A. D. 929. the second to leap into the Tigris, and the third to human shape, and the representative of Mohammed | manded the first to plunge a dagger into his breast, the son of Ali, of St. John the Baptist, and of the angel Gabriel. In his mystic volume, the precepts of the Koran were refined to a more spiritual sense; he relaxed the duties of ablution, fasting, and pilgrimage; allowed the indiscriminate use of wine and forbidden food; and nourished the fervour of his disciples by the daily repetition of fifty prayers. The idleness and ferment of the rustic crowd awaken- | ed the attention of the magistrates of Cufa; a timid persecution assisted the progress of the new sect; | and the name of the prophet became more revered after his person had been withdrawn from the world. His twelve apostles dispersed themselves among the Bedoweens, "6 a race of men," says Abulfeda, equally devoid of reason and of religion;" and the success of their preaching seemed to threaten Arabia with a new revolution. The Carmathians were ripe for rebellion, since they disclaimed the title of the house of Abbas, and abhorred the worldly pomp of the caliphs of Bagdad. They were susceptible of discipline, since they vowed a blind and absolute submission to their imam, who was called to the prophetic office by the voice of God and the people. Instead of the legal tithes, he claimed the fifth of their substance and spoil; the most flagitious sins were no more than the type of disobedience; and the brethren were united and concealed Their military by an oath of secrecy. After a bloody conflict, they prevailed in the province of Bahrein, along the Persian gulf: far and wide, the tribes of the desert were subject to the sceptre, or rather to the sword, of Abu Said and his son Abu Taher: and these rebellious imams could muster in the field a hundred and seven thousand fanatics. The mercenaries of the caliph were dismayed at the approach of an enemy who neither asked nor accepted quarter; and the difference between them, in fortitude and patience, is expressive of the change which three centuries of prosperity had effected in the character of the Arabians. Such troops were discomfited in every action; the cities of Racca and Baalbec, of Cufa and Bassora, were taken and pillaged; Bagdad was filled with consternation; and the caliph trembled behind the veils of his palace. In a daring inroad beyond the Tigris, Abu Taher advanced to the gates of the capital with no more than five hundred horse. By the special order of Moctader, the bridges had been broken down, and the person or head of the rebel was expected every hour by the commander of the faithful. His lieutenant, from a motive of fear or pity, apprised Abu Taher of his danger, and recommended a speedy escape. "Your master," said the intrepid Carmathian to the messenger, " is at the head of thirty thousand soldiers: three such men as these are wanting in his host:" at the same instant, turning to three of his companions, he com exploits, A. D. 900, &c. i For the sect of the Carmathians, consult Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 219. 224. 229. 231. 238. 241. 243.) Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 179182.) Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. p. 218, 219, &c. 245. 265. 274.) and D'Herbelot. (Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 256-258. 635.) I find some Revolt of the provinces, A. D. 800-936. for him to The third and most obvious cause was the weight and magnitude of the empire itself. The caliph Almamon might proudly assert, that it was easier rule the east and the west, than to manage a chessboard of two feet square: yet I suspect that in both those games he was guilty of many fatal mistakes; and I perceive, that in the distant provinces the authority of the first and most powerful of the Abbassides was already impaired. The analogy of despotism invests the representative with the full majesty of the prince; the division and balance of powers might relax the habits of obedience, might encourage the passive subject to inquire into the origin and administration of civil government. He who is born in the purple is seldom worthy to reign; but the elevation of a private man, of a peasant perhaps, or a slave, affords a strong presumption of his courage and capacity. The viceroy of a remote kingdom aspires to secure the property and inheritance of his precarious trust; the nations must rejoice in the presence of their sovereign; and inconsistencies of theology and chronology, which it would not be easy nor of much importance to reconcile. k Hyde, Syntagma Dissertat. tom. ii. p. 57. in Hist. Shahiludii. the command of armies and treasures are at once the object and the instrument of his ambition. A change was scarcely visible as long as the lieutenants of the caliph were content with their vicarious title; while they solicited for themselves or their sons a renewal of the imperial grant, and still maintained | on the coin, and in the public prayers, the name and prerogative of the commander of the faithful. But in the long and hereditary exercise of power, they assumed the pride and attributes of royalty; the alternative of peace or war, of reward or punishment, depended solely on their will; and the revenues of the government were reserved for local services or private magnificence. Instead of a regular supply of men and money, the successors of the prophet were flattered with the ostentatious gift of an elephant, or a cast of hawks, a suit of silk hangings, or some pounds of musk and amber.' The independAfter the revolt of Spain, from the ent dynasties. temporal and spiritual supremacy of the Abbassides, the first symptoms of disobedience broke forth in the province of Africa. Ibrahim, the son of Aglab, the lieutenant of the vigilant and rigid Harun, bequeathed to the dynasty of the Aglabites the inheritance of his name and power. The Aglabites, A. D. 800-941. The indolence or policy of the caliphs dissembled the injury and loss, and pursued only The Edrisites, with poison the founder of the EdriA. D. 829-907. sites, who erected the kingdom and city of Fez on the shores of the western ocean." In the east, the first dynasty was that of the Taherites ;o The Taherites, the posterity of the valiant Taher, who, A. D. 813-872. in the civil wars of the sons of Harun, had served with too much zeal and success the cause of Almamon, the younger brother. He was sent into honourable exile, to command on the banks of the Oxus; and the independence of his successors, who reigned in Chorasan till the fourth generation, was palliated by their modest and respectful demeanour, the happiness of their subjects, and the security of their frontier. They were supplanted by one of those adventurers so frequent in the annals of the east, who left his trade of a brazier The Soffarides, (from whence the name of Soffarides) A. D. 872-902. for the profession of a robber. In a nocturnal visit to the treasure of the prince of Sistan, Jacob, the son of Leith, stumbled over a lump of salt, which he unwarily tasted with his tongue. Salt, among the orientals, is the symbol of hospitality, and the pious robber immediately retired without spoil or damage. The discovery of this honourable behaviour recommended Jacob to pardon and trust; he led an army at first for his benefactor, at m 1 The dynasties of the Arabian empire may be studied in the Annals of Elmacin, Abulpharagius, and Abulfeda, under the proper years, in the dictionary of D'Herbelot, under the proper names. The tables of M. de Guignes (Hist. des Huns, tom. 1.) exhibit a general chronology of the east, interspersed with some historical anecdotes; but his attachment to national blood has sometimes confounded the order of time and place. m The Aglabites and Edrisites are the professed subject of M. de Cardonne. (Hist. de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne sous la Domination des Arabes, tom. ii. p. 1–-63.) To escape the reproach of error, I must criticise the inaccuracies of M. de Guignes (tom. i. p. 339.) concerning the Edrisites. 1. The dynasty and city of Fez could not be founded in the year of the Hegira last for himself, subdued Persia, and threatened the residence of the Abbassides. On his march towards Bagdad, the conqueror was arrested by a fever. He gave audience in bed to the ambassador of the caliph; and beside him on a table were exposed a naked scymitar, a crust of brown bread, and a bunch of onions. "If I die," said he, " your master is delivered from his fears. If I live, this must determine between us. If I am vanquished, I can return without reluctance to the homely fare of my youth." From the height where he stood, the descent would not have been so soft or harmless: a timely death secured his own repose and that of the caliph, who paid with the most lavish concessions the retreat of his brother Amrou to the palaces of Shiraz and Ispahan. The Abbassides were too feeble to contend, too proud to forgive: they invited the powerful dynasty of the Samanides, who passed The Samanides, the Oxus with ten thousand horse; so A. D. 874-999. poor, that their stirrups were of wood; so brave, that they vanquished the Soffarian army, eight times more numerous than their own. The captive Amrou was sent in chains, a grateful offering to the court of Bagdad; and as the victor was content with the inheritance of Transoxiana and Chorasan, the realms of Persia returned for a while to the allegiance of the caliphs. The provinces of Syria and Egypt were twice dismembered by their Turkish slaves, of the race of Toulun and Ikshid.P These The Toulunides. barbarians, in religion and manners the A. D. 868-905. countrymen of Mahomet, emerged from A. D. 934–968. the bloody factions of the palace to a provincial command and an independent throne: their names became famous and formidable in their time; but the founders of these two potent dynasties confessed, either in words or actions, the vanity of ambition. The first on his death-bed implored the mercy of God to a sinner, ignorant of the limits of his own power the second, in the midst of four hundred thousand soldiers and eight thousand slaves, concealed from every human eye the chamber where he attempted to sleep. Their sons were educated in the vices of kings; and both Egypt and Syria were recovered and possessed by the Abbassides during an interval of thirty years. In the decline of their empire, Mesopotamia, with the important cities of Mosul and Aleppo, was occupied by the Arabian princes of the tribe of Hama- The Hamadandan. The poets of their court could ites, repeat, without a blush, that nature had formed their countenances for beauty, their tongues for eloquence, and their hands for liberality and valour: but the genuine tale of the elevation The Ikshidites, A. D. 892-1001. 173, since the founder was a posthumous child of a descendant of Ali, who fled from Mecca in the year 168. 2. This founder, Edris, the son of Edris, instead of living to the improbable age of 120 years, A. H. 313, died A. H. 214, in the prime of manhood. 3. The dynasty ended A. H. 307, twenty-three years sooner than it is fixed by the historian of the Huns. See the accurate annals of Abulfeda, p. 158, 159. 185. 238. The dynasties of the Taherites and Soffarides, with the rites of that of the Samanides, are described in the original history and Latin ver. sion of Mirchond: yet the most interesting facts had already been drained by the diligence of M. D'Herbelot. P M. de Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. p. 124-154.) has exhausted the Toulunides and Ikshidites of Egypt, and thrown some light on the Carmathians and Hamadanites. and reign of the Hamadanites, exhibits a scene of treachery, murder, and parricide. At the same fatal period, the Persian kingdom was again usurped by The Bowides, the dynasty of the Bowides, by the A. D. 933-1035. Sword of three brothers, who, under various names, were styled the support and columns of the state, and who, from the Caspian sea to the ocean, would suffer no tyrants but themselves. Under their reign, the language and genius of Persia revived, and the Arabs, three hundred and four years after the death of Mahomet, were deprived of the sceptre of the east. Fallen state of the caliphs of Bagdad, A. D. 936, &c. Rahdi, the twentieth of the Abbassides, and the thirty-ninth of the successors of Mahomet, was the last who deserved the title of commander of the faithful; the last (says Abulfeda) who spoke to the people, or conversed with the learned; the last who, in the expense of his household, represented the wealth and magnificence of the ancient caliphs. After him, the lords of the eastern world were reduced to the most abject misery, and exposed to the blows and insults of a servile condition. The revolt of the provinces circumscribed their dominions within the walls of Bagdad; but that capital still contained an innumerable multitude, vain of their past fortune, discontented with their present state, and oppressed by the demands of a treasury which had formerly been replenished by the spoil and tribute of nations. Their idleness was exercised by faction and controversy. Under the mask of piety, the rigid followers of Hanbal invaded the pleasures of domestic life, burst into the houses of plebeians and princes, spilt the wine, broke the instruments, beat the musicians, and dishonoured, with infamous suspicions, the associates of every handsome youth. In each profession, which allowed room for two persons, the one was a votary, the other an antagonist, of Ali; and the Abbassides were awakened by the clamorous grief of the sectaries, who denied their title, and cursed their progenitors. A turbulent people could only be repressed by a military force; but who could satisfy the avarice or assert the discipline of the mercenaries themselves? The African and the Turkish guards drew their swords against each other, and the chief commanders, the emirs al Omra, imprisoned or deposed their sovereigns, and violated the sanctuary of the mosch and haram. If the caliphs escaped to the camp or court of any neighbouring prince, their deliverance was a change of servitude, till they were prompted by despair to q Hic est ultimus chalifah qui multum atque sæpius pro concione peroravit.. Fuit etiam ultimus qui otium cum eruditis et facetis hominibus fallere hilariterque agere soleret. Ultimus tandem chalifa. rum cui sumptus, stipendia, reditus, et thesauri, culinæ, cæteraque omnis aulica pompa priorum chalifarum ad instar comparata fuerint. Videbimus enim paullo post quam indignis et servilibus ludibriis exagitati, quam ad humilem fortunam ultimumque contemptum abjecti fuerint hi quondam potentissimi totius terrarum orientalium orbis domini. Abulfed. Annal. Moslem. p. 261. I have given this passage as the manner and tone of Abulfeda, but the cast of Latin eloquence belongs more properly to Reiske. The Arabian historian (p. 255. 257. 261–269. 283, &c.) has supplied me with the most interesting facts of this paragraph. Their master, on a similar occasion, showed himself of a more indulgent and tolerating spirit. Ahmed Ebn Hanbal, the head of one of invite the Bowides, the sultans of Persia, who silenced the factions of Bagdad by their irresistible arms. The civil and military powers were assumed by Moezaldowlat, the second of the three brothers, and a stipend of sixty thousand pounds sterling was assigned by his generosity for the private expense of the commander of the faithful. But on the fortieth day, at the audience of the ambassadors of Chorasan, and in the presence of a trembling multitude, the caliph was dragged from his throne to a dungeon, by the command of the stranger, and the rude hands of his Dilemites. His palace was pillaged, his eyes were put out, and the mean ambition of the Abbassides aspired to the vacant station of danger and disgrace. In the school of adversity, the luxurious caliphs resumed the grave and abstemious virtues of the primitive times. Despoiled of their armour and silken robes, they fasted, they prayed, they studied the Koran and the tradition of the Sonnites; they performed, with zeal and knowledge, the functions of their ecclesiastical character. The respect of nations still waited on the successors of the apostle, the oracles of the law and conscience of the faithful; and the weakness or division of their tyrants sometimes restored the Abbassides to the sovereignty of Bagdad. But Enterprises of the Greeks, A. D. 960. their misfortunes had been imbittered by the triumph of the Fatimites, the real or spurious progeny of Ali. Arising from the extremity of Africa, these successful rivals extinguished, in Egypt and Syria, both the spiritual and temporal authority of the Abbassides: and the monarch of the Nile insulted the humble pontiff on the banks of the Tigris. In the declining age of the caliphs, in the century which elapsed after the war of Theophilus and Motassem, the hostile transactions of the two nations were confined to some inroads by sea and land, the fruits of their close vicinity and indelible hatred. But when the eastern world was convulsed and broken, the Greeks were roused from their lethargy by the hopes of conquest and revenge. The Byzantine empire, since the accession of the Basilian race, had reposed in peace and dignity; and they might encounter with their entire strength the front of some petty emir, whose rear was assaulted and threatened by his national foes of the Mahometan faith. The lofty titles of the morning star, and the death of the Saracens,' were applied in the public acclamations to Nicephorus Phocas, a prince as renowned in the camp as he was unpopular in the city. Reduction of In the subordinate station of great Crete. the four orthodox sects, was born at Bagdad A. H. 164, and died there A. H. 241. He fought and suffered in the dispute concerning the creation of the Koran. s The office of vizir was superseded by the emir al Omra, Imperator Imperatorum, a title first instituted by Radhi, and which merge at length in the Bowides and Seljukides; vectigalibus, et tributis, et curiis per omnes regiones præfecit, jussitque in omnibus suggestis nominis ejus in concionibus mentionem fieri. (Abulpharagius, Dynast. p. 199.) It is likewise mentioned by Elmacin, (p. 254, 255.) t Liutprand, whose choleric temper was imbittered by his uneasy situation, suggests the names of reproach and contempt more applica ble to Nicephorus than the vain titles of the Greeks, Ecce venit stella matutina, surgit Eous, reverberat obtutů solis radios, pallida Saracenorum mors, Nicephorus μedov. The eastern con ces, A. D. 963-975. and unprofitable view of the naval succours of Invasion of Syria. domestic, or general of the east, he reduced the | able terms, than they were mortified by the distant island of Crete, and extirpated the nest of pirates who had so long defied, with impunity, the majesty of the empire.". His military genius was displayed in the conduct and success of the enterprise, which had so often failed with loss and dishonour. The Saracens were confounded by the landing of his troops on safe and level bridges, which he cast from the vessels to the shore. Seven months were consumed in the siege of Candia; the despair of the native Cretans was stimulated by the frequent aid of their brethren of Africa and Spain; and, after the massy wall and double ditch had been stormed by the Greeks, a hopeless conflict was still maintained in the streets and houses of the city. The whole island was subdued in the capital, and a sub-mount Amanus, the two Roman princes repeatedly missive people accepted, without resistance, the bap-carried their arms into the heart of Syria. Yet, tism of the conqueror. Constantinople applauded the long-forgotten pomp of a triumph: but the imperial diadem was the sole reward that could repay the services, or satisfy the ambition, of Nicephorus. After the death of the younger Roquests of Nice- manus, the fourth in lineal descent of phorus Pbocas and John Zinis. the Basilian race, his widow Theophania successively married Nicephorus Phocas and his assassin John Zimisces, the two heroes of the age. They reigned as the guardians and colleagues of her infant sons; and the twelve years of their military command form the most splendid period of the Byzantine annals. The subjects and confederates, whom they led to war, appeared, at least in the eyes of an enemy, two hundred thousand strong; and of these about thirty thousand were armed with cuirasses: a train of four thousand mules attended their march; and their evening camp was regularly fortified with an enclosure of iron spikes. A series of bloody and undecisive combats is nothing more than an anticipation of what would have been effected in a few years by the course of nature: but I shall briefly prosecute the conquests of the two emperors from the hills of Cappadocia to the desert of Bagdad. Conquest of The sieges of Mopsuestia and Tarsus, Cilicia. in Cilicia, first exercised the skill and perseverance of their troops, on whom, at this moment, I shall not hesitate to bestow the name of Romans. In the double city of Mopsuestia, which is divided by the river Sarus, two hundred thousand Moslems were predestined to death or slavery,' a surprising degree of population, which must at least include the inhabitants of the depending districts. They were surrounded and taken by assault; but Tarsus was reduced by the slow progress of famine; and no sooner had the Saracens yielded on honouru Notwithstanding the insinuations of Zonaras, kai ei un, &c. (tom. ii. 1. xvi. p. 197.) it is an undoubted fact, that Crete was completely and finally subdued by Nicephorus Phocas. (Pagi, Critica, tom. iii. p. 873875. Meursius, Creta, l. iii. c. 7. tom. iii. p. 464, 465.) x A Greek Life of St. Nicon the Armenian was found in the Sforza library, and translated into Latin by the Jesuit Sirmond, for the use of Cardinal Baronius. This contemporary legend casts a ray of light on Crete and Peloponnesus in the tenth century. He found the newly. recovered island, fœdis detestandæ Agarenorum superstitionis vestigiis adhuc plenam ac refertam. ... but the victorious missionary, perhaps with some carnal aid, ad baptismum omnes veræque fidei disciplinam Recovery of instead of assaulting the walls of Antioch, the y Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. p. 278, 279. Liutprand was disposed to depreciate the Greek power, yet he owns that Nicephorus led against Assyria an army of eighty thousand men. Ducenta fore millia hominum numerabat urbs (Abulfeda, Annal. Moslem. p. 231.) of Mopsuestia, or Masifa, Mampsysta, Mansista, Ma. mista, as it is corruptly, or perhaps more correctly, styled in the mid. dle ages. (Wesseling, Itinerar. p. 580.) Yet I cannot credit this extreme populousness a few years after the testimony of the emperor Leo, ou γαρ πολυπληθια κράτου τους Κίλιξι βαρβαροις εςιν. (Tactica, c. xviii. in Meursii Oper. tom. vi. p. 817.) returned to Constantinople, and displayed, in his triumph, the silk, the aromatics, and three hundred myriads of gold and silver. Yet the powers of the east had been bent, not broken, by this transient hurricane. After the departure of the Greeks, the fugitive princes returned to their capitals; the subjects disclaimed their involuntary oaths of allegiance; the Moslems again purified their temples, and overturned the idols of the saints and martyrs ; the Nestorians and Jacobites preferred a Saracen to an orthodox master; and the numbers and spirit of the Melchites were inadequate to the support of the church and state. Of these extensive conquests, Antioch, with the cities of Cilicia and the isle of Cyprus, was alone restored, a permanent and useful accession to the Roman empire.c CHAP. LIII. were led into captivity; the weight of the precious | tiated with glory, and laden with oriental spoils, spoil exceeded the strength and number of the beasts of burthen; the superfluous remainder was burnt; and after a licentious possession of ten days, the Romans marched away from the naked and bleeding city. In their Syrian inroads they commanded the husbandmen to cultivate their lands, that they themselves, in the ensuing season, might | reap the benefit: more than a hundred cities were reduced to obedience; and eighteen pulpits of the principal moschs were committed to the flames to expiate the sacrilege of the disciples of Mahomet. The classic names of Hierapolis, Apamea, and Emesa, revive for a moment in the list of conquest: the emperor Zimisces encamped in the paradise of Damascus, and accepted the ransom of a submissive people; and the torrent was only stopped by the impregnable fortress of Tripoli, on the sea-coast Passage of the of Phoenicia. Since the days of HeEuphrates. raclius, the Euphrates, below the passage of mount Taurus, had been impervious, and almost invisible, to the Greeks. The river yielded a free passage to the victorious Zimisces; and the historian may imitate the speed with which he overran the once famous cities of Samosata, Edessa, Martyropolis, Amida, and Nisibis, the ancient limit of the empire in the neighbourhood of the Tigris. His ardour was quickened by the desire of grasping the virgin treasures of Ecbatana, a well-known name, under which the Byzantine writer has concealed the capital of the Abbassides. The consternation of the fugitives had already diffused the terror of his name; but the fancied riches of Bag-posed at a mature age for the instruction of his son, dad had already been dissipated by the avarice and and which promise to unfold the state of the eastDanger of prodigality of domestic tyrants. The ern empire, both in peace and war, both at home Bagdad. prayers of the people, and the stern and abroad. In the first of these demands of the lieutenant of the Bowides, required works he minutely describes the pom- stantine Por phyrogenitus. the caliph to provide for the defence of the city. pous ceremonies of the church and The helpless Mothi replied, that his arms, his re- palace of Constantinople, according to his own venues, and his provinces, had been torn from his practice and that of his predecessors. In the hands, and that he was ready to abdicate a dignity second, he attempts an accurate survey of the prowhich he was unable to support. The emir was vinces, the themes, as they were then denominated, inexorable; the furniture of the palace was sold; both of Europe and Asia. The system of Roman and the paltry price of forty thousand pieces of gold tactics, the discipline and order of the troops, and was instantly consumed in private luxury. But the military operations by land and sea, are exthe apprehensions of Bagdad were relieved by the plained in the third of these didactic collections, retreat of the Greeks; thirst and hunger guarded which may be ascribed to Constantine or his father the desert of Mesopotamia; and the emperor, saLeo. In the fourth, of the administration of the a The text of Leo the deacon, in the corrupt names of Emeta and Myctarsim, reveals the cities of Amida and Martyropolis. (Miafarekin. See Abulfeda, Geograph. p. 245. vers. Reiske.) Of the former, Leo observes, urbs munita et illustris; of the latter, clara atque conspicua opibusque et pecore, reliquis ejus provinciis urbibus atque oppidis longe præstans. b Ut et Ecbatana pergeret Agarenorumque regiam everteret... aiunt enim urbium quæ usquam sunt ac toto orbe existunt felicissimam esse auroque ditissimam. (Leo Diacon. apud Pagium, tom. iv. p. 34.) This splendid description suits only with Bagdad, and cannot possibly apply either to Hamadan, the true Ecbatana, (D'Anville, Geog. Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 237.) or Tauris, which has commonly been mistaken for that city. The name of Ecbatana, in the same indefinite sense, is transferred by a more classic authority (Cicero pro Lege Maniliâ, c. 4.) to the royal seat of Mithridates, king of Pontus. e See the Annals of Elmacin, Abulpharagius, and Abulfeda, from A. H. 351. to A. H. 361. and the reigns of Nicephorus Phocas and John Zimisces, in the Chronicles of Zonaras, (tom. ii. 1. xvi. p. 199. 1. xvii. 215.) and Cedrenus. (Compend. p. 619-684.) Their manifold defects are partly supplied by the MS. history of Leo the deacon, which Pagi obtained from the Benedictines, and has inserted almost entire, in a Latin version. (Critica, tom. iii. p. 873. tom. iv. p. 37.) State of the eastern empire in the tenth century.— A RAY of historic light seems to beam Memorial of the Works of Con a The epithet of Пoppuрoyevntos, Porphyrogenitus, born in the purple, is elegantly defined by Claudian: Ardua privatos nescit fortuna Penates; Et regnum cum luce dedit. Cognata potestas Excepit Tyrio venerabile pignus in ostro. And Ducange, in his Greek and Latin Glossaries, produces many pas. sages expressive of the same idea. b A splendid MS. of Constantine, de Cæremoniis Aulæ et Ecclesiæ Byzantine, wandered from Constantinople to Buda, Frankfort, and Leipsic, where it was published in a splendid edition by Leich and Reiske, (A. D. 1751. in folio,) with such slavish praise as editors never fail to bestow on the worthy or worthless object of their toil. e See, in the first volume of Banduri's Imperium Orientale, Constan. tinius de Thematibus, p. 1-24. de Administrando Imperio, p. 45-127. edit. Venet. The text of the old edition of Meursius is corrected from a MS. of the royal library of Paris, which Isaac Casaubon had formerly seen, (Epist. ad Polybium, p. 10.) and the sense is illustrated by two maps of William Deslisle, the prince of geographers, till the appearance of the greater D'Anville. d The Tactics of Leo and Constantine are published with the aid of some new MSS. in the great edition of the works of Meursius, by the learned John Lami, (tom. vi. p. 531–920. 1211–1417. Florent. 1745.) |