[Footnote 69: The source of this idle fable may be derived
from a miscellaneous work of the xiith century, the Chiliads
of John Tzetzes, a monk, (Basil. 1546, ad calcem Lycophront.
Colon. Allobrog. 1614, in Corp. Poet. Graec.) He relates
the blindness and beggary of Belisarius in ten vulgar or
political verses, (Chiliad iii. No. 88, 339 - 348, in Corp.
Poet. Graec. tom. ii. p. 311.)
This moral or romantic tale was imported into Italy with the
language and manuscripts of Greece; repeated before the end
of the xvth century by Crinitus, Pontanus, and Volaterranus,
attacked by Alciat, for the honor of the law; and defended
by Baronius, (A.D. 561, No. 2, &c.,) for the honor of the
church. Yet Tzetzes himself had read in other chronicles,
that Belisarius did not lose his sight, and that he
recovered his fame and fortunes. Note: I know not where
Gibbon found Tzetzes to be a monk; I suppose he considered
his bad verses a proof of his monachism. Compare to
Gerbelius in Kiesling's edition of Tzetzes. - M.]