LIII

march was opened by the military officers at the CHAP. head of their troops; they were followed in long order by the magistrates and ministers of the civil government the perfon of the emperor was guarded by his eunuchs and domeftics, and at the church-door he was folemnly received by the patriarch and his clergy. The task of applaufe was not abandoned to the rude and fpontaneous voices of the crowd. The moft convenient ftations were occupied by the bands of the blue and green factions of the circus; and their furious conflicts, which had fhaken the capital, were infenfibly funk to an emulation of fervitude. From either fide they echoed in refponfive melody the praifes of the emperor; their poets and muficians directed the choir, and long life " and victory were the burthen of every fong. The fame acclamations were performed at the audience, the banquet, and the church; and as an evidence of boundless fway, they were repeated in the Latin 54, Gothic, Perfian, French, and even English language ", by the mercenaries who fuftained the real or fictitious character of those nations. By the pen of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, this fcience of form and flattery has been reduced into a pompous and tri

53 пoλxpo is explained by evenμige (Códin. c. 7. Ducange, Gloff. Græc. tom. i. p. 1199.).

54 Κωνσερβετ Δευς εμπεριυμ βερεμησ βικτορ τις σεμπερι βέβητε Δομιν. Ημπεράτορες ην μάλτος αννος (Ceremon. c. 75. p. 215.). The want of the Latin V, obliged the Greeks to employ their ß; nor do they regard quantity. Till he recollected the true language, thefe ftrange fentences might puzzle a profeffor.

55 Βαράγγος κατα THV πατριαν γλωσσαν και στους ηταν αναλονιζε xpong (Codin. p. 9o.). I wish he had preferved the words, Bowever corrupt, of their English acclamation.

fling

LIII.

56

CHAP. fling volume 5, which the vanity of fucceeding times might enrich with an ample supplement. Yet the calmer reflection of a prince would furely fuggeft, that the fame acclamations were applied to every character and every reign: and if he had rifen from a private rank, he might remember, that his own voice had been the loudest and most eager in applause, at the very moment when he envied the fortune, or confpired against the life, of his predeceffor 57.

Marriage of the Cæfars with foreign' nations.

The princes of the North, of the nations, fays Conftantine, without faith or fame, were ambitious of mingling their blood with the blood of the Cæfars, by their marriage with a royal virgin, or by the nuptials of their daughters with a Roman prince". The aged monarch, in his inftructions to his fon, reveals the fecret maxims of policy and pride; and fuggests the most decent reasons for refusing these infolent and unreafonable demands. Every animal, fays the difcreet em-peror, is prompted by nature to feek a mate among the animals of his own species; and the human fpecies is divided into various tribes, by

56 For all these ceremonies, fee the profeffed work of Conftantine Porphyrogenitus, with the notes, or rather differtations, of his German editors, Leich and Reiske. For the rank of the ftanding courtiers, p. 8o. not. 23. 62.; for the adoration, except on Sundays, p. 95. 240. not. 131.; the proceffions, p. 2, &c. not. p. 3, &c.; the acclamations, paffim, not. 25, &c.; the factions and Hippodrome, p. 177-214. not. 9. 93, &c.; the Gothic games, p. 221. not. III.; vintage, p. 217. not. 109.: much more information is fcattered over the work.

57 Et privato Othoni et nuper eadem dicenti nota adulatio (Tacit. Hift. i. 85.).

58 The xiiith chapter, de Adminiftratione Imperii, may be explained and rectified by the Familia Byzantine of Ducange. the

CHA P.

LIII.

the distinction of language, religion, and manners. A just regard to the purity of descent preserves the harmony of public and private life; but the mixture of foreign blood is the fruitful fource of diforder and difcord. Such had ever been the opinion and practice of the fage Romans: their jurif prudence profcribed the marriage of a citizen and a ftranger in the days of freedom and virtue, a fenator would have scorned to match his daughter with a king: the glory of Mark Antony was fullied by an Egyptian wife"; and the emperor Titus was compelled, by popular cenfure, to difmifs with reluctance the reluctant Berenice". This perpetual interdict was ratified by the fabulous fanction of the great Conftantine. The ambaffadors of the nations, more especially of the unbelieving nations, were folemnly admonished, that such strange alliances had been condemned by the founder of the church and city. The irrevocable Imaginary law was infcribed on the altar of St. Sophia; and Conftanthe impious prince who should stain the majesty of tine. the purple was excluded from the civil and ecclefiaftical communion of the Romans. If the ambaffadors were inftructed by any false brethren in the Byzantine history, they might produce three

59 Sequiturque nefas Ægyptia conjunx (Virgil, Æneid viii. 688.). Yet this Egyptian wife was the daughter of a long line of kings. Quid te mutayit (says Antony in a private letter to Augustus) an quod reginam ineo? Uxor mea est (Sueton. in Auguft. c. 69.) Yet I much queftion (for I cannot stay to enquire), whether the triumvir ever dared to celebrate his marriage either with Roman or Egyptian rites.

Go Berenicem invitus invitam dimifit (Suetonius in Tito, c. 7.). Have I obferved elsewhere, that this Jewish beauty was at this time above fifty years of age? The judicious Racine has most difcreetly fuppreffed both her age and her country.

VOL. X.

K

memorable

law of

LIII.

A. D. 733.

The fecond,

CHAP. memorable examples of the violation of this imaginary law the marriage of Leo, or rather of his father Constantine the fourth, with the daughter of the king of the Chozars, the nuptials of the grand-daughter of Romanus with a Bulgarian prince, and the union of Bertha of France or Italy with young Romanus, the fon of Conftantine Porphyrogenitus himself. To these objections, three anfwers were prepared, which solved the difficulty The firft and established the law. I. The deed and the exception, guilt of Conftantine Copronymus were acknowledged. The Ifaurian heretic, who fullied the baptifmal font, and declared war against the holy images, had indeed embraced a Barbarian wife. By this impious alliance, he accomplished the measure of his crimes, and was devoted to the just cenfure of the church and of posterity. II. RoA. D. 941. manus could not be alleged as a legitimate emperor; he was a plebeian ufurper, ignorant of the laws, and regardless of the honour, of the monarchy. His fon Chriftopher, the father of the bride, was the third in rank in the college of princes, at once the subject and the accomplice of a rebellious parent. The Bulgarians were fincere and devout Christians; and the safety of the empire, with the redemption of many thoufand captives, depended on this prepofterous alliance. Yet no confideration could dispense from the law of Constantine; the clergy, the fenate, and the people, difapproved the conduct of Romanus; and he was reproached, both in his life and death, as the auThe third, thor of the public difgrace. III. For the marriage A. D. 943. of his own fon with the daughter of Hugo king of Italy, a more honourable defence is contrived by

the

the wife Porphyrogenitus. Conftantine, the great and holy, esteemed the fidelity and valour of the Franks; and his prophetic fpirit beheld the vifion of their future greatnefs. They alone were excepted from the general prohibition: Hugo king of France was the lineal defcendant of Charlemagne"; and his daughter Bertha inherited the prerogatives of her family and nation. The voice of truth and malice infenfibly betrayed the fraud or error of the Imperial court. The patrimonial eftate of Hugo was reduced from the monarchy of France to the fimple county of Arles; though it was not denied, that, in the confufion of the times, he had ufurped the fovereignty of Provence, and invaded the kingdom of Italy. His father was a private noble: and if Bertha derived her female defcent from the Carlovingian line, every step was polluted with illegitimacy or vice. The grandmother of Hugo was the famous Valdrada, the concubine, rather than the wife, of the fecond Lothair; whofe adultery, divorce, and fecond nuptials, had provoked against him the thunders of the Vatican. His mother, as fhe was ftyled, the great Bertha, was fucceffively the wife of the count of Arles and of the marquis of Tuscany: France and Italy were fcandalized by her gal

61 Conftantine was mátle to praise the suyeva and give of the Franks, with whom he claimed a private and public alliance. The French writers (Ifaac Cafaubon in Dedicat. Polybii) are highly delighted with these compliments.

62 Conftantine Porphyrogenitus (de Administrat. Imp. c. 26.) exhibits a pedigree and life of the illuftrious king Hugo (negara nyos Cuyoras). A more correct idea may be formed from the Criticism of Pagi, the Annals of Muratori, and the Abridgement of St. Marc, A. D. 925—946.