 Preface of The Byzantine Empire, The Reagard of European Civilisation This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Beth Thomas The Byzantine Empire, The Reagard of European Civilisation by Edward Ford To the memory of Sir Percy Bunting, my godfather in literature Preface This volume is an attempt to supply the need of a short popular history of the later Roman Empire. There is at present, I believe, no book on the subject in the English language between Professor Oman's sketch in the story of the nation series and monumental works like those of Gibbon, Finlay and Burry. The early middle age of Europe has always had a fascination for me and on the wonderful story of the Byzantine Empire I have concentrated much attention. And therefore Mr Gordon Holm broached the idea of the present volume. I readily undertook the task, believing that a knowledge of what was required combined with a real enthusiasm for my subject might enable me to produce a book which would fill the gap. For me, this work is only a preface to a larger one embodying the results of my own original research, which I hope in the future to produce. I had the advantage of reading Dr Bussell's first volume on the Roman Empire before publication. The second appeared when this book was nearing completion. The orthography of the innumerable proper names has given a good deal of trouble and I should not like to say that I have solved the problem. As regards chronology, I have generally followed Burry. The maps are all from the author's drawings. That of the Roman Empire, in 395, is based upon the one in Cupid's Atlas. The remaining five constitute, I believe, the first real attempt to illustrate the strange territorial fluctuations of the Empire on a rational principle. In every case, the culmination of a particular epoch has been chosen. The maps are supplemented by carefully compiled statistical tables, which may serve to give the reader a concrete idea of the extent of the domain of Imperial Rome. The map of the Hellenic colonies was added at the suggestion of Mr Gordon Holm, and I must thank him for much valuable assistance in the matter of the illustrations. Little space has been wasted on ecclesiastical controversies, these being, in my opinion, entirely secondary to the Empire's work as a preserver of civilization and rearguard of Europe. I have not hesitated to express the opinion that Byzantine cruelty is largely a myth, and otherwise it may be found that my estimate of certain rulers differs from that which commonly prevails. Four of the genealogical tables have been copied or adapted from those in Professor Burry's work. The fifth and sixth were compiled with the assistance of my friend Mr R. M. Cunningham, a fellow enthusiast in things Byzantine, whose painstaking kindness I cannot too warmly acknowledge. Nor must I forget to thank Ms Marguerite Cartel for aiding me in the compilation of what I hope is a satisfactory index. I have elsewhere discussed and defended the use, for popular purposes at least, of the adjective Byzantine, and do not need to do so here. Edward Ford, October 1911. End of Preface. Section 1 of the Byzantine Empire. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by E. Sharpe. The Byzantine Empire, the rearguard of European civilization, by Edward Ford. Byzantium and Constantinople, the peerless capital. In the 8th and 7th centuries before Christ, the Eastern Mediterranean was bidding fair to become a veritable network of Greek city-states. Never were there such colonizers as these men who had come down from the north and settled on the ruins of the far-famed Sea Kingdom of Minas, whose glory they were destined to rival and suppress. Perchance the renown of the Minoan Empire, of which they must have heard, spurred them to emulation. Perhaps they were forced seaward, like other peoples before and since, by pressure from behind. Domestic political troubles undoubtedly played their part in the formation of many of the settlements which covered the shores of the Levant. But when every circumstance is taken into full consideration, the feats of the men of Hellas were wonderful. The wild outburst of colonizing energy which began in the 9th century continued for two centuries without a check, and did not slacken until there were scarce any section of Eastern Mediterranean coastline, save that of Egypt and Syria that was not studded with Greek towns. It was not by the great cities of the Golden Age that the work was done. The now-forgotten towns of Chausus and Eritrea were the pioneers in Europe. In the 8th and 7th centuries the lead was taken by famed Miletus, leader of Hellas and many things, until her destruction by Persia in 494 BC. But Miletus found a not unworthy rival in the European town of Dorian Magara on the Seronic Gulf. Magarian ships passed up the Hellespont and established settlements on the Asiatic shore of the Propontus, steadily moving forward until, in 675, they founded Chausodon, or Kedikoi, at the entrance of the Thracian Bosphorus. How or why they overlooked the unrivaled site on the Thracian shore, for the immeasurably inferior one of Chausodon is truly difficult of comprehension. Perhaps their fear of the wildfolk of the Thracian inland had something to do with it. At any rate, for sixteen years Chausodon was the one Magarian station on the Bosphorus. During that period the peninsula on which Constantinople was in the far off future to rise must have become more and more familiar to the men of Magara, and when, in the good old, pious, and very sensible Greek fashion, they made inquiries of the Delphic Oracle concerning an eligible site for a new colony, the famous answer, build ye opposite to the city of the blind, even if not prepared beforehand cannot have been unexpected. So one fine day, in 660 BC, the little flotilla of swift black galleys put out of the port of Magara, steered between Salamis and Aginia, and passing down the Seronic Gulf, rounded Sunium, and stood away across the Aegean. Crossing it, perhaps by two or three stages, the ships left on their right the far famed plain where Achaean and Phrygian had contended for ten long years, perhaps in very deed for a fair, frail woman as wise old Homer sang, knowing in his wisdom that for women men will ever fight hardest and longest, and entering Hellespont wound their way through it into the prepontus. They passed the prokinesis, perhaps their cruise landed there, and if so, they saw then in its marble cliffs lay the material for the future beauty of their projected city. The marble island was left behind, and the galleys headed out over the glittering expanse of open water until before them they saw the narrow, cliff-enclosed opening of the gate of the Euxene, with the town of their blind forerunners to its right, and on its left the low rolling triangular peninsula whereon the capital of the Roman Empire was one day to rise. The galleys was reached, but though they may have dreamed of great things, the men of Megara, as they raised their first rough fortifications and built the first rude huts and shrines, assuredly did not know that they were engraving on the tablets of history the first words of a story that was to be among the most illustrious of all time. For several centuries after its foundation, Byzantium had an eventful and, on the whole, a prosperous and honorable career. A glance at the map shows its splendid commercial position. It controlled the great trade route between the Aegean and the Euxene. Its vast importance as a frontier fortress between the Orient and the Occident showed itself in the great struggle between Greece and Persia. It was more than once taken and retaken. With comparatively few and brief intervals, it maintained its independence until it fell, with its sisters in East and West, under the all-embracing sway of Rome, and for centuries thereafter it was one of the most important cities of the central regions of the Empire. But evil days began for the famous old city on the death of Commodus in 192, when it became the frontier outpost of Pecianius Nygre. In his struggle with Septimus Severus, it was taken by Severus in 196, and the Grim Emperor took his revenge for its two years' desperate resistance by massacring the garrison and magistrates, confiscating the property of the citizens, depriving the place of its privileges and dismantling the walls. Rome owed somewhat to strong El Septimus Severus, but to mercy and scruple he was a stranger, and probably Caracalla did not inherit all his evil qualities from his mother. Caracalla restored its privileges to the stricken city, but peace knew it not for many years. It was harassed by Gothic raids. It was involved in civil wars. In 263 it was stormed and sacked by Galeanus. Yet its commercial importance was so great that it soon recovered itself, though we are told that scarce a single man of the old Magarian strains survived the slaughter of 196 and 263. Under the Illyrian emperors it again enjoyed an interval of repose, and Diocletian's residence at Nicomedia must have greatly added to its prosperity, but on his abdication Byzantium again became a bone of contention between Licinius, Caesar of Illyricum, and Maximinius Deza of the East. The latter, in 314, treacherously seized it behind his colleagues back only to lose it again in the same year, and to be finally overthrown by Licinius. Licinius, now master of the entire East, greatly strengthened his recovered possession and made it the strongest fortress of his empire. There now remained of the various competitors who had disputed the empire after the abdication of Diocletian too only. Licinius and Flavius Valyrius Constinius, emperor of the West. Causes of rivalry and enmity were not lacking, and in 323 came to head an open war. Licinius was defeated and slain, and Byzantium for the last time taken. This time by the man who was to make it famous for evermore, for in 328 Constantine finally decided to make it the capital of the Roman Empire. The reasons which led him to supersede the city of the Tiber need only be briefly mentioned. A short study of the map of the Mediterranean basin is sufficient to demonstrate them. Rome was a bad position from which to direct the defense of the Danubian frontier, the most vulnerable part of the Roman border. It had been a splendid starting point for the conquest of Italy, largely because it was the point of meeting of three nations, but as the capital of the empire it was full of defects. It had no proper communication with the sea. It was shut off from the main body of the state by the great barrier of the Alps. Finally, all through the third and fourth centuries, the center of political gravity was shifting steadily eastwards. It is doubtful whether it had not begun to do so long before. Rome had already lost all but the superstitious reverence which was paid to it as the legendary mistress of the world. It seems to have had little or no commercial importance. It was only a vast assemblage of magnificent public buildings and streets surrounded by walls that, for all the use they were, had better never have been built inhabited by a huge, debased, pauperized population, a mere source of endless trouble and expense. The merits of Byzantium were apparent to none more clearly than to Constantine, who had been encamped outside it for nearly a year and had ample time to appreciate at their full value its many advantages. It lay on the borderline between east and west and right on one of the most important of the great trade routes. Its military position was exceptionally fine. Not only was it tactically most impregnable, if properly fortified in garden, but it was a strategic center of the first order an unrivaled place of arms for war on land and sea. On the Asiatic side it was covered by the great wet ditch of the Bosphorus, impassable to any enemy not possessed of a navy. Even if Chalcedon and Chrysopolis were lost, the power which held Byzantium so long as it maintained a naval force was still unassailable. On the side of Europe, Hymus and Rhodope covered Thrace and Byzantium if the line of the Danube were forced, and the city at the end of its long dwindling peninsula was the natural base for advance and the goal of retreat, the true center and rallying point of the strength of the empire. We need not deal with the supposed marvels that are said to have attended the second foundation of Byzantium. All through 328 and 329 the work went steadily on, and on May 11, 330 the city was solemnly dedicated and consecrated with Christian ceremonies though Constantine was yet unbaptized. It was renamed New Rome by Imperial Edict, but from the very first the name of its founder clung to it, and for 16 centuries the world has stoutly refused to give the city of the Bosphorus any other title than that of Constantinople. The name of the first Christian emperor of Rome has most rightly been ever associated with that of the city which he chose from among many as the capital of his empire, while with the appellation of the state which centered in it is justly connected with the name of the Magarian leader who colonized the unrivaled site which the blind men before him had neglected for Chousadan. Constantinople, as planned by Constantine, did not cover the area over which it spread in after years. The length of its walls was barely eight miles and the extent of ground enclosed only half of what it afterwards became. In 413 the great prefect Anthemius began the construction of a new line of fortifications on the landward side from three-quarters of a mile to a mile in advance of the Constantinian wall. This was ruined by an earthquake in 447 at a moment of extreme peril when the terrible Attila was but a few marches away. But in 60 days the shattered barrier was defensible once more and soldiers, citizens, and craftsmen were laboring feverishly at the construction of a second wall in front of the first. In succeeding years the work was completed and in the days when the warrior Marcianus and the Saint Pulcheria again renewed the glory of the empire, the great capital stood forth in all its splendor and enduring strength. The length of its fortifications extended to about 13 miles from the marble tower on the propontist to the xyloporta on the golden horn stretched for four miles a vast bulwark of defense. For the greater part of its length it was triple. First came a huge moat 60 feet wide and at least 20 feet deep with a low stone wall or breastwork along its inner edge. Behind the breastwork was, and is, an esplanade about 40 feet wide overlooked by the outer, really the second, wall a structure from 25 to 30 feet high and 7 feet thick strengthened by casemates on its inner side with towers about 40 feet in height projecting at short intervals. The earth was banked up against its inner side and leveled to form a second esplanade averaging 60 feet in width from the city side of which rose the inner wall a huge barrier 45 feet from base to battlement rising in places to 50 feet or more with a solid thickness of about 15 feet and with 97 towers along its front projecting about 30 feet into the peribolus or esplanade and rising to an average height of over 60 feet. This gigantic system of fortifications did not extend quite to the golden horn but extended at the Zylo-Kerkus gate a quarter of a mile short of it went a single wall like a bastion round the quarter of the blackernay. This single wall however extended and strengthened by several emperors was of great strength and solidity and though undefended by a ditch appeared so strong to Muhammad II in 1453 that he did not care to direct his attack against it. The entire shoreline along the golden horn and the prepontus was defended by walls lower and weaker than the vast landward bulwarks of course but strengthened by some 300 towers and, as events showed, strong enough for all purposes except the unforeseen chance of a total lack of ships and trained defenders. The imperial palatial enclosure lay at the eastern end of the city along the prepontine shore. In a work of the small dimensions of the present one space would be wasted attempting any description. It was more of what in Russia is called a Kremlin than a palace containing several imperial residences and a number of churches, barracks, armories, storehouses, and extensive gardens and playing fields. Beneath its walls on the city side lay the two famous churches of the Divine Wisdom and of St. Irene, the Hippodrome and the Palace before its main gate opened the Augustian, or Imperial Square, from which the main thoroughfare of the city ran westward for more than a mile, traversing the fora of Constantine and Theodosus and presently dividing into two branches, one passing northwestward to the gate of Adrianople by the great church of the Holy Apostles, the mausoleum of the emperors, one running parallel to the prepontine shore to the famous Golden Gate, beneath whose arches conquering emperors entered in triumphal procession into the city of their pride. The means do not exist of mapping or describing the city in the days of its greatest prosperity, which were probably in the 10th century, but only a hundred years after its foundation it counted over 250 large public buildings and 4,400 private dwellings belonging to wealthy or distinguished citizens. A feature of the city was the gigantic reservoirs for public water supply. Valens constructed an aqueduct which was broken in the great siege of 626 and restored by Constantine the 6th more than a century later. Churches were to be counted probably by the hundred rather than the score. Many, yet survive, desecrated and defiled by the presence of the barbarians, who are still encamped in the city of Constantine, among them the wondrous Sancta Sophia and Saint Irene. But the Church of the Holy Apostles was destroyed to make way for the mosque of the conqueror Muhammad II, as the imperial palaces and hundreds of other buildings of antiquarian and historical interest were swept away either by barbarous Europe or barbarous Asia in the ruin and desolation that supervened after the sack of 1204. The suburbs of the great capital were Galata across the Golden Horn, Chrysopolis and Chalcedon on the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus. The great port was, of course, the Golden Horn. But on the Propentine side there were four basins of larger or smaller size, one of which, however, belonged exclusively to the imperial palace. It is impossible to estimate the population with any certainty. It is supposed, at the present day, to be about or over one million, but, of course, no reliance can be placed upon Turkish returns. The area of the Stambolene Peninsula is about 4,000 acres according to the writer's very rough calculations, and a great, a high one compared with that of London, of 100 inhabitants per acre would give it a population of 400,000. Many writers estimated at one million or more, but I do not see that it can ever have greatly exceeded 500,000. It is true that the city parks and pleasure gardens, then, as now, were without the walls, but there were many large squares and unoccupied spaces within them. Possibly, allowing for the denser crowding which prevailed in antiquity and the population of the Asiatic and European suburbs, there may have been at times as many as 700,000 inhabitants. Of the city's wealth, there can be no doubt. For several centuries it was the commercial capital of Europe and of a considerable part of Asia, and for a great part of that period it had no foreign rival. Benjamin of Tudela thinks that in the 12th century when the Italian republics were already competing with it its yearly contribution to the imperial revenue was 7,300,000 nomistata or over 4 million pounds. Gibbon can hardly credit this. From the standpoint of the 18th century he cannot be blamed for his incredulity. It is quite probable. Constantinople was to the empire what London is to Britain. Only more so, for during a large part of its existence it had few foreign rivals or none, and there was no city in the Byzantine dominions to approach it far less equal it. It was the terminus of the chief routes of the empire. It lay upon a main artery of medieval commerce and the ruin in Western Europe drove trade and industry more and more to the east thus adding to its already great commercial prosperity. It was the greatest fortress the greatest naval station the greatest arsenal of the state. Its chief university its religious center its seat of government its commercial focus. In short, as few cities have ever been or can be the true natural center of the empire its queen of cities the heart and soul of its national existence. Indeed, a peerless capital. End of chapter 1. Civilization by Edward Ford Chapter 2 Constantine to Arcadius Barbarian Influence AD 337 to 408 The Roman Empire after the death of Constantine I Gothic invasions Theodosius I Internal Condition of the Empire Arcadius Rufinas Utropius and Gainus Defeating Death of Gainus John Chrysostom And Elia Eudatia Death of Arcadius It is not proposed here to do more than to give the slightest possible sketch of the history of the period 337 to 395 between the death of Constantine the great and the accession of the brothers Arcadius and Honorius It was an epic of considerable interest and importance but it lies outside the limits which I have laid down arbitrarily I own and the time which would be expended in describing the deeds of Constantius the Arian and Julian the Apostate is better employed in attempting to throw some light on the general state of the empire at this period It is necessary to glance at the events of these years however in order to understand something of the circumstances which directly or indirectly brought about the great changes of the following century Constantine left the empire proportioned out between three sons but by 353 the whole huge heritage had once more been concentrated in the hands of Constantius the second Emperor of the East He is chiefly noted for having broken with the orthodox standard of Christianity and having adopted the Arian heresy which denied the divinity of Christ and for this reason has incurred considerable obliquy He was unamiable, harsh and unsympathetic as indeed his whole house appeared to have been but was by no means devoid of the great ability which went hand in hand with their evil qualities To him seceded in 361 that strange and to the writer at least, pathetic figure Julian the Apostate and on his death in Persia in 363 after a brief interval of Jovianus the hasty and ill-advised choice of the imperial staff the stout soldier Valentinian the first Valentinian chose the west as his sphere of operations and crowned his brother Valens, Emperor of the East Valens has not had a good reputation in history but it really seems as if with all his faults it was not he who was to blame for the disasters which befell the east under his rule bad and selfish officialdom the Goths were now definitely settled in the regions north of the Danube and the Black Sea the Visigoths lay spread over what had been the old Roman province of Dacia and were steadily drawing nearer to the empire becoming less and less of a danger more and more of what we should now term a buffer state their young men enlisted freely and since the nation mustered more than 200,000 vigorous males formed a most important source of strength to the declining empire declining chiefly it must be remembered by reason of its steadily dwindling population the Goths were nominally at least Christians they had become cultivators and in some cases traders there certainly was no reason to believe that they were to be or long the most terrible enemies of the empire probably most men of the later 4th century would have pointed to Persia as the great antagonist of Rome and would have indicated the Rhine the Euphrates or Britain as the points of danger rather than the lower Danube somewhere about 210 BC if the riders conclusions are correct the consolidation of China into a single powerful state under the giant among rulers Chang of the Kingdom of Qin Qin Chi Huang Ti had opposed a firm barrier to the eastward progress of the peoples of Central Asia prominent among these people were the Huang Nu a race mentioned again and again in terms of terror and respect by Chinese writers Qin Chi Huang Ti defeated in 215 and constructed on his northern border where nature had placed no barrier an artificial one a gigantic military frontier the Great Wall of China the eugis structure reckoned as mere mass and taking no account of the engineering feats involved that human hands have ever reared the result of this astounding creation of genius was as it seems perfectly clear to me to gradually force the Huang Nu westward that they gave way very slowly and that the gradual migration or infiltration of their hordes across the great Eurasian plains took some centuries rather than generations is natural enough they were probably loathe to leave the vicinity of the rich lands which had once been their raiding ground must have had to fight every mile and journey westward and though this is not the place we're in to take up the question of the origin of the Huns I must own that it seems curious that the Romans of the 5th century should have known the terrible Mongol horde which nearly made an end of their dissolving empire by a name which is almost the same as that of the nation which had terrorized China under the Chao dynasty 7 centuries before this aspect of the Mongol hordes their ferocity and bestiality seemed to have utterly cowed the fine German races with which they came in contact the Ostrogoths were subjugated the Visigoths and terror and despair retreated to the Danube and begged the Roman garrisons to let them pass after some hesitation Valens assented the Gauss crossed the great river and were fairly in Roman territory there were doubtless difficulties but none that could not be smoothed over by care and considerate treatment but care was the last thing to be expected from the greedy and unscrupulous Roman officials the details may be gathered from Ammianus but it must suffice here to say that the Gauss were literally goaded into war by treatment such as even slaves were scarce likely to endure without murmuring their patience was admirable it's not until Lupecianus the scoundrelly governor of Moesia actually proceeded to attempt the murder of the Gothic cheap Fritigern and some of the nobles that the long-suffering Teutons took up arms in 376 next year they ravaged Moesia and they measured swords with the army of Illyricum in a fierce battle at at Salisys and in 378 they passed the Balkans wasted Thrace and shattered the imperial army of the east and to ruin at Adrianople Valens was slain and with him laid the dead Magistri Aquitum at Pethidum the Count of the Palace 35 generals and 40,000 officers and men the disaster was a fearful one yet the Goths made no special use of it they were not a disciplined and organized force but a nation army the tens of thousands of Splendid warriors were accompanied and hampered by vast crowds of non-combatants and by endless trains of heavy and clumsy wagons despite their magnificent victory they could not take Adrianople and passing it by poured down the Thracian Promatory to Constantinople only 40 years after the death of Constantine the prescience which had chosen Byzantium as the new capital received its first justification the oncoming host of victorious warriors gauged in silent dismay upon the great city in its massive fortifications in abandoning the siege train which they had gathered for the assault retreated inland Constantinople had saved itself from the Empire the Spaniard Theodosius who by the choice of Gratian Emperor of the West seceded the unfortunate Valens took up again the policy of conciliation but with less prospect of ultimate success since deprived of a great part of the military strength which had been at the disposal of his predecessor he held a much less commanding position the Goths were settled by the Thracian provinces and the danger of the renewed hostility was averted only temporarily as it turned out by the expedient of enlisting their horsemen wholesale into the army considering that Theodosius had hardly any other alternative the plan was not perhaps a bad one had he lived ten years longer it might have been a permanent success but he undoubtedly carried it too far under his system the pay of a Gothic trooper was higher than that of his native comrade that is the emperor practically published the fact that the Goths were better and more reliable troops than the born subjects of the Empire it may have been true though I see no special reason for thinking so but it was surely folly to admit it the Goths found themselves in the tribal chiefs in many respects the rulers of the empire's destiny and their probably high opinion of themselves was greatly raised while the natives neglected and disregarded became steadily less efficient otherwise the policy had evil results in that it greatly increased the military expenditure at a time when the most careful economy in every department was urgently demanded on this subject I shall have more to say shortly but taking all the unfavorable circumstances of the time into consideration the facts remain that there was plenty of good fighting material among the peoples of the empire that the loss of revenue was hardly likely to be fatal even if 50,000 Esorians or Illyrians had been levied from the taxpayers to fill the chasm made in the ranks of the army the catastrophe of Adrianople that a diminution of revenue would probably have injured the empire less than the increased taxation necessary to pay the Goths and that finally the success of the policy rested upon the life of Theodosus a policy contrived upon such a fragile basis as human existence has but a very uncertain chance of continuance to the odosis cannot be described as in any sense an emperor of exceptional merit he was certainly an able general he was active and hard working but he had no true conception of the needs of the times his measures were calculated rather to add to the public burdens than to relieve them and he can hardly be defended against the charge of reckless cruelty witness the shocking incident of the massacre at Thessalonica he owes his title of great to his orthodoxy not to his merits as a ruler we shall meet with more than one similar instance later on the chaos which set in after his death is perhaps a good testimony to his merits but is equally his condemnation we cannot applaud a sovereign whose work in not the worst of circumstances by any means to own lifetime the odosis left the empire to his two young sons Arcadius 18 years of age in honoris who was only 10 to the former was left the east the main strength of the state to the latter the much weaker and less prosperous west in both were surrounded by a number of generals and ministers almost all of barbarian or half barbarian origin young emperors were almost absolute non-entities Arcadius was a thin dark nervous stripling always seemingly half asleep and without energy even to speak Honoris is best remembered by the famous story of his pet foul Roma considered as rulers there is little to choose between them both were certain to be the tools and dupes of any ambitious and unscrupulous minister the internal condition of the Roman empire at the death of Theodosius was full of danger but though the situation was critical an emperor like Diocletian or even a mere resolute fighting man might well have retrieved it with too weak and almost idiotic boys on the throne there was perhaps little to be looked for but disaster the imperial government had for centuries been steadily starting to become more and more centralized and this tendency had been materially helped forward by the troubles of the third century the reorganization of Diocletian marked an attempt to secure the advantages of decentralization by dividing the vast empire into four great regions each with its chief but the finally conceived scheme hardly survived the abdication of its author of varying blood and capacity were little likely to be able to work in harmony dissension soon broke out and ended in the accession of Constantine the first to supreme power Constantine continued the reorganization which Diocletian had initiated one feature of Diocletian system a strange one when we consider that its author was a peasant by birth placing of the emperor in a position of unapproachable majesty no doubt Diocletian hoped thus to establish some kind of check upon the constant military revolts which threatened the public stability he wished in short to elevate the head of the state to a position of earthly isolation and glory which should in some degree coordinate with his theoretical half religious place in the economy of the Roman world as Divus Augustus the disadvantage that the emperor might be so cut off from his subjects as to have slight conception of their needs and interests he does not appear to have foreseen at all events he ignored them Diocletian's system elaborated by Constantine made necessary a splendid and expensive court the defense of the empire against its enemies involved a huge increase in the standing army the 300,000 troops kept up by Augustus had grown to over 600,000 in the time of Theodosus the first while the weight of taxation was steadily on the increase the population of the empire was slowly wasting all through the first four centuries of the Christian era in a society whose normal condition is that of intermittent war it is clear that the small free-holder is at a great disadvantage beside his large holding neighbor who can till his fields with hired or slave labor in time of hostilities while he himself must leave his farm more or less uncared for if both be spoiled by an enemy the greater proprietor retains the advantage since he can utilize his greater means to recuperate in course of time the small-holder is out of existence this is little better than a truism it has been so often demonstrated that I can find myself to repeating it as early as 150 B.C. Italy was in a serious condition from depopulation owing to the above cause and reformers again and again made desperate attempts to check the evil which were wrecked upon the bitter opposition of the great landowners under the empire great numbers of the Italian people were state paupers residing in Rome and maintained by state ministrations which absorbed a considerable portion of the revenue when Constantinople was founded people also were supported by state grants of food the condition was a terrible one but it is fair to remember that it was largely due in the first case to the proficientness of great landowners who would not allow their poor neighbors a chance to work and live immorality of a bad type was distressingly common the prevalence of slavery fostered self-indulgence and cruelty infanticide was frequently practiced the strenuous efforts of the emperors produced for a while a certain promise of better things there was a considerable resuscitation of free labor but the necessities of the fist soon involved the free laborer in the toils of the caste system of the administration which chained every man to his craft and in the third century he was already a serf immorality the emperors could not check many of them indeed were guilty of it and partly from economic partly from moral causes the population was stationary probably diminishing while the conditions were against its recovery after any disaster the great plague of the reign of Marcus Aurelius was the beginning of the end and the andarchy of the third century helped it forward in the fourth century roman society had become stereotyped into caste rigidly defined controlled by an all-pervading bureaucracy and ground down by grievous ever more grievous taxation the principal source of revenue appears to have been the land tax which varied from a twentieth to a fifth of the value of the annual production of the soil and was usually about a tenth not a light burden at the time all non-land holding freemen were liable to a heavy capitation tax Constantine confront it with a deficit closed it by using a class tax on senators which was probably defensible and the tax on all receipts which necessarily pressed cruelly on the poor and was repealed by Anastasius a may general rejoicings the local assembly Curia was collectively responsible for the amounts of the district taxes as fixed by the imperial officials if any member of the Curia was bankrupt the sum still had to be made up and as it was too often impossible to wring it out of poverty stricken serfs the other members were forced to contribute the results were disastrous at first the Curiales acted in collusion with the provincial governors and occasionally escaped at the expense of the Exchequer but the ever growing strictness of the tax collectors led of evasion and the wretched notables tied to their estates and chairs as much as the serfs was chained to his plot and his hut had recourse to any and every means to escape their crushing responsibilities the principle of taxation was simply to collect in the treasury as much as possible of the circulating medium other considerations were ignored naturally the result was lack of capital decrease in the means of life and the acceleration of the decline of the population taxpayers were sternly forbidden to bear arms less there should be a decline of revenue and the army when the supply of cap children failed was recruited more and more from barbarians until Theodosus the first put the capstone on its denationalization by swamping it with goths while he ground the wretched the dust to provide his new favorites with high pay the curiales were landowners but not of noble or senatorial rank they represented the upper middle class to use the clumsy modern term below them were a few freemen say merchants and tradesmen the agricultural laborers were almost all serfs or slaves at its best the curial system was bad for the curia being composed of the richest landowners of the district was not identified in its interest with the smaller proprietors and the traders the small holders disappeared first but at last the curial is disintegrated under the ruthless pressure the nobles probably evaded their obligations as far as possible in any case they had the best chance of survival and by the time of Valentinian the third the conditions in the west were appalling the population was practically reduced to beggary vandal piracy had bankrupted many traders barbarian ravages had ruined the small and medium landowners but there was a group of nobles with incomes ranging from 60,000 pounds up to 200,000 pounds a year comment is needless these fared better the economic conditions had never been so bad the trading classes were much larger and more influential than in the agricultural west surfish was perhaps less widespread finally the country and asia at least was untouched by war the east also was blessed with stronger rulers so while the west broke into fragments the east survived and had enough of health within it to be able to recuperate not once but several times by the astonishment of mankind the history of the reign of Arcadius is sufficiently dreary but is on the whole less gloomy than that of his brothers rule over the west he was at first under the domination of his ambitious minister Ruffinus but he soon fell under the influence of a eunuch Utropius, an agothic general Gainus instigated by them he espoused the half-barbarian daughter of Bouto, instead of Maria the daughter of Ruffinus and the latter was soon assassinated at a review by order of his enemies Gainus next in 401 ousted and murdered Utropius in spite of the intrepid defense of the fallen minister made by the famous John, patriarch of Constantinople whom the admiring populace called Chrysostom, the golden mouthed meanwhile the Illyrian provinces were in wild disorder their Alaric, the famous Visicoth king, was an open revolt the pretext of the rising was arrears of pay to the Federate the barbarian troops of the army but there is little doubt that Alaric's ambition was the main cause Stilico, the great vandal magister Militum of the west checked him but with a curious, torturous policy which so often fills us in doubt of his loyalty to the empire concluded peace without crushing his rival and procured for him the post of magister Militum, pair Illyricum for five years Alaric remained comparatively quiescent if by no means idle then in 401 while Gainus was plotting against Utropius he invaded Italy with his operations there his final success and his death we are not immediately concerned possibly he had concerted measures with Gainus who was now all powerful in the east but Gainus was not Alaric nor had he the great host of splendid fighters which followed the Visicoth the people of Constantinople growing enraged at the insolence of the Germans broke out into resistance they closed the gates cutting off Gainus and the troops outside from those within and then turning savagely on the latter killed over 7000 of them Gainus now declared open war on his master but he was met by Fravita the fine specimen of the hard-fighting, rough honest heathen tooton Fravita stood by the son of his friend and lord Theodosius he defeated Gainus and drove him across the Danube where he was killed by Uldes, king of the Huns who were now in force in Dacia the rest of the reign of Arcadia passed in comparative peace except for continual trouble between John Chrysostom and the empress Aelia Eudocia neither side appears to great advantage the empress was impulsive hot tempered vindictive with her barbarian nature certainly vain and frivolous but does not appear to have been fundamentally vicious the patriarch was a man of saintly life disinterested, brave, universally beloved but rash and impulsive and most violent in speech he assailed the imperial lady to her face as she sat in Sancta Sophia to be called Jezebel violent impulses were as much good as bad and she seems to have made repeated attempts to live on good terms with a saintly but impracticable priest a little gentleness might have converted the lovely hot tempered Frank into a passionately faithful friend but John's invective only grew fiercer as time went on he had no tact and as it seems to the writer no great share of Christian charity slight faults the end came in 404 Eudosia now utterly reckless instigated her inert spouse into having the patriarch arrested and banished his patience under the hardships of his exile was wonderful and there was deep pathos in his lonely death but no one except religious enthusiasts devoid of judgment can help wishing that he had been able to control his violent impulses a little the good which he would have accomplished would have far exceeded that which he was actually able to do great as it undoubtedly was the plea has been advanced by Kingsley that it was the utter badness and rottenness of the times that made the great contemporary Christian fathers so intolerant and often barbarous it may be so but it is a terrible indictment of Christianity that in four centuries it had done so little as a fact the fourth and fifth centuries were a period of steady moral advance they were both bad and good emperors after Diocletian but no one of the type of Nero or Caracala Theodosus the first conducted a veritable crusade against sexual immorality the Roman of AD 404 was decidedly more civilized than the Roman of 4BC the times may have been bad but they were better than of old in the moral sense at least paganism existed but it was moribund Christianity may have had to fight hard but it had done and was to do splendid and deathless work it was not the wonderful religion that was at fault nor yet the times it was the violent ignorance intolerance and dissension of narrow Christian ecclesiastics that retarded progress Saint Cyril of Alexandria was almost certainly morally guilty of the murder of the pagan philosopher Hypatia and his action does not appear to have been generally disapproved of Chrysostom was a man of a far higher order than Cyril yet he too was the slave of his prejudices terribly devoid of the true spirit of Christianity Eudosia did not long survive needless to say she is supposed to have died in deep remorse and misery the opponent of Saint John Chrysostom could have no other faith she died in childbirth in September 405 on May 1st 408 Arcadius whose affection for her seems to have been the single positive emotion of his otherwise inert existence followed her his last arrangement showed a degree of wisdom which never yet manifested he appointed Anthemius the praetorian prefect a man of high ability and entire disinterestedness region for his little son Theodosis he was laid beside his wife in the church of the holy apostles and a section 2 section 3 of the Byzantine Empire this is a Librivox recording all Librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Librivox.org recording by Jeffrey Wilson Ames, Iowa the Byzantine Empire the rearguard of European civilization by Edward Ford Chapter 3 Theodosius II to Justin I reorganization AD 408 to 527 Regency of Anthemius reign of Theodosius II Polcaria Eudosia Persian and Hunnic wars intervention in the west Chrysaphias Hunnic invasions, religious troubles Polcaria and Martianus Revival Repulsive Huns Council of Calcedon Leo I Xeno, decline of barbarian influence internal reforms Isaurian and Persian wars revolt of Vitalian Justin I Justinian, his character and curious marriage his accession the death of Arcadius in some sense synchronizes with the passing away of the epic of barbarian influence such a general statement of course must only be considered as partially correct barbarian influence continued to exist for a very considerable period at Constantinople the Alan Majesty Militium Ardiburius and his son Aspar were powerful and later showed signs of becoming dangerously so but though Aspar may perhaps be reckoned in the same category with Stilico and Riesamer he never really exercised their commanding influence neither can it be said with any truth that the Ostrogoth Chieftain's Theodoric with whom we shall presently become acquainted had much chance of dominating the Empire though they certainly appeared likely at one time to establish a Teutonic Kingdom in the Balkan Peninsula the darkest day of the later Roman Empire has passed and with Theodosius II we enter upon a period of transition to the epic of reform which was to bear its part in the burst of energy under Justinian I the Praetorian Prefect Anthemius proved himself worthy of his dead master's unexpectedly wise choice no taint of self-interest marked his conduct a feature so rare as to deserve special mention Anthemius had done nothing else worthy of record such however was far from the case he concluded an advantageous commercial treaty with Persia when Uldis king of the formidable Huns invaded Misia he drove him across the Danube and protected the border by systematic re-fortification supported by a flotilla on the Great River he set on foot measures for resuscitating the wasted Illyrian provinces he reorganized the corn-supplying machinery of the capital and traced out and in large measure constructed new fortifications for the capital nearly a mile in advance of the walls of Constantine thus well nigh doubling the size of the city but his greatest glory was that in 414 a general remission of rears of taxes for 40 years from 368 to 408 was proclaimed to the burdened tax-paying classes who must have been overwhelmed with their obligations this cannot but have been of inestimable benefit the great prefect died in 414 but it was clearly his influence if not his actual personal order that was responsible for the boon he had conferred another benefit on the empire by the careful education which he had caused to be imparted to his imperial charges Theodosius II indeed was only a little less of a non-entity than his father but his sister Pulcheria two years his senior was a very different person on the death of Anthemius possibly or indeed probably by his influence and advice she was proclaimed Augusta and took up the reigns of government in the name of her brother being then only 15 years of age women matured earlier in the east than under our own cloudy skies and Pulcheria was not so young as her scanty tale of years might seem to indicate but there is something infinitely touching in the spectacle of this girl taking up her terrible burden of empire at an age when even eastern women were thinking of the enjoyments of youth Pulcheria took religious vows and remained a virgin to the end of her life her marriage at the age of 50 was merely nominal it may very well have been a genuine religious impulse seeing that her sisters Marina and Arcadia both followed her example and that the daughters of the fiery Eudoxia were hardly likely to have been devoid of human passion it more probably originated in the desire of the Augusta to remove herself and her sisters beyond the reach of ambitious aspirants to their hands the latter theory is at once the more probable the more honorable it is more probable because Pulcheria never secluded herself she toiled diligently at state business all her life and she assuredly had little leisure for ceremonial mortification of the flesh she did what few women could do or have done she kept her vow of virginity in the world it is the more honorable because monarchism is too often another name for mere selfishness of the worst sort a desire to save the individual soul with utter disregard of anything else Pulcheria's vow was for the good of humanity had she remained free she might well have been a center for plots against her brother her self abnegation secured the peace of the Roman world in the east her motives were indeed religious in the highest and noblest sense of the word since her object was purely unselfish the benefit of her fellow creatures in all her life there is not a sign that she ever took herself into consideration she toiled only for her brother her existence was a long denial more than once it must have been very like a martyrdom her sisters who followed her example have every right to share in her fame though they do not appear to have mingled to any extent in public life the long reign of Theodosius the Younger was on the whole peaceful its great monument was the Codex Theodosianus which was commenced in 429 and completed in 438 its inception may be set down with certainty to the credit of Pulcheria and the senators who worked with her at the task of reorganizing the empire the value of a systematic codification of the laws needs no emphasizing the Augusta is said also to have set her face steadily against the corruption of the court here however she was face to face with an Aegean stable and her efforts to cleanse it were only partially successful she failed as any woman in similar circumstances must fail to see the crying need of military reorganization the Roman armies continued to be assemblages of barbarian federati and mercenaries led by barbarian or half barbarian chiefs like Ardiberius and Aspar whose fidelity was always doubtful yet for the present there was no trouble the house of Theodosius was popular with the Teutons the Augusta's personal influence may have counted for much at any rate there is no hint of mutiny during her reign we must always remember that Pulcheria owed much to the precepts of Anthemius and we do not know how much of her policy was really his but in any case she deserves credit for intelligently taking it out and the glory of having kept her weak brother steadily in a dignified course of action for many years is all her own Pulcheria very early in life had taken into her friendship a greek girl named Atheneus who had fled penniless from the persecution of her brothers at Athens to seek the protection of the young Augusta Atheneus was a daughter of the philosopher Lyantius a pagan a fact which is worth recording to show how far removed Pulcheria was from bigotry the young Athenian was converted to Christianity and baptized by the name of Eudosia Theodosius fell in love with her and in 421 being then 20 years of age he took her to wife he was so much influenced by his sister that we must assume the marriage to have had her strong approval there is every reason to believe that she had been a good friend of the beautiful pagan who had in her need cast herself at her feet years before in after years there was disagreement between the imperial ladies but there is nothing to show that there was any political reason for it the children of the union except a daughter who bore her mother's name died young and in 444 Theodosius separated from Eudosia and exiled her to Jerusalem the story grew up in after years that the empress was guilty of a criminal passion for Paulinus one of the great court officials but the story of the Phrygian apple which Eudosia received from her husband only to pass it on to her lover probably belongs to the region of romance at the same time the story is found in several Byzantine historians and there was probably some reason for the divorce by a normally good natured man of the wife with whom he had lived for twenty years in 421 war broke out with Persia it lasted for two years and terminated in favor of the empire in 422 its cause had really been the persecution of Christians carried on by King Bacchrum and its successful issue strengthened the prestige of the empire in the east which had declined since Jovian's ignominious peace in 363 but next year before the main body of the army had returned from the Persian frontier the Huns broke into the Balkan peninsula and ravaged the whole country north of Adrianople the government unable to repel force by force could only adopt the ignominious policy of buying them off by a yearly subsidy of 700 pounds of gold the reason was that the army was needed for an expedition into the western empire but the precedent was a bad one in the west, Honorius had died in 423 the government was seized or assumed it must always be remembered that there was no definite law of succession by Johannes the primacirius or first secretary Placidia, stepsister of Honorius and widow of his colleague Constantius III was at the time living in Constantinople where their intrigues at Ravenna had forced her to retire and she now claimed the crown for her son Valentinian the eastern army under the Ardubirius entered Italy and though he was himself shipwrecked and taken his son Aspar stormed Achillea and Ravenna was surrendered without resistance Johannes was captured and executed the eastern empire was to receive as a garden for its aid western Illyricum the session to take place when Valentinian should be of age to marry Eudocia the daughter of the Eudocius it was clearly wise policy to get as much of the shattered empire as possible added to the still vigorous eastern portion but the Illyrian provinces were so wasted as to be of little value and their possession by Theodosius was never more than nominal Valentinian III and Eudocia were duly married in 436 the young emperor was probably the worst of the line of Theodosius vindictive, incapable and faithless to a wife who seems to have loved him only too well the marriage however marked the high watermark of the prosperity of Theodosius II and also the culminating point of the influence of Polkaria there were always men who challenged her primacy in her brother's regard but soon after 436 we begin to hear more and more of the eunuch Grand Chamberlain Chrysaphias it was perhaps by his machinations that Eudocia was separated from her husband it is certain that Polkaria's hold on her brother was becoming relaxed the last ten years of the reign of Theodosius II during which the ambitious eunuch was steadily becoming supreme were dark and disastrous an expedition against the vandals now firmly established in Africa under their great king Geiseric ended in ignominious failure and in 441 Attila king of the Huns first into the Illyrian provinces he stormed every fortress along the Danube but one and for several years worked his will in the Balkan peninsula three Roman armies perished in Thrace and Misia 70 cities were stormed and ruined negotiations were opened with the victorious barbarian in 443 but they soon fell through and Attila practically master of the waste that had been eastern Illyricum might have looked forward to the sack of Constantinople in 447 came the final blow at the end of January an earthquake occurred in eastern Europe and Asia Minor many cities suffered severely great part of Constantinople was ruined and nearly the whole of the landward wall 57 towers was overthrown the danger was appalling the Huns were in Thrace the loss of Constantinople would mean the end of all things for the empire but the wild energy of the people saved the state every craftsman in Constantinople was set to labor on the fortifications the city deems supplied 16,000 people bodied citizens as laborers in 60 days the wall of Anthemius was repaired and defensible and a second rampart under construction in front of it the city could not be easily taken now even if the defenders had been less numerous and desperate Attila was not destined to enter either old or new Rome but though Constantinople was saved Theodosius and his ministers could not save themselves from the necessity of ratifying humiliating terms of peace Attila was to retain the southern bank of the Danube the Hunnish prisoners and deserters were to be sent back Roman captives to be ransomed at 12 pounds of gold ahead 6,000 pounds of gold were to be paid at once and an annual subsidy of 2,100 pounds a great empire could hardly have descended to lower depths of ignominy matters were little better at home the eunuch Chrysaphius was all powerful at court Pulcheria had long been growing more and more helpless and probably in 447 she withdrew into private life Arcadia had died in 444 in 449 Marina followed her and during the last year of his life the emperor was alone divorced from his wife estranged from the sister who had sacrificed her best years for him far distant from his daughter in the west now religious strife was added to his troubles it had been in 431 necessary to hold a synod to deal with the heterodox patriarch Nestorius now in 449 the monophysite heresy of Eutyches which maintained the existence of a single nature only in the personality of our savior raised its head Chrysaphius was the god son of Eutyches and the synod held at Ephesus when choir into the question was packed with monophysites who maltreated Flavian patriarch of Constantinople and finally carried their point by sheer force Leo the famous pope of Rome whose legate Hilarius barely escaped with his life aptly termed the meeting the synod of robbers but Theodosius confirmed its decision and swain it was well that the domination of the evil eunuch was drawing to a close in July 450 Theodosius while following the chase was thrown from his horse and so terribly injured that he was carried back only to die as he lay in agony his thoughts turned from the fawning eunuch who had been his evil genius to one who his reign had been ever at his side who to serve him had foregone her hopes of motherhood he sent for Pulcheria and when she came to the imperial chamber where the angel of death waited the dying emperor made his peace with the sister who had served him so faithfully and solemnly commended her to the senate as his successor a female ruler was an unheard of thing she was a woman annals Pulcheria chose as her colleague a tried soldier and administrator the patrician Marchianus whom on August 24th 450 she solemnly married the marriage was but a formal one both bride and bridegroom were past middle life Pulcheria would hardly break her vow the nuptial ceremony was the sign of the comradeship of these unborn characters in their appointed task of reviving the apparently moribund empire their first act was to repudiate the disgraceful treaty with the Huns it was a bold act but it met with the success which sometimes waits on the brave chrissapheus was summarily put to death every effort was made to heal the schism in the church eutyches was degraded and in 451 a general council was held at calcedon by which the monophysite heresy was solemnly condemned the Huns made an inroad into the empire in 451 which was repelled with ease it was probably only subsidiary to the gigantic invasion of the west which Attila carried out in this year and which aeches general and patrician and theodoric king of the visigoths turned back on the catalonian plane in 452 an alliance was affected with the western empire and next year Attila's last invasion in which he desolated northern italy was finally checked by aeches by the intercession of pope leo as legend declares by the aid of the reinforcements Marchianus had sent to the west as it appears in the sober light of history if he really had Rome at his mercy as we are required to believe leo could never have saved it no one would rob the noble bishop of his glory but aeches and marchianus must receive their due pulcheria died on september 11 453 marchianus survived her for a little more than three years busy until the last in the work of reorganization on the murder of the wretched valentinean the third in 455 he became the legal head of the entire empire but he was too wise to assume direct control over the ruinous west he accepted as colleague avatis who on the murder of maximus the successor of valentinean referred to the imperial diadem by the army and the visigoths in gall he made efforts to re-people the Balkan provinces by settling colonies of brave barbarians hostile in feeling to the Huns in the devastated lands along the danube after the sack of Rome by geyseric in 455 he sent in succession two embassies to carthage to procure the release of the unhappy empress judosia and her daughters both failed in their object and marchianus was preparing for war when he died in january 457 he is said to have been poisoned by aspar but he had certainly been in failing health for some time previous to his death be this as it may aspar undoubtedly did make a serious effort to play the part in the east which rissamer was acting in the west his arian tenets made it somewhat difficult for him to seize the crown possibly he lacked the requisite resolution and unscrupulousness but his control over the army rendered him for the time all-powerful and he procured the election as emperor of leo the thracian a man of considerable capacity but the head of his own household the new emperor however showed himself possessed of independence and firmness and manifested no signs of subordinating his policy to the ideas or ambitions of aspar he drew closer to the anti-tutonic party in the empire he married his daughter eryadny to zeno the asaurian one of its leading members and set himself quietly to reorganize the army by enlisting many new regiments from among the native populations in 463 zeno was created magister militum per orientem and the control of one of the strongest armies of the empire was thus in the hands of a faithful friend still leo showed no unkindness or ingratitude to aspar he made his son rather unwillingly and tardily it is true caesar and the allen general continued to be the foremost figure in constantanople where he lived in great state for many years but leo steadily abstained from permitting him any great military command in 467 the emperor who had in 462 succeeded in obtaining the release by caesaric of the unhappy empress judocia and her younger daughter placidia sent a great expedition against the vandals it totaled about 100,000 men of all kinds and 1,113 vessels the total of the actual landing force may have been about 30,000 it was a far larger force than that which 66 years later was to conquer the vandals but leo's distrust of aspar induced him to give the command to basiliscus the incompetent brother of his wife verena the expedition was completely defeated and its huge cost crippled imperial finances for a generation in 471 aspar met his end it is probable that he had been plotting against the emperor for leo would hardly have proceeded to extremities without good reason though it is true that the cause of his action may simply have been that these allen soldiers were dangerous subjects at any rate aspar and his son the caesar were executed perhaps we should say assassinated two younger sons of the general were spared leo's action was politically justifiable he certainly showed no unnecessary lust of blood but it cost him much of his popularity in the capital where men called him in consequence mcellus butcher in the same year we hear of a victory of the roman army in pontes probably over a hannish host which had come round by the eastern shore of the uksin the rest of leo's reign appears to have passed in comparative peace his financial administration was directed to relieving as far as possible the burdens of the taxpayers and on the occasion of a severe shock of earthquake at antioch he was quick to extend aid his military measures have been noticed he has remained the cause of orthodoxy in the church and for this reason presumably obtained the undeserved title of great from his ecclesiastical panagyrists he died in 474 age 63 leaving an empire decidedly improved in condition and prospects to his infant grandson leo the second the son of zeno the asaurian it was clear that the imperatorship of leo the second was but nominal with zeno and ariadne all real authority was certain to rest the child was induced to formally abdicate in favor of his father which probably was what the late emperor expected though he does not seem to have cared to offend his wife verena and her brother basiliskus formally naming the asaurian his successor verena in 475 raised a revolt in the capital and set up basiliskus as emperor zeno was forced to fly with his wife and his mother lalas to asauria after a time the tide turned in his favor and in 477 he was able to defeat the rebels and re-enter his capital basiliskus and his family were emured in a capedotian fortress where they died of hunger and cold and zeno got rid of other dangerous persons by assassination the last stronghold of the rebels long beleaguered was finally taken in 484 for the greater part of his reign zeno was troubled by the ostrogoths zeno took the great gothic chief theodoric afterwards king of italy into his service but in 479 he resolved to be no longer a traitor to his countrymen and united their scattered bands against the empire in 483 zeno conciliated him by conferring on him the title of magister militum just as arcadeus had tried to kill him but he soon broke out again into hostility and in 487 marched on constantinople he met with no success however and in 488 zeno got rid of him by making him a grant of italy the series of ephemeral rulers in the west had ended in italy with the deposition of romulus agustus in 476 the barbarian magister militum declined to accept zeno's suggestion that julius neppus of dalmatia should be emperor of the west he formally acknowledged zeno as supreme emperor and sent him the regalia from revena but proclaimed himself king in italy zeno had therefore a legitimate casus beli according to roman ideas and he now by this clever move theoretically brought the west again under his direct rule and freed balkania from the germans theodor defeated and murdered adavacar and ruled italy and western alliricum for 33 years actually he was independent in theory he was the roman patrician governing the prefecture of italy in the name of the empire zeno's last years were passed in peace he was never popular he was regarded like the rest of his countrymen as no better than a barbarian footnote his true esaurian name was terasicordica that of his father rossambulotus and the footnote and the favor which he showed them had aspirated the pampered constant and nopolitans his financial policy was not successful but we must remember that he had the goths on his hands though no doubt his lavishness to the esaurians increased his difficulties he was not a favorite with the orthodox church party owing to his efforts to conciliate the Nestorians and monophysites the real work of his reign in which he was entirely successful was the formation of a native army he died in 491 his children had all pre-deceased him and the supreme power devolved on his widow ariadne on april 11th the empress chose as her colleague flavius anesthesius of dirachium one of the silenciaries a guard of nobles which formed the emperor's personal escort and six months later formally espoused him personal liking may have had something to do with what appears to have been an unexpected choice anesthesius a man of handsome presence even in age with brilliant unlike eyes may have attracted the notice of the empress but he was otherwise well fitted to wear the crown ariadne's choice offended the asaurian entourage of the late emperor headed by his brother longinus and the magister militum perilliricum of the same name they raised a revolt in the capital which was only suppressed after severe fighting the brother of zeno was taken and taunchered but the magister militum escaped to asauria and called his wild countrymen to arms they advanced 100,000 strong on the capital but were defeated at cotillium in frigia in 493 the asaurian fortress of claudiopolis was stormed in 494 the rebels were badly beaten close by but it was not until 496 that the revolt finally suppressed though it had long ceased to be formidable in 493 the slavs made an inroad into Thrace and in 499 and again in 502 the bulgarians also invaded the empire to protect the suburban districts of the capital anesthesias in 512 drew a wall across the thracian peninsula 30 miles from constantanople disturbances on the syrian frontier in 498 were successfully put down and the commercial entrepot of jataba in the red sea which had been lost in the reign of leo the first was recovered in 502 after a piece of 80 years war once more broke out with persia the empire had been for many years involved in troubles with a central asiatic horde known as the heithel or ephthalite huns they were at present more or less quiescent and the activity of anesthesias on his eastern frontier alarmed king cobad in 502 the persians captured martyropolis and theodogiopolis and next year amida also the roman troops had become unused to regular warfare owing to their guerrilla experiences in isauria and seemed unable at first to cope with the persians a victory which they gained at nisibis was offset by two persian successes but in 504 the main persian force under its king was beaten at edesa and the roman army recovered amida and ravaged the persian border districts meanwhile the huns invaded persia and thereupon cobad made peace restoring his trifling conquests three years later anesthesias built a strong fortress city on the site of dara a mesopotamian village it was only a few miles from the persian frontier stronghold of nisibis which it was calculated to watch and constituted a continual eyesore to the persians anesthesias though at the outset of his reign he had been popular soon lost favour with the population of the capital his care for the finances caused him to be accused of miserliness while his religious sympathies were thus exposing him to the often openly expressed dislike of the city factions his religious heterodoxy probably had something to do with the rebellion of count vitallion a grandson of aspar which broke out in 514 vitallion inflicted a great defeat on the imperial forces at odesis in thres and the emperor now in extreme old age tried to conciliate him by creating him magister militum perthratius in 515 vitallion was outside the capital but his fleet was beaten off chrysopolis and he retreated to the danube a raid of huns in the same year into asia minor did some damage but had no permanent results anesthesias died in 518 at the age of 88 after a reign of over 27 years his financial policy had been highly beneficial he reformed the curial system and the taxes were henceforth farmed by imperial officials thus guarding against the defrauding of the treasury by curials and provincial governors in collusion while the interests of the taxpayers were protected by the formation of a new body of officials called defensores given that the latter did their work honestly the system was not a bad one it was certainly less harsh and unjust than the curial order of things anesthesias sternly checked the peculation rife among the civil officials and so has been misrepresented by at least one of them who wrote in later years and like most officials whatever their department or degree wrote rather as an official than a patriot but his greatest reform was the abolition of the Crisargiran which was hailed with universal joy the emperor expended large sums in public works but despite all these expenses and the cost of the wars which troubled his reign he left a treasury reserve of 320,000 pounds of gold about 14 million pounds sterling an army in which the native element decidedly outbalanced the foreign mercenaries and the empire in better order on the whole than it had been for a century and more anesthesias left no children but had two nephews Hypatius and Pompeius they were men of little merit Hypatius was discredited in the public eye by his bad conduct at Odessus where he had been defeated by Vitalian Emancius a eunuch of the court and the steps designed to place one of them on the throne and approached Justinus a brave but illiterate veteran who commanded the imperial guard he placed in his hands a large sum with which to bribe the officers under his command Justinus used the money to secure his own elevation and when he came forward he was accepted willingly by senate and army he reigned for nine peaceful years in the whole in the steps of anesthesias except in religious matters in spite of his want of instruction he was certainly no non-entity his nephew Justinian was his colleague during the greater part of his reign but it was not until after the old emperor's death that he broached his schemes of conquest Vitalian was conciliated and made consul but died soon after assassinated so the gossips of Constantinople insisted by Justinian the latter was consul in 521 and entertained the population of the capital with magnificent shows and games thence forth he was practically his uncle's colleague Justinian, the son of Justin's deceased brother Sabatius was a staid personage of over 30 much given to deep study one of those men whom the present age dubs old fashioned nobody, people said could ever recollect him being young his natural abilities were not probably above the ordinary but his powers of application were considerable and he was a tireless worker his attainments in law were unquestionably very great and he had considerable aptitude for theology he had the ability to form great and far-reaching designs and the perseverance necessary to carry them out he had no military knowledge in consequence his vast plans were often very badly executed and he seems to have lacked the discrimination of character which is absolutely necessary for the complete mental equipment of a despotic monarch he was soon to amaze people by committing the very last action which would have been expected of him in 526 it was brooded abroad in Constantinople that the grave serious old young Caesar the student and thinker whose knowledge was so tremendous that according to the ignorant dwellers in the poorer quarters he was often seen walking about without his head was in love with the beautiful dancer Theodora whose reputation was really too dreadful for words the theatrical profession at this day has not the best of reputations with certain classes but it is savoury compared with that which it bore in the Roman Empire in the year 526 it is possible today for an actress to escape the imputation of having at some time or other slipped in the mire of immorality but under the pagan Roman Empire actresses were either slaves or prostitutes or both and whether they were invariably the latter under Christian rule or not they were usually so regarded the delight of scandal mongers when the news of Justinian's love affair spread abroad may be imagined the love affair it certainly was what other reason for such an occurrence can there be if the Caesar needed a beautiful partner he could take his choice of hundreds of lovely candidates with advantages of birth and breeding which Theodora cannot have had she was probably poor her profession was regarded as disgraceful Justinian knew that he must meet condemnation on every hand that he could not even legally marry her he was certainly not too old to know deep and passionate love it may very well be to the writer it appears so that his passion for Theodora was the single powerful human emotion that ever affected his peculiar coldly intellectual temperament Theodora was the daughter of Acacius an attendant of the hippodrome at Constantinople and her first public appearance is said to have been after the death of her father when she and her two sisters wandered round the arena begging the charity of the spectators thereafter she had become a public dancer and as dancers did and do doubtless often performed in scanty attire quite possibly she did not escape the contagion of immorality Procopius probably lies in his bitter secret history but there must have been some foundation for his tales which rests on a very slender basis effect in 526 she was a young widow with one or two little children short of stature slight and delicate of appearance pale faced but superlatively lovely with wonderful expressive eyes Justinian announced to his uncle and mother his intention of wedding Theodora they bitterly opposed him the old emperor threatened to disown him but the stubborn Caesar to whom love had come so late remained steadfast and at last prevailed Theodora's personality would seem to have completed the victory for she was ennobled by having the title of patrician conferred upon her a strange step for the old emperor to take unless he had convinced himself that she was not the foul creature that she was represented to be it would have been so easy to have solved the difficulty by quietly executing a woman who was little more than a slave that it is difficult to believe that Justinian's mother at least was not convinced of her comparative innocence at all events the deed was done Justinian took to wife the dancing girl of the circus and ear-long had every reason to be thankful in April 527 he was proclaimed Augustus thereby formally becoming his uncle's colleague and in August the aged Justinus passed away End of section 3