CHAP. XLVI. * The 4 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. sons. After such an example, it would be superfluous to enumerate the names and sufferings of meaner victims. Their condemnation was seldom preceded by the forms of trial, and their punishment was imbittered by the refinements of cruelty: their eyes were pierced, their tongues were torn from the root, their hands and feet were amputated; some expired under the lash, others in the flames, others again were transfixed with arrows; and a simple speedy death was mercy which they could rarely obtain. The hippodrome, the sacred asylum of the pleasures and the liberty of the Romans, was polluted with heads and limbs, and mangled bodies; and the companions of Phocas were the most sensible, that neither his favour, nor their services, could protect them from a tyrant, the worthy rival of the Caligulas and Domitians of the first age of the empire. His fall and 805 till the African navy cast anchor in the Hellespont. ges of the bride and bridegroom were indiscreetly body, the mangled trunk was cast into the flames, and the same treatment was inflicted on the statues of the vain usurper, and the seditious banner of the green faction. The voice of the clergy, the senate, and the people, invited Heraclius to ascend the throne which he had purified from guilt and ignominy; after some graceful hesitation, he yielded to their entreaties. His coronation was Reign of Heraaccompanied by that of his wife Eu- clius, A. D. 610. doxia; and their posterity, till the * Some of the cruelties of Phocas are marked by Theophylact, 1. viii. c. 13, 14, 15. George of Pisidia, the poet of Heraclius, styles him (Bell. Avaricum, p. 46. Rome, 1777.) της τυραννίδος ὁ δυσκάθεκτος και βιοφ Copos opak. The latter epithet is just-but the corrupter of life was easily vanquished. In the writers, and in the copies of those writers, there is such Byzant. Oct. 5.- over the empire of the east. The voyage of Heraclius had been easy and prosperous, the tedious march of Nicetas was not accomplished before the decision of the contest: but he submitted without a murmur to the fortune of his friend, and his laudable intentions were rewarded with an equestrian statue, and a daughter of the emperor. It was more difficult to trust the fidelity of Crispus, whose recent services were recompensed by the command of the Cappadocian army. His arrogance soon provoked, and seemed to excuse, the ingratitude of his new sovereign. In the presence of the senate, the sonin-law of Phocas was condemned to embrace the monastic life; and the sentence was justified by the weighty observation of Heraclius, that the man who had betrayed his father, could never be faithful to his friend.b pire, A. D. 603, &c. Even after his death the republic Chosroes invades g According to Theophanes, κιβωτια and εικόνα θεομητέρος. Ce drenus adds an αχειροποίητον εικόνα του κυρίου, which Heraclius bore as a banner in the first Persian expedition. See George Pisid. Acroas I. 140. The manufacture seems to have flourished; but Foggini, the Roman editor, (p. 26.) is at a loss to determine whether this picture was an original or a copy. h See the tyranny of Phocas and the elevation of Heraclius, in Chron. Paschal. p. 380-383. Theophanes, p. 242-250. Nicephorus, p. 3-7. Cedrenus, p. 404-407. Zonaras, tom. ii. I. xiv. p. 80-82. justly condemn these seditious mercenaries as the their submission or revolt, by an impostor who attended his camp as the son of Maurice and the lawful heir of the monarchy. throne; and his ambassador Lilius, who had pre- | battle by the sentence of the victor, who might sented him with the heads of Maurice and his sons, was the best qualified to describe the circumstances of the tragic scene. However it might be varnished by fiction or sophistry, Chosroes turned with horror from the assassin, imprisoned the pretended envoy, disclaimed the usurper, and declared himself the avenger of his father and benefactor. The sentiments of grief and resentment which humanity would feel, and honour would dictate, promoted, on this occasion, the interest of the Persian king; and his interest was powerfully magnified by the national and religious prejudices of the Magi and satraps. In a strain of artful adulation, which as-jects; and Chosroes provided a decent apology for sumed the language of freedom, they presumed to censure the excess of his gratitude and friendship for the Greeks; a nation with whom it was dangerous to conclude either peace or alliance; whose superstition was devoid of truth and justice, and who must be incapable of any virtue, since they could perpetrate the most atrocious of crimes, the impious murder of their sovereign. For the crime of an ambitious centurion, the nation which he oppressed was chastised with the calamities of war: and the same calamities, at the end of twenty years, were retaliated and redoubled on the heads of the Persians. The general who had restored Chosroes to the throne still commanded in the east; and the name of Narses was the formidable sound with which the Assyrian mothers were accustomed to terrify their infants. It is not improbable, that a native subject of Persia should encourage his master and his friend to deliver and possess the provinces of Asia. It is still more probable, that Chosroes should animate his troops by the assurance that the sword which they dreaded the most would remain in its scabbard, or be drawn in their favour. The hero could not depend on the faith of a tyrant; and the tyrant was conscious how little he deserved the obe dience of a hero: Narses was removed from his military command; he reared an independent standard at Hierapolis in Syria; he was betrayed by fallacious promises, and burnt alive in the marketplace of Constantinople. Deprived of the only chief whom they could fear or esteem, the bands which he had led to victory were twice broken by the cavalry, trampled by the elephants, and pierced by the arrows of the barbarians; and a great number of the captives were beheaded on the field of i Theophylact, 1. viii. c. 15. The life of Maurice was composed about the year 628, (1. viii. c. 13.) by Theophylact Simocatta, ex-præfect, a native of Egypt. Photius, who gives an ample extract of the work, (cod. lxv. p. 81-100.) gently reproves the affectation and allegory of the style. His preface is a dialogue between Philosophy and History; they seat themselves under a plane-tree, and the latter touches her lyre. k Christianis nec pactum esse, nec fidem nec fœdus .. quod si ulla illis fides fuisset, regem suum non occidissent. Eutych. Annales, tom. ii. p. 211. vers. Pocock. 1 We must now, for some ages, take our leave of contemporary his. torians, and descend, if it be a descent, from the affectation of rhetoric to the rude simplicity of chronicles and abridgments. Those of Theophanes, (Chronograph. p. 244-279.) and Nicephorus, (p. 3-16.) sup. ply a regular, but imperfect, series of the Persian war; and for any additional facts I quote my special authorities Theophanes, a courtier who became a monk, was boru A. D. 748; Nicephorus, patriarch of Constantinople, who died A. D. 829, was somewhat younger: they both suffered in the cause of images. Hankius, de Scriptoribus Byzantinis, p. 200-246. The first intelligence from the east which Heraclius received," was that of the loss of Antioch; but the aged metropolis, so often overturned by earthquakes, and pillaged by the enemy, could supply but a small and languid stream of treasure and blood. The Persians were equally successful, and more fortunate in the sack of Cæsarea, the capital of Cappadocia; and as they advanced beyond the ramparts of the frontiers, the boundary of ancient war, they found a less obstinate resistance and a more plentiful harvest. The pleasant vale of Damascus has been adorned in every age with a royal city: her obscure felicity has hitherto escaped the historian of the Roman empire: but Chosroes reposed his troops in the paradise of Damascus before he ascended the hills of Libanus, or invaded the cities of the Phoenician coast. The conquest of Jerusalem, which had been meditated by Nushirvan, was achieved by the zeal and avarice of his grandson; the ruin of the proudest monument of Christianity was vehemently urged by the intolerant spirit of the Magi; and he could enlist, for this holy warfare, an army of six and twenty thousand Jews, whose furious bigotry might compensate, in some degree, for the want of valour and discipline. After the reduction of Galilee, and the region beyond the Jordan, whose resistance appears to have delayed the fate of the capital, Jerusalem itself was taken by assault. The sepulchre of Christ, and the stately churches of Helena and Constantine, were consumed, or at least damaged, by the flames; the devout offerings of of Palestine, A. D. 614. m The Persian historians have been themselves deceived; but The ophanes, (p. 244.) accuses Chosroes of the fraud and falsehood; and Eutychius believes (Annal. tom. ii. p. 211.) that the son of Maurice, who was saved from the assassins, lived and died a monk on meast Sinai. Eutychius dates all the losses of the empire under the reign of Phocas, an error which saves the honour of Heraclias, whom he brings not from Carthage, but Salonica, with a fleet laden with vegetables for the relief of Constantinople. (Anual. tom. ii. p. 223, 224.) The other christians of the east, Barhebræus, (apud Asserman, Bibliothec. Orien tal. tom. iii. p. 412, 413.) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 13-16) Abulpharagius, (Dynast, p. 28, 99.) are more sincere and accurate. The years of the Persian war are disposed in the chronology of Pagi o On the conquest of Jerusalem, an event so interesting to the charch see the Annals of Eutychius, (tom. ii. p. 212-223.) and the lamenta tions of the monk Antiochus, (apud Baronium, Annal. Eccles, A. D. 614. No. 16-26.) whose one hundred and twenty-nine homilies are still extant, if what no one reads may be said to be extant. ཝཱ of Egypt, three hundred years were rifled in one sacrilegious | clius had been educated to pronounce the words of day; the patriarch Zachariah, and the true cross, liberty and law. But it has always been the pride were transported into Persia; and the massacre of and policy of oriental princes, to display the titles ninety thousand christians is imputed to the Jews and attributes of their omnipotence; to upbraid a and Arabs, who swelled the disorder of the Persian nation of slaves with their true name and abject march. The fugitives of Palestine were entertained condition, and to enforce, by cruel and insolent at Alexandria by the charity of John the arch- threats, the rigour of their absolute commands. The bishop, who is distinguished among a crowd of christians of the east were scandalized by the worsaints by the epithet of almsgiver: P and the revenues ship of fire, and the impious doctrine of the two of the church, with a treasure of three hundred principles: the Magi were not less intolerant than thousand pounds, were restored to the true proprie- the bishops, and the martyrdom of some native tors, the poor of every country and every denomi- Persians, who had deserted the religion of Zoroasnation. But Egypt itself, the only province which ter, was conceived to be the prelude of a fierce and had been exempt, since the time of Diocletian, from general persecution. By the oppressive laws of foreign and domestic war, was again Justinian, the adversaries of the church were made A. D. 616. subdued by the successors of Cyrus. the enemies of the state; the alliance of the Jews, Pelusium, the key of that impervious country, was Nestorians, and Jacobites, had contributed to the surprised by the cavalry of the Persians: they success of Chosroes, and his partial favour to the passed, with impunity, the innumerable channels of sectarics provoked the hatred and fears of the the Delta, and explored the long valley of the Nile, catholic clergy. Conscious of their fear and hatred, from the pyramids of Memphis to the confines of the Persian conqueror governed his new subjects Ethiopia. Alexandria might have been relieved with an iron sceptre: and as if he suspected the by a naval force, but the archbishop and the præfect stability of his dominion, he exhausted their wealth embarked for Cyprus; and Chosroes entered the by exorbitant tributes and licentious rapine, desecond city of the empire, which still preserved a spoiled or demolished the temples of the east, and wealthy remnant of industry and commerce. His transported to his hereditary realms the gold, the western trophy was erected, not on the walls of silver, the precious marbles, the arts, and the artists, Carthage, but in the neighbourhood of Tripoli: the of the Asiatic cities. In the obscure picture of the Greek colonies of Cyrene were finally extirpated; calamities of the empire, it is not easy to discern and the conqueror, treading in the footsteps of Alex- the figure of Chosroes himself, to separate his acander, returned in triumph through the sands of the tions from those of his lieutenants, or to ascertain Libyan desert. In the first campaign, his personal merit in the general blaze of glory and A. D. 616, &c. another army advanced from the Euph- magnificence. He enjoyed with ostentation the rates to the Thracian Bosphorus; Chalcedon sur- fruits of victory, and frequently retired from the rendered after a long siege, and a Persian camp hardships of war to the luxury of the palace. But was maintained above ten years in the presence of in the space of twenty-four years, he was deterred Constantinople. The sea-coast of Pontus, the city by superstition or resentment from approaching the of Ancyra, the isle of Rhodes, are enumerated gates of Ctesiphon: and his favourite residence of among the last conquests of the great king; and if Artemita, or Dastagerd, was situate beyond the Chosroes had possessed any maritime power, his Tigris, about sixty miles to the north of the capital.' boundless ambition would have spread slavery and The adjacent pastures were covered with flocks and desolation over the provinces of Europe. herds the paradise or park was replenished with pheasants, peacocks, ostriches, roebucks, and wild boars, and the noble game of lions and tigers was sometimes turned loose for the bolder pleasures of the chace. Nine hundred and sixty elephants were maintained for the use or splendour of the great king: his tents and baggage were carried into the field by twelve thousand great camels and eight thousand of a smaller size;" and the royal stables were filled with six thousand mules and horses, among whom the names of Shebdiz and Barid are renowned for their speed or beauty. Six thousand of Asia Minor, His reign and From the long-disputed banks of the magnificence. Tigris and Euphrates, the reign of the grandson of Nushirvan was suddenly extended to the Hellespont and the Nile, the ancient limits of the Persian monarchy. But the provinces, which had been fashioned by the habits of six hundred years to the virtues and vices of the Roman government, supported with reluctance the yoke of the barbarians. The idea of a republic was kept alive by the institutions, or at least by the writings, of the Greeks and Romans, and the subjects of Hera The life of this worthy saint is composed by Leontius, a contem porary bishop; and I find in Barouius, (Anual. Eccles. A. D. 610. No. 10, &c.) and Fleury, (tom. viii. p. 235-242.) sufficient extracts of this edifying work. The error of Baronius, and many others who have carried the arms of Chosroes to Carthage instead of Chalcedon, is founded on the near resemblance of the Greek words Kaλxndova and Kapxndova in the text of Theophanes, &c. which have been sometimes confounded by transcribers, and sometimes by critics. The genuine acts of St. Anastasius are published in those of the seventh general council, from whence Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 614. 626, 627.) and Butler (Lives of the Saints, vol. i. p. 242-248.) have guards successively mounted before the palace gate; the service of the interior apartments was performed by twelve thousand slaves, and in the number of three thousand virgins, the fairest of Asia, some happy concubine might console her master for the age or the indifference of Sira. The various treasures of gold, silver, gems, silk, and aromatics, were deposited in a hundred subterraneous vaults; and the chamber Badaverd denoted the accidental gift of the winds which had wafted the spoils of Heraclius into one of the Syrian harbours of his rival. The voice of flattery, and perhaps of fiction, is not ashamed to compute the thirty thousand rich hangings that adorned the walls; the forty thousand columns of silver, or more probably of marble, and plated wood, that supported the roof; and the thousand globes of gold suspended in the dome, to imitate the motions of the planets and the constellations of the zodiac. While the Persian monarch contemplated the wonders of his art and power, he received an epistle from an obscure citizen of Mecca, inviting him to acknowledge Mahomet as the apostle of God. He rejected the invitation, and tore the epistle. "It is thus," exclaimed the Arabian prophet, "that God will tear the kingdom, and reject the supplications, of Chosroes." Placed on the verge of the two great empires of the east, Mahomet observed with secret joy the progress of their mutual destruction; and in the midst of the Persian triumphs, he ventured to foretell, that before many years should elapse, victory would again return to the banners of the Romans." Distress of Hera. clius, A. D. 610-622. At the time when this prediction is said to have been delivered, no prophecy could be more distant from its accomplishment, since the first twelve years of Heraclius announced the approaching dissolution of the empire. If the motives of Chosroes had been pure and honourable, he must have ended the quarrel with the death of Phocas, and he would have embraced, as his best ally, the fortunate African who had so generously avenged the injuries of his benefactor Maurice. The prosecution of the war revealed the true character of the barbarian; and the suppliant embassies of Heraclius to beseech bis clemency, that he would spare the innocent, accept a tribute, and give peace to the world, were rejected with contemptuous silence or insolent menace. Syria, Egypt, and the provinces of Asia, were subdued by the Persian arms; while Europe, from the confines of Istria to the long wall of Thrace, was oppressed by the Avars, unsatiated with the blood and rapine of the Italian war. They had coolly massacred their male captives in the sacred Theophanes, Chronograph. p. 268. D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 997. The Greeks describe the decay, the Persians the splendour, of Dastagerd; but the former speak from the modest witness of the eye, the latter from the vague report of the ear. y The historians of Mahomet, Abulfeda, (in Vit. Mohammed. p. 92, 93.) and Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. ii. p. 247.) date this embassy in the seventh year of the Hegira, which commences A. D. 628. May 11. Their chronology is erroneous, since Chosroes died in the month of February of the same year. (Pagi, Critica, tom. ii. p. 779.) The Count de Boulainvilliers (Vie de Mahomed, p. 327, 328.) places this embassy about A. D. 615. soon after the conquest of Palestine. Yet Mahomet would scarcely have ventured so soon on so bold a step. care. | field of Pannonia; the women and children were reduced to servitude, and the noblest virgins were abandoned to the promiscuous lust of the barbarians. The amorous matron who opened the gates of Friuli, passed a short night in the arms of her royal lover; the next evening, Romilda was condemned to the embraces of twelve Avars, and the third day the Lombard princess was impaled in the sight of the | camp, while the chagan observed with a cruel smile, that such a husband was the fit recompence of her lewdness and perfidy. By these implacable enemies, Heraclius, on either side, was insulted and besieged and the Roman empire was reduced to the walls of Constantinople, with the remnant of Greece, Italy, and Africa, and some maritime cities, from Tyre to Trebizond, of the Asiatic coast. After the loss of Egypt, the capital was afflicted by famine and pestilence; and the emperor, incapable of resistance, and hopeless of relief, had resolved to transfer his person and government to the more secure residence of Carthage. His ships were already laden with the treasures of the palace, but his flight was arrested by the patriarch, who armed the powers of religion in the defence of his country, led Heraclius to the altar of St. Sophia, and extorted a solemn oath, that he would live and die with the people whom God had intrusted to his The chagan was encamped in the plains of Thrace, but he dissembled his perfidious designs, and solicited an interview with the emperor near the town of Heraclea. Their reconciliation was celebrated with equestrian games, the senate and people in their gayest apparel resorted to the festival of peace, and the Avars beheld, with envy and desire, the spectacle of Roman luxury. On a sudden, the hippodrome was encompassed by the Scythian cavalry, who had pressed their secret and nocturnal march: the tremendous sound of the chagan's whip gave the signal of the assault; and Heraclius, wrapping his diadem round his arm, was saved, with extreme hazard, by the fleetness of his horse. So rapid was the pursuit, that the Avars almost entered the golden gate of Constantinople with the flying crowds: but the plunder of the suburbs rewarded their treason, and they transported beyond the Danube two hundred and seventy thousand captives. On the shore of Chalcedon, the emperor held a safer conference with a more honourable foe, who, before Heraclius descended from his galley, saluted with reverence and pity the majesty of the purple. The friendly offer of Sain, the Persian general, to conduct an embassy to the presence of the great king, was accepted with the warmest gratitude, and the prayer for par z See the thirtieth chapter of the Koran, entitled the Greeks. Our honest and learned translator, Sale, (p. 330, 331.) fairly states this cojecture, guess, wager, of Mahomet, but Boulainvilliers, (p. 329-344.) with wicked intentions, labours to establish this evident prophecy of a future event, which must, in his opinion, embarrass the christian pole mics. He solicits peace. a Paul Warnefrid, de Gestis Langobardorum, l. iv. c. 38. 42. Mura. tori, Annali d'Italia, tom. v. p. 305, &c. The Paschal Chronicle, which sometimes introduces fragments of history into a barren list of names and dates, gives the best account of the treason of the Avars, p. 389, 390. The number of captives is added by Nicephorus, don and peace was humbly presented by the prætorian præfect, the præfect of the city, and one of the first ecclesiastics of the patriarchal church. But the lieutenant of Chosroes had fatally mistaken the intentions of his master. "It was not an embassy," said the tyrant of Asia, “it was the person of Heraclius, bound in chains, that he should have brought to the foot of my throne. I will never give peace to the emperor of Rome, till he has abjured his crucified God, and embraced the worship of the sun." Sain was flayed alive according to the inhuman practice of his country; and the separate and rigorous confinement of the ambassadors violated the laws of nations, and the faith of an express stipulation. Yet the experience of six years at length persuaded the Persian monarch to renounce the conquest of Constantinople, and to specify the annual tribute or ransom of the Roman empire; a thousand talents of gold, a thousand talents of silver, a thousand silk robes, a thousand horses, and a thousand virgins. Heraclius subscribed these ignominious terms, but the time and space which he obtained to collect such treasures from the poverty -d of the east was industriously employed in the preparations of a bold and desperate attack. His His preparations for war, A. D. 621. Of the characters conspicuous in history, that of Heraclius is one of the most extraordinary and inconsistent. In the first and last years of a long reign, the emperor appears to be the slave of sloth, of pleasure, or of superstition, the careless and impotent spectator of the public calamities. But the languid mists of the morning and evening are separated by the brightness of the meridian sun: the Arcadius of the palace arose the Cæsar of the camp; and the honour of Rome and Heraclius was gloriously retrieved by the exploits and trophies of six adventurous campaigns. It was the duty of the Byzantine historians to have revealed the causes of his slumber and vigilance. At this distance we can only conjecture, that he was endowed with more personal courage than political resolution; that he was detained by the charms and perhaps the arts of his niece Martina, with whom, after the death of Eudocia, he contracted an incestuous marriage; and that he yielded to the base advice of the counsellors, who urged as a fundamental law, that the life of the emperor should never be exposed in the field. Perhaps he was awakened by the last insolent demand of the Persian conqueror; but at the moment when Heraclius assumed the spirit of a hero, Some original pieces, such as the speech or letter of the Roman ambassadors, (p. 386–388.) likewise constitute the merit of the Paschal Chronicle, which was composed, perhaps at Alexandria, under the reign of Heraclius. d Nicephorus, (p. 10, 11.) who brands this marriage with the names of aberμor, and abeμLTOV, is happy to observe, that of two sons, its incestuous fruit, the elder was marked by Providence with a stiff neck, the younger with the loss of hearing. George of Pisidia, (Acroas. i. 112-125. p. 5.) who states the opinions, acquits the pusillanimous counsellors of any sinister views. Would he have excused the proud and contemptuous admonition of Crispus! Επιθωπτάζων ουκ εξον βασιλεί έφασκε καταλιμπάνειν βασιλεία, και τοις πόρρω επιχωριάζειν δυνάμεσιν. 1 Ει τας επ' ακρον ηρμένας ευεξίας AVTISpopws de, &c. George Pisid. Acroas. i. 51, &c. p. 4. the only hopes of the Romans were drawn from the vicissitudes of fortune, which might threaten the proud prosperity of Chosroes, and must be favourable to those who had attained the lowest period of depression. To provide for the expenses of war, was the first care of the emperor; and for the purpose of collecting the tribute, he was allowed to solicit the benevolence of the eastern provinces. But the revenue no longer flowed in the usual channels; the credit of an arbitrary prince is annihilated by his power; and the courage of Heraclius was first displayed in daring to borrow the consecrated wealth of churches under the solemn vow of restoring, with usury, whatever he had been compelled to employ in the service of religion and of the empire. The clergy themselves appear to have sympathized with the public distress, and the discreet patriarch of Alexandria, without admitting the precedent of sacrilege, assisted his sovereign by the miraculous or seasonable revelation of a secret treasure. Of the soldiers who had conspired with Phocas, only two were found to have survived the stroke of time and of the barbarians; the loss, even of these seditious veterans, was imperfectly supplied by the new levies of Heraclius, and the gold of the sanctuary united, in the same camp, the names, and arms, and languages, of the east and west. He would have been content with the neutrality of the Avars; and his friendly entreaty, that the chagan would act not as the enemy, but as the guardian, of the empire, was accompanied with a more persuasive donative of two hundred thousand pieces of gold. Two days after the festival of Easter, the emperor, exchanging his purple for the simple garb of a penitent and warrior,i gave the signal of his departure. To the faith of the people Heraclius recommended his children; the civil and military powers were vested in the most deserving hands, and the discretion of the patriarch and senate was authorized to save or surrender the city, if they should be oppressed in his absence by the superior forces of the enemy. A. D. 622. The neighbouring heights of Chal- First expedition cedon were covered with tents and of Heraclius against the Perarms but if the new levies of Hera- sians, clius had been rashly led to the attack, the victory of the Persians in the sight of Constantinople might have been the last day of the Roman empire. As imprudent would it have been to advance into the provinces of Asia, leaving their innumerable cavalry to intercept his convoys, and The Orientals are not less fond of remarking this strange vicissitude; and I remember some story of Khosrow Parviz, not very unlike the ring of Polycrates of Samos. g Baronius gravely relates this discovery, or rather transmutation of barrels, not of honey, but of gold. (Aunal. Eccles. A. D. 620. No. 3, &c.) Yet the loan was arbitrary, since it was collected by soldiers, who were ordered to leave the patriarch of Alexandria no more than one hundred pounds of gold. Nicephorus, (p. 11.) two hundred years afterwards, speaks with ill-humour of this contribution, which the church of Constantinople might still feel. b Theophylact Simocatta, l. viii. c. 12. This circumstance need not excite our surprise. The muster-roll of a regiment, even in time of peace, is renewed in less than twenty or twenty-five years. i He changed his purple, for black, buskins, and dyed them red in the blood of the Persians. (Georg. Pisid. Acroas. iii. 118. 121, 122. See the Notes of Foggini, p. 35.) |