crowns, the precious gems were more sparingly distributed. Beside and below the Cesar, the fancy of Alexius created the Panhypersebastos and the Protosebastos, whose sound and signification will satisfy a Grecian ear. They imply a superiority and a priority above the simple name of Augustus; and this sacred and primitive title of the Roman prince was degraded to the kinsmen and servants of the Byzantine court. The daughter of Alexius applauds, with fond complacency, this artful gradation of hopes and honours; but the science of words is accessible to the meanest capacity; and this vain dictionary was easily enriched by the pride of his successors. To their favourite sons or brothers they imparted the more lofty appellation of Lord or Despot, which was illustrated with new ornaments and prerogatives, and placed immediately after the person of the emperor himself. The five titles of, 1. Despot; 2. Sebastocrator; 3. Cesar; 4. Panhypersebastor; and, 5. Protosebastos; were usually confined to the princes of his blood: they were the emanations of his majesty; but as they exercised no regular functions, their existence was useless, and their authority precarious.

But in every monarchy the substantial powers of government must be divided and exercised by the ministers of the palace and treasury, the fleet and army. The titles alone can differ; and in the revolution of ages, the counts and præfects, the prætor and quæstor, insensibly descended, while their servants rose above their heads to the first honours of the state. 1. In a monarchy which refers every object to the person of the prince, the care and ceremonies of the palace form the most respectable department. The Curopalata,(41) so illustrious in the age of Justinian, was supplanted by the Protovestiare, whose primitive functions were limited to the custody of the wardrobe. From thence his jurisdiction was extended over the numerous menials of pomp and luxury; and he presided with his silver wand at the public and private audience. 2. In the ancient system of Constantine, the name of Logothete, or accountant, was applied to the receivers of the finances: the principal officers were distinguished as the Logothetes of the domain, of the posts, the army, the private and public treasure; and the great Logothete, the supreme guardian of the laws and revenues, is compared with the chancellor of the Latin monarchies.(42) His discerning eye pervaded the civil administration; and he was assisted in due subordination, by the eparch or præfect of the city, the first secretary, and the keepers of the privy seal, the archives, and the red or purple ink which was reserved for the sacred signature of the emperor alone.(43) The introductor and interpreter of foreign ambassadors were the great Chiauss(44) and the Dragoman, (45) two names of Turkish origin, and which are still familiar to the sublime Porte. 3. From the humble style and service of guards, the Domestics insensibly rose to the station of generals; the military themes of the East and West, the legions of Europe and Asia, were often divided, till the great Domestic was finally invested with the universal and absolute command of the land forces. The Protostrator, in his original functions, was the assistant of the emperor when he mounted on horseback: he gradually became the lieutenant of the great

(41)

Pars exstans curis, solo diademate dispar
Ordine pro rerum vocitatus Cura-Palati;

says the African Corippus (de Laudibus Justini, 1. i. 136); and in the same century (the sixth), Cassiodorius represents him, who, virgâ aureâ decoratus, inter numerosa obsequia primus ante pede regis incederet (Variar. vii. 5). But this great officer, aventyvwTos, exercising no function, vvv de ydeμiai, was cast down by the modern Greeks to the fifteenth rank (Codin. c. 5, p. 65).

f (42) Nicetas (in Manuel. l. vii. c. i.) defines him ως η Λατινων φωνη Καγκελάριον, ως δ' Έλληνες είποιεν Aoyodermy. Yet the epithet of pɛyas was added by the elder Andronicus (Ducange, tom. i. p. 822, 823). (43) From Leo I. (A. D. 470), the Imperial ink, which is still visible on some original acts, was a mixture of vermillion and cinnabar, or purple. The emperor's guardians, who shared in this prerogative, always marked in green ink the indiction, and the month. See the Dictionaire Diplomatique (tom. i. p. 511-513), a valuable abridgment.

(44) The sultan sent a Ziass to Alexius (Anne Comnena, 1. vi. p. 170. Ducange ad loc.) and Pachymer often speaks of the peyas Tags (1. vii. c. 1, 1. xii. c. 30, 1. xiii. c. 22). The Chiaoush basha is now at the head of 700 officers (Rycaut's Ottoman Empire, p. 349, octavo edition).

(45) Tagerman is the Arabic name of an interpreter (d'Herbelot, p. 854, 855), TOWTOS TWV EQμEVEROV 85 ROLVOS Ovoμa sot dpavouaves, says Codinus (c. v. No. 70, p. 67). See Villehardouin (No, 96), Busbequius (Epist. iv. p. 338), and Ducange (Observations sur Villehardouin, and Gloss. Græc. et Latin).

Domestic in the field; and his jurisdiction extended over the stables, the cavalry, and the royal train of hunting and hawking. The Stratopedarch was the great judge of the camp; the Protospathaire commanded the guards; the Constable,(46) the great Eteriarch, and the Acolyth, were the separate chiefs of the Franks, the Barbarians, and the Verangi, or English, the mercenary strangers, who, in the decay of the national spirit, formed the nerve of the Byzantine armies. 4. The naval powers were under the command of the great Duke; in his absence they obeyed the great Drungaire of the fleet; and, in his place, the Emir, or admiral, a name of Saracen extraction,(47) but which has been naturalized in all the modern languages of Europe. Of these officers, and of many more whom it would be useless to enumerate, the civil and military hierarchy was framed. Their honours and emoluments, their dress and titles, their mutual salutations and respective pre-eminence, were balanced with more exquisite labour, than would have fixed the constitution of a free people; and the code was almost perfect when this baseless fabric, the monument of pride and servitude, was for ever buried in the ruins of the empire.(48)

The most lofty titles, and the most humble postures, which devotion has applied to the Supreme Being, have been prostituted by flattery and fear to creatures of the same nature with ourselves. The mode of adoration,(49) of falling prostrate on the ground, and kissing the feet of the emperor, was borrowed by Diocletian from Persian servitude; but it was continued and aggravated till the last age of the Greek monarchy. Excepting only on Sundays, when it was waived, from a motive of religious pride, this humiliating reverence was exacted from all who entered the royal presence, from the princes invested with the diadem and purple, and from the ambassadors who represented their independent sovereigns, the caliphs of Asia, Egypt, or Spain, the kings of France and Italy, and the Latin emperors of ancient Rome. In his transactions of business, Liutprand, bishop of Cremona,(50) asserted the free spirit of a Frank and the dignity of his master Otho. Yet his sincerity cannot disguise the abasement of his first audience. When he approached the throne, the birds of the golden tree began to warble their notes, which were accompanied by the roarings of the two lions of gold. With his two companions, Liutprand was compelled to bow and to fall prostrate: and thrice he touched the ground with his forehead. He arose, but in the short interval, the throne had been hoisted by an engine from the floor to the ceiling, the Imperial figure appeared in new and more gorgeous apparel, and the interview was concluded in haughty and majestic silence. In this honest and curious narrative, the bishop of Cremona represents the ceremonies of the Byzantine court, which are still practised in the sublime Porte, and which were preserved in the last age by the dukes of Muscovy or Russia. After a long journey by the sea and land, from Venice to Constantinople, the ambassador halted at the golden gate, till he was conducted by the formal officers to the hospitable palace prepared for his reception; but this palace was a prison, and his jealous keepers prohibited all social intercourse either with strangers or natives. At his first audience, he offered the gifts of his master, slaves, and golden vases, and costly armour. The ostentatious payment of the officers and troops displayed before his eyes the riches of the empire: he was en

(46) Kovosavλos, or Kovтogavλos, a corruption from the Latin Comes stabuli, or the French Connêtable. In a military sense, it was used by the Greeks in the eleventh century, at least as early as in France. (47) It was directly borrowed from the Normans. In the twelfth century, Giannone reckons the admiral of Sicily among the great officers.

(48) This sketch of honours and offices, is drawn from George Codinus Curopalata, who survived the taking of Constantinople by the Turks; his elaborate though trifling work (de Officiis Ecclesiæ et Aulæ C.P.) has been illustrated by the notes of Goar, and the three books of Gretser, a learned Jesuit.

(49) The respectful salutation of carrying the hand to the mouth, ad os, is the root of the Latin word, adora adorare. See our learned Selden (vol. iii. p. 143–145. 942), in his Titles of Honour. It seems, from the first books of Herodotus, to be of Persian origin.

(50) The two embassies of Liutprand to Constantinople, all that he tal are pleasantly described by himself (Hist. 1. vi. c. 1-4, p. 469. 471. p. 479-489):

saw or suffered in the Greek capi Legatio ad Nicephorum Phocam,

1

tertained at a royal banquet,(51) in which the ambassadors of the nations were marshalled by the esteem or contempt of the Greeks: from his own table, the emperor, as the most signal favour, sent the plates which he had tasted; and his favourites were dismissed with a robe of honour.(52) In the morning and evening of each day, his civil and military servants attended their duty in the palace; their labour was repaid by the sight, perhaps by the smile, of their lord; his commands were signified by a nod or a sign: but all earthly greatness stood silent and submissive in his presence. In his regular or extraordinary processions through the capital, he unveiled his person to the public view: the rites of policy were connected with those of religion, and his visits to the principal churches were regulated by the festivals of the Greek calendar. On the eve of these processions, the gracious or devout intention of the monarch was proclaimed by the heralds. The streets were cleaned and purified; the pavement was strewed with flowers; the most precious furniture, the gold and silver plate, and silken hangings, were displayed from the windows and balconies, and a severe discipline restrained and silenced the tumult of the populace. The march was opened by the military officers at the head of their troops; they were followed in long order by the magistrates and ministers of the civil government: the person of the emperor was guarded by his eunuchs and domestics, and at the church door he was solemnly received by the patriarch and his clergy. The task of applause was not abandoned to the rude and spontaneous voices of the crowd. The most convenient stations were occupied by the bands of the blue and green factions of the circus; and their furious conflicts, which had shaken the capital, were insensibly sunk to an emulation of servitude. From either side they echoed in responsive melody the praises of the emperor; their poets and musicians directed the choir, and long life(53) and victory were the burden of every song. The same acclamations were performed at the audience, the banquet, and the church; and as an evidence of boundless sway, they were repeated in the Latin,(54) Gothic, Persian, French, and even English language,(55) by the mercenaries who sustained the real or fictitious character of those nations. By the pen of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, this science of form and flattery has been reduced into a pompous and trifling volume,(56) which the vanity of succeeding times might enrich with an ample supplement. Yet the calmer reflection of a prince would surely suggest, that the same acclamations were applied to every character and every reign; and if he had risen 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 conspired against the life, of his predecessor.(57)

The princes of the North, of the nations, says Constantine, without faith or fame, were ambitious of mingling their blood with the blood of the Cesars, by their marriage with a royal virgin, or by the nuptials of their daughters

(51) Among the amusements of the feast, a boy balanced, on his forehead, a pike, or pole, twenty-four feet long, with a cross-bar of two cubits a little below the top. Two boys, naked, though cinctured (campestrati) together, and singly, climbed, stood, played, descended, &c., ita me stupidum redidit: utrum mirabilius nescio (p. 470). At another repast, a homily of Chrysostom on the Acts of the Apostles was read elata voce non Latine (p. 483).

(52) Gala is not improbably derived from Calo, or Caloat, in Arabic, á robe of honour (Reiske, Not: in Ceremon. p. 84).

(53) IIoλvxpovilav is explained by εvonμisεiv (Codin. c. 7. Ducange, Gloss. Græc. tom i. p. 1199). (54) Κωνσερβετ Δεις ημπεριυμ βεςραμβικτορίσες σεμπερβηβητε Δομινι Ημπεράτορες ην μελτος 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, these strange sentences might puzzle a professor.

(55) Βαράγγοι κατα την πατριαν γλωσσαν και ετοι, ηγεν Ινκλινιςι πολυχρονίζεσι (Codin. p. 90). I wish he had preserved the words, however corrupt, of their English acclamation.

(56) For all these ceremonies, see the professed work of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, with the notes, or rather dissertations, of his German editors, Leich and Reiske. For the rank of the standing courtiers, p. 80, not. 23. 62; for the adoration, except on Sundays, p. 95. 240, not. 131; the processions, p. 2, &c. not. p. 3, &c., the acclamations, passim, not. 25, &c., the factions and Hippodrome, p. 177-214, not. 9.93 &c., the Gothic games, p. 221, not. 111; vintage, p. 217, not. 109: much more information is scattered over the work.

(57) Et privato Othoni et Nuper eadem dicenti nota adulatio (Tacit. Hist. i. 85).

A

with a Roman prince.(58) The aged monarch, in his instructions to his son, reveals the secret maxims of policy and pride; and suggests the most decent reasons for refusing these insolent and unreasonable demands. Every animal, says the discreet emperor, is prompted by nature to seek a mate among the animals of his own species; and the human species is divided into various tribes, by the distinction of language, religion, and manners. just regard to the purity of descent preserves the harmony of public and private life; but the mixture of foreign blood is the fruitful source of disorder and discord. Such has ever been the opinion and practice of the sage Romans: their jurisprudence proscribed the marriage of a citizen and a stranger: in the days of freedom and virtue, a senator would have scorned to match his daughter with a king: the glory of Mark Antony was sullied by an Egyptian wife ;(59) and the emperor Titus was compelled, by popula. censure, to dismiss with reluctance the reluctant Berenice. (60) This perpetual interdict was ratified by the fabulous sanction of the great Constantine The ambassadors of the nations, more especially of the unbelieving nations, were solemnly admonished, that such strange alliances had been condemned by the founder of the church and city. The irrevocable law was inscribed on the altar of St. Sophia: and the impious prince who should stain the majesty of the purple was excluded from the civil and ecclesiastical communion of the Romans. If the ambassadors were instructed by any false brethren in the Byzantine history, they might produce three 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 granddaughter of Romanus with a Bulgarian prince, and the union of Bertha of France or Italy with young Romanus, the son of Constantine Porphyrogenitus himself. To these objections, three answers were prepared, which solved the difficulty and established the law. I. The deed and the guilt of Constantine Copronymus were acknowledged. The Isaurian heretic, who sullied the baptismal 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 censure of the church and of posterity. II. Romanus could not be alleged as a legitimate emperor; he was a plebeian usurper, ignorant of the laws, and regardless of the honour, of the monarchy. His son Christopher, the father of the bride, was the third in rank of the college of princes, at once the subject and the accomplice of a rebellious parent. The Bulgarians were sincere and devout Christians; and the safety of the empire, with the redemption of many thousand captives, depended on this preposterous alliance. Yet no consideration could dispense from the law of Constantine; the clergy, the senate, and the people disapproved the conduct of Romanus; and he was reproached, both in his life and death, as the author of the public disgrace. III. For the marriage of his own son with the daughter of Hugo king of Italy, a more honourable defence is contrived by the wise Porphyrogenitus. Constantine, the great and holy, esteemed the fidelity and valour of the Franks ;(61) and his prophetic spirit beheld the vision of their future greatness. They alone were excepted from the general prohibition: Hugo king of France was the lineal descendant of Charlemagne ;(62) and his

(58) The thirteenth chapter, de Administratione Imperii, may be explained and rectified by the Familiæ Byzantine of Ducange.

(59) Sequiterque nefas Ægyptia conjunx (Virgil, Æneid viii. 688). Yet this Egyptian wife was the daughter of a long line of kings. Quid te mutavit (says Antony, in a private letter to Augustus) an quod reginam ineo? Uxor mea est (Sueton. in August. c. 69). Yet I much question (for I cannot stay to inquire) whether the triumvir ever dared to celebrate his marriage either with Roman or Egyptian rites. (60) Berenicem invitus invitam dimisit (Suetonius in Tito, c. 7). Have I observed elsewhere, that this Jewish beauty was at this time above fifty years of age? The judicious Racine has most discreetly suppressed both her age and her country.

(61) Constantine was made to praise the Evyevɛia and repidaveia of the Franks, with whom he claimed a private and public alliance. The French writers (Isaac Casaubon in Dedicat. Polybii) are highly delighted with these compliments.

(62) Constartine Porphyrogenitus (de Administrat. Imp. c. 26,) exhibits a pedigree and life of the illus

daughter Bertha inherited the prerogatives of her family and nation. The voice of truth and malice insensibly betrayed the fraud or error of the Imperial court. The patrimonial estate of Hugo was reduced from the monarchy of France to the simple county of Arles; though it was not denied, that, in the confusion of the times, he had usurped the sovereignty of Provence, and invaded the kingdom of Italy. His father was a private noble: and if Bertha derived her female descent 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 second Lothair; whose adultery, divorce, and second nuptials, had provoked against him the thunders of the Vatican. His mother, as she was styled, the great Bertha, was successively the wife of the count of Arles and of the marquis of Tuscany: France and Italy were scandalized by her gallantries; and, till the age of threescore, her lovers of every degree were the zealous servants 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 classic names of Venus, Juno, and Semele. (63) The daughter of Venus was granted to the solicitations of the Byzantine court; her name of Bertha was changed to that of Eudoxia; and she was wedded, or betrothed, to young Romanus, the future heir of the empire of the East. The consummation of this foreign alliance was suspended by the tender age of the two parties; and, at the end of five years, the union was dissolved by the death of the virgin spouse. The second 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 was bestowed, as the pledge of peace, on the eldest son of the great Otho, who had solicited this alliance with arms and embassies. It might legally be questioned how far a Saxon was entitled to the privilege of the French nation: but every scruple was silenced by the fame and piety of a hero who had restored the empire of the West. After the death of her father-in-law and husband, Theophano governed Rome, Italy, and Germany, during the minority of her son, the third Otho; and the Latins have praised the virtues of an empress, who sacrified to a superior duty the remembrance of her country.(64) In the nuptials of her sister Anne, every prejudice was lost, and every consideration of dignity was superseded, by the stronger argument of necessity and fear. A Pagan of the north, Wolodomir, great prince of Russia, aspired to a daughter of the Roman purple: and his claim was enforced by the threats of war, the promise of conversion, and the offer of a powerful succour against a domestic rebel. A victim of her religion and country, the Grecian princess was torn from the palace of her fathers, and condemned to a savage reign and a hopeless exile on the banks of the Borysthenes, or in the neighbourhood of the Polar circle. (65) Yet the marriage of Anne was fortunate and fruitful: the daughter of her grandson Jeroslaus was recommended by her Imperial descent; and the king of France, Henry I., sought a wife on the last borders of Europe and Christendom. (66)

trious king Hugo (TεpẞλETTY Pпyes Ouyovos). A more correct idea may be formed from the criticism of Pagi, the Annals of Muratori, and the Abridgment of St. Marc, A. D. 925-946.

(63) After the mention of the three goddesses, Liutprand very naturally adds, et quoniam non rex solus iis abutebatur, earum nati ex incertis patribus originem ducunt (Hist. 1. iv. c. 6); for the marriage of the younger Bertha, see Hist. I. v. c. 5); for the incontinence of the elder, dulcis exercitio Hymenæi, 1. ii. c. 15; for the virtues and vices of Hugo, l. iii. c. 5. Yet it must not be forgot, that the bishop of Cremona was a lover of scandal.

(64) Licet illa Imperatrix Græca sibi et aliis fuisset satis utili 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, Hist. Saracenica, 1. iii. c. 6. Nestor apud Levesque, tom. ii. p. 112. Pagi, Critica, A. D. 987, No. 6. A singular concourse! Wolodomir and Anne are ranked among the saints of the Russian church. Yet we know his vices, and are ignorant of her virtues.

(66) Henricus primus duxit uxorem Scythicam, Russam, filiam regis Jeroslai. An embassy of bishops was sent into Russia, and the father gratanter filiam cum multis donis misit. This event happened in the year 1051. See the passages of the original chronicles in Bouquet's Historians of France (tom. xi. p. 29. 159. 161. 319. 384. 481). Voltaire might wonder at this alliance; but he should not have owned his ignorance of the country, religion, &c. of Jeroslaus-a name so conspicuous in the Russian annals.