LIII. CHA P. lantries; and, till the age of threescore, her lovers, of every degree, were the zealous fervants of her ambition. The example of maternal incontinence was copied by the king of Italy; and the three favourite concubines of Hugo were decorated with the claffic names of Venus, Juno, and Semele 63. The daughter of Venus was granted to the folicitations of the Byzantine court: her name of Bertha was changed to that of Eudoxia; and she was wedded, or rather betrothed, to young Romanus, the future heir of the empire of the Eaft. The confummation of this foreign alliance was fufpended by the tender age of the two parties; and, at the end of five years, the union was diffolved by the death of the virgin spouse. The fecond wife of the emperor Romanus was a maiden of plebeian, but of Roman, birth; and their two daughters, Theophano and Anne, were given in marriage to the princes of the earth. The eldest A. D. 972. was bestowed, as the pledge of peace, on the eldest fon of the great Otho, who had folicited this alliance with arms and embaffies. It might It might legally be queftioned how far a Saxon was entitled to the privilege of the French nation: but every scruple was filenced by the fame and piety of a hero who had restored the empire of the Weft. After the death of her father-in-law and husband, Theophano governed Rome, Italy, and Germany, dur Otho of Germany, 63 After the mention of the three goddeffes, Liutprand very naturally adds, et quoniam non rex folus iis abutebatur, earum nati ex incertis patribus originem ducunt (Hift. 1. iv. c. 6.): for the marriage of the younger Bertha, fee Hift. 1. v. c. 5.; for the incontinence of the elder, dulcis exercitio Hymenxi,l. ii. c.15; for the virtues and vices of Hugo, 1. iii. c 5. Yet it must not be forgot, that the bishop of Cremona was a lover of scandal. ing LIII. mir of ing the minority of her son, the third Otho; and CHA P. the Latins have praised the virtues of an emprefs, who facrificed to a superior duty the remembrance of her country 64. In the nuptials of her fifter Anne, every prejudice was loft, and every confideration of dignity was fuperfeded, by the stronger argument of neceffity and fear. A Pagan of the Wolodonorth, Wolodomir, great prince of Ruffia, afpired Ruffia, to a daughter of the Roman purple; and his claim A. D.988. was enforced by the threats of war, the promise of converfion, and the offer of a powerful fuccour against a domestic rebel. A victim of her religion and country, the Grecian princefs was torn from the palace of her fathers, and condemned to a favage reign and an hopeless exile on the banks of the Borysthenes, or in the neighbourhood of the Polar circle ❝s. Yet the marriage of Anne was fortunate and fruitful: the daughter of her grandfon Jeroflaus was recommended by her Imperial defcent; and the king of France, Henry I. fought a wife on the last borders of Europe and Christendom 66 In 64 Licet illa Imperatrix Græca fibi et aliis fuiffet fatis utilis et optima, &c. is the preamble of an inimical writer, apud Pagi, tom. iv. A. D. 989, No 3. Her marriage and principal actions may be found in Muratori, Pagi, and St. Marc, under the proper years. 65 Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 699. Zonaras, tom. ii. p. 221. Elmacin, Hift. Saracenica, 1. iii. c. 6. Neftor apud Levesque, tom. ii. p. 112. Pagi, Critica, A. D. 987, N° 6. a fingular concourfe! Wolodomir and Anne are ranked among the faints of the Ruffian church. Yet we know his vices, and are ignorant of her virtues. 66 Henricus primus duxit uxorem Scythicam, Ruffam, filiam regis Jeroflai. An embaffy of bishops was fent into Ruffia, and the father gratanter filiam cum multis donis mifit. This event happened in the year 1051. See the paffages of the original chronicles in Bouquet's Hiftorians of France (tom. xi. p. 29. 159. 161. 319. 384. K 3 CHAP. Despotic power. In the Byzantine palace, the emperor was the first flave of the ceremonies which he impofed, of the rigid forms which regulated each word and gefture, befieged him in the palace, and violated the leisure of his rural folitude, But the lives and fortunes of millions hung on his arbitrary will: and the firmeft minds, fuperior to the allurements of pomp and luxury, may be feduced by the more active pleasure of commanding their equals. The legislative and executive power were centered in the perfon of the monarch, and the laft remains of the authority of the fenate were finally eradicated by Leo the philofopher 7. A lethargy of fervitude had benumbed the minds of the Grecks; in the wildest tumults of rebellion they never afpired to the idea of a free conftitution; and the private character of the prince was the only fource and measure of their public happiness. Superftition rivetted their chains; in the church of St. Sophia, he was folemnly crowned by the patriarch; at the foot of the altar, they pledged their paffive and unconditional obedience to his government and family. On his fide he engaged to abstain as tion oath, much as poffible from the capital punifhments of death and mutilation; his orthodox creed was fubfcribed with his own hand, and he promised to obey the decrees of the feven fynods, and the Corona 384. 481.). Voltaire might wonder at this alliance; but he should not have owned his ignorance of the country, religion, &c. of Jeroflaus-a name fo confpicuous in the Ruffian annals. 67 A constitution of Leo the philosopher (lxxviii.) ne fenatusconfulta amplius fiant, fpeaks the language of naked defpotism, εξ ε το μοναρχον κρατος την τύτων ανήπται διοικησιν, και ακαιρού και ματαίον το αχρησον μετα των χρειαν παρεχομένων συναπτεσθαι. CHA P. canons of the holy church". But the affurance of mercy was loose and indefinite: he swore, not to his people, but to an invifible judge, and except in the inexpiable guilt of herefy, the minifters of heaven were always prepared to preach the indefeasible right, and to abfolve the venial transgreffions, of their fovereign. The Greek ecclefiastics were themfelves the subjects of the civil magiftrate at the nod of a tyrant, the bishops were created, or transferred, or depofed, or punished with an ignominious death: whatever might be their wealth or influence, they could never fucceed like the Latin clergy in the establishment of an independent republic; and the patriarch of Conftantinople condemned, what he fecretly envied, the temporal greatnefs of his Roman brother. Yet the exercife of boundless defpotism is happily checked by the laws of nature and neceffity. In proportion to his wisdom and virtue, the master of an empire is confined to the path of his facred and laborious duty. In proportion to his vice and folly, he drops the fceptre too weighty for his hands; and the motions of the royal image are ruled by the imperceptible thread of fome minifter or favourite, who undertakes for his private intereft to exerçife the task of the public oppreffion. In fome fatal moment, the most abfolute monarch may dread the reafon or the caprice of a nation of flaves; and experience has proved, that 68 Codinus (de Officiis, c. xvii. p. 120, 121.) gives an idea of this oath fo ftrong to the church πιςος και γνησιος δέλος και υιος της άγιας εκκλησίας, fo weak to the people και απέχεσθεί φονων και ακρωτηριασμων και όμοιων τετας κατά το δυνατον. LIII. CHAP. whatever is gained in the extent, is loft in the fafety and folidity, of regal power. LIII. Military force of the Greeks, the Sara the Franks, Whatever titles a defpot may affume, whatever claims he may affert, it is on the fword that he must ultimately depend to guard him against cens, and his foreign and domestic enemies. From the age of Charlemagne to that of the Crufades, the world (for I overlook the remote monarchy of China) was occupied and difputed by the three great empires or nations of the Greeks, the Saracens, and the Franks. Their military strength may be ascertained by a comparison of their courage, their arts and riches, and their obedience to a fupreme head, who might call into action all the energies of the state. The Greeks, far inferior to their rivals in the first, were fuperior to the Franks, and at least equal to the Saracens, in the fecond and third of thefe warlike qualifications. Navy of the Greeks. The wealth of the Greeks enabled them to purchase the service of the poorer nations, and to maintain a naval power for the protection of their coafts and the annoyance of their enemies ". A commerce of mutual benefit exchanged the gold of Conftantinople for the blood of the Sclavonians and Turks, the Bulgarians and Ruffians: their valour contributed to the victories of Nicephorus 69 If we listen to the threats of Nicephorus, to the ambassador of Otho, Nec eft in mari domino tuo claffium numerus. Navigantium fortitudo mihi foli ineft, qui eum claffibus aggrediar, bello maritimas ejus civitates demoliar; et quæ fluminibus funt vicina redigam in favillam. (Liutprand in Legat. ad Nicephorum Pho cam, in Muratori Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom. ii. pars i. p. 481.) He observes in another place, qui cæteris præftant Venetici funt et Amalphitani. and |