 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. Volume 4. Chapter 45. State of Italy under the Lombards. Part 2. Read by Claude Banta. The ambitious Rosamond aspired to reign in the name of her lover. The city and palace of Verona were awed by her power, and a faithful band of her native Gepidae was prepared to applaud the revenge and to second the wishes of their sovereign. But the Lombard chiefs, who fled in the first moments of consternation and disorder, had resumed their courage and collected their powers, and the nation, instead of submitting to her reign, demanded with unanimous cries that justice should be executed on the guilty spouse and the murderers of their king. She sought a refuge among the enemies of her country, and a criminal who deserved the abhorrence of mankind was protected by the selfish policy of the Exarch. With her daughter, the Harris of the Lombard throne, her two lovers, her trusty Gepidae, and the spoils of the palace of Verona, Rosamond descended the Adige and the Poe, and was transported by a Greek vessel to the safe harbor of Ravenna. Longinus beheld with delight the charms and the treasures of the widow of Alboen. Her situation and her past conduct might justify the most licentious proposals, and she readily listened to the passion of the minister, who even in the decline of the empire was respected as the equal of kings. The death of a jealous lover was an easy and grateful sacrifice, and, as Helmicus issued from the bath, he received the deadly potion from the hand of his mistress. The taste of the liquor, its speedy operation, and his experience of the character of Rosamond convinced him that he was poisoned. He pointed his dagger to her breast, compelled her to drain the remainder of the cup, and expired in a few minutes, with the consolation that she could not survive to enjoy the fruits of her wickedness. The daughter of Alboen and Rosamond, with the richest spoils of the Lombards, was embarked for Constantinople. The surprising strength of Peridus amused and terrified the imperial court. His blindness and revenge exhibited an imperfect copy of the adventures of Samson. By the free suffrage of the nation, in the assembly of Pavia, Clefo, one of their noblest chiefs, was elected as the successor of Alboen. Before the end of eighteen months, the throne was polluted by a second murder. Clefo was stabbed by the hand of a domestic. The regal office was suspended above ten years, during the minority of his son Otharis, and Italy was divided and oppressed by a Ducal aristocracy of thirty tyrants. When the nephew of Justinian ascended the throne, he proclaimed a new era of happiness and glory. The annals of the Second Justin are marked with disgrace abroad and misery at home. In the West, the Roman Empire was afflicted by the loss of Italy, the desolation of Africa, and the conquests of the Persians. Injustice prevailed both in the capital and the provinces. The rich trembled for their property, the poor for their safety, the ordinary magistrates were ignorant or venal, the occasional remedies appeared to have been arbitrary and violent, and the complaints of the people could no longer be silenced by the splendid names of a legislator and a conqueror. The opinion which imputes to the prince all the calamities of his times may be countenanced by the historian as a serious truth or a salutary prejudice. Yet a candid suspicion will arise that the sentiments of Justin were pure and benevolent, and that he might have filled his station without reproach if the faculties of his mind had not been impaired by disease, which deprived the emperor of the use of his feet and confined him to the palace, a stranger to the complaints of the people and the vices of the government. The tardy knowledge of his own impotence determined him to lay down the weight of the diadem, and in the choice of a worthy substitute he showed some symptoms of a discerning and even magnanimous spirit. The only son of Justin and Sophia died in his infancy. Their daughter Arabia was the wife of Baudaris, superintendent of the palace, and afterwards commander of the Italian armies who vainly aspired to confirm the rights of marriage by those of adoption. While the empire appeared an object of desire, Justin was accustomed to behold with jealousy and hatred his brothers and cousins, the rivals of his hopes, nor could he depend on the gratitude of those who would accept the purple as a restitution rather than a gift. Of these competitors one had been removed by exile and afterwards by death, and the emperor himself had inflicted such cruel insults on another that he must either dread his resentment or despise his patience. This domestic animosity was refined into a generous resolution of seeking a successor not in the family but in the republic, and the artful Sophia recommended Tiberius, his faithful captain of the guards whose virtues and fortune the emperor might cherish as the fruit of his judicious choice. The ceremony of his elevation to the rank of Caesar or Augustus was performed in the portico of the palace, in the presence of the patriarch and the senate. Justin collected the remaining strength of his mind and body, but the popular belief that his speech was inspired by the deity betrays a very humble opinion both of the man and of the times. You behold, said the emperor, the ensigns of supreme power, you are about to receive them, not from my hand but from the hand of God. Honor them and from them you will derive honor. Respect the empress, your mother, you are now her son, before you were her servant. Delight not in blood, abstain from revenge. Avoid those actions by which I have incurred the public hatred and consult the experience rather than the example of your predecessor. As a man I have sinned, as a sinner even in this life I have been severely punished, but these servants, and we pointed to his ministers, who have abused my confidence and inflamed my passions, will appear with me before the tribunal of Christ. I have been dazzled by the splendor of the diadem. Be thou wise and modest, remember what you have been, remember what you are. You see around us your slaves and your children. With the authority assume the tenderness of a parent. Love your people like yourself, cultivate the affections, maintain the discipline of the army, protect the fortunes of the rich, relieve the necessities of the poor. The assembly, in silence and in tears, applauded the councils and sympathized with the repentance of their prince, and the patriarch rehearsed the prayers of the church. Tiberius received the diadem on his knees, and Justin, who in his abdication appeared the most worthy terrain, addressed the new monarch in the following words. If you consent I live, if you command I die, may the God of heaven and earth infuse into your heart whatever I have neglected or forgotten. Before last years of the Emperor Justin were passed in tranquil obscurity, his conscience was no longer tormented by the remembrance of those duties which he was incapable of discharging, and his choice was justified by the filial reverence and gratitude of Tiberius. Among the virtues of Tiberius, his beauty, he was one of the tallest and most comely of the Romans, might introduce him to the favor of Sophia. And the widow of Justin was persuaded that she should preserve her station and influence under the reign of the second and more youthful husband. But if the ambitious candidate had been tempted to flatter and dissemble, it was no longer in his power to fulfill her expectations or his own promise. The factions of the Hippodrome demanded with some impatience the name of their new empress. Both the people and Sophia were astonished by the proclamation of Anastasia, the secret though lawful wife of the Emperor Tiberius. Whatever could alleviate the disappointment of Sophia, imperial honors, a stately palace, a numerous household, was liberally bestowed by the piety of her adopted son. On solemn occasions he attended and consulted the widow of his benefactor, but her ambition disdained the vain semblance of royalty and the respectful appellation of mother served to exasperate rather than appease the rage of an injured woman. While she accepted and repaid, with a courtly smile, the fair expressions of regard and confidence, a secret alliance was concluded between the Daugher Empress and her ancient enemies, and Justinian, the son of Germanus, was employed as the instrument of her revenge. The pride of the reigning house supported with reluctance the dominion of a stranger. The youth was deservedly popular, his name after the death of Justin had been mentioned by a tumultuous faction, and his own submissive offer of his head with a treasure of 60,000 pounds might be interpreted as an evidence of guilt or at least of fear. Justinian received a free pardon and the command of the Eastern Army. The Persian monarch fled before his arms, and the acclamations which accompanied his triumph declared him worthy of the purple. His artful patroness had chosen the month of the vintage, while the emperor, in a rural solitude, was permitted to enjoy the pleasures of a subject. On the first intelligence of her designs, he returned to Constantinople, and the conspiracy was suppressed by his presence and firmness. From the pomp and honors which she had abused, Sophia was reduced to a modest allowance. Tisberius dismissed her train, intercepted her correspondence, and committed to a faithful guard the custody of her person. But the services of Justinian were not considered by that excellent prince as an aggravation of his offences. After a mild reproof, his treason and ingratitude were forgiven, and it was commonly believed that the emperor entertained some thoughts of contracting a double alliance with the rival of his throne. The voice of an angel, such a fable was propagated, might reveal to the emperor that he should always triumph over his domestic foes, but Tisberius derived a firmer assurance from the innocence and generosity of his own mind. With the odious name of Tisberius, he assumed the more popular appellation of Constantin and imitated the pure virtues of the Antonines. After recording the vice or folly of so many Roman princes, it is pleasing to repose for a moment on a character conspicuous by the qualities of humanity, justice, temperance, and fortitude to contemplate a sovereign affable in his palace, pious in the church, impartial on the seat of judgment, and victorious at least by his generals in the Persian war. The most glorious trophy of his victory consisted of a multitude of captives, whom Tisberius entertained, redeemed, and dismissed to their native homes with the charitable spirit of a Christian hero. The merit or misfortunes of his own subjects had a dearer claim to his beneficence, and he measured his bounty not so much by their expectations as by his own dignity. This maxim, however dangerous in a trustee of the public wealth, was balanced by a principle of humanity and justice, which taught him to abhor, as of the basest alloy, the gold that was extracted from the tears of the people. For their relief, as often as they had suffered by natural or hostile calamities, he was impatient to remit the arrears of the past or the demands of future taxes. He sternly rejected the servile offerings of his ministers, which were compensated by tenfold depression, and the wise and equitable laws of Tisberius excited the praise and regret of succeeding times. Constantinople believed that the emperor had discovered a treasure, but his genuine treasure consisted in the practice of liberal economy and the contempt of all vain and superfluous expense. The Romans of the East would have been happy if the best gift of heaven, a patriot king, had been confirmed as a proper and permanent blessing. But in less than four years after the death of Justin, his worthy successor sunk into a mortal disease, which left him only sufficient time to restore the diadem according to the tenure by which he held it, to the most deserving of his fellow citizens. He selected Maurice from the crowd, a judgment more precious than the purple itself. The patriarch and senate were summoned to the bed of the dying prince. He bestowed his daughter and the empire, and his last advice was solemnly delivered by the voice of the quaester. Tisberius expressed his hope that the virtues of his son and successor would erect the noblest mausoleum to his memory. His memory was embalmed by the public affliction, but the most sincere grief evaporates in the tumult of a new reign. And the eyes and acclamations of mankind were speedily directed to the rising sun. The emperor Maurice derived his origin from ancient Rome, but his immediate parents were settled at Erebusis in Cappadocia, and their singular felicity preserved them alive to behold and partake the fortune of their august son. The youth of Maurice was spent in the profession of arms. Tisberius promoted him to the command of a new and favored legion of twelve thousand confederates. His valor and conduct were signalized in the Persian war, and he returned to Constantinople to accept, as his just reward, the inheritance of the empire. Maurice ascended the throne at the mature age of forty-three years, and he reigned above twenty years over the east and over himself, expelling from his mind the wild democracy of passions, and establishing, according to the quaint expression of Ivagrius, a perfect aristocracy of reason and virtue. Some suspicion will degrade the testimony of a subject, though he protests that his secret praise should never reach the ear of his sovereign, and some failings seem to place the character of Maurice below the pure merit of his predecessor. His cold and reserved demeanor might be imputed to arrogance. His justice was not always exempt from cruelty, nor his clemency from weakness, and his rigid economy too often exposed him to the reproach of avarice. But the rational wishes of an absolute monarch must tend to the happiness of his people. Maurice was endowed with sense and courage to promote that happiness, and his administration was directed by the principles and example of Tiberius. The pure salanimity of the Greeks had introduced so complete a separation between the offices of king and of general, that a private soldier, who had deserved and obtained the purple, seldom or never appeared at the head of his armies. Yet the emperor Maurice enjoyed the glory of restoring the Persian monarch to his throne, his lieutenants waged a doubtful war against the avars of the Danube, and he cast an eye of pity, of ineffectual pity, on the abject and distrustful state of his Italian provinces. From Italy the emperors were incessantly tormented by tales of misery and demands of sucker, which extorted the humiliating confession of their own weakness. The expiring dignity of Rome was only marked by the freedom and energy of her complaints. If you are incapable, she said, of delivering us from the sword of the Lombards, save us at least from the calamity of famine. Tiberius forgave the reproach and relieved the distress. A supply of corn was transported from Egypt to the Tiber, and the Roman people, invoking the name not of Camillus, but of St. Peter, repulsed the barbarians from their walls. But the relief was accidental, the danger was perpetual and pressing, and the clergy and senate, collecting the remains of their ancient opulence, a sum of 3,000 pounds of gold, despatched the patrician Pemphyrhinus to lay their gifts and their complaints at the foot of the Byzantine throne. The attention of the court and the forces of the east were diverted by the Persian war, but the justice of Tiberius applied the subsidy to the defense of the city, and he dismissed the patrician with his best advice, either to bribe the Lombard chiefs or to purchase the aid of the kings of France. Notwithstanding this weak invention, Italy was still afflicted, Rome was again besieged, and the suburb of Classe, only 3 miles from Ravenna, was pillaged and occupied by the troops of a simple Duke of Spoleto. Maurice gave audience to a second deputation of priests and senators. The duties and the menaces of religion were forcibly urged in the letters of the Roman Pontiff, and his Nuncio, the Deacon Gregory, was alike qualified to solicit the powers either of heaven or of the earth. The emperor adopted, with stronger effect, the measures of its predecessor. Some formidable chiefs were persuaded to embrace the friendship of the Romans, and one of them, a mild and faithful barbarian, lived and died in the service of the exarchs. The passes of the Alps were delivered to the Franks, and the Pope encouraged them to violate without scruple their oaths and engagements to the misbelievers. Schildebert, the great grandson of Clovis, was persuaded to invade Italy by the payment of 50,000 pieces, but as he had viewed with delight some Byzantine coin of the weight of one pound of gold, the king of Austrasia might stipulate that the gift should be rendered more worthy of his acceptance by a proper mixture of these respectable metals. The dukes of the Lombards had provoked by frequent inroads their powerful neighbors of Gaul. As soon as they were apprehensive of a just retaliation, they renounced their feeble and disorderly independence. The advantages of real government, union, secrecy, and vigor were unanimously confessed, and Otharis, the son of Clefo, had already attained the strength and reputation of a warrior. Under the standard of their new king, the conquerors of Italy withstood three successive invasions, one of which was led by Schildebert himself, the last of the Merovingian race who descended from the Alps. The first expedition was defeated by the jealous animosity of the Franks and Alamani. In the second, they were vanquished in a bloody battle, with more loss and dishonor than they had sustained since the foundation of their monarchy. Impatient for revenge, they returned a third time with accumulated force, and Otharis yielded to the fury of the torrent. The troops and treasures of the Lombards were distributed in the walled towns between the Alps and the Apennine. A nation less sensible of danger than of fatigue and delay soon murmured against the folly of their twenty commanders. And the hot vapors of an Italian son infected with disease, those tramontane bodies which had already suffered the vicissitudes of intemperance and famine. The powers that were inadequate to the conquest were more than sufficient for the desolation of the country, nor could the trembling natives distinguish between their enemies and their deliverers. If the junction of the Merovingian and imperial forces had been affected in the neighborhood of Milan, perhaps they might have subverted the throne of the Lombards. But the Franks expected six days the signal of a flaming village, and the arms of the Greeks were idly employed in the reduction of Modena and Parma, which were torn from them after the retreat of their trans-Alpine allies. The victorious Otharis asserted his claim to the Dominion of Italy. At the foot of the Ration Alps, he subdued the resistance and rifled the hidden treasures of a sequestered island in the Lake of Camun. At the extreme point of Calabria, he touched with his spear a column on the seashore of Regium, proclaiming that ancient landmark to stand the immovable boundary of his kingdom. During a period of 200 years, Italy was unequally divided between the Kingdom of the Lombards and the Exarte of Ravenna. The offices and professions, which the jealousy of Constantine had separated, were united by the indulgence of Justinian, and 18 successive exarchs were invested in the decline of the Empire with the full remains of civil, of military, and even of ecclesiastical power. Their immediate jurisdiction, which was afterwards consecrated as the patrimony of St. Peter, extended over the modern Romania, the marshes or valleys of Ferrara and Comancio, five maritime cities from Rimini to Ancona, and a second inland pentopolis between the Adriatic coast and the hills of the Apennine. Three subordinate provinces of Rome, of Venice, and of Naples, which were divided by hostile lands from the Palace of Ravenna, acknowledged both in peace and war the supremacy of the Exarch. The Duchy of Rome appears to have included the Tuscan, Sabine, and Latin conquests of the first 400 years of the city, and the limits may be distinctly traced along the coast, from Civitaveccia to Teresina, and with the course of the Tiber from Amaria and Narni to the port of Ostia. The numerous islands from Grotto Toshioza composed the infant dominion of Venice, but the more accessible towns on the continent were overthrown by the Lombards, who beheld with impotent fury a new capital rising from the waves. The power of the Dukes of Naples was circumscribed by the Baye and the adjacent Isles, by the hostile territory of Capua, and by the Roman colony of Amalfi, whose industrious citizens, by the invention of the Mariner's compass, have unveiled the face of the globe. The three islands of Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily still adhere to the empire, and the acquisition of the farther Calabria removed the landmark of Arthauris from the shore of Regium to the Isthmus of Consentia. In Sardinia the savage mountaineers preserved the liberty and religion of their ancestors, and the husbandmen of Sicily were chained to their rich and cultivated soil. Rome was oppressed by the iron scepter of the Exarchs, and a Greek, perhaps a eunuch, insulted with impunity the ruins of the capital. But Naples soon acquired the privilege of electing her own Dukes. The independence of Amalfi was the fruit of commerce, and the voluntary attachment of Venice was finally ennobled by an equal alliance with the Eastern Empire. On the map of Italy, the measure of the Exarte occupies a very inadequate space, but it included an ample proportion of wealth, industry, and population. The most faithful and valuable subjects escaped from the barbarian yoke, and the banners of Pavia and Verona, of Milan and Padua, were displayed in their respective quarters by the new inhabitants of Ravenna. The remainder of Italy was possessed by the Lombards, and from Pavia, the royal seat, their kingdom was extended to the East, the North, and the West, as far as the confines of the Avars, the Bavarians, and the Franks of Austria and Burgundy. In the language of modern geography it is now represented by the terra firma of the Venetian Republic, Triel, the Milanese, Piedmont, the coast of Genoa, Mantua, Parma, and Modena, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and a large portion of the ecclesiastical state from Perugia to the Adriatic. The Dukes, and at length the princes of Beneventum, survived the monarchy and propagated the name of the Lombards. From Capua to Tarentum, they reigned near 500 years over the greater part of the present kingdom of Naples. In comparing the proportion of the victorious and the vanquished people, the change of language will afford the most probable inference. According to this standard, it will appear that the Lombards of Italy and the Visigoths of Spain were less numerous than the Franks or Burgundians, and the conquerors of Gaul must yield in their turn to the multitude of Saxons and Angles who almost eradicated the idioms of Britain. The modern Italian has been insensibly formed by the mixture of nations. The awkwardness of the barbarians in the nice management of declensions and conjugations reduced them to the use of articles and auxiliary verbs, and many new ideas have been expressed by two tonic appellations. Yet the principal stock of technical and familiar words is found to be of Latin derivation. And if we were sufficiently conversant with the obsolete, the rustic, and the municipal dialects of ancient Italy, we should trace the origin of many terms which might perhaps be rejected by the classic purity of Rome. A numerous army constitutes but a small nation, and the powers of the Lombards were soon diminished by the retreat of 20,000 Saxons who scorned a dependent situation and returned after many bold and perilous adventures to their native country. The camp of Alboen was a formidable extent, but the extent of a camp would be easily circumscribed within the limits of a city, and its martial inhabitants must be thinly scattered over the face of a large country. When Alboen ascended from the Alps, he invested his nephew, the first Duke of Friuli, with the command of the province and the people. But the prudent Guisulf would have declined the dangerous office unless he had been permitted to choose, among the nobles of the Lombards, a sufficient number of families to form a perpetual colony of soldiers and subjects. In the progress of conquest the same option could not be granted to the dukes of Brescia or Bergamo, to Pavia or Turin, to Spoleto or Beneventum. But each of these, and each of their colleagues, settled in his appointed district with a band of followers who resorted to a standard in war and his tribunal in peace. Their attachment was free and honorable, resigning the gifts and benefits which they had accepted, they might emigrate with their families into the jurisdiction of another Duke. But their absence from the kingdom was punished with death, as a crime of military desertion. The posterity of the first conqueror struck a deeper root into the soil, which by every motive of interest and honor they were bound to defend. A Lombard was born the soldier of his king and his Duke. And the civil assemblies of the nation displayed the banners and assumed the appellation of a regular army. Of this army the pay and the rewards were drawn from the conquered provinces and the distribution which was not affected till after the death of Alboen is disgraced by the foul marks of injustice and repine. Many of the most wealthy Italians were slain or banished, the remainder were divided among the strangers and a tributary obligation was imposed under the name of hospitality of paying to the Lombards the third part of the fruits of the earth. Within less than 70 years this artificial system was abolished by a more simple and solid tenure. Either the Roman landlord was expelled by a strong and insolent guest or the annual payment a third of the produce was exchanged by a more equitable transaction for an adequate proportion of landed property. Under these foreign masters the business of agriculture in the cultivation of corn, wines and olives was exercised with degenerate skill and industry by the labor of the slaves and natives. But the occupation of a pastoral life were more pleasing to the idleness of the barbarian. In the rich meadows of Venetia they restored and improved the breed of horses for which that province had once been illustrious and the Italians beheld with astonishment a foreign race of oxen or buffaloes. The depopulation of Lombardy and the increase of forests afforded an ample range for the pleasures of the chase. That marvelous art which teaches the birds of the air to acknowledge the voice and execute the commands of their master had been unknown to the ingenuity of the Greeks and Romans. Scandinavia and Skithia produced the boldest and most tractable falcons. They were tamed and educated by the roving inhabitants always on horseback and in the field. This favored amusement of our ancestors was introduced by the barbarians into the Roman provinces. And the laws of Italy esteemed the sword and the hawk as of equal dignity and importance in the hands of a noble Lombard. End of Chapter 45, Part II Chapter 45, Part III of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume IV This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. So rapid was the influence of climate and example that the Lombards of the fourth generation surveyed with curiosity and a fright the portraits of their savage forefathers. Their heads were shaven behind, but the shaggy locks hung over their eyes and mouth and a long beard represented the name and character of the nation. Their dress consisted of loose linen garments after the fashion of the Anglo-Saxons which were decorated, in their opinion, with broad stripes of variegated colors. The legs and feet were clothed in long hose and open sandals and even in the security of peace a trusty sword was constantly girt to their side. Yet this strange apparel and horrid aspect often concealed a gentle and generous disposition and as soon as the rage of battle had subsided the captives and subjects were sometimes surprised by the humanity of the victor. The vices of the Lombards were the effect of passion, of ignorance, of intoxication. They were more laudable as they are not affected by the hypocrisy of social manners, nor imposed by the rigid constraint of laws and education. I should not be apprehensive of deviating from my subject if it were in my power to delineate the private life of the conquerors of Italy, and I shall relate with pleasure the adventurous gallantry of Autherus, which breathes the true spirit of chivalry and romance. After the loss of his promised bride, a Merovingian princess, the king of Bavaria, in Garibald, accepted the alliance of the Italian monarch. Inpatient of the slow progress of negotiation, the ardent lover escaped from his palace and visited the court of Bavaria in the train of his own embassy. At the public audience, the unknown stranger advanced to the throne and informed Garibald that the ambassador was indeed the minister of state, but that he alone was the friend of Autherus, who entrusted him with the delicate commission of his spouse. Thu Dylinda was summoned to undergo this important examination, and, after a pause of silent rapture, he hailed her as the queen of Italy and humbly requested that, according to the custom of the nation, she would present a cup of wine to the first of her new subjects. By the command of her father she obeyed. Autherus received the cup in his turn, and in restoring it to the princess he secretly touched her hand and drew his own finger over his face and lips. Thu Dylinda imparted to her nurse the indiscreet familiarity of the stranger and was comforted by the assurance that such boldness could proceed only from the king, her husband, who, by his beauty and courage, appeared worthy of her love. The ambassadors were dismissed. No sooner did they reach the confines of Italy that Autherus, raising himself on his oars, darted his battle-axe against a tree with incomparable strength and dexterity. Such, said he to the astonished Bavarians, such are the strokes of the king of the Lombards. On the approach of a French army, Garibald and his daughter took refuge in the dominions of their ally and the marriage was consummated in the palace of Verona. At the end of one year it was dissolved by the death of Autherus, but the virtues of Thu Dylinda had endeared her to the nation and she was permitted to bestow with her hand the scepter of the Italian kingdom. From this fact, as well as from similar events, it is certain that the Lombards possessed freedom to elect their sovereign and sense to decline the frequent use of that dangerous privilege. The public revenue arose from the produce of land and the profits of justice. When the independent dukes agreed that Autherus should ascend the throne of his father, they endowed the regal office with the fair moiety of their respective domains. The proudest nobles aspired to the honors of servitude near the person of their prince. He rewarded the fidelity of his vassals by the precarious gift of pensions and benefices and atoned for the injuries of war by the rich foundation of monasteries and churches. In peace a judge, a leader in war, he never usurped the powers of a sole and absolute legislator. The king of Italy convened the national assemblies in the palace or more probably in the fields of Pavia. His great council was composed of the persons most eminent by their birth and dignities, but the validity as well as the execution of their decrees depended on the approbation of the faithful people, the fortunate army of the Lombards. About four score years after the conquest of Italy, their traditional customs were transcribed into tonic Latin and ratified by the consent of the prince and people. Some new regulations were introduced, more suitable to their present condition. The example of Rotherus was imitated by the wisest of his successors and the laws of the Lombards have been esteemed the least imperfect of the barbaric codes. Secured by their courage and the possession of liberty, these rude and hasty legislators were incapable of balancing the powers of the constitution or of discussing the nice theory of political government. Such crimes has threatened the life of the sovereign or the safety of the state were judged worthy of death, but their attention was principally confined to the defense of the person and the property of the subject. According to the strange jurisprudence of the times, the guilt of blood might be redeemed by a fine, yet a high price of nine hundred pieces of gold declares a just sense of the value of a simple citizen. Less atrocious injuries, a wound, a fracture, a blow, and a probious word were measured with scrupulous and almost ridiculous diligence. And the prudence of the legislator encouraged the ignoble practice of bartering honor and revenge for a pecuniary compensation. The ignorance of the Lombards in the state of paganism or Christianity gave implicit credit to the malice and mischief of witchcraft. But the judges of the 17th century might have been instructed and confounded by the wisdom of Rotherus, who derides the absurd superstition and protects the wretched victims of popular or judicial cruelty. One of the legislator, superior to his age and country, may be ascribed to Eleutapran, who condemns while he tolerates the impious and inveterate abuse of duels, observing from his own experience that the just or cause had often been oppressed by successful violence. Whatever merit may be discovered in the laws of the Lombards, they are the genuine fruit of the reason of the barbarians who never admitted the bishops of Italy to a seat in their legislative councils. But the secession of their kings is marked with virtue and ability. The troubled series of their annals is adorned with fair intervals of peace, order and domestic happiness. And the Italians adjoin a milder and more equitable government than any of the other kingdoms which had been founded on the ruins of the Western Empire. Amidst the arms of the Lombards and under the despotism of the Greeks, we again inquire into the fate of Rome, which had reached about the close of the 6th century, the period of her depression. By the removal of the seat of empire and the successive loss of the provinces, the sources of public and private opulence were exhausted. The lofty tree, under whose shade the nations of the earth had reposed, was deprived of its leaves and branches and the sapless trunk was left to wither on the ground. The ministers of command and the messengers of victory no longer met on the Appian or Flaminian way. And the hostile approach of the Lombards was often felt and continually feared. The inhabitants of a potent and peaceful capital who visit without an anxious thought the garden of the adjacent country will faintly picture in their fancy the distress of the Romans. They shut or open their gates with a trembling hand, beheld from the walls the flames of their houses and heard the lamentations of their brethren who were coupled together like dogs and dragged away into distant slavery. Beyond the sea and the mountains. Such incessant alarms must annihilate the pleasures and interrupt the labors of a rural life. And the Campagna of Rome was speedily reduced to a state of a dreary wilderness in which the land is barren, the waters are impure, and the air is infectious. Curiosity and ambition no longer attracted the nations to the capital of the world. But if, by chance or necessity, directed the steps of a wandering stranger, he contemplated with horror the vacancy and solitude of the city, it might be tempted to ask, where is the senate and where are the people? In a season of excessive rains the typer swelled above its banks and rushed with irresistible violence into the valleys of the Seven Hills. A pestilential disease arose from the stagnation of the Deluge and so rapid was the contagion that four-score persons expired in an hour in the midst of a solemn procession which implored the mercy of heaven. A society in which marriage is encouraged and industry prevails soon repairs the accidental losses of pestilence and war. But, as the far greater part of the Romans was condemned to hopeless indigence and celibacy, the depopulation was constant and visible and the gloomy enthusiasts might expect the approaching failure of the human race. Yet the number of citizens still exceeded the measure of subsistence. The precarious food was supplied from the harvests of Sicily or Egypt and the frequent repetition of famine betrays the inattention of the emperor to a distant province. The edifices of Rome were exposed to the same ruin and decay. The moldering fabrics were easily overthrown by inundations, temptists and earthquakes and the monks who had occupied the most advantageous stations exalted in their base triumph over the ruins of antiquity. It is commonly believed that Pope Gregory I attacked the temples and mutilated the statues of the city. That, by the command of the barbarian, the Palatine Library was reduced to ashes and the history of Livy was the peculiar mark of his absurd and mischievous fanaticism. The writings of Gregory himself reveal his implacable aversion to the monuments of classic genius and he points with his severest censure against the profane learning of a bishop who taught the art of grammar, studied the Latin poets and pronounced with the same voice the praises of Jupiter and those of Christ. But the evidence of his destructive rage is doubtful and recent. The Temple of Peace or the Theodore Marcellus had been demolished by the slow operation of ages and a formal prescription would have multiplied the copies of Virgil and Livy and the countries which are not subject to the ecclesiastical dictator. In the late 19th century, the city of Rome, or Babylon or Carthage, the name of Rome, might have been erased from the earth if the city had not been animated by a vital principle which again restored her to honor and dominion. A vague tradition was embraced that two Jewish teachers, a tent maker and a fisherman had formerly been executed in the Circus of Nero and at the end of 500 years in the West restored to the Holy Threshold. But the shrines of the Apostles were guarded by miracles and invisible tears and it was not without fear that the pious Catholic approached the object of his worship. It was fatal to touch. It was dangerous to behold the bodies of the saints and those who, from the purist motives, presumed to disturb the repose of the sanctuary were affrighted by visions or punished with sudden death. The Romans of their sacred treasure, the head of St. Paul, was rejected with the deepest abhorrence and the pope asserted, most probably with truth, that a linen which had been sanctified in the neighborhood of his body or the filings of his chain which it was sometimes easy and sometimes impossible to obtain possessed an equal degree of miraculous virtue. But the power, as well as the virtue of the Apostles and the power of St. Peter was filled under the reign of Morris by the first and greatest of the name of Gregory. His grandfather Felix had himself been pope and as the bishops were already bound by the law of celibacy his consecration must have been preceded by the death of his wife. The parents of Gregory, Sylvia and Gordian were the noblest of the Senate and the most pious of the Church of Rome. His father and mother were represented near 300 years in a family portrait which he offered to the monastery of St. Andrew. The design and coloring of this picture afforded an honorable testimony that the art of painting was cultivated by the Italians of the 6th century. But the most abject ideas must be entertained of their taste and learning since the epistles of Gregory, his sermons and his dialogues had raised him to the office of prefect of the city and he enjoyed the merit of renouncing the pomp and vanities of this world. His ample patrimony was dedicated to the foundation of seven monasteries one in Rome, six in Sicily and it was the wish of Gregory that he might be unknown in this life and glorious only in the next. Yet his devotion and it might be sincere pursued the path which would lead Gregory and the splendor which accompanied his retreat rendered him dear and useful to the church and implicit obedience has always been inculcated as the first duty of a monk. As soon as he received the character of Deacon Gregory was sent to reside at the Byzantine court the Nuncio or a minister of the Apostolic Sea and he boldly assumed in the name of St. Peter a tone of independent dignity he returned to Rome with a just increase of reputation and after a short exercise of the monastic virtues he was dragged from the cloister to the papal throne by the unanimous voice of the clergy the senate and the people he alone resisted or seemed to resist his own elevation and his humble petition that Morris would be pleased to reject the choice of the Romans in the eyes of the emperor and the public when the fatal mandate was proclaimed Gregory solicited the aid of some friendly merchants to convey him in a basket beyond the gates of Rome and modestly concealed himself some days among the woods and mountains till his retreat was discovered as it is said by a celestial light the pontificate of Gregory the Great which lasted 13 years 6 months and 10 days in the church his virtues and even his faults a singular mixture of simplicity and cunning of pride and humility of sense and superstition were happily suited to a station and to the temper of the times in his rival the patriarch of Constantinople he condemned the anti-Christian title of universal vision which the successor of St. Peter was too haughty to concede and too feeble to assume to the divine to the triple character of Bishop of Rome primate of Italy and apostle of the West he frequently ascended the pulpit and kindled by his rude though pathetic eloquence the congenial passions of his audience the language of the Jewish prophets was interpreted and applied and the minds of a people depressed by the present calamities were directed to the hopes and fears of the invisible world of the parishes the calendar festivals the order of processions the service of the priests and deacons the variety and change of sacrodotal garments till the last days of his life he officiated in the canon of the mass which continued above three hours the Gregorian chant has preserved the vocal and instrumental music of the theater and the rough voices of the barbarians attempted to imitate the melody the solemn and pompous rites to soothe the distress to confirm the faith to mitigate the fierceness and to dispel the dark enthusiasm of the fogger and he readily forgave their tendency to promote the reign of priesthood and superstition the bishops of Italy and the adjacent islands acknowledged the roman pontiff as their special metropolitan even the existence the union or the translation of episcopal seats and his successful inroads into the provinces of Greece of Spain and of Gaul might countenance the more lofty pretensions of succeeding popes he interposed to prevent the abuses of popular elections his jealous care maintained the purity of faith and discipline and the apostolic shepherd acidruously watched over the faith and discipline of the subordinate pastors under his reign the aureans of Italy and Spain were on the same territory on the name of Caesar then on that of Gregory the first instead of six legions 40 monks were embarked for that distant island and the pontiff lamented the austere duties which forbade him to partake the perils of their spiritual warfare in less than two years he could announce to the archbishop of Alexandria that they had baptized the king of Kent the crudity or the prudence of Gregory was always disposed to confirm the truths of religion by the evidence of ghosts miracles and resurrections and posterity has paid to his memory the same tribute which he freely granted to the virtue of his own or the preceding generation the celestial honors had been liberally bestowed by the authority of the popes but Gregory is the last of their own order their temporal power insensibly arose from the calamities of the times and the Roman bishops who have deluged Europe and Asia with blood were compelled to reign as the ministers of charity and peace one, the church of Rome as it has been formally observed was endowed with ample possessions in Italy, Sicily and the more distant provinces and her agents who were commonly sub-deacons and had criminal jurisdiction over their tenants and husbandmen the successor of Saint Peter administered his patrimony with the temper of a vigilant and moderate landlord and the epistles of Gregory are filled with salutary instructions to abstain from doubtful or vexatious lawsuits to preserve the integrity of weights and measures to grant every reasonable delay and to reduce the capitation of the slaves of the Gleeb or the produce of these estates were transported to the mouth of the Tiber at the risk and expense of the Pope in the use of wealth he acted like a faithful steward of the church and the poor and liberally applied to their once the inexhaustible resources of abstinence and order the voluminous accounts of his receipts and disbursements was kept above 300 years in the Lateran as the model of Christian economy on the four great festivals he divided their quarterly allowance into three categories the churches, the places of burial the alms houses, the hospitals of Rome and the rest of the diocese on the first day of every month he distributed to the poor according to the season their stated portion of corn, wine, cheese vegetables, oil, fish, fresh provision clothes and money and his treasures were continually summoned to satisfy in his name the extraordinary demands of indigence and merit the distress of the sick and helpless of strangers and pilgrims was relieved by the bounty of every day and of every hour nor would the pontiff indulge himself in a frugal repast till he had sent the dishes from his own table to some objects deserving of his compassion the misery of the times had reduced the nobles and matrons of Rome to accept, without a blush the benevolence of the church 3000 virgins received their food and raiment from the hand of their benefactor and secretly escaped from the barbarians to the hospitable threshold of the Vatican Gregory might justly be styled the father of his country and such was the extreme sensibility of his conscience that for the death of a beggar who had perished in the streets he interdicted himself during several days from the exercise of sacroedotal functions two the misfortunes of Rome involve the apostolic pastor in the business of peace and war and it might be doubtful to himself whether piety or ambition prompted him to supply the place of his absent sovereign Gregory awakened the emperor from a long slumber exposed the guilt or incapacity of the exarch and his inferior ministers complained that the veterans were withdrawn from Rome for the defense of Spoleto encouraged the Italians to guard their cities and altars and condescended in the crisis of danger to name the tribunes but the martial spirit of the pope was checked by the scruples of humanity and religion the interposition of tribute though was employed in the Italian war he frequently condemned as odious and impressive whilst he protected against the imperial edicts the pious cowardice of the soldiers who deserted military for a monastic life if we may credit his own declarations it would have been easy for Gregory to exterminate the Lombards by their domestic factions a king, a duke or a count to save that unfortunate nation from the vengeance of their foes as a Christian bishop he preferred the salutary offices a peace his mediation appeased the tumult of arms but he was too conscious of the arts of the Greeks and the passions of the Lombards to engage his sacred promise for the observance of the truce disappointed in the hope of a general and lasting treaty he presumed to save his country for the exarch the sword of the enemy was suspended over Rome it was averted by the mild eloquence and seasonable gifts of the Pontiff who commanded the respective heretics and barbarians the merits of Gregory were treated by the Byzantine court with reproach and insult but in the attachment of a grateful people he found the purest reward of a citizen and the best right of a sovereign End of Chapter 45 Part 3 Chapter 46 Part 1 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume 4 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume 4 by Edward Gibbon Chapter 46 Troubles in Persia Part 1 Revolutions on Persia after the death of Chosros on Nisherevan His son Hormuz, a tyrant, is deposed usurpation of Baharam flight and restoration of Chosros the second his gratitude to the Romans the chagin of the Avars revolt of the army against Maurice his death tyranny of Foukas elevation of Heraclius the Persian War Chosros subdued Syria, Egypt and Asia Minor siege of Constantinople by the Persians and Avars Persian Expeditions victories and triumph of Heraclius the conflict of Roman Persia was prolonged from the death of crisis to the reign of Heraclius an experience of 700 years might convince the rival nations of the impossibility of maintaining their conquests beyond the fatal limits of the Tigris and Euphrates yet the emulation of Trajan and Julian was awakened by the trophies of Alexander the hope of restoring the Empire of Cyrus such extraordinary efforts of power and courage will always command the attention of posterity but the events by which the fate of nations is not materially changed leave a faint impression on the page of history and the patience of the reader would be exhausted by the repetition of the same hostilities undertaken without cause prosecuted without glory and terminated without effect the arts of negotiation with the simple greatness of the Senate and the Caesars were assiduously cultivated by the Byzantine princes and the memorials of their perpetual embassies repeat with the same uniform prolixity the language of falsehood and the insolence of the barbarians and the servile temper of the tributary Greeks lamenting the barren superfluity of materials I have studied to compress the narratives of these uninteresting transactions of the oriental kings and the ambition of his grandson Chosros prepared the revolution of the East which was speedily accomplished by the arms and the religion of the successors of Muhammad in the useless altercations that precede and justify the quarrels of princes the Greeks and barbarians accused each other of violating the peace which had been concluded between the two empires about four years before the death of Justinian the sovereign of Persia the province of Yemen or Arabia Felix the distant land of Meur and Frankincense which had escaped rather than opposed the conquerors of the East after the defeat of Abraha under the walls of Mecca the discord of his sons and brothers gave an easy entrance to the Persians they chased the strangers of Abyssinia beyond the Red Sea and a native prince of the ancient Homerites was restored to the throne as the vassal or viceroy of the great Nashirvan but the nephew of Justinian declared his resolution to avenge the injuries of his Christian ally the prince of Abyssinia as they suggested a decent pretense to discontinue the annual tribute which was poorly disguised by the name of Pension the churches of Pesarmenia were oppressed by the intolerance spirit of the Magi they secretly invoked the protector of the Christians and after the pious murder of their satraps was destroyed as the brethren and subjects of the Roman emperor the complaints of Nashirvan were disregarded by the Byzantine court Justinian yielded to the importunities of the Turks who offered an alliance against the common enemy and the Persian monarchy was threatened at the same instant by the united forces of Europe of Ethiopia and of Scythia at the age of four score the sovereign of the east would perhaps have chosen as soon as war became inevitable he took the field with the alacrity of youth whilst the aggressor trembled in the palace of Constantinople Nashirvan or Chosros conducted in person the siege of Dora and although that important fortress had been left destitute of troops and magazines the valor of the inhabitants resisted above five months the archers the elephants and the military engines of the great king in the meanwhile his general experienced from Babylon traversed the desert passed the Euphrates insulted the suburbs of Antioch reduced to ashes the city of Apemia and laid the spoils of Syria at the feet of his master whose perseverance in the midst of winter at length subverted the bulwark of the east but these losses which astonished the provinces and the court produced a salutary effect in the repentance and abdication of the emperor Justin a new spirit arose in the Byzantine lands of three years was obtained by the prudence of Tiberias that seasonal interval was employed in the preparations of war and the voice of rumor proclaimed to the world from the distant countries of the Alps and the Rhine from Scythia, Messia, Pannonia Illyricum and Isauria the strength of the imperial cavalry was reinforced with 150,000 soldiers yet the king of Persia without fear or without faith resolved to prevent the attack again passed the Euphrates and dismissing the ambassadors of Tiberias arrogantly commanded them to wait his arrival at Caesarea the metropolis of the Cappadocian provinces the two armies encountered each other in the battle of the Melitene the barbarians who darkened the air with a cloud of arrows prolonged their line and extended their wings across the plane while the Romans in deep and solid bodies expected to prevail in closer action by the weight of their swords and lances a Scythian chief who commanded their right wing suddenly turned the flank of the enemy attacked their rear guard in the presence of Chosros penetrated to the midst of the camp pillaged the royal tent profaned the eternal fire loaded a train of camels with the spoils of Asia cut his way through the Persian host and returned with songs of victory to his friends who had consumed the day in single combat or ineffectual skirmishes and the separation of the Romans afforded the Persian monarch an opportunity of revenge and one of their camps was swept away by a rapid and impetuous assault but the review of his loss and the consciousness of his danger determined Chosros to a speedy retreat he burnt in his passage the vacant town of Melitene and without consulting the safety of his troops boldly swam the Euphrates on the back of an elephant after this unsuccessful campaign the count of magazines and perhaps some inroads of the Turks obliged him to disband or divide his forces the Romans were left masters of the field and their general Justinian advancing to the relief of the Possermanian rebels erected his standard on the banks of the Araxes the great Pompey had formally halted within three days March of the Caspian that inland sea was explored for the first time by a hostile fleet and 70,000 captives to the Isle of Cyprus on the return of spring Justinian descended into the fertile plains of Assyria the flames of war approached the residents of Nisirvan the indignant monarch sank into the grave and his last edict restrained his successors from exposing their person in battle against the Romans yet the memory of this transient affront was lost in the glories of a long reign and his formidable enemies after indulging their dream of conquest again solicited a short respite from the calamities of war the throne of Chosros Nisirvan was filled by Hormuz or Hormizdus the eldest or most favored of his sons with the kingdoms of Persia and India he inherited the reputation and example of his father the service in every rank of his wise and valiant officers and a general system of administration harmonized by time and political wisdom to promote the happiness but the royal youth enjoyed a still more valuable blessing the friendship of a sage who had presided over his education and who always preferred the honor to the interest of his people his interest to his inclination in a dispute with the Greek and Indian philosophers Buzerg had once maintained that the most grievous misfortune of life is old age without the remembrance of virtue and Cander will presume that the same principle compelled him to return to the Persian Empire his zeal was rewarded by the gratitude and desilty of Hormuz who acknowledged himself more indebted to his preceptor than to his parent but when age and labor had impaired the strength and perhaps the faculties of this prudent counselor he retired from court and abandoned the youthful monarch to his own passions and those of his favorites by the fatal vicissitude to the death of Marcus Antonius the ministers of flattery and corruption who had been banished by his father were recalled and cherished by the son the disgrace and exile of the friends of Nashirvan established their tyranny and virtue was driven by degrees from the mind of Hormuz from his palace and from the government of the state the faithful agents the eyes and ears of the king informed him of the progress of the alliance and eagles and that their rapine and injustice would teach the most loyal of his subjects to abhor the name and authority of their sovereign the sincerity of this advice was punished with death the murmurs of the cities were despised their tumults were quelled by military execution the intermediate powers between the throne and the people were abolished and the childish vanity of Hormuz who affected the daily use as well as the master of his kingdom in every word and in every action the son of Nashirvan degenerated from the virtues of his father his avarice defrauded the troops his jealous caprice degraded the satraps the palace the tribunals the waters of the tigress were stained with the blood of the innocent and the tyrant exalted in the sufferings and execution of 13,000 victims as the excuse of his cruelty he conserved that the fears of the persians would be productive of hatred and that their hatred must terminate in rebellion but he forgot that his own guilt and folly had inspired the sentiments which he deplored and prepared the event which he so justly apprehended exasperated by long and hopeless oppression the provinces of Babylon Susa and Carmania erected the standard of revolt and the princes of Arabia India and Scythia were the unworthy successor of Nashirvan the arms of the Romans in slow sieges and frequent inroads afflicted the frontiers of Mesopotamia and Assyria one of their generals professed himself the disciple of Scipio and the soldiers were animated by a miraculous image of Christ whose mild aspect should never have been displayed in the front of the battle at the same time the eastern provinces of Persia were invaded by the great Khan who passed the oxus at the head of three or four hundred thousand Turks the impredent Hormuz accepted their perfidious and formidable aid the cities of Coruscant or Batriana were commanded to open their gates the march of the barbarians towards the mountains of Hurcania revealed the correspondence of the Turkish and Roman arms and their union must have subverted the throne of the house of Sassan Persia had been lost by a king it was saved by a hero after his revolt Varain's or Baram is stigmatized by the son of Hormuz as an ungrateful slave the proud and ambiguous reproach of despotism since he was truly descended from the ancient princes of Rey one of the seven families whose splendid as well as substantial prerogatives exalted them above the heads of the Persian nobility at the siege of Dara was signalized under the eyes of Nisirvan and both the father and son successively promoted him to the command of armies the government of Medea and the superintendents of the palace the popular prediction which marked him as the deliverer of Persia might be inspired by his past victories an extraordinary figure the epithet Gubin is expressive of the quality of dry wood he had the strength and stature of a giant and his savage countenance a wild cat while the nation trembled while Hormuz disguised his terror by the name of suspicion and his servants concealed their disloyalty under the mask of fear Varam alone displayed his undaunted courage and apparent fidelity and as soon as he found that no more than 12,000 soldiers would follow him against the enemy he prudently declared that to this fatal number heaven had reserved the honors of the triumph the steep and narrow descent of our heracanian rock is the only pass through which an army can penetrate into the territory of Ray and the plains of Medea from the commanding heights a band of resolute men might overwhelm with stones and darts the myriads of the Turkish host their emperor and his son were transpired with arrows and the fugitives were left without counsel or provisions to the revenge of an injured people the patriotism of the Persian general was stimulated by his affection for the city of his forefathers in the hour of victory every peasant became a soldier and every soldier a hero and their ardor was kindled by the gorgeous spectacle of beds and thrones and tables of Massey gold the spoils of Aja and the luxury of the hostile camp a prince of a less malignant temper could not easily have forgiven his benefactor and the secret hatred of Hormuz was envenomed by a malicious report that Varam had privately retained the merits of his Turkish victory but the approach of a Roman army on the side of the Araxes compelled the implacable tyrant to smile and to applaud and the toils of Varam were rewarded with the permission of encountering a new enemy by their skill and discipline more formidable than a Scythian multitude elated by his recent success he dispatched a herald with a bold defiance to the camp of the Romans requesting them to fix a day of battle or allow a free passage to the arms of the great king the lieutenant of the emperor Maurice preferred the safer alternative and this local circumstance which would have enhanced the victory of the Persians rendered their defeat more bloody and their escape more difficult but the loss of his subjects and the danger of his kingdom were overbalanced in the mind of Hormuz by the disgrace of his personal enemy and no sooner had Varam collected and reviewed his forces as a royal messenger the insulting gift of a distaff a spinning wheel and a complete suit of female apparel obedient to the will of his sovereign he showed himself to the soldiers in this unworthy disguise they resented his ignomy and their own a shout of rebellion ran through the ranks and the general accepted their oath of fidelity and vows of revenge a second messenger who had been commanded to bring the people under the feet of an elephant and manifestos were diligently circulated exhorting the Persians to assert their freedom against an odious and contemptible tyrant the defection was rapid and universal his loyal slaves were sacrificed to the public fury the troops deserted to the standard of Varam and the provinces again saluted the deliverer of his country as the passes were faithfully guarded Hormuz could only compute the testimony of a guilty conscience and the daily defection of those who in the hour of his distress avenged their wrongs or forgot their obligations he proudly displayed the ensigns of royalty but the city and the palace of Modain had already escaped from the hand of the tyrant among the victims of his cruelty Bindo's a Sasanian prince had been cast into the dungeon his fetters were broken by the zeal and courage of a brother and he stood before the king of those trusty guards who had been chosen as the ministers of his confinement and perhaps of his death alarmed by the hasty intrusion and bold reproaches of the captive Hormuz looked round but in vain for advice or assistance discovered that his strength consisted in the obedience of others and patiently yielded to the single arm of Bindo's who dragged him from the throne to the same dungeon in which he himself had been so lately confined the eldest of the sons of Hormuz escaped from the city but he was persuaded to return by the pressing and friendly invitation of Bindo's who promised to seat him on his father's throne and who expected to reign under the name of an inexperienced youth in the just assurance that his accomplices could neither forgive nor hope to be forgiven and that every persian might be trusted as the judge and enemy of the tyrant he instituted a public trial without a precedent the son of Nashirvan who had requested to plead in his own defense was introduced as a criminal into the full assembly of the nobles and satraps he was heard with decent attention as long as he expatiated on the advantages of order and obedience the danger of innovation and the inevitable discord of those who had encouraged each other to trample on their lawful and hereditary sovereign by a pathetic appeal to their humanity he extorted that pity which his seldom refused to the fallen fortunes of a king and that while they beheld the abject posture and squalid appearance of the prisoner his tears, his change and the marks of ignomious stripes it was impossible to forget how recently they had adored the divine splendor of his diadem and purple but an angry murmur arose in the assembly as soon as he presumed to vindicate his conduct and to applaud the victories of his reign he defined the duties of a king and the Persian nobles listened with a smile of contempt they were fired with indignation when he dared to vilify the character of Chosros and by the indiscreet offer of resigning the scepter to the second of his sons he subscribed his own condemnation and sacrificed the life of his own innocent favorite the mangled bodies of the boy and his mother were exposed to the people the eyes of Hormuz were pierced with a hot needle and the punishment of the father was his son Chosros had ascended the throne without guilt and his piety strove to alleviate the misery of the abdicated monarch from the dungeon he removed Hormuz to an apartment of the palace supplied with liberality the consolations of sensual enjoyment and patiently endured the furious sallies of his resentment and despair he might despise the resentment of a blind and unpopular tyrant but the tiara was trembling on his head till he could subvert the power or acquire the friendship of the great Baram who sternly denied the justice of a revolution in which himself and his soldiers the true representatives of Persia had never been consulted the offer of a general amnesty and of the second rank in his kingdom was answered by an epistle from Baram friend of the gods conquer of men and enemy of tyrants the satrap of satraps general of the Persian armies and a prince adorned with the title of eleven virtues he commands Chosros the son of Hormuz to shun the example and fate of his father to confine the traitors who had been released from their chains to deposit in some holy place the diadem which he had usurped and to accept from his gracious benefactor the pardon of his faults and the government of a province the rebel might not be proud and the king most assuredly was not humble but the one was conscious of his strength and the other was sensible of his weakness and even the modest language of his reply still left room for treaty and reconciliation Chosros led into the field the slaves of the palace and the populace of the capital they beheld with terror the banners of a veteran army they were encompassed and surprised by the evolutions of the general and the satraps who had deposed Hormuz received the punishment of their revolt or expatiated their first treason by a second and more criminal act of their loyalty the life and liberty of Chosros were saved but he was reduced to the necessity of imploring aid or refuge in some foreign land and the implacable bendos anxious to secure an unquestionable title hastily returned to the palace and ended with a bow string the wretched existence of the son of Nashirvan while Chosros dispatched the preparations of his retreat he deliberated with his remaining friends whether he should lurk in the valleys of the forces or fly to the tents of the Turks or solicit the protection of the emperor the long emulation of the successors of our taxer exceeds and Constantine increased his reluctance to appear as a suppliant in a rival court but he weighed the forces of the Romans and prudently considered that the neighborhood of Syria would render his escape more easy and their suckers more effectual attended only by his concubines and a troop of thirty guards followed the banks of the Euphrates traversed the desert and halted at a distance of ten miles from Cersesium about the third watch of the night the Roman prefect was informed of his approach and he introduced the royal stranger to the fortress at the dawn of day from thence the king of Persia was conducted to the more honorable residents of Herapolis and Maurice dissembled his pride and displayed his benevolence at the reception of the letters and ambassadors of the grandson they humbly represented the vicitudes of fortune and the common interest of princes exaggerated the ingratitude of Buram the agent of the evil principal and urged with specious argument that it was for the advantage of the Romans themselves to support the two monarchs which balance the world the two great luminaries by whose salutary influence it is vivified and adored the anxiety of Chosros was soon relieved by the assurance of his loyalty but Maurice prudently declined the expense and delay of his useless visit to Constantinople in the name of his generous benefactor a rich diadem was presented to the fugitive prince with an inestimable gift of jewels and gold a powerful army was assembled on the frontiers of Syria and Armenia under the command of the valiant and faithful Narces and this general of his own nation and his own choice was to leave his sword till he had restored Chosros to the throne of his ancestors the enterprise however splendid was less arduous than it might appear Persia had already repented of her fatal rashness which betrayed the heir of the house of Sassan to the ambition of a rebellious subject and the bold refusal of the magi to concentrate his usurpation compelled Buram to assume the scepter regardless of the laws and prejudices of the nation the city with tumult the provinces with insurrection and the cruel execution of the guilty and the suspected served to irritate rather than subdue the public discontent no sooner did the grandson of Nisirvan display his own and the Roman banners beyond the Tigris than he was joined each day by the increasing multitudes of the nobility and people and as he advanced he received from every side the grateful offerings of the keys of his cities as soon as Modain was freed from the presence of the usurper the loyal inhabitants obeyed the first summons of Mibodes at the head of only 2,000 horse and Chostros accepted the sacred and precious ornaments of the palace as the pledge of their truth and the presage of his approaching success after the junction of the imperial troops which Buram vainly struggled to prevent the contest was decided by two battles on the banks of the Zab and the confines of Medea the Romans with the faithful subjects of Persia amounted to 60,000 while the whole force of the usurper did not exceed 40,000 men the two generals signalized their valor and ability but the victory was finally determined by the prevalence of numbers and discipline with the remnant of a broken army Buram fled towards the eastern provinces of the Oksis the enmity of Persia reconciled him to the Turks and was shortened by poison perhaps the most incurable of poison the stings of remorse and despair and the bitter remembrance of lost glory yet the modern Persians still commemorate the exploits of Buram and some excellent laws have prolonged the duration of his troubled and transitory reign the restoration of Chostros was celebrated with feasts and executions and the music of the royal banquet was often disturbed by the groans of the isolated criminals a general pardon might have diffused comfort and tranquility through a country which had been shaken by the late revolutions yet before the sanguinary temper of Chostros is blamed we should learn whether the Persians had not been accustomed either to dread the rigor or to despise the weakness of their sovereign the revolt of Buram and the conspiracy of the Satraps were impartially punished by the revenge of justice of the conqueror the merits of Bindos himself and his hand from the guilt of royal blood and the son of Hormuz was desirous to assert his own innocence and to vindicate the sanctity of kings during the vigor of the Roman power several princes were seated on the throne of Persia by the arms and the authority of the first Caesars but their new subjects were soon disgusted with the vices or virtue which they had imbibed in a foreign land the instability of their dominion gave birth to a vulgar observation that the weakness of Rome was solicited and rejected with equal ardor by the capricious levity of oriental slaves but the glory of Maurice was conspicuous in the long and fortunate reign of his only son and his ally a band of a thousand Romans who continued to guard the person of Chostros proclaimed his confidence in the fidelity of the strangers his growing strength enabled him to dismiss this unpopular aid but he steadily professed the same gratitude and reverence to his adopted father until the death of Maurice the peace and alliance of the two empires were faithfully maintained yet the mercenary friendship of the Roman prince had been purchased with costly and important gifts the strong cities of Martiopolis and Dara were restored and the purse Armenians became the willing subjects of an empire whose eastern limit was extended beyond the example of former times as far as the banks of the Araxes and the neighborhood of the Caspian this hope was indulged that the church as well as the state might triumph in this revolution but if Chostros had sincerely listened to the Christian bishops the impression was erased by the zeal and eloquence of the Magi if he was armed with philosophic indifference he accommodated his belief or rather his professions to the various circumstances of an exile and a sovereign the imaginary conversion of the king of Persia was reduced to a local and superstitious veneration of Antioch who heard his prayers and appeared to him in dreams he enriched the shrine with offerings of gold and silver and ascribed to this invisible patron the success of his arms and the pregnancy of Sira a devout Christian and the best beloved of his wives the beauty of Sira or Shirin her wit, her musical talents are still famous in the history or rather in the romances of the east her own name is expressive in the Persian tongue and the epithet of Parviz alludes to the charms of her royal lover yet Sira never shared the passions which she inspired and the bliss of Chostros was tortured by a jealous doubt that while he possessed her person she had bestowed her affections on a meaner favorite end of chapter 46 part 1 chapter 46 part 2 of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire volume 4 all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the decline and fall of the Roman Empire volume 4 by Edward Gibbon chapter 46 Troubles in Persia part 2 while the majesty of the Roman name was revived in the east the prospect of Europe is less pleasing and less glorious by the departure of the Lombards and the ruin of the Gepide and the Avars spread their permanent dominion from the foot of the Alps to the sea coast of the Ixen the reign of Bayon is the brightest era of their monarchy their Chagan who occupied the rustic palace of Attila appears to have imitated his character and policy but as the same scenes were repeated in a smaller circle a minute representation of the copy would be devoid of the greatness and novelty of the original was humbled by a proud barbarian more prompt to inflict than exposed to suffer the injuries of war and as often as Asia was threatened by the Persian arms Europe was oppressed by the dangerous inroads or costly friendship of the Avars when the Roman envoys approached the presence of the Chagan they were commanded to wait at the door of his tent till at the end of perhaps 10 or 12 days he condescended to admit them if the substance or style was easier he insulted with real or affected fury their own dignity and that of their prince their baggage was plundered and their lives were only saved by the promise of a richer present and a more respectful address but his sacred ambassadors enjoyed and abused an unbounded license in the midst of Constantinople they urged with importunate clamors the increase of tribute or the restitution of captives and deserters or by the false and fearful excuses with which they eluded such insolent demands the Chagan had never seen an elephant and his curiosity was excited by the strange and perhaps fabulous portrait of that wonderful animal at his command one of the largest elephants of the imperial stable was equipped with stately caipiricins and conducted by a numerous train to the royal village in the plains of Hungary he surveyed the enormous beast with surprise and possibly with terror and smiled at the vain industry of the Romans who in search of such useless rarities could explore the limits of the land and sea he wished at the expense of the emperor to repose in a golden bed the wealth of Constantinople and the skillful diligence of her artists were instantly devoted to the gratification of his caprice but when the work was finished he rejected with scorn a present so unworthy the majesty of a great king these were the casual sallies of his pride but the avarice of the Chagan was a more steady and tractable passion a rich and regular supply of silk apparel furniture and plate introduced the rudiments of art and luxury among the tents of the Scythians their appetite was stimulated by the pepper and cinnamon of India the annual subsidy or tribute was raised from four score to 120,000 pieces of gold and after each hostile interruption the payment of the arrears with exorbitant interest was always made the first condition of the new treaty in the language of a barbarian without guile the prince of the avars affected to complain of the insincerity of the Greeks yet he was not inferior to the most civilized nations in the refinement of dissimilation and perfidity as the successor of the Lombards the Chagan asserted his claim to the important city of Sirmium the ancient bulwark of the Illyrian provinces the plains of the lower Hungary were covered with the avar horse and a fleet of large boats was built in the Hercinian wood to descend the Danube and to transport into the save the materials of a bridge but as the strong garrison of Sin-Gididim which had commanded the conflicts of the true rivers might have stopped their passage and baffled his designs he dispelled their apprehensions he swore by his sword the symbol of the god of war that he did not as the enemy of Rome construct a bridge upon the save if I violate my oath pursued the intrepid bayon may I myself and the last of my nation perish by the sword may the heavens and the fire the deity of the heavens fall upon our heads may the forests and mountains fall upon us in his angry waters after this barbarous implication he calmly inquired what oath was most sacred and venerable among the Christians what guilt or perjury it was most dangerous to incur the bishop of Sin-Gididim presented the gospel which the chagan received with devout reverence I swear said he by the god who has spoken in this holy book that I have neither abated the labor of the bridge and dispatched an envoy to proclaim what he no longer wish to conceal informed the emperor said the perfidious bayon that Sirmium is invested on every side advised his prudence to withdraw the citizens and their effects and to resign a city which it is now impossible to relieve or defend without the hope of relief the defense of Sirmium was prolonged above three years the walls were still untouched but famine was enclosed capitulation allowed the escape of the naked and hungry inhabitants. Singidonum, at the distance of fifty miles, experienced a more cruel fate. The buildings were raised, and the vanquished people was condemned to servitude and exile. Yet the ruins of Serium are no longer visible. The advantageous situation of Singidonum soon attracted a new colony of Sclavonians, and the conflicts of the save in Danube is still guarded by the fortifications of Belgrade, or the white city, so often and so obstinately disputed by the Christian and Turkish arms. From Belgrade to the walls of Constantinople a line may be measured of six hundred miles. That line was marked with flames and with blood. The horses of the Avars were alternately bathed in the Axine and the Adriatic, and the Roman Pontiff, alarmed with the approach of a more savage enemy, was reduced to cherish the Lombards as the protectors of Italy. The despair of a captive whom his country refused to ransom disclosed to the Avars the invention and practice of military engines. But in the first attempts they were rudely framed and awkwardly managed, and the resistance of Diocletianopolis and Beria, of Philippopolis and Adrienopoul, soon exhausted the skill and patience of the besiegers. The warfare of Bayan was that of a tartar, yet his mind was susceptible of a humane and generous sentiment. He spared Anchaeolus, whose salutary waters had restored the health of the best beloved of his wives, and the Romans confessed that their starving army was fed and dismissed by the liberality of a foe. His empire extended over Hungary, Poland, and Prussia, from the mouth of the Danube to that of the Odor, and his new subjects were divided and transplanted by the jealous policy of the conqueror. The eastern regions of Germany, which had been left vacant by the emigration of the vandals, were replenished with Sclavonian colonists, the same tribes are discovered in the neighborhood of the Adriatic and the Baltic, and with the name of Bayan himself, the Illyrian cities of Nace and Lyssa are again found in the heart of Silesia. In the disposition both of his troops and provinces, the Chagan exposes the vandals whose lives he disregarded to the first assault, and the swords of the enemy were blunted before they encountered the native valor of the avars. The Persian alliance restored the troops of the east to the defense of Europe, and Maurice, who had supported ten years the insolence of the Chagan, declared his resolution to march in person against the barbarians. In the space of two centuries none of the successors of the Edocius had appeared in the field, their lives were supinely spent in the palace of Constantinople, and the Greeks could no longer understand that the name of emperor, in its primitive sense, denoted the chief of the armies of the republic. The martial ardor of Maurice was opposed by the grave flattery of the senate, the timid superstition of the patriarch, and the tears of the emperor's Constantina, and they all conjured him to devolve on some meaner general the fatigues and perils of the Scythian campaign. Debt to their advice and entreaty, the emperor boldly advanced seven miles from the capital, the sacred ensign of the cross was displayed in the front, and Maurice reviewed, with conscious pride, the arms and number of the veterans who had fought and conquered beyond the tigress. Ankyalis was the last term of his progress by sea and land. He solicited, without success, a miraculous answer to his nocturnal prayers. His mind was confounded by the death of a favorite horse, the encounter of a wild boar, a storm of wind and rain, and the birth of a monstrous child, and he forgot that the best of omens is to unsheath our sword in the defense of our country. Under the pretense of receiving the ambassadors of Persia, the emperor returned to Constantinople, exchanged the thoughts of war for those of devotion, and disappointed the public hope by his absence and the choice of his lieutenants. The blind partiality of fraternal love might excuse the promotion of his brother Peter, who fled with equal disgrace from the barbarians, from his own soldiers and from the inhabitants of a Roman city. That city, if we may credit the resemblance of name and character, was the famous Azimuntium, which had alone repelled the Tempest of Attila. The example of her warlike youth was propagated to succeeding generations, and they obtained from the first or the second Justin an honorable privilege that their valour should always be reserved for the defense of their native country. The brother of Maurice attempted to violate this privilege and to mingle a patriot band with the mercenaries of his camp. They retired to the church, he was not awed by the sanctity of the place, the people rose in their cause, the gates were shut, the ramparts were manned, and the cowardice of Peter was found equal to his arrogance and injustice. The military fame of common Teolus is the object of satire or comedy rather than of serious history since he was even deficient in the vile and vulgar qualifications of personal courage. His solemn councils, strange evolutions, and secret orders always supplied an apology for flight or delay. If he marched against the enemy the pleasant valleys of Mount Hamas opposed an insuperable barrier, but in his retreat he explored with fearless curiosity the most difficult and obsolete paths which had almost escaped the memory of the oldest native. The only blood which he lost was drawn in a real or affected malady by the lancet of a surgeon, and his health which felt with exquisite sensibility the approach of the barbarians was uniformly restored by the repose and safety of the winter season. A prince who could promote and support this unworthy favorite must derive no glory from the accidental merit of his colleague, Pricus. In five successive battles which seemed to have been conducted with skill and resolution, seventeen thousand two hundred barbarians were made prisoner, near sixty thousand with four sons of the Chagan were slain, the Roman general surprised a peaceful district of the Gepidei who slept under the protection of the Avars, and his last trophies were erected on the banks of the Danube and the Tice. Since the death of Trajan the arms of the Empire had not penetrated so deeply into the old Dacia, yet the success of Pricus was transient and barren, and he was soon recalled by the apprehension that Baian, with dauntless spirit and recruited forces, was preparing to avenge his defeat under the walls of Constantinople. The theory of war was not more familiar to the camps of Caesar and Trajan than to those of Justinian and Maurice. The Iron of Tuscany or Pontus still received the keenest temper from the skill of the Byzantine workmen. The magazines were plentifully stored with every species of offensive and defensive arms. In the construction and use of ships, engines, and fortifications, the barbarians admired the superior ingenuity of a people whom they had so often vanquished in the field. The science of tactics, the order, evolutions, and stratagems of antiquity, was transcribed and studied in the books of the Greeks and Romans. But the solitude or degeneracy of the provinces could no longer supply a race of men to handle those weapons, to guard those walls, to navigate those ships, and to reduce the theory of war into bold and successful practice. The genius of Belisarius and Narcissus had been formed without a master, and expired without a disciple. Neither honor nor patriotism nor generous superstition could animate the lifeless bodies of slaves and strangers who had succeeded to the honors of the legions. It was in the camp alone that the emperor should have exercised a despotic command. It was only in the camps that his authority was disobeyed and insulted. He appeased and inflamed, with gold, the lisentiousness of the troops, but their vices were inherent, their victories were accidental, and their costly maintenance exhausted the substance of a state which they were unable to defend. After a long and pernicious indulgence the cure of this inventorine evil was undertaken by Maurice, but the rash attempt which drew destruction on his own head tended only to aggravate the disease. A reformer should be exempt from the suspicion of interest, and he must possess the confidence and esteem of those whom he proposes to reclaim. The troops of Maurice might listen to the voice of a victorious leader. They disdained the admonition of statesmen and solfists, and when they received an edict which deducted from their pay the price of their arms and clothing they excreated the avarice of a prince insensible of the dangers and fatigues from which he had escaped. The camps both of Asia and Europe were agitated with frequent and furious seditions. The enraged soldiers of Edessa pursued with reproaches, with threats, with wounds, their trembling generals, they overturned the statues of the emperor, cast stones against the miraculous image of Christ, and either rejected the yoke of all civil and military laws, or instituted a dangerous model of voluntary subordination. The monarch, always distant and often deceived, was incapable of yielding or persisting according to the exigence of the moment. But the fear of a general revolt induced him too readily to accept any act of valor or any expression of loyalty as an atonement for the popular offense. The new reform was abolished as hastily as it had been announced, and the troops, instead of punishment and restraint, were agreeably surprised by a gracious proclamation of immunities and rewards. But the soldiers accepted without gratitude the tardy and reluctant gifts of the emperor, their insolence was elated by the discovery of his weakness in their own strength, and their mutual hatred was inflamed beyond the desire of forgiveness or the hope of reconciliation. The historians of the times adopted the vulgar suspicion that Maurice conspired to destroy the troops whom he had labored to reform. The misconduct in favor of Comenciolis are imputed to this malevolent design, and every age must condemn the inhumanity of avarice of a prince who, by the trifling ransom of six thousand pieces of gold, might have prevented the massacre of twelve thousand prisoners in the hands of the chagrin. In the just fervor of indignation an order was signified to the army of the Danube that they should spare the magazines of the province and establish their winter quarters in the hostile country of the avars. The measure of their grievances was full, they pronounced Maurice unworthy to reign, expelled or slaughtered his faithful adherents, and under the command of Focus, a simple centurion returned by hasty marches to the neighborhood of Constantinople. After a long series of legal secession the military disorders of the third century were again revived, yet such was the novelty of the enterprise that the insurgents were awed by their own rashness. They hesitated to invest their favorite with the vacant purple, and while they rejected all treaty with Maurice himself, they held a friendly correspondence with his son Theodosius, and with Germanus the father-in-law of the royal youth. So obscure had been the former condition of Focus that the emperor was ignorant of the name and character of his rival, but as soon he learned that the centurion, though bold in sedition, was timid in the face of danger, alas, cried the desponding prince, if he is a coward he will surely be a murderer. Yet if Constantinople had been firm and faithful the murderer might have spent his fury against the walls, and the rebel army would have been gradually consumed or reconciled by the prudence of the emperor. In the games of the circus, which he repeated with unusual pomp, Maurice disguised with smiles of confidence the anxiety of his heart, condescended to solicit the applause of the factions, and flattered their pride by accepting from their respective tribunes a list of nine hundred blues and fifteen hundred greens, whom he affected to esteem as the solid pillars of his throne. Their treacherous or languid support betrayed his weakness and hastened his fall. The green faction were the secret accomplices of the rebels, and the blues recommended leniety and moderation in a contest with their Roman brethren. The origin and parsimonious virtues of Maurice had long since alienated the hearts of his subjects. As he walked barefoot in a religious procession, he was rudely assaulted with stones, and his guards were compelled to present their iron maces in the defense of his person. A fanatic monk ran through the streets with a drawn sword, denouncing against him the wrath and the sentence of God, and a vile plebeian who represented his countenance in apparel, was seated on an ass, and pursued by the implications of the multitude. The emperor suspected the popularity of Germanus with the soldiers and citizens. He feared, he threatened, but he delayed to strike. The patrician fled to the sanctuary of the church, the people rose in his defense, the walls were deserted by the guards, and the lawless city was abandoned to the flames and maupine of a nocturnal tumult. In a small bark, the unfortunate Maurice, with his wife and nine children, escaped to the Asiatic shore, but the violence of the wind compelled him to land at the church of Saint Autonomous, near Chalcedon, from whence he dispatched the Adotius, his eldest son, to implore the gratitude and friendship of the Persian monarch. For himself he refused to fly, his body was tortured with sciatic pains, his mind was enfeebled by superstition. He patiently awaited the event of the revolution, and addressed a fervent and public prayer to the Almighty, that the punishment of his sins might be inflicted in this world rather than in a future life. After the abdication of Maurice, the two factions disputed the choice of an emperor, but the favorite of the blues was rejected by the jealousy of their antagonists, and Germanus himself was hurried along by the crowds who rushed to the palace of Hebedemann, several miles from the city, to adore the majesty of Focus, the centurion. A modest wish of resigning the purple to the rank and merit of Germanus was opposed by his resolution, more obstinate and equally sincere, the senate in clergy obeyed his summons, and as soon as the patriarch was assured of his orthodox belief, he consecrated the successful usurper in the church of Saint John the Baptist. On the third day, amidst the acclamations of a thoughtless people, Focus made his public entry in a chariot drawn by four white horses. The revolt of the troops was rewarded by a lavish donative, and the new sovereign, after visiting the palace, beheld from his throne the games of the Hebedrum. In a dispute of presidency between the two factions, his partial judgment inclined in favor of the greens. Remember that Maurice is still alive, resounded from the opposite side, and the indiscreet clamor of the blues admonished and stimulated the cruelty of the tyrant. The ministers of death were dispatched to Chalcedon, they dragged the emperor from his sanctuary, and the five sons of Maurice were successively murdered before the eyes of their agonized parent. At each stroke which he felt in his heart he found strength to rehearse a pious ejaculation. Thou art just, O Lord, and thy judgments are righteous. In such, in the last moments was his rigid attachment to truth and justice, that he revealed to the soldiers the pious falsehood of a nurse who presented her own child in the place of a royal infant. The tragic scene was finally closed by the execution of the emperor himself in the twentieth year of his reign and the sixty-third of his age. The bodies of the father and his five sons were cast into the sea, their heads were exposed at Constantinople to the insults or piety of the multitude, and it was not till some signs of putrification had appeared that focus convived at the private burial of these venerable remains. In that grave the faults and errors of Maurice were kindly interred. His fate alone was remembered, and at the end of twenty years, in the recital of the history of the Theophilact, the mournful tale was interrupted by the tears of the audience. Such tears must have flowed in secret, and such compassion would have been criminal under the reign of Focus, who was peaceably acknowledged in the provinces of the East and West. The images of the emperor and his wife Lyontia were exposed in the latter end to the veneration of the clergy and senate of Rome, and afterwards deposited in the palace of the Caesars between those of Constantin and Theodosius. As a subject and a Christian it was the duty of Gregory to acquiesce in the established government. With the joyful applause with which he salutes the fortune of the assassin has sullied with indelible disgrace the character of the saint. The successor of the apostles might have inculcated with decent firmness the guilt of the blood and the necessity of repentance. He is content to celebrate the deliverance of the people and the fall of the oppressor, to rejoice that the piety and benignity of Focus have been raised by Providence to the imperial throne, to pray that his hands may be strengthened against all his enemies, and to express a wish, perhaps a prophecy, that after a long and triumphant reign he may be transferred from a temporal to an everlasting kingdom. I have already traced the steps of a revolution so pleasing in Gregory's opinion both to heaven and earth, and Focus does not appear less hateful in the exercise than in the acquisition of power. The pencil of an impartial historian has delineated the portrait of a monster. He is a diminutive and deformed person, the closeness of his shaggy eyebrows, his red hair, his beardless chin, and his cheek disfigured and discolored by a formidable scar. Ignorant of letters, of laws, and even of arms, he indulged in the supreme rank a more ample privilege of lust and drunkenness, and his brutal pleasures were either injurious to his subjects or disgraceful to himself. Without assuming the office of a prince he renounced the profession of a soldier, and the reign of Focus afflicted Europe with ignomious peace, and Asia with desolating war. His savage temper was inflamed by passion, hardened by fear, and exasperated by resistance of reproach. The flight of Theodosius to the Persian court had been intercepted by a rapid pursuit, or a deceitful message. He was beheaded at Nice, and the last hours of the young prince were soothed by the comforts of religion and the consciousness of innocence. But his phantom disturbed the repose of the usurper. A whisper was circulated throughout the east that the son of Maurice was still alive. The people expected their avenger, and the widow and daughters of the late emperor would have adopted as their son and brother the vilest of mankind. In the massacre of the imperial family, the mercy, or rather the discretion of Focus, had spared these unhappy females, and they were decently confined to a private house. But the spirit of the empress, Constantina, still mindful of her father, her husband, and her sons, aspired to freedom and revenge. At the dead of night she escaped the sanctuary of Saint Sophia, but her tears and the gold of her associate Germanus were insufficient to provoke an insurrection. Her life was forfeited to revenge and even to justice, but the patriarch obtained and pledged an oath for her safety, a monastery was allotted for her prison, and the widow of Maurice accepted and abused the leniency of his assassin. The discovery or the suspicion of a second conspiracy dissolved the engagements and rekindled the fury of Focus. A matron who commanded the respect and pity of mankind, the daughter, wife, and mother of emperors was tortured like the vilest malifactor to force a confession of her designs and associates, and the empress Constantina, with her three innocent daughters, was beheaded at Chalcedon on the same ground which had been stained with the blood of her husband and five sons. After such an example it would be superfluous to enumerate the names and sufferings of meaner victims. Their condemnation was seldom preceded by the forms of trial, and their punishment was embittered by the refinements of cruelty. Their eyes were pierced, their tongues were torn from the root, the hands and feet were amputated, some expired under the lash, others in the flames, others again were transfixed with arrows, and a simple speedy death was mercy which they could rarely obtain. The hippodrome, the sacred asylum of the pleasures and the liberty of the Romans, was polluted with the heads and limbs and mangled bodies, and the companions of Focus were the most sensible, that neither his favor nor their services could protect them from a tyrant, the worthy rival of the Caligula's undomissions of the first age of the empire.