the I desire to believe, but I dare not affirm, that Belisarius sincerely Invasion of rejoiced in the triumph of Narses. Yet the consciousness of his Bulgarians, own exploits might teach him to esteem without jealousy the merit A. D. 559. of a rival; and the repose of the aged warrior was crowned by a last victory which saved the emperor and the capital. The Barbarians, who annually visited the provinces of Europe, were less discouraged by some accidental defeats, than they were excited by the double hope of spoil and of subsidy. In the thirty-second winter of Justinian's reign, the Danube was deeply frozen; Zabergan led the cavalry of the Bulgarians, and his standard was followed by a promiscuous multitude of Sclavonians. The savage chief passed, without opposition, the river and the mountains, spread his troops over Macedonia and Thrace, and advanced with no more than seven thousand horse to the long wall, which should have defended the territory of Constantinople. But the works of man are impotent against the assaults of nature: a recent earthquake had shaken the foundations of the wall; and the forces of the empire were employed on the distant frontiers of Italy, Africa, and Persia. The seven schools (61), or companies of the guards or domestic troops, had been augmented to the number of five thousand five hundred men, whose ordinary station was in the peaceful cities of Asia. But the places of the brave Armenians were insensibly supplied by lazy citizens, who purchased an exemption from the duties of civil life, without being exposed to the dangers of military service. Of such soldiers, few could be tempted to sally from the gates; and none could be persuaded to remain in the field, unless they wanted strength and speed to escape from the Bulgarians. The report of the fugitives exaggerated the numbers and fierceness of an enemy, who had polluted holy virgins, and abandoned new-born infants to the dogs and vultures; a crowd of rustics, imploring food and protection, increased the consternation of the city, and the tents of Zabergan were pitched at the distance of twenty miles (62), on the banks of a small river, which encircles Melanthias, and afterwards falls into the Propontis (63). Justinian millions, that Italy was thrice as extensive, and that the depopulation was in a larger proportion. But his reckoning is inflamed by passion, and clouded with uncertainty. (61 In the decay of these military schools, the satire of Procopius (Anecdot. c. 24. Aleman. p. 102, 103.) is confirmed and illustrated by Agathias (1. v. p. 159.), who cannot be rejected as an hostile witness. (62) The distance from Constantinople to Melanthias, Villa Cæsariana (Ammian. Marcellin. xxx. 11.), is variously fixed at 102 or 140 stadia (Suidas, tom. ii. p. 522, 523. Agathias, l. v. p. 158.), or xviii or xix miles (Itineraria, p. 138. 230. 323. 332., and Wesseling's Observations). The first xii miles, as far as Rhegium, were paved by Justinian, who built a bridge over a morass or gullet between a lake and the sea (Procop. de Edif. 1. iv. c. 8.). (63) The Atyras (Pompon. Mela, l. ii. c. 2. p. 169. edit. Voss.). At the river's mouth, a town or castle of the same name was fortified by Justinian (Procop. de Edif. 1. iv. c. 2. Itinerar. p. 570. and Wesseling). * Zabergan was king of the Cutrigonrs, a tribe of Huns, who were neither Bulgarians nor Sclavonians. St. Martin, vol. ix. p. 408-420.-M. Last victory of Belisarius. trembled: and those who had only seen the emperor in his old age, were pleased to suppose, that he had lost the alacrity and vigour of his youth. By his command the vessels of gold and silver were removed from the churches in the neighbourhood, and even the suburbs, of Constantinople: the ramparts were lined with trembling spectators; the golden gate was crowded with useless generals and tribunes, and the senate shared the fatigues and the apprehensions of the populace. But the eyes of the prince and people were directed to a feeble veteran, who was compelled by the public danger to resume the armour in which he had entered Carthage and defended Rome. The horses of the royal stables, of private citizens, and even of the circus, were hastily collected; the emulation of the old and young was roused by the name of Belisarius, and his first encampment was in the presence of a victorious enemy. His prudence, and the labour of the friendly peasants, secured, with a ditch and rampart, the repose of the night; innumerable fires, and clouds of dust, were artfully contrived to magnify the opinion of his strength; his soldiers suddenly passed from despondency to presumption; and, while ten thousand voices demanded the battle, Belisarius dissembled his knowledge, that in the hour of trial he must depend on the firmness of three hundred veterans. The next morning the Bulgarian cavalry advanced to the charge. But they heard the shouts of multitudes, they beheld the arms and discipline of the front; they were assaulted on the flanks by two ambuscades which rose from the woods; their foremost warriors fell by the hand of the aged hero and his guards; and the swiftness of their evolutions was rendered useless by the close attack and rapid pursuit of the Romans. In this action (so speedy was their flight), the Bulgarians lost only four hundred horse; but Constantinople was saved; and Zabergan, who felt the hand of a master, withdrew to a respectful distance. But his friends were numerous in the councils of the emperor, and Belisarius obeyed with reluctance the commands of envy and Justinian, which forbade him to achieve the deliverance of his country. On his return to the city, the people, still conscious of their danger, accompanied his triumph with acclamations of joy and gratitude, which were imputed as a crime to the victorious general. But when he entered the palace, the courtiers were silent, and the emperor, after a cold and thankless embrace, dismissed him to mingle with the train of slaves. Yet so deep was the impression of his glory on the minds of men, that Justinian, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, was encouraged to advance near forty miles from the capital, and to inspect in person the restoration of the long wall. The Bulgarians wasted the summer in the plains of Thrace; but they were inclined to peace by the failure of their rash attempts on Greece and the Chersonesus. A menace of killing their prisoners quickened the payment of heavy ransoms; and the departure of Zabergan was hastened by the report, that double-prowed vessels were built on the Danube to intercept his passage. The danger was soon forgotten; and a vain question, whether their sovereign had shown more wisdom or weakness, amused the idleness of the city (64). and death, About two years after the last victory of Belisarius, the emperor His disgrace returned from a Thracian journey of health, or business, or devo- D.? tion. Justinian was afflicted by a pain in his head; and his private entry countenanced the rumour of his death. Before the third hour of the day, the bakers' shops were plundered of their bread, the houses were shut, and every citizen, with hope or terror, prepared for the impending tumult. The senators themselves, fearful and suspicious, were convened at the ninth hour; and the præfect received their commands to visit every quarter of the city, and proclaim a general illumination for the recovery of the emperor's health. The ferment subsided; but every accident betrayed the impotence of the government, and the factious temper of the people: the guards were disposed to mutiny as often as their quarters were changed, or their pay was withheld the frequent calamities of fires and earthquakes afforded the opportunities of disorder; the disputes of the blues and greens, of the orthodox and heretics, degenerated into bloody battles; and, in the presence of the Persian ambassador, Justinian blushed for himself and for his subjects. Capricious pardon and arbitrary punishment embittered the irksomeness and discontent of a long reign: a conspiracy was formed in the palace; and, unless we are deceived by the names of Marcellus and Sergius, the most virtuous and the most profligate of the courtiers were associated in the same designs. They had fixed the time of the execution; their rank gave them access to the royal banquet; and their black slaves (65) were stationed in the vestibule and porticoes, to announce the death of the tyrant, and to excite a sedition in the capital. But the indiscretion of an accomplice saved the poor remnant of the days of Justinian. The conspirators were detected and seized, with daggers hidden under their garments: Marcellus died by his own hand, and Sergius was dragged from the sanctuary (66). (64) The Bulgarian war, and the last victory of Belisarius, are imperfectly represented in the prolix declamation of Agathias (1. 5. p. 154-174.) and the dry Chronicle of Theophanes (p. 197, 198.). (65) vous. They could scarcely be real Indians; and the Ethiopians, sometimes known by that name, were never used by the ancients as guards or followers: they were the trifling, though costly, objects of female and royal luxury (Terent. Eunuch. act i. scene ii. Sueton. in August. c. 83., with a good note of Casaubon, in Caligula, c. 57.). (66) The Sergius (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 21, 22. Anecdot. c. 5.) and Marcellus (Goth. 1. iii. c. 32.) are mentioned by Procopius. See Theophanes, p. 197. 201. * Some words, "the acts of," or "the The omission is in all the editions I have concrimes of," appear to have fallen from the text. sulted.-M. Dec. 5. Pressed by remorse, or tempted by the hopes of safety, he accused two officers of the household of Belisarius; and torture forced them to declare that they had acted according to the secret instructions of their patron (67). Posterity will not hastily believe that an hero who, in the vigour of life, had disdained the fairest offers of ambition and revenge, should stoop to the murder of his prince, whom he could not long expect to survive. His followers were impatient to fly; but flight must have been supported by rebellion, and he had A. D. 563, lived enough for nature and for glory. Belisarius appeared before the council with less fear than indignation: after forty years' service, the emperor had prejudged his guilt; and injustice was sanctified by the presence and authority of the patriarch. The life of Belisarius was graciously spared; but his fortunes were sequestered, and, from December to July, he was guarded as a prisoner in his own palace. At length his innocence was acknowledged; his freedom and honours were restored; and death, which might be hastened by resentment and grief, removed him from the world about eight months after his deliverance. The name of Belisarius can never die but instead of the funeral, the monuments, the statues, so justly due to his memory, I only read, that his treasures, the spoils of the Goths and Vandals, were immediately confiscated by the emperor. Some decent portion was reserved, however, for the use of his widow; and as Antonina had much to repent, she devoted the last remains of her life and fortune to the foundation of a convent. Such is the simple and genuine narrative of the fall of Belisarius and the ingratitude of Justinian (68). That he was deprived of his eyes, and reduced by envy to beg his bread,* "Give a penny to Belisarius the general!" is a fiction of later times (69), which A. D. 564, (67) Alemannus (p. 3.) quotes an old Byzantine MS., which has been printed in the Imperium Orientale of Banduri. (68) of the disgrace and restoration of Belisarius, the genuine original record is preserved in the fragment of John Malala (tom. ii. p. 234-243.) and the exact Chronicle of Theophanes (p. 194–204.). Cedrenus (Compend. p. 387, 388.) and Zonaras (tom. ii. 1. xiv. p. 69.) seem to hesitate between the obsolete truth and the growing falsehood. (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. Græc.). He relates the blindness and beggary of Belisarius in ten vulgar or political verses (Chiliad iii. No. 88. 339–348. in Corp. Poet. Græc. tom. ii. p. 311.). ἔκπωμα ξύλινον κρατῶν, ἐβόα τῷ μιλίῳ, Βελισαρίῳ ἐβολὸν δότε τῷ στρατηλάτη ὃν τύχη μὲν ἐδόξασεν, ἀποτυφλοῖ δ ̓ ὁ φθόνος. This moral or romantic tale was imported into Italy with the language and manuscripts of Greece; * Le Beau, following Alemannus, conceives that Belisarius was confounded with John of Cappadocia, who was thus reduced to beggary (vol. ix. p. 58. 449.). Lord Mahon has, with considerable learning, and on the authority of a yet unquoted writer of the xith century, endeavoured to re-establish the old tradition. I cannot acknowledge that I have been convinced, and am inclined to subscribe to the theory of Le Beau. - M. I know not where Gibbon found Tzetzes to be a monk: I suppose he considered his bad verses a proof of his monachism. Compare the preface of Gerbelius in Kieslin's edition of Tzetzes.-M. has obtained credit, or rather favour, as a strange example of the vicissitudes of fortune (70). If the emperor could rejoice in the death of Belisarius, he enjoyed the base satisfaction only eight months, the last period of a reign of thirty-eight, and a life of eighty-three years. It would be difficult to trace the character of a prince who is not the most conspicuous object of his own times: but the confessions of an enemy may be received as the safest evidence of his virtues. The resemblance of Justinian to the bust of Domitian, is maliciously urged (71); with the acknowledgment, however, of a well-proportioned figure, a ruddy complexion, and a pleasing countenance. The emperor was easy of access, patient of hearing, courteous and affable in discourse, and a master of the angry passions, which rage with such destructive violence in the breast of a despot. Procopius praises his temper, to reproach him with calm and deliberate cruelty: but in the conspiracies which attacked his authority and person a more candid judge will approve the justice, or admire the clemency, of Justinian. He excelled in the private virtues of chastity and temperance: but the impartial love of beauty would have been less mischievous than his conjugal tenderness for Theodora; and his abstemious diet was regulated, not by the prudence of a philosopher, but the superstition of a monk. His repasts were short and frugal: on solemn fasts, he contented himself with water and vegetables; and such was his strength, as well as fervour, that he frequently passed two days, and as many nights, without tasting any food. The measure of his sleep was not less rigorous: after the repose of a single hour, the body was awakened by the soul, and, to the astonishment of his chamberlains, Justinian walked or studied till the morning light. Such restless application prolonged his time for the acquisition of knowledge (72) and the despatch of business; and he might seriously deserve the reproach of confounding, by minute and preposterous repeated before the end of the xvth century by Crinitus, Pontanus, and Volaterranus; attacked by Alciat, for the honour of the law; and defended by Baronius (A. D. 561. No. 2, &c.) for the honour 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. (70) The statue in the villa Borghese at Rome, in a sitting posture, with an open hand, which is vulgarly given to Belisarius, may be ascribed with more dignity to Augustus in the act of propitiating Nemesis (Winckelman, Hist. de l'Art, tom. iii. p. 266.). Ex nocturno visu etiam stipem, quotannis, die certo, emendicabat a populo, cavam manum asses porrigentibus præbens (Sueton. in August. c. 91., with an excellent note of Casaubon). * (71) The rubor of Domitian is stigmatised, quaintly enough, by the pen of Tacitus (in Vit. Agricol. c. 45.); and has been likewise noticed by the younger Pliny (Panegyr. c. 48.) and Suetonius (in Domitian, c. 18. and Casaubon ad locum). Procopius (Anecdot. c. 8.) foolishly believes that only one bust of Domitian had reached the vith century. (72) The studies and science of Justinian are attested by the confession (Anecdot. c. 8. 13.), still more than by the praiscs (Gothic. 1. iii. c. 31. de Edific. 1. i. Proem. c. 7.) of Procopius. Consult the copious index of Alemannus, and read the life of Justinian by Ludewig (p. 135-142.). * Lord Mahon abandons the statue, as altogether irreconcilable with the state of the arts at this period (p. 472.).—M. Death and character of A. D. 565, Nov. 14. |