 CHAPTER XVI. Although the policy of Diocletian and the humanity of Constantius incline them to preserve, in volat the maximums of toleration, it was soon discovered that their two associates, Maximian and Galerius, entertained the most implacable adversion for the name and religion of the Christians. The minds of those princes had never been enlightened by science, education had never softened their temper. They owed their greatness to their swords, and in their most elevated fortune they still retained the superstitious prejudices of soldiers and peasants. In the general administration of the provinces they obeyed the laws which their benefactor had established, but they frequently found occasions of exercising within their camp and palaces a secret persecution for which their imprudent zeal of the Christians sometimes offered the most spacious pretenses. A sentence of death was executed upon Maximilianus and African youth who had been produced by his own father before the magistrate as a sufficient and legal recruit, but who obstantly persisted in declaring that his conscience would not permit him to embrace the profession of a soldier. It could scarcely be expected that any government should suffer the action of Marcellus, the Centurion, to pass with impunity. On the day of a public festival, that officer threw away his belt, his arms, and the insigns of his office, and exclaimed with a loud voice that he would obey none but Jesus Christ, the Eternal King, and that he renounced forever the use of carnal weapons and the service of an idolatrous master. The soldiers, as soon as they had recovered from their astonishment, secured the person of Marcellus. He was examined in the city of Tinghi by the president of that part of Mauritania, and as he was convicted by his own confession he was condemned and beheaded for the crime of desertion. Officials of such nature savor much less of religious persecution than of Marcell or even civil law, but they served to alienate the mind of the emperors to justify the severity of Galerius, who dismissed a great number of Christian officers from their employments, and to authorize the opinion that a sect of enthusiasts which avowed principles so repugnant to the public safety must either remain useless or would soon become dangerous subjects of the empire. After the success of the Persian war had raised the hopes and reputation of Galerius, he passed a winter with Diocletian in the palace of Nicomedia, and the fate of Christianity became the object of their secret consultations. The experienced emperor was still inclined to pursue measures of leniency, and though he readily consented to exclude the Christians from holding any employments in the household or the army, he urged in the strongest terms the danger as well as cruelty of shedding the blood of those deluded fanatics. Galerius at length extorted from him the permission of summoning a council composed of a few persons the most distinguished in the civil and military departments of the state. The important question was agitated in their presence, and those ambitious courtiers easily discerned that it was incumbent on them to, second by their eloquence, the important violence of the Caesar. It may be presumed that they insisted on every topic which might interest the pride, the piety, or the fears of their sovereign in the destruction of Christianity. Perhaps they represented that the glorious work of the deliverance of the empire was left imperfect as long as an independent people was permitted to subsist and multiply in the heart of the provinces. The Christians, it might especially be alleged, renouncing the gods and the institutions of Rome had constituted a distinct republic, which might yet be suppressed before it had acquired any military force, but which was already governed by its own laws and magistrates, was possessed of a public treasure, and was intimately connected in all parts by the frequent assemblies of the bishops to whose decrees their numerous and opulent congregations yielded an implicit obedience. Arguments like these may seem to have determined the reluctant mind of Diocletian to embrace a new system of persecution, but though we may suspect it is not in our power to relate the secret intrigues of the palace, the private views and resentments, the jealousy of women or eunuchs, and all those trifling but decisive causes which so often influenced the fate of empires and the councils of the wisest monarchs. The pleasure of the emperors was at length signified to the Christians who, during the course of this melancholy winter, had expected with anxiety the result of so many secret consultations. The 23rd of February, which coincided with the Roman festival of Terminalia, was appointed whether from accident or design to set bounds to the progress of Christianity. At the earliest dawn of day, the Praetorian Prefect, accompanied by several generals, tribunes and officers of the Revenue, repaired to the principal church of Nicomedia, which was situated on an eminence in the most populous and beautiful part of the city. The doors were instantly broke open, they rushed into the sanctuary, and as they searched in vain for some visible object of worship they were obliged to content themselves with committing to the flames the volumes of the Holy Scripture. The ministers of Diocletian were followed by a numerous body of guards and pioneers who marched in order of battle, and were provided with all the instruments used in the destruction of fortified cities. By their incessant labor, a sacred edifice which towered above the imperial palace, and had long excited the indignation and envy of the Gentiles, was in a few hours leveled with the ground. The next day the general edict of persecution was published, and though Diocletian still adverse to the effusion of blood had moderated the fury of Galerius, who proposed that everyone refusing to offer sacrifice should immediately be burnt alive, the penalties inflicted on the obstinacy of the Christians might be deemed sufficiently rigorous and effectual. It was enacted that their churches in all the provenances of the empire should be demolished to their foundations, and the punishment of death was denounced against all who should presume to hold any secret assemblies for the purpose of religious worship. The philosophers, who now assume the unworthy office of directing the blind zeal of persecution had diligently studied the nature and genius of the Christian religion, and as they were not ignorant that the speculative doctrines of the faith were supposed to be contained in the writings of the prophets, of the evangelists, and of the apostles. They most probable suggested the order that the bishops and presperters should deliver all their sacred books into the hands of the magistrates, who were commanded under the severest penalties to burn them in a public and solemn manner. By the same edict the property of the church was at once confiscated, and the several parts by which it might consist were either sold to the highest bidder, united to the imperial dormane, bestowed on the cities and corporations, or granted to the solicitations of raptious courtiers. After taking such effectual measures to abolish the worship and to dissolve the government of the Christians, it was thought necessary to subject to the most intolerable hardships the condition of those perverse individuals who should still reject the religion of nature, of Rome, and of their ancestors. Persons of a liberal birth were declared incapable of holding any honors or employments. Slaves were forever deprived of the hopes of freedom, and the whole body of the people were put out of the protection of the law. The judges were authorized to hear, and to determine every action that was brought against the Christian. But the Christians were not permitted to complain of any injury which they themselves had suffered. And thus, those unfortunate sectaries were exposed to the severity, while they were excluded from the benefits of public justice. This new species of martyrdom, so painful and lingering, so obscure and ignominious, was perhaps the most proper to weary the constancy of the faithful. Nor can it be doubted that the passions and interests of mankind were disposed on this occasion to second the designs of the emperors. But that policy of a well-ordered government must sometimes have interposed in behalf of the oppressed Christians. Or was it possible for the Roman princes entirely to remove the apprehension of punishment? Or to connive at every act of fraud and violence without exposing their own authority and the rest of their subjects to the most alarming dangers? This edict was scarcely exhibited to public view in the most conspicuous place of Nicodemia, before it was torn down by the hands of a Christian who expressed at the same time by the bidrous invectives his contempt as well as abhorrence for such impious and tyrannical governors. His offence, according to the mildest laws, amounted to treason and deserved death. And if it be true that he was a person of rank in education, those circumstances could serve only to aggravate his guilt. He was burnt, or rather roasted, by a slow fire, and his executioners zealous to revenge the personal insult which had been offered to the emperors exhausted every refinement of cruelty without being able to subdue his patience or to alter the steady and insulting smile which in his dying agonies he still preserved in his countenance. The Christians, though they confessed that his conduct had not been strictly conformable to the laws of prudence, admired the divine fervor of his zeal, and the excessive commendations which they lavished on the memory of their hero and martyr contributed to fix a deep impression of terror and hatred in the mind of Diocletian. His fears were soon alarmed by the view of a danger from which he very narrowly escaped. Within fifteen days the palace of Nicodemia and even the bed-chamber of Diocletian were twice in flames, and though both times they were extinguished without any material damage, the singular repetition of the fire was justly considered as an evident proof that it had not been the effect of chance or negligence. The suspicion naturally fell on the Christians, and it was suggested with some degree of probability that those desperate fanatics provoked by their present sufferings and apprehensive of impending calamities had entered into a conspiracy with their faithful brethren, the eunuchs of the palace, against the lives of the two emperors whom they detested as the irreconcilable enemies of the Church of God. Jealousy and resentment prevailed in every breast, but especially in that of Diocletian. A great number of persons distinguished either by the offices which they had filled or by the favor which they had enjoyed were thrown into prison. Every mode of torture was put into practice, and the court, as well as the city, was polluted with many bloody executions. But as it was found impossible to extort any discovery of this mysterious transaction, it seems incumbent on us either to presume the innocence or to admire the resolution of the sufferers. A few days afterwards Galerius hastily withdrew himself from Nicomedia, declaring that if he delayed his departure from that devoted palace he should fall a sacrifice to the rage of the Christians, the ecclesiastical historians from whom alone we derive a partial and imperfect knowledge of this persecution, are at a loss how to account for the fears and dangers of the emperors. Two of these writers, a prince and a returician, were eyewitnesses of the fire of Nicomedia. The one ascribes it to lightning, and the divine wrath. The other affirms that it was kindled by the malice of Galerius himself. As the edict against the Christians was designed for a general law of the whole empire, and as Diocletian and Galerius, though they might not wait for the consent, were assured of the concurrence of the Western princes, it would appear more consonant with our ideas of policy that the governors of all the provinces should have received secret instructions to publish on one and the same day this declaration of war within their respective departments. It was at least to be expected that the convenience of the public highways and established posts would have enabled the emperors to transmit their orders with the utmost dispatch from the palace of Nicomedia to the extremities of the Roman world, and that they would not have suffered fifty days to elapse before the edict was published in Syria, and near four months before it was signified to the cities of Africa. This delay may perhaps be imputed to the cautious temper of Diocletian, who had yielded a reluctant consent to the measures of persecution, and who was desirous of trying the experiment under his more immediate eye before he gave way to the disorders and discontent, which it must inevitably occasion in the distant providences. At first indeed the magistrates were restrained from the effusion of blood, but the use of every other severity was permitted, and even recommended to their zeal, nor could the Christians, though they cheerfully resigned the ornaments of their churches, resolve to interrupt their religious assemblies or to deliver their sacred books to the flames. The pious obstancy of Felix, an African bishop, appears to have embarrassed the subordinate ministers of the government. The curator of his city sent him in chains to the procouncil. The procouncil transmitted him to the Proterian prefect of Italy, and Felix, who disdained even to give an evasive answer, was at length beheaded at Venusia in Luscania, a place on which the birth of Horus was conferred fame. This precedent, and perhaps some imperial or rescript, was issued in consequence of it, appeared to authorize the governors of provinces in punishing with death the refusal of Christians to deliver up their sacred books. There were undoubtedly many persons who embraced this opportunity of obtaining the crown of martyrdom, but there were likewise too many who purchased an ignominious life by discovering and betraying the Holy Scripture into the hands of infidels. A great number, even of bishops and presbyters, acquired by this criminal compliance the propitious epithet of traditors, and their offense was productive of much present scandal and of much future discord in the African Church. The copies, as well as the versions of Scripture, were already so multiplied in the empire that the most severe inquisition could no longer be attended with any fatal consequences, and even the sacrifice of those volumes, which in every congregation were preserved for public use, required the consent of some treacherous and unworthy Christians. But the ruin of the churches was easily affected by the authority of the government, and by the labor of the pagans. In some provinces, however, the magistrates contented themselves with shutting up the places of religious worship. In others, they more literally complied with the terms of the edict, and after taking away the doors, the benches, and the pulpit, which they burnt, as if it were a funeral pile, they completely demolished the remainder of the edifice. It is perhaps to this melancholy occasion that we should apply a very remarkable story which is related with so many circumstances of variety and improbability, that it serves rather to excite than satisfy our curiosity. In a small town in Fagria, of whose names, as well as situation, we are left ignorant. It should seem that the magistrates and the body of the people had embraced the Christian faith, and as some resistance might be apprehended to the execution of the edict, the governor of the province was supported by numerous detachment of legionnaires. On their approach the citizens threw themselves into the church, with the resolution either of defending by arms that sacred edifice, or of perishing in its ruins. They indignantly rejected the notice and permission which was given them to retire, till the soldiers, provoked by their obstinate refusal, set fire to the building on all sides, and consumed, by this extraordinary kind of marchardom, a great number of Fygians, with their wives and children. Some slight disturbances, though they were suppressed, almost as soon as excited, in Syria and the frontiers of Armenia, afforded the enemies of the church a very plausible occasion to insinuate that those troubles had been secretly formatted by the intrigues of the bishops, who had already forgotten their ostinacious professions of passive and unlimited obedience. The resentment, or the fears, of Diocletian at length transported him beyond the bounds of moderation, which he had hitherto preserved, and he declared, in a series of cruel edicts, his intention of abolishing the Christian name. By the first of these edicts the governors of the provinces were directed to apprehend all persons of the ecclesiastical order, and their prisons, destined for the vilest criminals, were soon filled with a multitude of bishops, presbyters, deacons, readers, and exorcists. By a second edict the magistrates were commanded to employ every method of severity which might reclaim them from their odious superstition, and oblige them to return to the established worship of the gods. This rigorous order was extended by a subsequent edict to the whole body of Christians, who were exposed to a violent and general persecution. Instead of those salutary restraints which had required the direct and solemn testimony of an accuser, it became the duty, as well as the interest of the imperial officers, to discover, to pursue, and to torment the most obnoxious among the faithful. Heavy penalties were denounced against all who should presume to save a prescribed secretary from the just indignation of the gods and the emperors. Yet notwithstanding the severity of this law, the virtuous courage of many of the pagans in concealing their friends or relations, affords an honourable proof that the rage of superstition had not extinguished in their minds the sentiments of nature and humanity. End of Chapter 16 Conduct Toward the Christians, Part 6 Chapter 16, Part 7 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 2 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Chapter 16 Conduct Toward the Christians, From Nero to Constantine, Part 7 Diocletian had no sooner published his edicts against the Christians than, as if he had been desirous of committing to other hands the work of persecution, he divested himself of the imperial purple. The character and situation of his colleagues and successors sometimes urged them to enforce and sometimes inclined them to suspend the execution of these rigorous laws. Nor can we acquire a just and distinct idea of this important period of ecclesiastical history unless we separately consider the state of Christianity in the different parts of the empire during the space of ten years which elapsed between the first edicts of Diocletian and the final piece of the church. The mild and humane temper of Constantius was averse to the oppression of any part of his subjects. The principal offices of his palace were exercised by Christians. He loved their persons, esteemed their fidelity, and entertained not any dislike to their religious principles. But as long as Constantius remained in a subordinate station of Caesar it was not in his power openly to reject the edicts of Diocletian or to disobey the commands of Maximian. His authority contributed, however, to alleviate the sufferings which he pitted and abhorred. He consented with reluctance to the ruin of the churches, but he ventured to protect the Christians themselves from the fury of the populace and from the rigor of the laws. The provinces of Gaul, under which we may probably include those of Britain, were indebted for the singular tranquillity which they enjoyed to the gentle interposition of their sovereign. But Dashianus, the president or governor of Spain, actuated either by zeal or policy, chose rather to execute the public edicts of the emperors than to understand the secret intention of Constantius, and it can scarcely be doubted that his provincial administration was stained with the blood of a few martyrs. The elevation of Constantius to the supreme and independent dignity of Augustus gave a free scope to the exercise of his virtues, and the shortness of his reign did not prevent him from establishing a system of toleration, of which he left the precept and the example to his son, Constantine. His fortunate son, from the first moment of his accession, declaring himself the protector of the church, at length deserved the appellation of the first emperor who publicly professed and established the Christian religion. The motives of his conversion, as they may variously be deduced from benevolence, from policy, from conviction, or from remorse, and the progress of the revolution, which under his powerful influence and that of his sons, rendered Christianity the reigning religion of the Roman Empire, will form a very interesting and important chapter in the present volume of this history. At present it may be sufficient to observe that every victory of Constantine was productive of some relief or benefit to the church. The provinces of Italy and Africa experienced a short but violent persecution. The rigorous edicts of dilution were strictly and cheerfully executed by his associate Maximian, who had long hated the Christians, and who delighted in acts of blood and violence. In the autumn of the first year of the persecution, the two emperors met at Rome to celebrate their triumph. Several oppressive laws appear to have issued from their secret consultations, and the diligence of the magistrates was animated by the presence of their sovereigns. After dilution had divested himself of the purple, Italy and Africa were administered under the name of Severus, and were exposed without defence to the implacable resentment of his master Galerius. Among the martyrs of Rome, Adorctus deserves the notice of posterity. He was of a noble family in Italy, and had raised himself, through the successive honours of the palace, to the important office of treasurer of the private Chimesnes. Adorctus is the more remarkable for being the only person of rank and distinction who appears to have suffered death during the whole course of this general persecution. The revolt of Maccentius immediately restored peace to the churches of Italy and Africa, and the same tyrant who oppressed every other class of his subjects showed himself just, humane, and even partial towards the afflicted Christians. He depended on their gratitude and affection, and very naturally presumed that the injuries which they had suffered and the dangers which they still apprehended from his most inveterate army would secure the fidelity of a party already considerable by their numbers and opulence. Even the conduct of Maccentius towards the bishops of Rome and Carthage may be considered as the proof of his toleration, since it is probable that the most orthodox princes would adopt the same measures with regard to their established clergy. Marcellus, the former of these prelates, had thrown the capital into confusion by the severe penance which he imposed on a great number of Christians, who, during the late persecution, had renounced or dissembled their religion. The rage of faction broke out in frequent and violent seditions. The blood of the faithful was shed by each other's hands, and the exile of Marcellus, whose prudence seems to have been less eminent than his zeal, was found to be the only measure capable of restoring peace to the distracted church of Rome. The behaviour of Mensurius, bishop of Carthage, appears to have been still more reprehensible. A deacon of that city had published a libel against the emperor. The offender took refuge in the Episcopal palace, and though it was somewhat early to advance any claims of ecclesiastical immunities, the bishop refused to deliver him up to the offices of justice. For this reasonable resistance Mensurius was summoned to God, and instead of receiving a legal sentence of death or banishment, he was permitted, after a short examination, to return to his diocese. Such was the happy condition of the Christian subject of Maccentius, that whenever they were desirous of procuring for their own use any bodies of martyrs, they were obliged to purchase them from the most distant provinces of the East. A story as related of Agli, a Roman lady, descended from a consular family, and possessed of so ample an estate, that it required the management of seventy-three stewards. Among these Boniface was the favourite of his mistress, and as Agli mixed love with devotion, it is reported that he was admitted to share her bed. Her fortune enabled her to gratify the pious desire of obtaining some sacred relics from the East. She entrusted Boniface with a considerable sum of gold, and a large quantity of aromatics, and her lover, attended by twelve horsemen and three covered chariots, undertook a remote pilgrimage, as far as Tarsus in Sicilia. The sanguinary temper of Galerius, the first and principal author of the persecution, was formidable to those Christians whom their misfortunes had placed within the limits of his dominions, and it may fairly be presumed that many persons of a middle rank who were not confined by the chains either of wealth or of poverty, very frequently deserted their native country, and sought a refuge in the milder climate of the West. As long as he commanded only the armies and provinces of Illyricum, he could with difficulty either find or make a considerable number of martyrs in a war-like country, which had entertained the missionaries of the gospel with more coldness and reluctance than any other part of the empire. But when Galerius had obtained the supreme power, and the government of the East, he indulged in their fullest extent, his zeal and cruelty, not only in the provinces of Thrace and Asia, which acknowledged his immediate jurisdiction, but in those of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, where Maximon gratified his own inclination by yielding a rigorous obedience to the stern commands of his benefactor. The frequent disappointments of his ambitious views, the experience of six years of persecution, and the salutary reflections which are lingering and painful this temper suggested to the mind of Galerius, at length convinced him that the most violent efforts of despotism are insufficient to extopate a whole people, or to subdue their religious prejudices. Desirous of repairing the mischief that he had occasioned, he published in his own name, and in those of Licenius and Constantine, a general edict, which, after a pompous recital of the imperial titles, proceeded in the following manner. Among the important cares which have occupied our mind for the utility and preservation of the empire, it was our intention to correct and re-establish all things according to the ancient laws and public discipline of the Romans. We were particularly desirous of reclaiming into the way of reason and nature the deluded Christians who had renounced the religion and ceremonies instituted by their fathers, and presumptuously despising the practice of antiquity had invented extravagant laws and opinions according to the edicts of their fancy, and had collected a various society from the different provinces of our empire. The edicts, which we have published to enforce the worship of the gods, having exposed many of the Christians to danger and distress, many having suffered death, and many more who still persist in their impious folly, being left destitute of any public exercise of religion, we are disposed to extend to those unhappy men the effects of our wanted clemency. We permit them therefore freely to profess their private opinions and to assemble in their conventicals without fear or molestation, provided always that they preserve a due respect to the established laws and government. By another script we shall signify our intentions to the judges and magistrates, and we hope that our indulgence will engage the Christians to offer up their prayers to the deity whom they adore, for our safety and prosperity for their own, and for that of the Republic. It is not usually in the language of edicts and manifestos that we should search for the real character or the secret motives of princes. But as these were the words of a dying emperor, his situation, perhaps, may be admitted as a pledge of his sincerity. When Galerius subscribed this edict of toleration, he was well assured that Lysinius would readily comply with the inclinations of his friend and benefactor, and that any measures in favour of the Christians would obtain the approbation of Constantine. But the emperor would not venture to insert in the preamble the name of Maximon, whose consent was of the greatest importance, and who succeeded a few days afterwards to the provinces of Asia. In the first six months, however, of his new reign, Maximon affected to adopt the prudent councils of his predecessor. And though he never condescended to secure the tranquility of the church by a public edict, Sabinas, his Praetorian prefect, addressed the circular letter to all governors and magistrates of the provinces, expatiating on the imperial clemency, acknowledging the invincible obstinacy of the Christians, and directing the officers of justice to cease their ineffectual prosecutions, and to connive at the secret assemblies of those enthusiasts. In consequence of these orders great numbers of Christians were released from prison or delivered from the mines. The confessors singing hymns of triumph returned into their own countries, and those who had yielded to the violence of the Tempest solicited with tears of repentance their readmission into the bosom of the church. But this treacherous calm was of short duration, nor could the Christians of the East place any confidence in the character of their sovereign. Cruelty and superstition were the ruling passions of the soul of Maximon. The former suggested the means, the latter pointed out the subjects of persecution. The emperor was devoted to the worship of the gods, to the study of magic, and to the belief of oracles. The prophets or philosophers whom he revered as the favourites of heaven were frequently raised to the government provinces, and admitted in his most secret councils. They easily convinced him that the Christians had been indebted for their victories to their regular discipline, and that the weakness of polytheism had principally flowed from a want of union and subordination among the ministers of religion. A system of government was therefore instituted, which was evidently copied from the policy of the church. In all the great cities of the empire, the temples were repaired and beautified by the order of Maximon, and the officiating priests of the various deities were subjected to the authority of a superior pontiff destined to oppose the bishop and to promote the cause of paganism. These pontiffs acknowledged, in their turn, the supreme jurisdiction of the metropolitan or high priests of the province, who acted as the immediate vicedurance of the emperor himself. A white robe was the ensign of their dignity, and these new prelates were carefully selected from the most noble and opulent families. By the influence of the magistrates and of the saccadotal order a great number of dutiful addresses were obtained, particularly from the cities of Nicomedia, Antioch and Tyre, which artfully represented the well-known intentions of the court, as the general sense of the people, solicited the emperor to consult the laws of justice, rather than the dictates of his clemency, expressed their apparence of the Christians, and humbly prayed that those impious sectaries might at least be excluded from the limits of their respective territories. The answer of Maximon to the address which he obtained from the citizens of Tyre is still extant. He praises their zeal and devotion in terms of the highest satisfaction, descents on the obstinate impiety of the Christians, and betrays by the readiness with which he consents to their banishment that he considered himself as receiving rather than as conferring an obligation. The priests, as well as the magistrates, were empowered to enforce the execution of his edicts, which were engraved on tables of brass, and though it was recommended to them to avoid the effusion of blood, the most cruel and ignominious punishments were inflicted on the refractory Christians. The Asiatic Christians had everything to dread from the severity of a bigoted monarch who prepared his measures of violence with such deliberate policy. But a few months had scarcely elapsed before the edicts published by the two Western emperors obliged Maximon to suspend the prosecution of his designs. The civil war which he so rashly undertook against Sly Senius employed all his attention, and the defeat and death of Maximon soon delivered the Church from the last and most implacable of her enemies. In this general view of the persecution, which was first authorised by the edicts of Diocletian, I have purposely refrained from describing the particular sufferings and deaths of the Christian martyrs. It would have been an easy task from the history of Eusebius, from the declarations of Lactantius, and from most ancient acts to collect a long series of horrid and disgustful pictures, and to fill many pages with racks and scourges, with iron hooks and red-hot beds, and with all the variety of tortures which fire and steal, savage beasts and more savage executioners could inflict upon the human body. These melancholy scenes might be enlivened by a crowd of visions and miracles destined either to delay the death, to celebrate the triumph, or to discover the relics of those canonised saints who suffered for the name of Christ. But I cannot determine what I ought to transcribe, till I am satisfied how much I ought to believe. The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius himself, indirectly confesses that he is related whatever might redound the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could tend to the disgrace of religion. Such an acknowledgement will naturally excite a suspicion that a writer who has so openly violated one of the fundamental laws of history has not paid a very strict regard to the observance of the other. And the suspicion will derive additional credit from the character of Eusebius, which was less tinctured with credulity and more practised in the arts of courts, than that of almost any of his contemporaries. On some particular occasions, when the magistrates were exasperated by some personal motives of interest or resentment, the rules of prudence, and perhaps of decency, to overturn the alters, to pour out imprecations against the emperors, or to strike the judge as he sat on his tribunal, it may be presumed that every mode of torture which cruelty could invent, or constancy could endure, was exhausted on those devoted victims. Two circumstances, however, have been unwarily mentioned, which insinuate that the general treatment of the Christians, who had been apprehended by the officers of justice, was less intolerable than it is usually imagined to have been. One, the confessors who were condemned to work in the minds were permitted by the humanity, or the negligence of their keepers, to build chapels, and freely to profess their religion in the midst of those dreary habitations. Two, the bishops were obliged to check and to censure the forward zeal of the Christians, who voluntarily threw themselves into the hands of the magistrates. Some of those were persons oppressed by poverty and debts, who blindly sought to terminate a miserable existence by glorious death. Others were allured by the hope that a short confinement would expiate the sins for whole life, and others again were actuated by the less honorable motive of deriving a plentiful subsistence, and perhaps a considerable profit from the arms which the charity of the faithful bestowed on the prisoners. After the church had triumphed over all her enemies, the interest, as well as vanity of the captives, prompted them to magnify the merit of their respective sufferings. A convenient distance of time or place gave an ample scope to the progress of fiction, and the frequent instances which might be alleged of Holy Martyrs, whose wounds had been instantly healed, whose strength had been renewed, and whose lost members had miraculously been restored, were extremely convenient for the purpose of removing every difficulty and of silencing every objection. The most extravagant legends, as they conduced to the honour of the church, were applauded by the credulous multitude, countenanced by the power of the clergy, and attested by the suspicious evidence of ecclesiastical history. End of Chapter 16 Part 7 Chapter 16 Part 8 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume 2 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 Corey Samuel Chapter 16 Conduct Towards the Christians From Nero to Constantine Part 8 The vague descriptions of exile and imprisonment of pain and torture are so easily exaggerated or softened by the pencil of an artful orator that we are naturally induced to inquire into a fact of a more distinct and stubborn kind. The number of persons who suffered death in consequence of the edicts published by Diocletian, his associates, and his successors. The recent legendaries record whole armies and cities who were at once swept away by the undistinguishing rage of persecution. The more ancient writers content themselves with pouring out a liberal effusion of loose and tragical invectives, without condescending to ascertain the precise number of those persons who were permitted to seal with their blood their belief of the gospel. From the history of Eusebius it may, however, be collected that only nine bishops were punished with death, and we are assured by his particular enumeration of the martyrs of Palestine that no more than ninety-two Christians were entitled to that honourable appellation. As we are unacquainted with the degree of Episcopal zeal and courage which prevailed at that time, it is not in our power to draw any useful inferences from the former of these facts, but the latter may serve to justify a very important and probable conclusion. According to the distribution of Roman provinces, Palestine may be considered as the sixteenth part of the Eastern Empire, and since there were some governors who from a real or affected clemency had preserved their hands unstained with the blood of the faithful, it is reasonable to believe that the country which had given birth to Christianity produced at least the sixteenth part of the martyrs who suffered death within the dominions of Galerius and Maximon. The whole might consequently amount to about fifteen hundred, a number which, if it is equally divided between the ten years of the persecution, will allow an annual consumption of one hundred and fifty martyrs. Allotting the same proportion to the provinces of Italy, Africa and perhaps Spain, where at the end of two or three years the rigor of the penal laws was either suspended or abolished, the multitude of Christians in a Roman Empire on whom a capital punishment was inflicted by a judicial sentence, will be reduced to somewhat less than two thousand persons. Since it cannot be doubted that the Christians were more numerous and their enemies more exasperated in the time of Diocletian than they had ever been in any former persecution, this probable and moderate computation may teach us to estimate the number of primitive saints and martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the important purpose of introducing Christianity into the world. We shall conclude this chapter by a melancholy truth which obtrudes itself on a reluctant mind that even admitting without hesitation or injury that all that history has recorded or devotion has feigned on the subject of martyrdoms it must still be acknowledged that the Christians in the course of their intestine dissensions have inflicted far greater severities on each other than they had experienced from the zeal of infidels. During the ages of ignorance which followed the subversion of the Roman Empire in the West the bishops of the imperial city extended their dominion over the lady as well as clergy of the Latin church. The fabric of superstition which they had erected and which might long have defied the feeble efforts of reason was at length assaulted by a crowd of daring fanatics who from the twelfth to the sixteenth century assumed the popular character of reformers. The Church of Rome defended by violence the empire which she had acquired by fraud. The system of peace and benevolence was soon disgraced by prescriptions, war, massacres and the institution of the Holy Office and as the reformers were animated by the love of civil as well as of religious freedom the Catholic princes connected their own interest with that of the clergy and enforced by fire and the sword the terrors of spiritual censures. In the Netherlands alone more than one hundred thousand of the subjects of Charles V were to have suffered by the hand of the executioner and this extraordinary number is attested by Grotius a man of genius and learning who preserved his moderation amid the fury of contending sects and who composed the annals of his own age and country at a time when the invention of printing had facilitated the means of intelligence and increased the danger of detection. If we are obliged to submit our belief to the authority of Grotius it must be allowed that the number of Protestants who were executed in a single province and a single reign far exceeded that of the primitive martyrs in the space of three centuries and of the Roman Empire. But if the improbability of the fact itself should prevail over the weight of evidence if Grotius should be convicted of exaggerating the merit and sufferings of the reformers we shall be naturally led to inquire what confidence can be placed in the doubtful and imperfect monuments of ancient credulity what degree of credit can be assigned to a courtly bishop and a passionate declaimer who under the protection of Constantine enjoy the exclusive privilege of recording the persecutions inflicted on the Christians by the vanquished rivals or disregarded predecessors of their gracious sovereign. End of chapter 16 part 8 This is a Librivox recording All Librivox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit Librivox.org Chapter 17 part 1 of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire The unfortunate Likinius was the last rival who opposed the greatness and the last captive who adorned the triumph of Constantine After a tranquil and prosperous reign the conqueror bequeathed to his family the inheritance of the Roman Empire a new capital, a new policy and a new religion and the innovations which he established have been embraced and consecrated by succeeding generations The age of the great Constantine and his sons is filled with important events but the historian must be oppressed by their number and variety unless he diligently separates from each other the scenes which are connected only by the order of time He will describe the political institutions that gave strength and stability to the empire before he proceeds to relate the wars and revolutions which hastened its decline He will adopt the division unknown to the ancients of civil and ecclesiastical affairs The victory of the Christians and their intestine discord will supply copious and distinct materials both for edification and for scandal After the defeat and abdication of Likinius his victorious rival proceeded to lay the foundations of a city destined to reign in future times the mistress of the east and to survive the empire and religion of Constantine The motives, whether of pride or of policy which first induced Diocletian to withdraw himself from the ancient seat of government had acquired additional weight by the example of his successors and the habits of forty years Rome was insensibly confounded with the dependent kingdoms which had once acknowledged her supremacy and the country of the Caesars was viewed with cold indifference by a martial prince born in the neighbourhood of the Danube educated in the courts and armies of Asia and invested with the purple by the legions of Britain The Italians who'd received Constantine as their deliverer submissively obeyed the edicts which he sometimes condescended to address to the senate and people of Rome who excelled and honoured with the presence of their new sovereign During the vigor of his age, Constantine according to the various exigencies of peace and war moved with slow dignity or with active diligence along the frontiers of his extensive dominions and was always prepared to take the field either against a foreign or a domestic enemy But as he gradually reached the summit of prosperity and the decline of life he began to meditate the design of fixing in a more permanent station the strength as well as majesty of the throne In the choice of an advantageous situation he preferred the confines of Europe and Asia to curb with a powerful arm the barbarians who dwelt between the Danube and the Taneis to watch with an eye of jealousy the conduct of the Persian monarch who indignantly supported the yoke of an ignominious treaty With these views, Diocletian had selected the residence of Nicomedia but the memory of Diocletian was justly abhorred by the protector of the church and Constantine was not insensible to the ambition of founding a city which might perpetuate the glory of his own name During the late operations of the war against Likinius he had sufficient opportunity to contemplate both as a soldier and as a statesman the incomparable position of Byzantium and to observe how strongly it was guarded by nature against a hostile attack whilst it was accessible on every side to the benefits of commercial intercourse Many ages before Constantine one of the most judicious historians of antiquity had described the advantages of a situation from whence a feeble colony of Greeks derived the command of the sea and the honours of a flourishing and independent republic If we survey Byzantium in the extent which it acquired with the august name of Constantineople the figure of the imperial city may be represented under that of an unequal triangle The obtuse point which advances towards the east and the shores of Asia meets and repels the waves of the Thracian Bosphorus The northern side of the city is bounded by the harbour and the southern is washed by the propontis or sea of Marmara The basis of the triangle is opposed to the west and terminates the continent of Europe but the admirable form and division of the circumjacent land and water cannot, without a more ample explanation be clearly or sufficiently understood The winding channel through which the waters of the Uxone flow with a rapid and incessant course towards the Mediterranean received the appellation of Bosphorus a name not less celebrated in the history A crowd of temples and of votive altars profusely scattered along its steep and woody banks attested the unskillfulness, the terrors and the devotion of the Grecian navigators who, after the example of the Argonauts explored the dangers of the inhospitable Uxone On these banks tradition long preserved the memory of the palace of Phineus infested by the obscene harpies and of the silvan reign of Amicus who defied the son of Lida to the combat of the Cestus The straits of the Bosphorus are terminated by the Cyenean rocks which, according to the description of the poets had once floated on the face of the waters and were destined by the gods to protect the entrance of the Uxone against the eye of profane curiosity From the Cyenean rocks to the point and harbour of Byzantium the winding length of the Bosphorus extends about 16 miles and its most ordinary breadth may be computed at about one mile and a half The new castles of Europe and Asia are constructed on either continent upon the foundations of two celebrated temples of Serapis and of Jupiter Urius The old castles, a work of the Greek emperors command the narrowest part of the channel in a place where the opposite banks advance within 500 paces of each other These fortresses were destroyed and strengthened by Mohammed II when he meditated the siege of Constantinople But the Turkish conqueror was most probably ignorant that near 2,000 years before his reign the continents had been joined by a bridge of boats At a small distance from the old castles we discover the little town of Chrysopolis which may almost be considered as the Asiatic suburb of Constantinople The Bosphorus, as it begins to open into the Propontis passes between Byzantium and Calcedon The latter of those cities was built by the Greeks a few years before the former and the blindness of its founders who overlooked the superior advantages of the opposite coast has been stigmatized by a proverbial expression of contempt The harbour of Constantinople which may be considered as an arm of the Bosphorus obtained in a very remote period the denomination of the Golden Horn The curve which it describes might be compared to the horn of a stag or as it should seem with more propriety to that of an ox The epithet of golden was expressive of the riches which every wind wafted from the most distant countries into the secure and capacious port of Constantinople The river Lycus formed by the conflicts of two little streams pours into the harbour a perpetual supply of fresh water which serves to cleanse the bottom and to invite the periodical shoals of fish to seek their retreat in that convenient recess As the vicissitudes of tides are scarcely felt in those seas the constant depth of the harbour allows goods to be landed on the keys without the assistance of boats and it has been observed that in many places the largest vessels may rest their prowls against the houses while their sterns are floating in the water From the mouth of the Lycus to that of the harbour this arm of the Bosphorus is more than 7 miles in length The entrance is about 500 yards broad and a strong chain could be occasionally drawn across it to guard the port and city from the attack of a hostile navy Between the Bosphorus and the Helispont the shores of Europe and Asia receding on either side enclose the sea of Marmara which was known to the ancients by the denomination of Propontis The navigation from the issue of the Bosphorus to the entrance of the Helispont is about 120 miles Those who steer their westward course through the middle of the Propontis can at once describe the high lands of Thrace and Bithynia a never-lose sight of the lofty summit of Mount Olympus covered with eternal snows They leave on the left a deep gulf at the bottom of which Nicomedia was seated the imperial residence of Diocletian and they pass the small islands of Kidzikus and Proconesus before they cast anchor at Gallipoli where the sea, which separates Asia from Europe is again contracted into a narrow channel The geographers who, with the most skillful accuracy have surveyed the form and extent of the Helispont assign about 60 miles for the winding course and about 3 miles for the ordinary breath of those celebrated straits but the narrowest part of the channel is found to the northward of the old Turkish castles between the cities of Cestus and Ibydus It was here that the adventurously ander braved the passage of the flood for the possession of his mistress It was here likewise in a place where the distance between the opposite banks cannot exceed 500 paces that Xerxes imposed a stupendous bridge of boats for the purpose of transporting into Europe 170 myriads of barbarians A sea contracted within such narrow limits may seem but ill to deserve the singular epithet of broad which Homer as well as Orpheus has frequently bestowed on the Helispont but our ideas of greatness are of a relative nature The traveller and especially the poet who sailed along the Helispont who pursued the windings of the stream and contemplated the rural scenery which appeared on every side to terminate the prospect insensibly lost the remembrance of the sea and his fancy painted those celebrated straits with all the attributes of a mighty river flowing with a swift current in the midst of a woody and inland country and at length through a wide mouth discharging itself into the Aegean or Archipelago Ancient Troy, seated on an eminence at the foot of Mount Ida overlooked the mouth of the Helispont which scarcely received an accession of waters from the tribute of those immortal rivulets the Cimois and Scamander The Grecian camp had stretched 12 miles along the shore from the Cighian to the Retian promontory and the flanks of the army were guarded by the bravest chiefs who fought under the banners of Agamemnon The first of those promontories was occupied by Achilles with his invincible murmidons and the Dauntless Ajax pitched his tents on the other After Ajax had fallen a sacrifice to his disappointed pride and to the ingratitude of the Greeks his sepulchre was erected on the ground where he had defended the navy against the rage of Jove and of Hector and the citizens of the rising town of Retium celebrated his memory with divine honours Before Constantine gave a just preference to the situation of Byzantium he had conceived the design of erecting the seat of empire on this celebrated spot from whence the Romans derived their fabulous origin The extensive plain which lies below ancient Troy towards the Retian promontory and the tomb of Ajax was first chosen for his new capital and though the undertaking was soon relinquished the stately remains of unfinished walls and towers attracted the notice of all who sailed through the straits of the helispont We are at present qualified to view the advantageous position of Constantinople which appears to have been formed by nature for the centre and capital of a great monarchy Situated in the 41st degree of latitude the imperial city commanded from her seven hills the opposite shores of Europe and Asia The climate was healthy and temperate the soil fertile the harbour secure and capacious and the approach on the side of the continent was of small extent and easy defence The Bosphorus and the helispont may be considered as the two gates of Constantinople and the prince who possessed those important passages could always shut them against a naval enemy and open them to the fleets of commerce The preservation of the eastern provinces may in some degree be ascribed to the policy of Constantine as the barbarians of the Eucsene who in preceding age had poured their armaments into the heart of the Mediterranean soon desisted from the exercise of piracy and despaired of forcing this insurmountable barrier When the gates of the helispont and Bosphorus were shut the capitals still enjoyed within their spacious enclosure every production which could supply the wants or gratify the luxury of its numerous inhabitants The sea coasts of Thrace and Bithynia which languish under the weight of Turkish oppression still exhibit a rich prospect of vineyards of gardens and plentiful harvests and the propontis has ever been renowned for an inexhaustible store of the most exquisite fish that are taken in their stated seasons without skill and almost without labour But when the passages of the Straits were thrown open for trade they alternately admitted the natural and artificial riches of the north and south of the Eucsene and of the Mediterranean The feud commodities were collected in the forests of Germany and Scythia and far as the sources of the Tanaeus and the Boristhenes whatsoever was manufactured by the skill of Europe or Asia the corn of Egypt and the gems and spices of the farthest India were brought by the varying winds into the port of Constantinople which for many ages attracted the commerce of the ancient world The prospect of beauty, of safety and of wealth united in a single spot was sufficient to justify the choice of Constantin but as some decent mixture of prodigy and fable has in every age been supposed to reflect to becoming majesty on the origins of great cities the emperor was desirous of ascribing his resolution not so much to the uncertain councils of human policy as to the infallible and eternal decrees of divine wisdom In one of his laws he has been careful to instruct posterity that in obedience to the commands of God he laid the everlasting foundations of Constantinople and though he has not condescended to relate in what manner the celestial inspiration was communicated to his mind the defect of his modest silence has been liberally supplied by the ingenuity of succeeding writers who describe the nocturnal vision which appeared to the fancy of Constantin as he slept within the walls of Byzantium The tutelaginus of the city, a venerable matron sinking under the weight of years and infirmities was suddenly transformed into a blooming maid whom his own hands adorned with all the symbols of imperial greatness The monarch awoke, interpreted the auspicious omen and obeyed without hesitation the will of heaven The day which gave birth to a city or colony was celebrated by the Romans with such ceremonies as had been ordained by generous superstition and though Constantin might omit some rites which savoured too strongly of their pagan origin yet he was anxious to leave a deep impression of hope and respect on the minds of the spectators On foot, with a lance in his hand the emperor himself led the solemn procession and directed the line which was traced as the boundary destined capital till the growing circumference was observed with astonishment by the assistants who at length ventured to observe that he had already exceeded the most ample measure of a great city I shall still advance, replied Constantin, till he the invisible guide who marches before me thinks proper to stop Without presuming to investigate the nature or motives of this extraordinary conductor we shall content ourselves with the more humble task of describing the extent and limits of Constantinople In the actual state of the city the palace and gardens of the Seraljo occupy the eastern promontory the first of the seven hills and cover about 150 acres of our own measure The seat of Turkish jealousy and despotism is erected on the foundations of a Grecian Republic but it may be supposed that the Byzantines were tempted by the convenience of the harbour and the habitations on that side beyond the modern limits of the Seraljo The new walls of Constantin stretch from the port to the propontis across the enlarge breadth of the triangle at the distance of 15 stadia from the ancient fortification and with the city of Byzantium they enclosed five of the seven hills which to the eyes of those who approached Constantinople appear to rise above each other in beautiful order About a century after the death of the founder the new buildings extending on one side up the harbour and on the other along the propontis already covered the narrow ridge of the sixth and the broad summit of the seventh hill The necessity of protecting those suburbs from the incessant inroads of the barbarians engaged the younger Theodosius to surround his capital with an adequate and permanent enclosure of walls From the eastern promontory to the Golden Gate the extreme length of Constantinople was about three Roman miles The circumference measured between ten and eleven and the surface might be computed as equal to about two thousand English acres It is impossible to justify the vain and credulous exaggerations of modern travellers who have sometimes stretched the limits of Constantinople over the adjacent villages of the European and even of the Asiatic coast But the suburbs of Perra and Galata in no situate beyond the harbour may deserve to be considered as part of the city and this addition may perhaps authorise the measure of a Byzantine historian who assigned sixteen Greek, about fourteen Roman miles for the circumference of his native city Such an extent may not seem unworthy of an imperial residence Yet Constantinople must yield to Babylon and Thebes to ancient Rome, to London and even to Paris End of Chapter 17 Part 1 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Chapter 17 Part 2 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire The master of the Roman world who aspired to erect an eternal monument of the glories of his reign could employ in the prosecution of that great work the wealth, the labour and all that yet remained of the genius of obedient millions Some estimate may be formed of the expense bestowed with imperial liberality on the foundation of Constantinople by the allowance of about two millions five hundred thousand pounds for the construction of the walls the porticoes and the aqueducts The forests that overshadowed the shores the eucsine and the celebrated quarries of white marble in the little island of Proconesus supplied an inexhaustible supply of materials ready to be conveyed by the convenience of a short water carriage to the harbour of Byzantium A multitude of labourers and artifices urged the conclusion of the work with incessant toil but the impatience of Constantine soon discovered that in the Decline of the Arts the skill as well as the numbers of architects bought a very unequal proportion to the greatness of his designs The magistrates of the most distant provinces were therefore directed to institute schools to appoint professors and by the hopes of rewards and privileges to engage in the study and practice of architecture a sufficient number of ingenious youths who had received a liberal education The buildings of the new city were executed by such artificers as the reign of Constantine and the Faud but they were decorated by the hands of the most celebrated masters of the age of Pericles and Alexander To revive the genius of Phidias and Lycipus surpassed indeed the power of a Roman emperor but the immortal productions which they had bequeathed to posterity were exposed without defence to the rapacious vanity of a despot By his commands the cities of Greece and Asia were despoiled of their most valuable ornaments The trophies of memorable wars, the objects of religious veneration, the most finished statues of the gods and heroes, of the sages and poets of ancient times contributed to the splendid triumph of Constantinople, and gave occasion to the remark of the historian Cedrinus, who observes, with some enthusiasm, that nothing seemed wanting except the souls of the illustrious men whom these admirable monuments were intended to represent. But it is not in the city of Constantin, nor in the declining period of an empire, when the human mind was depressed by civil and religious slavery, that we should seek for the souls of Homer and of Demosthenes. During the siege of Byzantium, the conqueror had pitched his tent on the commanding eminence of the second hill. To perpetuate the memory of his success, he chose the same advantageous position for the principal forum, which appears to have been of a circular or rather elliptical form. The two opposite entrances formed triumphal arches. The porticoes, which enclosed it on every side, were filled with statues, and the centre of the forum was occupied by a lofty column on which a mutilated fragment is now degraded by the appellation of the burnt pillar. This column was erected on a pedestal of white marble twenty feet high, and was composed of ten pieces of porphyry, each of which measured about ten feet in height and about thirty-three in circumference. On the summit of the pillar, above one hundred and twenty feet from the ground, stood the colossal statue of Apollo. It was a bronze, had been transported either from Athens or from a town of Frigia, and was supposed to be the work of Phidias. The artist had represented the god of day, or as it was afterwards interpreted, the emperor Constantine himself, with a scepter in his right hand, the globe of the world in his left, and a crown of rays glittering on his head. The circus or hippodrome was a stately building about four hundred paces in length and one hundred in breadth. The space between the two metae, or goals, were filled with statues and obelisks, and we may still remark a very singular fragment of antiquity, the bodies of three serpents twisted into one pillar of brass. Their triple heads had once supported the golden tripod, which, after the defeat of Xerxes, was consecrated in the temple of Delphi by the victorious Greeks. The beauty of the hippodrome has been long since defaced by the rude hands of the Turkish conquerors, but under the similar appellation of Atme'dan it still serves as a place of exercise for their horses. From the throne, once the emperor viewed the Serkentian games, a winding staircase descended to the palace, a magnificent edifice which scarcely yielded to the residents of Rome itself, and which, together with the dependent courts, gardens and porticoes, covered a considerable extent of ground upon the banks of the propontus between the hippodrome and the church of Santa Sophia. We might likewise celebrate the baths, which still retained the name of Sucsippus after they had been enriched by the munificence of Constantine with lofty columns, various marbles, and above three score statues of bronze, but which deviate from the design of this history if we attempted minutely to describe the different buildings or quarters of the city. It may be sufficient to observe that whatever could adorn the dignity of a great capital, or contribute to the benefit or pleasure of its numerous inhabitants was contained within the walls of Constantineople. A particular description composed about a century after its foundation enumerates a capital or school of learning, a circus, two theatres, eight public and 153 private baths, 52 porticoes, five granaries, eight equiducts or reservoirs of water, four spacious halls for the meetings of the Senate or courts of justice, 14 churches, 14 palaces and 4,388 houses, which for their size or beauty deserve to be distinguished from the multitude of plebeian inhabitants. The populousness of his favoured city was the next and most serious object of the attention of its founder. In the Dark Ages which succeeded the translation of the empire, the remote and the immediate consequences of that memorable event were strangely confounded by the vanity of the Greeks and the credulity of the Latins. It was asserted and believed that all the noble families of Rome, the Senate and the equestrian order with their enumerable attendants had followed their emperor to the banks of the Pontus, that a spurious race of strangers and plebeians was left to possess the solitude of the ancient capital, and that the lands of Italy, long since converted into gardens, were at once deprived of cultivation and inhabitants. In the course of this history such exaggerations will be reduced to their just value, yet since the growth of Constantinople cannot be ascribed to the general increase of mankind and of industry, it must be admitted that this artificial colony was raised at the expense of the ancient cities of the empire. Many opulent senators of Rome and of the eastern provinces were probably invited by Constantinople to adopt for their country the fortunate spot which he had chosen for his own residence. The invitations of a master are scarcely to be distinguished from commands, and the liberality of the emperor obtained a ready and cheerful obedience. He bestowed on his favourites the palaces which he had built in the several quarters of the city, assigned them lands and pensions for the support of their dignity, and alienated the demeans of Pontus and Asia to grant her redditary estates by the easy tenure of maintaining a house in the capital. But these encouragements and obligations soon became superfluous and were gradually abolished. Wherever the seat of government is fixed, a considerable part of the public revenue will be expended by the prince himself, by his ministers, by the officers of justice and by the domestics of the palace. The most wealthy of the provincials will be attracted by the powerful motives of interest and duty of amusement and curiosity. A third and more numerous class of inhabitants will insensibly be formed of servants of artificers and of merchants who derive their subsistence from their own labour and from the wants or luxury of the superior ranks. In less than a century Constantinople disputed with Rome itself the preeminence of riches and numbers. New piles of buildings crowded together with too little regard to health or convenience scarcely allowed the intervals of narrow streets for the perpetual throng of men of horses and of carriages. The allotted space of ground was insufficient to contain the increasing people and the additional foundations which on either side were advanced into the sea might alone have composed a very considerable city. The frequent and regular distributions of wine and oil, of corn or bread, of money or provisions, had almost exempted the poorest citizens of Rome from the necessity of labour. The magnificence of the first Caesars was in some measure imitated by the founder of Constantinople, but his liberality, however it might excite the applause of the people, has incurred the censure of posterity. A nation of legislators and conquerors might assert their claim to the harvests of Africa which had been purchased with their blood, and it was artfully contrived by Augustus that in the enjoyment of plenty the Romans should lose the memory of freedom. But the prodigality of Constantine could not be excused by any consideration either of public or of private interest, and the annual tribute of corn imposed upon Egypt for the benefit of his new capital was applied to feed a lazy and insolent populace at the expense of the husbandmen of an industrious province. Some other regulations of this emperor are less liable to blame, but they are less deserving of notice. He divided Constantinople into 14 regions or quarters, dignified the public council with the appellation of Senate, communicated to the citizens the privileges of Italy, and bestowed on the rising city the title of Colony, the first and most favoured daughter of ancient Rome. The venerable parent still maintained the legal and acknowledged supremacy which was due to her age, her dignity, and to the remembrance of her former greatness. As Constantine urged the progress of the work with the impatience of a lover, the walls, the porticoes, and the principal edifices were completed in a few years or according to another account in a few months, but this extraordinary diligence should excite the less admiration since many of the buildings were finished in so hasty and imperfect a manner that under the succeeding reign they were preserved with difficulty from impending ruin. But while they displayed the vigour and freshness of youth, the founder prepared to celebrate the dedication of his city. The games and largesses which crowned the pomp of this memorable festival may easily be supposed, but there is one circumstance of a more singular and permanent nature which ought not entirely to be overlooked. As often as the birthday of the city returned, the statue of Constantine, framed by his order of gilt wood and bearing in his right hand a small image of the genius of the place, was erected on a triumphal car. The guards, carrying white tapers and clothed in their richest apparel, accompanied the solemn procession as it moved through the hippodrome. When it was opposite to the throne of the reigning emperor, he rose from his seat and with grateful reverence adored the memory of his predecessor. At the festival of the dedication, an edict engraved on a column of marble bestowed the title of second or new Rome on the city of Constantine, but the name of Constantinople has prevailed over that honourable epithet, and after the revolution of 14 centuries still perpetuates the fame of its author. The foundation of the new capital is naturally connected with the establishment of a new form of civil and military administration. The distinct view of the complicated system of policy, introduced by Diocletian, improved by Constantine and completed by his immediate successors, may not only amuse the fancy by the singular picture of a great empire, but will tend to illustrate the secret and internal causes of its rapid decay. In the pursuit of any remarkable institution, we may be frequently led into the more early or the more recent times of the Roman history, but the proper limits of this inquiry will be included within a period of about 130 years from the accession of Constantine to the publication of the Theodosian Code, from which, as well as from the Noticia of the East and West, we derive the most copious and authentic information of the state of the empire. This variety of objects will suspend for some time the course of the narrative, but the interruption will be censured only by those readers who are insensible to the importance of laws and manners, while they peruse with eager curiosity the transient intrigues of a court or the accidental event of a battle. End of Chapter 17 Part 2 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For further information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Chapter 17 Part 3 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon The manly pride of the Romans, content with substantial power, had left to the vanity of the East the forms and ceremonies of ostentatious greatness. But when they lost even the semblance of those virtues which were derived from their ancient freedom, the simplicity of Roman manners was insensibly corrupted by the stately affectation of the courts of Asia. The distinctions of personal merit and influence so conspicuous in a republic so feeble and obscure under a monarchy were abolished by the despotism of the emperors, who substituted in their room a severe subordination of rank and office from the title slaves who were seated on the steps of the throne to the meanest instruments of arbitrary power. This multitude of abject dependence was interested in the support of the actual government from the dread of a revolution which might at once confound their hopes and intercept the reward of their services. In this divine hierarchy, for such it is frequently styled, every rank was marked with the most scrupulous exactness and its dignity was displayed in a variety of trifling and solemn ceremonies which it was a study to learn and a sacrilege to neglect. The purity of the Latin language was debased by adopting in the intercourse of pride and flattery a profusion of epithets which Tully would scarcely have understood and which Augustus would have rejected with indignation. The principal officers of the empire were saluted even by the sovereign himself with the deceitful titles of your sincerity, your gravity, your excellency, your eminence, your sublime and wonderful magnitude, your illustrious and magnificent highness. The codicils or patents of their office were curiously emblazoned with such emblems as were best adapted to explain its nature and high dignity. The image or portrait of the reigning emperors, a triumphal car, the book of mandates placed on a table covered with a rich carpet and illuminated by four tapers, the allegorical figures of the provinces which they governed, or the appellations and standards of the troops whom they commanded. Some of these official ensigns were really exhibited in their hall of audience, others preceded their pompous march whenever they appeared in public, and every circumstance of their demeanour, their dress, their ornaments and their train was calculated to inspire a deep reverence for the representatives of supreme majesty. By a philosophic observer the system of the Roman government might have been mistaken for a splendid theatre filled with players of every character and degree who repeated the language and imitated the passions of their original model. All the magistrates of sufficient importance to find a place in the general state of the empire were accurately divided into three classes, one the illustrious, two the spectabilis or respectable, and three the clarissimi, whom we may translate by the word honourable. In the times of Roman simplicity the last mentioned epithet was used only as a vague expression of deference till it became at length the peculiar and appropriated title of all who were members of the senate and consequently of all who from that venerable body were selected to govern the provinces. The vanity of those who from their rank and office might claim a superior distinction above the rest of the senatorial order was long afterwards indulged with the new appellation of respectable, but the title of illustrious was always reserved to some eminent personages who were obeyed or reverenced by the two subordinate classes. It was communicated only one to the consuls and patricians, two to the praetorian prefects with the prefects of Rome and Constantinople, three to the masters general of the cavalry and the infantry, and four to the seven ministers of the palace who exercised their sacred functions about the person of the emperor. Among those illustrious magistrates who were esteemed coordinate with each other the seniority of appointment gave place to the union of dignities. By the expedient of honorary codicils the emperors who were fond of multiplying their favours might sometimes gratify the vanity though not the ambition of impatient courtiers. As long as the Roman consuls were the first magistrates of a free state they derived their right to power from the choice of the people. As long as the emperors condescended to disguise the servitude which they imposed the consuls were still elected by the real or apparent suffrage of the senate. From the reign of Diocletian even these vestiges of liberty were abolished and the successful candidates who were invested with the annual honours of the consulship affected to deplore the humiliating condition of their predecessors. The Scipios and the Catoes had been reduced to solicit the votes of plebeians to pass through the tedious and expensive forms of a popular election and to expose their dignity to the shame of a public refusal, while their own happier fate had reserved them for an age and government in which the rewards of virtue were assigned by the unerring wisdom of a gracious sovereign. In the epistles which the emperor addressed to the two consuls elect it was declared that they were created by his sole authority. Their names and portraits engraved on guilt tables of ivory were dispersed over the empire as presents to the provinces. The cities, the magistrates, the senate and the people. Their solemn inauguration was performed at the place of the imperial residence, and during a period of 120 years Rome was constantly deprived of the presence of her ancient magistrates. On the morning of the first of January the consuls assumed the ensigns of their dignity. Their dress was a robe of purple embroidered in silk and gold, and sometimes ornamented with costly gems. On this solemn occasion they were attended by the most eminent officers of the state and army in the habit of senators, and the useless faschies armed with the once formidable axes were borne before them by the lictors. The processions moved from the palace to the forum or principal square of the city where the consuls ascended their tribunal and seated themselves in the coral chairs, which were framed after the fashion of ancient times. They immediately exercised an act of jurisdiction by the manumission of a slave who was brought before them for that purpose, and the ceremony was intended to represent the celebrated action of the elder Brutus, the author of liberty and of the consulship, when he admitted amongst his fellow citizens the faithful Vindex, who had revealed the conspiracy of the Tarquins. The public festival was continued during several days in all the principal cities, in Rome from custom, in Constantinople from imitation, in Carthage, Antioch and Alexandria from the love of pleasure and the superfluity of wealth. In the two capitals of the empire, the annual games of the theatre, the circus and the amphitheatre cost £4,000 of gold, about £160,000 sterling, and if so heavy an expense surpassed the faculties or the inclinations of the magistrates themselves, the sum was supplied from the imperial treasury. As soon as the consuls had discharged these customary duties, they were at liberty to retire into the shade of private life and to enjoy during the remainder of the year the undisturbed contemplation of their own greatness. They no longer presided in the national councils, they no longer executed the resolutions of peace or war. Their abilities, unless they were employed in more effective offices, were of little moment, and their name served only as the legal date of the year in which they had filled the chair of Marius and of Cicero. Yet it was still felt and acknowledged in the last period of Roman servitude that this empty name might be compared and even preferred to the possession of substantial power. The title of consul was still the most splendid object of ambition, the noblest reward of virtue and loyalty. The emperors themselves, who disdained the faint shadow of the Republic, were conscious that they acquired an additional splendour and majesty, as often as they assumed the annual honours of the consular dignity. The proudest and most perfect separation which can be found in any age or country between the nobles and the people is perhaps that of the patricians and the plebeians as it was established in the first age of the Roman Republic. Wealth and honours, the offices of state and the ceremonies of religion were almost exclusively possessed by the former, who, preserving the purity of their blood with the most insult in jealousy, held their clients in a condition of specious facelage. But these distinctions, so incompatible with the spirit of a free people, were removed after a long struggle by the persevering efforts of the tribunes. The most active and successful of the plebeians accumulated wealth, aspired to honours, deserved triumphs, contracted alliances, and after some generations assumed the pride of ancient nobility. The patrician families, on the other hand, whose original number was never recruited to the end of the Commonwealth, either failed in the ordinary course of nature or were extinguished in so many foreign and domestic wars, or, through a want of merit or fortune, insensibly mingled with the mass of the people. Very few remained who could derive their pure and genuine origin from the infancy of the city, or even from that of the Republic, when Caesar and Augustus, Claudius and Vespasian, created from the body of the Senate a competent number of new patrician families, in the hope of perpetuating an order which was still considered as honorable and sacred. But these artificial supplies, in which the reigning house was always included, were rapidly swept away by the rage of tyrants, by frequent revolutions, by the change of manners, and by the intermixture of nations. Little more was left when Constantine ascended to the throne than a vague and imperfect tradition that the patricians had once been the first of the Romans. To form a body of nobles whose influence may restrain, while it secures the authority of the monarch, would have been very inconsistent with the character and policy of Constantine. But had he seriously entertained such a design, it might have exceeded the measure of his power to ratify, by an arbitrary edict, an institution which must expect the sanction of time and of opinion. He revived indeed the title of patricians, but he revived it as a personal, not as a hereditary distinction. They yielded only to the transient superiority of the annual consuls, but they enjoyed the pre-eminence over all the great officers of the state, with their most familiar access to the person of the prince. This honourable rank was bestowed on them for life, and as they were usually favourites and ministers who had grown old in the imperial court, the true etymology of the word was perverted by ignorance and flattery, and the patricians of Constantine were reverenced as the adopted fathers of the Emperor and the Republic. The fortunes of the Praetorian Prefects were essentially different from those of the consuls and patricians. The latter saw their ancient greatness evaporate in a vain title. The former, rising by degrees from the most humble condition, were invested with the civil and military administration of the Roman world. From the reign of Severus to that of Diocletian, the guards and the palace, the laws and the finances, the armies and the provinces, were entrusted to their superintendent care, and like the viziers of east, they held with one hand the seal, and with the other the standard of the Empire. The ambition of the Prefects, always formidable and sometimes fatal to the masters whom they served, was supported by the strength of the Praetorian bands. But after those 40 troops had been weakened by Diocletian and finally suppressed by Constantine, the Prefects, who survived their fall, were reduced without difficulty to the station of useful and obedient ministers. When they were no longer responsible for the safety of the emperor's person, they resigned the jurisdiction which they had hitherto claimed, and exercised over all the departments of the palace. They were deprived by Constantine of all military command, as soon as they had ceased to lead into the field under their immediate orders, the flower of the Roman troops, and at length, by a singular revolution, the captains of the guards were transformed into the civil magistrates of the provinces. According to the plan of government instituted by Diocletian, the four princes had each their Praetorian Prefect, and after the monarchy was once more united in the person of Constantine, he still continued to create the same number of four Prefects, and entrusted to their care the same provinces which they already administered. One, the Prefect of the East, stretched his ample jurisdiction into the three parts of the globe, which were subject to the Romans, from the cataracts of the Nile to the banks of the Farsis, and from the mountains of Thrace to the frontiers of Persia. Two, the important provinces of Pannonia, Dacia, Macedonia and Greece, all acknowledged the authority of the Prefect of Illyricum. Three, the power of the Prefect of Italy was not confined to the country from whence he derived his title. It extended over the additional territory of Rightia, as far as the banks of the Danube, over the dependent islands of the Mediterranean, and over that part of the continent of Africa, which lies between the confines of Cyrene and those of Tingitania. Four, the Prefect of the Gauls comprehended under that plural denomination the kindred provinces of Britain and Spain, and his authority was obeyed from the wall of Antoninus to the foot of Mount Atlas. After the Praetorian Prefects had been dismissed from all military command, the civil functions which they were ordained to exercise over so many subject nations were adequate to the ambition and abilities of the most consummate ministers. To their wisdom was committed the supreme administration of justice and of the finances, the two objects which, in a state of peace, comprehend almost all the respective duties of the sovereign and of the people, of the former to protect the citizens who are obedient to the laws of the latter to contribute the share of their property which is required for the expenses of the state. The coin, the highways, the posts, the granaries, the manufactures, whatever could interest the public prosperity was moderated by the authority of the Praetorian Prefects. As the immediate representatives of the Imperial Majesty, they were empowered to explain, to enforce, and on some occasions to modify, the general edicts by their discretionary proclamations. They watched over the conduct of the provincial governors, removed the negligent and inflicted punishments on the guilty. From all the inferior jurisdictions, an appeal in every matter of importance, either civil or criminal, might be brought before the tribunal of the Prefect, but his sentence was final and absolute, and the emperors themselves refused to admit any complaints against the judgment or the integrity of a magistrate whom they had honoured with such unbounded confidence. His appointments were suitable to his dignity, and if avarice was his ruling passion, he enjoyed frequent opportunities of collecting a rich harvest of fees, of presents, and of perquisites. Though the emperors no longer dreaded the ambition of their Prefects, they were attentive to counterbalance the power of this great office by the uncertainty and shortness of its duration. From their superior importance and dignity, Rome and Constantinople were alone accepted from the jurisdiction of the Praetorian Prefects. The immense size of the city and the experience of the tardy, ineffectual operation of the laws had furnished the policy of Augustus with a specious pretense for introducing a new magistrate who alone could restrain a servile and turbulent populace by the strong arm of arbitrary power. Valerius Masala was appointed the first Prefect of Rome, that his reputation might countenance so invidious a measure, but at the end of a few days that accomplished citizen resigned his office, declaring with a spirit worthy of the friend of Brutus that he found himself incapable of exercising a power incompatible with public freedom. As the sense of liberty became less exquisite, the advantages of order were more clearly understood, and the Prefect, who seemed to have been designed as a terror only to slaves and vagrants, was permitted to extend his civil and criminal jurisdiction over the equestrian and noble families of Rome. The Preeters, annually created as the judges of law and equity, could not long dispute the possession of the Forum with a vigorous and permanent magistrate who was usually admitted into the confidence of the Prince. Their courts were deserted, their number, which had once fluctuated between 12 and 18, was gradually reduced to two or three, and their important functions were confined to the expensive obligation of exhibiting games for the amusement of the people. After the office of the Roman consuls had been changed into a vain pageant, which was rarely displayed in the capital, the Prefects assumed their vacant place in the senate, and were soon acknowledged as the ordinary presidents of that venerable assembly. They received appeals from the distance of 100 miles, and it was allowed as a principle of jurisprudence that all municipal authority was derived from them alone. In the discharge of his laborious employment, the Governor of Rome was assisted by 15 officers, some of whom had been originally his equals, or even his superiors. The principal departments were relative to the command of a numerous watch established as a safeguard against fires, robberies and nocturnal disorders. The custody and distribution of the public allowance of corn and provisions, the care of the port, of the aqueducts, of the commonsuers, and of the navigation and bed of the Tiber, the inspection of the markets, the theatres, and of the private, as well as the public works. Their vigilance ensured the three principal objects of a regular police, safety, plenty and cleanliness, and as proof of the attention of government, reserved the splendour and ornaments of the capital. A particular inspector was appointed for the statues, the guardian as it were, of that inanimate people, which according to the extravagant computation of an old writer, was scarcely inferior in number to the living inhabitants of Rome. About 30 years after the foundation of Constantinople, a similar magistrate was created in that rising metropolis for the same uses and with the same powers. A perfect equality was established between the dignity of the two municipal and that of the four Praetorian prefects. End of Chapter 17 Part 3 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by