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A ray of historic light seems to beam from the darkness of
the tenth century. We open with curiosity and respect the
royal volumes of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (1) which he
composed at a mature age for the instruction of his son, and
which promise to unfold the state of the eastern empire,
both in peace and war, both at home and abroad. In the
first of these works he minutely describes the pompous
ceremonies of the church and palace of Constantinople,
according to his own practice, and that of his predecessors.
(2) In the second, he attempts an accurate survey of the
provinces, the themes, as they were then denominated, both
of Europe and Asia. (3) The system of Roman tactics, the
discipline and order of the troops, and the military
operations by land and sea, are explained in the third of
these didactic collections, which may be ascribed to
Constantine or his father Leo. (4) In the fourth, of the
administration of the empire, he reveals the secrets of the
Byzantine policy, in friendly or hostile intercourse with
the nations of the earth. The literary labors of the age,
the practical systems of law, agriculture, and history,
might redound to the benefit of the subject and the honor of
the Macedonian princes. The sixty books of the Basilics, (5)
the code and pandects of civil jurisprudence, were gradually
framed in the three first reigns of that prosperous dynasty.
The art of agriculture had amused the leisure, and exercised
the pens, of the best and wisest of the ancients; and their
chosen precepts are comprised in the twenty books of the
Geoponics (6) of Constantine. At his command, the historical
examples of vice and virtue were methodized in fifty-three
books, (7) and every citizen might apply, to his
contemporaries or himself, the lesson or the warning of past
times. From the august character of a legislator, the
sovereign of the East descends to the more humble office of
a teacher and a scribe; and if his successors and subjects
were regardless of his paternal cares, we may inherit and
enjoy the everlasting legacy.
A closer survey will indeed reduce the value of the gift,
and the gratitude of posterity: in the possession of these
Imperial treasures we may still deplore our poverty and
ignorance; and the fading glories of their authors will be
obliterated by indifference or contempt. The Basilics will
sink to a broken copy, a partial and mutilated version, in
the Greek language, of the laws of Justinian; but the sense
of the old civilians is often superseded by the influence of
bigotry: and the absolute prohibition of divorce,
concubinage, and interest for money, enslaves the freedom of
trade and the happiness of private life. In the historical
book, a subject of Constantine might admire the inimitable
virtues of Greece and Rome: he might learn to what a pitch
of energy and elevation the human character had formerly
aspired. But a contrary effect must have been produced by a
new edition of the lives of the saints, which the great
logothete, or chancellor of the empire, was directed to
prepare; and the dark fund of superstition was enriched by
the fabulous and florid legends of Simon the Metaphrast. (8)
The merits and miracles of the whole calendar are of less
account in the eyes of a sage, than the toil of a single
husbandman, who multiplies the gifts of the Creator, and
supplies the food of his brethren. Yet the royal authors of
the Geoponics were more seriously employed in expounding the
precepts of the destroying art, which had been taught since
the days of Xenophon, (9) as the art of heroes and kings.
But the Tactics of Leo and Constantine are mingled with the
baser alloy of the age in which they lived. It was destitute
of original genius; they implicitly transcribe the rules and
maxims which had been confirmed by victories. It was
unskilled in the propriety of style and method; they blindly
confound the most distant and discordant institutions, the
phalanx of Sparta and that of Macedon, the legions of Cato
and Trajan, of Augustus and Theodosius. Even the use, or at
least the importance, of these military rudiments may be
fairly questioned: their general theory is dictated by
reason; but the merit, as well as difficulty, consists in
the application. The discipline of a soldier is formed by
exercise rather than by study: the talents of a commander
are appropriated to those calm, though rapid, minds, which
nature produces to decide the fate of armies and nations:
the former is the habit of a life, the latter the glance of
a moment; and the battles won by lessons of tactics may be
numbered with the epic poems created from the rules of
criticism. The book of ceremonies is a recital, tedious yet
imperfect, of the despicable pageantry which had infected
the church and state since the gradual decay of the purity
of the one and the power of the other. A review of the
themes or provinces might promise such authentic and useful
information, as the curiosity of government only can obtain,
instead of traditionary fables on the origin of the cities,
and malicious epigrams on the vices of their inhabitants.
(10) Such information the historian would have been pleased
to record; nor should his silence be condemned if the most
interesting objects, the population of the capital and
provinces, the amount of the taxes and revenues, the numbers
of subjects and strangers who served under the Imperial
standard, have been unnoticed by Leo the philosopher, and
his son Constantine. His treatise of the public
administration is stained with the same blemishes; yet it is
discriminated by peculiar merit; the antiquities of the
nations may be doubtful or fabulous; but the geography and
manners of the Barbaric world are delineated with curious
accuracy. Of these nations, the Franks alone were qualified
to observe in their turn, and to describe, the metropolis of
the East. The ambassador of the great Otho, a bishop of
Cremona, has painted the state of Constantinople about the
middle of the tenth century: his style is glowing, his
narrative lively, his observation keen; and even the
prejudices and passions of Liutprand are stamped with an
original character of freedom and genius. (11) From this
scanty fund of foreign and domestic materials, I shall
investigate the form and substance of the Byzantine empire;
the provinces and wealth, the civil government and military
force, the character and literature, of the Greeks in a
period of six hundred years, from the reign of Heraclius to
his successful invasion of the Franks or Latins.
After the final division between the sons of Theodosius, the
swarms of Barbarians from Scythia and Germany over-spread
the provinces and extinguished the empire of ancient Rome.
The weakness of Constantinople was concealed by extent of
dominion: her limits were inviolate, or at least entire; and
the kingdom of Justinian was enlarged by the splendid
acquisition of Africa and Italy. But the possession of
these new conquests was transient and precarious; and almost
a moiety of the Eastern empire was torn away by the arms of
the Saracens. Syria and Egypt were oppressed by the Arabian
caliphs; and, after the reduction of Africa, their
lieutenants invaded and subdued the Roman province which had
been changed into the Gothic monarchy of Spain. The islands
of the Mediterranean were not inaccessible to their naval
powers; and it was from their extreme stations, the harbors
of Crete and the fortresses of Cilicia, that the faithful or
rebel emirs insulted the majesty of the throne and capital.
The remaining provinces, under the obedience of the
emperors, were cast into a new mould; and the jurisdiction
of the presidents, the consulars, and the counts were
superseded by the institution of the themes, (12) or military
governments, which prevailed under the successors of
Heraclius, and are described by the pen of the royal author.
Of the twenty-nine themes, twelve in Europe and seventeen in
Asia, the origin is obscure, the etymology doubtful or
capricious: the limits were arbitrary and fluctuating; but
some particular names, that sound the most strangely to our
ear, were derived from the character and attributes of the
troops that were maintained at the expense, and for the
guard, of the respective divisions. The vanity of the Greek
princes most eagerly grasped the shadow of conquest and the
memory of lost dominion. A new Mesopotamia was created on
the western side of the Euphrates: the appellation and
praetor of Sicily were transferred to a narrow slip of
Calabria; and a fragment of the duchy of Beneventum was
promoted to the style and title of the theme of Lombardy.
In the decline of the Arabian empire, the successors of
Constantine might indulge their pride in more solid
advantages. The victories of Nicephorus, John Zimisces, and
Basil the Second, revived the fame, and enlarged the
boundaries, of the Roman name: the province of Cilicia, the
metropolis of Antioch, the islands of Crete and Cyprus, were
restored to the allegiance of Christ and Caesar: one third
of Italy was annexed to the throne of Constantinople: the
kingdom of Bulgaria was destroyed; and the last sovereigns
of the Macedonian dynasty extended their sway from the
sources of the Tigris to the neighborhood of Rome. In the
eleventh century, the prospect was again clouded by new
enemies and new misfortunes: the relics of Italy were swept
away by the Norman adventures; and almost all the Asiatic
branches were dissevered from the Roman trunk by the Turkish
conquerors. After these losses, the emperors of the
Comnenian family continued to reign from the Danube to
Peloponnesus, and from Belgrade to Nice, Trebizond, and the
winding stream of the Meander. The spacious provinces of
Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece, were obedient to their
sceptre; the possession of Cyprus, Rhodes, and Crete, was
accompanied by the fifty islands of the Aegean or Holy Sea;
(13) and the remnant of their empire transcends the measure
of the largest of the European kingdoms.
The same princes might assert, with dignity and truth, that
of all the monarchs of Christendom they possessed the
greatest city, (14) the most ample revenue, the most
flourishing and populous state. With the decline and fall
of the empire, the cities of the West had decayed and
fallen; nor could the ruins of Rome, or the mud walls,
wooden hovels, and narrow precincts of Paris and London,
prepare the Latin stranger to contemplate the situation and
extent of Constantinople, her stately palaces and churches,
and the arts and luxury of an innumerable people. Her
treasures might attract, but her virgin strength had
repelled, and still promised to repel, the audacious
invasion of the Persian and Bulgarian, the Arab and the
Russian. The provinces were less fortunate and impregnable;
and few districts, few cities, could be discovered which had
not been violated by some fierce Barbarian, impatient to
despoil, because he was hopeless to possess. From the age
of Justinian the Eastern empire was sinking below its former
level; the powers of destruction were more active than those
of improvement; and the calamities of war were imbittered by
the more permanent evils of civil and ecclesiastical
tyranny. The captive who had escaped from the Barbarians
was often stripped and imprisoned by the ministers of his
sovereign: the Greek superstition relaxed the mind by
prayer, and emaciated the body by fasting; and the multitude
of convents and festivals diverted many hands and many days
from the temporal service of mankind. Yet the subjects of
the Byzantine empire were still the most dexterous and
diligent of nations; their country was blessed by nature
with every advantage of soil, climate, and situation; and,
in the support and restoration of the arts, their patient
and peaceful temper was more useful than the warlike spirit
and feudal anarchy of Europe. The provinces that still
adhered to the empire were repeopled and enriched by the
misfortunes of those which were irrecoverably lost. From
the yoke of the caliphs, the Catholics of Syria, Egypt, and
Africa retired to the allegiance of their prince, to the
society of their brethren: the movable wealth, which eludes
the search of oppression, accompanied and alleviated their
exile, and Constantinople received into her bosom the
fugitive trade of Alexandria and Tyre. The chiefs of
Armenia and Scythia, who fled from hostile or religious
persecution, were hospitably entertained: their followers
were encouraged to build new cities and to cultivate waste
lands; and many spots, both in Europe and Asia, preserved
the name, the manners, or at least the memory, of these
national colonies. Even the tribes of Barbarians, who had
seated themselves in arms on the territory of the empire,
were gradually reclaimed to the laws of the church and
state; and as long as they were separated from the Greeks,
their posterity supplied a race of faithful and obedient
soldiers. Did we possess sufficient materials to survey the
twenty-nine themes of the Byzantine monarchy, our curiosity
might be satisfied with a chosen example: it is fortunate
enough that the clearest light should be thrown on the most
interesting province, and the name of Peloponnesus will
awaken the attention of the classic reader.
As early as the eighth century, in the troubled reign of the
Iconoclasts, Greece, and even Peloponnesus, (15) were overrun
by some Sclavonian bands who outstripped the royal standard
of Bulgaria. The strangers of old, Cadmus, and Danaus, and
Pelops, had planted in that fruitful soil the seeds of
policy and learning; but the savages of the north eradicated
what yet remained of their sickly and withered roots. In
this irruption, the country and the inhabitants were
transformed; the Grecian blood was contaminated; and the
proudest nobles of Peloponnesus were branded with the names
of foreigners and slaves. By the diligence of succeeding
princes, the land was in some measure purified from the
Barbarians; and the humble remnant was bound by an oath of
obedience, tribute, and military service, which they often
renewed and often violated. The siege of Patras was formed
by a singular concurrence of the Sclavonians of Peloponnesus
and the Saracens of Africa. In their last distress, a pious
fiction of the approach of the praetor of Corinth revived
the courage of the citizens. Their sally was bold and
successful; the strangers embarked, the rebels submitted,
and the glory of the day was ascribed to a phantom or a
stranger, who fought in the foremost ranks under the
character of St. Andrew the Apostle. The shrine which
contained his relics was decorated with the trophies of
victory, and the captive race was forever devoted to the
service and vassalage of the metropolitan church of Patras.
By the revolt of two Sclavonian tribes, in the neighborhood
of Helos and Lacedaemon, the peace of the peninsula was
often disturbed. They sometimes insulted the weakness, and
sometimes resisted the oppression, of the Byzantine
government, till at length the approach of their hostile
brethren extorted a golden bull to define the rites and
obligations of the Ezzerites and Milengi, whose annual
tribute was defined at twelve hundred pieces of gold. From
these strangers the Imperial geographer has accurately
distinguished a domestic, and perhaps original, race, who,
in some degree, might derive their blood from the
much-injured Helots. The liberality of the Romans, and
especially of Augustus, had enfranchised the maritime cities
from the dominion of Sparta; and the continuance of the same
benefit ennobled them with the title of Eleuthero, or
Free-Laconians. (16) In the time of Constantine
Porphyrogenitus, they had acquired the name of Mainotes,
under which they dishonor the claim of liberty by the
inhuman pillage of all that is shipwrecked on their rocky
shores. Their territory, barren of corn, but fruitful of
olives, extended to the Cape of Malea: they accepted a chief
or prince from the Byzantine praetor, and a light tribute of
four hundred pieces of gold was the badge of their immunity,
rather than of their dependence. The freemen of Laconia
assumed the character of Romans, and long adhered to the
religion of the Greeks. By the zeal of the emperor Basil,
they were baptized in the faith of Christ: but the altars of
Venus and Neptune had been crowned by these rustic votaries
five hundred years after they were proscribed in the Roman
world. In the theme of Peloponnesus, (17) forty cities were
still numbered, and the declining state of Sparta, Argos,
and Corinth, may be suspended in the tenth century, at an
equal distance, perhaps, between their antique splendor and
their present desolation. The duty of military service,
either in person or by substitute, was imposed on the lands
or benefices of the province; a sum of five pieces of gold
was assessed on each of the substantial tenants; and the
same capitation was shared among several heads of inferior
value. On the proclamation of an Italian war, the
Peloponnesians excused themselves by a voluntary oblation of
one hundred pounds of gold, (four thousand pounds sterling,)
and a thousand horses with their arms and trappings. The
churches and monasteries furnished their contingent; a
sacrilegious profit was extorted from the sale of
ecclesiastical honors; and the indigent bishop of Leucadia
(18) was made responsible for a pension of one hundred pieces
of gold. (19)
But the wealth of the province, and the trust of the
revenue, were founded on the fair and plentiful produce of
trade and manufacturers; and some symptoms of liberal policy
may be traced in a law which exempts from all personal taxes
the mariners of Peloponnesus, and the workmen in parchment
and purple. This denomination may be fairly applied or
extended to the manufacturers of linen, woollen, and more
especially of silk: the two former of which had flourished
in Greece since the days of Homer; and the last was
introduced perhaps as early as the reign of Justinian.
These arts, which were exercised at Corinth, Thebes, and
Argos, afforded food and occupation to a numerous people:
the men, women, and children were distributed according to
their age and strength; and, if many of these were domestic
slaves, their masters, who directed the work and enjoyed the
profit, were of a free and honorable condition. The gifts
which a rich and generous matron of Peloponnesus presented
to the emperor Basil, her adopted son, were doubtless
fabricated in the Grecian looms. Danielis bestowed a carpet
of fine wool, of a pattern which imitated the spots of a
peacock's tail, of a magnitude to overspread the floor of a
new church, erected in the triple name of Christ, of Michael
the archangel, and of the prophet Elijah. She gave six
hundred pieces of silk and linen, of various use and
denomination: the silk was painted with the Tyrian dye, and
adorned by the labors of the needle; and the linen was so
exquisitely fine, that an entire piece might be rolled in
the hollow of a cane. (20) In his description of the Greek
manufactures, an historian of Sicily discriminates their
price, according to the weight and quality of the silk, the
closeness of the texture, the beauty of the colors, and the
taste and materials of the embroidery. A single, or even a
double or treble thread was thought sufficient for ordinary
sale; but the union of six threads composed a piece of
stronger and more costly workmanship. Among the colors, he
celebrates, with affectation of eloquence, the fiery blaze
of the scarlet, and the softer lustre of the green. The
embroidery was raised either in silk or gold: the more
simple ornament of stripes or circles was surpassed by the
nicer imitation of flowers: the vestments that were
fabricated for the palace or the altar often glittered with
precious stones; and the figures were delineated in strings
of Oriental pearls. (21) Till the twelfth century, Greece
alone, of all the countries of Christendom, was possessed of
the insect who is taught by nature, and of the workmen who
are instructed by art, to prepare this elegant luxury. But
the secret had been stolen by the dexterity and diligence of
the Arabs: the caliphs of the East and West scorned to
borrow from the unbelievers their furniture and apparel; and
two cities of Spain, Almeria and Lisbon, were famous for the
manufacture, the use, and, perhaps, the exportation, of
silk. It was first introduced into Sicily by the Normans;
and this emigration of trade distinguishes the victory of
Roger from the uniform and fruitless hostilities of every
age. After the sack of Corinth, Athens, and Thebes, his
lieutenant embarked with a captive train of weavers and
artificers of both sexes, a trophy glorious to their master,
and disgraceful to the Greek emperor. (22) The king of Sicily
was not insensible of the value of the present; and, in the
restitution of the prisoners, he excepted only the male and
female manufacturers of Thebes and Corinth, who labor, says
the Byzantine historian, under a barbarous lord, like the
old Eretrians in the service of Darius. (23) A stately
edifice, in the palace of Palermo, was erected for the use
of this industrious colony; (24) and the art was propagated
by their children and disciples to satisfy the increasing
demand of the western world. The decay of the looms of
Sicily may be ascribed to the troubles of the island, and
the competition of the Italian cities. In the year thirteen
hundred and fourteen, Lucca alone, among her sister
republics, enjoyed the lucrative monopoly. (25) A domestic
revolution dispersed the manufacturers to Florence, Bologna,
Venice, Milan, and even the countries beyond the Alps; and
thirteen years after this event the statutes of Modena
enjoin the planting of mulberry-trees, and regulate the
duties on raw silk. (26) The northern climates are less
propitious to the education of the silkworm; but the
industry of France and England (27) is supplied and enriched
by the productions of Italy and China.
I must repeat the complaint that the vague and scanty
memorials of the times will not afford any just estimate of
the taxes, the revenue, and the resources of the Greek
empire. From every province of Europe and Asia the rivulets
of gold and silver discharged into the Imperial reservoir a
copious and perennial stream. The separation of the
branches from the trunk increased the relative magnitude of
Constantinople; and the maxims of despotism contracted the
state to the capital, the capital to the palace, and the
palace to the royal person. A Jewish traveller, who visited
the East in the twelfth century, is lost in his admiration
of the Byzantine riches. "It is here," says Benjamin of
Tudela, "in the queen of cities, that the tributes of the
Greek empire are annually deposited and the lofty towers are
filled with precious magazines of silk, purple, and gold.
It is said, that Constantinople pays each day to her
sovereign twenty thousand pieces of gold; which are levied
on the shops, taverns, and markets, on the merchants of
Persia and Egypt, of Russia and Hungary, of Italy and Spain,
who frequent the capital by sea and land." (28) In all
pecuniary matters, the authority of a Jew is doubtless
respectable; but as the three hundred and sixty-five days
would produce a yearly income exceeding seven millions
sterling, I am tempted to retrench at least the numerous
festivals of the Greek calendar. The mass of treasure that
was saved by Theodora and Basil the Second will suggest a
splendid, though indefinite, idea of their supplies and
resources. The mother of Michael, before she retired to a
cloister, attempted to check or expose the prodigality of
her ungrateful son, by a free and faithful account of the
wealth which he inherited; one hundred and nine thousand
pounds of gold, and three hundred thousand of silver, the
fruits of her own economy and that of her deceased husband.
(29) The avarice of Basil is not less renowned than his valor
and fortune: his victorious armies were paid and rewarded
without breaking into the mass of two hundred thousand
pounds of gold, (about eight millions sterling,) which he
had buried in the subterraneous vaults of the palace. (30)
Such accumulation of treasure is rejected by the theory and
practice of modern policy; and we are more apt to compute
the national riches by the use and abuse of the public
credit. Yet the maxims of antiquity are still embraced by a
monarch formidable to his enemies; by a republic respectable
to her allies; and both have attained their respective ends
of military power and domestic tranquillity.
Whatever might be consumed for the present wants, or
reserved for the future use, of the state, the first and
most sacred demand was for the pomp and pleasure of the
emperor, and his discretion only could define the measure of
his private expense. The princes of Constantinople were far
removed from the simplicity of nature; yet, with the
revolving seasons, they were led by taste or fashion to
withdraw to a purer air, from the smoke and tumult of the
capital. They enjoyed, or affected to enjoy, the rustic
festival of the vintage: their leisure was amused by the
exercise of the chase and the calmer occupation of fishing,
and in the summer heats, they were shaded from the sun, and
refreshed by the cooling breezes from the sea. The coasts
and islands of Asia and Europe were covered with their
magnificent villas; but, instead of the modest art which
secretly strives to hide itself and to decorate the scenery
of nature, the marble structure of their gardens served only
to expose the riches of the lord, and the labors of the
architect. The successive casualties of inheritance and
forfeiture had rendered the sovereign proprietor of many
stately houses in the city and suburbs, of which twelve were
appropriated to the ministers of state; but the great
palace, (31) the centre of the Imperial residence, was fixed
during eleven centuries to the same position, between the
hippodrome, the cathedral of St. Sophia, and the gardens,
which descended by many a terrace to the shores of the
Propontis. The primitive edifice of the first Constantine
was a copy, or rival, of ancient Rome; the gradual
improvements of his successors aspired to emulate the
wonders of the old world, (32) and in the tenth century, the
Byzantine palace excited the admiration, at least of the
Latins, by an unquestionable preeminence of strength, size,
and magnificence. (33) But the toil and treasure of so many
ages had produced a vast and irregular pile: each separate
building was marked with the character of the times and of
the founder; and the want of space might excuse the reigning
monarch, who demolished, perhaps with secret satisfaction,
the works of his predecessors. The economy of the emperor
Theophilus allowed a more free and ample scope for his
domestic luxury and splendor. A favorite ambassador, who
had astonished the Abbassides themselves by his pride and
liberality, presented on his return the model of a palace,
which the caliph of Bagdad had recently constructed on the
banks of the Tigris. The model was instantly copied and
surpassed: the new buildings of Theophilus (34) were
accompanied with gardens, and with five churches, one of
which was conspicuous for size and beauty: it was crowned
with three domes, the roof of gilt brass reposed on columns
of Italian marble, and the walls were incrusted with marbles
of various colors. In the face of the church, a
semicircular portico, of the figure and name of the Greek
sigma, was supported by fifteen columns of Phrygian marble,
and the subterraneous vaults were of a similar construction.
The square before the sigma was decorated with a fountain,
and the margin of the basin was lined and encompassed with
plates of silver. In the beginning of each season, the
basin, instead of water, was replenished with the most
exquisite fruits, which were abandoned to the populace for
the entertainment of the prince. He enjoyed this tumultuous
spectacle from a throne resplendent with gold and gems,
which was raised by a marble staircase to the height of a
lofty terrace. Below the throne were seated the officers of
his guards, the magistrates, the chiefs of the factions of
the circus; the inferior steps were occupied by the people,
and the place below was covered with troops of dancers,
singers, and pantomimes. The square was surrounded by the
hall of justice, the arsenal, and the various offices of
business and pleasure; and the purple chamber was named from
the annual distribution of robes of scarlet and purple by
the hand of the empress herself. The long series of the
apartments was adapted to the seasons, and decorated with
marble and porphyry, with painting, sculpture, and mosaics,
with a profusion of gold, silver, and precious stones. His
fanciful magnificence employed the skill and patience of
such artists as the times could afford: but the taste of
Athens would have despised their frivolous and costly
labors; a golden tree, with its leaves and branches, which
sheltered a multitude of birds warbling their artificial
notes, and two lions of massy gold, and of natural size, who
looked and roared like their brethren of the forest. The
successors of Theophilus, of the Basilian and Comnenian
dynasties, were not less ambitious of leaving some memorial
of their residence; and the portion of the palace most
splendid and august was dignified with the title of the
golden triclinium. (35) With becoming modesty, the rich and
noble Greeks aspired to imitate their sovereign, and when
they passed through the streets on horseback, in their robes
of silk and embroidery, they were mistaken by the children
for kings. (36) A matron of Peloponnesus, (37) who had
cherished the infant fortunes of Basil the Macedonian, was
excited by tenderness or vanity to visit the greatness of
her adopted son. In a journey of five hundred miles from
Patras to Constantinople, her age or indolence declined the
fatigue of a horse or carriage: the soft litter or bed of
Danielis was transported on the shoulders of ten robust
slaves; and as they were relieved at easy distances, a band
of three hundred were selected for the performance of this
service. She was entertained in the Byzantine palace with
filial reverence, and the honors of a queen; and whatever
might be the origin of her wealth, her gifts were not
unworthy of the regal dignity. I have already described the
fine and curious manufactures of Peloponnesus, of linen,
silk, and woollen; but the most acceptable of her presents
consisted in three hundred beautiful youths, of whom one
hundred were eunuchs; (38) "for she was not ignorant," says
the historian, "that the air of the palace is more congenial
to such insects, than a shepherd's dairy to the flies of the
summer." During her lifetime, she bestowed the greater part
of her estates in Peloponnesus, and her testament instituted
Leo, the son of Basil, her universal heir. After the payment
of the legacies, fourscore villas or farms were added to the
Imperial domain; and three thousand slaves of Danielis were
enfranchised by their new lord, and transplanted as a colony
to the Italian coast. From this example of a private
matron, we may estimate the wealth and magnificence of the
emperors. Yet our enjoyments are confined by a narrow
circle; and, whatsoever may be its value, the luxury of life
is possessed with more innocence and safety by the master of
his own, than by the steward of the public, fortune.
In an absolute government, which levels the distinctions of
noble and plebeian birth, the sovereign is the sole fountain
of honor; and the rank, both in the palace and the empire,
depends on the titles and offices which are bestowed and
resumed by his arbitrary will. Above a thousand years, from
Vespasian to Alexius Comnenus, (39) the Caesar was the second
person, or at least the second degree, after the supreme
title of Augustus was more freely communicated to the sons
and brothers of the reigning monarch. To elude without
violating his promise to a powerful associate, the husband
of his sister, and, without giving himself an equal, to
reward the piety of his brother Isaac, the crafty Alexius
interposed a new and supereminent dignity. The happy
flexibility of the Greek tongue allowed him to compound the
names of Augustus and Emperor (Sebastos and Autocrator,) and
the union produces the sonorous title of Sebastocrator. He
was exalted above the Caesar on the first step of the
throne: the public acclamations repeated his name; and he
was only distinguished from the sovereign by some peculiar
ornaments of the head and feet. The emperor alone could
assume the purple or red buskins, and the close diadem or
tiara, which imitated the fashion of the Persian kings. (40)
It was a high pyramidal cap of cloth or silk, almost
concealed by a profusion of pearls and jewels: the crown was
formed by a horizontal circle and two arches of gold: at the
summit, the point of their intersection, was placed a globe
or cross, and two strings or lappets of pearl depended on
either cheek. Instead of red, the buskins of the
Sebastocrator and Caesar were green; and on their open
coronets or crowns, the precious gems were more sparingly
distributed. Beside and below the Caesar the fancy of
Alexius created the Panhypersebastos and the Protosebastos,
whose sound and signification will satisfy a Grecian ear.
They imply a superiority and a priority above the simple
name of Augustus; and this sacred and primitive title of the
Roman prince was degraded to the kinsmen and servants of the
Byzantine court. The daughter of Alexius applauds, with
fond complacency, this artful gradation of hopes and honors;
but the science of words is accessible to the meanest
capacity; and this vain dictionary was easily enriched by
the pride of his successors. To their favorite sons or
brothers, they imparted the more lofty appellation of Lord
or Despot, which was illustrated with new ornaments, and
prerogatives, and placed immediately after the person of the
emperor himself. The five titles of, 1. Despot; 2.
Sebastocrator; 3. Caesar; 4. Panhypersebastos; and, 5.
Protosebastos; were usually confined to the princes of his
blood: they were the emanations of his majesty; but as they
exercised no regular functions, their existence was useless,
and their authority precarious.
But in every monarchy the substantial powers of government
must be divided and exercised by the ministers of the palace
and treasury, the fleet and army. The titles alone can
differ; and in the revolution of ages, the counts and
praefects, the praetor and quaestor, insensibly descended,
while their servants rose above their heads to the first
honors of the state. 1. In a monarchy, which refers every
object to the person of the prince, the care and ceremonies
of the palace form the most respectable department. The
Curopalata, (41) so illustrious in the age of Justinian, was
supplanted by the Protovestiare, whose primitive functions
were limited to the custody of the wardrobe. From thence
his jurisdiction was extended over the numerous menials of
pomp and luxury; and he presided with his silver wand at the
public and private audience. 2. In the ancient system of
Constantine, the name of Logothete, or accountant, was
applied to the receivers of the finances: the principal
officers were distinguished as the Logothetes of the domain,
of the posts, the army, the private and public treasure; and
the great Logothete, the supreme guardian of the laws and
revenues, is compared with the chancellor of the Latin
monarchies. (42) His discerning eye pervaded the civil
administration; and he was assisted, in due subordination,
by the eparch or praefect of the city, the first secretary,
and the keepers of the privy seal, the archives, and the red
or purple ink which was reserved for the sacred signature of
the emperor alone. (43) The introductor and interpreter of
foreign ambassadors were the great Chiauss (44) and the
Dragoman, (45) two names of Turkish origin, and which are
still familiar to the Sublime Porte. 3. From the humble
style and service of guards, the Domestics insensibly rose
to the station of generals; the military themes of the East
and West, the legions of Europe and Asia, were often
divided, till the great Domestic was finally invested with
the universal and absolute command of the land forces. The
Protostrator, in his original functions, was the assistant
of the emperor when he mounted on horseback: he gradually
became the lieutenant of the great Domestic in the field;
and his jurisdiction extended over the stables, the cavalry,
and the royal train of hunting and hawking. The
Stratopedarch was the great judge of the camp: the
Protospathaire commanded the guards; the Constable, (46) the
great Aeteriarch, and the Acolyth, were the separate chiefs
of the Franks, the Barbarians, and the Varangi, or English,
the mercenary strangers, who, a the decay of the national
spirit, formed the nerve of the Byzantine armies. 4. The
naval powers were under the command of the great Duke; in
his absence they obeyed the great Drungaire of the fleet;
and, in his place, the Emir, or Admiral, a name of Saracen
extraction, (47) but which has been naturalized in all the
modern languages of Europe. Of these officers, and of many
more whom it would be useless to enumerate, the civil and
military hierarchy was framed. Their honors and emoluments,
their dress and titles, their mutual salutations and
respective preeminence, were balanced with more exquisite
labor than would have fixed the constitution of a free
people; and the code was almost perfect when this baseless
fabric, the monument of pride and servitude, was forever
buried in the ruins of the empire. (48)
The most lofty titles, and the most humble postures, which
devotion has applied to the Supreme Being, have been
prostituted by flattery and fear to creatures of the same
nature with ourselves. The mode of adoration, (49) of
falling prostrate on the ground, and kissing the feet of the
emperor, was borrowed by Diocletian from Persian servitude;
but it was continued and aggravated till the last age of the
Greek monarchy. Excepting only on Sundays, when it was
waived, from a motive of religious pride, this humiliating
reverence was exacted from all who entered the royal
presence, from the princes invested with the diadem and
purple, and from the ambassadors who represented their
independent sovereigns, the caliphs of Asia, Egypt, or
Spain, the kings of France and Italy, and the Latin emperors
of ancient Rome. In his transactions of business, Liutprand,
bishop of Cremona, (50) asserted the free spirit of a Frank
and the dignity of his master Otho. Yet his sincerity
cannot disguise the abasement of his first audience. When
he approached the throne, the birds of the golden tree began
to warble their notes, which were accompanied by the
roarings of the two lions of gold. With his two companions
Liutprand was compelled to bow and to fall prostrate; and
thrice to touch the ground with his forehead. He arose, but
in the short interval, the throne had been hoisted from the
floor to the ceiling, the Imperial figure appeared in new
and more gorgeous apparel, and the interview was concluded
in haughty and majestic silence. In this honest and curious
narrative, the Bishop of Cremona represents the ceremonies
of the Byzantine court, which are still practised in the
Sublime Porte, and which were preserved in the last age by
the dukes of Muscovy or Russia. After a long journey by sea
and land, from Venice to Constantinople, the ambassador
halted at the golden gate, till he was conducted by the
formal officers to the hospitable palace prepared for his
reception; but this palace was a prison, and his jealous
keepers prohibited all social intercourse either with
strangers or natives. At his first audience, he offered the
gifts of his master, slaves, and golden vases, and costly
armor. The ostentatious payment of the officers and troops
displayed before his eyes the riches of the empire: he was
entertained at a royal banquet, (51) in which the ambassadors
of the nations were marshalled by the esteem or contempt of
the Greeks: from his own table, the emperor, as the most
signal favor, sent the plates which he had tasted; and his
favorites were dismissed with a robe of honor. (52) In the
morning and evening of each day, his civil and military
servants attended their duty in the palace; their labors
were repaid by the sight, perhaps by the smile, of their
lord; his commands were signified by a nod or a sign: but
all earthly greatness stood silent and submissive in his
presence. In his regular or extraordinary processions
through the capital, he unveiled his person to the public
view: the rites of policy were connected with those of
religion, and his visits to the principal churches were
regulated by the festivals of the Greek calendar. On the
eve of these processions, the gracious or devout intention
of the monarch was proclaimed by the heralds. The streets
were cleared and purified; the pavement was strewed with
flowers; the most precious furniture, the gold and silver
plate, and silken hangings, were displayed from the windows
and balconies, and a severe discipline restrained and
silenced the tumult of the populace. The march was opened
by the military officers at the head of their troops: they
were followed in long order by the magistrates and ministers
of the civil government: the person of the emperor was
guarded by his eunuchs and domestics, and at the church door
he was solemnly received by the patriarch and his clergy.
The task of applause was not abandoned to the rude and
spontaneous voices of the crowd. The most convenient
stations were occupied by the bands of the blue and green
factions of the circus; and their furious conflicts, which
had shaken the capital, were insensibly sunk to an emulation
of servitude. From either side they echoed in responsive
melody the praises of the emperor; their poets and musicians
directed the choir, and long life (53) and victory were the
burden of every song. The same acclamations were performed
at the audience, the banquet, and the church; and as an
evidence of boundless sway, they were repeated in the Latin,
(54) Gothic, Persian, French, and even English language, (55)
by the mercenaries who sustained the real or fictitious
character of those nations. By the pen of Constantine
Porphyrogenitus, this science of form and flattery has been
reduced into a pompous and trifling volume, (56) which the
vanity of succeeding times might enrich with an ample
supplement. Yet the calmer reflection of a prince would
surely suggest that the same acclamations were applied to
every character and every reign: and if he had risen from a
private rank, he might remember, that his own voice had been
the loudest and most eager in applause, at the very moment
when he envied the fortune, or conspired against the life,
of his predecessor. (57)
The princes of the North, of the nations, says Constantine,
without faith or fame, were ambitious of mingling their
blood with the blood of the Caesars, by their marriage with
a royal virgin, or by the nuptials of their daughters with a
Roman prince. (58) The aged monarch, in his instructions to
his son, reveals the secret maxims of policy and pride; and
suggests the most decent reasons for refusing these insolent
and unreasonable demands. Every animal, says the discreet
emperor, is prompted by the distinction of language,
religion, and manners. A just regard to the purity of
descent preserves the harmony of public and private life;
but the mixture of foreign blood is the fruitful source of
disorder and discord. Such had ever been the opinion and
practice of the sage Romans: their jurisprudence proscribed
the marriage of a citizen and a stranger: in the days of
freedom and virtue, a senator would have scorned to match
his daughter with a king: the glory of Mark Antony was
sullied by an Egyptian wife: (59) and the emperor Titus was
compelled, by popular censure, to dismiss with reluctance
the reluctant Berenice. (60) This perpetual interdict was
ratified by the fabulous sanction of the great Constantine.
The ambassadors of the nations, more especially of the
unbelieving nations, were solemnly admonished, that such
strange alliances had been condemned by the founder of the
church and city. The irrevocable law was inscribed on the
altar of St. Sophia; and the impious prince who should stain
the majesty of the purple was excluded from the civil and
ecclesiastical communion of the Romans. If the ambassadors
were instructed by any false brethren in the Byzantine
history, they might produce three memorable examples of the
violation of this imaginary law: the marriage of Leo, or
rather of his father Constantine the Fourth, with the
daughter of the king of the Chozars, the nuptials of the
granddaughter of Romanus with a Bulgarian prince, and the
union of Bertha of France or Italy with young Romanus, the
son of Constantine Porphyrogenitus himself. To these
objections three answers were prepared, which solved the
difficulty and established the law. I. The deed and the
guilt of Constantine Copronymus were acknowledged. The
Isaurian heretic, who sullied the baptismal font, and
declared war against the holy images, had indeed embraced a
Barbarian wife. By this impious alliance he accomplished
the measure of his crimes, and was devoted to the just
censure of the church and of posterity. II. Romanus could
not be alleged as a legitimate emperor; he was a plebeian
usurper, ignorant of the laws, and regardless of the honor,
of the monarchy. His son Christopher, the father of the
bride, was the third in rank in the college of princes, at
once the subject and the accomplice of a rebellious parent.
The Bulgarians were sincere and devout Christians; and the
safety of the empire, with the redemption of many thousand
captives, depended on this preposterous alliance. Yet no
consideration could dispense from the law of Constantine:
the clergy, the senate, and the people, disapproved the
conduct of Romanus; and he was reproached, both in his life
and death, as the author of the public disgrace. III. For
the marriage of his own son with the daughter of Hugo, king
of Italy, a more honorable defence is contrived by the wise
Porphyrogenitus. Constantine, the great and holy, esteemed
the fidelity and valor of the Franks; (61) and his prophetic
spirit beheld the vision of their future greatness. They
alone were excepted from the general prohibition: Hugo, king
of France, was the lineal descendant of Charlemagne; (62) and
his daughter Bertha inherited the prerogatives of her family
and nation. The voice of truth and malice insensibly
betrayed the fraud or error of the Imperial court. The
patrimonial estate of Hugo was reduced from the monarchy of
France to the simple county of Arles; though it was not
denied, that, in the confusion of the times, he had usurped
the sovereignty of Provence, and invaded the kingdom of
Italy. His father was a private noble; and if Bertha
derived her female descent from the Carlovingian line, every
step was polluted with illegitimacy or vice. The
grandmother of Hugo was the famous Valdrada, the concubine,
rather than the wife, of the second Lothair; whose adultery,
divorce, and second nuptials, had provoked against him the
thunders of the Vatican. His mother, as she was styled, the
great Bertha, was successively the wife of the count of
Arles and of the marquis of Tuscany: France and Italy were
scandalized by her gallantries; and, till the age of
threescore, her lovers, of every degree, were the zealous
servants of her ambition. The example of maternal
incontinence was copied by the king of Italy; and the three
favorite concubines of Hugo were decorated with the classic
names of Venus, Juno, and Semele. (63) The daughter of Venus
was granted to the solicitations of the Byzantine court: her
name of Bertha was changed to that of Eudoxia; and she was
wedded, or rather betrothed, to young Romanus, the future
heir of the empire of the East. The consummation of this
foreign alliance was suspended by the tender age of the two
parties; and, at the end of five years, the union was
dissolved by the death of the virgin spouse. The second
wife of the emperor Romanus was a maiden of plebeian, but of
Roman, birth; and their two daughters, Theophano and Anne,
were given in marriage to the princes of the earth. The
eldest was bestowed, as the pledge of peace, on the eldest
son of the great Otho, who had solicited this alliance with
arms and embassies. It might legally be questioned how far
a Saxon was entitled to the privilege of the French nation;
but every scruple was silenced by the fame and piety of a
hero who had restored the empire of the West. After the
death of her father-in-law and husband, Theophano governed
Rome, Italy, and Germany, during the minority of her son,
the third Otho; and the Latins have praised the virtues of
an empress, who sacrificed to a superior duty the
remembrance of her country. (64) In the nuptials of her
sister Anne, every prejudice was lost, and every
consideration of dignity was superseded, by the stronger
argument of necessity and fear. A Pagan of the North,
Wolodomir, great prince of Russia, aspired to a daughter of
the Roman purple; and his claim was enforced by the threats
of war, the promise of conversion, and the offer of a
powerful succor against a domestic rebel. A victim of her
religion and country, the Grecian princess was torn from the
palace of her fathers, and condemned to a savage reign, and
a hopeless exile on the banks of the Borysthenes, or in the
neighborhood of the Polar circle. (65) Yet the marriage of
Anne was fortunate and fruitful: the daughter of her
grandson Joroslaus was recommended by her Imperial descent;
and the king of France, Henry I., sought a wife on the last
borders of Europe and Christendom. (66)
In the Byzantine palace, the emperor was the first slave of
the ceremonies which he imposed, of the rigid forms which
regulated each word and gesture, besieged him in the palace,
and violated the leisure of his rural solitude. But the
lives and fortunes of millions hung on his arbitrary will;
and the firmest minds, superior to the allurements of pomp
and luxury, may be seduced by the more active pleasure of
commanding their equals. The legislative and executive
powers were centred in the person of the monarch, and the
last remains of the authority of the senate were finally
eradicated by Leo the philosopher. (67) A lethargy of
servitude had benumbed the minds of the Greeks: in the
wildest tumults of rebellion they never aspired to the idea
of a free constitution; and the private character of the
prince was the only source and measure of their public
happiness. Superstition rivetted their chains; in the church
of St. Sophia he was solemnly crowned by the patriarch; at
the foot of the altar, they pledged their passive and
unconditional obedience to his government and family. On
his side he engaged to abstain as much as possible from the
capital punishments of death and mutilation; his orthodox
creed was subscribed with his own hand, and he promised to
obey the decrees of the seven synods, and the canons of the
holy church. (68) But the assurance of mercy was loose and
indefinite: he swore, not to his people, but to an invisible
judge; and except in the inexpiable guilt of heresy, the
ministers of heaven were always prepared to preach the
indefeasible right, and to absolve the venial
transgressions, of their sovereign. The Greek ecclesiastics
were themselves the subjects of the civil magistrate: at the
nod of a tyrant, the bishops were created, or transferred,
or deposed, or punished with an ignominious death: whatever
might be their wealth or influence, they could never succeed
like the Latin clergy in the establishment of an independent
republic; and the patriarch of Constantinople condemned,
what he secretly envied, the temporal greatness of his Roman
brother. Yet the exercise of boundless despotism is happily
checked by the laws of nature and necessity. In proportion
to his wisdom and virtue, the master of an empire is
confined to the path of his sacred and laborious duty. In
proportion to his vice and folly, he drops the sceptre too
weighty for his hands; and the motions of the royal image
are ruled by the imperceptible thread of some minister or
favorite, who undertakes for his private interest to
exercise the task of the public oppression. In some fatal
moment, the most absolute monarch may dread the reason or
the caprice of a nation of slaves; and experience has
proved, that whatever is gained in the extent, is lost in
the safety and solidity, of regal power.
Whatever titles a despot may assume, whatever claims he may
assert, it is on the sword that he must ultimately depend to
guard him against his foreign and domestic enemies. From
the age of Charlemagne to that of the Crusades, the world
(for I overlook the remote monarchy of China) was occupied
and disputed by the three great empires or nations of the
Greeks, the Saracens, and the Franks. Their military
strength may be ascertained by a comparison of their
courage, their arts and riches, and their obedience to a
supreme head, who might call into action all the energies of
the state. The Greeks, far inferior to their rivals in the
first, were superior to the Franks, and at least equal to
the Saracens, in the second and third of these warlike
qualifications.
The wealth of the Greeks enabled them to purchase the
service of the poorer nations, and to maintain a naval power
for the protection of their coasts and the annoyance of
their enemies. (69) A commerce of mutual benefit exchanged
the gold of Constantinople for the blood of Sclavonians and
Turks, the Bulgarians and Russians: their valor contributed
to the victories of Nicephorus and Zimisces; and if a
hostile people pressed too closely on the frontier, they
were recalled to the defence of their country, and the
desire of peace, by the well-managed attack of a more
distant tribe. (70) The command of the Mediterranean, from
the mouth of the Tanais to the columns of Hercules, was
always claimed, and often possessed, by the successors of
Constantine. Their capital was filled with naval stores and
dexterous artificers: the situation of Greece and Asia, the
long coasts, deep gulfs, and numerous islands, accustomed
their subjects to the exercise of navigation; and the trade
of Venice and Amalfi supplied a nursery of seamen to the
Imperial fleet. (71) Since the time of the Peloponnesian and
Punic wars, the sphere of action had not been enlarged; and
the science of naval architecture appears to have declined.
The art of constructing those stupendous machines which
displayed three, or six, or ten, ranges of oars, rising
above, or falling behind, each other, was unknown to the
ship-builders of Constantinople, as well as to the
mechanicians of modern days. (72) The Dromones, (73) or light
galleys of the Byzantine empire, were content with two tier
of oars; each tier was composed of five-and-twenty benches;
and two rowers were seated on each bench, who plied their
oars on either side of the vessel. To these we must add the
captain or centurion, who, in time of action, stood erect
with his armor-bearer on the poop, two steersmen at the
helm, and two officers at the prow, the one to manage the
anchor, the other to point and play against the enemy the
tube of liquid fire. The whole crew, as in the infancy of
the art, performed the double service of mariners and
soldiers; they were provided with defensive and offensive
arms, with bows and arrows, which they used from the upper
deck, with long pikes, which they pushed through the
portholes of the lower tier. Sometimes, indeed, the ships
of war were of a larger and more solid construction; and the
labors of combat and navigation were more regularly divided
between seventy soldiers and two hundred and thirty
mariners. But for the most part they were of the light and
manageable size; and as the Cape of Malea in Peloponnesus
was still clothed with its ancient terrors, an Imperial
fleet was transported five miles over land across the
Isthmus of Corinth. (74) The principles of maritime tactics
had not undergone any change since the time of Thucydides: a
squadron of galleys still advanced in a crescent, charged to
the front, and strove to impel their sharp beaks against the
feeble sides of their antagonists. A machine for casting
stones and darts was built of strong timbers, in the midst
of the deck; and the operation of boarding was effected by a
crane that hoisted baskets of armed men. The language of
signals, so clear and copious in the naval grammar of the
moderns, was imperfectly expressed by the various positions
and colors of a commanding flag. In the darkness of the
night, the same orders to chase, to attack, to halt, to
retreat, to break, to form, were conveyed by the lights of
the leading galley. By land, the fire-signals were repeated
from one mountain to another; a chain of eight stations
commanded a space of five hundred miles; and Constantinople
in a few hours was apprised of the hostile motions of the
Saracens of Tarsus. (75) Some estimate may be formed of the
power of the Greek emperors, by the curious and minute
detail of the armament which was prepared for the reduction
of Crete. A fleet of one hundred and twelve galleys, and
seventy-five vessels of the Pamphylian style, was equipped
in the capital, the islands of the Aegean Sea, and the
seaports of Asia, Macedonia, and Greece. It carried
thirty-four thousand mariners, seven thousand three hundred
and forty soldiers, seven hundred Russians, and five
thousand and eighty-seven Mardaites, whose fathers had been
transplanted from the mountains of Libanus. Their pay, most
probably of a month, was computed at thirty-four centenaries
of gold, about one hundred and thirty-six thousand pounds
sterling. Our fancy is bewildered by the endless
recapitulation of arms and engines, of clothes and linen, of
bread for the men and forage for the horses, and of stores
and utensils of every description, inadequate to the
conquest of a petty island, but amply sufficient for the
establishment of a flourishing colony. (76)
The invention of the Greek fire did not, like that of gun
powder, produce a total revolution in the art of war. To
these liquid combustibles the city and empire of Constantine
owed their deliverance; and they were employed in sieges and
sea-fights with terrible effect. But they were either less
improved, or less susceptible of improvement: the engines of
antiquity, the catapultae, balistae, and battering-rams,
were still of most frequent and powerful use in the attack
and defence of fortifications; nor was the decision of
battles reduced to the quick and heavy fire of a line of
infantry, whom it were fruitless to protect with armor
against a similar fire of their enemies. Steel and iron were
still the common instruments of destruction and safety; and
the helmets, cuirasses, and shields, of the tenth century
did not, either in form or substance, essentially differ
from those which had covered the companions of Alexander or
Achilles. (77) But instead of accustoming the modern Greeks,
like the legionaries of old, to the constant and easy use of
this salutary weight, their armor was laid aside in light
chariots, which followed the march, till, on the approach of
an enemy, they resumed with haste and reluctance the unusual
encumbrance. Their offensive weapons consisted of swords,
battle-axes, and spears; but the Macedonian pike was
shortened a fourth of its length, and reduced to the more
convenient measure of twelve cubits or feet. The sharpness
of the Scythian and Arabian arrows had been severely felt;
and the emperors lament the decay of archery as a cause of
the public misfortunes, and recommend, as an advice and a
command, that the military youth, till the age of forty,
should assiduously practise the exercise of the bow. (78) The
bands, or regiments, were usually three hundred strong; and,
as a medium between the extremes of four and sixteen, the
foot soldiers of Leo and Constantine were formed eight deep;
but the cavalry charged in four ranks, from the reasonable
consideration, that the weight of the front could not be
increased by any pressure of the hindmost horses. If the
ranks of the infantry or cavalry were sometimes doubled,
this cautious array betrayed a secret distrust of the
courage of the troops, whose numbers might swell the
appearance of the line, but of whom only a chosen band would
dare to encounter the spears and swords of the Barbarians.
The order of battle must have varied according to the
ground, the object, and the adversary; but their ordinary
disposition, in two lines and a reserve, presented a
succession of hopes and resources most agreeable to the
temper as well as the judgment of the Greeks. (79) In case of
a repulse, the first line fell back into the intervals of
the second; and the reserve, breaking into two divisions,
wheeled round the flanks to improve the victory or cover the
retreat. Whatever authority could enact was accomplished,
at least in theory, by the camps and marches, the exercises
and evolutions, the edicts and books, of the Byzantine
monarch. (80) Whatever art could produce from the forge, the
loom, or the laboratory, was abundantly supplied by the
riches of the prince, and the industry of his numerous
workmen. But neither authority nor art could frame the most
important machine, the soldier himself; and if the
ceremonies of Constantine always suppose the safe and
triumphal return of the emperor, (81) his tactics seldom soar
above the means of escaping a defeat, and procrastinating
the war. (82) Notwithstanding some transient success, the
Greeks were sunk in their own esteem and that of their
neighbors. A cold hand and a loquacious tongue was the
vulgar description of the nation: the author of the tactics
was besieged in his capital; and the last of the Barbarians,
who trembled at the name of the Saracens, or Franks, could
proudly exhibit the medals of gold and silver which they had
extorted from the feeble sovereign of Constantinople. What
spirit their government and character denied, might have
been inspired in some degree by the influence of religion;
but the religion of the Greeks could only teach them to
suffer and to yield. The emperor Nicephorus, who restored
for a moment the discipline and glory of the Roman name, was
desirous of bestowing the honors of martyrdom on the
Christians who lost their lives in a holy war against the
infidels. But this political law was defeated by the
opposition of the patriarch, the bishops, and the principal
senators; and they strenuously urged the canons of St.
Basil, that all who were polluted by the bloody trade of a
soldier should be separated, during three years, from the
communion of the faithful. (83)
These scruples of the Greeks have been compared with the
tears of the primitive Moslems when they were held back from
battle; and this contrast of base superstition and
high-spirited enthusiasm, unfolds to a philosophic eye the
history of the rival nations. The subjects of the last
caliphs (84) had undoubtedly degenerated from the zeal and
faith of the companions of the prophet. Yet their martial
creed still represented the Deity as the author of war: (85)
the vital though latent spark of fanaticism still glowed in
the heart of their religion, and among the Saracens, who
dwelt on the Christian borders, it was frequently rekindled
to a lively and active flame. Their regular force was
formed of the valiant slaves who had been educated to guard
the person and accompany the standard of their lord: but the
Mussulman people of Syria and Cilicia, of Africa and Spain,
was awakened by the trumpet which proclaimed a holy war
against the infidels. The rich were ambitious of death or
victory in the cause of God; the poor were allured by the
hopes of plunder; and the old, the infirm, and the women,
assumed their share of meritorious service by sending their
substitutes, with arms and horses, into the field. These
offensive and defensive arms were similar in strength and
temper to those of the Romans, whom they far excelled in the
management of the horse and the bow: the massy silver of
their belts, their bridles, and their swords, displayed the
magnificence of a prosperous nation; and except some black
archers of the South, the Arabs disdained the naked bravery
of their ancestors. Instead of wagons, they were attended
by a long train of camels, mules, and asses: the multitude
of these animals, whom they bedecked with flags and
streamers, appeared to swell the pomp and magnitude of their
host; and the horses of the enemy were often disordered by
the uncouth figure and odious smell of the camels of the
East. Invincible by their patience of thirst and heat, their
spirits were frozen by a winter's cold, and the
consciousness of their propensity to sleep exacted the most
rigorous precautions against the surprises of the night.
Their order of battle was a long square of two deep and
solid lines; the first of archers, the second of cavalry.
In their engagements by sea and land, they sustained with
patient firmness the fury of the attack, and seldom advanced
to the charge till they could discern and oppress the
lassitude of their foes. But if they were repulsed and
broken, they knew not how to rally or renew the combat; and
their dismay was heightened by the superstitious prejudice,
that God had declared himself on the side of their enemies.
The decline and fall of the caliphs countenanced this
fearful opinion; nor were there wanting, among the
Mahometans and Christians, some obscure prophecies (86) which
prognosticated their alternate defeats. The unity of the
Arabian empire was dissolved, but the independent fragments
were equal to populous and powerful kingdoms; and in their
naval and military armaments, an emir of Aleppo or Tunis
might command no despicable fund of skill, and industry, and
treasure. In their transactions of peace and war with the
Saracens, the princes of Constantinople too often felt that
these Barbarians had nothing barbarous in their discipline;
and that if they were destitute of original genius, they had
been endowed with a quick spirit of curiosity and imitation.
The model was indeed more perfect than the copy; their
ships, and engines, and fortifications, were of a less
skilful construction; and they confess, without shame, that
the same God who has given a tongue to the Arabians, had
more nicely fashioned the hands of the Chinese, and the
heads of the Greeks. (87)
A name of some German tribes between the Rhine and the Weser
had spread its victorious influence over the greatest part
of Gaul, Germany, and Italy; and the common appellation of
Franks (88) was applied by the Greeks and Arabians to the
Christians of the Latin church, the nations of the West, who
stretched beyond their knowledge to the shores of the
Atlantic Ocean. The vast body had been inspired and united
by the soul of Charlemagne; but the division and degeneracy
of his race soon annihilated the Imperial power, which would
have rivalled the Caesars of Byzantium, and revenged the
indignities of the Christian name. The enemies no longer
feared, nor could the subjects any longer trust, the
application of a public revenue, the labors of trade and
manufactures in the military service, the mutual aid of
provinces and armies, and the naval squadrons which were
regularly stationed from the mouth of the Elbe to that of
the Tyber. In the beginning of the tenth century, the
family of Charlemagne had almost disappeared; his monarchy
was broken into many hostile and independent states; the
regal title was assumed by the most ambitious chiefs; their
revolt was imitated in a long subordination of anarchy and
discord, and the nobles of every province disobeyed their
sovereign, oppressed their vassals, and exercised perpetual
hostilities against their equals and neighbors. Their
private wars, which overturned the fabric of government,
fomented the martial spirit of the nation. In the system of
modern Europe, the power of the sword is possessed, at least
in fact, by five or six mighty potentates; their operations
are conducted on a distant frontier, by an order of men who
devote their lives to the study and practice of the military
art: the rest of the country and community enjoys in the
midst of war the tranquillity of peace, and is only made
sensible of the change by the aggravation or decrease of the
public taxes. In the disorders of the tenth and eleventh
centuries, every peasant was a soldier, and every village a
fortification; each wood or valley was a scene of murder and
rapine; and the lords of each castle were compelled to
assume the character of princes and warriors. To their own
courage and policy they boldly trusted for the safety of
their family, the protection of their lands, and the revenge
of their injuries; and, like the conquerors of a larger
size, they were too apt to transgress the privilege of
defensive war. The powers of the mind and body were
hardened by the presence of danger and necessity of
resolution: the same spirit refused to desert a friend and
to forgive an enemy; and, instead of sleeping under the
guardian care of a magistrate, they proudly disdained the
authority of the laws. In the days of feudal anarchy, the
instruments of agriculture and art were converted into the
weapons of bloodshed: the peaceful occupations of civil and
ecclesiastical society were abolished or corrupted; and the
bishop who exchanged his mitre for a helmet, was more
forcibly urged by the manners of the times than by the
obligation of his tenure. (89)
The love of freedom and of arms was felt, with conscious
pride, by the Franks themselves, and is observed by the
Greeks with some degree of amazement and terror. "The
Franks," says the emperor Constantine, "are bold and valiant
to the verge of temerity; and their dauntless spirit is
supported by the contempt of danger and death. In the field
and in close onset, they press to the front, and rush
headlong against the enemy, without deigning to compute
either his numbers or their own. Their ranks are formed by
the firm connections of consanguinity and friendship; and
their martial deeds are prompted by the desire of saving or
revenging their dearest companions. In their eyes, a
retreat is a shameful flight; and flight is indelible
infamy." (90) A nation endowed with such high and intrepid
spirit, must have been secure of victory if these advantages
had not been counter-balanced by many weighty defects. The
decay of their naval power left the Greeks and Saracens in
possession of the sea, for every purpose of annoyance and
supply. In the age which preceded the institution of
knighthood, the Franks were rude and unskilful in the
service of cavalry; (91) and in all perilous emergencies,
their warriors were so conscious of their ignorance, that
they chose to dismount from their horses and fight on foot.
Unpractised in the use of pikes, or of missile weapons, they
were encumbered by the length of their swords, the weight of
their armor, the magnitude of their shields, and, if I may
repeat the satire of the meagre Greeks, by their unwieldy
intemperance. Their independent spirit disdained the yoke of
subordination, and abandoned the standard of their chief, if
he attempted to keep the field beyond the term of their
stipulation or service. On all sides they were open to the
snares of an enemy less brave but more artful than
themselves. They might be bribed, for the Barbarians were
venal; or surprised in the night, for they neglected the
precautions of a close encampment or vigilant sentinels.
The fatigues of a summer's campaign exhausted their strength
and patience, and they sunk in despair if their voracious
appetite was disappointed of a plentiful supply of wine and
of food. This general character of the Franks was marked
with some national and local shades, which I should ascribe
to accident rather than to climate, but which were visible
both to natives and to foreigners. An ambassador of the
great Otho declared, in the palace of Constantinople, that
the Saxons could dispute with swords better than with pens,
and that they preferred inevitable death to the dishonor of
turning their backs to an enemy. (92) It was the glory of the
nobles of France, that, in their humble dwellings, war and
rapine were the only pleasure, the sole occupation, of their
lives. They affected to deride the palaces, the banquets,
the polished manner of the Italians, who in the estimate of
the Greeks themselves had degenerated from the liberty and
valor of the ancient Lombards. (93)
By the well-known edict of Caracalla, his subjects, from
Britain to Egypt, were entitled to the name and privileges
of Romans, and their national sovereign might fix his
occasional or permanent residence in any province of their
common country. In the division of the East and West, an
ideal unity was scrupulously observed, and in their titles,
laws, and statutes, the successors of Arcadius and Honorius
announced themselves as the inseparable colleagues of the
same office, as the joint sovereigns of the Roman world and
city, which were bounded by the same limits. After the fall
of the Western monarchy, the majesty of the purple resided
solely in the princes of Constantinople; and of these,
Justinian was the first who, after a divorce of sixty years,
regained the dominion of ancient Rome, and asserted, by the
right of conquest, the august title of Emperor of the
Romans. (94) A motive of vanity or discontent solicited one
of his successors, Constans the Second, to abandon the
Thracian Bosphorus, and to restore the pristine honors of
the Tyber: an extravagant project, (exclaims the malicious
Byzantine,) as if he had despoiled a beautiful and blooming
virgin, to enrich, or rather to expose, the deformity of a
wrinkled and decrepit matron. (95) But the sword of the
Lombards opposed his settlement in Italy: he entered Rome
not as a conqueror, but as a fugitive, and, after a visit of
twelve days, he pillaged, and forever deserted, the ancient
capital of the world. (96) The final revolt and separation of
Italy was accomplished about two centuries after the
conquests of Justinian, and from his reign we may date the
gradual oblivion of the Latin tongue. That legislator had
composed his Institutes, his Code, and his Pandects, in a
language which he celebrates as the proper and public style
of the Roman government, the consecrated idiom of the palace
and senate of Constantinople, of the campus and tribunals of
the East. (97) But this foreign dialect was unknown to the
people and soldiers of the Asiatic provinces, it was
imperfectly understood by the greater part of the
interpreters of the laws and the ministers of the state.
After a short conflict, nature and habit prevailed over the
obsolete institutions of human power: for the general
benefit of his subjects, Justinian promulgated his novels in
the two languages: the several parts of his voluminous
jurisprudence were successively translated; (98) the original
was forgotten, the version was studied, and the Greek, whose
intrinsic merit deserved indeed the preference, obtained a
legal, as well as popular establishment in the Byzantine
monarchy. The birth and residence of succeeding princes
estranged them from the Roman idiom: Tiberius by the Arabs,
(99) and Maurice by the Italians, (100) are distinguished as
the first of the Greek Caesars, as the founders of a new
dynasty and empire: the silent revolution was accomplished
before the death of Heraclius; and the ruins of the Latin
speech were darkly preserved in the terms of jurisprudence
and the acclamations of the palace. After the restoration
of the Western empire by Charlemagne and the Othos, the
names of Franks and Latins acquired an equal signification
and extent; and these haughty Barbarians asserted, with some
justice, their superior claim to the language and dominion
of Rome. They insulted the alien of the East who had
renounced the dress and idiom of Romans; and their
reasonable practice will justify the frequent appellation of
Greeks. (101) But this contemptuous appellation was
indignantly rejected by the prince and people to whom it was
applied. Whatsoever changes had been introduced by the
lapse of ages, they alleged a lineal and unbroken succession
from Augustus and Constantine; and, in the lowest period of
degeneracy and decay, the name of Romans adhered to the last
fragments of the empire of Constantinople. (102)
While the government of the East was transacted in Latin,
the Greek was the language of literature and philosophy; nor
could the masters of this rich and perfect idiom be tempted
to envy the borrowed learning and imitative taste of their
Roman disciples. After the fall of Paganism, the loss of
Syria and Egypt, and the extinction of the schools of
Alexandria and Athens, the studies of the Greeks insensibly
retired to some regular monasteries, and above all, to the
royal college of Constantinople, which was burnt in the
reign of Leo the Isaurian. (103) In the pompous style of the
age, the president of that foundation was named the Sun of
Science: his twelve associates, the professors in the
different arts and faculties, were the twelve signs of the
zodiac; a library of thirty-six thousand five hundred
volumes was open to their inquiries; and they could show an
ancient manuscript of Homer, on a roll of parchment one
hundred and twenty feet in length, the intestines, as it was
fabled, of a prodigious serpent. (104) But the seventh and
eight centuries were a period of discord and darkness: the
library was burnt, the college was abolished, the
Iconoclasts are represented as the foes of antiquity; and a
savage ignorance and contempt of letters has disgraced the
princes of the Heraclean and Isaurian dynasties. (105)
In the ninth century we trace the first dawnings of the
restoration of science. (106) After the fanaticism of the
Arabs had subsided, the caliphs aspired to conquer the arts,
rather than the provinces, of the empire: their liberal
curiosity rekindled the emulation of the Greeks, brushed
away the dust from their ancient libraries, and taught them
to know and reward the philosophers, whose labors had been
hitherto repaid by the pleasure of study and the pursuit of
truth. The Caesar Bardas, the uncle of Michael the Third,
was the generous protector of letters, a title which alone
has preserved his memory and excused his ambition. A
particle of the treasures of his nephew was sometimes
diverted from the indulgence of vice and folly; a school was
opened in the palace of Magnaura; and the presence of Bardas
excited the emulation of the masters and students. At their
head was the philosopher Leo, archbishop of Thessalonica:
his profound skill in astronomy and the mathematics was
admired by the strangers of the East; and this occult
science was magnified by vulgar credulity, which modestly
supposes that all knowledge superior to its own must be the
effect of inspiration or magic. At the pressing entreaty of
the Caesar, his friend, the celebrated Photius, (107)
renounced the freedom of a secular and studious life,
ascended the patriarchal throne, and was alternately
excommunicated and absolved by the synods of the East and
West. By the confession even of priestly hatred, no art or
science, except poetry, was foreign to this universal
scholar, who was deep in thought, indefatigable in reading,
and eloquent in diction. Whilst he exercised the office of
protospathaire or captain of the guards, Photius was sent
ambassador to the caliph of Bagdad. (108) The tedious hours
of exile, perhaps of confinement, were beguiled by the hasty
composition of his Library, a living monument of erudition
and criticism. Two hundred and fourscore writers,
historians, orators, philosophers, theologians, are reviewed
without any regular method: he abridges their narrative or
doctrine, appreciates their style and character, and judges
even the fathers of the church with a discreet freedom,
which often breaks through the superstition of the times.
The emperor Basil, who lamented the defects of his own
education, intrusted to the care of Photius his son and
successor, Leo the philosopher; and the reign of that prince
and of his son Constantine Porphyrogenitus forms one of the
most prosperous aeras of the Byzantine literature. By their
munificence the treasures of antiquity were deposited in the
Imperial library; by their pens, or those of their
associates, they were imparted in such extracts and
abridgments as might amuse the curiosity, without oppressing
the indolence, of the public. Besides the Basilics, or code
of laws, the arts of husbandry and war, of feeding or
destroying the human species, were propagated with equal
diligence; and the history of Greece and Rome was digested
into fifty-three heads or titles, of which two only (of
embassies, and of virtues and vices) have escaped the
injuries of time. In every station, the reader might
contemplate the image of the past world, apply the lesson or
warning of each page, and learn to admire, perhaps to
imitate, the examples of a brighter period. I shall not
expatiate on the works of the Byzantine Greeks, who, by the
assiduous study of the ancients, have deserved, in some
measure, the remembrance and gratitude of the moderns. The
scholars of the present age may still enjoy the benefit of
the philosophical commonplace book of Stobaeus, the
grammatical and historical lexicon of Suidas, the Chiliads
of Tzetzes, which comprise six hundred narratives in twelve
thousand verses, and the commentaries on Homer of
Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica, who, from his horn
of plenty, has poured the names and authorities of four
hundred writers. From these originals, and from the numerous
tribe of scholiasts and critics, (109) some estimate may be
formed of the literary wealth of the twelfth century:
Constantinople was enlightened by the genius of Homer and
Demosthenes, of Aristotle and Plato: and in the enjoyment or
neglect of our present riches, we must envy the generation
that could still peruse the history of Theopompus, the
orations of Hyperides, the comedies of Menander, (110) and
the odes of Alcaeus and Sappho. The frequent labor of
illustration attests not only the existence, but the
popularity, of the Grecian classics: the general knowledge
of the age may be deduced from the example of two learned
females, the empress Eudocia, and the princess Anna Comnena,
who cultivated, in the purple, the arts of rhetoric and
philosophy. (111) The vulgar dialect of the city was gross
and barbarous: a more correct and elaborate style
distinguished the discourse, or at least the compositions,
of the church and palace, which sometimes affected to copy
the purity of the Attic models.
In our modern education, the painful though necessary
attainment of two languages, which are no longer living, may
consume the time and damp the ardor of the youthful student.
The poets and orators were long imprisoned in the barbarous
dialects of our Western ancestors, devoid of harmony or
grace; and their genius, without precept or example, was
abandoned to the rule and native powers of their judgment
and fancy. But the Greeks of Constantinople, after purging
away the impurities of their vulgar speech, acquired the
free use of their ancient language, the most happy
composition of human art, and a familiar knowledge of the
sublime masters who had pleased or instructed the first of
nations. But these advantages only tend to aggravate the
reproach and shame of a degenerate people. They held in
their lifeless hands the riches of their fathers, without
inheriting the spirit which had created and improved that
sacred patrimony: they read, they praised, they compiled,
but their languid souls seemed alike incapable of thought
and action. In the revolution of ten centuries, not a
single discovery was made to exalt the dignity or promote
the happiness of mankind. Not a single idea has been added
to the speculative systems of antiquity, and a succession of
patient disciples became in their turn the dogmatic teachers
of the next servile generation. Not a single composition of
history, philosophy, or literature, has been saved from
oblivion by the intrinsic beauties of style or sentiment, of
original fancy, or even of successful imitation. In prose,
the least offensive of the Byzantine writers are absolved
from censure by their naked and unpresuming simplicity: but
the orators, most eloquent (112) in their own conceit, are
the farthest removed from the models whom they affect to
emulate. In every page our taste and reason are wounded by
the choice of gigantic and obsolete words, a stiff and
intricate phraseology, the discord of images, the childish
play of false or unseasonable ornament, and the painful
attempt to elevate themselves, to astonish the reader, and
to involve a trivial meaning in the smoke of obscurity and
exaggeration. Their prose is soaring to the vicious
affectation of poetry: their poetry is sinking below the
flatness and insipidity of prose. The tragic, epic, and
lyric muses, were silent and inglorious: the bards of
Constantinople seldom rose above a riddle or epigram, a
panegyric or tale; they forgot even the rules of prosody;
and with the melody of Homer yet sounding in their ears,
they confound all measure of feet and syllables in the
impotent strains which have received the name of political
or city verses. (113) The minds of the Greek were bound in
the fetters of a base and imperious superstition which
extends her dominion round the circle of profane science.
Their understandings were bewildered in metaphysical
controversy: in the belief of visions and miracles, they had
lost all principles of moral evidence, and their taste was
vitiates by the homilies of the monks, an absurd medley of
declamation and Scripture. Even these contemptible studies
were no longer dignified by the abuse of superior talents:
the leaders of the Greek church were humbly content to
admire and copy the oracles of antiquity, nor did the
schools of pulpit produce any rivals of the fame of
Athanasius and Chrysostom. (114)
In all the pursuits of active and speculative life, the
emulation of states and individuals is the most powerful
spring of the efforts and improvements of mankind. The
cities of ancient Greece were cast in the happy mixture of
union and independence, which is repeated on a larger scale,
but in a looser form, by the nations of modern Europe; the
union of language, religion, and manners, which renders them
the spectators and judges of each other's merit; (115) the
independence of government and interest, which asserts their
separate freedom, and excites them to strive for preeminence
in the career of glory. The situation of the Romans was
less favorable; yet in the early ages of the republic, which
fixed the national character, a similar emulation was
kindled among the states of Latium and Italy; and in the
arts and sciences, they aspired to equal or surpass their
Grecian masters. The empire of the Caesars undoubtedly
checked the activity and progress of the human mind; its
magnitude might indeed allow some scope for domestic
competition; but when it was gradually reduced, at first to
the East and at last to Greece and Constantinople, the
Byzantine subjects were degraded to an abject and languid
temper, the natural effect of their solitary and insulated
state. From the North they were oppressed by nameless
tribes of Barbarians, to whom they scarcely imparted the
appellation of men. The language and religion of the more
polished Arabs were an insurmountable bar to all social
intercourse. The conquerors of Europe were their brethren
in the Christian faith; but the speech of the Franks or
Latins was unknown, their manners were rude, and they were
rarely connected, in peace or war, with the successors of
Heraclius. Alone in the universe, the self-satisfied pride
of the Greeks was not disturbed by the comparison of foreign
merit; and it is no wonder if they fainted in the race,
since they had neither competitors to urge their speed, nor
judges to crown their victory. The nations of Europe and
Asia were mingled by the expeditions to the Holy Land; and
it is under the Comnenian dynasty that a faint emulation of
knowledge and military virtue was rekindled in the Byzantine
empire.