the human form, was exposed on a mountain; a | unprecedented honours for his own ambassadors at dreadful warning to those who might hereafter be the imperial court. The successor of Cyrus assumed intrusted with the fame and fortune of Persia. Yet the majesty of the eastern sun, and graciously perthe prudence of Chosroes insensibly relinquished mitted his younger brother Justinian to reign over the prosecution of the Colchian war, in the just the west, with the pale and reflected splendour of persuasion, that it is impossible to reduce, or, at the moon. This gigantic style was supported by the least, to hold a distant country against the wishes pomp and eloquence of Isdigune, one of the royal and efforts of its inhabitants. The fidelity of Gu- chamberlains. His wife and daughters, with a train bazes sustained the most rigorous trials. He pa- of eunuchs and camels, attended the march of the tiently endured the hardships of a savage life, and ambassador: two satraps with golden diadems were rejected, with disdain, the specious temptations of numbered among his followers: he was guarded by the Persian court. The king of the Lazi had been five hundred horse, the most valiant of the Persians; educated in the christian religion; his mother was and the Roman governor of Dara wisely refused to the daughter of a senator; during his youth, he had admit more than twenty of this martial and hostile served ten years a silentiary of the Byzantine pa- caravan. When Isdigune had saluted the emperor, lace, and the arrears of an unpaid salary were a and delivered his presents, he passed ten months at motive of attachment as well as of complaint. But Constantinople without discussing any serious afthe long continuance of his sufferings extorted from fairs. Instead of being confined to his palace, and him a naked representation of the truth; and truth receiving food and water from the hands of his was an unpardonable libel on the lieutenants of Jus-keepers, the Persian ambassador, without spies or tinian, who, amidst the delays of a ruinous war, had spared his enemies and trampled on his allics. Their malicious information persuaded the emperor, that his faithless vassal already meditated a second defection: an order was issued to send him prisoner to Constantinople; a treacherous clause was inserted, that he might be lawfully killed in case of resistance; and Gubazes, without arms, or suspicion of danger, was stabbed in the security of a friendly interview. In the first moments of rage and despair the Colchians would have sacrificed their country and religion to the gratification of rc- | venge. But the authority and cloquence of the wiser few, obtained a salutary pause: the victory of the Phasis restored the terror of the Roman arms, and the emperor was solicitous to absolve his own name from the imputation of so foul a murder. A judge of senatorial rank was commissioned to inquire into the conduct and death of the king of the Lazi. He ascended a stately tribunal, encompassed by the ministers of justice and punishment: in the presence of both nations, this extraordinary cause was pleaded, according to the forms of civil jurisprudence, and some satisfaction was granted to an injured people, by the sentence and execution of the meaner criminals.'

The punishment of flaying alive could not be introduced into Persia by Sapor, (Brisson, de Regn. Pers. 1. ii. p. 578.) nor could it be copied from the foolish tale of Marsyas the Phrygian piper, most foolishly quoted as a precedent by Agathias, (I. iv. p. 132, 133.)

In the palace of Constantinople there were thirty silentiaries, who are styled hastati ante fores cubiculi, της σιγής επίταται, an honourable title, which conferred the rank, without imposing the duties, of a senator. (Cod. Theodos. I. vi. tit. 23. Gothofred. Comment. tom. ii. p. 129.)

On these judicial orations, Agathias, (1, iii. p. 81–89. l. iv. p. 108—

guards, was allowed to visit the capital; and the freedom of conversation and trade enjoyed by his domestics, offended the prejudice of an age which rigorously practised the law of nations, without confidence or courtesy." By an unexampled indulgence, his interpreter, a servant below the notice of a Roman magistrate, was seated at the table of Justinian by the side of his master; and one thousand pounds of gold might be assigned for the expense of his journey and entertainment. Yet the repeated labours of Isdigune could procure only a partial and imperfect truce, which was always purchased with the treasures, and renewed at the solicitation, of the Byzantine court. Many years of fruitless desolation elapsed before Justinian and Chosroes were compelled, by mutual lassitude, to consult the repose of their declining age. At a conference held on the frontier, each party, without expecting to gain credit, displayed the power, the justice, and the pacific intentions, of their respective sovereigns: but necessity and interest dictated the treaty of peace, which was concluded for a term of fifty years, diligently composed in the Greek and Persian languages, and attested by the seals of twelve interpreters. The liberty of commerce and religion was fixed and defined; the allies of the emperor and the great king were included in the same benefits and obligations; and the most scrupulous precautions were provided to prevent or determine the accidental disputes that might arise on the confines of two hostile nations. After twenty years of destructive though feeble war, the limits still remained without alteration; and Chosroes was persuaded to renounce his dangerous claim to the possession or sovereignty of Colchos and its de

b

raised that nation above the level of African barbarism: their intercourse with Egypt, and the successors of Constantine, had communicated the rudiments of the arts and sciences; their vessels traded to the isle of Ceylon and seven kingdoms obeyed the Negus or supreme prince of Abyssinia. The independence of the Homerites, who reigned in the rich and happy Arabia, was first violated by an Ethiopian conqueror: he drew his hereditary claim from the queen of Sheba,d and his ambition was sanctified by religious zeal. The Jews, powerful and active in exile, had seduced the mind of Dunaan, prince of the Homerites. They urged him to retaliate the persecution inflicted by the imperial laws on their unfortunate brethren: some Roman merchants were injuriously treated; and several

pendent states. Rich in the accumulated treasures | tween the shores of the Red sea. Christianity had of the east, he extorted from the Romans an annual payment of thirty thousand pieces of gold; and the smallness of the sum revealed the disgrace of a tribute in its naked deformity. In a previous debate, the chariot of Sesostris, and the wheel of fortune, were applied by one of the ministers of Justinian, who observed that the reduction of Antioch, and some Syrian cities, had elevated beyond measure the vain and ambitious spirit of the barbarian. “You are mistaken," replied the modest Persian : "the king of kings, the lord of mankind, looks down with contempt on such petty acquisitions; and of the ten nations, vanquished by his invincible arms, he esteems the Romans as the least formidable." According to the orientals, the empire of Nushirvan extended from Ferganah, in Transoxiana, to Yemen or Arabia Fælix. He subdued the rebels of Hyr-christians of Negra were honoured with the crown cania, reduced the provinces of Cabul and Zablestan on the banks of the Indus, broke the power of the Euthalites, terminated by an honourable treaty the Turkish war, and admitted the daughter of the great khan into the number of his lawful wives. Victorious and respected among the princes of Asia, he gave audience, in his palace of Madain, or Ctesiphon, to the ambassadors of the world. Their gifts or tributes, arms, rich garments, gems, slaves, or aromatics, were humbly presented at the foot of his throne; and he condescended to accept from the king of India ten quintals of the wood of aloes, a maid seven cubits in height, and a carpet softer than silk, the skin, as it was reported, of an extraordinary serpent." Conquests of the Abyssinians,

Justinian had been reproached for his alliance with the Æthiopians, as if A. D. 522. he attempted to introduce a people of savage negroes into the system of civilized society. But the friends of the Roman empire, the Axumites, or Abyssinians, may be always distinguished from the original natives of Africa. The hand of nature has flattened the noses of the negroes, covered their heads with shaggy wool, and tinged their skin with inherent and indelible blackness. But the olive complexion of the Abyssinians, their hair, shape, and features, distinctly mark them as a colony of Arabs; and this descent is confirmed by the resemblance of language and manners, the report of an ancient emigration, and the narrow interval be

x The negociations and treaties between Justinian and Chosroes are copiously explained by Procopius, (Persic. 1. ii. c. 10. 13. 26-28. Gothic. 1. ii. c. 11. 15.) Agathias, (1. iv. p. 141, 142.) and Menander, (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 132-147.) Consult Barbeyrac, Hist. des. Anciens Traités, tom. ii. p. 154. 181-184. 193-200.

y D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 680, 681. 294, 295.

* See Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. iii. p. 449. This Arab cast of features and complexion, which has continued 3400 years (Ludolph. Hist. et Comment. Ethiopic. 1. i. c. 4.) in the colony of Abyssinia, will justify the suspicion, that race, as well as climate, must have contributed to form the negroes of the adjacent and similar regions.

a The Portuguese missionaries, Alvarez, (Ramusio, tom. i. fol. 204. rect. 274 vers.) Bermudez, (Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. ii. 1. v. c. 7. p. 1149-1188.) Lobo, (Relation, &c. par M. le Grand with xv Dissertations, Paris, 1728.) and Tellez, (Relations de Thevenot, part iv.) could only relate of modern Abyssinia what they had seen or invented. The erudition of Ludolphus, (Hist. Ethiopica, Francofurt. 1681. Commentarius, 1691. Appendix, 1694.) in twenty-five languages, could add little concerning its ancient history. Yet the fame of Caled, or Ellisthas, the conqueror of Yemen, is celebrated in national songs and legends.

of martyrdom. The churches of Arabia implored
the protection of the Abyssinian monarch. The
Negus passed the Red sea with a fleet and army,
deprived the Jewish proselyte of his kingdom and
life, and extinguished a race of princes, who had
ruled above two thousand years the sequestered
region of myrrh and frankincense. The conqueror
immediately announced the victory of the gospel,
requested an orthodox patriarch, and so warmly
professed his friendship to the Roman empire, that
Justinian was flattered by the hope of diverting the
silk trade through the channel of Abyssinia, and of
exciting the forces of Arabia against the Persian
king. Nonnosus, descended from a Their alliance
family of ambassadors, was named by with Justinian,
the emperor to execute this important
commission. He wisely declined the shorter, but
more dangerous, road through the sandy deserts of
Nubia; ascended the Nile, embarked on the Red
sea, and safely landed at the African port of Adu-
lis. From Adulis to the royal city of Axume is no
more than fifty leagues, in a direct line; but the
winding passes of the mountains detained the am-
bassador fifteen days: and as he traversed the
forests, he saw, and vaguely computed, about five
thousand wild elephants. The capital, according
to his report, was large and populous; and the vil-
lage of Axume is still conspicuous by the regal
coronations, by the ruins of a christian temple, and
by sixteen or seventeen obelisks inscribed with

A. D. 533.

b The negociations of Justinian with the Axumites, or Ethiopians, are recorded by Procopius (Persic. l. i. c. 19, 20.) and John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 163-165. 193-196.) The historian of Antioch quotes the origi nal narrative of the ambassador Nonnosus, of which Photius (Bibliot. cod. iii.) has preserved a curious extract.

e The trade of the Axumites to the coast of India and Africa, and the isle of Ceylon, is curiously represented by Cosmas Indicopleustes. (Topograph. Christian. I. ii. p. 132. 138, 139, 140. 1. xi. p. 338, 339.) d Ludolph. Hist. et Comment. Ethiop. I. ii. c. 3.

The city of Negra, or Nag'ran, in Yemen, is surrounded with palmtrees, and stands in the high-road between Saana, the capital, and Mecca; from the former ten, from the latter twenty, days' journey of a caravan of camels. (Abulfeda, Descript. Arabiæ, p. 52.)

f The martyrdom of St. Arethas, prince of Negra, and his three hundred and forty companions, is embellished in the legends of Metaphrastes and Nicephorus Callistus, copied by Baronius, (A. D. 522, No. 22-66. A. D. 523, No. 16-29.) and refuted, with obscure diligence, by Basnage, (Hist. des Juifs, tom. xii. 1. viii, c. ii. p. 333-348.) who in vestigates the state of the Jews in Arabia and Æthiopia.

that they should presume to enlarge an empire, whose ancient limits they were incapable of defending. But the wars, the conquests, and the triumphs of Justinian, are the feeble and pernicious efforts of old age, which exhaust the remains of strength, and accelerate the decay of the powers of life. He cxulted in the glorious act of restoring Africa and Italy to the republic; but the calamities which followed the departure of Belisarius betrayed the impotence of the conqueror, and accomplished the ruin of those unfortunate countries.

The troubles of
Africa,

A. D. 535-545.

The

Grecian characters. But the Negus gave audience | the Romans; and our wonder is reasonably excited in the open field, seated on a lofty chariot, which was drawn by four elephants superbly caparisoned, and surrounded by his nobles and musicians. He was clad in a linen garment and cap, holding in his hand two javelins and a light shield; and, although his nakedness was imperfectly covered, he displayed the barbaric pomp of gold chains, collars, and bracelets, richly adorned with pearls and precious stones. The ambassador of Justinian knelt; the Negus raised him from the ground, embraced Nonnosus, kissed the seal, perused the letter, accepted the Roman alliance, and, brandishing his weapons, denounced implacable war against the worshippers of fire. But the proposal of the silk trade was eluded; and notwithstanding the assurances, and perhaps the wishes, of the Abyssinians, these hostile menaces evaporated without effect. The Homerites were unwilling to abandon their aromatic groves, to explore a sandy desert, and to encounter, after all their fatigues, a formidable nation from whom they had never received any personal injuries. Instead of enlarging his conquests, the king of Æthiopia was incapable of defending his possessions. Abrahah, the slave of a Roman merchant of Adulis, assumed the sceptre of the Homerites; the troops of Africa were seduced by the luxury of the climate; and Justinian solicited the friendship of the usurper, who honoured, with a slight tribute, the supremacy of his prince. After a long series of prosperity, the power of Abrahah was overthrown before the gates of Mecca; his children were despoiled by the Persian conqueror; and the Æthiopians were finally expelled from the continent of Asia. This narrative of obscure and remote events is not foreign to the decline and fall of the Roman empire. If a christian power had been maintained in Arabia, Mahomet must have been crushed in his cradle, and Abyssinia would have prevented a revolution which has changed the civil and religious state of the world.b

CHAP. XLIII.

Rebellions of Africa.-Restoration of the Gothic kingdom by Totila.-Loss and recovery of Rome. -Final conquest of Italy by Narses.-Extinction of the Ostrogoths.-Defeat of the Franks and Alemanni.-Last victory, disgrace, and death of Belisarius.-Death and character of Justinian.— Comet, earthquakes, and plague.

THE review of the nations from the Danube to the Nile has exposed, on every side, the weakness of g Alvarez (in Ramusio, tom. i. fol. 219 vers. 221 vers.) saw the flourishing state of Axume in the year 1520-luogo molto buono e grande. It was ruined in the same century by the Turkish invasion. No more than one hundred houses remain; but the memory of its past greatness is preserved by the regal coronation. (Ludolph. Hist. et Comment. 1. ii. c. 11.)

h The revolutions of Yemen in the sixth century must be collected from Procopius, (Persic. 1. i. c. 19, 20.) Theophanes Byzant. (apud Phot. cod. Ixiii. p. 80.) St. Theophanes, (in Chronograph. p. 144, 145. 188, 189. 296, 207.) who is full of strange blunders, Pocock, (Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 62. 65.) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 12. 477.) and Sale's Preliminary Discourse and Koran, (c. 105) The revolt of

From his new acquisitions, Justinian expected that his avarice, as well as pride, should be richly gratified. A rapacious minister of the finances closely pursued the footsteps of Belisarius; and as the old registers of tribute had been burnt by the Vandals, he indulged his fancy in a liberal calculation and arbitrary assessment of the wealth of Africa. increase of taxes, which were drawn away by a distant sovereign, and a general resumption of the patrimony or crown lands, soon dispelled the intoxication of the public joy: but the emperor was insensible to the modest complaints of the people, till he was awakened and alarmed by the clamours of military discontent. Many of the Roman soldiers had married the widows and daughters of the Vandals. As their own, by the double right of conquest and inheritance, they claimed the estates which Genseric had assigned to his victorious troops. They heard with disdain the cold and selfish representations of their officers, that the liberality of Justinian had raised them from a savage or servile condition; that they were already enriched by the spoils of Africa, the treasure, the slaves, and the movables, of the vanquished barbarians; and that the ancient and lawful patrimony of the emperors would be applied only to the support of that government on which their own safety and reward must ultimately depend. The mutiny was secretly inflamed by a thousand soldiers, for the most part Heruli, who had imbibed the doctrines, and were instigated by the clergy, of the Arian sect; and the cause of perjury and rebellion was sanctified by the dispensing powers of fanaticism. The Arians deplored the ruin of their church, triumphant above a century in Africa; and they which interdicted the baptism of their children, were justly provoked by the laws of the conqueror, and the exercise of all religious worship. Of the Vandals chosen by Belisarius, the far greater part, in the honours of the eastern service, forgot their country and religion. But a generous band of four Abrahah is mentioned by Procopius; and his fall, though clouded with miracles, is an historical fact.

a For the troubles of Africa, I neither have nor desire another guide than Procopius, whose eye contemplated the image, and whose ear collected the reports, of the memorable events of his own times. In the second book of the Vandalic war, he relates the revolt of Stozas, (c. 14-24.) the return of Belisarius, (c. 15.) the victory of Germaxis, (c. 16, 17, 18.) the second administration of Solomon, (c. 19, 2, 21.) the government of Sergius, (c. 22, 23.) of Areobindus, (c. 24.) the tyranny and death of Goutharis; (c. 25, 26, 27, 28.) or can I discern any symptoms of flattery or malevolence in his various por.

traits.

from Carthage: but, at the distance of six days' | (an inconsiderable loss,) their capital, their treajourney in the neighbourhood of Tebeste, he was sures, the provinces from Sicily to the Alps, and astonished by the superior numbers and fierce aspect the military force of two hundred thousand barbaof the barbarians. He proposed a treaty; solicited rians, magnificently equipped with horses and arms. a reconciliation; and offered to bind himself by the Yet all was not lost, as long as Pavia was defended most solemn oaths. 66 By what oaths can he bind by one thousand Goths, inspired by a sense of himself?" interrupted the indignant Moors. "Will honour, the love of freedom, and the memory of he swear by the gospels, the divine books of the chris- their past greatness. The supreme command was tians? It was on those books that the faith of his ne- unanimously offered to the brave Uraias; and it phew Sergius was pledged to eighty of our innocent was in his eyes alone that the disgrace of his uncle and unfortunate brethren. Before we trust them a Vitiges could appear as a reason of exclusion. His second time, let us try their efficacy in the chastise- voice inclined the election in favour of Hildibald, ment of perjury and the vindication of their own whose personal merit was recommended by the vain honour." Their honour was vindicated in the field hope that his kinsman Theudes, the Spanish moof Tebeste, by the death of Solomon, and the total narch, would support the common interest of the loss of his army. The arrival of fresh troops and Gothic nation. The success of his arms in Liguria more skilful commanders, soon checked the inso- and Venetia seemed to justify their choice; but he lence of the Moors; seventeen of their princes were soon declared to the world, that he was incapable slain in the same battle; and the doubtful and | of forgiving or commanding his benefactor. The transient submission of their tribes was celebrated consort of Hildibald was deeply wounded by the with lavish applause by the people of Constantino- beauty, the riches, and the pride of the wife of ple. Successive inroads had reduced the province Uraias; and the death of that virtuous patriot of Africa to one third of the measure of Italy; yet excited the indignation of a free people. A bold the Roman emperors continued to reign above a assassin executed their sentence by striking off the century over Carthage, and the fruitful coast of head of Hildibald in the midst of a banquet: the the Mediterranean. But the victories and the losses Rugians, a foreign tribe, assumed the privilege of of Justinian were alike pernicious to mankind; | election; and Totila, the nephew of the late king, and such was the desolation of Africa, that in was tempted, by revenge, to deliver himself and the many parts a stranger might wander whole days garrison of Trevigo into the hands of the Romans. without meeting the face either of a friend or an But the gallant and accomplished youth was easily enemy. The nation of the Vandals had disap- persuaded to prefer the Gothic throne before the peared; they once amounted to an hundred and service of Justinian; and as soon as the palace of sixty thousand warriors, without including the chil- Pavia had been purified from the Rugian usurper, dren, the women, or the slaves. Their numbers be reviewed the national force of five thousand were infinitely surpassed by the number of the soldiers, and generously undertook the restoration Moorish families extirpated in a relentless war; of the kingdom of Italy. and the same destruction was retaliated on the Romans and their allies, who perished by the elimate, their mutual quarrels, and the rage of the barbarians. When Procopius first landed, he admired the populousness of the cities and country, strenuously exercised in the labours of commerce and agriculture. In less than twenty years, that busy scene was converted into a silent solitude; the wealthy citizens escaped to Sicily and Constantinople; and the secret historian has confidently affirmed, that five millions of Africans were consumed by the wars and government of the emperor Justinian.

Revolt of the
Goths,
A. D. 540.

The jealousy of the Byzantine court had not permitted Belisarius to achieve the conquest of Italy: and his abrupt departure revived the courage of the Goths, who respected his genius, his virtue, and even the laudable motive which had urged the servant of Justinian to deceive and reject them. They had lost their king,

d Now Tibesh, in the kingdom of Algiers. It is watered by a river, the Sujerass, which falls into the Mejerda, (Bagradas.) Tibesh is still remarkable for its walls of large stones, (like the Coliseum of Rome,) a fountain, and a grove of walnut-trees: the country is fruitful, and the neighbouring Bereberes are warlike. It appears from an inscription, that, under the reign of Adrian, the road from Carthage to Tebeste was constructed by the third legion. (Marmol, Description de l'Afrique, tom. ii. p. 442, 443. Shaw's Travels, p. 64, 65, 66.)

Victories of
Totila, king of

Italy.
A. D. 541–544.

The successors of Belisarius, eleven generals of equal rank, neglected to crush the feeble and disunited Goths, till they were roused to action by the progress of Totila and the reproaches of Justinian. The gates of Verona were secretly opened to Artabazus, at the head of one hundred Persians in the service of the empire. The Goths fled from the city. At the distance of sixty furlongs the Roman generals halted to regulate the division of the spoil. While they disputed, the enemy discovered the real number of the victors: the Persians were instantly overpowered, and it was by leaping from the wall that Artabazus preserved a life which he lost in a few days by the lance of a barbarian, who had defied him to single combat. Twenty thousand Romans encountered the forces of Totila, near Faenza, and on the hills of Mugello, of the Florentine territory. The ardour of freedmen, who fought to regain their country, was opposed to the languid temper of mer

Procopius, Anecdot. c. 18. The series of the African history attests this melancholy truth.

f In the second (c. 30.) and third books, (c. 1-40.) Procopius cor tinues the history of the Gothic war from the fifth to the fifteenth year of Justinian. As the events are less interesting than in the former pe. riod, he allots only half the space to double the time. Jornades, and the Chronicle of Marcellinus, afford some collateral hints. Sigonius, Pagi, Muratori, Mascou, and De Buat, are useful, and have been used.