CONTENTS С НА Р. L. Defcription of Arabia and its inhabitants.-Birth, Character, and Doctrine of Mahomet.--He preaches at Mecca. Flies to Medina.-Propa- gates his Religion by the Sword.-Voluntary or reluctant Submiffion of the Arabs.-His Death CHA P. LI. Plan of the Four laft Volumes. I Succeffion and Characters of the Greek Emperors of Conftantinople, from the Time of Heraclius to the Latin Conqueft. tine history. HAVE now deduced from Trajan to Con- CHAP. ftantine, from Conftantine to Heraclius, the XLVIII. regular feries of the Roman emperors; and Defects of faithfully expofed the profperous and adverfe the Byzanfortunes of their reigns. Five centuries of the decline and fall of the empire have already elapfed; but a period of more than eight hundred years ftill feparates me from the term of my labours, the taking of Conftantinople by the VOL. IX. Turks. B CHAP. Turks. Should I perfevere in the fame courfe, XLVIII. should I observe the fame measure, a prolix and flender thread would be (pun through many a volume, nor would the patient reader find an adequate reward of inftruction or amusement. At every step, as we fink deeper in the decline and fall of the Eastern empire, the annals of each fucceeding reign would impofe a more ungrateful and melancholy task. These annals must continue to repeat a tedious and uniform tale of weakness and mifery; the natural connection of causes and events would be broken by frequent and hafty tranfitions, and a minute accumulation of circumftances must destroy the light and effect of thofe general pictures which compofe the ufe and ornament of a remote hiftory. From the time of Heraclius, the Byzantine theatre is contracted and darkened: the line of empire, which had been defined by the laws of Juftinian and the arms of Belifarius, recedes on all fides from our view: the Roman name, the proper subject of our enquiries, is reduced to a narrow corner of Europe, to the lonely fuburbs of Conftantinople; and the fate of the Greek empire has been compared to that of the Rhine, which lofes itself in the fands, before its waters can mingle with the ocean. The fcale of dominion is diminished to our view by the distance of time and place; nor is the lofs of external fplendour compenfated by the nobler gifts of virtue and genius. In the last moments of her decay, Conftantinople was doubtless more opulent and populous than Athens at her most flourishing æra, when a fcanty fum of fix thou-. fand talents, or twelve hundred thousand pounds fterling, was poffeffed by twenty-one thoufand male citizens of an adult age. But each of thefe citizens was a freeman, who dared to affert the liberty of his thoughts, words, and actions; whofe I |