LIII.

difference or contempt. The Bafilics will fink to CHAP.
a broken copy, a partial and mutilated verfion in
the Greek language, of the laws of Juftinian; but
the fenfe of the old civilians is often fuperfeded by
the influence of bigotry: and the abfolute prohi
bition of divorce, concubinage, and intereft for
money, enflaves the freedom of trade and the hap-
pinefs of private life. In the historical book, a
fubject of Conftantine might admire the inimitable
virtues of Greece and Rome: he might learn to
what a pitch of energy and elevation the human
character had formerly afpired. But a contrary
effect must have been produced by a new edition
of the lives of the faints, which the great logothete
or chancellor of the empire was directed to pre-
pare: and the dark fund of superstition was en-
riched by the fabulous and florid legends of Simon
the Metaphraft. The merits and miracles of the
whole calendar are of lefs account in the eyes of
a fage than the toil of a fingle husbandman, who
multiplies the gifts of the Creator, and supplies the
food of his brethren. Yet the royal authors of
the Geoponics were more seriously employed in ex-
pounding the precepts of the destroying art, which
has been taught fince the days of Xenophon, as
the

8 The life and writings of Simon Metaphraftes are described by Hankius (de Scriptoribus Byzant. p. 418-460 ). This biographer of the faints indulged himself in a loose paraphrase of the sense or nonfenfe of more ancient acts. His Greek rhetoric is again paraphrased in the Latin verfion of Surius, and scarcely a thread can be now visible of the original texture.

9 According to the first book of the Cyropædia, profeffors of tactics, a small part of the science of war, were already instituted in Perfia, by which Greece must be understood. A good edition of VOL. X.

H

all

CHAP. the art of heroes and kings. But the Tactics of
LIII. Leo and Conftantine are mingled with the baser

alloy of the age in which they lived. It was desti-
tute of original genius; they implicitly transcribe
the rules and maxims which had been confirmed
by victories. It was unfkilled in the propriety of
style and method; they blindly confound the most
distant and difcordant inftitutions, the phalanx of
Sparta and that of Macedon, the legions of Cato
and Trajan, of Auguftus and Theodofius. Even
the use, or at least the importance, of these mili-
tary rudiments may be fairly
be fairly queftioned their
general theory is dictated by reason; but the merit,
as well as difficulty, confifts in the application.
The difcipline of a foldier is formed by exercise
rather than by ftudy: the talents of a commander
are appropriated to thofe calm though rapid
minds, which nature produces to decide the fate
of armies and nations: the former is the habit of
a life, the latter the glance of a moment; and the
battles won by leffons of tactics may be numbered
with the epic poems created from the rules of cri-
ticifm. The book of ceremonies is a recital, tedi-
ous yet imperfect, of the defpicable pageantry
which had infected the church and ftate fince the
gradual decay of the purity of the one and the
power of the other. A review of the themes
or provinces might promife fuch authentic and
ufeful information, as the curiofity of govern-
ment only can obtain, instead of traditionary fa

all the Scriptores Tactici would be a task not unworthy of a scholar.
His industry might discover some new MSS. and his learning might
illuftrate the military history of the ancients. But this scholar
fhould be likewise a foldier; and, alas! Quintus Icilius is no more.

bles

LIII.

bles on the origin of the cities, and malicious epi- CHAP.
grams on the vices of their inhabitants ". Such
information the historian would have been pleafed
to record; nor fhould his filence be condemned if
the most interesting objects, the population of the
capital and provinces, the amount of the taxes and
revenues, the numbers of subjects and strangers
who ferved under the Imperial standard, have
been unnoticed by Leo the philofopher, and his
fon Constantine. His treatise of the public admi
nistration is stained with the fame blemishes; yet
it is difcriminated by peculiar merit: the antiqui-
ties of the nations may be doubtful or fabulous ;
but the geography and manners of the Barbaric
world are delineated with curious accuracy. Of Embaffy
these nations, the Franks alone were qualified to
obferve in their turn, and to defcribe, the metro-
polis of the Eaft. The ambaffador of the great
Otho, a bishop of Cremona, has painted the state
of Constantinople about the middle of the tenth
century: his style is glowing, his narrative lively,
his obfervation keen; and even the prejudices and
paffions of Liutprand are stamped with an original

10 After obferving that the demerit of the Cappadocians rofe in
proportion to their rank and riches, he inferts a more pointed epi-
gram, which is afcribed to Demodocus:

Καππαδόκην ποτ' εχιδνα κακη δακεν, αλλά και αυτή
Κατθανε, γευσαμένη αίματος ισβολείς

The sting is precisely the fame with the French epigram against
Freron: Un ferpent mordit Jean Freron-Eh bien ? Le ferpent en
mourut. But as the Paris wits are seldom read in the Anthology,
I should be curious to learn through what channel it was conveyed
for their imitation (Conftantin. Porphyrogen. de Themat. c. ii.
Brunk, Analect. Græc. tom. ii. p. 56. Brodæi Anthologia, 1. ii.
P. 244.).

of Liut

prand.

វ

LIII.

CHA P. character of freedom and genius". From this fcanty fund of foreign and domestic materials I fhall investigate the form and fubftance of the Byzantine empire; the provinces and wealth, the civil government and military force, the character and literature, of the Greeks in a period of fix hundred years, from the reign of Heraclius to the fuccefsful invafion of the Franks or Latins.

The

themes, or

provinces

pire, and

in every

age.

After the final divifion between the fons of Theodofius, the fwarms of Barbarians from Scyof the em- thia and Germany overfpread the provinces and its limits extinguished the empire of ancient Rome. The weakness of Conftantinople was concealed by extent of dominion: her limits were inviolate, or at least entire; and the kingdom of Juftinian was enlarged by the fplendid acquifition of Africa and Italy. But the poffeffion of these new conquests was tranfient and precarious; and almost a moiety of the Eastern empire was torn away by the arms of the Saracens. Syria and Egypt were oppreffed by the Arabian caliphs; and, after the reduction of Africa, their lieutenants invaded and fubdued the Roman province which had been changed into the Gothic monarchy of Spain. The islands of the Mediterranean were not inacceffible to their naval powers; and it was from their extreme ftations, the harbours of Crete and the fortreffes of Cilicia, that the faithful or rebel emirs infulted the majesty of the throne and capital. The remaining provinces under the obedience of the em

"The Legatio Liutprandi Epifcopi Cremonenfis ad Nicephorum Phocam, is inserted in Muratori, Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom. ii. pars i.

perors,

12

LIII.

perors, were caft into a new mould; and the jurif- CHAP.
diction of the prefidents, the confulars, and the
counts, was fuperfeded by the institution of the
themes 2, or military governments, which pre-
vailed under the fucceffors of Heraclius, and are
described by the pen of the royal author. Of the
twenty-nine themes, twelve in Europe and feven-
teen in Afia, the origin is obfcure, the etymology
doubtful or capricious: the limits were arbitrary
and fluctuating; but fome particular names that
found the most strangely to our ear were derived
from the character and attributes of the troops
that were maintained at the expence, and for the
guard, of the respective divifions. The vanity of
the Greek princes moft eagerly grasped the shadow
of conqueft and the memory of loft dominion. A
new Mefopotamia was created on the Western fide
of the Euphrates: the appellation and prætor of
Sicily were transferred to a narrow flip of Cala-
bria; and a fragment of the dutchy of Beneven-
tum was promoted to the style and title of the
theme of Lombardy. In the decline of the Ara-
bian empire, the fucceffors of Constantine might
indulge their pride in more folid advantages. The
victories of Nicephorus, John Zimifces, and Bafil
the second, revived the fame and enlarged the
boundaries of the Roman name: the province of
Cilicia, the metropolis of Antioch, the islands of

12 See Conftantine de Thematibus, in Banduri, tom, i. p. 1-30.
who owns, that the word is ex maλata. Θεμα is ufed by Maurice
(Stratagem. 1. ii. c. 2.) for a legion, from whence the name was
eafily transferred to its poft or province (Ducange, Gloff. Græc.
tom. i. p. 487, 488.). Some etymologies are attempted for the
Opfician, Optimatian, Thracefian, themes.

1