tom. i. 1. 4, p. 466, edit. Gronov). t The speech of Gregory to the Lombard is finely composed by Bigonius (de Regno Italia;, 1. 3. Opera, tom. ii. p. 173), who imitates the A..D, 730-7rj2.] THE Lombards. 383 of interest is strong and lasting; the love of arms and rapine was congenial to the Lombards ; and botli the prince and people were irresistibly tempted by the disorders of Italy, tlie nakedness of Kome, and the unwarlike profession of her new eliief. On tlie first edicts of the emperor, they d'^chired tliemselves the champions of the holy images; Liutprand invaded the province of llomagna, which had already assumed that distinctive appellation; the Catholics of tlie exarchate yielded without reluctance to his civil and military power ; and a foreign enemy was introduced for the first time into the impregnable fortress of Ravenna. Tiiat city and fortress were speedily recovered by the active diligence and maritime forces of the Venetians ; and those faitliful subjects obeyed the exhortations of Gregory him- self in se])arating the personal guilt of Leo from the general cause of the Roman empire.* The Greeks were less mind- ful of the service, than the Lombards of the injury ; the two nations, hostile in their faith, were reconciled in a dangerous and unnatural alliance; the king and the exarch marched to the conquest of Spoleto and liome ; the storm evaporated without eflect, but the policy of Liutprand alarmed Italy with a vexatious alternative of hostility and truce. His successor Astolphus declared himself the equal enemy of the emperor and the pope; Havenna was sub- dued by force or treachery ,t and this final conquest extin- guished the series of the exarchs, who had reigned with a subordinate power since the time of Justinian and the ruin of the Gothic kingdom. Kome was summoned to acknow- ledge the victorious Lombard as her lawful sovereign : the annual tribute of a piece of gold was fixed as the ransom of each citizen, and the sword of destruction was unslieathed to exact the penalty of her disobedience. The Komans hesitated ; they entreated ; they complained ; and the licence and the spirit of Sallust or Livy. * The Venetian historiana, John Sagorninu3 (Chron. Venet. p. 13,) and the doge An- drew Dandolo (Scripturea Her. Ital. torn. xii. p. 135,) have preserved this epistle of Gregory. The loss and recovery of Ravenna are men- tioned by Panlus Diaconus (De Geat. Laugobard. 1. 6, c. 49. 54, in Script. Ital. torn. i. pars 1, p. 506. 508); but our chronologists, Pagi, Miiratoii, &c. cannot ascertain the date or circumstances. t The option will depend on the various reailings of the MSS. of Anastaaiua — deceperat, or dccerpscrat. (Script. It-al torn. iii. para 1, p. 17.) 384 DELIVERANCE OF HOME BY PEPIN. [cH. ILIX* threatening Earbanans -were checked by arms and negotia- tions, till the popes had engaged the friendship of an ally and avenger beyond the Alps.* In his distress, the first Gregory had implored the aid of the hero of the age, of Charles Martel, who governed the French monarchy with the humble title of mayor or duke; and who, by his signal victory over the Saracens, had saved his country, and perhaps Europe, from the Mahometan yoke. The ambassadors of the pope were received by Charles with decent reverence ; but the greatness of his occupations, and the shortness of his life, prevented his interference in the affairs of Italy, except by a friendly and ineffectual mediation. His son Pepin, the heir of his power and virtues, assumed the office of champion of the Eoman church ; and the zeal of the French prince appears to have been prompted by the love of glory and religion. But the danger was on the banks of the Tiber, the succour on those of the Seine ; and our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery. Amidst the tears of the city, Stephen III. embraced the generous resolution of visiting in person the courts of Lombardy and France, to deprecate the injustice of his enemy, or to excite the pity and indig- nation of his friend. After soothhig the public despair by litanies and orations, he undertook this laborious journey with the ambassadors of the French monarch and the Greek emperor. The king of the Lombards was inexorable ; but his threats could not silence the complaints, nor retard the speed, of the Koman pontift', who traversed the Pennine Alps, reposed in the abbey of St. Maurice, and hastened to grasp the right hand of his protector, a hand which was never lifted in vain, either in war or friendship. Stephen was entertained as the visible successor of the apostle ; at the next assembly, the field of March or of May, his injuries were exposed to a devout and warlike nation, and he re- passed the Alps, not as a suppliant, but as a conqueror, at * The Codex Carolinus ia a collection of the epistles of the popea to Charles Martel (whom they style Suhrefjulas), Pejjin, aud Charle- magne, as far as the year 791, when it was formed by the last of these princes. His original and authentic MS. (Bibliothecre Cubicu- laris) is now in the imperial library of Vienna, and has been pub- lished by Lambeciua and Muratori. (Script lierum Ital. torn, iii, ^ars 2, p. 75, &c.) A.I>. 7o4 1 SECOND EXPEDITION OF PEPIN. 385 the head of a French army, wlilch was led by tlie king in person. The Lombards, after a weak resistance, obtained an ignominious peace, and swore to restore the possessions, and to respect the sanctity, of the Eoman church. But no sooner was Astolplius delivered from the presence of the French arms, than he forgot his promise and resented his disgrace. Eome was again encompassed by his arms ; and Stephen, apprehensive of fatiguing the zeal of his Trans- alpine allies, enforced his complaint and request by an elo- quent letter in the name and person of St. Peter himself.* The apostle assures his adopted sons, the king, the clergy, and tlie nobles of France, that dead in the ilesh, he is still alive in the spirit ; that they now hear, and must obey, tho voice of the founder and guardian of the Eoman church ; that the Virgin, the angels, the saints, and the martyrs, and all the host of heaven, unanimously urge tlie request, and will confess the obligation ; that riches, victory, and paradise, will crown their ])ious enterprise, and that eternal damnation will be the penalty of their neglect, if they sufter his tomb, his temple, and his people, to fall into the hands of the perfidious Lombards. The second expedition of Pepin was not less rapid and fortunate than the first : 8t. Peter was satisfied, Eouie was again saved, and Astol- phus was taught the lessons of justice and sincerity by the scourge of a foreign master. After this double chastise- ment, the Lombards languished about twenty years in a state of languor and decay. But their minds were not yet humbled to their condition; and instead of aflecting the pacific virtues of the feeble, they peevishly harassed the Eomans with a repetition of claims, evasions, and inroads, which they undertook without reflection, and terminated without glory. On either side, their expiring monarchy was pressed by the zeal and prudence of Pope Adrian L, the genius, the fortune, and greatness, of Charlemagne the son of Pepin ; these hei-oes of the church and state were united in public and domestic friendship, and while they trampled on the prostrate, they varnished their proceedings • See this most extraordinary letter in the Codex Carolinus, epist. 3, p. 92. The enemies of the popes have charged thcin with IViuid and lilasphemy; yet they surely meant to persuade rather than deceive. This introduction of the dead, or of immortals, was familiar to the ancient oratort, though it is executed on this occasion in the rude VOL. T. 2 C 3S6 PEriN AND CHAELE-MAGNE, [cil. XUX. Tsitli the fairest colours ol equity and moderation.* The passes of the Alps, and the walls of Pavia, were the only defence of the Lombards ; tlie former were surprised, the latter were invested, by the son of Pepin; and after a blockade of two years, Desiderius, the last of their native princes, surrendered his sceptre and his capital. Under the dominion of a foreign king, but in the possession of llieir national laws, the Lombards became the brethren rather than the subjects of the Franks ; who derived their blood, and manners, and language, from the same Germanic origin. t The mutual obligations of the popes and the Carlovin- gian family, form the important link of ancient and modern, of civil and ecclesiastical, history. In the conquest of Italy, the champions of the Roman church obtained a favourable occasion, a specious title, the wishes of the people, tlie prayers and intrigues of the clergy. But the most essential gifts of the popes to the Carlovingian race were the digni- ties of king of France,! and of patrician of Home. I. Under the sacerdotal monarchy of St. Peter, the nations began to resume the practice of seeking, on the banks of the Tiber, their kings, their laws, and the oracles of their fate. The fashion of the age. * Except in the divorce of the daughter of Desiderius, whom Charlemagne repudiated sine aliquo crimiue. Pope Stephen IV. had most furiously opposed the alliance of a noble Frank — cum perfida, horrida, neo diceuda, foetentissima natione Lan- gobardorum — to whom he imputes the first stain of leprosy. (Cod. Caroliu. epist. 45, p. 178, 179.) Another reason against the marriage was the existence of a first wife. (Muratori, Annali d'ltalia, tom. vi. ]>. 232, 233. 236, 237.) But Charlemagne indulged himself in the free- dom of polygamy or concubinage. t See the Annali d'ltalia of Muratori, torn. vi. and the three first dissertations of his Anti- quitates Italiaj Medii ^vii, tom. i. [The Lombard duchy of Bene- ventum was not conquered by Charlemagne, but long maintained ita independence. See Hallam's Middle Ages and his authorities, vol. i. }>p. 11 and 326. The subsequent fortunes of Beneventum and its dukes, fill many pages of Muratori's Annals. — Ed.] :t Besides the common historians, three French critics, Launoy ^Opera, tom. v. pars 2. 1. 7, epist. 9, p. 477—487), Pagi (Critica. A.D. 751, No. 1—6 ; a.d. 752, No. 1 — 10), and Natalis Alexander (Hist. Novi Testamenti, dissertat. 2, p. 96 — 107,) have treated this subject of the deposition of Childeric with learning and attention, but with a strong bias to save the independence of the crown. Yet they are hard iiressed by the text which they produce of Eginhard, Theophanen, ami the old annals, Laux'eshamenses, Fuldenses, Loi-sielani. A.D. 75I-7GS.] KIXGS OF PEANCE. 887 !Franks were perplexed between the name and substance of their government. All the powers ot" royalty were exer- cised by Pi'pin, mayor of the palace ; and notliing, except the regal title, was wanting to his ambition, ilis enemies were crushed by his valour ; his friends were multiplied by his liberality ; his father had been the saviour of Christen- dom ; and the claims of personal merit were repeated and ennobled in a descent of four generations. The name and image of royalty were still preserved in tlie last descendant of Clovis, tlie feeble Childeric ; but liis obsolete riglit couhl only be used as an instrument of sedition ; the nation was desirous of restoring the simplicity of the constitution ; and Pepin, a subject and a prince, was ambitious to ascertain his own ranlc and the iortune of his family. The mayor and the nobles were bound, by an oath of fidelity, to "the royal phantom ; the blood of Clovis was pure and sacred in their eyes ; and their common ambassadors addressed the Eoman pontiff, to dispel their scruples, or to absolve their promise. The interest of pope Zachary, the successor of the two Gregories, prompted him to decide, and to decide in their favour: he pronounced that the nation might lawfully unite, in the same person, the title and authority of king ; and that the unfortunate Childeric, a victim of the public safety, should be degraded, shaved, and confined in a monastery for the remainder of his days. An answer so agreeable to their wishes was accepted by the Franks, as the opinion of a casuist, the sentence of a judge, or the oracle of a prophet: the INIerovingian race disai)peared from the earth ; and Pepin was exalted on a buckler by the suffrage of a free people, accustomed to obey liis laws and to march under hi.s standard. His coronation was twice performed, with the sanction of the popes, by their most faithful servant St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, and by the grateful luinds of Stephen 111., who, in the monastery of St. Denis, placed the diadem on the head of his benefactor. The royal unction of the kings of Israel was dexterously applied,* the successor of St. Peter * Not absolutely for the first time. On a les3 conspicuous theatre it had beeu usod, in the sixth and seventh centuries, by the ju'oviucial l)ishoj)8 of Britain and Spain. The royal unction of Constantinople was borrowed from the Latins in the last age of the empire. Cou- t tautine Manasses mentions that of Charlemagne as a foreign, Jewish, 2 c 2 388 THE PATKICIAKS |.CH. XLIX. assume cl the character of a divine ambassador ; a German chieftain was transformed into the Lord's anointed; and this Jewish rite has been diffused and maintained by the su[)erstition and vanity of modern Europe. The Franks were absolved from their ancient oath ; but a dire anathema was thundered against them and their posterity, if they should dare to renew the same freedom of choice, or to elect a king, except in the holy and meritorious race of the Carlovingian princes. AVith'out apprehending the future danger, these princes gloried in their present security ; the secretary of Cliarlemague affirms, that the French sceptre was transferred by the authority of the popes;* and in their boldest enterprises, they insist, with confidence, on this signal and successful act of temporal jurisdiction. _ II. In the change of manners and language, the patricians of Eome t were far removed from the senate of Eomulus, or the palace of Constantine, from the free nobles of the republic, or the fictitious parents of the emperor. After the recovery of Italy and Africa by tlie arms of Justinian, the importance and" danger of those remote provinces re- incomprehensible ceremony. See Seldeu's Titles of Honour, in his AVorks, vol. iii. part 1, p. 234—249. * See Eginhard, in Vita Caroli Magiii, c. 1, p. 9, &c.; c. 3, p. 24. Childeric was deposed— jussA, the Carlovingiaus wei-e established — auctorilate, Pontificis Ro- luani. Lauuoy, &c. pretend that these strong words are susceptible of a very soft interpretation. Be it so ; yet Eginhard understood the world, the court, and the Latin language. [On this passage in Egin . hard, Mr. Hallam remarks (vol. ii. p. 234), that "per auctoritatem is an ambiguous word, which may rise to command or sink to advice, accord- ing to the disposition of the interpreter." The dei)osition of Childeric was surely not, as it is represented in the same page, "the first instance in which the popes had interfei'ed, unless by mere admo- nition, with the temporal magistrate." It had been preceided by the excommunication of the emjjeror Leo, and the revolt of Italy, at the instigation of Gregoi'y IL which was deposition, as far as there was power to carry it into et^^ect. The same judicious writer observes truly, " the Franks, who raised the king of their choice upon their shields, certainly never dreamtJ that a foruign prince had conferred on him the right of governing. Yet it was easy for succeeding advo- cates of Rome to construe this transaction very favourably for its usurpation over the thrones of the earth." — Ed.] t For the title and powers of patrician of Rome, see Ducange (Gloss. Latin, tom. v. p. 149—151), Pagi (Critica, a.d. 740, No. 6—11), Mura- tori (Annali d'ltalia. tom. vi. p. 308—329), and St. Marc (Abr(5gc Chrouologique d'ltalie, tom. i. p. 379—382). Of these the Franciscan Pagi j.i the most disposed to make the patrician a lieutenant of tho A.D. 751-7G8.] OF ROME. 389 quired the presence of a supreme magistrate ; he was indif- ferently styled the exarch or the patrician; and these governors of Eavonna, who fill their place in the chronology of princes, extended their jurisdiction over the Eoman city. Since the revolt of Italy and the loss of the exarchate, the distress of the ]?omans' had exacted some sacrifice of their independence. Yet even in this act, they exercised the light of disposing of themselves; and the decrees of the senate and people successively invested Charles IMartel and his posterity with the honours of patrician of Eome. The leaders of a powerful nation would have disdained a servile title and subordinate oftice; but the reign of the Greek emperors was suspended ; and, in the vacancy of the empire, they derived a more glorious commission from the pope and the republic. The Roman ambassadors presented these patricians with the keys of the shrine of St. Peter, as a })ledge and symbol of sovereignty; with a holy banner, wliich it was their right and duty to unfurl in the defence of the church and city.* In the time of Charles Martel and of Pc])in, the interposition of the Lombard kingdom covered tlie freedom, while it threatened the safety, ot Home; and the patriciate represented only the title, the service, the alliance, of these distant protectors. The power and policy of Charlemagne annihilated an enemy, and im- posed a "master. In his first visit to the capital, he was received with all the honours which had formerly been paid to the exarch, the representative of the emperor: and these honours obtained some new decorations from the joy and gratitude of Pope Adrian I.f No sooner was he church, rather than of the empire. * The papal advocates can soften the symbolic meaning of the banner and the keys ; but the style of ad rerjnum dimisimus, or direximus (Codex. Carolin. epist. 1, torn. iii. pars 2, p. 76,) seems to allow no palliation or escape. In the MS. of the Vienna library, they )-ead, instead of regnum, rofjum, prayer or request (see Diicange) ; and the royalty of Charles Martel is sub- verted by this important correction. (Catalan!, in his Critical Prefaces, Annali d'ltalia, torn. xvii. p. 95—09.) + In the authentic narrative of this reception, the Liber Pontificalis observes — obviani illi ejus sanctitas dirigeus venerabiles cruces, id est signa; sicut mos est ad exarchum, aul patricium suscipieudnm, eum cum ingenti honore Buscipi fecit (torn. iii. pars 1, p. ISi). [The schools, drawn up in honour of Charlemagne, must not be mistaken fur a display of young Iparuers. Curious students may mark in the Thesaurus Stcphani, 89S2, and the Glossary of Ducange (0. 220) the transitions, by which 390 DONA.TIOKS or PEPix a;nd [ch. xlix. informed of the sudden approach of the inciiarch, than he dispatched the magistrates and nobles of Eome to meet him, with the banner, about tliirty miles from the city. At the distance of one mile, the Flaminian way was lined with the schools or national communities, of Greeks, Lom- bards, Saxons, &c. : the lloman youth were under arms ; and the children of a more tender age, with palms and olive branches in their hands, chanted the praises of their great deliverer. At the aspect of the holy crosses, and ensigns of the saints, he dismounted from his horse, led the procession of his nobles to the Vatican, and, as he ascended the stairs, devoutly kissed each step of the threshold of the apostles. In the portico, Adrian expected him at the head of his clergy : they embraced, as friends and equals ; but in their march to the altar, the king or patrician assumed the right hand of the pope. Nor was the Frank content with these vain and empty demonstrations of re- spect. In the twenty-six years that elapsed, between the conquest of Lonibardy and his imperial coronation, Eome, which had been delivered by the sword, was subject, as his own, to the sceptre of Charlemagne. The people swore alle- giance to his person and family : in his name money was coined, and justice was administered ; and the election of the popes was examined and confirmed by his authority. Except an original and self-inherent claim of sovereignty, there was not any prerogative remaining, which the title of emperor could add to tlie patrician of Rome.* The gratitude of the Carlovingians was adequate to these obligations, and their names are consecrated as the saviours and benefactors of the Eoman church. Her ancient patri- mony of farms and houses was transformed by their bounty into the temporal dominion of cities and provinces ; and the Greek word, axo^V, that denoted leisure, has come in our days to express the labour of acquiring knowledge. In the time of Charle- magne, the schools were the military staffs, the establishments of clerks in the various departments of the State, and the collective functionaries of public offices. — Ed.] * Paulus Diaconus, who wrote before the .empire of Charlemagne, describes Eome as his subject city — vestx-se 'civitates (ad Pompeium Festum), suis addidit sceptris (de Metensis Ecclesipe Episcopis). Some Carlovingian medals struck at Rome, have engaged Le Blanc to write an elaborate, though partial, dissertation on their authority at Rome, both as Datricians and emoerora. (Amsterdam, 1692, in quarto,) 4..D. 751-7G8.] chahlemagne to the popes. 301 the donation of the Exarcliate was the first fruits of the conquest of Pepin.* Astolplius with a sigli reliiKpiished his prey; the keys and the hostages of the principal chivs were delivered to the French ambassador; and, in his master's name, he presented them before the tomb of St. Peter. The ample measure of tlie Exarchate t miglit com- prise all the provinces of Italy which had obeyed the emperor and his vicegerent; but its strict and proper limits were included in the territories of Eavenna, ISologna, and Ferrara ; its insejjarable dependency was the Pentapolis, which stretched along the Adriatic from Kimini to Ancona, and advanced into the midland country as far as the ridges of the Apennine. In tliis transaction, the ambition and avarice of the popes has been severely condemned. Perhaps the humility of a Christian priest should have rejected an earthly kingdom, which it was not easy for him to govern witliout renouncing the virtues of his profession. Perhapst a faithful subject, or even a generous enemy, would have been less impatient to divide the spoils of the Barbarian ; and il the emperor had intrusted Stephen to solicit in his name the restitution of the Exarchate, I will not absolve the pope from the reproach of treachery and falsehood. But in the rigid interpretation of the laws, every one may accept, without injury, whatver his benefactor can bestow without ■njustice. The Greek emperor had abdicated or forfeited 'ais right to the Exarchate ; and the sword of Astolphud was broken by the stronger sword of the Carlovingiau. It was not in the cause of the Iconoclast that Pepin had exposed his person and army in a double expedition beyond the Alps ; he possessed, and might lawfully alienate, his conquests ; and to the importunities of the Greeks, he piously replied, that no human consideration should tempt him to resume the gift which he had conferred on the * Mosheim (lustitution. Hist. Eccles. p. 263,) weighs this dontitiou with fair and deliberate prudence. The original act has never beeu produced; but the Liber Pontificalis represents (p. 171,) and the Codex Carolinus supposes, this ample gift. Both are contemporary records ; and the latter is the more authentic, since it baa been preserved, not in the Papal, but the Imperial, library. f Between the exorbitant claims, and narrow concesaione, of interest and prejudice, from which even Muratori (Antiquitat. tom. i. p. 63 — 6S,) is not exempt, 1 have beeu guided, in the limits of the Exarchate tud Peutapolia, by the Dissei'tatio Chorographica Italiai Medii .Fa'. 392 TEMPORAL PBEKOGATITES OF THE POPE. [CH. XLIX. lioman pontiff for the remission of his sina, and the sal- vation of liis soul. The splendid donation was granted iji •supreme and absolute don)inion, and the world beheld for the first time a Christian bishop invested with the prero- gatives of a temporal prince; the choice of magistrates, the exercise of justice, the imposition of taxes, and tlie wealth of the palace of Eavenna. In the dissolution of the Lom- bard kingdom, the inhabitants of the duchy of Spoleto * sought a refuge from tlie storm, shaved their heads after the Eoman fashion, declared themselves the servants and subjects of St. Peter, and completed, by this Voluntary surrender, the present circle of the ecclesiastical state. That mysterious circle Avas enlarged to an indefinite extent, by the verbal or written donation of Charlemagne,t who, in the first transports of his victory, despoded himself and the Greek emperor of the cities and islands which had formerly been annexed to the Exarchate. But in the cooler moments of absence and reflection, he viewed, with an eye of jealousy and envy, the recent greatness of his ecclesias- tical ally. The execution of his own and his father's pro- mises was respectfully eluded: the king of the Franks and Lombards asserted the inalienable rights of the empire; and, in his life and death, Eavenna, J as well as Eome, was numbered in the list of his metropolitan cities. The sove- tom. X. p. 160 — ]80. * Spoletini deprecati sunt, ut eoa in servitio B. Petri reciperet et more Romanorum tousurari faceret. (Anastasius, p. 185.) Yet it may be a question whetlier tliey gave tlieir own persons or their countrJ^ f The policy and donations of Charlemagne are carefully examined by St. Marc (Abrego, torn. i. p. 390 — 408.) who has well studied the Codex Carolinus. I believe, with him, that they were only verbal. The most ancient act «)f donation that pi-etends to be extant, is that of the emperor Louis the Pious (Sigonius, de Regno Italise, 1. 4. Opera, tom. 2, y). 267 — 270); its authenticity, or at least its integrity, are much questioned (Pagi A.D. 817, No. 7, &c., Muratori, Annali, tom. vi. p. 432, &c., Dissertat. Chorographica, p. 33, 34) ; but I see no reasonable objection to these princes so freely disposing of what was not their own. t Charlemagne solicited and obtained from the proprietor, Ha drian I. the mosaics of the palace of Ravenna, for the decoration of Aix- la-Chapelle, (Cod. Carolin. epist. 67, p. 223.) [The Mosaics of Ravenna were noticed by Paulinus, early in the fifth century, "Ra- vennjjc civitatis Musiva atque marmora" (I'^pist. 67) ; and in the middle of the sixth, Cassiodorus (Var. 7. .'5) includes the Musivarhis, amorg the artists of the palace. The art was brought into Italy from Con- stantinople ; but neither its origin, nor the derivation of its name, csui A."D. 7GS.] FORGEEY OF CONSTAKTINE's DONATION". 393 reignty of the Exarchate melted away in the hands of tho popes ; they found in tl)e archbishops of liavciiiia a dan- gerous and domestic rival ;* the nobles and peo])le disdained the yoke of a priest ; and, in the disorders of the times, they could only retain the memory of an ancient claim, wliich, in a more prosperous age, they have revived and realized. Eraud is the resource of weakness and cunning ; and tlie sti'ong, tliough ignorant Barbarian, was often entangled in the net of sacerdotal jjolicy. Tlie Vatican and Lateranwere an arsenal and manutacture, which, according to the occa- sion, have produced or concealed a various collection of false or genuine, of corrupt or suspicious, acts, as they tended to promote the interest of the Koman church. Before the end of the eighth century, some apostolical scribe, perhaps l>he notorious Isidore, composed the decretals, and the do- nation of Constantino, the two magic pillars of the spiritual and temporal monarchy of the popes. This memorable donation was introduced to the world by an epistle of Adrian I., who exhorts Charlemagne to imitate the liberality, and revive the name, of the great Constantine.f According to the legend, the first of the Christian emperors was healed of the leprosy, and purified in the waters of baptism, by !St. Silvester, the Eoman bishop ; and never was physician )))ore gloriously recompensed. His royal proselyte withdrew fiom the seat and patrimony of St. Peter ; declared his reso- lution of founding a new capital in the East; and resigned to the popes the free and perpetual sovereignty of Home, Italy, and the provinces of the AVest.J This iiction was be satisfactorily ascertained. — Ed.] * The popes often complain of the usurpation of Leo of Ravenna (Codex Carolin. epist. 51 — 53, p. 200 — 205). Si corpus St. Andrea? fratris germani St. Petri hic humasset, nequaquam nos Romaui poutiliccs sic subjugassent. (Agnellus, Liber Pontificalis, in Sci-iptores Herum Ital. torn. ii. pars 1, p. 107.) t Piissimo Constantino magno, per ejus largitatem S. R. Ecclesia elevata et cxaltata e.st, et potestatem in his IIesperi;e partibus largiri uigiiatus est .... Quia ecce novus Coustantinus his temporibus, &c. (Codex. Carolin. epist. 49, in torn. iii. pars 2, p. 195.) Pagi (Critioa, A.D. 324, No. Iti) ascribes them to an impostor of the eighth century, who borrowed the name of St. Isidore: his humble title oi Pcccator was ignorantly, but aptly, turned into Mercatur : his merchandise was indeed profitable, and a few sheets of paper were sold for much wealth aud power. ^ Fubricius (Libliot. Grx'c. torn. vi. p. 4 — 7) 394! COiNSTASTIIfE's DOIfATION DISPUTED. [CH. XLIX. productive of the most beneficial effects. The Greek princes were convicted of the guilt of usurpation ; and the revolt of Gregory was the claim of his lawful inheritance. The popes were delivered from their debt of gratitude ; and the nomi- nal gifts of the Carlovingians were no more than the just and irrevocable restitution of a scanty portion of the ecclesi- astical State. The sovereignty of Home no longer depended on the choice of a fickle people ; and the successors of St. Peter and Constantine were invested with the purple and pi'eroga- tives of the Caesars. So deep was the ignorance and credulity of the times, that tliis most absurd of fables was received, with equal reverence, in Greece and in France, and is still enrolled among the decrees of the canon law.* The empe- rors, and the Komans, were incapable of discerning a forgery, that subverted their rights and freedom ; and the only opposition proceeded from a Sabine monastery, which, in the beginning of the twelfth century, disputed the truth and validity of the donation of Constantine.f In the revival of letters and liberty this fictitious deed was transpierced by the pen of Laurentius Valla, the pen of an eloquent critic and a Eoman patriot.;]: His contemporaries of the fifteenth has enumerated the several editions of this Act, in Greek and Latin. The copy which Laurentius Valla recites and refutes, appears to be taken either from the spurious Acts of St. Silvester or from Gratian's Decree, to which, according to him and others, it has been surrep- titiously tacked. * In the year 1059, it was believed (was it believed ?) by pope Leo IX., cardinal Peter Damianus, &c. Muratori places (Annali d'ltalia, tom. ix, p. 23, 24,) the fictitious donations of Lewis the Pious, the Othos, &c., de Donatione Constantini. See a Dissertation of Natalis Alexander, seculum 4, diss. 25, p. 3-35 — 350. + See a large account of the controversy (a.d. 1105,) which arose from a private lawsuit, in the Chronicon Farsense (Script. Eerum Italicarum, tom. ii. pars 2, p. 637, &c.), a copious extract from the archives of that Benedictine abbey. They were formerly accessible to curious foreigners (Le Blanc and Mabillou), and would have enriched the first volume of the Historia Monastica Italise of Quiriui. But they are now imprisoned (Muratori, Scriptores R. I. tom. ii. pars 2, p. 269,) by the timid policy of the court of Rome ; and the future cardinal yielded to the voice of authority and the whispers of ambition. (Qui- rini, Comment, pars 2, p. 123 — 136). X I have read in the collection of Scliardius (de Potestate Imperiali Ecclesiastica, p. 734 — 780,) this animated discourse, which was composed by the author, A.D. 1440, six years after the flight of Pope Eugenius IV. It is a most vehement party pamphl '.t : Valla justifies and animates the revolt of A.D. 7U8.] EEJKCTION OF THE FABLE. 395 century were astonished at his sacrilegious boldness ; yet such is the silent and irresistible progress of reason, tliat before the end of the next age, the fable was rejected by the contempt of historians* and poets,t and the tacit or modest censure of the advocates of the Eoman church. :J: The popes thcmselvea have indulged a smile at the credulity of the vulgar,§ but a false and obsolete title still sanctities their reign ; and, by the same fortune which has attended the de- CH'tals and the Sibylline oracles, the edifice has subsisted after the foundations have been undermined. While the popes established in Italy their freedom and dominion, the images, the first cause of their revolt, were restored in the Eastern empire. 1 Under the reign of Con- the Romans, and would even approve the use of a dagger again.st their sacerdotal tyrant. Such a critic might expect the persecution of the clergy ; yet he made his peace, and is buried in the Lateran. (Bayle, Dictionnaire Critiqiie, Valla ; Vos.=;iu.s de Hi.storicis Latinis, p. 580). * See Guicciardiui, a servant of the popes, in that long and valuable digres.'^ion, which has resumed its place in the last edition, correctly published from the author's MS. and printed in four volumes in quarto, under the name of Friburgo, 1775. (Istoria d'ltaha, tom.i.p. 385 — 395.) t The Paladin Astolpho found it in the moon, among the things that were lost upon earth. (Orlando Furioso, 34. 80.) Di vari fiori ad un gran moute passa, Ch'ebbe gih, buono odore, or puzza forte : Questo era il dono (se perc) dir lece) Che Costautino al buon Silvestro fece. Yet this incomparable poem has been approved by a bull of Leo X. : See Baronius, A.D. 324, No. 117—123 ; a.d. 1191, No. 51, &c. The cardinal wishes to suppose that Home was offered by Constantine, and refused by Silvester. The act of donation he considers, strangely enough, as a forgerj- of the Greeks. § Baronius n'en dit guores contre ; encore en afil trop dit, et Ton vouloit, sans moi (Cardinal du Perron) qui Tempechai, censurer cette partie de son histoire. J'en devisai un jour avec le Pape, et il ne me i-epoudit autre chose "Che volete? i Canonici la leggono," il le disoit en riant. (Perroniana, p. 77.) H The remaining history of images, from Irene to Tlieodora, is collected, for the Catholics, by Baronius and Pagi (a.d. 780— 840) ; Natalis Alexander (Hist. N. T. seculum 8 ; Panoi)lia adversus Htereticos, p. IIS — 178; and Dupin (Bibliot. Ecck^s. tom. vi. p. 136—154) ; for the Protestants, by Span- heim (Hist. Imag. p. 305—639) ; Basnage (Hist, de I'Eglise, tom. i. p. 556 — 572; tom. ii. p. 1362 — 1385); and Mosheim (Institut. Hist. Eccles. secul. viii. et ix.). The Protestants, except Mosheim, are .soured with controversy ; but the Catholics, except Dupin, are inflamed by the fury and superstition of the monka ; and even Le Beau (Hist, du 396 RESTORATION OF IMAGES IN THE' EAST. [CH. XLIX. stantine V., tbe union of civil and ecclesiastical power had overtlirown the tree, "without extirpating tlie root, of super- stition. The idols, lor such they were now held, were secretly cherished by the order and the sex most prone to devotion ; and the fond alliance of the monks and females, obtaiued a final victory over the reason and authority of man. Leo IV. maintained with less rigour the reliirion of Jiis father and grandfather ; but his wife, the fair and ambi- tious Irene, had imbibed the zeal of the Athenians, the heirs of the idolatry, rather than the philosophy, of their ances- tors. During the life of her husband, these sentiments were inflamed by danger and dissimulation, and she could only labour to protect and promote some favourite monks whom she drew from their caverns, and seated on the metropolitan thrones of the East. But as soon as she reigned in her own name and that of her son, Irene more seriously un- dertook the ruin of the Iconoclasts ; and the first step of lier I'uture persecution was a general edict for liberty of con- science. In the restoration of the monks, a thousand images were exposed to the public veneration ; a thousand legends were invented of their sufferings and miracles. By the op- portunities of death or removal, tlie episcopal seats were judiciously filled ; tlie most eager competitors for earthly or celestial favour anticipated and flattered the judgment of their sovereign ; and the promotion of her secretary Tara- sius gave Irene the patriarch of Constantinople, and the command of the Oriental church. But the decrees of a general council could only be repealed by a similar assem- bly ;* the Iconoclasts whom she convened were bold in possession, and averse to debate; and the feeble voice of the bishops was re-echoed by the more formidable clamour of the soldiers and people of Constantinople. The delay and intrigues of a year, the separation of tlie disafl'ected troops, and the choice of Nice for a second orthodox synod, removed these obstacles ; and the episcopal conscience was again, after the Greek fashion, in the liands of the prince. No more than eighteen days were allowed for the consummation B;is Empire), a gentleman and a scholar, is infected by the odious contagion. * See the Acts, in (Jreek and Latin, of the Feeond council of Nice, with a number of relative pieces, in the eighth volume of th(! councils, p. 645 — IGOO. A faithful version, with some tritical notes, would provoke, ia different readers, a sigh or a smile. A.D. 842.] THEIU nXAL ESTABLISHMENT. 397 of tliis important work : the Iconoclasts appeared, not as judges, but as criminals or penitents ; tlie scene was deco- rated by the legates of pope Adrian and tbe Eastern pa- triarchs ;* the decrees were framed by the president Tarasius, and ratified by the acclamations and subscriptions of three hundred and ilfty bishops. They unanimously pronounced, that the wors]ii[) of images is sgreeable to Scripture and reason, to the fathers and councils of the church : but they hesitate whether that worship be relative or direct ; whether the godhead, and the figure of Christ, be entitled to the same mode of adoration. Of this second Nicene council, the acts are still extant; a curious monument of superstition and ignorance, of falsehood and folly. I shall only notice the judgment of the bishops, on the comparative merit of image- worship and morality. A monk had concluded a truce with the demon of fornication, on condition of interrupting his tlaily ])raycrs to a picture that hung in his cell. His scruples prompted him to consult the abbot. " Rather than abstain from adoring Christ and his mother in their holy images, it would be better for you," replied the casuist, " to enter every brothel, and visit every prostitute, in the city.f For the honour of orthodoxy, at least the orthodoxy of the Bomau church, it is somewhat unfortunate, that the two princes who convened the two councils of Nice, are both stained with the blood of their sons. The second of these assemblies was ajiprovcd and rigorously executed by the despotism of Irene; and she refused her adversaries the toleration which at first she had granted to her friends Durinfj the five succeeding reigns, a period of thirty-eight c> r> r> ' I 11*1 vears, the contest was maintained, with unabated rage and various success, between the worshippers and the breakers of the images ; but I am not inclined to pursue with ipinute * The pope's legates were casual messengers, two priests without any special commission, and who were disavowed on their return. Some vagabond monks were persuaded by the Catholics to represent the Oriental patriarchs. This curious anecdote is revealed by Theo- dore Studites (epi.st. 1. 38, in Sirmoud. 0pp. torn. v. p. 1319,) one of the warmest Iconoclasts of the age. + ^v^itpipei U aoifxt] KaraXtTTCn' iy ti) ttoXei ravry iroovtiov tig 6 /<»} it(ji\9ffc, if'irn aovrjay TO TrnoTKin'iiv ruv Kvptor j'//uiJi' kuI 6tou 'li](Toi'i' Xiiirrro)' /itra n'l^ (^taf aiiTov fo'/rjjoc ti' mkoi'i. Those visits could not be innocent, since the Aatftwv TropviiaQ (the demon of fornication) iiroXifiu ci . it' yni'y oi/i' uig irciKuro uinii a^oCpa, &c. Actio 4, p. 901 ; auTov 398 EELTJCTAKCE OF TUE [cn. XLIX. dilifrence the repetition of the same eventa. Nicephorua allowed a general liberty of speech and practice ; and the only virtue of his reign is accused by the monks as the cause of his temporal and eternal perdition. Superstition ar.d weakness formed the character of Michael I., but the saints and images were incapable of supporting their votary on the throne. In the purple, Leo V. asserted the name and religion of an Armenian ; and the idols, with their seditious adherents, were condemned to a second exile. Their ap- plause would have sanctified the murder of an impious tyrant; but his assassin and successor, the second Michael, was tainted from his birth with the Phrygian heresies ; he attempted to mediate between the contending parties ; and the intractable spirit of the Catholics insensibly cast him into the opposite scale. His moderation was guarded by timidity ; but his son Theophilus, alike ignorant of fear and pity, was the last and most cruel of the Iconoclasts. Tlie enthusiasm of the times ran strongly against them : and the emperors who stemmed the torrent were exasperated and punished by the public hatred. After the death of Theo- philus the final victory of the images was achieved by a second female, his widow Theodora, whom he left the guar- dian of the empire. Her measures were bold and decisive. The fiction of a tardy repentance absolved the fame and the soul of her deceased husband ; the sentence of the Icono- clast patriarch was commuted from the loss of his eyes to a whipping of two hundred lashes ; the bishops trembled, the monks shouted, and the festival of orthodoxy preserves the annual memory of the triumph of the images. A single question yet remained, w'hether they are endowed with any proper and inherent sanctity ; it was agitated by the Greeks of the eleventh century ;* and as this opinion has the strongest recommendation of absurdity, I am surprised that it was not more explicitly decided in the aflBrmative. In the West, pope Adrian I. accepted and announced the decrees of the Nicene assembly, which is now revered by the Ca- tholics as the seventh in rank of the general councils. Home and Italy were docile to the voice of their father ; but the greatest part of the Latin Christians w^ere far behind in Actio 5, 1031. * See an account of this controversj' in tha Alexias of Anna Comnena (1. 5. p. 129), and Moshcim (lustitiib. Hist. A.D. 791.] FRANKS AND CKARLEMAGNE. 399 the race of superstition. The churclies of Franco, Germany, Enf^land, and Spain, steered a middle course between the ado- ration and the destruction of images, which they admitted into their temples, not as objects of worship, but as lively and useful memorials of faith and history. An angry book of controversy was composed and published in the name of Charlemagne ;* under his authority a synod of three hun- dred bishops was assembled at Frankfort ;t they blamed the fury of the Iconoclasts, but they pronounced a more severe censure against the superstition of the Greeks, and the de- crees of their pretended council, which was long despised by the Barbarians of the West. J Among them the worship of images advanced with a silent and insensible progress; but a large atonement is made for their hesitation and delay, by the gross idolatry of the ages which precede the lleforma- tion, and of the countries, both in Europe and America, which are still immersed in the gloom of superstition. It was after the Niceue synod, and under the reign of the pious Irene, that the popes consummated the separation of Itome and Italy, by the translation of the empire to the less orthodox Charlemagne. They were compelled to choose be- tween the rival nations ; religion was not the sole motive of their choice ; and while they dissembled the failings of their friends, they beheld, with reluctance and suspicion, the Ca- tholic virtues of their foes. The difference of language and manners had perpetuated the enmity of the two capitals ; and they were alienated from each other by the hostile oppo- Eccles. p. 371, 372), * The Libri Carolini (Spanheira, p. 443 — 529), composed in the palace or wiuter-quarters of Charle- magne, at Worms, a.d. 79U, and sent by Engebert to pope Hadrian I. who answered them by a grandis et verbosa epistola. (Coucil. torn. viii. ]). 1553.) The Carohnes propose one hundred and twenty objections .sgain.st the Nicene synnd, and such words as these are the flowers of their rhetoric — dementiam priscse Gentilitatis .... obsoletum erroreni argnmenta insanissima et absurdissima .... derisione dignas uionias, &c. &c. + The assemblies of Charlemagne were political as well as ecclesiastical; and the three hundred member.^! (Nat. Alexander, sec. 8, p. 53), who sat and voted at Frankfort, must include not only the bishops, but the abbots, and even the principal laymen. ^ Qui supra sanctissima patres nostri (episcopi et Bacerdotes) omnimodis servitium et adorationem imaginum renuentes coutenipserunt, atcpie conseutientes condemnaverunt (Coucil. tom. ix. j>. 101, canon 2, Frankfurd.). A polemic must be hard-hearted indeed, who does not pity the ettbrts of Barouius, Pagi, Alexander, Maim- 400 FIXAL SEPAEATION OF THE POPES [CH. XLT\ sition of seventy years. In that scliism the Homans had tasted of frcedoui/and the popes of sovereignty ; their sub- mission would have exposed them to the revenge of a jealous tyrant ; and the revolution of Italy had betrayed the impo- tence, as well as the tyranny, of the Byzantine court. Tiio Greek emperors had restored the images, but they had not restored the Calabrian estates* and the Illyrian diocese,t which the Iconoclasts had torn away from the successors of St. Peter; and Pope Adrian threatens them with a sen- tence of excommunication unless they speedily abjure this practical heresy. J The Greeks were now orthodox, but their religion might be tainted by the breath of the reigning monarch ; the Franks were now contumacious ; but a dis- cerning eye might discern their approaching conversion from the use, to the adoration, of images. The name of Charlemagne was stained by the polemic acrimony of his scribes ; but the conqueror himself conformed, with the temper of a statesman, to the various practice of Prance and Italy. In his four pilgrimages or visits to the Vatican, he embraced the popes in the communion of friendship and piety ; knelt before the tomb, and consequently before the image, of the apostle ; and joined, without scruple, in all the prayers and processions of the lioman liturgy. Would bourg, &c. to elude this unlucky sentence. * Theophanes (p. 343) specifies those of Sicily and Calabria, which yielded an auuual rent of three talents and a half of gold (perhaps seven thousand pounds sterling). Liutprand more pompously enumerates the patri- •xnonies of the Roman church in Greece, Judsca, Persia, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Egypt, and Libya, which were detained by the injustice of the Greek emperor. (Legat. ad Nicephorum, in Script, llerum Itali- carum, tom. ii. pars. l,p. 481.) t The great diocese of the eastern Illyricum, with Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily (Thomassin, Dis- cipline de I'Eglise, tom. i. p. 145), by the confession of the Greeks, the patriarch of Constantinople had detached from Rome the metro- politans of Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, Nicopolis, and Patraj. (Luc. Holsten. Geograph. Sacra (p. 22) ; and his spiritual conquest extended to Naples and Amalphi (Giannone, Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. i. p. 517 — 524. Pagi, a.d. 730, No. 11). + In hoc ostenditur, quia ex uno capitulo ab errore reversis, in aliis duobus, in eodem (was it the same ? ) permaneant errore . . . . de diocesi S. R. E. seu de patrimoniis iterum increpantes commonemus, ut si ea restituere noluerit hereticuin eiim pro hujusmodi errore perseverantia decer- nemus (Epist. Hadrian. PapLC ad Carolum Msguuni, in Concil. tom. viii. ■[>. 1598) ; to which ho adds a reason, most directly opposite to Lis conduct, tha"-/ he preferred the salvation of souls and rule of faith tw ^.n. 771- SOO.] FROM TllF KASTEIIN KM Pi RE. 401 pvudence or prafitudo allow tlie pnntifls to renounce tluMr ')eiielUctor ? Had tlioy a riirlit to alienate his gift of the Ex- archate ? Had they power to abolish his <:];overn!nout of lioine ? The title of patrician was below the merit and LM-eatness of Charleinati;ne ; and it was only by reviving; the Western empire that they could pay their obligations or secure their establishment. By this decisive measure they would finally eradicate the claims of the Grei'ks .- from the debasement of a j)rovincial town, tlie majesty of Eome would be restored : the Latin Christians would be united under a su])reme head, in their ancient metropolis ; and the con- querors of the West would receive their crown from the (successors of St. Peter. The Koman church would acquire a zealous and respectable advocate ; and, under the shadow of the Carlovingian power, the bishop might exercise, wilh honour and safety, the government of the city.* Before the ruin of Paganism in liome, the competition for a wealthy bishopric liad often been productive of tumult and bloodshed. The people was less numerous, but the times were more savage, the prize more important, and the chair of St. Peter was fiercely disputed by the leading eccle- siastics who aspired to the rank of sovereign. The reign of Adrian l.f surpasses the measure of past or succeeding ages ;;J: the walls of Eome, the sacred patrimony, the ruin of the Lombards, and the friendship of Charlemagne, were tlie goods of this transitory world. * Fontanini considers tlic emperors as do more than the advocates of the church (advocatus ft defensor S. 11. E. See Ducauge, Gloss. Lat. torn. i. p. 297). His antagonist Muratori reduces the popes to be no more than the exarchs of the emperor. In the more equitable view of Mosheim (Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 264. 26.'i,) thej' held Rome under the empire as the most honourable species of nef or benefice — premuntur nocte caligino.sa ! f Ilis merits and hopes are summed up in an epitaph of thirty-eight verses, of which Charlemagne declares himself the author. (Coucil. tom. viii. p. 520). Post patrem lacrymans Carohis hxc carmina scripsu Tu mihi duicis amor, te modo plango pater . . , Nomina jungo simul titulis, clarissime, nostra Adrianus, Carol us, rex ego, tuque pater. The poetry might be supplied by Alcuin ; but the tears, the most glorious tribute, can only belong to Charlemagne. X Every new pope is admonished — "Saucte Pater, non videbis annos Petri," — twenty-live years. On the whole series the average Is about eight years — a short hope for an ambitious cardinal. VOL. V. 2 1> 402 CORONATION OF CHABLEMAaNE AS [CU. XLIX. the trophies of liis fame ; he secretly edified the throne of his successors, aud displayed in a uarrow space the virtues of a great prince. His memory was revered ; but in the next election, a priest of the Lateran, Lpo III. was preferred to the nephew and the favourite of Adrian, whom he liad promoted to the first dignities of the church. Their acqui- escence or repentance disguised, above four years, the blackest intention of revenge, till the day of a procession, when a furious band of conspirators dispersed the unarmed multitude, and assaulted with blows and wounds the sacred person of the pope. But their enterprise on his life or liberty was disappointed, perhaps by their own confusion and remorse. Leo was left for dead on the ground : on his revival from the swoon, the effect of his loss of blood, he recovered his speech and sight ; and this natural event was improved to the miraculous restoration of his eyes and tongue, of which he had been deprived, twice deprived, by the knife of the assassins.* From his prison, he escaped to the Vatican ; the duke of Spoleto hastened to his rescue, Charlemagne sympathized in his injury, and in his camp of Paderborn in Westphalia accepted or solicited a visit from the Roman pontiff'. Leo repassed the Alps with a commis- sion of counts and bishops, the guards of his safety and the judges of his innocence ; and it was not without reluctance, that the conqueror of the Saxons delayed till the ensuing year the personal discharge of this pious office. In his fourth and last pilgrimage, he was received at Eome with the due honours of king and patrician; Leo was permitted to purge himself by oath of the crimes imputed to his charge ; his enemies were silenced, and the sacrilegious attempt against his life was punished by the mild and insuffi- cient penalty of exile. On the festival of Christmas, the last year of the eighth century, Charlemagne appeared in * The assurance of Anastasius (torn. iii. pars 1, p. 197, 198,) is sup- ported by the credulity of some French annalists ; but Eginhard, and other writers of the same age, are more natural and sincere. "Unus ei oculus paullulum est Isesus," says John the deacon of Naples. (Vit Episcop. Napol. iu Scriptores Muratori, tom. i. pars 2, p. 312.) Theo- dolphus, a contemporary bishop of Orleans, observes with prudence (I 3, carm. 3.) Eeddita sunt? mirum est : niirum est auferre ii" AND CUAKACTEB [CH. XLIX- of Charlemagne, so liiglily applauded by a respectable judge. Tlie^^ compose not a system, but a series, of occasional and minute edicts, for the correction of abuses, the reformation of manners, the economy of his farms, the care of his poultry, and even the sale of his eggs. lie 'uished to improve the laws and the character of the Franks ; and his attempts, however feeble and imperfect, are deserving of praise ; the inveterate evils of the times were suspended or mollified by his government ;* but in his institutions I can seldom dis- cover the general views and the immortal spirit of a legis- lator, who survives himself for the benefit of posterity. The union and stability of his empire depended on the life of a single man; he imitated the dangerous practice of dividing his kingdoms among his sons; and, after his numerous diets, the whole constitution was left to fluctuate between the disorders of anarchy and despotism. His esteem for the piety and knowledge of the clergy tempted him to intrust that aspiring order with temporal dominion and civil juris- diction ; and his son Lewis, when he was stripped and de- graded by the bishops, might accuse, in some measure, tho imprudence of his fathei". His laws enforced the imposition of tithes, because the demons had proclaimed in the air that the default of payment had been the cause of the last scarcity.f The literary merits of Charlemagne are attested six years afterwards, in the eleventh year of Charlemagne's successor, A.H. 209 (a.d. 624), they record a more st.,;.:3 defeat of the Franke in the Pass of Roncesvalles, which they name Bort Xezar, the Crooked Gateway. (Conde, Arabs in Spain, p. 214, 273, edit. Bohn.) — Ed.] * Yet Schmidt, from the best authorities, represents the interior disorders and oppi-ession of his reign. (Hist, des Allemands, torn. ii. ]>. 45 — 49.) [Study the character of Charlemagne, as it is drawn by Hallam (Middle Ages, i. 16), and by Schmidt (Geschichteder Deutschen, i. 471 — 473). The former says, that " perhaps his greatest eulogy is written in the disgraces of succeeding times and the miseries of Europe." But these are shown by the latter to have been the effects of his ambitious scheme of conquest and oppressive system of govern- ment. That he did not prepare for his subjects a better future, is the stern fact which darkens his fame. The just enthusiasm of Lappeu- berg places " the Franki.sh Charles" far below our unrivalled Alfred, " the hero of European civilization." (See his History, ii. 43. 83.) — Ed.] t Omnis homo ex sua proprietate legitimam decimam ad ecclesiam confei-at Experimento enim didicimus, in anno, quo ilia valida fames irrepsit, ebuUire vacuas annonas a daemonibus devoratas, et voces ex[)roliationis auditas. Such is the decree and assertion of the great council of Frankfort (canon 25, torn. ix. p. 105). Both Selden (Hist, of A..U. 7GS-814.] OF CnARLEMAGNE. 407 by the founJation of schools, the introduction of arts, the works which were published in his name, and his familiar c-onncction with the subjects and strangers wliom lie invited to his court to educate botli the prince and people. His own studies were tardy, laborious, and imperfect; if he spoke Latin, and understood Greek, he derived the rudi- ments of knowledge from conversation, rather than from books ; and, in his mature age, the emperor strove to acquire the practice of writing, which every peasant now learns in his infancy.* The grammar and logic, the music and astro- nomy, of the times, were only cultivated as the handmaids of superstition ; but the curiosity of the human iiiiiid must ultimately tend to its improvement, and the encouragement iif learning reflects the purest and most pleasing lustre on the character cf Charlemagne.f The dignity of his person, J t he length of his reign, the prosperity of his arms, the vigour of his government, and the reverence of distant nations, distinguish him from the royal crowd ; and Europe dates a new era from his restoration of the AVestern empire. That empire was not unworthy of its title, § and some of the fairest kingdoms of Europe were the patrimony or conquest of a prince, who reigned at the same time in Tithes; Works, vol. iii. part 2, p. 1146) ; and Montesquieu (Esprit des L'lix, 1. 31, c. 12), represent Charlemagne as the first legal author of tithes. Such obligations have country gentlemen to his memory ! * Eginhard (c. 25, p. 119) clearly affirms, tentabat et scribere . . . sed parum prospere successit labor jiraiiiusterus et sero inchoatus. The moderns have perverted and corrected this obvious meaning, and the title of M. Gaillard's Dissertation (tom. iii. p. 247—260,) betrays his partiality. t See Gaillard, tom. iii. p. 138 — 176, and Schmidt, tom. ii.p. 121—129. % M, Gaillard (tom. iii. p. 372,) fixes the true stature of Charlemagne (see a Dissertation of Marquard Freher ad calcem Eginhart. p. 22(1. &c.,) at five feet nine inches of French, about si.\ feet one inch and a fourth English, mea- sure. The romance writers have increased it to eight feet, and the giant was endowed with matchless strength and appetite : at a single stroke of his good sword Joi/euse, he cut asunder a horseman and his horse ; at a single repast he devoured a goose, two fowls, a quarter of mutton, &c. § See the concise, but correct and original, work of D'Anville (Etats formds en P^urope apres la Chute de I'Empire Komain en Occident, Paris, 1771, in 4to), whose mnp includes the empire of Charlemngne ; the different parts are illustrated, by Valesiua (Notitia Galliarum) for France; Beretti (Dissertatio Choragraiihica) for Italy; de Marca (Marca Hispanica) for Spain. For the middle geograjihy of Germany, I confess myself poor and destitute. 408 EMPIRE OF CIIATILEMAGNE. — FEANCE. [cU. XLIS. Prance, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Hunrrary.* I. The lioman province of Gaul had been transformed into the name and monarchy of France ; but, in the decay of the Merovingian line, its limits were contracted by the inde- pendence of the Bretojis and the revolt of Aquitain. Charlemagne pursued, and confined, the Bretons on the shores of the ocean; and that ferocious tribe, whose origin and language are so different from the French, was chastised by the imposition of tribute, hostages, and peace. f After a long and evasive contest, the rebellion of the dukes of Aquitain was punished by the forfeiture of their province, their liberty, and their lives. Harsh and rigorous would have been such treatment of ambitious governors who had too faithfully copied the mayors of the palace. But a recent discovery^ has proved that these unhappy princes were the last and lawful heirs of the blood and sceptre of Clovis, a younger branch, from the brother of Dagobert, of the ]\Ieroviugian house. Their ancient kingdom was re- duced to the duchy of Gascogne, to the counties of Fesenzae and Armagnac, at tlie foot of the Pyrenees; their race was propagated till the beginning of the sixteenth century ; and, after surviving their Carlovingian tyrants, they were reserved to feel the injustice, or the favours, of a third dynasty. By the reunion of Aquitain, France was en- larged to its present boundaries, with the additions of the Netherlands and Spain, as far as the Ehine. II. The Saracens liad been expelled from France V*y the grandfatlier and father of Charlemagne ; but they still possessed the greatest part of Spain, from the rock of Gibraltar to the * After a brief relation of his wars and conquests, (Vit. Carol. c. 5 — 14,) Egitihard recapitulates, in a few words (c. 15,) the countries subject to his empire. Struvius (Corpus Hist. German, p. 118 — 149,) has inserted in his Notes the texts of the old Chronicles. + [They bore the same relation to the Franks, as the Welsh to the Anglo-Saxons. Gibbon wrote their name Britons ; they ought to be distinguished as Bretons. — Ed. J J Of a charter granted to the monastery of Alaon (a.d. 845,) by Charles the Bald, which deduces this royal pedi- gree. I doubt whether some subsequent links of the ninth and tenth centuries are equally firm ; yet the whole is approved and defended by M. Gaillard (torn. ii. p. 60—81. 203—206), who affirms that the family of Montesquiou (not of the president de Montesquieu) is descended in the female line front Clotaire and Clovis — au iuuooent pretension ! & i>. TOS-Sll.] SPANISH MARCH. — ITALY. 409 Pyrenees. Amidst tlicir civil divisions, an Arabian emir (if. Saragossa implored his protection in the diet of Paderborn. ClKU'lemaf^no uiidiTtook the expedition, restored the emir, and, without distinction of laith, impartially crushed the resistance of the Christians, and rewarded the obedience and service ot tlie ^Mahometans. In his absence he insti- tuted the iSpani^h march * which extended from tlie Pyrenees to the river Ebro : Barcelona was the residence of the French governor: he possessed the counties of Rousillon and Catalonia ; and tlie infant kingdoms of Navarre and Arragon were subject to his jurisdiction. III. As king of the Lombards, and patrician of Home, he reigned over the greatest part of lTALY,t a tract of a thousand miles from the Alps to tlic borders of Cahibria. The duciiy of Bcne- venfum, a Lombard lief, liad spread, at the expense of the (ireeks, over the modern kingdom of Naples. But Arrechis, the reigning duke, refused to be included in the slavery of his country ; assumed the independent title of prince ; and opposed his sword to the Carlovingian monarchy. His defence was firm, his submission was not inglorious, and the em])eror was content with an easy tribute, tlie demo- lition of his fortresses, and the acknowledgment, on his coins, of a supreme lord. The artful tlattery of his son Griinoald added the appellation of father, but he asserted * The governors or counts of the Spanish march revolted from Charles the Simple about the year 900; and a poor pittance, the Kou.silloii, has been recovered in 1642 by the kings of France. (Lou- giierue, Description de la France, tom. i. p. 2'20 — 222.) Yet the liousillon contains one humlred and eighty-eight thousand nine hundred subjects, and annually pays two millions six hundred thou- sand livres (Necker, Administration des Finances, tom. i. p. 278, 279) ; more people perhaps, and doubtless more money, than the march of Charlemagne. [The Spanisk march, if not a doubtful, was at least a very fluctuating, ap[)eniingo to the emi)ire of Charlemagne. Occupied in succession, either partly or wholly, by Franks, by Saracens, and by rebel chiefs, it yielded no jiermanent resources to any of the couten little did they know of their adversaries, that the name of Churie< mague is not to be found in their pages. — Ed.] t Schv idt, Uist. des AUemands, torn. iL p. 200, &,c 410 EMPIRE OP CHARLEMAGNE. [^n. XLTX, his dignity with prudence, and Eeneventum insensibly escaped from the French yoke.* IV. Charlemagne was the first who united Germany under the same sceptre. The name of Oriental France is preserved in the circle of Fran- conia ; and the people of Hesse and Thiirinr/ia were recently incorporated with the victors, by the conformity of religion and government. The AUemanni, so formidable to the Jlomans, were the faithful vasisals and confederates of the Franks ; and their country was inscribed within the modern limits of Alsace, Sicahia, and Switzerland. The Bavarians, with a similar indulgence of their laws and manners, were less patient of a master ; the repeated treasons of Tasillo justified the abolition of their hereditary dukes; and their power was shared among the counts, who judged and guarded that important frontier. But the north of Ger- many, from the Ehine, and beyond the Elbe, was still hostile and Pagan ; nor was it till after a war of thirty-three years that the Saxons bowed under the yoke of Christ and of Charlemagne. The idols and their votaries vrere extir- pated; the foundation of eight bishopries, of Munster, Osnaburgh, Paderborn, and Minden, of Bremen, Verden, Plildesheim, and Halberstadt, define, on either side of the Weser, the bounds of ancient Saxony ; these episcopal seats were the first schools and cities of that savage land ; and the religion and humanity of the children atoned, in some degree, for the massacre of the parents. Beyond the Elbe, the Slavi, or Sclavenians, of similar manners and various denominations, overspread the modei'n dominions of Prussia, Poland, and Bohemia, and some transient marks of obe- dience have tempted the French historian to extend the empire to the Baltic and the Vistula. The conquest or conversion of those countries is of a more recent age ; but the first union of Bohemia with the Germanic body may be justly ascribed to the arms of Charlemagne. V. He reta- liated on the Avars, or Huns, of Pannonia, the same cala- mities which they had inflicted on the nations. Their rings, the wooden fortifications which encircled their dis- tricts and villages, were broken down by the triple effort of a French army that was poured into their country by land und water, through the Carpathian mountains, and along • See Giannone, torn, i p. 371, 375, ttud Uie Aiuials of MuratorL A.D. 7G8-811.] OEUMANT. — PANNONIA. 411 the plain of the Danube. After a bloody conflict of eight yeai's, the loss of some French generals was avenged by the slaughter of the most noble Huns; the relics of the nation submitted : the roval residence of the chagan was left desolate and unknown; and the treasures, the rapine of two hundred and lifty years, encircled the victorious troops, or decorated the churches of Italy and Gaul.* After the reduction of Pannouia the empire of Cliarlemagne \\as bounded only by the conflux of the Danube with the "JY'vss and the Save ; the provinces of Istria, Liburnia, and Dalmatia, were an easy, though unprofitable, accession ; and it was an effect of his moderation, that he left the maritime cities under the real or nominal sovereignty of the Greeks. But these distant possessions added more to the reputation than to the power of the Latin emperor; nor did lie risk any ecclesiastical foundations to reclaim the Barbarians from their vagrant life and idolatrous worship. iSome canals of communication between the rivers Saone and the Meu'^'e, the llhine and the Danube, were faintly attempted. t Their execution would have vivified the em- pire ; and more cost and labour were often wasted in the structure of a cathedral. If we retrace the outlines of this geographical picture, it will be seen that the empire of the Franks extended between east and west, from the Ebro to the Elbe or Vistula; between the north and south, from the duchy of Bene- ventum to the river Eyder, the perpetual boundary of Germany and Denmark. The personal and political im- portance of Charlemagne was magnified by the distress and * Quot prcclia in eo gesta ! quantum sanguinis effusum sit ! Tes- tatur vacua onini habitatione Paunonia, et locus in quo regia Cagani fuit ita desertus, ut ne vestigium quidem bumanic habitationis appa- reat. Tota in hoe bello Hunnorum nobilitas periit, tota gloria decidit, omnia pecunia et congesti ex lougo tempore thesauri direpti sunt Eginhard, 113. t The junction of the Rhine and Danube was undertaken only for the service of the Pannonian war. (Gaillard, Vie de Charlemagne, tom. ii. p. 312 — 315.) The canal, which wuul 1 have been only two leagues in length, and of which some traces are still extant in Swabiu, was interrujited by excessive rains, military avocations, and superstitious fears. (Schocpflin. Hist, de I'Aca- demie des Inscriptions, toui. xviii. p. 256. Moliniina fluviorum, &c. jungendorum, p. 59 — 1!2. [Muratori says, that it was intended to facilitate commerce. He regrets, without accounting for, the failui-a of the undertaking. (Aunali d'lt.ilia, x. 3c4 ) — Er.j *12 >-EIGnBOURS OF CUARLEMAGNE. [CH. XLIX. division of the rest of Europe. The islands of Great Britain and Ireland were disputed by a crowd of princes of Saxon or Scottish origin ; and after the loss of Spain, the Christian and Gothic kingdom of Alphonso the Chaste waa confined to the narrow range of the Asturian mountaiufi These petty sovereigns revered the power or virtue of the Carlovingian monarch, implored the honour and support of his alliance, and styled him their common parent, the sole and supreme emperor of the West.* He maintained a more equal intercourse with the caliph Ilarun al llashid,t whose dominion stretched from Africa to India, and accepted from his ambassadors a tent, a water-clock, an elephant, and the keys of the holy sepulchre. It is not easy to conceive the private friendship of a Frank and an Arab, who "Were strangers to each other's person, and language, and religion ; but theu' public correspondence was fauuded on vanity, and their remote situation left no room for a competition of interest. Two-thirds of the Western empire of Eome were subject to Ciiarlemagne, and the deficiency was amply supplied by his command of the inaccessible or invincible nations of Germany. But in the choice of his enemies, we may be reasonably surprised that he so often preferred the poverty of the north to the riches of the south. The three-and-thirty campaigns laboriously con- sumed in the woods and morasses of Germany would have sufficed to assert the amplitude of his title by the expulsion of the Greeks from Italy and the Saracens from Spain. The weakness of the Greeks would have ensured an easy victory ; and the holy crusade against the Saracens would * See Eginharcl, c. 16, and Gaillard, torn. ii. p. 361 — 385, who men- tions, with a loose reference, the intercourse of Charlemagne and Kgbert, the emperor's gift of his own sword, and the modest answer of his Saxon disciple. The anecdote, if genuine, would have adorned our English histories. [Egbert's residence in France for three years, liefore he was called to the throne of Wessex, is noticed by the Saxon Chronicle (a.d. 836, p. 347, edit. Bohn), which is copied by subsequent <;hroniclers. William of Malmesbury (ii. 1) adds other particulars. Lappenljerg (Hist. Ang.-Sax. ii. 1) extends the term to thirteen years, and styles Charlemagne Egbei't's " powerful friend." (lb. p. 5.) — Ed.] f The correspondence is mentioned only in th^ French annals, and the Orientals are ignorant oi the caliyjh's friendship for the Chris- tian dof) — a polite appellation, which llarun beatowa on the emperor ol the (jreeka. A.i). 814 8SG.] , nis succEssons, 413 have been prompted by f?lory and rcvcnsfo, and loudly justified by relii^iou and policy. Perhaps, in his expeditions beyond tlie Rhine and Elbe, he aspired to save his monarchy from the fate of the lloman empire, to disarm the enemies of civilized society, and to eradicate the seed of future emigrations. But' it has been wisely observed, that in a light of precaution, all conquest must be ineflectual, unless it could be universal ; since the increasing circle must be involved in a larger sphere of hostility.* The subjugation of Germany witiidrew the veil wiiich had so long concealed the continent or islands of Scandinavia from the knowledge of Europe, and awakened the torpid courage of their bar- barous natives.t The fiercest of the Saxon idolaters escaped from the Christian tyrant to their brethren of the north ; tlie ocean and Mediterranean were covered with their piratical fleets; and Cliarlemagne beheld with a sigh the destructive progress of the iS'ormans, who, in less than seventy years, precipitated the fall of his race and monarchy. Had the pope and the Romans revived the primitive con- stitution, the titles of emperor and Augustus were conferred on Charlemagne for the term of his life, and his successors, on each vacancy, must have ascended the throne by a formal or tacit election. But the association of his son Lewis the Pious asserts the independent right of monarchy and con- quest, and the emperor seems on this occasion to have foreseen and prevented the latent claims of the clergy. The royal youth was commanded to take the crown from the all-ar, and with his own hands to place it on his head, as a gift which he held from God, his father, and the nation. J * Gaillard, torn. ii. p. 361— 3G5. 471—476. 492. I have borrowed his judicious remarks on Charlemogue's plan of conquest, and the judicious distinction of his enemies of the first and the second ewehtle ';tom. ii. p. 1&4. 509, &c). + [Here, too, is dispelled the mist of fable, through which Jornandes and his followers taught early historians to view the northern " hive of nations ;" and for the first time Scandinavia is clearly discerned. — Ed.] X Thegan, tlie biographer of Lewis, relates this coronation ; and Baronius has honestly transcribed it(A.D. 813, No. 13, &c. see Gaillard, toni. iL p. .'iOe — 508), howsoever adverse to the claims of the popes. For the series of the Carlovingians, see the historians of France. Italy, and Germany; Plefi"el, Schmidt, VeDy, Muratori, and even VolUire, jrhoee pictures are sometimes just, and always pleasing. 411 DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE. [CH. XLIX. The same ceremony was repeated, though with less energy, ill the subsequent associations of Lothaire and Lewis 11.; the Carlovingian sceptre was transmitted from father to sou in a lineal descent of four generations ; and the ambition of the popes was reduced to the empty honour of crowning and anointing these hereditary princes who were already invested with their power and dominions. The pious Lewis survived liis brothers, and embraced the whole empire of Charlemagne ; but the nations and the nobles, his bishops and his children, quickly discerned that this mighty mass was no longer inspired by the same soul; and the foundations were undermined to the centre, while the external surface was yet fair and entire. After a war, or battle, which con- sumed one hundred thousand Franks, the empii'e was divided by treaty between his three sons, who had violated every filial and fraternal duty. The kingdoms of Germany and France were for ever separated ; the provinces of Gaul, between the Rhone and the Alps, the Mouse and the Rhine, were assigned, with Italy, to the imperial dignity of Lothaire. In the partition of his share, Lorraine and Aries, two recent and transitory kingdoms, were bestowed on the younger children ; and Lewis II. his eldest son, was content with the realm of Italy, the proper and sufficient patrimony of a Ro- man emperor. On his death without any male issue, the vacant throne was disputed by his uncles and cousins, and tlie popes most dexterously seized the occasion of judging the claims and merits of the candidates, and of bestowing on the most obsequious, or most liberal, the imperial office of advocate of the Roman church. The dregs of the Carlo- vingian race no longer exhibited any symptoms of virtue or power, and the ridiculous epithets of the hald, the stammerer, %'WGfat, and the simple, distinguished the tame and uniform features of a crowd of kings alike deserving of oblivion. By the failure of the collateral branches, the whole inheritance devolved to Charles the Fat, the last emperor of his family ; his insanity authorized the desertion of Germany, Italy, and France ; he was deposed in a diet, and solicited his daily bread from the rebels by whose contempt his life and liberty had been spared. According to the measure of their force, the governors, the bishops, and the lords, usurped the frag- ments of the falling empire ; and some preference was shewn to the female or illegitimate blood of Charlemagne. Of the A.D. 9U2.] OTnO, KIN'O OF 0EIIMA5T. 4.15 groator part, the title and possession were alike doubtful, and the merit was adequate to the contracted scale of their dominions. Those who could appear with aii army at the plates of Kome were crowned emperors in the A'^atiean, but their modesty was more frequently satisfied with tlie appel- hition of kiiii^s of Italy ; and tlie whole term of seventy- four years may be deemed a vacancy, from the abdication of C'iinrles the Fat to the establishment of Otho I. Otho* was of the noble race of the dukes of Saxony ; and if tie truly descended from Witikind, the adversary and proselyte of Charlemagne, the posterity of a vanquished people was exalted to reign over their conquerors. His father, Henry the Fowler, was elected, by the suffrage of the nation, to save and institute the kinc:dom of Germany. Its limitst were enlarged on every side by his son, the first and greatest of the Othos. A portion of Gaul, to the west of the lihine, along the banks of the ]Meuse and the Moselle, was assigned to the Germans, by whose blood and language ic has been tinged since the time of Cirsar and Tacitus. Between the Rhine, the Rhone, and the Alps, the successor.^ of Otho acquired a vain supremacy over the broken king- doms of Burgundy and Aries. In the north, Christianity was propagated by the sword of Otho. the conqueror and apostle of the Slavic nations of the Elbe and Oder ; the marches of Brandenburg and Sleswick were fbrtiiied with German colonies ; and the king of Denmark, the dukes of Poland and Bohemia, confessed themselves his tributary vassals. At the head of a victorious army, he passed the Alps, subdued the kingdom of Italy, delivered the pope, and for ever fixed the imperial crown in the name and nation of Germany. From that memorable era, two maxims of public * He was the son of Otho, the son of Ludolph, in whose favour the (Inchy of Saxony had been instituted, a.d, 85S. Ruotgerus, the biographer of a St. Bruno (BiMiot. Bunaviantc Catalog, torn. iii. vol. ii. ]). (579), gives a s)>lendid character of his family. Atavorum atavi usque ad honiiuuin niemoriam onmes nobilissimi ; nullus in eoruni stirpe ignotus, nullus degener facile reperitur (apud Struvium, Corp. Hist. German, p. 216). Yet Gundling (in Henrico Aucupe) is not satisfied of his descent from Witikind. + See the treatise of Coringius (de Finibus Inijierii Germanici, Franoofurt. 1680, in quarto) : he rejects the extravagant and improper scale of the lloman and Carlovingiau empires, and discussc.-s with moderation the rights of Germany, her vassals, and her neighbours. 416 TRANSACTIONS OF THE WESTI ilN [cil XLIX jurisprudence were introduced by force and ratified by time. I. That the prince ■wiio was elected in the German diet, acquired from that instant the subject kingdoms of Italy and Kome. II. But tliat he might not legally aasume the titles of emperor and Augustus, till he had received the crown from the hands of the lioman pontiff.* Ttie imperial dignity of Charlemagne was announced to the East by the alteration of his style ; and instead of salut- ing his fathers, the Greek emperors, he presumed to adopt tlie more equal and familiar appellation of brotlier.f Per- haps in his connection with Irene he aspired to the name of luisband ; his embassy to Constantinople spoke the language of peace and friendship, and might conceal a treaty of mar- riage with that ambitious princess, who had renounced tlie most sacred duties of a motlier. The nature, the duration, the probable consequences, of such a union between two distant and dissonant empires, it is impossible to conjecture ; but the unanimous silence of the Latins may teach us to sus])ect, that the report was invented by the enemies of Irene, to charge her with the guilt of betraying the church and state to the strangers of the AVest.J The French am- bassadors were the spectators, and had nearly been the victims, of the conspiracy of Nicephorus, and the national hatred. Constantinople was exasperated by the treason and sacrilege of ancient Eome ; a proverb, " that the Franks were good friends and bad neighbours," was in every one's moutli ; but it was dangerous to provoke a neighbour who might be tempted to reiterate, in the church of St. Sophia, the ceremony of his imperial coronation. After a tedious * The power of custom forces me to number Coni-ad I. and Henry I. 'Tie Fowler, in the list of emperors, .a title which was never assumed hy those kinsjs of Germany. The Italians, Muratori, for instance, are more scrupulous and correct, and only reckon the princes who have been crowned at lionie. + Invidiam tamen suscepti uomiuis (C. P. imperatoribus super hoc indignantibus) magna tulit patientia, vicitque eorum contumaciam .... mittendo ad eos crebras legationes, et in epistolis fratres eos appellando (Eginhard, c. 28, p. 128). Perhaps it was on their account that, like Augustus, he affected some reluctance to receive the empire. X Theophanes speaks of the coronation and unction of Charles, Knpoi'Wof (Chronograph, p. 399), and of his treaty of marriage with Irene (p. 402), whicli is unknown to the Latins. (Jaillard relates Li« trauijaotious with the Greek empire (torn, il p. 4^6 — 4Gib^. i.D. 9G2.] AND eastehn empiiies. 417 journey of circuit and delay, the ambassadors of Nicophorus found him in his camp, on the banks of the river Sahi ; and Charlemagne affected to confound their vanity by disphiying, in a Franconian viUage, the pomp, or at least the pride, of the Bvzantine palace.* The Greeks were successively led through four halls of audience: in the first, they were ready to fall prostrate before a splendid personage in a chair of state, till he informed them that he was only a servant, the constable, or master of the horse of the emperor. Tlie same mistake, and the same answer, were repeated in the apart- ments of the count palatine, the steward, and the chamber- lain ; and their impatience was gradually heightened, till the doors of the presence-chamber were thrown open, and they beheld the genuine monarch, on his throne, enriched with the foreign luxury which he despised, and encircled with the love and reverence of his victorious chiefs. A treaty of peace and alliance was concluded between the two empires, and the limits of the East and AVest were defined by the right of present possession. But the Greeks t soon forgot this humiliating equality, or remembered it only to hate the Barbarians by whom it was extorted. During the short union of virtue and power, they respectfully saluted the august Charlemagne with the acclamations of hasUeus, and emperor of the liomans. As soon as these qualities were separated in the person of his pious son, the Byzantine letters were inscribed, "To the king, or, as he styles himself, the emperor of the Franks and Lombards." AVhen both power and virtue were extinct, they despoiled Lewis II. of his hereditary title, and, with the barbarous appellation of rex or rega, degraded him among the crowd of Latin princes. His reply J is expressive of his weakness : he pi'oves, with * Gaillard very properly observes, that this pageant was a farce suitable to children only; but that it was indeed represented in tha presence, and tor the benefit, of children of a larger growth. + Compare, in the original texts collected by Pagi (torn. iii. a.D. 812, No. 7 ; A.D. 8'24, No. lU, &c.), the contrast of Charlemagne and his son : to the former the ambassadors of Michael (who were indeed disavowed), more suo, id est lingua Grasca laudes diserunt, inipera- torem eum et BaaiXfa appellantea ; to the latter, Vocat'i imperatori Fvancorum, &c. % See the epistle in Paralipomena, of the anonymous writer of Salerno (Script. Ital. torn. ii. para 2, p. 213— 254, c. 93 — 107), whom Baroniua (a.d. 871, No. 51—71) mistook for Erchempert, when he transcribed it iu hLs Auuiihi. VOL. V. o J, 418 ATTTnORITl' OV THE EMPERORS IN [cH. TLTT, some learning, tliat both in sacred and profane history, the name of king is synonymous with the Greek word hasileus : if, at Constantinople, it were assumed in a more exchisive and imperial sense, he claims from his ancestors, and from the pope, a just participation of the honours of the Roman purple. The same controversy was revived in the reign of the Othos ; and their ambassador describes, in lively colours, the insolence of the Byzantine court.* Tlie Greeks affected to despise the poverty and ignorance of the Franks and Saxons ; and in their last decline refused to prostitute to the kings of Germany the title of Roman emperors. These emperors, in the election of the popes, continued to exercise the powers which had been assumed by the Gothic and Grecian princes; and the importance of this prerogative increased with the temporal estate and spiritual jurisdiction of the Roman church. In the Christian aris- tocracy, the principal members of the clergy still formed a senate to assist the administration, and to supply the vacancy, of the bishop. Rome was divided into twenty- eight parishes, and each parish was governed by a cardinal- priest, or presbyter, a title which, however common and modest in its origin, has aspired to emulate the purple of kings. Their number was enlarged by the association of the seven deacons of the most considerable hospitals, the seven palatine judges of the Lateran, and some dignitaries of the church. This ecclesiastical senate was directed by the seven cardinal-bishops of the Roman province, who were less occupied in the suburb dioceses of Ostia, Porto, Velitrse, Tusculum, Prseneste, Tibur, and the Sabines, than by their weekly service in the Lateran, and their superior share in the honours and authority of the apostolic see. On the death of the pope, these bishops recommended a successor to the suffrage of the college of cardinals,t and * Ipse enim voi?, non imperatorem id est BaaiXsa sua liuguli, sed ob ludignationem Priya, id est regem nostra vocabat. Liutpraud (iu Legat. in Scrijit. Ital. torn. ii. pars 1, p. 479). The pope had exhorted Nicephorus, emperor of the Greeks, to make peace with Otho, the •ugust emperor of the Romans — quse inscriptio secundum Grseco? pecca.toria et temeraria .... impei-atorem inquiunt, universalem, Romanorum, Auf/ustum, magnum, solum, Nicephoium (p. 486). t The origin and progress of the title of cardinal may be found in Thomassin (Discipline d'Eglise, torn. i. p, 12C1 — 1298), Mnratoii (Autiquitat. italiio Medii -i^vi, torn. vL dissert. 61, p. 159 — 182), ai\d A.D. SCO-IOGO.] THE ELECTTOX OF THE POPES. 'llf) tlit'ir choice was ratified or rejected by the applause or clamour of the Koniaii people. lint the election was iiiipcrt'ect; nor could the pontift" be legally consecrated till the emperor, the advocate of the church, had graciously sif^nified his approbation and consent. The roval com- missioner examined, on the spot, the form and freedom of the proceedinn;s: nor was it, till after a previous scrutiny into the cpialifioations of the candidates, that he accepted au oath of lidelity, and confirmed the donations which had successively enriciied the patrimony of St. Peter. In the frequent schisms, the rival claims were submitted to the sentence of the emperor; and in a synod of bishops he presumed to judi^e, to oondemti, and to punish, the crimes of a guilty pontiii". Oliio 1. imposed a treaty on the senate and people, who engaged to prefer the candidate most acceptable to his majesty;* his successors anticipated or jirevented their choice : they bestowed the Eoman benefice like the bishoprics of Cologne or Bamberg, on their chan- oollors or preceptors; and whatever might be the merit of a Frank or Saxon, his name sufficiently attests the inter- position of foi-eign power. These acts of prerogative were most speciously excused by the vices of a popular election. The competitor who had been excluded by the cardinals nppealed to the passions or avarice of the multitude ; the Vatican and the Lateran were stained with blood ; and the most powerful senators, the marquises of Tuscany and the counts of Tusculum, held the apostolic see in a long and disgraceful servitude. The Roman pontiffs, of the ninth and tenth centuries, were insulted, imprisoned, and mur- dered, by their tyrants ; and such was their indigence after the loss and usurpatiou of the ecclesiastical patrimonies, that they could neither support the state of a prince, nor Mosheim (Tnstitut. Hist. Eccles. p. 345 — 347), who accurately remarks th'j forms and changes of the election. The cardinal-bishop.s, so highly exalted by Peter Damianus, are sunk to a level with the rest of the .sacred college. * Firuiiter jurautes, nunquam se papam electuroa aut ordinaturos, prrcter consensum et electionem Othonis et filii sui (Liutprand, 1. 6, c. (!, p. 472). This important concession may either supply or cinfirm the decree of the clergy and people of Rome, 90 fiercely rejected by B:ironius, Piigi, and Jliiratori (A.D. 964), and so well defen freedom and independence of election, and for ever to abolish the right or usurpation of the emperors and the lloman people. II. To bestow and resume the Western empire as a fief or benefice t of the church, and to extend his temporal dominion Maria or Marozia; but contends tliat John XI. was her legitimate son by her husband Alberico, marquis of Camerino, and discredits the " shmder of Liutjirand," who asserted that this pontiff was the oilspring of her adultery with pope Sergius III. Cardinal Baronius, however, believed these "calumniators," and called JohuXI." pseudo- pontifex." (Annali d'ltalia. xii. 273. 277. 380.)— Ed.] * Lateranense palatinm .... prostibulum meretricum . . . Testis omnium gentium, pneterquam Romanorum, absentia muliernm, qn.-n eanctorum apostolorum limina orandi gratia timent visere, cum uon. nuUas ante dies paucos, hunc audierint conjngatas, viduas, virgiues, vi opliressisse. (Liutprand, Hist. 1. 6, c. 6, p. 471. See the whole aflair of John XII. p. 471—470.) t A new example of the niischiff of equivocation is the bentjicium (Dueange, torn. i. p. 617, &c.) which the pope conferred on the emperor Frederic I. since the Latin 422 AUTIIOEITT OF THE EMPEROES IN EOME. [CH. ILIX. over the kings and kingdoms of the earth. After a contest ut fifty years, the first of these designs was accomplished by the firm support of tlie ecclesiastical order, whose liberty was connected with that of their chief. But the second attempt, though it was crowned with some partial and apparent success, has been vigoi'ously resisted by the secular power, and finally extinguished by the improvement of human reason. In the revival of the empire of Eome, neither the bishop nor the people could bestow on Ciiarlemagne or Otho the provinces which were lost, as they had been won, by the chance of arms. But the Eomans were free to choose a master for themselves ; and the powers which had been delegated to the patrician, Mere irrevocably granted to the French and Saxon emperors of the West. The broken records of the times* preserve some remembrance of their palace, their mint, their tribunal, their edicts, and the sword of justice, which, as late as the thirteenth century, was derived from Csesar to the prefect of the city.f Be- tween the arts of the popes and the violence of the people, this supremacy was crushed and annihilated. Content with the titles of emperor and Augustus, the successors of Charlemagne neglected to assert this local jurisdiction. In the hour of prosperity, their ambition was diverted by more alluring objects: and in the decay and division of the empire, they were oppressed by the defence of their here- ditary provinces. Amidst the ruins of Italy, the famous Marozia invited one of the usurpers to assume the char- acter of her third husband ; and Hugh, king of Burgundy, was introduced by her faction into the mole of Hadrian, or castle of St. Angelo, which commands the principal bridge and entrance of Eome. Her son by the first marriage, Alberic, w^as compelled to attend at the nuptial banquet ; ■word may signify either a legal fief, or a simple favour, an obligation (we want the word bienfait). See Schmidt, Hist, des AUemanda, torn. iii. p. 393 — 4U8. Pfeffel, Abr^gd Chronologique, tom. i. p. 229. 296. 317. 324. 420. 430. 500. 505. 509, &c. * For the history of the emperors in Rome and Italy, see Sigonius de Regno Italijc, 0pp. tom. ii. with the notes of Saxius, and the Annals of Muratori, who might refer more distinctly to the authors of his great collection. + See the Dissertation of Le Blano at the end of his Treatise des Monnoyes de France, in which ha pro- duces some Roman coins of the French emperors. 4.D. 9G7.1 POPE JonN III. 423 but his reluctant and ungraceful service was chastised with a blow by his new father. The blow was productive of a revolution. " Konians (e.xchiiincd the yriutti), once you were the masters of the world, and these Burgundians the most abject of your slaves. They now reign, these vora- cious and brutal savages, and my injury is the com- mencement of your servitude."* The alarum-bell rang to arms in every quarter of the city ; the Burgundians re- treated with haste and shame; ]Marozia was imprisoned by her victorious son ; and his brother, pope John XI., was reduced to the exercise of his spiritual functions. AV^ith the title of prince, Alberic possessed above twenty years the government of Eome, and he is said to have gratified the popular prejudice, by restoi-ing the oilice, or at least the title, of consuls and tribunes. His son and heir Octavian assumed, with the pontificate, the name of John XII. ; like his predecessor, he was provoked by the Lombard princes to seek a deliverer for the church and republic ; and the services of Otho were rewarded with the imperial dignity. But the Saxon was imperious, the Eomans were impatient, the festival of the coronation was disturbed by the secret conflict of prerogative and freedom, and Otho commanded his sword-bearer not to stir from his person, lest he should be assaulted and murdered at the foot of the altar.f Before he repassed the Alps, the emperor chastised the revolt of the people, and the ingratitude of John XII. The pope was degraded in a synod ; the prefect was mounted on an ass, whipped through the city, and cast into a dungeon; thirteen of the most guilty were hanged, others were muti- lated or banished; and this severe process was justified by the ancient laws of Theodosius and Justinian. The voice of fame has accused the second Otho of a perfidious and bloody act, the massacre of the senators, whom he had invited to his table under the fair semblance of hospitality and friendship. J In the minority of his son Otho III., • Romauorura aliquando servi, scilicet Burgundiones, Romania imperent? . , . Rouiaiue urbis digiiitasad tantam est stultitiara ducta, ut lueretricum etiam iniperio pareat ? (Liutpraiid, 1. 3, c. 12, p. 450.) Sigonius (1. 6, p. 400) positively affirms the renovation of the consul- ship ; but in tlie old writers Albericus is more frequently styled, princeps Romauorum. t Ditmar, p. 354. apud Schmidt, torn. iii. p. 489. t ^^^ bloody feast is described in Leouiu* 424 THE CONSUL CRESCENXIUb. [CH. XLIX. Home made a bold attempt to shake off the Saxon yoke, and the consul Cresccntius was the Brutus of the I'epublic. From the condition of a subject and an exile, he twice rose to the command of the city, oppressed, expelled, and created the popes, and formed a conspiracy for restoring the authority of the Greek emperors. In the fortress of St. Angelo, he maintained an obstinate siege, till the nnfortunate consul was betrayed by a promise of safety : his body was sus- pended on a gibbet, and his head was exposed on the battle- ments of the castle. By a reverse of fortune, Otho, after separating his troops, was besieged three days, without food, in his palace; and a disgraceful escape saved him from the justice or fury of the Eomans. The senator Ptolemy was the leader of the people, and the widow of Crescentius en- joyed the pleasure or the fame of revenging her husband by a poison which she administered to her imperial lover. It was the design of Otho III. to abandon the ruder coun- tries of the north, to erect his throne in Italy, and to revive the institutions of the Eoman monarchy. But his successors only once in their lives appeared on the banks of the Tiber, to receive their crown in the Vatican.* Their absence was contemptible, their presence odious and for- midable. They descended from the Alps, at the head of their barbarians, who were strangers and enemies to the country ; and their transient visit was a scene of tumult and bloodshed. t A faint remembrance of their ancestors verse in the Pantheon of Godfrey of Viterbo (Script. Ital. torn. vii. p. 436, 437), who flourished towards the end of the twelfth century (Fabricius, Bibliot. Latin, med. et iufimi ^Evi, torn. iii. p. 69, edit. Mausi), but his evidence, which imposed on Sigonius, is reasonably suspected by Muratori. (Annali, torn. vili. p. 177.) [Muratori does more than suspect ; he says " queste son tutte fandouie " (these are all lies). Yet the story, having once found its way into Chronologies, is repeated by them even to the present time. In that of Blair, repub- lished in 1844, under the respectable sanction of Sir Henry Ellis, we find at a.d. 981, " Otho II. massacres his chief nobility at an enter- tainment to which he had invited them." — Ed.] * The coronation of the emperor, and some original ceremonies of the tenth centui-y, are preserved in the Panegyric on Berengariua (Script. Ital. tom. ii. pars 1. 405 — 414), illustrated by the notes of Hadrian Valesius, and Leibnitz. Sigonius has related the whole process of the Roman expedition in good Latin, but with some errors of time and fact (1. 7, p. 441 — 440). + In a quarrel at tbt corouatiou of Cuurad II. Muratori takes leave to observe— doveaou A.D. 771-1250.] THE Kl.VGUOM OF ITALY, 425 Btill tormented the Eomans; and they beheld with pious indignation the succession of Saxons, Franks, fSwabians, and Bohemians, who usurped the purple and prerogatives ol" the Caesars. There is nothinfj perhaps more adverse to nature and reason, than to hold in obedience remote countries and foreign nations, in opposition to their inclination and interest. A torrent of barbarians may pass over the earth, but an extensive empire must be supported by a refined system of policy and oppression : in the centre, an absolute power, prompt in action, and rich in resources: a swift and easy communication with the extreme parts : fortiiioations to check the first eflbrt of rebellion : a regular administra- tion to protect and punish : and a well-disciplined army to inspire fear, without provoking discontent and despair. Far dilTerent was the situation of the German Cajsars, who were ambitious to enslave the kingdom of Italy. Their patrimonial estates were stitched along the Rhine, or scat- tered in the provinces; but this ample domain was alienated by the imprudence or distress of successive princes ; and their revenue, from minute and vexatious prerogative, waa scarcely sufiicient for the maintenance of their household. Their troops were formed by the legal or voluntary service of their feudal vassals, who passed the Alps with reluctance, assumed the licence of rapine and disorder, and capriciously deserted before the end of the campaign. AVhole armies were swept away by the pestilential inlluence of the climate; the survivors brought back the bones of their princes and nobles,* and the ellects of tlieir own intemperance were ben essere allora, indisciplinati, Barbari, e bestiall i Teclei3chi. Annal. torn, viii. p. 3(38. [The different Gothic States had arrived at such a point of civilization, that the term barbarians can no longer be correctly applied to them. — Ed.] * After boiling away tlie flesh. The caldrons for that purpose wer« a necessary piece of travelling furniture; and a German who was usinfj it for hisbrotlier, promised it to a friend, after it should have been employed for himself (Schmidt, torn. iii. p. 423, 4-24.) The same author observes that the whole Saxon line was extinguished in Italy (torn. ii. p. 440). [It does not appear that these caldron.s were actually part of their cami)-equipage ; they could be obtained in Italy, and it was needless to encumber a long march with them. It is certain that the ranks of the Genn;\n armies wore much thinned by disease in tha Boutheru climes, which they invaded, and that several emperora dioj 429 THE KINGDOM OF ITALY. [CH. XLIX, often imputed to the treachery and malice of the Italians, who rejoiced at least in the calamities of the Barbarians, This irregular tyranny might contend on. equal terms with the petty tyrants of Italy ; nor can the people, or the reader, be much interested in the event of the quarrel. But in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Lombards rekindled the flame of industry and freedom ; and the generous example was at length imitated by the republics of Tuscany. In the Italian cities a municipal government had never been totally abolished ; and their first privileges were granted by the favour and policy of the emperors, who were desirous of erecting a plebeian barrier against the independence of the nobles. But their rapid progress, the daily extension of their power and pretensions, were founded on the numbers and spirit of these rising communities.* Each city filled the measure of her diocese or district; the jurisdiction of the counts and bishops, of the Tnarquises and counts, was banished from the land ; and the proudest nobles were persuaded or compelled to desert their solitary castles, and to embrace the more honourable character of freemen and magistrates. The legislative authority was inherent in the general assembly; but the executive powers were intrusted there. Yet these disasters were much exaggerated by the papal party to make the warfare unpopular, aud eqnally by the imperial retainers, who engaged unwillingly in such expeditions. The vassals who carried back the bones ot their lords for interment in their native land, related such fearful tales of the hardships and calamities which they had endured, that all Germany was overwhelmed with consternation. Schmidt, Geschichte der Deutschen, 2. 625. — Ed.] * Otho. bishop of Freisingen, has left an important passage on the Italian cities (1. 2, c. 13, in Script. Ital. tom. vi. p. 707 — 710); and the rise, progress, and government, of these republics are perfectly illus« trated by Muratori (Antiquitat. Ital. Medii .^vi, tom. iv. dissert. 45— 52, p. 1 — 675. Annal. tom. viii. — x.). [Without any specific records of their origin, Mr. Hallam has well considered the first establishment of these small republics (Middle Ages, 1. 337 — 346). But he has not adverted to the fact that none scarcely are to be found beyond the limits of Northern Italy, into which the Lombards had transplanted the largest and most enduring portion of Gothic spirit. Even that of Amaljih', in the south, was surrounded by, and no doubt largely peopled from, their duchy of Beneventum. Similar assertions of independence in other branches of the same race, and the prosperity which followed, may be seen in the imperial cities of Germany, in the towns of the Neihei lands, and in the incorporated municipalities which Henry I. lujd hia successors chartered in England. — Eo.j A.D. 1152-1190.] FREDERIC I. 427 to tlirce consuls, annually choaon from the three orders of captains, vaJcassors* and coiiuiions, into whieli tlie republic was divided. Under the protection of equal law, the labours of agriculture and commerce were gradually revived ; but the martial spirit of the Lombards was nourished by the j)resence of danger; and as often as the bell was rung, or the standard t erected, the gates of the city poured forth a numerous and intrepid band, whose zeal in their own cause was soon guided by the use and discipline of arms. At the foot of these popular ramparts the pride of the Caesars was overthrown; and the invincible genius of liberty prevailed over the two Frederics, the greatest princes of the middle age : the first, superior perhaps in military prowess ; the second, who undoubtedly excelled in the softer accomplish- ments of peace and learning. Ambitious of restoring the splendour of the purple, Fre- deric I. invaded the republics of Lombardy, with the arts of a statesman, the valour of a soldier, and the cruelty of a tyrant. The recent discovery of the Pandects had renewed a science most favourable to despotism ; and his venal advocates proclaimed the emperor the absolute master of the lives and properties of his subjects. Ilis royal prero- gatives, in a less odious sense, were acknowledged in the diet of Roncaglia ; and the revenue of Italy was fixed at thirty thousand pounds of silver,^ which were multiplied to * For these titles, see Selden (Titles of Honour, vol. iii, part 1, p. 488), Ducange (Gloss. Latin, torn. ii. p. 140; torn. vi. p. 776), and St. Marc (Abreg^ Chronologique, torn, ii, p. 719). [Among the feudal terms of difficult interpi-etation, that of vahassores is the least under- stood. Ducange (6. 1439) gives them only the general and indefinite signification of " Vassalli feudales," and divides them into three classes, the majores or regii, the minores, and the minimi. German writers on feudal tenures have suggested various derivations of the word, which may be seen in Zedlers Lexicon (46. 457). The most pro- bable is that of v:allvasters, those to whose guardianship places of defence were intrusted, or to whom license was given to fortify their own dwellings. This distinguishes them from the holders of common fiefs, without castles, and they carried the distinction with them when they settled in walled cities. Mr. Hallam (1. 339) calls them "the lesser gentry." This might apply to the inferior orders, but not to the first class; they probably gave up the name for higher titles. — Ed.] + The Lombards invented and used the carocium, a standard planted on a car or wagon, drawn by a team of o.xen. (Ducange, torn. ii. p. 194, 195. Muratori, Antiquitat. torn. ii. dis. 26, p. 489 — 483.) i Guuther Liguriuus, 1. 8, 5S4, et seq. apud 428 FREDERIC IT. [CH. XLII an indefinite demand by the rapine of the fiscal ofilcers. Tlie obstinate cities were reduced by the terror or the force of his arms; his captives were delivered to the executioner, or shot from his military engines ; and, after the siege and surrender of Milan, the buildings of that stately capital were rased to the ground ; three hundred hostages were sent into Germany, and the inhabitants were dispersed in four villages, under the yoke of the inflexible conqueror.* But Milan soon rose from her ashes ; and the leagiie of Lombardy was cemented by distress : their cause was es- poused by Venice, Pope Alexander 111., and the Greek emperor: the fabric of oppression was overturned in a day; and in the treaty of Constance, Frederic subscribed, with some reservations, the freedom of four-and-twenty cities. His grandson contended with their vigour and maturity ; but Frederic II. f was endowed with some personal and peculiar advantages. His birth and education recommended him to the Italians ; and in the implacable discord of the two factions, the Ghibelins were attached to the emperor, while the Guelfs displayed the banner of liberty and the church. ij: The court of Eome had slumbered, when his father Henry VI. was permitted to unite with the empire the kingdoQis of Naples and Sicily; and from these here- Schmitlt, torn. iii. p. 399. [For Frederic's legal advocates at the diet of iloncaglia, see ch. 44, Note, p. 2. — Ed.] * Solus imperator faciem suam firmavit ut petrain. (Burcard. de Excidio Mediolani, Script. Ital. torn. vi. p. 917.) This volume of Muratori contains the original.s of the history of Frederic L, which must be compared with due regard to the circumstances and pre- judices of each German or Lombard writer. t For the history of Frederic II. and the house of Swabia at Naples, see Giannone, Istoria Civile, tom. ii. 1. 14 — 19. Z [For the origin of these party-names, see Hallam (2. 101). In that of Guelph we have a national interest. The Italian origin of the family is shown by Muratori. But the fir.st who bore the German name, was the eldest son of Isenbard of Altdorf, near Ravensburg in Suabia, and Irmentrud, the sister of Charlemagne. To account for it many fables are related. The most consistent and rational story is, that Isenbard was in attendance on (.'harlemagne, when a messenger informed him of the birth of his sou. He requested permission to go and greet his firstborn. " Why in such ha.ste to see the wolpe ?" (whelp) asked the emperor. This jocosely used epithet, the imperial godfatlier was requested solemnly to repeat at the font, where it was indelibly stamped on the infant and his descendants. Wdfus became the ancestor of some of the most distinguished families iu Europe. (Zed« lera Lexicon, 11. Iui4.)--ED.] A.D. 8U 1250.] INDEPF.NDEXCE OF OEUMAN' PEINCES. 429 (litary realms, the son derived an ample and ready siip[)ly of troops and treasure. Yet Frederie II. was iiiially op- pressed by tlie arms of the Lombards and the thunders of the Vatieiin ; his kin^'dom was given to a stranger, and the last of his famdy was beheaded at Naples on a public scaffold. During "sixty years, no emperor appeared in Italy, and the name was remembered only by the ignominious sale of the last relics of sovereignty. The Barbarian conquerors of the "West were pleased to decorate tlieir chief with the title of emperor; but it was not their design to invest him with the despotism of Con- stantino and Justinian. The persons of the Germans were free, their conquests were their own, and their national character was animated by a spirit which scorned the servile jurisprudence of the new or the ancient Rome. It would liave been a vain and dangerous attempt to impose a monarch on the armed freemen, who were im- l)atient of a magistrate; on the bold, who refused to obey; on the powerful, w!io aspired to coinmand. Tlie empire of Charlemagne and Otho was distributed among the dukes of the nations or provinces, the counts of the smaller districts, and the margraves of the marches or frontiers, who all united the civil and military authority as it had been delegated to the lieutenants of the first CiBsars. The Roman governors, who, for the most part, were soldiers of fortune, seduced their mercenary legions, assumed the imperial purple, and either failed or succeeded in their revolt, without wounding the power and unity of govern- ment. If the dukes, margraves, and counts of Germany were less audacious in their claims, the consequences of their success were more lasting and pernicious to the State. Instead of aiming at the supreme rank, they silently l;v- boured to establish and appropriate their provincial inde- pendence. Their ambition was seconded by the weight of their estates and vassals, their mutual example and support, the common interest of the subordinate nobility, tlie change of princes and families, the minorities of Otho III. and Henry IV., the ambition of the popes, and the vain pur- suit of the fugitive crowns of Italy and Rome. All the attributes of regal and territorial jurisdiction were gra- dually usurped by the comuiauders of the ])rovinces: the right of peace and war, of life and death, of coinage and 430 INDEPENDENCE CF OERMAJir PRINCES. [CH. XLIX. taxation, of foreign alliance and domestic economy. What- ever had been seized by violence, was ratified by favour or distress, was granted as the price of a doubtful vote or a voluntary service ; whatever had been granted to one, could not, without injury, be denied to his successor or equal; and every act of local or temporary possession was insen- sibly moulded into the constitution of the Germanic king- dom. In every province, the visible presence of the duke or count was interposed between the throne and the nobles ; the subjects of the law became the vassals of a private chief; and the standard, which 7«e received from his sove- reign, was often raised against him in the field. The tem- poral power of the clergy was cherished and exalted by the superstition or policy of the Carlovingian and ISaxon dy- nasties, who blindly depended on their moderation and fidelity ; and the bishoprics of Germany were made equal in extent and privilege, superior in wealth and population, to the most ample states of the military order. As long aa the emperors retained the prerogative of bestowing, on every vacancy, these ecclesiastic and secular benefices, their cause was maintained by the gratitude or ambition of their friends and favourites. But in the quarrel of the investi- tures, they were deprived of their influence over the epis- copal chapters ; the freedom of electior. was restored, and the sovereign was reduced, by a solemn mockery, to his f,rst -prayers, the recommendation, once in his reign, to a single prebend in each church. T? e secular governors, instead of being recalled at the will of a superior, could be degraded only by the sentence of their peers. In the first age of the monarchy, the appointment of the son to the duchy or county of his father, was solicited as a favour; it was gradually obtained as a custom, and extorted as a right : the lineal succession was often extended to the collateral or female branches ; the States of the empire (their popular, and at length their legal appellation) were divided and alienated by testament and sale ; and all idea of a public trust was lost in that of a private and perpetual inheritance. The emperor could not even be enriched by the casualties of forfeiture and extinction : within the term of a year, he was obliged to dispose of the vacant fief, and in the choice of the candidate it was hia duty to consult either the general or ths provincial diet. A..D. 1250.] THE OETIMANIC CONSTITCTIOIT, 431 After the death of Frederic II. Germany was left a monster with a hundred heads. A crowd of princes and prelates disputed the ruins of the empire ; the lords of innumerable castles were less prone to obey, than to imitate, their superiors; and accordinn^ to the measure of their strength, their incessant hostilities received the names of conquest or robbery. Such anarchy was the inevitablo consequence of the laws and manners of Europe ; and the kingdoms of France and Italy were shivered into fragments by the violence of the same tempest. But the Italian cities and the French vassals were divided and destroyed, wliile the union of the Germans has produced, under tlie name of an empire, a great system of a federative republic. In tlie frequent, and at last tlie perpetual, institution of diets, a national spirit was kept alive, and t!ie powers of a com- mon legislature are still exercised by the three branches or colleges of the electors, the princes, and the free and imperial cities of Germany. I. Seven of the most powerful feuda- tories were permitted to assume, with a distinguished name and rank, the exclusive privilege of choosing the Roman emperor; and these electors were the king of Bohemia, the duke of Saxony, the margrave of Brandenburgh, tlie count palatine of the Khine, and the three archbishops of Mentz, of Treves, and of Cologne. II. The college of princes and prelates purged themselves of a promiscuous multitude : they reduced to four representative votes, the long series of independent counts, and excluded the nobles or equestrian order, sixty thousand of whom, as in the Polish diets, had appeared on horseback in tlie field of election. III. The pride of birth and dominion, of the sword and the mitre, wisely adopted the commons as the third branch of the legislature, and, in the progress of society, they were introduced about the same era into the national assemblies of France, England and Germany. The Ilanseatic league commanded the trade and navigation of the north ; the confederates of the Khine secured the peace and inter- course of the inland countrv ; the intluence of the cities has been adequate to their wealth and policy, and their negative still invalidates the acts of the two superior col- leges of electors and princes.* * In the immenge labyrinth ot the jus pulhcum of Germanv, I nnisfc bither qu3te one writer or a thuudaud ; and I had rather trust to oua 432 WEAKNESS OF THE GEE1MA.N EMPEROB [CH. XLIX. It is in the fourteenth century, that we may view in the strongest liglit the state and contrast of the Eomau empire of Germany, wliioh no longer hekl, except on the borders of the Ehiue and Danube, a single province of Trajan or Coustantine. Their unworthy successors were the counts of Hapsburg, of Nassau, of Luxemburgh, and of Schwartzen- burg ; tlie emperor Henry VII. procured for his son the crown of Bohemia, and his grandson Charles IV. was born among a people, strange and barbarous in the estimation of the (xermans themselves.* After the excommunication of Lewis of Bavaria, he received the gift or promise of the vacant empire from the Roman pontiffs, who, in the exile and captivity of Avignon, affected the dominion of the earth. The death of his competitors united the electoral college, and Charles was unanimously saluted king of the Romans, and future emperor: a title which in the same age was prostituted to the Ca)sars of Grermany and Greece. The German emperor was no more than the elective and impotent magistrate of an aristocracy of princes, who had not left him a village that he might call his own.f His best prerogative was the right of presiding and proposing faithful guide, than transcribe, on credit, a multitude of names and passages. That guide is M. Pfeffel, the author of the best legal and constitutional history that I know of any country. (Nouvel Abrege Chronologique de I'Histoire et du Droit Public d'Allemagne. Paris, 1776, 2 vols, in 4to.) His learning and judgment have discerned the most interesting facts ; his simple brevity comprises them in a narrow space ; his chronological order distributes them under the proper dates ; and an elaborate index collects them under their respective heads. To this work, in a less perfect state, Dr. Robertson was grate- fully indebted for that masterly sketch which traces even the modern changes of the Germanic body. The Ct>rpus Historise Germanicsc ol Struvius has been likewise consulted, the more usefully, as that huge compilation is fortified in every page with the original texts. * Yet pei'sonalbj, Charles IV. must not be considered as a Barbarian. After his education at Paris, he recovered the use of the Bohemian, his native idiom ; and the emperor conversed and wrote with equal facility in French, Latin, Italian, and German. (Struvius, p. 615, 616.) Petrarch always represents him as a polite and learned prince. f [^s emperor, he had not " a village that he might call his own," for no territory was attached to the title. But the preponderating influence of large possessions generally decided the choice of the elec- tors. Mr. Hallam has enumerated (vol, ii. p. 100) the extensive dominions which were expected to secure the dignity to Henry, son of Lothaire of Saxony, and again (p. 115), those hj- whi'jh it was actually obtained X.D. 1317 -1378.] CIIAELES IT. 433 ill the national senate, wliioli was convened at Ins summons; and liis native kiiifj;dom of Bohemia, less opulent tluin ttio adjacent city of ^Nuremberg, was tlie firmest seat of his power and tlie richest source of his revenue. The army witli which he passed the Alps cous^istcd of three hundred horse. In the cathedral of St. Ambrose, Charles was crowned with the iron crown, wliicli tradition ascribed to the Lombard monarchy ; but he was admitted only witli a peaceful train ; the gates of the city were shut upon him ; and the king of Italy was held a captive by the arms of the Visconti, whom he confirmed in the sovereignty of Milan. In the Vatican he was again crowned with the golden crown of the empire; but, in obedience to a secret treaty, tho Eoman emperor immediately withdrew, without repo.sing a single niglit within the walls of Eome. The eloquent Petrarch,* whose fancy revived the visionary glories of the Capitol, deplores and upbraids the ignominious fliglit of the Bohemian; and even his contemporaries could observe, that the sole exercise of his authority was in the lucrative sale of privileges and titles. The gold of Italy secured the election of his son ; but such was the shameful poverty of the Roman emperor, that his person was arrested by a butcher in the streets of AYorins, and was detained in the public inn, as a pledge or hostage for the payment of his expenses. From this humiliating scene, let us turn to the apparent majesty of the same Charles in the diets of the empire. The golden bull, which fixes the Germanic constitution, is promulgated in the style of a sovereign and legislator. A hundred princes bowed before his throne, and exalted their own dignity by the voluntary honours which they yielded to their chief or minister. At the royal banquet, the here- ditary great oflicers, the seven electors, who in rank and title were equal to kings, performed their solemn and domestic service of the palace. The seals of the triple kingdom were borne in state by the archbishops of Mentz, Cologne, and Treves, the perpetual arch-cliancellors of Germany, Italy, and Aries. The great marshal, on horse- for Rudolph of Hapsburg. — Ed.] * Besides the German and Italian historians, the expedition of Charles IV. is painted in lively and original colours in the curious Munmires sur la Vie de Pe- trarque, torn. iii. p. 376 — 430, by the Abbd de S;ide, whose prolixity has never been blamed by any reader of taate and curiositj'. VUL. V. 2 V 434: OSTENTATIOX OF CHAKLES IV. [CH. XLIX. back, exercised his function with a silver measure of oats, which he emptied on the ground, and immediately dis- mounted to regulate the order of the guests. The great steward, the count palatine of the Ehine, placed the dishes on the table. The great chamberlain, the margrave of Brandenburg, presented, after the repast, the golden ewer and basin, to wash. The king of Bohemia, as great cup- bearer, was represented by the emperor's brother, the duke of Luxemburgh and Brabant ; and the procession was closed by the great huntsman, who introduced a boar and a stag, with a loud chorus of horns and hounds.* Nor was the supremacy of the emperor confined to Grer- many alone ; the hereditary monarchs of Europe con- fessed the pre-eminence of his rank and dignity ; he was the first of the Christian princes, the temporal bead of the great republic of the West;t to bis person the title of majesty was long appropriated ; and he disputed with the pope the sublime prerogative of creating knigs and assem- bling councils. The oracle of tlie civil law, the learned Bartolus, was a pensioner of Charles IV. and his school resounded with the doctrine, that the Eoman emperor was the rightful sovereign of the earth, from the rising to the setting sun. The contrary opnion was condemned, not as an error, but as a heresy, since even the gospel had pro- nounced, "And there went forth a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed."J If we annihilate the interval of time and space between Augustus and Charles, strong and striking will be the con- trast between the two Csesars ; the Bohemian who con- cealed his weakness under the mask of ostentation, and the Eoman, who disguised his strength undqr the semblance of modesty. At the head of his victorious legions, in his reign over the sea and laud, from the Nile and Euphrates to the Atlantic ocean, Augustus professed himself the servant of the State and the equal of his fellow-citizens. The con- queror of Kome and her provinces assumed the popular and legal form of a censor, a consul, and a tribune. His will * See the whole ceremony in Struvius, p. 629. + The republic of Europe, with the pope and emperor at ita he^ul, vraji never represented with more dignity than in the couucli ox CoU' ptance. See Lenfant's History of that Assembly. J Graviua, Origines Juria Civilis, p. lOS. en, L.] DESCRIPTION OF ARABIA. 4.35 ^as the law of mankind, but in the declaration of liis laws lie borrowed the voice of tlie senate and people ; and, from tlieir decrees, their master accepted and renewed his tempo- rary commission to administer the republic. In his dress, his domestics,* his titles, in all the offices of social life, Augustus maintained the character of a private Koman ; and his most artful flatterers respected the secret of his absolute and perpetual monarchy. CHAPTER L. — DESCRIPTION OF ARABIA AND ITS INHABITANTS. — BIRTH, CHARACTER, AND DOCTRINE OF MAHOMET. HE PREACHES AT MECCA. — FLIES TO MEUIN.V. — PROPAGATES HIS RELIGION BY THK SWORD. — VOLUNTARY OR RELUCTANT SUBMISSION OF THE ARABS.— HIS DEATH AND SUCCESSORS. — THE CLAIMS AND FORTUNES OF ALI AND HIS DESCENDANTS. After pursuing above six hundredyears the fleeting Csesars of Constantinople and Germany, I now descend, in the reign of Heraclius, on the eastern borders of the Greek monarchy. AVhile the State was exhausted by the Persian war, and the church was distracted by the Nestorian and Mouophysite sects, Mahomet, with the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, erected his throne on the ruins of Christianity and of Rome. The genius of the Arabian prophet, the man- ners of his nation, and the spirit of his religon, involve the causes of the decline and fall of the Eastern empire ; and our eyes are curiously intent on one of the most memo- rable revolutions which have impressed a new and lasting character on the nations of the globe.f * Six thousand urns have been discovered of the slaves and freed- nien of Augustus and Livia. So minute was the division of office, that one slave was appointed to weigh the wool which was spun by the empress's maids, another for the care of her lap-dog, &c. (Camere Sopolcrale, &c. by Bianchini. Extract of his work, in the Bibliothoque Italicjue, torn. iv. p. 175. His liloge, by Fontenelle, tom. vi. p. 356.) But these servants were of the same rank, and possibly not more numerous than those of Pollio or Lentulus. They only prove the general riches of the city. f As in this and the following cliapter I shall display much Arabic learning, I must profess my total if^uorance of the Oriental tongues, and my gratitude to the learned interpreters who have transfused their science into the Latin, French, aud English languages. Their collections, versions, and histories, I to J) w 436 DEScEiPTioN or ahabia. [en. l In the vacant space between Persia, Syria, Ej^ypt, and ^Ihiopia, tiie Arabian peninsula* may be conceived as a triangle of spacious but irregular dimensions. From the northern point of Bclesf on the Euphrates, a line of fifteen hundred miles is terminated by the straits of Babelmandel and the land of frankincense. About half this length may be allowed for the middle breadth from east to west, fron^ Bassora to Suez, from the Persian Gulf to the Eed Sea. J shall occasionally notice. * The geographers of Arabia may be divided into three classes: — 1. The Greeks and Latins, whose ])rogressive knowledge may be traced in Agatharcides (de Mari Rubro, in Hudson, Geograyih. Minor, torn, i.), Diodorua Siculus (torn. i. 1. 2, J.. 159—167; 1. 3, p. 211—216, edit. Wesseling), Strabo (1. 16, p. 1112 — 1114, from Eratosthenes, p. 1122 — 1132, from Artemidorus), Diony- sius (Periegesis, 927—969), Pliny (Hist. Natur. 5. 12, 6. 32), and Ptolemy (Descript. et Tabuke Urbium, in Hudson, torn. iii.). 2. The Arabic writers, who have treated the subject with the zeal of patriotism or devotion : the extracts of Pocock (Specimen Hist. Arabum, p. ]2.1 — 128) from the Geography of the Sherif al Edrissi, render us still more dissatisfied with the version or abridgment (p. 24 — 27. 44 — f)6. 108, &c. 119, &c.) which the Maronites have published under the absurd title of Geographia Nubiensis (Paris, 1619); but the Latin and French translators, Greaves (in Hudson, tom. iii.) and Galland (Voyage dc la Palestine par la Roque, p. 265 — 346), have opened to us the Arabia of Abulfeda, the most copious and correct account of the peninsula, which may be enriched, however, from the Bibliothoqne Orientale of Jj'Herbelot, p. 120, et alibi passim. 3. The Bwopemi, trardkrs, among whom Shaw (p. 438 — 455) and Niebuhr (Description, 1773, Voyages, tom. i. 1776) deserve an honourable distinction : Busching (Geogra])hie par Berenger, tom. viii. p. 416 — 510) has com- piled with judgment; and D'Anville's maps (Orbis Veteribus Notus, and Premiei-e Partie de I'Asie) should lie before the reader with his Geographic Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 208 — 231. •|- Abulfed. Descript. Arabia}, p. 1. D'Anville, I'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 19, 20. It was in this place, the paradise or garden of a satrap, that Xenophon and the Greeks first passed the Euphrates. (Anabasis, 1. 1, c. 10, p. 29, edit. Wells.) % Reland has proved, with much superfluous learning, 1. That our Red Sea (the Arabian Gulf) is no more than a part of the Mare Ruhrum, the 'Ef)v9()u OaXaum] of the ancients, which was extended to the indefinite space of the Indian ocean. 2. That the synonymous words tpuOpoc, ai9io;p, alluded to the colour of the blacks or negroes. (Dissert. Miscell. tom. i. p. 59— 117.) [M. Niebuhr, the traveller, has set aside the generally received etymologies of the " Red Sea," but substituted for them no other satisfactory derivation. (Description de I'Arabie, p. 360.) The present Persian gulf was Lhe original Mare ErythraBum of the ancients, so named from a ki:ig who ruled in one of it? islands. This the Greeka mistook for a colour, and applied it uo Lass erroneously to the Arabiac Qulf.— Ed.] en. l] DEscuimox of arabta, 437 Tiie sides of the triangle are gradually enlarged, and the Koiitheru basis presents a front of a thousand nii'es to tlie Indian ocean. The entire surface of the peninsula exceeds ill a fourfold proportion that of Germany or France; but tlic far greater part has been justly stigmatized with the epithets of the stonjj and the sandy. Even the wilds of Tar- tary are decked by the hand of nature with lofty trees and luxuriant herbage ; and the lonesome traveller derives a sort ot comfort and society from the presence of vegetable life. But in the dreary waste of Arabia, a boundless level of sand is intersected by sharp and naked mountains, and the face ot the desert, without shade or shelter, is scorched by the di- rect and intense rays of a tropical sun. Instead of refreshing breezes, tlie winds, particularly from the south-west, diftuse a noxious and even deadly vapour; the hillocks of sand, which they alternately raise and scatter, are compared to the billows of the ocean, and whole caravans, whole armies, have been lost and buried in the whirlwind. The common bene- fits of water are an object of desire and contest ; and such is the scarcity of wood, that some art is requisite to preserve and propagate the element of fire. Arabia is destitute of navigable rivers, which fertilize the soil, and convey its pro- duce to the adjacent regions ; the torrents that fall from the hills are imbibed by the thirsty earth ; the rare and hardy plants, the tamarind or the acacia, that strike their roots into the clefts of the rocks, are nourished by the dews of the night; a scanty supply of rain is collected in cisterns and aqueducts; the wells and springs are the secret treasure of the desert ; and the pilgrim of Mecca,* after many a dry and sultry march, is disgusted by the taste of the waters, wh.ich have rolled over a bed of sulphur or salt. Such is the general and genuine picture of the climate of Arabia. The experience of evil enhances the value of any local or partial enjoyments. A shady grove, a green pasture, a stream of fresh water, are sufficient to attract a colonv of sedentary Arabs to the fortunate spots which can afford food and refreshment to themselves and their cattle, and which en- courage their industry in the cultivation of the palm-tree and the vine. The high lands that border on the Indian ocean are distinguished by their superior plenty of wood and * In the thirty days or stations, between Cairo and Mecca, there are fifteen destitute of good water. See the route of the Hadjees, iu 438 DESCRIPTION or aeabia. [en. i» water ; the air is more temperate, the fruits &te more deli- cious, the animals and the human race more numerous ; the fertility of the soil invites and rewards the toil of the hus- bandman ; and the peculiar gifts of frankincense* and coffee have attracted in dill'erent ages the merchants of the vrorld. If it be compared with the rest of the peninsula, this seques- tered region may truly deserve the appellation of the happy ; and the splendid colouring of fancy and fiction has been suggested by contrast and countenanced by distance. It ■was for this earthly paradise that nature had reserved her choicest favours and her most curious workmanship : the in- compatible blessings of luxury and innocence were ascribed to the natives : the soil was impregnated with goldf and gems, and both the land and sea were taught to exhale the odours of aromatic sweets. This division of the sandy, the stony, and the happy, so familiar to the Greeks and Latins, is unknown to the Arabians themselves ; and it is singular enough, that a country whose language and inhabitants have ever been the same, should scarcely retain a vestige of its ancient geography. The maritime districts of Bahrein and Oman are opposite to the realm of Persia. The kingdom of Yemen displays the limits, or at least the situation, of Arabia JFelix ; the name of Neged is extended over the inland space ; and the birth of Mahomet has illustrated the province of Hejaz along the coast of the Ked sea. J The measure of population is regulated by the means of Shaw's Travels, p. 477. * The aromatics, especially the tlius, or frankincense, of AralDia, occupy the twelfth book of Pliny. Our great poet (Paradise Lost, 1. 4) introduces, in a simile, the spicy odours that are blown by the north-east wind from the Sabseau coast : — Many a league, Pleas'd with the grateful scent, old Ocean smiles. (Plin. Hist. Natur. 12. 42.) f Agatharcides affirms, that lumps of pure gold were found, from the size of an olive to that of a nut; that iron was twice, and silver ten times, the value of gold (de Mari Rubro, p. 60). These real or imaginary treasures ai'e vanished ; and no gold mines are at present known in Arabia. (Niebuhr, Description, p. 124.) J Consult, peruse, and study, the Speciraen Hi.storiae Arabum of Pocock (Oxon. 1650, in 4to.). The thirty pages of text and version are extracted from the Dynasties of Gregory Abulpharagius, wk'ch Pocock afterwards translated (Oxon. 16G3, in 4to.) ; the three hundred and fifty-eight uctes form a clas.sio ■ad original work on the Arabian auticiuitiea. CH. L.] MANNERS OF HIE BEDOWEENS. 439 subsistence; and the inhabitants of this vast peninsula niiglit be outnuinbori'd by tlie subjects of a fertile and indus- trious province. Along the sliores of the Persian Gulf, of the ocean, and even of the Ked sea, the Tclif In/djilKfji* or fish eaters, continued to wander in quest of their precarious food. In this primitive and abject state, •which ill deserves the name of society, the human brute, without arts or laws, almost witliout sense or language, is poorly distinguished from the rest of the animal creation. Grcnerations and ages might roll away in silent oblivion, and the helpless savage was restrained from multiplying his race, h\ ihe wants and pursuits which confined bis existence to the narrow margin of the sea-coast. But in an early period of antiquity the great body of the Arabs had emerged from this scene of misery ; and as the naked wilderness could not maintain a people of hunters, they rose at once to the more secure and I)lentiful condition of the pastoral life. The same life is uni- i'orndy pursued by the roving tribes of the desert ; and in the portrait of the modern Bedoweens we may trace the features of their ancestors, t who, in the age of !^Ioses or Mahomet, dwelt under similar tents, and conducted their horses, and camels, and shee|), to the same springs and the same pas- tures. Our toil is lessened, and our wealth is increased, by our dominion over the useful animals ; and the Arabian shepherd had acquired the absolute possession of a faithl'ul friend and a laborious slave. J Arabia, in the opinion of the naturalist, is the genuine and original country of the horse; the climate most propitious, not indeed to the size, but to the spirit and swiftness, of that generous animal. The merit of the Barb, the Spanish, and the English breed, is derived from * Arrian remarks tha IcUthyophagi of the coast of Hejaz (Periplus Maris Ervthrici, \\ 1'2| and bej-oiid Aden (p. 15). It seems probable that the shores of the Red Sea (ia the hirgest seuse) were occupied by these savages in the time, perhaps, of Cyrus ; but I can hardly believe that any cannibals were left among the savages ia the reign of Justinian (Procop. de Bell. Pergic. 1. 1. c. 19). + See the Specimen Historiaj Arabum of Pocock, p. 2. 5, 86, &c. The journey of M. d'Arvieux, in ItJGi, to the camp of the emir of mount Carmel (Voyage de la Palestine, Amsterdam, 1718), exhibits a pleasing and original picture of the life of the Bedoweens, which may be illustrated from Niebuhr (Description de I'Arabie, p. 327 — 344) and Volney (torn. i. p. 343 — 385) the lat^t and most judicious of our Syrian travellers. J Read (it is no unpleasing task) the incom- parable ai-ti^laa of tba hvrte and the camel, iu the N&tural Uijturjr of 410 THE nORSE AND CAMEL, [CH. L. a mixture of Arabian blood ; * the Bedoweena preserve, with superstitious care, the honours and the memorv of the purest race ; the males are sold at a high price, but the females are seldom aUenated ; and the birth of a noble foal was esteemed among the tribes as a subject of joy and mutual congratu- lation. These horses are educated in the tents, among the children of the Arabs, with a tender familiarity which trains them in the habits of gentleness and attachment. They are accustomed only to walk and to gallop : their sensations are not blunted by the incessant abuse of the spur and the whip : their powers are reserved for the moments of flight and pursuit ; but no sooner do they feel the touch of the hand or the stirrup, than they dart away with the swiftness of the wi)}d ; and if their friend be dismounted in the rapid career, they instantly stop until he has recovered his seat. In the sands of Africa and Arabia, the camel is a sacred and precious gift. That strong and patient beast of burden can perform, without eating or drinking, a journey of several days ; and a reservoir of fresh water is preserved in a large bag, a fifth stomach of the animal, Avhose body is impriiited with the marks of servitude ; the larger breed is capablv of transporting a weight of a thousand pounds ; and the drome- dary, of a lighter and more active frame, outstrips the fleetest courser in the race. Alive or dead, almost every part of the camel is serviceable to man : her milk is plentiful and nu- tritious : the young and tender flesh has the taste of veal :t a valuable salt is extracted from the urine : the dung sup- plies the deficiency of fuel ; J and the long hair, which falls M. de Buffon. • For the Arabian horses, see D'Arvieux (p. 159—173) and Niebuhr (p. 142—144). At the end of the thirteenth century, the horses of Neged were esteemed surefooted, those of Yemen strong and serviceable, those of Hejaz most noble. The hoi'ses of Europe, the tenth and last class, were generally despised, as having too much body and too little spirit (D'Herbelot, Bibliot Orient, p. 331.») : their strength was requisite to bear the weight of the knight and his armour. t Qui carnibus caraelorum vesci solent odii tenaces sunt, was the opinion of an Arabian physician (Pocock, Specimen, p. 8S). Mahomet himself, who was fond of milk, prefers the cow, and does not even mention the camel; but the diet of Mecca and Medina was already more luxurious (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, torn. iii. p. 404). + [Itis also smoked like tobacco. For new and curious information respecting the camel, see the Letters from Egypt of Dr. Lepsius, p. 81, 82i and Layai'd'a Niaevekand Babylon, p. 259. — Ed.] ClI. L.] CITIES OF AnABTA. 411 each year and is renewed, is coarsely manufactured into the f^arinents, tlio i'urniture, and the tents, of tlie Beduweens. In the rainy seasons they consume the rare and insuilicient herbage of the desert; during the heats of summer and the scarcity of winter, they remove tlieir encampments to the sea-coast, the hills of i'emen, or the neighbourhood of the Euphrates, and have often extorted the dangerous license of visiting the banks of the Nile, aiid the villages of Syria and Palestine. The life of a wandering Arab is a life of danger and distress ; and though sometimes, by rapine or exchange, he may appropriate the fruits of industry, a pri- vate citizen in Europe is in the possession of more solid and pleasing luxury, than the proudest emir, who marches in the field at the head often thousand horse. Tet an essential difference may be found between the hordes of Scythia and the Arabian tribes, since many of the latter were collected into towns and employed in the labours of trade and agriculture. A part of their time and industry was still devoted to the management of their cattle : they mingled, in peace and war, with their brethren of the desert ; and the Bedoweens derived from their useful intercourse, some supply of their wants, and some rudiments of art and knowledge. Among the forty-two cities of Arabia,* enume- rated by Abulfeda, the most ancient and populous were situate in the liappy Yemen : the towers of Saana,t and the marvellous reservoir of MerabJ were constructed by the • Yet Marcian of Heraclea (in Periplo, p. 16, in torn. i. Hudson, Minor. Geograph.) reckons one hundred and sixty-four towns in Arabia Felix. The size of the towns might be small — the faith of the writer might be large. + It is compared by Abulfeda (in Hudson, torn. iii. p. 54) to Damascus, and is still the residence of the Iman of Yemen. (Voyages de Niebuhr, torn. i. p. 331 — 342.) Saana is twenty- four parasangs from Dasar (Abulfeda, p. 51), and si.\ty-eight from Aden (p. 53). t Pocock, Specimen, p. 57. Geograph. Nubiensis, p. 52. Meriaba, or Merab, six miles in circumference, was destroyed by the legions of Augustus (Plin. Hist. Nat. 6. 32), and had not revived in the fourteenth century. (Abulfed. Descript. Arab. p. 58.) [In the second note to ch. 1 and again here, Gibbon was misled by Pliny, who had himself been deceived by some flattering fiction. Strabo was the intimate friend of .Elius Gallus, the commander of the Roman expedition against Arabia, and passed some time with him in Egypt (1. 2, p. 118). From him he received the circumstantial details, which he has given us, of that unsuccessful enterpiize (1. lb, p. 780 — 782). Among the places to which the legions penetrated, ho does not iucludo Meriaba, although it had been just before (p. 778) 412 CITIES or ARABIA. [CH. L. kings of the Ilomerites; but their profane lustre wai) eclipsed by the prophetic glories of Medina* aud Mecca,\ near the mentioned by him as an important city of the Sabseans ; its destruc- tion, or even capture, by ^Elius Gallus, could not have been overlooked if it had been an historical fact. On the other hand, M. Niebulir (Description de I'Arabie, p. 240) has disproved tlie Mahometan fable of the torrent that was said to have overwhelmed Meriaba. Its cele- brated reservoir was formed by a wall or dam from forty to fifty feet high and about a quarter of a mile long, which crossed a narrow valley and intercepted its water-courses. The remains of it were seen by M. Niebuhr. Having been some time neglected, it broke down, and the waters escaped, but could not reach the town, which was high above their level. Strabo says, that it occupied a lofty site. Deprived of a supply so essential to life and vegetation, the neighbourhood was deserted, and Meriaba fell into decay. The bursting of the dyke caused its ruin, but not by inundation. — Ed.] * The name of city, Medina, was appropriated kut i^oxriv, to Yatreb (the latrippa of the Greeks), the seat of the prophet. The distances of Medina are reckoned by Abulfeda in stations, or day.?' journey of a caravan (p. 15) : to Bahrein, fifteen ; to Bassora, eighteen ; to Cufah, twenty ; to Damascus or Palestine, twenty ; to Cairo, twenty- five; to Mecca, ten; from Mecca to Saana (p. 52), or Aden, thirty; to Cairo, thirty-one days, or four hundred and twelve hours (Shaw's Travels, p. 477) ; which, according to the estimate of D'Anville ^Mesures Itindraires, p. 99), allows about twenty-five English miles for a day's journey. From the land of frankincense (Hadramaut, in Vemen, between Aden and Cape Fartasch) to Gaza, in Syria, Pliny (Hist. Nat. 12. 32) computes sixty-five mansions of camels. Thefe measures may assist fancy and elucidate facts. [The Greek name of latrippa is found only in Ptolemy's Geography, or where it was bor- rowed from him. Yathreb had an inauspicious meaning (the awkward or unfit), and Mahomet changed it to Medina tholnadi, or, according to Niebuhr, Medinet en Nebbi, the City of the Prophet. The adjunct was afterwards dropped. (See Cond(5, vol. i. p. 34.)— Ed.] ■|- Our notions of Mecca must be drawn from the Arabians (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 368 — 371. Pocock, Specimen, p. 125 — 128. Abulfeda, p. 11 — 40). As no unbeliever is permitted to enter the city, our travellers are silent ; and the short hints of Thevenot (Voyages du Levant, part 1, p. 490) are taken from the suspicious mouth of an African renegado. Some Persians counted six thousand houses. (Chardin, torn. iv. p. 167.) [Mecca cannot be the Macoraba of Ptolemy; the situations do not agree, and till the time of Mahomet, it bore the name of Becca, or the House, from its celebrated temple. It is so called even in some parts of the Koran. M. Niebuhr (Desc. de I'Arabie, 309 — 320) has given such particulars of Mecca as he could collect in the neighbourhood, and from drawings sold to pilgrims. His view or plan of the great mosque excites, rather than gratifies, curiosity. He says that Pitts, Wilde, and the few Europeans who had been allowed to enter Mecca, could only have gained admit* •■«ace by au apparent coaversion to Mahometauiam. — Ed.J cir. L.] UECCA. 413 Eed Sea, and at tlie distance from each other of two hundred and seventy miles. Tlie hist of these lioly phxces was known to the Greeks under tlie name of Macoraba; and the termi- nation of the word is expressive of its greatness, which has not indeed, in the most flourishing period, exceeded the size and populousness of Marseilles. ISome latent motive, per- haps of superstition, must have impelled the founders, iu the choice of a most unpromising situation. They erected their habitations of mud or stone, in a plain about two miles long and one mile broad, at the foot of three barren moun- tains; the soil is a rock, the water, even of the holy well of Zemzem, is bitter or brackish ; the pastures are remote from the city ; and grapes are transported above seventy miles from the gardens of Tayef, The fame and spirit of the Koreishites, who reigned in Mecca, were conspicuous among the Arabian tribes; but their ungrateful soil refused the labours of agriculture, and their position was favourable to the enterprises of trade. By the seaport of Gedda, at the distance only of forty miles, they maintained an easy cor- respondence' with Abyssinia; and that Christian kingdom aftbrded the first refuge to the disciples of Mahomet. The treasures of Africa were conveyed over the peninsula to Gerrha or Katiff, in the province" of Bahrein, a city built, as it is said, of rock-salt, by the Chaldean exiles :* and from thence, with the native pearls of the Persian gulf, they were floated on rafts to the mouth of the Euphrates. Mecca is placed almost at an equal distance, a month's journey, be- tween Yemen on the right, and Syria on the left, hand. The former was the winter, the latter the summer, station of her caravans ; and their seasonable arrival relieved the ships of India from the tedious and troublesome navigation of the Eed Sea. In the markets of Saana and Merab, in the har- bours of Oman and Aden, the camels of the Koreishites ivere laden with a precious cargo of aromatics ; a supply of corn and manufactures was jiurchased in the fairs of Bostra and Damascus; the lucrative exchange diifiised plenty and riches in the streets of Mecca ; and the noblest of her sons united the love of arms with the profession of merchandise.t * Strabo, 1. 16, p. 1110. See one of these salt-houses near Bassora in D'HLM-belot, Bibliot. Orient, p. 6. t Miriim dictu ex iimumeris populis pars £equa in commerciis aut iu latrociniis degit riiu. Hist. Nut. 6. 32). See Sale's Koran, Sdiu 106, p. 603. Pocock, 414 NATIONAL IXDEPENDEXCB [CH. L. The perpetual independence of tlie Arabs has been tlie theme of praise among strangers and natives ; and the arts of controversy transform this singular event into a prophecy and a miracle, in favour of the posterity of Ismael.* Some exceptions that can neither be dissembled nor eluded, render this mode of reasoning as indiscreet as it is superfluous : the kingdom of Yemen has been successively subdued by the Abyssinians, the Persians, the sultans of Egypt,t and the Turks : J the holy cities of Mecca and Medina have repeatedly bowed under a Scythian tyrant ; and the Eoman province of Arabia § embraced the peculiar wilderness in which Ismael and his sons must have pitched their tents in the face of their brethren. Yet these exceptions are temporary or local ; Specimen, p. 2. D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient, p. 361. Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 5. Gaguier, Vie de Mahomet, torn. i. p. 72. 120. 126, &c. * A nameless doctor (Universal Hist. vol. xx. octavo edition) has formally demonstrated the truth of Christianity by the independence of the Arabs. A critic, besides the exceptions of fact, might dispute the meaning of the text (Genes, xvi. 12), the extent of the application, and the foundation of the pedigi-ee. [A country not worth conquering easily maintains its independence : and a nomade race can scarcely be subdued. Such was the greater part of Arabia. But Yemen {Arabia felix), thowgh. protected on one side by the sea, and on the other by sandy deserts almost impassable, had to submit to many foreign rulers. (See Niebuhr, Desc. de I'Arabie, 329, and Conde, vol. i. p. 32.)— Ed.] + It was subdued, a.d. 1173, by a brother of the great Saladin, who founded a dynasty of Curds or Ayoubites. (De Guignes, Hist, des Huns, torn. i. p. 425. D'Herbelot, p. 477.) + By the lieutenant of Soliman I. (a.d. 1538) and Selim II. (1568). See Cantemir's Hist, of the Othnian Empire, p. 201. 221. The pasha, who resided at Saana, commanded twenty-one beys, but no revenue was ever remitted to the Porte (Mar.sigli, Stato Militare dell' Imperio Ottomanno, p. 124); and the Turks were expelled about the year 1630 (Niebuhr, p. 167, 168). § Of the Roman province, under the name of Arabia and the third Palestine, the principal cities were Bostra and Petra, which dated their era from the year 105, when they were subdued by Palma, a lieutenant of Trajan (Dion Cassias, 1. 68). Petra was the capital of the Naba- thocans, whose name is derived from the eldest of the sons of Ismael. (Genes, xxv. 12, &c. with the commentaries of Jerome, Le Clerc, and Calmet.) Justinian relinquished a palm country of ten days' journey to the south of JEX^h (Frocop. de Bell. Persic. \. 1, c. 19), and the Ilomans maintained a centurion and a custom-house (Arrian in Periplo Maris Erythraai, p. 11, in Hudson, tom. i.), at a place {\'tvKr] Kiofii], Pagus Albus, Hawara) in the territory of Medina (D'Anville, Memoire 8ur I'Egypte, p. 243). These real possessions, and some naval inroads of Trajau (Peripl. p. 14, 15) are magnified by history and medals into en. L.] or THE ARABS. 445 the body of the nation has escaped tlie yoke of the niost poweri'ul nionarciiics: the arms of Scsostris and Cyrus, of Pompey and Trajan, could never achieve the conquest of Arabia; the present sovereign of the Turks* may exercise a shadow of jurisdiction, but his pride is reduced to solicit the iVitMidship of a people, wlioin it is dangerous to provoke and fruitless to attack. The obvious causes of their freedoni are inscribed on the character and country of the Arabs. Many age.s before Mahomet,t their intrepid valour had been severely felt by their neighbours in oft'ensive and defensive war. The patient and active virtues of a soldier are insen- sibly nursed in the habits and discipline of a pastoral life. The care of the sheep and camels is abandoned to the women of the tribe ; but the martial youth under the banner of the emir, is ever on horseback, and in the field, to practise the exercise of the bow, the javelin, and the scymetar. Tlie long memory of their independence is the firmest pledge of its perpetuity, and succeeding generations arc animated to prove their descent, and to maintain their inheritance. Their domestic feuds are suspended on the approach of a common enemy ; and in their last hostilities against the Turks, the caravan of INIecca was attacked and pillaged by fourscore tiiousand of the confederates When they advance to battle, the hope of victory is in the front ; in the rear, the assurance of a retreat. Their horses and camels, which in eight or ten days can perform a march of four or five hundred miles, dis- appear before the conqueror ; the secret waters of the desert elude his search ; and his victorious troops are consumed with thirst, hunger, and fatigue, in the pursuit of an invisible foe, who scorns his efforts, and safely reposes in the heart of the burning solitude. The arms and deserts of the Be- doweens are not only the safeguards of their own freedom, but the barriers also of the happy Arabia, whose inhabitants, remote from war, are enervated by the luxury of the soil and climate. The legions of Augustus melted away in dis- ease and lassitude ; J and it is only by a naval power that the Roman conquest of Arabia. * Niebuhr (Description de 1' Arabic, p. 302, 303. 3-29 — 331) affords the most recent and authentic intelligence ot the Turkish empire in Arabia. t Diodorus Siculus (tom ii. 1. 19, p. 390—393, edit. Wesseling) has clearly exposed the freedom of the Nabathtean Arabs, who resisted the arms of Antigonus and his son. + Strabo, 1. 16, p. 1127 446 INDEPENDENCE OP THE ARABS. [CH. 1, tlie reduction of Yemen has been successfully attempted. When Mahomet erected his holy standard,* that kingdom wa3 a province of the Persian empire ; yet seven princes of the llomerites still reigned in the mountains : and the vice- gerent of Chosroes was tempted to forget his distant country and his unfortunate master. The historians of the age of Justinian represent the state of the independent Arabs, who were divided by interest or affection in the long quarrel of the East ; the tribe of Gassan was ailowed to encamp on the Syrian territory ; the princes of Hira w^ere permitted to form a city about forty miles to tlie soutliward of the ruins of Babylon. Their service in the field was speedy and vigo- rous ; but their friendship was venal, their faith inconstant, their enmity capricious ; it was au easier task to excite than to disarm these roving barbarians ; and, in the familiar intercourse of war, they learned to see, and to despise, the s|)lendid weakness both of Eome and of Persia. From Mecca to the Euphrates, the Arabian tribesf were confounded by the Greeks and Latins, under the general appellation of Saracens,X a name which every Christian mouth has been taught to pronounce with terror and abiiorrence. —1129. Plin. Hist. Natur. 6. 32. ^lius Gallus landed near Medina, and marched near a thousand miles into the part of Yemen between Mareb and the ocean. The non ante devictis Sabeas regibus (Od. 1. 29), and the intacti Arabum thesauri (Od. 3. 24) of Horace, attest the virgin purity of Arabia. [Strabo attributes the failure of this ill- concerted expedition to the treachery of Syllaeus, procurator of Nabathaja, who was beheaded at Rome for the crime. — Ed.] * See the imperfect history of Yemen in Pocock, Specimen, p. 55— 66, of Hira, p. 6G — 74, of Gassan, p. 75 — 78, as far as it could be known or preserved in the time of ignorance. + The 'S.apaKr^viKo. (pvXa, fivpiaOii^ rcivra, Kat to Tr\(larov auTtov tprjfiovofioi, Kcii ncsfTTTOToi, are described by Menander (Excerpt. Legation, p. 149), Procopius (De Bell. Persic. 1. 1, c. 17. 19 ; 1. 2, c. 10), and, in the most lively colours, by Ammianus Marcellinus (1. 14, c. 4), who had spoken of them as early as the reign of Marcus. J The name which, used by Ptolemy and Pliny in a more confined, by Ammianus and Procopius in a larger, sense, has been derived, ridiculously, from Sarah, the wife of Abraham, obscurely from the village of Saraka {fitra 'Sv fSaaiXtiutv hi) i^iXQtiv is the report of Agatharcide3(De Mari Rubro, p. 63, 64, iu Hudson, torn, i.), Diodorus Siculus (torn. i. 1. 3, c. 47, p. 215), and Strabo (1. 16, p. 1124). But I much suspect that this is one of the popular tales, or extraordinary accidents, which the credulity of tra- vellers so often transforms into a fact, a custom, and a law. + Non gloriabantur antiquitus Arabes, nisi gladio, hospite, et eloquentid. (Sephadius, a]>ud Pocock, Specimen, p. 161, 162.) This gift of speech they shared only with the Persians ; and the sententious Arabs would probably have disdained the simple and sublime logic or CH. L.J PBEDATORT WAHIABE. 419 nour : hia speech 13 slow, -weip^hty, and concise ; he is seldom provoked to hvuf^liter ; his only f^esture is that ofstrokiiig his beard, the venerable symbol of manhood ; and the sense of his own importance teaches him to accost his equals without •evity, and his superiors without awe.* The liberty of the Saracens survived their conquests ; the first caliphs indulged the bold and familiar language of their subjects ; they ascended the pulpit to persuade and edify the congregation ; nor was it bel'ore the seat of empire was removed to the Tigris, that the Abbassides adopted the proud and pompous ceremonial of the Persian and Byzantine courts. In the study of nations and men we may observe the causes that render them hostile or friendly to each other, l^hat tend to narrow or enlarge, to mollity or exasperate, the social character. The separation of the Arabs from the rest of mankind has accustomed them to confound the ideas of stranger and enemy ; and the poverty of the land has intro- duced a maxim of jurisprudence, which they believe and practise to the present hour. They pretend, that, iu the division of the earth, the rich and fertile climates were assigned to the other branches of the human family; and that the posterity of the outlaw Islunael might recover, by fraud or force, the portion of inheritance of wliich he had been unjustly deprived. According to the remark of Pliny, the Arabian tribes are equally addicted to theft and mer- chandise ; the caravans that traverse the desert are ransomed or pillaged ; and their neighbours, since the remote times ot Job and ISesostris,t have been the victims of their rapacious Demosthenes. * I must remind the reader, that D'Arvieux, D'Herbelot, and N'l'-buhr, represent, in the most lively colours, the manners and government of the Arabs, which are illus- trated by many incidental j)assages in the life of Mahomet. t Observe the first chapter of Job, and the long wall of one thou- sand five hundred stadia which Sesostris built from Pelusium to Heliopolis. (Diodor. Sicul. torn, i, 1. 1, p. 67.) Under the name of JIi/csos, the shepherd kings, they had formerly subdued Egypt. (Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 98 — 163, &c.) [On the obscure and unprofitable subject of the Hijksos, M. Hoffmann furnished a learned dissertation for Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopaedia (sec. 2, part 12, p. 403). He explored his difficult way by the feeble light borrowed from Manetho through Josephus, and not brightened by Eusebius. But his labours load to nothing. Some have interpreted the term llyksos. not shepherd-X-ui^*, but shepherd-ca/)/ire.s, and so made it apjilicable to the Children of Israel. The Egyptian Chronology ol VOL. V. '2. a i-jO CIVIL WAR OF THE AEATiS, [CH. L. Bpirit. If a Bedoween discovers from afar a solitary traveller, he rides furiously against him, crying, with a loud voice, " Undress thyself, thy aunt (tny wife) is without a garment." A ready submission entitles him to mercy ; resistance will provoke the aggressor, and his own blood must expiate the blood which he presumes to shed in legitimate defence. A single robber, or a few associates, are branded with their genuine name ; but the exploits of a numerous band assume the character of lawful and honourable war. The temper of a people thus armed against mankind, was doubly inflamed by the domestic licence of rapine, murder, and revenge. In the constitution of Europe, the right of peace and war is now confined to a small, and the actual exercise to a much smaller, list of respectable potentates ; but each Arab, with impunity and renown, might point his javelin against the life of his countryman. The union of the nation consisted only in a vague resemblance of language and manners ; and in each community, the jurisdiction of the magistrate was mute and impotent. Of the time of ignorance which pre- ceded Mahomet, seventeen hundred battles* are recorded by tradition ; hostility was imbittered with the rancour of civil faction ; and the recital, in prose or verse, of an obsolete Dr. Lepsius (Berlin, 1849) may be consulted on this subject. English readers will find extracts from it appended to Bohn's edition of the same author's Letters from Egypt. See pp. 410 — i28, 476 — 4S8. It is very improbable that t.Vie desultory movements of the Arab tribes were ever combined, before the time of Mahomet, into the systematic co-ope- ration necessary for the conquest of a country like Egypt. They may have disturbed, by predatory incursions, the more civilized land, which experienced the same annoyance from all its ruder neighbours on every side. If Sesostris actually built the " long wall" attributed to him, the cited passage in Diodorus Siculus proves that it was intended as a line of defence against the Syrians as well as the Arabs. The shepherd-kings of Abyssinia have been brought more directly into connection with plain history. See note, ch. 42, vol. iv, p. 493. The Arabian writers whom Cond^ follows, divide their nation into "two classes, one ol which dwelt exclusively in towns ; the other was composed of shep- herds." (Hist. vol. i. p. 31.) Most early nations had their shepherd- clnss, some of which, belonging to distinct nations, appear to have been confounded and blended erroneously into one. — Ed.] * Or, according to another account, one thousand two hundred (T)'Herbelot, Biblioth&que Orieutale, p. 75); the two historians who wrote of the Ayam al Arab, the battles of the Arabs, lived in the ninth and tenth century. The famous war of Dahes and Gabrah was occasioned by two horses, lasted forty years, and ended in a proverb, ^'ocock, Specimen, p. 48.) CH. L.J AND PEIVATB BEVENQE. 451 feud, was sufficient to rekindle the same passions among the descendants of the hostile tribes. In private life, every man, at least every family, was the judge and avenger of its own cause. The nice sensibility of honour, which weighs the insult rather than the injury, sheds its deadly venom on the quarrels of the Arabs ; tlie honour of their women, and of their beards, is most easily wounded ; an indecent action, a contemptuous word, can be expiated onl) by the blood of the offender; and such is their patient inveteracy, that they expect whole months and years the opportunity ot revenge. A fine or compensation for murder is familiar to the Barba- rians of every age : but in Arabia the kin.smcn of the dead are at liberty to accept the atonement, or to exercise with their own hands the law of retaliation. The refined malice of the Arabs refuses even the head of the murderer, substi- tutes an innocent for the guilty person, and transfers the penalty to the best and most considerable of the race by whom they have been injured. If he falls by their hands, they are exposed in their turn to the danger of reprisals, the interest and principal of the bloody debt are accumulated ; the individuals of either family lead a life of malice and suspicion, and fifty years may sometimes elapse before the account of vengeance be finally settled.* This sanguinary spirit, ignorant of pity or forgiveness, has been moderated, however, by the maxims of honour, which require in every private encounter some decent equality of age and strength, of numbers and weapons. An annual festival of two, per- haps of four, months, was observed by the Arabs before the time of Mahomet, during which their swords were religiously sheathed both in foreign and domestic hostility ; and this partial truce is more strongly expressive of the habits ot anarchy and warfare. t But the spirit of rapine and revenge was attempered by the milder influence of trade and literature. The solitary * The modem theory and practice of the Arabs in the revenge of murder are described by Niebuhr (Description, p. 2G — 31). The harsher features of antiquity may be traced in the Koran, c. 2, p. 20 ; c. 17, p. 230, with Sale's observations. t Procopiua (De Bell. Persic. 1. 1, c. IC) places the two holy months about the summer solstice. The Arabians consecrate /o«r months of the year — the first, seventh, eleventh, and twelfth ; and pretend, that in a long series of ages the truce was infringed only four or six times. (Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 147 — 150 and Notes on the ninth chapter of 2 u2 452 SOCIAL QUALIFICATIONS [CH. L. peninsula was encompassed by the most civilized nations of the ancient world ; the merchant is the friend of mankind: and the annual caravans imported the first seeds of know- ledge and politeness into the cities, and even the camps of the desert. Whatever may be the pedigree of the Arabs, their language is derived from the same original stock with the Hebrew, the Syriac, and the Chaldean tongues; the independence of the tribes was marked by their peculiar dialects ;* but each, after their own, allowed a just prefer- ence to the pure and perspicuous idiom of Mecca. In Arabia as well as in Greece, the perfection of language outstripped the refinement of manners ; and her speech could diversify the fourscore names of honey, the two hundred of a serpent, the five hundred of a lion, the thousand of a sword, at a time when this copious dictionary was intrusted to the memory of an illiterate people.f The monuments of the Homerites were inscribed with an obsolete and mysterious character ; but the Cufic letters, the groundwork of the present alphabet, were invented on the banks of the Euphrates ; and the recent invention was taught at Mecca by a stranger who settled in that city after the birth of Mahomet. The arts of grammar, of metre, and of rhetoric, were unknown to the the Koran, p. 154, &c. Casiri, Bibliot. Hispano-Arabica, torn. ii. p. 20, 21.) * Arriau, in the second century, remarks (in Periplo Maris Erythrsci, p. 12) the partial or total difierence of the dialects of the Arabs. Their language and letters are co]iiously treated by Pocock (Specimen, p. 150 — 154), Casiri (Bibliot. Hispano-Arabica, torn. i. p. 1. 83. 292; torn. ii. p. 25, &c.), and Niebuhr (Description de I'Arabie, p. 72—86). I pass slightly ; I am not fond of repeating words like a parrot. f [Is it the " perfection of language " to have from a hundred to a thousand different names for the same object? Bruce (Travels, i. 522) characterizes it more truly as con- fusion, not copiousness. " Instead of distinct names," he says, " these are only different epithets ;" and he attributes them to the " mixture of so many nations meeting and trading at Mecca." This may partly account for them. But M. Niebuhr (p. 73) indicates a more general cause. " No language," he says, " has so many dialects and varieties of pronunciation." This is a natural consequence of the native mode of life. Separate tribes, or even families, wandering detached from each other, insensibly change their tones of utterance, and invent words or names as requii'ed. Through want of intercourse, a language originally one, thus became Citiiuent into many. According to Condd (p. 32), " The science on which the Arabs most prided themselves, was that of their own language and its different modifications." Yet they never imparted to it the simplicity and precision which constitute 'the nearest approaches to perfection. — Kd.] CH. L.] AKD VIRTUES OF TUE ARABS. 40;^ frceborn eloquence of the Arabians ; but their penetration was sharp, their fancy hixuriant, their wit stron*; and sen- tentious,* and their more elaborate compositions were addressed with energy and efl'ect to the minds of their hearers. Tlie genius and merit of a rising poet were cele- brated by the applause of his own and the kindred tribes. A solemn banquet was prepared, and a chorus of women, striking their tymbals, and displaying the pomp of their nuptials, sang in the presence of their sons and husbands the felicity of their native tribe ; that a champion had now appeared to vindicate their rights ; that a herald had raised his voice to immortalize their renown. The distant or hostile tribes resorted to an annual fair, which was abolished by the fanaticism of the first Moslems ; a national assembly, that must have contributed to refine and harmonize the bar- barians.f Thirty days were employed in the exchange, not only of corn and wine, but of eloquence and poetry. The prize was disputed by the generous emulation of the bards ; the victorious performance was deposited in the archives of princes and emirs, and we may read, in our own language, the seven original poems which were inscribed ui letters of gold, and suspentled in the temple of Mecca.J The Arabian poets were the historians and moralists of the * A familiar tale in Voltaire's Zadig (le Chien et le Cheval) is related to prove the natural sagacity of the Arabs (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient, p. 120, 121. Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, torn. i. p. 37^-46), but D'Arvieux, or rather La Roque (Voyage de Palestine, p. 92), denies the boasted superiority of the Bedoweens. The one hundred and sixty- nine sentences of Ali, tran.slated by Ockley, London, 1718, (Bohn's edit, p. 337,) afford a just and favourable specimen of Arabian wit. + [This annual fair originated in the resort of pilgrims to the Caaba of Mecca. By the suppression of idolatry, the Mahometans prevented for a time this long-accustomed concourse of sti-angers. Their own pilgrimages were instituted to revive the meetings and restore the profitable traffic to the people of the town. But the giaours were excluded, so that the faithful alone might reap all its advantages. — Ed.] X Pocock (Specimen, p. 158 — 161) and Casiri (Bibliot. Hispano- Arabica, tom. i. p. 48. 84, &c. 119; torn. ii. p. 17, &c.) speak of the Arabian poets before Mahomet ; the seven poems of the Caaba have been publi.'^hed in English by Sir William Jones ; but his honourable mission to India has deprived us of his own notes, far more interest- ing than the obscure and obsolete text. [Arabian poetry, like that of all rude nations, shows how mind improves its own resources and effects its progress. Condd, in his Preface, p. 20, says that these com- positions have both metre and rhyme, and asserts the Arabic origin of our metres. — Ed.] 454 EXAMPLES OF QEKEEOSITT. [CH. L. age ; and if they sympathized with the prejudices, they in- spired and crowned the virtues, of their countrymen. The indissoluble union of generosity and valour was the darling theme of their song ; and when they pointed their keenest satire against a despicable race, they afiirmed, in the bitter- ness of reproach, that the men knew not how to give, nor the women to deny.* The same hospitality, which was practised by Abraham and celebrated by Homer, is still renewed in the camps of the Arabs. t The ferocious Be- doweens, the terror of the desert, embrace, without inquiry or hesitation, the stranger who dares to confide in their honour and to enter their tent. His treatment is kind and respectful ; he shares the wealth or the poverty of his host ; and, after a needful repose, he is dismissed on his way, with thanks, with blessings, and perhaps with gifts. The heart and hand are more largely expanded by the wants of a brother or a friend ; but the heroic acts that could deserve the public applause, must have surpassed the narrow measure of discretion and experience. A dispute had arisen, who, among the citizens of Mecca, was entitled to the prize of generosity, and a successive application was made to the three who were deemed most worthy of the trial. Abdallah, the son of Abbas, had undertaken a distant journey, and his foot was in the stirrup, when he heard the voice of a sup- pliant, — " son of the uncle of the apostle of God, I am a traveller and in distress!" He instantly dismounted to present the pilgrim with his camel, her rich caparison, and a purse of four thousand pieces of gold, excepting only the sword, either for its intrinsic value, or as the gift of an honoured kinsman. The servant of Kais informed the second suppliant that his master was asleep ; but he immediately added, " Here is a purse of seven thousand pieces of gold (it is all we have in the house), and here is an order, that will entitle you to a camel and a slave : " the master, as soon as he awoke, praised and enfranchised his faithful steward with a gentle reproof, that, by respecting his slumbers, he had stinted his bounty. The third of these heroes, the blind Arabah, at the hour of prayer, was supporting his steps on the shoulders of two slaves. " Alas!" he replied, "my coffers are empty ! but these you may sell ; if you refuse, I renounce * Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 29, 30. + [This still characterizes the Arab sheikhs of the present time. See Layard, N. & B. p. 289.— Ed.] en. L.] ANCIENT IUOLA.TRY. 455 them." At these words, pushing away tlie youths, he groped along the wall with his staff. The character of Hatem is the perfect model of Arahian virtue:* he was brave and liberal, an eloquent poet and a successful robber : forty camels were roasted at his iiospitable feast; and at the prayer of a suppliant enemy, he restored both the captives and the spoil. The freedom of his countrymen disdained the laws of justice ; they proudly indulged the spoutaueouo impulse of pity and benevolence. Tlie religion of the Arabs,t as well as of the Indians, consisted in the worship of the sun, moon, and the fi.xed stars, a primitive and specious mode of superstition. The bright luminaries of tlie sky display the visible image of a deity ; their number and distance convey to a philosophic, or even a vulgar eye, the idea of boundless space ; the character of eternity is marked on these solid globes, that seem incapable of corruption or decay ; the regularity of their motions may be ascribed to a principle of reason or instinct ; and their real or imaginary influence encourages the vain belief, that the earth and its inliabitants ai'e the objects of their peculiar care. The science of astronomy was cultivated at Babylon ; but the school of the Arabs was a clear fii-mament and a naked plain. In their noc- turnal marches, they steered by the guidance of the stars ; their names, and order, and daily station, were familiar to the curiosity and devotion of the Bedoween ; and he was taught by experience to divide, in twenty-eight parts, the zodiac of the moon, and to bless the constellations which refreshed, with salutary rains, the thirst of the desert. The reign of the heavenly orbs could not be extended beyond the visible sphere ; and some metaphysical powers were • D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient, p. 458. Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, torn. iii. p. 118. Caab and Hesnus (Pocock, Sjiecimen, p. 43. 46. 48) were likewise conspicuous for their liberality ; and the latter is elegantly praised by an Arabian poet : — " Videbis eum cum accesseris exultautem, ac si dares illi quod ab illo petis." + Whatever can now be known of the idolatry of the ancient Arabians, may be found in Pocock. (Sjiecimon, p. 89 — 136. 163, 164.) His profound erudition is more clearly and concisely interpreted by Sale ^P^eliminary Discourse, p. 14 — 24), and Asseuiaunus (liibliot. Orient, tom. iv. p. 580 — 590) has added some valuable remarks. [Conde (p. 31) assigns to different tribes their respective objects of worship. -Ed.] iSG THE CAABA, OU [CH. L. necessary to sustain the transmigration of souls and the resurrection of bodies : a camel was left to perish on the grave, that lie might serve his master in another life ; and the invocation of departed spirits implies that they were still endowed with consciousness and power. I am ignor- ant, and I am careless, of the blind mythology of the Bar- barians ; of the local deities of the stars, the air, and the earth, of their sex or titles, their attributes or subordina- tion. Each tribe, each family, each independent warrior, created and changed the rites and the object of his fantastic worship ; but the nation, in every age, lias bowed to the religion, as well as to the language, of Mecca. Tlie genuine antiquity of the Caaba ascends beyond the Christian era : in desci'ibing the coast of the Eed Sea, the Greek historian Diodorus * has remarked, between the Thamudites and the Sabaeans, a famous temple, whose superior sanctity was re- vered by all the Arabians ; the linen or silken veil, which is annually renewed by the Turkish emperor, was first * 'lepoi' ayiix)TaTov ISpvrai Tificofitvov vtto iravriov 'Apa/3wv wtpiT- Torepov. (Diodor. Sicul. torn. i. 1. 3, p. 211.) The character and position are so correctly apposite, that I am surprised how this curious passage should have been read without notice or application. Yet this famous temple had been overlooked by Agatharcides (De Mari Rubro, p. 58, in Hudson, torn, i.), whom Diodorus copies in the rest of the description. Was the Sicilian more knowing than the Egyptian ? Or was the Caaba built between the years of Rome 650 and 746, the dates of their respective histories ? (Dodwell, in JJissert. ad torn. i. Hudson, p. 72. Fabricius, Bibliot. Grsec. torn. ii. p. 770.) [The Caaba was properly the black stone, preserved in the temple, or Becca. In the course of time the name was extended to the building itself. This stone, like that of Elagabalus at Emesa (see ch. 6, vol. i, p. 184), was no doubt an aerolite, which sanctified the spot on which it fell. Similar stones were venerated in other parts of the East, and a temple dedicated to the superstition was called Bethel — the House of God. Hence the Greeks had their custom, their fable, and the name of Baityla. The Roman worship of Terminus and ceremony of anointing and garland- ing the lapides terminales had probably the same origin, but took the more useful course of preserving boundary-marks and determining distances. The temple of the Caaba is a small square tower in the middle of the inclosed quadrangle, and the black stone, encircled with silver, is vorked into one ot its walls. The veil is a band of silk, with inscriptions in letters of gold carried round the edifice. Niebuhr's Arabia, p. 318. A dissertation by Lieut. Wilford in the Asiatic Researches (Supp. to Sir Wm. Jones's Works, ii. 757), makes this temple coeval with Semiramis; others ascribe it to Sesostris, and some devout Mussulmans assert that the Btone was the patriarch Jacob's CH. L.] TEMPLE OF MECCA. 457 offered by a pious king of the Homerites, •wlio reigned seven hundred years before the time of IVIahomet.* A tent or a cavern might suffice for the worship of the savages, but an edifice of stone and clay has been erected in its Elace ; and tlie art and power of the monarchs of tlie East ave been confined to the simplicity of the original model. f A spacious portico encloses the quadrangle of tlie Caaba; a square chapel, twenty-four cubits long, twenty-three broad, and twenty-seven high ; a door and a window admit the light ; the double roof is supported by three pillars of wood ; a spout (now of gold) discharges the rain-water, and the well Zemzem is protected by a dome from accidental pollution. The tribe of Koreish, by fraud or force, had acquired the custody of the Caaba ; the sacerdotal office devolved through four lineal descents to the grandfather of Mahomet ; and the family of the Ilashemites, from whence he sprang, was the most respectable and sacred in the eyes of their country. J The precincts of Mecca enjoyed the rights of sanctuarv ; and, in the last month of each vear, the city and the temple were crowded with a long tram of pilgrims, who presented their vows and offerings in the house of God. The same rites, which are now accomplished by the faithful Mussulman, were invented and practised by the superstition of the idolaters. At an awful distance they cast away their garments ; seven times, with hasty steps, they encircled the Caaba, and kissed the black stone ; seven times they visited and adored the adjacent mountains; seven times they threw stones into the valley of ]Mina ; and the pilgrimage was achieved, as at the present hour, by a pillow. — Ed.] * Pocock, Specimen, p. 60, 61. From the death of Mahomet we ascend to C8, from his birth to 129, years before the Christian era. The veil or curtain, which is now of silk and gold, was no more than a piece of Egpytian linen. (Abulfeda, in Vit. Mohammed, c. 6, p. 14.) + The original plan of the Caaba (which is servilely copied in Sale, the Universal History, &c.), was a Turkish draught, which Reland (de Religione Mohammedica, p. 113 — 123) has corrected and explained from the best authorities. For the description and legend of the Caaba, consult Pocock (Specimen, p. 115 — 122), the Bibliothfeque Orientale of D'Herbelot {Caaba, Eagiar, Zemzem, &c.) and Sale (Preliminary Discourse, p. 114 — 122). X Cosa, the fifth ancestor of Mahomet, must have usurped the Caaba a.d. 440, but the story is differently told by Jannabi (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, torn. i. p. 'o5 — 6y) and by Abulfeda (in Vit. Moham. 45S SACRIFICES AND RITES. [CH. L, sacrifice of slieep and camels, and the burial of their hair and nails in the consecrated ground. Each tribe either found or introduced in the Caaba their domestic worship ; the temple was adorned, or defiled, with three hundred and sixty idols of men, eagles, lions, and antelopes ; and most conspicuous was the statue of Hebal, of red agate, holding in his hand seven arrows, without heads or feathers, the instruments and symbols of profime divination. But this statue was a monument of Syrian arts : the devotion of the ruder ages was content with a pillar or a tablet ; and the rocks of the desert were hewn into gods or altars, in imita- tion of the black stone * of Mecca, which is deeply tainted with the reproach of an idolatrous origin. From Japan to Peru, the use of sacrifice has universally prevailed ; and the votary has expressed his gratitude or fear by destroying or consuming, in honour of the gods, the dearest and most precious of their gifts. The life of a mauf is the most pre- cious oblation to deprecate a public calamity ; the altars of Phoenicia and Egypt, of Kome and Carthage, have been polluted with human gore ; the cruel practice was long preserved among the Arabs; in the third century, a boy was annually sacrificed by the tribe of the Dumatians,J and a royal captive was piously slaughtered by the prince of the Saracens, the ally and soldier of the emperor Justinian. § c. 6, p. 13). * In the second century, Maximus of Tyre attributes to the Arabs the worship of a stone — 'Apdjiioi aeliovci fiiv, ovTiva Se OVK olc^a, to Ci uyaXj-ia ilcov • XiOoc yv rcrpa-yoivot,, (Dissert. 8, torn. i. p. 142, edit. Reiske) and the reproach is furiously re-echoed by the Christians. (Clemens Alex, in Protreptico, p. 40. Arnobius contra Gentes, 1. 6, p. 246.) Yet these stones were no other than the [iairvXa of Syria and Greece, so renowned in sacred and profane antiquity. (Euseb. Prsep. Evangel. 1. 1, p. 37. Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 54 — 56.) f The two horrid subjects; of 'AvSpoQvaia and UaidoBvcria, are accurately discussed by th^ learned Sir John Marsham. (Canon. Chron. p. 76—78. 301—304.) Sanchoniatho derives the Phoenician sacrifices from the example of Chronus ; but we are ignorant whether Chronus lived before or after Abraham, or indeed whether he lived at all. X KaT f roc tKU(7Tov ■Kciica tBvov, is the reproach of Porphyry ; but he likewise imputes to the Romans the same barbarous custom, which A.U.C. 657, had been finally abolished. Dumtetha, Daumat al Gendal, is noticed by Ptolemy (Tabul. p. 37. Arabia, p. 9—29) and Abulfeda (p. 57), and may be found in D'Anville's maps, in the mid- desert between Chaibar and Tadmor. § Procopius (de BelL Persico, 1. 1, c. 28), Evagrius (1. 6, c. 21), and OH. L.] INTRODUCTION OF THE 8ABIAN3. 459 A parent who drags his sou tu the altar, exhibits the most painful and sublime effort of fanaticism : the deed, or the intention, was sanctified by the example of saints and heroes ; and tiie father of Maliomet himself was devoted by a rash vow, and hardly ransomed for the equivalent of a hundred camels. In the time of ignorance, the Arabs, like the Jews and Egyptians, abstained from the taste of swine's ik'sh;* they circumcised t their children at the age of pu- berty ; the same customs, without the censure or the pre- cept of the Koran, have been silently transmitted to their posterity and proselytes. It has been sagaciously conjec- tured, that the artful legislator indulged the stubborn pre- indices of his countrymen. It is more simple to believe that he adhered to the habits and opinions of his youth, without foreseeing that a practice congenial to the climate of Mecca, might become useless or inconvenient on the banks of the Danube or the Volga. Arabia was free : the adjacent kingdoms were shaken by the storms of conquest and tyranny, and the persecuted sects fled to the happy land where they might profess what they thought, and practise what they professed. The reli- gions of the Sabians and Magians, of the Jews and Chris- tians, were disseminated from the Persian Gulf to the Eed Sea. In a remote period of antiquity, Sabianism was dif- fused over Asia by the science of the Chaldeans J and the Pocock (Specimen, p. 72. 8G), attest the human sacrifices of the Arabs in the sixth century. The danger and escape of Abdalluh is a tradi- tion rather than a fact. ((Jagnier, Vie de Mahomet, torn. i. p. 82 — S4.) * Suillis carnibus abstinent, says Solinus (Polyhistor, c. 33), who copies PUny (1. 8, c. 68), in the strange supposition that hogs cannot live in Arabia. The Egyptians were actuated by a natural and super- stitious horror for that unclean beast. (Marsham, Canon, p. 205.) The old Arabians likewise practised, post coitum, the rite of ablution (Herodot. 1. 1, c. 80), which is sanctified by the Mahometan law. (Keland, p. 75, &c. Chardin, or rather the Mollali. of Shaw Abbas, torn. iv. p. 71, &c.) [In the sultry climes of the East, the flesh of swine was found to be an unwholesome viand. The use of it was prohibited also in the temple of Comana. See note, ch. 17, vol. ii. p. 228. — Ed.] + The Mahometan doctors are not fond of the subject ; yet they hold circumcision necessary to salvation, and even pretend that Mahomet was miraculously born without a foreskin. (Pocock, Specimen, p. 319, 320. Sale's Preliminary Discourse, jt. lOd, 107.) X Diodorus Siculus (tom. i. 1. 2, p. 142—145) has caat on their religion the curious but superficial glance of a Greek. 4G0 THE MAGIANS. [CH. L. arms of the Assyrians. From the observations of tvo thousand years, the priests and astronomers of Babylon* deduced the eternal laws of nature and Providence. They adored the seven gods or angels who directed the course of the seven planets, and slied their irresistible influence on the earth. The attributes of the seven planets, with the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the twenty-four constella- tions of the northern and southern hemisphere, were repre- sented by images and talismans ; the seven days of the week were dedicated to their respective deities ; the Sabians prayed thrice each day ; and the temple of the moon at Haran was the term of their pilgrimage. t But the flexible genius of their faith was always ready either to teach or to learn ; in the tradition of the creation, the deluge, and the patriarchs, they held a singular agreement with their Jewish captives ; they appealed to the secret books of Adam, Seth, and Enoch ; and a slight infusion of the gospel has transformed the last remnant of the Polytheists into the Christians of St. John, in the territory of Bassora.J The altars of Babylon were overturned by the Magians ; but the injuries of the Sabians were revenged by the sword of Alexander; Persia groaned above five hundred years under a foreign yoke ; and the purest disciples of Zoroaster escaped from the contagion of idolatry, and breathed with their adversaries the freedom of the desert. § Seven hundred Their astronomy would be far more valuable ; they had looked through the telescope of reason, since they could doubt whether the sun were in the number of the planets or of the fixed stars. * Simplicius (who quotes Porphyry) de Cselo, 1. 2, com. 46, p. 12.3, lin. 18, apud Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 474, who doubts the fact, because it is adverse to his systems. The earliest date of the Chaldean observations is the year 2234 before Christ. After the conquest of Babylon by Alexander, they were communicated, at the request of Aristotle, to the astronomer Hipparchus. What a moment in the annals of science ! -f- Pocock (Specimen, p. 138 — 146), Hottinger (Hist. Oriental, p. 162—203), Hyde (de lleligione Vet. Per- sarum, p. 124, 128, &c.), D'Herbelot {Sabi, p. 725, 726), and Sale (Preliminary Discourse, p. 14, 15), rather excite than gratify our curiosity ; and the last of these writers confounds Sabianism with the primitive religion of the Arabs. J D'Anville (I'Euphrata «t le Tigre, p. 130 — 147) will fix the position of these ambiguous Christians ; Assemannus (Bibliot. Oriental, tom. iv. p. 607 — 614), may explain their tenets. But it is a .slippery task to ascertain the creed of an ignorant people, afraid and ashamed to disclose their secret traditions. § The Magi were fixed in the province of on. L,] THE JEWS,— AND CIIEISTIANS. 401 years before the death of Mahomet, the Jews were settled in Arabia ; and a far greater nniltitude was expelled Irom tlie holy land in the wars of Titus and Hadrian. The industrious exiles aspired to liberty and power ; they erected synagogues in the cities and castles in the wilder- ness, and their gentile converts were confounded with the children of Israel, whom they resembled in the outward mark of circumcision. The Christian missionaries were Btill more active and successful; the Catholics asserted their universal reign ; the sects whom they oppressed suc- cessively retired beyond the limits of the Roman empire; the Marcionites and the Manichaeans dispersed their fan- tastic opinions and apocryphal gospels ; the churches of Yemen, and the princes of Hira and Gassan, were in- structed in a purer creed by the Jacobite and Nestorian bishops.* The liberty of choice was presented to the tribes; each Arab was free to elect or to compose his private religion ; and the rude superstition of his house was mingled with the sublime theology of saints and philo- sophers. A fundamental article of iaith was inculcated by the consent of the learned strangers ; the existence of one supreme God, who is exalted above the powers of heaven and earth, but who has often revealed himself to mankind by the ministry of his angels and prophets, and whose grace or justice has interrupted, by seasonable miracles, the order of nature. The most rational of the Arabs ac- knowledged his power, though they neglected his worship ;t and it was habit rather than conviction that still attached them to the relics of idolatry. The Jews and Christians were the people of the Book : the Bible was already trans- lated into the Arabic language ;J and the volume of the Bahrein (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, torn. iii. p. 114) and mingled with the old Arabians, (rocoek, Specimen, p. 146 — 150.) * The state of the Jews and Christians in Arabia is described by Pocock from Sharestani, &c. (Specimen, p. 60. 134, &c.) Hottinger . 149), aur- named the father of a cat, who died in the year 59 of the Hegira. VOL. V. 2 II 406 ELOQUENCE OF BIAHOMET. [cH. U mory was capacious and retentive, his wit easy and social, his imagination sublime, his judgment clear, rapid, and decisive. He possessed the courage both of thought and action ; and, although his designs might gradually expand ■with his success, the first idea which he entertained of his divine mission bears the stamp of an original and superior genius. The son of Abdallah was educated in the bosom of the noblest race, in the use of the purest dialect, of Arabia; and the fluency of his speech was corrected and enhanced by the practice of discreet and seasonable silence. With these powers of eloquence, Mahomet was an illiterate Barbarian : his youth had never been instructed in the arts of reading and writing;* the common ignorance exempted him from shame or reproach, but he was reduced to a narrow circle of existence, and deprived of those faithful mirrors, which reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes. Yet the book of nature and of man was open to his view ; and some fancy has been indulged in the political and philosophical observations which are ascribed to the Arabian traveller.'^ He compares the nations and the reli- * Those who believe that Mahomet could read or write, are incapable of reading what is written, with anotlier pen, in the Suras, or chapters of the Koran, 7. 29. 96. These texts, and the tradition of the Sonna, are admitted, without doubt, by Abulfeda (in Vit. c. 7) ; Gagnier (Not. ad Abulfed. p. 15); Pocock (Specimen, p. 151) ; Reland (de Religione Mohammedica, p. 236) ; and Sale (Preliminai-y Discourse, p. 42). Mr. White, almost alone, denies the ignorance, to accuse the imposture, of the prophet. His arguments are far from satisfactory. Two short trading journeys to the fairs of Syria were surely not sufficient to infuse a science so rare among the citizens of Mecca ; it was not in the cool deliberate act of a treaty that Mahomet would have dropped the mask ; nor can any conclusion be drawn from the words of disease and delirium. The lettered youth, before he aspired to the prophetic cha- racter, must have often exercised, in private life, the arts of reading and writing ; and his first converts of his own family would have been the first to detect and upbraid his scandalous hypocrisy. (White's Sermons, p. 203, 204. Notes, p. 36—38.) t The count de Boulainvilliers (Vie de Mahomed, p. 202 — 228.) leads his Arabian pupil, like the Telemachus of Fenelon, or the Cyrus of Ramsay. His journey to the court of Persia is probably a fiction ; nor can I trace the origin of his exclamation, " Les Grecs sont pour- tant des hommes." The two Syrian journeys are expressed by almost all the Arabian writers, both Mahometans and Christians. (Gagnier, ad Abulfed. p. 10.) [Ockley (p. 9) says that Boulainvilliers "pretends to have taken his accounts from Arabian authors, but does not name ■ A.D. 5G9-G09.] OBSEEVATTOK AKD CONTEMPLATION. 4G7 gions of the eartli ; discovers tlie weakness of tlie Persian and llomau monarchies ; beholds, with j)ity and indignation, tlie degeneracy of the times ; and resolves to unite, under one God and one king, the invincible spirit and primitive virtues of the Arabs. Our more accurate inquiry will suggest, that instead of visiting the courts, the camps, the temples, of the East, the two journeys of Mahomet into Syria were confined to the fairs of Bostra and Damascus ; that he was only tliirteen years of age when he accompanied the caravan of his uncle, and that his duty compelled him to return as soon as he had disposed of the merchandize of Cadijah. In these hasty and superficial excursions, the eye of genius might discern some objects invisible to his grosser companions; some seeds of knowledge might be cast upon a fruitful soil ; but his ignorance of the Syriac language must have checked his curiosity ; and I cannot perceive in the life or writings of Mahomet, that his prospect was far extended beyond the limits of the Arabian world. From every region of that solitary world, the pilgrims of Mecca were annually assembled by the calls of devotion and connnerce ; in the free concourse of multi- tudes, a simple citizen, in his native tongue, might study the political state and character of the tribes, the theory and practice of the Jews and Christians. Some useful strangers might be tempted, or forced, to implore the rights of hospitality ; and the enemies of Mahomet have named the Jew, the Persian, and the Syrian monk, whom they accuse of lending their secret aid to the composition of the Koran.* Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius ; and the uniformity of a work denotes the hand of a single artist. From his earliest youth, Mahomet was addicted to religious contem- plation ; each year, during the month of Eamadan, he with- drew from the world and from the ainns of Cadijah ; in the a siugle authority. In short, he has given to the world a romance, not a history." — Ed.] * I am not at leisure to pursue thft fables or conjectures which name the strangers accused or suspected by the infidels of Mecca. (Koran, c. 16, p. 223; c. 35, p. 297, with Sale's Remarks ; Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 22 — 27 ; Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfed. p. 11. 74 ; iMaracci, torn. ii. p. 400.) Even Pri- dcaux has observed that the transactioa must have been eocret, and t.hat the scene lay in the heart of Arabia. 2 II 2 4GS TRE CAVE OF HERA, [cH. L, cave of Hera, three miles from Mecca,* he consulted the spirit of fraud or enthusiasm, whose abode is not in the heavens, but in the mind of the prophet. Tlie faith which, under the name of Islam, he preached to his family and nation, is compounded of an eternal truth, and a necessary fiction, That there is only one God, and that Mahomet IS THE APOSTLE OF GoD. It is the boast of the Jewish apologists, that while the Varned nations of antiquity were deluded by the fables of Polytheism, their simple ancestors of Palestine preserved the knowledge and worship of the true God. The moral attributes of Jehovah may not easily be reconciled with the atandai'd of Jniman virtue; his metaphysical qualities are darkly expressed ; but each page ot the Pentateuch and the Prophets is an evidence of his power; the unity of his name is inscribed on the first table of the law ; and his sanctuary was never defiled by any visible image of the invisible essence. After the ruin of the temple, the faith of the Hebrew exiles was purified, fixed, and enlightened, by the spiritual devotion ot the synagogue ; and the au- thority of Mahomet will not justify his perpetual reproach, that the Jews of Mecca or Medina adored Ezra as the son of God.f But the children of Israel had ceased to be a people ; and the religious of the world were guilty, at least in the eyes of the prophet, of giving sons, or daughters, or companions to the supreme God. In the rude idolatry of the Arabs, the crime is manifest and audacious ; the Sabians are poorly excused by the pre-eminence of the first planet, or intelligence, in their celestial hierarchy ; and in the Magian system the conflict of the two principles betrays the imperfection of the conqueror. The Christians of the seventh century had insensibly relapsed into a semblance of Paganism ; their public and private vows were addressed to the relics and images that disgraced the temples of the * Abulfeda, in Yit. c. 7, p. 15. Gagnier, torn. i. p. 133. 135. The situation of mount Hera is remarked by Abulfeda (Geograph. Arab, p. 4). Yet Mahomet had never read of the cave of Egeria, ubi noc- turnje Numa constituebat amicre, of the Idaean mount, where Minos r^invfii-sed with Jove, &c. t KoiAn, c. 9, p. 153. Al Beidawi, and tHe other commentators quoted by Sale, adhere to the charge ; but I do not understand that it is coloured by the moBt obscure or absurd tradition of the Talmudists. A..D. 5G0-G09.] THE CREED OF MAnOMET. 4G9 3*last ; the throne of the Ahiiighty was darkened by a cloud of martyrs, and saints, and angels, the objects of popular veneration ; and the Collyridian heretics, who llourished in the fruitful soil of Arabia, invested the virgin Mary Avith the name and honours of a goddess.* The mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation appear to contradict the prin- ciple of the divine unity. In their obvious sense, they introduce three equal deities, and transiorm the man Jesus into tlie substanclier would vihrate without eflect on the ear of a peasant ; yet how minute is the distance; of their understandings, if it be compared with tlie contact of an infinite and a finite mind, with the word of God expressed by the tongue or the pen of a mortal ? The inspiration of the Hebrew prophets, of the apostles and evangelists of Christ, might not be incon)patible with the exercise of their reason and memory ; and the diversity of their genius is strongly marked in the style and composition of the books of the Old and IS'ew Testament. But Mahomet was content with a character, more humble, yet more sublime, of a simple editor; the substance of the Koran,J according to himself or his disciples, is uncreated and eternal ; subsisting in the essence of the Deity, and inscribed with a pen of light on the table of his everlasting decrees. A paper copy, in a volume of silk and gems, was brought down to the lowest lieaven by the angel Gabriel, who, under the Jewish economy, had indeed been dispatched on the most important errands ; and this trusty messenger successively revealed the cliapters and verses to the Arabian prophet. Instead of a perpetual Mosheim, de Reb. Christ, p. 353.) * This charge is obscurely urged in the Koran (c. 3, p. 45) ; but neither Mahomet, nor his followers, are sufficiently versed in languac^es and criticism to give Ruy weight or colour to their suspicions. Yet the Arians and Nes- torians could relate some stories, and the illiterate prophet might listen to the bold assertions of the Manichajans. See Beausobre, torn. i. p. 291 — 305. t Among the prophecies of the Old and New Testament, which are perverted by the fraud or ignorance of the Mussulmans, they apply to the prophet the promise of the Para- clete, or Comforter, which had been already usurped by the Mou- tauists and Manichaiaus (Eeausobre, Hist. Critique du Manichdisme, tom. i. p. 263, &c.,) and the easy change of letters -jTttMKXvTiji; for ■Ka(>aK\i]Toc, affords the etymology of the name of Mohammed. (JIaracci, tom. i. part 1, p. 15 — 28). t For the Koran, see D'Herbelot, p. 85 — 88. Maracci, tom. i. in Vit. Mohammed, p. 32 — 45. Sale, Prelimiuary Discourse, p. 5G — 70. 474 THE KORAN. [CH. L. and perfect measure of the divine will, the fragments of the Koran -were produced at the discretion of Mahomet : each revelation is suited to the emergencies of his policy or passion ; and all contradiction is removed by the saving maxim, that any text of Scripture is abrogated or modified by any subsequent passage. The word of God, and of the apostie, was diligently recorded by his disciples on palm- leaves and the shoulder-bones of mutton; and the pages, without order or connection, were cast into a domestic chest in the custody of one of his wives. Two years after the death of Mahomet, the sacred volume was collected and published by his friend and successor Abubeker : the work was revised by the caliph Othman, in the thirtieth year of the Hegira ; and the various editions of the Koran assert the same miraculous privilege of a uniform and incorruptible text. In the spirit of enthusiasm or vanity, the prophet rests the truth of his mission on the merit of his book, auda- ciously challenges both men and angels to imitate the beauties of a single page, and presumes to assert that God alone could dictate this incomjmrable pei-formance.* This argument is most powerfully addressed to a devout Arabian, whose mind is attuned to faith and rapture, whose ear is delighted by the music of sounds, and whose ignorance is incapable of comparing the productions of human genius. t The harmony and copiousness of style will not reach, in a version, the European infidel ; he will peruse with impa- tience the endless incoherent rhapsody of fable, and precept, and declamation, which seldom excites a sentiment or an idea, which sometimes crawls in the dust, and is sometimes lost in the clouds. The divine attributes exalt the fancy of the Arabian missionary ; but his loftiest strains must yield to the sublime simplicity of the book of Job, composed in a remote age, in the same country, and in the same language. J * Koran, c. 17. v. 89. In Sale, p. 235, 236. In Maracci, p. 410. t Yet a sect of Arabians was persuaded, that it might be equalled or surpassed by a human pen (Pocock, Specimen, p. 221, &c.) ; and Maracci (the polemic is too hard for the translator) derides the rhyming affectation of the most applauded passage, (torn. i. part 2, p. 69 — 75). + Colloquia (whether real or fabulous) in media Arabia atque ab Arabibus habita. (Lowth, de Pocsi Hebrreorum Prajlect. 32—34, with his German editor Michaelis, Epimetrou 4.) Yet Michaelis (p. 67] — 673,) has detected many Egyptian images, the elephantiasis, pajiyrus, Nile, crocodile, &c. The language is ambi- AD. 5G9-G0n.] MIRACLES. 475 If the composition of the Koran exceed the faculties of a man, to what superior iiitclliijicnce sliould wc ascribe the Iliad of Homer or the Philippics of Demosthenes? In all religions, the life of the founder sui)plie3 the silence of his written revelation ; the sayings of Mahomet were so many lessons of trutli ; his actions so many examples of virtue ; and the jniblic and private memorials were preserved by his Avives and companions. At the end of two hundred years, the Sonna, or oral law, was fixed and consecrated by the labours of Al Bochari, who discriminated seven thousand two hundred and seventy-five traditions, from a mass of three hundred thousand reports, of a more doubtful or spu- rious character. Each day the pious author prayed in the temple of Mecca, and performed his ablutions with the water of Zemzem ; the pages were successively deposited on the pulpit, and the sepulchre of the apostle ; and the work has been approved by tlie four orthodox sects of the Sonnites.* The mission of the ancient prophets, of Moses, and of Jesus, had been confirmed by many splendid prodigies ; and Mahomet was repeatedly urged, by the inhabitants of Mecca and Medina, to produce a similar evidence of his divine legation; to call down from heaven the angel or the volume of his revelation, to create a garden in the desert, or to kindle a conflagration in the unbelieving city. As often as he is pressed by the demands of the Koreish, he involves himself in the obscure boast of vision and prophecy, appeals to the internal proofs of his doctrine, and shields himself behind the providence of God, who refuses those signs and wonders that would depreciate the merit of faith and aggra- vate the guilt of infidelity. But the modest or angry tone of his apologies betrays his weakness and vexation; and these passages of scandal establish, beyond suspicion, the integrity of the Korau.f The votaries of Mahomet are guously styled, Arahico-IIehnea. The resemblance of the sister dia- lects was much more visible in their childhood than in their mature age. (Michaelis, ]>. 682. Schulteus, in Prsefat. Job.) * Al Bochari died a.h. 224. See D'Herbelot, p. 208. 416. 827 Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfed. c. 19, p. 33. t See more remarkably, Koran, c. 2. 6. 12, 13. 17. Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 18, 19,) has confounded the impostor. Maracci, with a more learned apparatus, has shewn that the passages which deny his mira- cles are clear and positive, (Koran, torn. i. part 2. p. 7 — 12,) and those which seeni to assert them, are ambiguous and insufficient (p. 12 — 22). 476 MIEACLES. [CH. L. more assured than himself of his miraculous gifts, aud their confidence and credulity increase as they are farther removed from the time and place of his spiritual exploits. They believe or ailirm that trees went forth to meet him ; that he was saluted by stones ; that water gushed from his fingers, that he fed the hungry, cured the sick, and raised the dead ; that a beam groaned to him ; that a camel complained tcr him ; that a shoulder of mutton informed him of its being poisoned; and that both animate and inanimate nature were equally subject to the apostle of God.* His dream of a noc- turnal journey is seriously described as a real and corporeal transaction. A mysterious animal, the borak, conveyed him from the temple of Mecca to that of Jerusalem ; with his companion Gabriel, he successively ascended the seven heavens, and received and repaid the salutations of the patriarchs, the prophets, and the angels, in their respective mansions. Beyond the seventh heaven, Mahomet alone was permitted to proceed ; he passed the veil of unity, approached within two bow-shots of the throne, and felt a cold that pierced him to the heart, when his shoulder was touched by the hand of God. After this familiar, though important conversation, he again descended to Jerusalem, remounted the borak, returned to Mecca, and performed in the tenth part of a night the journey of many thousand years.f Ac- * See the Specimen Hist. Arabum, the text of Abulpharagiu8, p. 17, the notes of Pocock, p. 187—190. D'Herbelot Bibliothcque Orientale, p. 76, 77. Voyages de Chardin, torn. iv. p. 200--203. Maracci (Koran, torn. i. p. 22 — 64,) has most laboriously collected aud confuted the miracles and prophecies of Mahomet, which, according to some writers, amount to three thousand. [" Some of the doctors of Islamism have computed them at four thousand four hundred and fifty, while others have held that the more remarkable ones were not fewer than a thou- Band. Professor Lee's translation of Mirza Ibrahim states that the miracles recorded of Mahomet almost exceed enumeration." See Note to Bohn's Ockley, p. 66.— Ed.] t The nocturnal journey is circumstantially related by Abulfeda (in Vit. Mohammed. c. 19, p. 33,) who wishes to think it a vision; by Prideaux (p. 31—40,) who aggravates the absurdities ; aud by Gagnier (tom. i. p. 252—343,) who declare.^, from the zeakjus Al .Tannabi, that to deny this journey, is to disbelieve the Jvoran. Yet the Koran, without naming either heaven, or Jerusalem, or Mecca, has only dropped a mysterious hint : Laus illi qui transtulit servum suum ab oratorio Haram ad oratorium remotissimum. (Ivoran, c. 17. v. 1, in Maracci, tom. ii. p, 407, lor bale's version is more licentious.) A slender basis for the aerial struc- A.I). 5G9-609.] PRECEPTS OF MAHOMET. 477 cording to anotlicr legend, tlie apostle confounded in a national assemblv tlie malicious challenge of the Koreisli. His resistless word 8|)lit asunder the orb of tlie moon: the obedient planet stooped from her station in the sky, accom- plished tho seven revolutions round the Caaba, saluted Mahomet in the Arabian tongue, and suddenly contracting her dimensions, entered at the collar, and issued forth through the sleeve, of his shirt.* The vulgar are amused -with these marvellous tales ; but the gravest of the ]\russul- man doctors imitate the modesty of their master, and indulge a latitude of faith or interpretation.! They might speci- ously allege, that in preaching the religion, it was needless to violate the harmony, of nature ; that a creed unclouded with mystery may be excused from miracles ; and that the sword of Mahomet was not less potent than the rod of Moses. The polytheist is oppressed and distracted by the variety of superstition : a thousand rites of Egyptian origin were interwoven with the essence of the Mosaic law; and the spirit of the gospel had evaporated in the pageantry of the church. The prophet of INTecca was tempted by prejudice, or policy, or patriotism, to sanctity the rites of the Arabians, and the custom of visiting the holy stone of the Caaba. But the precepts of Mahomet himself inculcate a more simple and rational piety : prayer, fasting, and alms, are the reli- gious duties of a INEussulman ; and he is encouraged to hope, that prayer will carry him half way to God, fasting will bring him to the door of his palace, and alms will gain him admit- ture of tradition- * In the prophetic style, which uses the present or past for the future, Mahomet had said, — Appropinquavit hora et scissa est luna. (Koran, c. 54. v. 1, in Maracci, torn. ii. p. 688.) This figure of rhetoric has been converted into a fact, which is said to be attested by the most respectable eye-witnesses. (Maracci, torn. ii. p. 690.) The festival is still f'elebrated by the Persians (Chardin, torn. iv. p. 201); and the legend is tediously sjiun out by Gagnier (Vie de Mahomet, torn. i. p. 183 — 234) ; on the faith, as it should seem, of the credulous Al Jannabi. Yet a Mahometan doctor has arraigned the credit of the principal witness (apud Pocock, Specimen, p. 187) ; the best interpreters are content with the simple sense of the Koran ; (Al Beidawi, apud Hottinger, Uht Orient. 1. 2, p. 302,) ttJ the silence of Abulfoda is worthy of a prince and a philosoj-her. + Ahulpharagius, in Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 17, and his scepticism is justiHed in the notes of Pocock, p. lyO — 194, from the purest 478 PRATER, FASTING, [CH. L. tauce.* I. According to the tradition of the nocturnal journey, the apostle, in his personal conference with the Deity, was commanded to impose on his disciples the daily obligation of fifty prayers. By the advice of Moses, he applied for an alleviation of this intolerable burden ; the number was gradually reduced to five ; without any dispen- sation of business or pleasure, or time or place, the devotion of the faithful is repeated at day-break, at noon, in the afternoon, in the evening, and at the first watch of the night ; and, in the present decay of religious fervour, our travellers are edified by the profound humility and attention of the Turks and Persians. Cleanliness is the key of prayer : the frequent lustration of the hands, the face, and the body, which was practised of old by the Arabs, is solemnly enjoined by the Koran ; and a permission is formally granted to supply with sand the scarcity of water. The words and attitudes of supplication, as it is performed either sitting, or standing, or prostrate on the ground, are prescribed by custom or authority, but the prayer is poured forth in short and fervent ejaculations; the measure of zeal is not exhausted by a tedious liturgy ; and each Mussulman, for his own person, is invested with the character of a priest. Among the theists, who reject the use of images, it has been found necessary to restrain the wanderings of the fancy, by direct- ing the eye and the thought towards a kebla, or visible point of the horizon. The prophet was at first inclined to gratify the Jews by the choice of Jerusalem ; but he soon returned to a more natural partiality ; and five times every day the eyes of the nations at Astracan, at Fez, at Delhi, are de- voutly turned to the holy temple of Mecca. Tet every spot for the service of God is equally pure ; the Mahometans indiflferently pray in their chamber or in the street. As a authorities. * The most authentic account of these pre- cepts, pilgrimage, prayer, fasting, alms, and ablutions, is extracted from the Persian and Arabian theologians by Maracci (Prodrom. part 4, p. 9—24) ; Reland (in his excellent treatise de Religione Mo- hammedica, Utrecht, 1717, p. 67—123); and Chardin (Voyages en Perse, torn. iv. p. 47 — 195). Maracci is a partial accuser; but the jeweller, Chardin, had the eyes of a philosojther ; and Reland, a judi- eioas student, had travelled over the east in his closet at Utrecht. The fourteenth letter of Tourncfort (Voyage du Levant, torn. ii. p. 325—360, in octavo) describes what he had seen of the religJou of A.D. 500 -009.] A.SD ALMS. 479 distinction from the Jews and Christians, the Friday in each M eek is set apart for the useful institution of public worship : tlie people are assembled in the niosch ; and the iman, some respectable elder, ascends the pulpit, to begin the prayer and pronounce the sermon. But the Mahometan religion, is destitute of priesthood or sacrifice;* and the independent spirit of fanaticism looks down witli contempt on the ministers and the slaves of superstition. II. The voluntaryt penance of the ascetics, the torment and glory of their lives, was odious to a prophet who censured in his companions a rash vow of abstaining IVom flesh, and women, and sleep ; and firmly declared that he would suffer no monks in his reli- gion. J Tet he instituted, in each year, a fast of thirty days; and strenuously recommended the observance, as a discipline which purifies the soul and subdues the body, as a salutary exercise of obedience to the will of God and his apostle. During the month of Kamadan, from the rising to the setting of the sun, the Mussulman abstains from eating, and drink- ing, and women, and baths, and perfumes ; from all nourish- ment that can restore his strength, from all pleasure that can gratify his senses. In the revolution of tiie lunar year, the Kamadan coincides by turns with the winter cold and the summer heat ; and the patient martyr, without assuag- ing his thirst with a drop of water, must expect the close of a tedious and sultry day. The interdiction of wine, peculiar to some orders of priests or hermits, is converted by Ma- homet alone into a positive and general law:§ and a con- the Turks. * [Sacrifices, though not a regular part of the Mahometan ritual, are offered by pilgrims at Mecca. Mahomet set the example of this, by slaying sixty-three camels, when he visited the Caaba, in the tenth year of the Hegira. Ockley, p. 59, edit. Bohn. — Ed.] + Mahomet (Sale's Koran, c. 9, p. 153,) reproaches tiie Christiana with taking their priests and monks for their lords, ^e.^ide3 God. Yet Maracci (Prodromus, part 3, p. 69, 70,) excuses the worship, especially of the pope ; and quotes, from the Koran itself, the case of Eblis, or Satan, who was cast from heaven for refusing to adore Adam. + Koran, c. 5, p. 94, and Sale's note, which refers to the authority of Jallaloddin and Al Beidawi. D'Herbelot declares, that Mahomet condemned ^a vie reU(iieuse ; and that the first swarms of fakirs, dervises, &e., did not appear till after the year 300 of the Hegira. (Bibliot. Orient, p. 292. 718.) § See the double jirohibition (Koran, c. 2, p. 25; c. 5, p. 94), • the one in the style of a legislator, the other in that of a fanatic. The public and privata 480 THE EESURRECTIOX. [CH. L. siderable portion of tlie globe has abjured, at bis command, the use of that salutary, though dangerous, liquor. These painful restraints arc, doubtless, infringed by the libertine and eluded by the hypocrite; but the legislator, by whom they are enacted, caunot surely be accused of alluring his proselytes by the indulgence of their sensual appetites. III. The charity of the Mahometans descends to the animal creation ; and the Koran repeatedly inculcates, not as a merit, but as a strict and indispensable duty, the relief of the indigent and unfortunate. Mahomet, perhaps, is the only lawgiver who has defined the precise measure of charity : the standard may vary with the degree and nature of property, as it consists either in money, in corn or cattle, in fruits or merchandise ; but the Mussulman does not ac- complish the law, unless he bestows a tenth of his revenue ; and if his conscience accuses him of fraud or extortion, the tenth, under the idea of restitution is enlarged to ^ fifth* Benevolence is the foundation of justice, since we are forbidden to injure those whom we are bound to assist, A prophet may reveal the secrets of heaven and of futurity; but in his moral precepts he can only repeat the lessons of our own hearts. The two articles of belief, and the four practical duties of Islam, are guarded by rewards and punishments ; and the faith of the Mussulman is devoutly fixed on the event of the judgment and the last day. The prophet has not presumed to determine the moment of that awful catastrophe, though he darklv announces the signs, both in heaven and earth, which will precede the nniversal dissolution, when life shall be destroyed, and the order of creation shall be confounded in the primitive chaos. At the blast of the trumpet, new worlds will start into being ; angels, genii, and men, will arise from the dead, and the human soul will again be united to the body. The doctrine of the resurrection was motives of Mahomet are investigated by Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 62—64,) and Sale. (Pi-eliminary Discourse, p. 124.) * The jealousy of Maracci (Prodromus, part 4, p. 33,) prompts him to enumerate the more liberal alms of the Catholics of Home. Fifteen great hospitals are open to many thousand patients and pilgrims, fifteen hundred maidens are annually portioned, fifty-six charity- schools are founded for both sexes, one hundred and twenty confrater- nities relieve the wants of their brethren, &c. The benevolence of London is still more extensive ; but I am afraid that much more is to be ascribed to the humanity, than to the religion, of the people. AD. 5G9-G09.] HELL AND PAHADISE. 4Sl first entertained by the Egyptians ;* and tlieir mummiea were embalmed, their pyramids were constructed, to pre- serve the ancient mansion ot" tlie soul, during a period of three thousand years. But the attempt is partial anrj unavailing; and it is with a more philosophic spirit th:j^ Mahomet relies on the omnipotence of the Creator, whoso word can re-animate the breathless clay, and collect the innumerable atoms, that no longer retain their form or substance. t The intermediate state of the soul it is hard to decide ; and those who most lirmly believe her immaterial nature, are at a loss to understand how she can think or act without the agency of the organs of sense. Tlie reunion of the soul and body will be followed by the final judgment of mankind; and, in his copy of the Magian picture, the prophet has too faithfully represented the lorms of proceeding, and even the slow and successive operations, of an earthly tribunal. By his intolerant adver- saries he is upbraided for extending, even to themselves, the hope of salvation ; ibr asserting the blackest heresy, that every man who believes in God, and accomplishes good works, may expect in the last day a favourable sentence. >>uch rational indifference is ill adapted to the character of a fanatic; nor is it probable that a messenger from heaven should depreciate the value and necessity of his own revela- tion. In the idiom of the Koran, § the belief of God is * See Herodotus (1. 2, c. 123,) and our learned countryman, Sir John Marsbam (Canon. Chrouicus, p. 46). The 'Acjjf of the same writer (p. 25-1 — 274) is au elaborate sketch of the infernal regionc, as they were painted by the fancy of the Egyptians and Greeks, of the poets and philosophers of antiquity. [The immortality of the soul may have been the subject of philosophic speculation, poetic dreams, and secret instruction to the initiated in mysteries ; but it was never popularly proclaimed or distinctly recommended to lively belief, till Christianity was preached. We are too prone to judge of ancient times by the present ; to suppose that books were as accessible then as they are now ; and that the illiterate heard the lectures of the schools, as they listen to the discourses in modern churches. — Ed.] t The Koran (c. 2, p. 259, &c., of Sale, p. 32, of Maracci, p. 97.) relates an ingenious miracle, which satisfied the curiosity, and con- firmed the luith, of Abraham. § Tiie candid Rehind has demonstrated, that Mahomet damns all unbelievers (de Religion. Moham. p. 128 — 142) ; that devils will not be finally saved (p. 196 — 199); that paradise will not solely consist of corporeal delights (p. 199 — 205); and that women's souls are immortal Ip. 205— 209). VOL. V. 'I 1 482 HELL ATs^D PAEABISE. [CH. L. inseparable from tliat of Maliomet; the good works are those which he has enjoined ; and the two qualifications imply the profession of Islam, to which all nations and all sects are equally invited. Their spiritual blindness, though excused by ignorance and crowned with virtue, will be scourged with everlasting torments ; and the tears which Mahomet shed over the tomb of his mother, for whom he was forbidden to pray, display a striking contrast of humanity and enthusiasm.* The doom of the infidels is common : the measure of their guilt and punishment is determined by the degree of evidence which they have rejected, by the magnitude of the errors which they have entertained: the eternal mansions of the Christians, the Jews, the Sabians, the Magians, and the idolaters, are sunk below each other in the abyss ; and the lowest hell is reserved for the faithless hypocrites who have assumed the mask of religion. After the greater part of mankind has been condemned for their opinions, the true believers only will be judged by their actions. The good and evil of each Mussulman will be accurately weighed in a real or alle- gorical balance, and a singular mode of compensation will be allowed for the payment of injuries : the aggressor will refund an equivalent of his own good actions for the benefit of the person whom he has wronged ; and if he should be destitute of any moral property, the weight of his sins will be loaded with an adequate share of the demerits of the sufferer. According as the shares of guilt or virtue shall preponderate, the sentence will be pronounced, and all, without distinction, will pass over the sharp and perilous bridge of the abyss ; but the innocent, treading in the foot- steps of Mahomet, will gloriously enter the gates of paradise, while the guilty will fall into the first and mildest of the seven hells. The term of expiation will vary from nine hundred to seven thousand years ; but the prophet has judiciously promised, that all his disciples, whatever may be their sins, shall be saved, by their own faith and his inter- '■* Al Beidawi, apud Sale, Koran, c. 9, p. 164. The refusal to pray for an unbelieving kindred, is justified, according to Mahomet, by the du>ty of a prophet, and the example of Abraham, who reprobated his own father as an enemy of God. Yet Abraham (he adds, c. 9, v. HG. Mayacci, toru. ii. p. 317,) fuit sane plus, mitis. 669-G09.] UELL AND PARADISE. 483 cession, from eternal damnation. It is not surprising tliat superstition should act most powerfully on the lears of her votaries, since the liuman fancy can paint with more energy the misery than the bliss of a future life. AVith the two simple elements of darkness and fire, we create a sensation of pain, which may be aggravated to an infinite degree bj' the idea of endless duration. But the same idea operates with an opposite effect on the continuity of pleasure ; and too much of our present enjoyments is obtained from the relief, or the comparison, of evil. It is natural enough that an Arabian prophet should dwell with rapture on the groves, the fouutaius, and the rivers of paradise ; but instead of inspiring the blessed inhabitants with a liberal taste for harmony and science, conversation and friendship, he idly celebrates the pearls and diamonds, the robes of silk, palaces of marble, dishes of gold, rich wines, artificial dainties, numerous attendants, and the whole train of sensual and costly luxury, which becomes insipid to the owner, even in the short period of this mortal life. Seventy-two hoitris, or black-eyed girls, of resplendent beauty, blooming youth, virgin purity, and exquisite sensibility, will be created for the use of the meanest believer ; a moment of pleasure will be prolonged to a thousand years, and his faculties will be increased a hundred-fold, to render him worthy of his felicity. Notwithstanding a vulgar prejudice, the gates of heaven will be open to both sexes ; but Mahomet has not specified the male companions of the female elect, lest he should either alarm the jealousy of their former husbands, or disturb their felicity, by the suspicion of an everlasting marriage. This image of a carnal paradise has provoked the indignation, perhaps the envy, of the monks : they declaim against the impure religion of Mahomet ; and his modest apologists are driven to the poor excuse of figures and allegories. But the sounder and more consistent party adhere, without shame, to the literal interpretation of the Koran ; useless would be the resurrection of the body, unless it were restored to the possession and exercise of its worthiest faculties ; and tlae union of sensual and intel- lectual enjoyment is requisite to complete the happiness of the double animal, the perfect man. Tet the joys of the Maliometan paradise will not be confined to the indulgenct.^ of luxury and appetite; and the prophet has express)}- 2i2 484! JOTS OF PAEADISE. [CH. L. (ieclared, tl>at all meaner happiness "will be forgotten and despised by the saints and martyrs, who shall be admitted to tlie beatitude of the divine vision.* The first and most arduous conquests of Mahometf were * For the day of judgment, hell, paradise, &c., consult the Koran (c. 2, V. 25 ; c. 5(5. 78, (fee.,) with Maracci's virulent, but learned, refu- tation (in his notes, and in the Prodromus, part 4, p. 78. 120. 122, &c.); D'Herbelot (Biblioth6que Orientale, p. 3G8. 375) ; Reland (p. 47—61 ; and Sale (p. 76 — 103.)- The original ideas of the Magi are darkly and doubtfully explored by their apologist. Dr. Hyde (Hist. Religionis Persarum, c. 33, p. 402—412. Oxon. 1760.). In tlie article of Mahomet, r>ayle has shown how indifferently wit and philosophy supply tie absence of genuine information. + Before I enter on the history of the prophet (t is incumbent on me to produce my evi dence. The Latin, Frencn, and English versions of the Koran, are preceded by historical discourses, and the three translators, Marscci (torn. i. p. 10 — 32) ; Savary (torn. i. p. 1 — 248); and Sale (Preliminary Disco\irse, p. 33 — 56,) had accurately studied the language and cha- racter of their author. Two professed lives of Mahomet have been composed by Dr. Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, seventh edition, London, 1718, in octavo); and the count de Boulainvilliers (Vie de Mahomed. Londres, 1730, in octavo) ; but the adver.se wish of finding an im- po.stor, or a hero, has too often corrupted the learning of the doctor and the ingenuity of the count. The ai'ticle in D'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient, p. 598 — 603,) is chiefly drawn from Novairi and Mircond ; but the best and most authentic of our guides is M. Gagnier, a Frenchman by birth, and professor at Oxford of the Oriental tongues. In two elaborate works (Ismael Abulfeda de Vita et Rebus gestis Moham- rnedis, &c. Latine vertit, Pra:fatione et Notis illustravit Johannes Gagnier. Oxon. 1723, in folio; La Vie de Mahomet traduite et com- plice de I'Alcoran, des Traditions authentiques de la Soniia et dea meilleurs Auteurs Arabes ; Amsterdam, 1748, 3 vols, in duodecimo,) he has interpreted, illustrated, and supplied the Arabic text of Abul- feda and Al Jannabi ; the first, an enlightened prince, who reigned at Hamah, in Syria, a.d. 1310 — 1332 (see Gagnier, Pra3fat. ad Abulfed.); the second, a credulous doctor, who visited Mecca, a.d. 1556, (D'Her- belot, p. 397. Gagnier, torn. iii. p. 209, 210.). These are my general vouchers, and the inquisitive reader may follow the order of time, and the division of chapters. Yet I must obsei've, that both Abulfeda and Al Jannabi are modern historians, and that they cannot appeal to any writers of the first century of the Hegira. [Professor Smyth, in his list of books to be consulted (Preface to Lectures, p. xii.) says, that Prideaux's Life of Mahomet " is not long but seems not very good." Ockley's opinion of Boulainvilliers has been already stated (p. 466.) Of Gibbon's three masterpieces, Athauasius, Julian, and Mahomet, his materials for the last were the least tractable. Yet he has constructed out of them a picture so excellent, that all who have followed him have borrowed from his stores without adding to them. A..U. G09.] MA.IIOMET PEEACUES AT MECCA. 4S5 tliose of bis wife, his servant, his pupil, and his friend ;* Bince lie presented himself as a prophet to those who wero most conversant witli his infirmities as a man. Yet Cadij:ili brlieved the words, and cherished the glory of her husband; the obsequious and attectionate Zeid was tempted by the prospect of freedom ; the illustrious Ali, the son of Abu Taleb, embraced the sentiments of his cousin with the spirit of a youthful hero ; and the wealth, the moderation, the veracity of Abubeker, confirmed the religion of the prophet whom he was destined to succeed. By his persua- sion, ten of the most respectable citizens of Mecca were introduced to the private lessons of Islam ; they yielded to the voice of reason and enthusiasm ; they repeated the fundamental creed, — " There is but one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God ;" and their faith, even in this life, was rewarded with riches and honours, with the command of armies and the government of kingdoms. Three years were silently employed in the conversion of fourteen pro- selytes, the first fruits of his mission ; but in the fourth year he assumed the prophetic office, and resolving to im[)art to his family the light of divine truth, he prepared a banquet, a lamb, as it is said, and a bowl of milk, for the entertainment of forty guests of the race of Hashem. " Friends and kinsmen," said Mahomet to the assembly, " 1 offer you, and I alone can oiier, the most precious or gifts, the treasures of this world and of the world to come. God has commanded me to call you to his service. Who among you will support my burden ? Who among you will be my companion and my vizir V't ^o answer was Among his auccessora, Dr. Weil, in his Life of Mahomet, published ^t Stutgard in 184.3, most deserves the attention of the .studious His researches have been made available in Bohn's edition Ockley.— Ed. * After the Greeks, Prideaux (p. 8,) discloses the secret doubts of the wife of Mahomet. As if he had been a privy-counsellor of the prophet, Boulainvilliers (p. 27'2, Sio.,) unfolds the sublime and pa- triotic views of Cadijah and the first disciples. ■f- VczirtLS, portilor, bajulus, onus ferens ; and this plebeian name was transferred by an apt metaphor to the pillars of the State. (Gag- nier, Not. ad Abulfed. p. 19.) I endeavour to preserve the Arabian idiom, a.s far as I can feel it myself in a Latin or French translation. [Some Arabian scholars derive the word vizir, from vczan, to bear or eovvy ; ;ixsd others from vcaara, he has advised- No regular officer of fc86 MAHOMET TEEACnES AT MECCA. [CH. L. returned, till the silence of astonishment, and donht, and contempt, was at length broken by the impatient courage of Ali, a youth in the fourteenth year of his age. " O prophet, I am the man; whosoever rises against thee, 1 will dash out his teeth, tear out his eyes, break his legs, rip up his belly. O prophet, I will be thy vizir over them." Mahomet accepted his offer with transport, and Abu Taleb was ironically exhorted to respect the superior dignity of his son. In a more serious tone, the father of Ali advised his nephew to relinquish his impracticable design. " Spare vour remonstrances," replied the intrepid fanatic to his iincle and benefactor ; " if they should place the sun on my right hand, and the moon on my left, they should not divert me from my course." He persevered ten years in the exercise of "his mission ; and the religion which has over- spread the East and the "West advanced with a slow and painful progress within the walls of Mecca. Yet Mahomet enjoyed the satisfaction of beholding the increase of his infant congregation of Unitarians, who revered him as a prophet, and to whom he seasonably dispensed the spiritual nourishment of the Koran. The number of proselytes may be estimated by the absence of eighty-three men and eighteen women, who retired to Ethiopia in the seventh year of his mission ; and his party was fortified by the timely conversion of his uncle Hamza, and of the fierce and inflexible Omar, who signalized in the cause of Islam the same zeal which he had exerted for its destruction. Nor was the charity of Mahomet confined to the tribe of Koreish or the precincts of Mecca : on solemn festivals, in the days of pilgrimage, he frequented the Caaba, accosted the strangers of every tribe, and urged, both in private converse and public discourse, the belief and worship of a sole deity. Conscious of his reason and of his weakness, he asserted the liberty of conscience, and disclaimed the use of religious violence ;* but he called the Arabs to repentance, State was so designated till A.D. 750, when Abul Abbas, the firstof the Abbassides, originated the title ; nor does it appear ever to have beea used in an undignified sense. — Ed.] * The passages of the Koran in behalf of toleration are strong and numerous, c. 2. V. 257 ; c. 16. 129; c. 17. 54 ; c. 45. 15; c. 50. 39 ; c. 88. 21, &c., with the notes of Maracci and Sale. This character alone may generally decide the doubts of the learned, whether a chapter was revealed at A.D. 013-622.] IS OPPOSED BY TUt KOnEISH. 487 and conjured tliem to remember the ancient idolaters of Ad and Tliaiiinnd, wlioin the divine justice had swept away from the face of the eartli.* The ]K'ople of Mecca were hardened in their unbelief by- superstition and envy. Tiie elders of tlie city, the uncles of the prophet, aftected to despise the presumption of an orphan, the reformer of his country; the pious orations of Maliomet in the Caaba were answered by the clamours of Abu Taleb. " Citizens and pilgrims, listen not to the tempter, hearken not to his impious novelties. Stand fast in the worship of Al Lata and Al Uzzah." Tet the son of Ab- dallah was ever dear to the aged chief; and he protected the fame and person of his nephew against the assaults of the Koreisliites, who had long been jealous of the pre- eminence of the family of iiashem. Their malice was coloured with the pretence of religion; in the age of Job, the crime of impiety was punished by the Arabian magistrate ;t and JMahomet was guilty of deserting and denying the national deities. But so loose was the policy of Mecca, that the leaders of the Koreish, instead of accu- sing a criminal, were compelled to employ the measures of persuasion or violence. They repeatedly addressed Abu Taleb in the style of reproach and menace. " Thy nephew reviles our religion ; he accuses our wise forefathers of igno- rance and folly ; silence him quickly, lest he kindle tumult and discord in the city. If he persevere, we shall draw our swords against him and his adherents, and thou wilt be responsible for the blood of thy fellow-citizens." The weight and moderation of Abu Taleb eluded the violence of reli- gious faction ; the most helpless or timid of the disciples retired to Ethiopia, and the prophet withdrew himself to Mecca or Medina. * See the Koran (j)aflsim, and espe- cially c. 7, 123, 124, &c.) ; and the tradition of the Arabs (Pocock, Spe- cimen, p. 35 — 37.). The caverns of the tribe of Thaimuid, fit lor men of the ordinary stature, were shewn in the midway between Medina and Damascus (Abulfed. Arabia} Descript. p. 43, 44,) and may be pro- bably ascribed to the Troglodites of the primitive world, (Jliehaeli.s, ad Lowth de Poesi Hebrceor. p. 131 — 134. Kecherches sur les Egyptiens, torn. ii. p. 48, &c.). t In the time of Job, the crime of impiety was punished by the Arabian magistrate (c. 31, v. 26. 28.). I blush for a respectable prelate (de Poesi Hebraeorum, p. 650, 651, edit. Michaelis ; and letter of a late professor in the university of Oxford, p. 15 — 53,) who justifies and ajiplauds this patriarchal inquisition. 4S3 MAHOMET DEITEN FROM MECCA. [CH. L various places of strength in the town and country. As he was still supported by his family, the rest of the tribe of Koreish engaged themselves to renounce all intercourse with the children of Hashem, neither to buy nor sell, nei- ther to marry nor to give in marriage, but to pursue them with implacable enmity, till they should deliver the person of Mahomet to the justice of the gods. The decree was suspended in the Caaba before the eyes of the nation ; the messengers of the Koreish pursued the Mussulman exiles in the heart of Africa ; they besieged the prophet and his most faithful followers, intercepted their water, and inflamed their mutual animosity by the retaliation of injuries ana insults. A doubtful truce restored the appearances of con- cord, till the death of Abu Taleb abandoned Mahomet to the power of his enemies, at the moment when he was deprived of his domestic comforts by the loss of his faithful and generous Cadijah. Abu Sophian, the chief of the branch of Ommiyah, succeeded to the principality of the republic of Mecca. A zealous votary of the idols, a mortal foe of the line of Hashem, he convened an assembly of the Koreishites and their allies, to decide the fate of the apostle His imprisonment might provoke the despair of his enthu- siasm ; and the exile of an eloquent and popular fanatic would diffuse the mischief through the provinces of Arabia. His death was resolved ; and they agreed that a sword from each tribe should be buried in his heart, to divide the guilt of his blood, and baffle the vengeance of the Hashemites. An angel or a spy revealed their conspiracy ; and flight was the only resource of Mahomet.* At the dead of night, ac- companied by his friend Abubeker, he silently escaped from his house : the assassins watched at the door ; but they were deceived by the figure of Ali, who i-eposed on the bed, and was covered with the green vestment of the apostle. The Koreish respected the piety of the heroic youth ; but some verses of Ali, which are still extant, exhibit an in- teresting picture of his anxiety, his tenderness, and his reli- gious confidence. Three days Mahomet and his companion were concealed in the cave of Thor, at the distance of a league from Mecca ; and in the close of each evening, they * D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orieut. p. 445. He quotes a particuLu- history of the flight of Mahomet. \.D. G22.] ms FLIGHT to meuina. 'ISO received from the son and daughter of Abubeker a secret supply of intelligence and food. The diligence of the Koreish explored every haunt in the neighbourhood of tlie city ; tliey arrived at the entrance of the cavern ; but the providential deceit of a spider's web and a jji- geon's nest, is supposed to convince them that the place- was solitary and inviolate. " "NVe are only two," said the trembling Abubeker. "There is a third," replied the prophet; "it is God himself" JN'o sooner was the pursuit abated, than the fugitives issued from the rock, and mounted tlieir camels ; on the road to Medina, they were overtaken by the emissaries of the Koreish ; they redeemed them- selves with prayers and promises from their hands. In this eventful moment the lance of an Arab might have changed the history of the world. The flight of the ])roplict from Mecca to Medina has fixed the memorable' era ol" the Ilcfjira* which, at the end of twelve centuries, still discriminates the lunar years of the Mahometan nations.t The religion of the Koran might have perished in its cradle, had not Medina embraced with faith and reverence the holy outcasts of Mecca. Medina, or the city, known \iiider the name of Tathreb, before it was sanctified by the throne of the prophet, was divided between the tribes of the Charegites and the Awsites, whose hereditary feud was rekindled by the slightest provocations; two colonies of Jews, who boasted a sacerdotal race, were their humble allies, and without converting the Arabs, they introduced the taste of science and religion, which distinguished Medina as the city of the book. Some of her noblest citizens, in a * The Her/ira was instituted by Omar, the second caliph, in imita- tion of the era of the martyrs of the Christians (D'Herbelot, p. 444), and propei-ly commenced sixty-eight days before the flight of Mahomet with the first of Moharrem, or first day of that Arabian year, which coincides with Friday, July 16, a.D 6-2\>. (Abulfeda, Vit. Moham. c. 22, 23, p. 45 — 50, and Greaves' edition of Uilug Beg's Epocha; Arabum, &c. c. 1, p. 8. 10, &c. [The j-ears of the Hegira being lunar, in thirty of them, nineteen have 354 days each; the other eleven are inter- cahiry. and have 355 ; consequently thirty-three Arabian years are about equal to tliirtj'-two of ours. — Ed. J t Mahomet's life, from his mission to the Hegira, may be found in Abulfeda (p. 14—45) and Gagnier (torn. i. p. 134—251. 342— 3SS). The legend from p. 187 — 234, is vouched by Al Jannabi, and disdained by 490 MAHOMET AT MEDINA. [CH. L. pilgrimage to the Caaba, were converted by the preachiug of Mahomet ; on tlieir return they diffused the belief of God and his prophet, and the new alliance was ratified by their deputies in two secret and nocturnal interviews on a liill in the suburbs of Mecca. In the first, ten Charegites :uid two Awsites united in faith and love, protested in the name of their wives, their children, and their absent brethren, that they would for ever profess tlie creed, and observe the precepts, of the Koran. The second was a political association, the first vital spark of the empire of the Saracens.* Seventy-three men and two women of Medina held a solemn conference with Mahomet, his kins- men, and his disciples ; and pledged themselves to each other by a mutual oath of fidelity. They promised in the name of the city, that if he should be banished, they would receive him as a confederate, obey him as a leader, and de- fend him to the last extremity, like their wives and children. " But if you are recalled by your country," they asked with a flattering anxiety, " will you not abandon your new allies ?" — " All things," replied Mahomet with a smile, " are now common between us ; your blood is as my blood, your ruin as my ruin. "We are bound to each other by the ties of honour and interest. I am your friend, and the enemy of your foes." — "But if we are killed in your service, what," exclaimed the deputies of Medina, " will be our reward ?" — " Paradise," replied the prophet. " Stretch forth thy hand." He stretched it forth, and they reiterated the oath of alle- giance and fidelity. Their treaty was ratified by the people, who unanimously embraced the profession of Islam ; they rejoiced in the exile of the apostle, but they trembled for his safety, and impatiently expected his arrival. After a perilous and rapid journey along the sea-coast, he halted at Koba, two miles from the city, and made his public entry into Medina, sixteen days after his flight from Mecca. I'ive hundred of the citizens advanced to meet him ; he was hailed with acclamations of loyalty and devotion ; Ma- homet was mounted on a she-camel, an umbrella shaded his head, and a turban was unfurled before him to supply Abulfeda. * The triple inauguration of Mahomet is described by Abulfeda (p. 30. 33. 40. 86) and Gagnier (torn. L p. 342, &c. 349, &c.; torn. ii. p. 223, &c. A.D, 622-632] nis uegal dignity. 401 the deficiency of a standard. His bravest disciples, who had been scattered by the storm, assembled round his person ; and the equal, though various, merit of the Mos- lems was distinguished by the names of Uohaf/erians and Ansars, the iugitives of Mecca, and the auxiliaries of Me- dina. To eradicate the seeds of jealousy, Mahomet judi- ciously coupled his principal followers with the rights and obligations of brethren ; and when Ali found himself without a peer, the prophet tenderly declared, that he would be the companion and brother of the noble youth. The expedient was crowned with success ; the holy fraternity was respected in peace and war, and the two parties vied with each other in a generous emulation of courage and fidelity. Once only the concord was slightly ruffled by an accidental quarrel ; a patriot of Medina arraigned the insolence of the strangers, but tlie hint of their expulsion was heard with abhorrence, and his own son moat eagerly ofiTered to lay at the apostle's feet the head of his father. From his establishment at Medina, Mahomet assumed the exercise of the regal and sacerdotal office ; and it was impious to appeal from a judge whose decrees were inspired by the divine wisdom. A small portion of ground, the patrimony of two orphans, was acquired by gift or pur- chase ; * on that cliosen spot, he built a house and a mosch, more venerable in their rude simplicity than the palaces and temples of the Assyrian caliphs. His seal of gold, or silver, was inscribed with' the apostolic title ; when he prayed and preached in the weekly assembly, he leaned against the trunk of a palm-tree ; and it was long before he indulged himself in the use of a chair or ])ulpit of rough timber.t * Prideanx (Life of Mahomet, p. 44) reviles the wickedness of the impostor, who despoiled two poor orphans, the sons of a carpenter ; a reproach which he drew from the Disputatio contra Saracenos, com- posed in Arabic before the year 1130; but the honest Gagnier (ad Abulfed. p. 53) has shown that they were deceived by the word Al Nagjar, which signifies, in this place, not an obscure ti-ade, but a noble tribe of Arabs. The desolate sUite of the ground is described by Abulfeda ; and his worthy interpreter has proved from Al Bocbari, the ofler of a price ; from Al "jannabi, the fair purchase ; and from Ahmed Ben Joseph, the payment of the money by the generous Abubeker. On these grounds the projihet must be honourably acquitted. t Al Jannabi (apud Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 246. 324) describes the seal and pulpit, as two venerable relics of the apostle of God; and the portrait of his court is taken from Abulfeda (c. 44, p. 85). 492 MAHOMET DECLARES WAE [CH. L. After a reign of six years, fifteen hundred Moslems, in arms and in the field, renewed their oath of allegiance ; and their chief I'epeated the assurance of protection till the death of the last member, or the final dissolution of the party. It was in the same camp that the deput_y of Mecca was astonished by the attention of the faithful to the words and looks of the prophet, by the eagerness with which they col- lected his spittle, a hair that dropped on the ground, the refuse water of his lustrations, as if they participated in some degree of the prophetic virtue. " I have seen," said he, " the Chosroes of Persia and the Caesar of Rome, but never did I behold a king among his subjects like Mahomet among his companions." The devout fervour of enthusiasm acts with more energy and truth than the cold and formal servility of courts. In the state of nature every man has a right to defend, by force of arms, his person and his possessions ; to repel, or even to prevent, the violence of his enemies, and to extend his hostilities to a reasonable measure of satisfaction and retaliation. In the free society of the Arabs, tlie duties of subject and citizen imposed a feeble restraint ; and Ma- homet, in the exercise of a peaceful and benevolent mission, had been despoiled and banished by tlie injustice of his countrymen. The choice of an independent people had exalted the fugitive of Mecca to tlie rank of a sovereign ; and he was invested with the just prerogative of forming alliances, and of waging oftensive or defensive war. The imperfection of human rights was supplied and armed by the plenitude of divine power : the prophet of Medina assumed, in his new revelations, a fiercer and more san- guinary tone, which proves that his former moderation was tlie efiect of weakness :* the means of persuasion had been tried, the season of forbearance was elapsed, and he was now commanded to propagate his religion by the sword, to destroy the monuments of idolatry, and, without regarding the sanctity of days or months, to pursue the unbelieving nations of the earth. The same bloody precepts, so re- peatedly inculcated in the Koran, are ascribed by the author * The eighth and ninth chapters of the Koran are the loudest and most vehement; and Marucci (Prodromus, part 4, p. 59 — 64) has inveighed with more justice than discretion against the double-dealing A.li G22-G32.] AGAINST THE INFIDELS. 493 to the Pentateucli and the Gospel, But the iiiikl tenor of the evangelic wtyle may explain an ambiguous text, that Jesus did not bring peace on the earth, but a sword : his [)atient and humble virtues should not be confounded with the intolerant zeal of princes and bishops, who have dis graced the name of his disciples. In the prosecution of religious war, Mahomet might appeal with more propriety to the example of Moses, of the judges and the kings of Israel. The military laws of the Hebrews are still more rigid than those of the Arabian legislator.* The Lord of liosts marched in person before the Jews: if a city resisted their summons, tlie males, without distinction, were put to the sword : the seven nations of Canaan were devoted to (h^struction : and neither re|)entance nor conversion could shield them from tlie inevitable doom, that no creature witliin their precincts should be left alive. The ftiir option of friendship, or submission, or battle, was proposed to the enemies of Mahomet. If they professed the creed of Islam, tliey were admitted to all the temporal and spiritual benefits of his primitive disciples, and marched under the same banner to extend the religion which they Jiad embraced. The clemency^ of the propliet was decided by his interest ; yet he seldom trampled on a prostrate enemy ; and lie "seems to promise, tiiat, on the payment of a tribute, the least guilty of his unbelieving subjects might be indulged in their worship, or at least in their imperfect faith. In the first months of his reign, lie practised the lessons of holy warfare, and displayed his white banner before the gates of Medina ; the martial apostle fought in person at nine bat- tles or sieges ;t and fifty enterprises of war were achieved in ten years by himself or his lieutenants. The Arab eon- of tlie impostor. * The tenth and twentieth chapters of Deuteronomy, with the practical comments of Joshua, David, &c. are read with more awe than satisfaction by the pious Christians of the present age. But the bisliops, as well as the rabbis of former times, have beat the drum-ecclesiastic with pleasure and success. (Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 142, 143. t Abulfeda, in Vit. Moham. p. 156. The private arsenal of the apostle consisted of nine swords, three lances, seven pikes or half- likes, a quiver and three bows, seven cuirasses, three shields, and two lelmets (Gagnier, tom. iii. p. 328—334), with a large white standard, a black banner (p. 33.5), twenty horses (p. 322), &c. Two of his martial Kayiugs are recorded by tradition (Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 8S, 337). h 49-i COUEA.GE or MAUOMET. [CH L, tinned to unite the professions of a merchant and a robber; and his petty excursions for the defence or the attack of a caravan insensibly prepared his troops for the conquest of Arabia. The distribution of the spoil was regulated by a divine law :* the w^hole was faithfully collected in one com- mon mass : a fifth of the gold and silver, the prisoners and cattle, the moveables and immoveables, was reserved by the prophet for pious and charitable uses ; the remainder was shared in adequate portions by the soldiers who had ob- tained the victory or guarded the camp ; the rewards of the slain devolved to their widows and orphans ; and the increase of cavalry was encouraged by the allotment of a double share to the horse and to the man. From all sides tlie roving Arabs were allured to the standard of religion and plunder ; the apostle sanctified the licence of embracing the female captives as their wives or concubines ; and the enjoyment of wealth and beauty was a feeble type of the joysof paradise prepared for the valiant martyrs of the faith. "The sword," says Mahomet, "is the key of heaven and of hell ; a drop of blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent in arras, is of more avail than two months of fasting or prayer: whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven: at the day of judgme^it his wounds shall be resplendent as vermilion and odoriferous as musk; and the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and che- rubim." The intrepid souls of the Arabs were fired with enthusiasm : the picture of the invisible world was strongly painted on their imagination ; and the death which they had always despised became an object of hope and desire. The Koran inculcates, in the most absolute sense, the tenets of fate and predestination, which would extinguish both industry and virtue, if the actions of man were governed by his speculative belief. Yet their influence in every age has exalted the courage of the Saracens and Turks. The first companions of Mahomet advanced to battle with a fearless confidence : there is no danger where there is no chance : they were ordained to perish in their beds ; or they were safe and invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy.f * The whole subject de jure belli Mohammedanorum is exhausted in a separate dissertation by the learned Keland. (Diasertationes Miscellanese, torn. iii. Dissert. 10, p. 3 — 53.) t The doctrine of absolute predestination, on which few religions A.D. G23.] WAnS AGAT>'ST THE KOBEIBU. 495 Perliaps the Koroisli would have been content with the flij^'htot Malioinet, had tliey not been provoked and ahiruied by the vengeance ot" an enemy, who coidd intercept their Syrian trade as it passed and repassed tlirougli the territory ot" Medina. Abu Sophian himself, with only thirty or forty followers, conducted a wealthy caravan of a thousand camels ; the fortune or dexterity of his march escaped the vigilance of Mahomet ; but the chief of the Koreish was informed that tlie holy robbers were placed in ambush to await his return. He dispatched a messenger to his brethren of Mecca, and they were roused by the fear of losing their merchandise and their provisions, unless they hastened to his relief with the military force of the city. The sacred band of Mahomet was formed of three hundred and thirteen 31oslems, of whom seventy-seven were fugitives, and the rest auxiliaries ; they mounted by turns a train of seventy camels (the camels of Tathreb were formidable in war) ; but such was the poverty of his first disciples, that only two could appear on horseback in the field.* In the fertile and famous vale of Beder,t three stations from Medina, he was iulorincd by his scouts of the caravan that approached on one side; of the Koreish, one hundred horse, eight hundred and fifty foot, who advanced on the other. After a short debate, he sacrificed the prospect of wealth to the pursuit of glory and revenge ; and a slight intreuchment was formed to cover his troops, and a stream of fresh water that glided through the valley. " God," he exclaimed, as the numbers of the Koreish descended from the hills, can reproach each other, is sternly exposed in the Koran (c. 3, p. 52, 53 ; c. 4, p. 70, &c. with the notes of Sale, and c. 17, p. 413, with those of Maracci), lleland (de Relig. Mohamm. p. 61 — 64), and Sale (Prelim. Discourse, p. 103), represent the opinions of the doctors, and our modern travellers the confidence, the fading confidence, of the Turks. * Al Jannabi (apud Gaguier, torn. ii. p. 9) allows him seventy or eighty horse ; and on two other occasions prior to the battle of Ohud, he enlists a body of thirty (p. 10) and of five hundred (p. 66) troopers. Yet the Mussulmans, in the field of Ohud, had no more than two horses, according to the better sense of Abulfeda (in Vit. Mohamm. p. 31, p. 65). In the Stony province, the camels were numerous ; but the horse appears to have been less common than in the Happy or the JJcsert Arai)i;i. + Bedder Houneene, twenty miles from Medina, and forty from Mecca, is on the high road of the caravan of Kgyi>t; nnd the pilgrims annually commemorate the prophet's victoi-y by illuminations, rockets, &c. Shaw's Travels, 496 BATTLE OF BEDEE. [CH. L, "0 God, if these are destroyed, by whom wilt thou be worshipped on the earth ? Courage, my cliildrcn, close your ranks ; discharge your arrows, and the day is your owu." At these words he placed himself, with Abubeker, on a throne or pulpit,* and instantly demanded the succour of Gabriel and three thousand angels. His eye was fixed on the field of battle ; the Mussulmans fainted and were pressed ; in that decisive moment the prophet started from his throne, mounted his horse, and cast a handful of sand into the air ; " Let their faces be covered with confusion !" Both armies heard the thunder of his voice ; their fancv beheld the angelic warriors ;t the Koreish trembled and fled; seventy of the bravest were slain; and seventy cap- tives adorned the first victory of the faithful. The dead bodies of the Koreish were despoiled and insulted ; two of the most obnoxious prisonei-s were punished with death ; and the ransom of the others, four thousand drachms of silver, compensated in some degree the escape of the caravan. But it was in vain that the camels of Abu Sophian explored a new road through the desert and along the Euphrates : they were overtaken by the diligence of the Mussulmans ; and wealthy must have been the prize, if twenty thousand drachms could be set apart for the fifth of the apostle. The I'esentment of the public and private loss stimulated Abu Sophian to collect a body of three p. 477. * The place to which Mahomet retired during the action is styled by Gagnier (in Abulfeda, c. 27, p. 58. Vie de Mahomet, torn. ii. p. 30. 33), Umhraculum, une lor/e de hois arec une porte. The same Arabic word is rendered by Reiske (Annales Mos- lemici Abulfedie, p. 23), by Solium, Suggeslus editior ; and the difference is of the utmost moment for the honour both of the interpreter and of the hero. 1 am sorry to observe the pride and acrimony with which Reiske chastises his fellow-labourer, fcjffipe sic vertit, ut integnc paginse nequeant nisi una litura corrigi : Arabice non satis callebat et earebat judicio critico. J. J. Reiske, Prodidagmata ad Hagji Chalisaj Tabulas, p. 228, ad calcem Abulfedaj Syrire TabuUe ; Lipsise, 1766, in quarto. + The loose expressions of the Koran (c. 3, p. 124, 125 ; c. 8, p. 9) allow the commentators to fluctuate between the numbers of one thousand, three thousand, or nine thousand angels; and the smallest of these might suffice for the slaughter of seventy of the Koreish. (Maracci, Alcoran, torn. ii. p. 131.) Yet the same scholiasts confess, that this angelic band was not visible to any mortal eye. (Maracci, p. 297.) They refine on the words (c. 8. 16), "cot thou, but God," &c. (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orientale, p. 600, 601). A.D. 023.] BATTLE Or OllUD. 497 thousand men, seven hundred of whom were armed with cuirasses, and two hundred were mounted on horseback ; three thousand camels attended his march; and his wile Ilenda, with iifteen matrons of Mecca, incesantly sounded their timbrels to animate the troops, and to magnify the greatness of Ilebal, tlie most popular deity of the Caaba. The standard of God and Mahomet was uphckl by nine hundred and fifty believers ; the disproportion of numbers was not more alarming than in tlie field of Beder; and their presumption of victory prevailed against the divine and human sense of the apostle. The second battle was fought on mount Ohud, six miles to the north of Medina:* the Koreish advanced in the form of a crescent: and the i'ight wing of cavalry was led by Caled, the fiercest and most successful of the Arabian warriors. The troops of Mahomet were skilfully posted on the declivity of the hill ; and their rear was guarded by a detachment of fifty archers. The weight of their charge impelled and broke the centre of the idolaters; but in the pursuit they lost the advantage of their ground; the archers deserted their station; the Mussulmans were tempted by the spoil, disobeyed their general, and disordered their ranks. The intrepid Caled, wheeling his cavalry on their fiauk and rear, exclaimed, with a loud voice, that Mahomet was slain. He was indeed wounded in the face with a javelin; two of his teeth were shattered with a stone; yet, in the midst of tumult and dismay, he reproached the infidels with the murder of a prophet ; and blessed the friendly hand that stanched his blood, and conveyed him to a place of safety. Seventy martyrs died for the sins of the people ; they fell, said the apostle, in pairs, each brother embracing his lifeless com- panion ;t their bodies were mangled by the inhuman females of Mecca; and the wife of Abu Sophian tasted the entrails of Hamza, tlie uncle of Mahomet. They might applaud their superstition and satiate their fury ; but the Mussul- mans soon rallied in the field, and the Koreish wanted strength or courage to undertake the siege of Medina. It was attacked the ensuing year by an army of ten thousand enemies ; and this third expedition is variously named from * Geograpb. Nubiensis, p. 47. + In tbe third chapter of the Konin ^p. 50—03, with Sale's notes), the prophet alleges soiue poor excuses for the deleat of Ohud. VOL. V. 2 K 498 MAHOMET SUBDUES THE [CH. L. the nations, which marched under the banner of Ahu Sophian, from the ditch which was drawn before the city, and a camp of three thousand Mussuhnans. The prudence of Mahomet declined a general engagement ; the valour of AH was signalized in single combat ; and the war was pro- tracted twenty days, till the final separation of the con- federates. A tempest of wind, rain, and hail, overturned their tents; their private quarrels were fomented by an insidious adversary ; and the Koreish, deserted by their allies, no longer hoped to subvert the throne, or to check the conquests, of their invincible exile.* The choice of Jerusalem for the first kebla of prayer liscovers the early propensity of Mahomet in favour of the Jews ; and happy would it have been for their temporal interest, had they recognized, in the Arabian prophet, the hope of Israel and the promised Messiah. Their obstinacy converted his friendship into implacable hatred, with which he pursued that unfortunate people to the last moment of his life ; and in the double character of an apostle and a conqueror, his persecution was extended to both worlds.f The Kainoka dwelt at Medina under the protection of the city : he seized the occasion of an accidental tumult, and summoned them to embrace his religion, or contend with him in battle. "Alas," replied the trembling Jews, "we are ignorant of the use of arms, but we persevere in the faith and worship of our fathers ; why wilt thou reduce us to the necessity of a just defence?" The unequal conflict was terminated in fifteen days ; and it was with extreme reluctance that Mahomet yielded to the importunity of his allies, and consented to spare the lives of the captives. But their riches were confiscated, their arms became more effectual in the hands of the Mussulmans ; and a wretched colony of seven hundred exiles was driven with their wives and children to implore a refuge on the confines of Syria. The Nadharites were more guilty, since they conspired in a * For the detail of the three Koreish wars, of Beder, of Ohud, and of the ditch, peruse Abulfeda (p. 56—61. 64—69. 73—77), Gagnier (torn, ii, p. 23—45. 70—96. 120—139), with the proper articles of D'Herbelot, and the aLridgments of Elmacin (Hist. Saracen, p. 6, 7) stnd Abvdpharagius (Dynast, p. 102). + The wars of Mahomet against the Jewish tribes of Kainoka, the Nadharites, Koraidha, and Ghaibar, are related by Abulfeda (p. 61. 71. 77. 87, &C.) and Gaguier (torn, il 61—65. 107—112. 139—148. 268-294). 4.T). G23-G2T.] JEWS or ahabia. 409 friendly interview to assassinate the prophet. He besieged their castle, three miles from Medina ; but their resolute defence obtained an honourable cai)itulation ; and the gar- rison, sounding their trumpets and beating their drums, was permitted to depart with the honours of war. Tho Jews had excited and joined the war of the Koreish ; no sooner had the nalions retired from the ditch, than Mahomet, without laying aside his armour, marched on the same day to extirpate the hostile race of the children of Koraidha. After a resistance of twenty-five days, tliey surrendered at discretion. They trusted to the intercession of their old allies of Medina ; they could not be ignorant that fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity. A venerable elder, to whose judgment they appealed, pronounced the sentence of their death ; seven hundred Jews were dragged in chains to the market-place of the city ; they descended alive into the grave prepared for their execution and burial ; and the apostle beheld with an inflexible eye the slaughter of his helpless enemies. Their sheep and camels were inherited by the Mussulmans ; three hundred cuirasses, five hundred pikes, a thousand lances, composed the most useful portion of the spoil. Six days' journey to the north-east of Medina, the ancient and wealthy town of Chaibar was the seat of the Jewish power in Arabia ; the territory, a fertile spot in the desert, was covered with plantations and cattle, and protected by eight castlea, some of which were esteemed of impregnable strength. The forces of Mahomet consisted of two hundred horse and fourteen hundred foot; in the succession of eight regular and painful sieges they were exposed to danger, and fatigue, and hunger; and the most undaunted chiefs despaired of the event. The apostle revived their faith and courage by the example of Ali, on whom he bestowed the surname of the Lion of God ; perhaps we may believe that a Hebrew champion of gigantic stature was cloven to the chest by his irresistible scymetar ; but we cannot praise the modesty of romance, which re- presents him as tearing from its liinges the gate of a for- tress, and wielding the ponderous buckler in his left hand.* After the reduction of the castles, the town of Chaibar submitted to the yoke. The chief of the tribe was tortured, * Abu Rafe, the servant of Mahomet, is said to affirm that he himself, and seven other men, afterwards tried, without succesa, to 2k-2 600 EEDUCTION OF CHAIBAE. [CH. L. in the presence of Mahomet, to force a confession of his hidden treasure; the industry of the shepherds and hus- bandmen was rewarded with a precarious toleration; they were permitted, so long as it should please the conqueror, to improve their patrimony, in equal shares, for Ids emolu- ment and their own. Under the reign of Omar, the Jews of Chaibar were transplanted to Syria; and the caliph alleged the injunction of his dying master, that one and the true religion should be professed in his native land of Arabia.* Five times each day the eyes of Mahomet were turned towards Mecca,t and he was urged by the most sacred and powerful motives, to revisit, as a conqueror, the city and temple from whence he had been driven as an exile. The Caaba was present to his waking and sleeping fancy; an idle dream was translated into vision and prophecy; he unfurled the holy banner; and a rash promise of success too hastily dropped from the lips of the apostle. His march from Medina to Mecca displayed the peaceful and solemn pomp of a pilgrimage ; seventy camels, chosen and bedecked for sacrifice, preceded the van ; the sacred_ ter- ritory was respected, and the captives were dismissed without ransom to proclaim his clemency and devotion. But no sooner did Mahomet descend into the plain, within a day's journey of the city, than he exclaimed, " they have clothed themselves with the skins of tigers;" the numbers and resolution of the Koreish opposed his progress; and the roving Arabs of the desert might desert or betray a leader whom they had followed for the hopes of spoil. The intrepid fanatic sank into a cool and cautious politician; he waived in the treaty his title of apostle of God, concluded with the Koreish and their allies a truce of ten years, move the same gate from the ground (Abulfeda, p. 90). Abu Rafe was an e}'#-witness, but who will be witness for Abu Rafe ? * The banishment of the Jews is attested by Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. p. 9) and the great Al Zabari (Gagnier, torn. ii. p. 285). Yet Niebuhr (Description de 1' Arabic, p. 324) believes that the Jewish religion, and Karaite sect, are still professed by the tribe of Chaibar ; and that in the plunder of the caravans, the disciples of Moses are the con- federates of those of Mahomet. + The successive steps Oi the reduction of Mecca, are related by Abulfeda (p. 84 — 87. 97 — 100. 102—111), and Gagnier (torn. ii. p. 209—245. 309—322; torn. iii. p. 1 — 58), Elmacin (Hist. Saracen, p. b— 10), Abulpharagius (Dynast, p. 103). A.D. G29.] SUBMISSION OF MECCA. 501 3nf!;aged to restore the fugitives of Mecca who should embrace his religion, and stipulated only, for the ensuing year, the humble privilege of entering the city as a friend, and of remaining three days to accomplish the rites of the pilgrimage. A cloud of shame and sorrow hung on the retreat of the INfussulmans, and their disappointment mi^ht justly accuse the failure of a prophet who had so often appealed to the evidence of success. The faith and hope of the pilgrims were rekindled by the prospect of Mecca; their swords were sheathed ; seven times in the footsteps of the apostle they encompassed the Caaba : the Koreish had retired to the hills, and Mahomet, after the customary sacrifice, evacuated the city on the fourth day. The people were edified by his devotion ; the hostile chiefs were awed, or divided, or seduced; and both Caled and Amrou, the future conquerors of Syria and Egypt, most seasonably deserted the sinking cause of idolatry. The power of Ma- homet was increased by the submission of the Arabian tribes; ten thousand soldiers were asisembled for the conquest of Mecca; and the idolaters, the weaker party, were easily convicted of violating the truce. Enthusiasm and discipline impelled the march, and preserved the secret, till the blaze of ten thousand fires proclaimed to the astonished Koreish, the design, the approach, and the irresistible force of the enemy. Tlie haughty Abu Sophian presented the keys of the city, admired the variety of arms and ensigns that passed before him in review; observed that the son of Abdallah had acquired a mighty kingdom, and confessed, under the scymetar of Omar, that he was the apostle of the true God. The return of Marius and Sylla was stained with the blood of the Eomans ; the revenge of Mahomet was stimulated by religious zeal, and his injured followers were eager to execute or to prevent the order of a massacre. Instead of indulging their passions and his own,* the victorious exile forgave the guilt, and united the factions of INIecca. His troops, in three divisions, marched into the city ; eight and * After the conquest of Mecca, the Mahomet of Voltaire imagines and perpetrates the most horrid crimes. The poet confesses, that he is not supported by the truth of history, and can only allege, que celui qui fait la guerre h sa patrie au nom do Dieu, est capable de tout (CEuvres de Voltaire, torn. xv. p. 282). The maxim is neither charitable nor philosophic ; and some reverence is sui-ely due to the fame of heroes and the religion of uatious. I aiii informed that a Turkish ambassador at Paris was much scandalized at the repro- 502 THE CONQUEST [CII. L. twenty of the inhabitants were slain by the sword of Caled ; eleven men and six women were proscribed by the sentence of Mahomet ; but he blamed the cruelty of his lieutenant ; and several of the most obnoxious victims were indebted for their lives to his clemency or contempt. The chiefs of the Koreish were prostrate at his feet. " What mercy can you expect from the man whom you have wronged ?" — "We confide in the generosity of our kinsman.'" — "And you shall not confide in vain; begone! you are safe, you are free." The people of Mecca deserved their pardon by the pro- fession of Islam ; and after an exile of seven years, the fugitive missionary was enthroned as the prince and prophet of his native country.* But the three hundred and sixty idols of the Caaba were ignominiously broken ; the house of God was purified and adorned ; as an example to future times, the apostle again fulfilled the duties of a pilgrim; and a perpetual law was enacted, that no unbeliever should dare to set his foot on the territory of the holy city.f The conquest of Mecca determined the iaith and obe- dience of the Arabian tribes ;J who, according to the vicis- situdes of fortune, had obeyed or disregarded the eloquence or the arms of the prophet. Indifterence for rites and opinions still marks the character of the Bedoweens ; and they might accept, as loosely as they hold, the doctrine of the Koran. Tet an obstinate remnant still adhered to the religion and liberty of their ancestors ; and the war of Honain derived a proper appellation from the idols whom Mahomet had vowed to destroy, and whom the confederates sentation of this tragedy. * The Mahometan doctors etill dispute whether Mecca was reduced by force or consent (Abul- leda, p. 107, et Gagnier ad locum) ; and this verbal controversy is of as much moment as our own about William the Conqueror. f In excluding the Christians from the peninsula of Arabia, the province of Hejaz, or the navigation of the Red Sea, Chardin (Voyages en Perse, tom. iv. p. 166), and Reland (Dissert. Miscell. tom. iii. p. 51), are more rigid than the Mussulmans themselves. The Christians ar<» received without scrni)le into the ports of Mocha and even of Gedda; and it is only the city and precincts of Mecca that are inaccessible to the profane (Niebuhr, Descrijjtion de 1' Arable, p. 3U8, 309. Voyage en Arable, tom. i. p. 205. 248, &c.). [This prohibition is contained in the chapter of the Koran called Barat ; it is numbered the ninth, but supposed to have been the last that was published. (Ockley, p. 57, edit. Bohn.) It was designed to make convei-ts by securing exclusively to Mussulmans the profits of the great fair of Mecca. See note, p. 4.53. — Ed.] J Abulfeda, p. 112 — 115. Gagnier, tom ii 67 — 88. D'Herbelot, Mohammed. A..1). 629-632.] OF ARABIA. 503 of Tayef had sworn to defeiid.* Four thousand Pagans advanced with secrei-y and s[)ced to surprise the conqueror, they pitied and despised the supine negligence of the Ko'reish, but they depended on the wishes, and perhaps the aid, of a ])eople wlio had so lately renounced their gods, and bowed beneath the yoke of their enemy. The banners of Medina and Mecca were displayed by the prophet; a crowd of Bedowecns increased the strength or numbers of the army, and twelve thousand Mussulmans entertained a rash and sinful presumption of their invincible strength. They descended without precaution into the valley of Ilonain ; the heights had been occupied by the archers and slingers of the confederates; their numbers were oppressed, their discipline was confounded, their courage was appalled, and the Koreish smiled at their impending destruction. The prophet, on his white mule, was encompassed by the enemies; he attempted to rush against their spears m search of a glorious death ; ten of his faithful companions interposed their weapons and their breasts ; three of these fell dead at his feet. " O my brethren," he repeatedly cried with sorrow and indignation, "I am the son of Abdallah, I am the apostle of truth ! O man, stand fast in the faith! O God, send down thy succour!" His uncle Abbas, who, like the heroes of Homer, excelled in the loudness of his voice, made the valley resound with the recital of the gifts and promises of God ; the Hying Moslems returned from all sides to the holy standard ; and Mahomet observed with pleasure that the furnace was again rekindled; his conduct and example restored the battle ; and he ani- mated his victorious troops to inflict a merciless revenge on the authors of their shame. From the field of Honain, he marched without delay to the siege of Tayef, sixty miles to the south-east of Mecca, a fortress of strength, whose fertile lands produce the fruits of Syria in the midst of the Arabian desert. A friendly tribe, instructed (I know not how) in the art of sieges, supplied him with a train of battering rams and military engines, with a body of five hundred artificers. But it was in vain that he oftered * The siege of Tayef, division of the spoil, &c. are related by Abul feda (p. 117—123), and Gaguier (torn. iii. p. 88—111). It is Al Jannabi who mentions the engines and engineers of the tribe of Daws. The fertile spot of Tayef was supposed to be a piece of the land of Syria detached and drop^ied iu the general deluge. 504 DIVISION OF THE SPOIL. [CH. L. freedom to the slaves of Tayef ; that he violated his own laws by the extirpation of the fruit-trees ; that the ground was opened by the miners ; that the breach was assaulted by the troops. After a siege of twenty days the prophet sounded a retreat ; but he retreated with a song of devout triumph, and affected to pray for the repentance and safety of the unbelieving city. The spoil of this fortunate expe- dition amounted to six thousand captives, twenty-four thousand camels, forty thousand sheep, and four thousand ounces of silver; a tribe who had fought at Honain, re- deemed their prisoners by the sacrifice of their idols ; but Mahomet compensated the loss by resigning to the soldiers his fifth of the plunder, and wished for their sake, that he possessed as many head of cattle as there were trees in the province of Tehama. Instead of chastising the disalfection of the Koreish, he endeavoured to cut out their tongues (his own expression), and to secure their attachment by a superior mea- sure of liberality; Abu Sophian alone was presented with three hundred camels and twenty ounces of silver ; and Mecca was sincerely converted to the profitable religion of the Koran. The fugitives and auxiliaries complained, that they who had borne the burthen were neglected in the season of victory. " Alas," replied their artful leader, " suffer me to conciliate these recent enemies, these doubtful proselytes, by the gift of some perishable goods. To your guard I intrust my life and fortunes. You are the companions of my exile, of my kingdom, of my paradise." He was followed by the deputies of Tayef, who dreaded the repetition of a siege. "Grant us, O apostle of God, a truce of three years, witli the tolera- tion of our ancient worship." — " Not a month, not an hour." — "Excuse us at least from the obligation of prayer." — "Without prayer, religion is of no avail." They submitted in silence ; their temples were demolished, and the same sen- tence of destruction was executed on all the idols of Arabia. His lieutenants, on the shores of the Ked Sea, the ocean, and the Gulf of Persia, were saluted by the acclamations of a faithful people ; and the ambassadors who knelt before the throne of Medina, were as numerous (says the Arabian proverb) as the dates that fall from the maturity of a palm- tree. The nation submitted to the God and the sceptre of Mahomet; the opprobrious name of tribute was abolished: the spontaneous or reluctant oblations of alms and tithet were applied to the service of reiiyion ; and one hundred kM. G29-C30 ] FIRST WAR AGAINST THE ROMANS. 505 and fourteen thousand Moslems accompanied the last pilgri- mage of the a[)()stle.* When Heraclius returned in triumph from the Persian war, he entertained, at Emesa, one of the ambassadors of Mahomet, who invited the princes and nations of the earth I/O the profession of Islam. On this foundation the zeal of the Arabians has supposed the secret conversion of the Christian emperor: the vanity of the Greeks has feigned a personal visit to the prince of Medina, who accepted from the royal bounty a rich domain, and a secure retreat in the province of Syria.f But the friendship of Heraclius and Mahomet was of sliort continuance : the new religion had inflamed rather than assuaged the rapacious spirit of the Saracens ; and the murder of an envoy afforded a decent pretence for invading, with three thousand soldiers, the territory of Palestine, that extends to the eastward of the Jordan. The holy banner was intrusted to Zeid ; and such was the discipline or enthusiasm of the rising sect, that the noblest chiefs served without reluctance under the slave of the prophet. On the event of his decease, Jaafar and Ab- dullah were successively substituted to the command ; and if the three should perish in the war, the troops were autho- rized to elect their general. The three leaders were slain in the battle of Muta,J the first military action which tried the valour of the Moslems against a foreign enemy. Zeid fell, like a soldier, in the foremost ranks ; the death of Jaafar was heroic and memorable ; he lost his right hand ; he shifted the standard to his left ; the left was severed from his body; he embraced the standard with his bleeding stumps, till he was transfixed to the ground with fifty honourable wounds. "Advance," cried Abdallah, who stepped into the vacant place, • The last conquests and pilgrimage of Mahomet are contained in Abulfeda (p. 121—133), Gagnier (torn. iii. p. 119—219), Elmacin (p. 10, 11), Abuljiharagius (p. 103). The ninth of the Hegira was Btyled the Year of Embassies. (Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfed. p. 121.) + Compare the bigoted Al Jannabi (apud Gagniei-, torn. i. p. 232 — 255) with the no less bigoted Greeks, Theojihanes (p. 276 — 278), Zonaras (tom. ii. 1. 14, p. 8G), and Cedreuus (p. 421). J For the battle of Jluta, and its consequences, see Abulfeda (p. 100 — 102), and Gagnier (tom. ii. p. 327 — 343), XaXecog (saya Theophanes) ov Xkyov(n fidxaipav rov i)toii (p. 278 D). [But Theo- phanes in his account of the Syrian war, a year afterwards (p. 279 B), omits one of Caled's greatest exploits, the battle of Ajuadin. — Ed.] 50G mauomet's mauch to tabuc. [cu. l. " advance with confidence ; either victory or paradise is our own." The lance of a Eoman decided the alternative; but the falling standard was rescued by Caled, the proselyte of Mecca; nine swords were broken in his hand; and his valour withstood and repulsed the superior numbers of the Christians. In the nocturnal council of the camp he was chosen to command -. his skilful evolutions of the ensuing day secured either the victory or the retreat of the Saracens : and Caled is renowned among his brethren and his enemies by the glorious appellation of the " Sword of God." In the pulpit, Mahomet described, with prophetic rapture, the crowns of the blessed martyrs ; but in private he betrayed the feelings of human nature : he was surprised as he wept over the daughter of Zeid. "What do I see?" said the astonished votary. — "You see," replied the apostle, "a friend who is deploring the loss of his most faithtal friend." After the conquest of Mecca, the sovereign of Arabia aft'ected to prevent the hostile preparations of Heraclius ; and solemnly proclaimed war against the Eoraans, without attempting "to disguise the hardships and dangers of the enterprise.* The Moslems were discouraged : they alleged the want of money, or horses, or provisions ; the season of harvest, and the intolerable heat of the summer : " Hell is much hotter," said the indignant prophet. He disdained to compel their service ; but on his return he admonished the most guilty, by an excommunication of fifty days. Their desertion enhanced the merit of Abubeker, Othman, and the faithful companions who devoted their lives and fortunes; and Mahomet displayed his banner at the head of ten thou- sanc* horse and twenty thousand foot. Painful indeed was thf distress of the march: lassitude and thirst were aggra- vf ".ed by the scorching and pestilential winds of the desert: ^-^n men rode by turns on the same camel ; and they were * The expedition of Tabuc is recorded by our ordinary historians, Abulfeda (Vit. Moham. p. 123—127), and Gagnier (Vie de Mahomet, torn. iii. p. 147 — IG:)), but we have the advantage of appealing to the original evidence of the Koran (c. 9, p. 154. 165), veith Sale's learned and rational notes. [Ockley notices very briefly (p. 57) this march to Tabuc, and places it in the ninth year of the Hegira. The battle of Muta is only once incidentally mentioned by him (p. 60), when he says, that in the eleventh year of the Hegira, " Mohammed ordered Osama to go to the place where Zeid his father was slain at the battle of Muta, to revenge his death." This was the last expedition he ever A.D. 629-630.] nis toleration of the chkistiaks. 507 reduced to the shameful necessity of drinking the water from the bt41y of that useful animal. In the midway, ten days' journey from Medina and Damascus, they reposed near the grove and fountain of Tabuc. Beyond that place Mahomet declined tlie prosecution of the war; he declared himself satisfied with the peaceful intentions, he was more probably daunted by the martial array, of the emperor of the East. But the active and intrepid Caled spread around the terror of his name ; and the prophet received the submission of the tribes and cities from the Euphrates to Ailah, at the head of the Ked Sea. To his Christian subjects, Mahomet readily granted the security of their persons, the freedom of their trade, the property of their goods, and the toleration of their worship.* The weakness of their Arabian brethren had restrained them from opposing his ambition ; the dis- ciples of Jesus were endeared to the enemy of the Jews ; and it was the interest of a conqueror to propose a fair capi- tulation to the most powerful religion of the earth. Till the age of sixty-three years, the strength of Mahomet was equal to the temporal and spiritual fatigues of his mis- sion. His epileptic tits, an absurd calumny of the Grreeks, would be an object of pity rather than abhorrence,t but he ordered. — Ed.] * The Diploma securitatis Ailensihus is attested by Ahmed Ben Joseph, and the author Libn Splendorum (Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfedam, p. 125); but Abulfeda himself, as well as Elmaciu (Hist. Saracen, p. 11), though he owns Mahomet's regard for the Christians (p. 13), only mentions peace and tribute. In the year 1630, Siouita published at Paris the text and version of Mahomet's patent in favour of the Christians ; which was admitted and reprobated by the opposite taste of Salmasius and Grotius (Bayle, Mahoxiet, Rem. A A). Hottinger doubts of its authenticity (Hist. Orient, p. 237); Eeuaudot urges the consent of the Mahometans (Hist. Patriarch. Alex, p. 169); but Mosheim (Hist. Eccles. p. 2ii) shows the futility of their opinion, and inclines to believe it spurious. Yet Abulpharagius quotes the impostor's treaty with the Nestorian patriarch (Asa^man. Bibliot. Orient, torn. ii. p. 41S); but Abulpharagius was primate of the Jacobites, t The epilepsy, or falling sickness, of Mahomet, is asserted by Theophanes, Zonaras, and the rest of the Greeks ; and is greedily swallowed by the gross bigotry of Hottinger (Hist. Orient, p. 10, 11), Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 12), and Maracci (torn. ii. Alcoran, p. 762, 763). The titles {the wrapped up, the covered) of two chapters of the Koran (73, 74), can hardly be strained to such an interpretation; the silence, the ignorance, of the Mahometan commentators, is more conclusive than the most peremptory denial; and the charitable side is espoused by Ockley (Hist, of the Saracens, tom. i. p. 301), Gagnier (ad Abulfedam, p. 9. Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. US) and Sale Koran, 508 LAST ILLNESS OF MAHOMET. fCH. L. seriously believed that he was poisoned at Chaibar by the revenge of a Jewish female.* During four years, the health of the prophet declined; his infirmities increased; but his mortal disease was a fever of fourteen days, which deprived him by intervals of the use of reason. As soon as he was conscious of his danger, he edified his brethren by the humility of his virtue or penitence. " If there be any man," said the apostle from the pulpit, "whom I have unjustly scourged, I submit my own back to the lash of retaliation. Have I aspersed the reputation of a Mussulman ? let him proclaim my faults in the face of the congregation. Hag any one been despoiled of his goods? the little that I possess shall compensate the principal and the interest of the debt." — " Yes," replied a voice from the crowd, " I am entitled to three drachms of silver." Mahomet heard the complaint, satisfied the demand, and thanked his creditor for accus- ing him in this world rather than at the day of judgment. He beheld with temperate firmness the approach of death ; enfranchised his slaves (seventeen men, as they are named, and eleven women) ; minutely directed the order of his funeral, and moderated the lamentations of his weeping friends, on whom he bestowed the benediction of peace. Till the third day before his death, he regularly performed the function of public prayer ; the choice of Abubeker to supply his place appeared to mark that ancient and faithful friend as his successor in the sacerdotal and regal office ; but he prudently declined the risk and envy of a more ex- plicit nomination. At a moment when his faculties were visibly impaired, he called for pen and ink to write, or more properly to dictate, a divine book, the sum and accomplish- ment of all his revelations ; a dispute arose in the chamber, whether he should be allowed to supersede the authority of the Koran ; and the prophet was forced to reprove the inde- cent vehemence of his disciples. If the slightest credit may be afforded to the traditions of his wives and companions, he maintained, in the bosom of his family, and to the last moments of his life, the dignity of an apostle and the faith p. 469 — 474). * This poison (more ignominious since it was offered as a test of his prophetic knowledge) is frankly confessed by his zealous votaries, Abulfeda (p. 92), and Al Jannabi (apud Gaguier, tom. ii. p. 286—288). i.D. 032. HIS DEATH. 509 of an enthusiast ; described the visits of Gabriel, who bade an everlasting farewell to the earth, and exjiressed his lively confidence, not only of tlie mercy, but of the favour, of the Supreme Being. In a familiar discourse he had mentioned his special prerogative, that the angel of death was not allowed to take his soul till he had respectfully asked the permission of the prophet. The request was granted ; and Mahomet immediately fell into the agony of his dissolution ; his head was reclined on the lap of Ayesha, the best beloved of all his wives; he fainted with the violence of pain; re- covering his spirits, he raised his eyes towards the roof of the house, and with a steady look, though a faltering voice, uttered the last broken, though articulate, words. "O God ! pardon my sins ! Yes, I come, among my follow citizens on high ; " and thus peaceably ex- pired on a carpet spread upon the floor. An expedition for the conquest of Syria was stopped by this mournful event ; the army halted at the gates of INIedina ; the chiefs were assembled round tlieir dying master. The city, more espe- cially the house, of the prophet, was a scene of clamorous sorrow or silent despair : fanaticism alone could suggest a ray of hope and consolation. " How can he be dead, our witness, our intercessor, our mediator with God ? By God, he is not dead ; like Moses and Jesus he is wrapt in a holy trance, and speedily will he return to his taithful people." The evidence of sense was disregarded ; and Omar, unsheath- ing his scymetar, threatened to strike off the heads of the infidels, who should dare to affirm that the prophet was no more. The tumult was appeased by the weight and moderation of Abubeker. "Is it Mahomet," said he to Omar and the multitude, " or the God of Mahomet, whom you worsliip ? The God of Mahomet liveth for ever, but the apostle was a mortal like ourselves, and according to his own prediction, he has experienced the common fate of mor- tality." He was piously interred by the hands of his nearest kinsman, on the same spot on which he expired :* Medina * The Greeks and Latins have invented and propagated the vulgar Bnd ridiculous story that Mahomet's iron tomb is suspeutled iu the air at Mecca {o'lua iiiriijopi^o^iivov ; Laouicus Chalcocondj'les de llebus Turcicis, 1. 3, p. 66) by the action of equal and potent loadstones (Dictionnaire de Bayle, Mauojiet, Rem. EE. FF.). Without any philosophical inquiries, it may suffice, that, 1. The prophet was not 510 THE CnAEACTEB [CH. L. Las been sanctified by the dcatli and burial of Mahomet : and the innumerable pilgrims of Mecca often turn aside from the way, to bow in voluntary devotion,* before the simple tomb of the prophet. t At the conclusion of the life of Mahomet, it may perhaps be expected, that I should balance his faults and virtues, that I should decide whether the title of enthusiast or im- postor more properly belongs to that extraordinary man. Had I been intimately conversant with the son of Abdallah, the task would still be difficult, and the success uncertain : at the distance of twelve centuries, I darkly contemplate his shade through a cloud of religious incense ; and could I truly delineate the portrait of an hour, the fleeting resem- blance would not equally apply to the solitary of mount Hera, to the preacher of Mecca, and to the conqueror of Arabia. The author of a mighty revolution appears to have been endowed with a pious and contemplative disposition ; so soon as marriage had raised him above the pressure of want, he avoided the paths of ambition and avarice ; and till the age of forty, he lived with innocence, and woidd have died without a name. The unity of God is an idea most congenial to nature and reason ; and a slight conversation with the Jews and Christians would teach him to despise and detest the idolatry of Mecca. It was the duty of a man buried at Mecca ; and, 2. That his tomb at Medina, which has been visited by millions, is placed on the ground (Reland de Relig. Moham. 1. 2, c. 19, p. 209—211), Gagnier (Vie de Mahomet, torn. iii. p. 263 — 268). * Al Jannabi enumerates (Vie de Mahomet, torn. iii. p. 372 — 391) the multifarious duties of a pilgrim who visits the tomb of the prophet and his companions; and the learned casuist decides, that this act of devotion is nearest in obligation and merit to a divine precept. The doctors are divided which, ot Mecca or Medina, be the most excellent (p. 391 — 394). t The last sickness, death, and burial, of Mahomet, are described by Abulfeda and Gagnier (Vit. Moham. p. 133 — 142. Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 220 — 271). The most private and interesting circumstances were originally received from Ayesha, Ali, the sons of Abbas, &c. and as they dwelt at Medina, and survived the prophet many yeai's, they might repeat the pious tale to a second or third generation of pilgrims. ("All Arabian writers agree that Mahomet died on the 12th day of the month Rabie I. in the 11th year of the Hegira, which some moderns make to be the 6th of June, and others the 8th. Clinton, with his usual accuracy, says "the 11th year of the Hegii'a began on Sunday, March 29th, a.d. 632. The 12th of Rabie I. being the seveuty-first day, fell upon Sunday, June 7th." F. R. iL 172.— Ed.] ClI L.] OF MAnOMET. 511 and a citizen to impart the doctrine of salvation, to rcscuo his country from the dominion of sin and error. Tlie encr^jy of a mind incessantly bent on the same object, would convert a general obbp;ation into a particular call ; the warm sug- gestions of the understanding or the fancy would be felt as the inspirations of heaven ; the labour of thought would expire in rapture and vision ; and the inward sensation, the invisible monitor, would be described with the form and attributes of an angel of God.* From enthusiasm to im- posture, the step is perilous and slippery: the demon of Socratest affords a memorable instance, how a wise man may deceive himself, how a good man may deceive others, how the conscience may slumber in a mixed middle state between self-illusion and voluntary fraud. Charity may believe that the original motives of Mahomet were those of pure and genuine benevolence ; but a human missionary is incapable of cherishing the obstinate unbelievers who reject his claims, despise his arguments, and persecute his life; he might forgive his personal adversaries, he may lawfully hate the enemies of God ; the stern passions of pride and revenge were kindled in the bosom of Mahomet, and he sighed, like the prophet of Nineveh, for the destruction of the rebels whom he had condemned. The injustice of Mecca, and the choice of Medina, transformed the citizen into a prince, the • The Christians, rashly enough, have assigned to Mahomet a tame pigeon, that seemed to descend from heaven and whisper in his ear. As this pretended miracle is urged by Grotius (de Veritate Religionis Christianjc), his Arabic translator, the learned Pocock, inquired of him the names of his authors; and Grotius confessed, that it is unknown to the Mahometans themselves. Lest it should provoke their indignation and laughter, the pious lie is suppressed in the Arabic version ; but it has maintained an edifying place in the numerous editions of the Latin text. (Pocock. Specimen Hist. Arabum, p. 186, 187. Reland, de Religion. Moham. 1. 2, c. 39, p. 259—262.) + 'Efioi Ci TovTo iariv tK irauoQ apictfitvov, (ptovi) Tit; ■yiyvofitvt} ' fj oTav ykvr}Tai dii cnrorof-Trn jU£ tuvtov o dv fttWio Trnd-TCiv, npoTpiirti ce ovTroTt (Plato, in Apolog. Socrat. c. 19, p. 121, 122, edit. Fischer). The familiar examples, which Socrates urges in his Dialogue with Theages (Platon. Opera, tom. i. p. 128, 129, edit. Hen. Stephan.), are beyond the reach of human foresight : and the divine inspiration (the Aai/((')i'iov) of the philosopher, is clearly taught in the ^lemora- bilia of Xenophon. The ideas of the most rational Platonists are expressed by Cicero (de I)ivinat. 1. 54), and in the fourteenth and fifteenth Dissertations of Maximus of Tyre (p. 153 — 172, edit Davis). 612 CHAEACTEE OF MAHOMET. [CH. L. humble preaclier into the leader of armies ; but his sword was consecrated by the example of the saints ; and the same God who afflicts a sinful world with pestilence and earth- quakes, might inspire for their conversion or chastisement the valour of his servants. In the exercise of political go- vernment, he was compelled to abate the stern rigour of fanaticism, to comply, in some measure, with the prejudices and passions of his followers, and to employ even the vices of mankind as the instruments of their salvation. The use of fraud and perfidy, of cruelty and injustice, were often subservient to the propagation of the faith ; and Mahomet commanded or approved the assassination of the Jews and idolaters who had escaped from the field of battle. By the repetition of such acts, the character of Mahomet must have been gradually stained ; and the influence of such pernicious habits would be poorly compensated by the practice of the personal and social virtues, which are necessary to maintain the reputation of a prophet among his sectaries and friends. Of his last years, ambition was the ruling passion ; and a politician will suspect, that he secretly smiled (the victorious impostor !) at the enthusiasm of his youth, and the credulity of his proselytes.* A philosopher would observe that their cruelty and Ids success would tend more strongly to fortify the assurance of his divine mission, that his interest and religion were inseparably connected, and that his conscience would be soothed by the persuasion, tl:iat he alone was ab- solved by the Deity from the obligation of positive and moral laws. If he retained any vestige of his native inno- cence, the sins of Mahomet may be allowed as the evidence of his sincerity. In the support of truth, the arts of fraud and fiction may be deemed less criminal ; and he would have started at the foulness of the means, had he not been satis- fied of the importance and justice of the end. Even in a conqueror or a priest, I can surprise a word or action of unaffected humanity; and the decree of Mahomet, that, in the sale of captives, the mothers should never be separated from their children, may suspend or moderate the censure of the historian.t * In some passage of his volumnious writings, Voltaire compares the prophet, in his old age, to a fakir, — " qui detache la chalue de sou con pour en donner sur les oreilles h, ses confreres." "t" Gagnier relates, with the same impartial pen, this humane law oi A.D. G32.] PRIVATE LIFE OF MAUOMET. 513 The good sense of Mahomet * despised the pomp of royalty; the apostle of God submitted to the menial oUr-c'S of the family; he kindled the lire, swept the iloor, milked the ewes, and mended with his own hands his shoes and hi^t woollen tijarmcnt. Disdaining; the penance and merit of a hermit, he observed, without ullbrt orvanit}^ the abstemious diet of an Arab and a soldier. On solemn occasions he feasted his companions with rustic and hospitable plenty; but in his domestic life, many weeks would el:i[)se without a fire being kindled on tlie hearth of the ])rophet. The inter- diction of wine was contirmed by his example ; his hunger was appeased with a sparing allowance of barlry-bread ; he delighted in the taste of milk and honey ; but his ordinarv food consisted of dates and water. Perfumes and women were tlie two sensual enjovinents which his nature required and his religion did not iorbid ; and Mahomet ailirmed, that the fervour of his devotion was increased by these innocent pleasures. The heat of the climate inflames the the blood of the Arabs; and their libidinous complexioii has been noticed by the writers of antiquity .f Tlieir incon- tinence was regulated by the civil and religious laws of the Koran ; their incestuous alliances were blamed ; the boundless licence of polygamy w^as reduced to four legitimate wives or concubines ; their rights both of bed and of dowry were equitably determined ; the freedom of divorce was discou- raged ; adultery was condemned as a capital offence ; and fornication, in either sex, was punished with a hundred stripes. J Such were the calm and rational precepts of the the prophet, and the murders of Caab and Sophian, which he prompted and approved (Vie de Mahomet, torn. ii. p. 69. 97. 208). * For the domestic life of Mahomet, consult Gagnier and the cor- responding chapters of Abulfeda; lor his diet (torn. iii. p. 285 — 2tS), his children (p. 189. 289); his wives (p. 290—303); his marriage with Zeineb (tom. ii. p. 152 — ICO); his amour with Mary (p. 3U3 — 31)9) ; the lalse accusation of Ayesha (p. ISG — 199). The most original evidence of the three last transactions, is contained in the twentj -fourth, thirty- tliird, and sixty -sixth chaptei's of the Koran, with Sale's commentary. I'rideaux (Life ol Mahomet, p. SO — 90) and Maracci (Prodrom. Alcoran, part 4, p. 49 — 59), have maliciously exaggerated the frailties of Mahomet. t Incredibile est quo ardore apud eos in venerem uterque solvitur sexus. (Anuuian. Marcellin. 1. 14, c. 4.) t Sale (Preliminary Discourse, p. 133 — 137) has recapitulated tho laws of marriage, divorce, &c. and the curious reader of Selden's Uxor Hebraica will recoguize many Jewish "linauces. VOL. V. 2 L Sli TVITES OF MAHOMET. [CH. L. legislator; but in liia private conduct, Mahomet indulged the appetites of a man, and abused the claims of a prophet. A special revelation dispensed him from the laws which he had imposed on his nation ; the female sex, without reserve, was abandoned to his desires ; and this singular prerogative excited the envy, rather than the scandal, the veneration rather than the envy, of the devout Mussulmans. If we remember the seven hundred wives and three hundred con- cubines of the wise Solomon, we sliall applaud the modeslv of the Arabian, who espoused no more than seventeen or fifteen wives ; eleven are enumerated, who occupied at Medina their separate apartments round the house of the apostle, and enjoyed in their turns the favour of his conjugal society.* What is singular enough, they were all widows, excepting only Ayesha, the daughter of Abubekcr.f She was doubtless a virgin, since Mahomet consummated his nuptials (such is the premature ripeness of the climate) when she was only nine years of age. The youth, the beauty, the spirit, of Ayesha, gave her a superior ascendant : she was beloved and trusted by the prophet; and, after his death, the daughter of Abubeker was long revered as the mother of the faithful. Her behaviour had been ambiguous and indiscreet : in a nocturnal march, she was accidentally 'eft behind ; and in the morning Ayesha returned to the camp witb a man. The temper of Mahomet was inclined to jealousy ; but a divine revelation assured him of her inno- cence ; he chastised her accusers, and published a law of domestic peace, that no woman should be condemned unless four male witnesses had seen her in the act of adultery. J In his adventures with Zeineb, the wife of Zeid, and with Mary, an Egyptian captive, the amorous prophet forgot the * [Dr. "Weil says that from four of these Mohamet " was separated eoon after marriage, or before consummation," and that only nine wives survived him. Yet there were also four female slaves who were his concubines. — Ed.] + [His original name was Abdallah, the same as that of Mahomet's father. On the marriage of his daughter, he took that of Abu-Beker, distinguishing himself then and to all postei-ity, as the " Father of the Virgin." — Ed.] J In a memorable case, the caliph Omar decided that all presump- tive evidence was of no avail ; and that all the four witnesses must liave actually seen stylum in pyxide. (Abulfeda3 Annales Moslemici, p. 71, vei^s. Reiske.) [Ayesha's innocence is asserted, and her adven- iure with Safwan Ebu al Moattel explained, in a note to Sale's Koran, A.D. G32.] UIS INCONSTAKOT. 515 interest of liis reputation. At the house of Zeid, his freed- mau aud adopted sou, he beheld, in a loose undress, the beauty of Zeineb, and burst forth into an ejaculation of devotion and desire. The servile, or grateful, Ircedman understood the hint, and yielded without hesitation to the love of his benefactor. But as the filial relation had excited some doubt and scandal, the angel Gabriel descended from heaven to ratify the deed, to annul tlie adoption, and gently to reprove tlie apostle for distrusting the indulgence of his God. One of his wives, Ilafsa, the daughter of Omar, sur- prised him on her own bed, in tlie embraces of his Egyptian captive : she promised secrecy and forgiveness : he swore that he would renounce the possession of Mary. Both par- ties forgot their engagements, and Gabriel agaiu descended w illi a ciiajjter of the Koran, to absolve him from his oath, and to exhort him freely to enjoy his captives and con- cubines, without listening to tlie clamours of his wives. In a solitary retreat of thirty days, he laboured, alone with Mary, to fulfil the commands of the angel. AVhen his love and revenge were satiated, he summoned to his presence his eleven wives, reproached their disobedience and indiscretion, and threatened them with a sentence of divorce, both in this world and in the nest : a dreadful sentence, since those who had ascended the bed of the prophet were for ever ex- cluded from the hope of a second marriage. Perhaps the incontinence of Mahomet may be palliated by the tradition of his natural or preternatural gifts ;* he luiited the maniy virtue of thirty of the children of Adam ; and the apostle might rival the thirteenth labour t of the Grecian Her- cules. J A more serious and decent excuse may be drawn ch. xxiv. — Ed.] * Sibi robur ad generationem, quantum trigiuta viri habent, inesse jactaret : ita ut uuica hor.i, posset undecinj focmiuis satisfacere, ut ex Arabum libris refert S'"^ Petrus Paschasius, c. 2. (Maracci, Prodromu-s Alcoran, p. 4, p. 55. See likewise Obser- vations de Belon, 1. 3, c. 10, fol. 179, recto.) Al Jannabi (Gagnier, torn. iii. p. 287) records his own testimony, that he surpassed all men in conjugal vigour ; and Abulfeda mentions the exclamation of Ali, who washed his body after his death : — " propheta, certe penis tuu.s coelum versus erectua est" (in Vit. Mohammed, p. 140). t I borrow the style of a father of the church, kraOXivojv 'Hfjan-Xr/f TptaKatceKaTov aOXov. (Greg. Nazianzen, orat. 3, p. 108.) X The common and most glorious legend includes, in a single night, the fifty victories of Hercules over the virgin daughters of Thestiu* 2l 2 616 CniLDEEK OF MAnOMET. [CH. L. from his fidelity to Cadijah. During the twenty-four yeara of their marriage, lier youthful husband abstained from the right of polygamj', and the pride or tenderness of the vener- able matron was never insulted by the society of a rival. After her death he placed her in the rank of the four per- fect vromen, with the sister of Moses, the mother of Jesus, and Fatima, the best beloved of his daughters. " Was she not old?" said Ayesha, with the insolence of a blooming beauty, " has not God given you a better in her place ?" — "No, by God," said Mahomet, with an eifusion of honest gratitude, " there never can be a better ! she believed in me, when men despised me : she relieved my wants, when I was poor and persecuted by the world." * In the largest indulgence of polygamy, the founder of a religion and empire miglit aspire to multiply the chances of a numerous posterity and a lineal succession. The hopes of Mahomet were fatally disappointed. The virgin A yesha, and his ten widows of mature age and approved fertility, were barren in his potent embraces. The four sons of Cadijah died in their infancy. Mary, his Egyptian concu- bine, was endeared to him by the birth of Ibrahim. At the end of fifteen months the prophet wept over his grave ; but he sustained with firmness the raillery of his enemies, and checked the adulation or credulity of the Moslems, by the assurance that an eclipse of the sun was not occasioned by the death of the infant. Cadijah had likewise given him four daughters, who were married to the most faithful of his disciples : the three eldest died before their father ; but Fatima, who possessed his confidence and love, became the wife of her cousin Ali, and the mother of an illustrious progeny. The merit and misfortunes of Ali and his descendants will lead me to anticipate, in this place, the series of the Saracen caliphs, a title which describes the commanders of the faithful as the vicars and successors of the apostle of God.f (EHoJor. Sicul. torn. i. 1. 4, p. 274. Pausanias, 1. 9, p. 7G3. Statius Sylv. 1. 1, eleg. 3, v. 42.) But Athenseus allows seven nights, (Deipno- sophist. 1. 13, p. 556), and Apollodoriis fifty, for this arduous achieve- meut of Hercules, who was then no more than eighteen years of age. e hands of Mahomet. The jNlahoinetana have unit'oriidy withstood the temptation of reducing the object of tiieir faith aud devotion to a level with the senses and imagination of man. " I believe in one God, and Mahomet the apostle of God," is the simple and invariable profession of Islam. The intellectual image of the Deity has never been degraded by any visible idol ; the honours of the ])rophet have never transgressed the measure of human virtue ; and his living precepts have restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the bounds of reason and religion. The votaries of Ali have indeed consecrated the memory of their hero, his wife, and his children, and some of the Persian doctors pretend that the divine essence was incarnate in the person of the Imams ; but their super- stition is universally condemned by the Sonnites ; and their impiety has allbrded a seasonable warning against the worship of saints and martyrs. The metaphysical questions on the attributes of God, and the liberty of man, have been agitated in the schools of the Mahometans, as well as in those of the Christians; but among the former they have never engaged the passions of the people, or disturbed the tranquillity of the State. The cause of this important difference may be found in the separation or union of tho rejral and sacerdotal characters, it was the interest of tlie caliphs, the successors of the prophet and commanders of the faithful, to repress and discourage all religious inno- vations : the order, the discipline, the temporal and spiritual ambition, of the clergy, are unknown to the Moslems ; and the sages of the law are the guides of their conscience and the oracles of their faith. From the Atlantic to the Ganges, the Koran is acknowledged as the fundamental code, not only of theology, but of civil and criminal jurisprudence ; and the laws which regulate the actions and the propert}^ of mankind are guarded bv the infallible and immutable sane- tion of the will of God. This religious servitude is attended with some practical disadvantage ; the illiterate legislator had been often misled by his own prejudices and those of his country ; and the institutions of the Arabian desert may be ill adapted to the wealth and numbers of Ispahan and Constantinople. On these occasions, the cadhi respectfully places on his head the holy volume, and substitutes a 53^! HIS MERIT TOWARDS [Cll. L. dexterous interpretation more apposite to the principles of equity, and the manners and policy of the times. His beneficial or pernicious influence on the public happiness is the last consideration in the character of Mahomet. The most bitter or most bigoted of his Christian or Jewish foes, will surely allow that he assumed a false commission to inculcate a salutary doctrine, less perfect only than their own. He pionsly supposed, as the basis of his "religion, the truth and sanctity of their prior revelations,^ the virtues and miracles of their founders. The idols of Arabia were broken before the throne of God ; the blood of human victims was expiated by prayer, and fasting, and alms, the hiudable or innocent arts of devotion ; and his rewards and punishments of a future life were painted by the images most congenial to an ignorant and carnal genera- tion. Mahomet was, perhaps, incapable of dictating a moral and political system for the use of his countrymen : but he breathed among the faithful a spirit of charity and friend- ship, recommended the practice of the social virtues, and checked, by his laws and precepts, the thirst of revenge and the oppression of widows and orphans. The hostile tribes were united in faith and obedience, and the valour which had been idly spent in domestic quarrels was vigor- ously directed against a foreign enemy. Had the impulse been less powerful, Arabia, free at home, and formidable abroad, might have flourished under a succession of her native monarch s. Her sovereignty was lost by the extent and rapidity of conquest. The colonies of the nation were scattered over the East and West, and their blood was mino-led with the blood of their converts and captives. After the reign of three caliphs, the throne was trans|)orted from Medina to the valley of Damascus and the banks of the Tigris ; the holy cities were violated by impious war ; Arabia was ruled by the rod of a subject, perhaps of a stranger ; and the Bedoweens of the desert, awakening from their dream of dominion, resumed their old and solitary independence.* • The writers of the Modern Universal History (vol L and ii.) have compiled, in eight liiindred and fifty folio pages, the life of Mahomet and the annals of the calii)hs. They enjoyed the advantage of read- ing, and Bometimea correcting, the Ai-abic texts ; yet, notwithstanding en. L.] nrs couNxnT. 535 tfioir hijjhsouncliiiq boasts, I cannot find, after the conclusion of my work, that they have afforded mo much, if any, additional information. The dull mass is not quickened by a spark of philosophy or taste; and the compilers indulge the criticism of acrimonious bigotry against Bou- lainvillier.-i. Sale, (Jagnicr, and all who have treated Mahomet with favour, or even justice. [The calmly-judging Professor Smyth con- demns the unreasonable eagerness of the authors of the ^lodern History to expose the faults of the prophet; and praises "the candour, the reasonableness, and the great knowledge of his subject," displayed by Sale. Lectures, p. 65. — Ed.] END OK VOLUME V, LONDON ; PRIKITD BY WILLFAM CLOWES AND SONS. LIJIITRD, STAlIFOltD STIiEET AND CHAUIKG ';UO=S. CATALOGUE OF BONN'S LIBRARIES 740 Volumes, £\iZ 1 95". ()d. TJic rublishers are tiow issiiifig the Libraries i?t a A'EIV AND MORE ATTRACTIVE STYLE OF BINDING. 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