Plan of the four last Volumes.-Succeffion and I CHAP XLVIII.. Defects of tine history HAVE now deduced from Trajan to Conftantine, from Constantine to Heraclius, the regular series of the Roman emperors; and faithfully expofed the profperous and adverfe fortunes the Byzanof their reigns. Five centuries of the decline and fall of the empire have already elapsed: but a period of more than eight hundred years ftill feparates me from the term of my labours, the taking VOL. IX. B of CHAP. of Conftantinople by the Turks. Should I XLVIII. per fevere in the fame courfe, fhould I obferve the fame measure, a prolix and flender thread would be spun 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 muft continue to repeat a tedious and uniform tale of weakness and misery; the natural connection of caufes and events would be broken by frequent and hafty transitions, and a minute accumulation of circumftances muft deftroy the light and effect of thofe general pictures which compose the use and ornament of a remote history. From the time of Heraclius, the Byzantine theatre is contracted and darkened: the line of empire, which had been defined by the laws of Justinian and the arms of Belifarius, recedes on all fides from our view: the Roman name, the proper fubject of our inquiries, 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 laft moments of her decay, Conftantinople was doubtless more opulent and populous then Athens at her most flourishing æra, when a fcanty fum of fix XLVII. fix thousand talents, or twelve hundred thoufand CHAP. pounds fterling, was poffeffed by twenty-one thoufand male citizens of an adult age. But each of these citizens was a freeman who dared to assert the liberty of his thoughts, words, and actions ; whose person and property were guarded by equal law; and who exercifed his independent vote in the government of the republic. Their numbers seem to be multiplied by the strong and various discriminations of character: under the shield of freedom, on the wings of emulation and vanity, each Athenian aspired to the level of the national dignity: from this commanding eminence, fome chosen spirits foared beyond the reach of a vulgar eye; and the chances of superior merit in a great and populous kingdom, as they are proved by experience, would excufe the computation of imaginary millions. The territories of Athens, Sparta, and their allies, do not exceed a moderate province of France or England: but after the trophies of Salamis and Platea, they expand in our fancy to the gigantic fize of Afia, which had been trampled under the feet of the victorious Greeks. But the fubjects of the Byzantine empire, who affume and difhonour the names both of Greeks and Romans, prefent a dead uniformity of abject vices, which are neither foftened by the weakness of humanity, nor animated by the vigour of memorable crimes. The freemen of antiquity might repeat with generous enthusiasm the sentence of Homer," that on the first day of his fervitude, "the captive is deprived of one half of his manly "virtue." But the poet had only feen the effects CHAP. of civil or domeftic flavery, nor could he foreXLVIII. tell that the fecond moiety of manhood must be annihilated by the fpiritual defpotifm, which fhackles, not only the actions, but even the thoughts of the proftrate votary. By this double yoke, the Greeks were oppreffed under the fucceffors of Heraclius; the tyrant, a law of eternal justice, was degraded by the vices of his subjects; and on the throne, in the camp, in the fchools, we fearch, perhaps with fruitlefs diligence, the names and characters that may deferve to be refcued from oblivion. Nor are the defects of the fubject compensated by the skill and variety of the painters. Of a space of eight hundred years, the four first centuries are overfpread with a cloud interrupted by fome faint and broken rays of hiftoric light in the lives of the emperors, from Maurice to Alexius, Bafil the Macedonian has alone been the theme of a feparate work; and the abfence, or lofs, or imperfection of contemporary evidence, must be poorly fupplied by the doubtful. authority of more recent compilers. The four laft centuries are exempt from the reproach of penury: and with the Comnenian family, the hiftoric muse of Conftantinople again revives, but her apparel is gaudy, her motions are without elegance or grace. A fucceffion of priests, or courtiers, treads in each other's footsteps in the fame path of fervitude and fuperftition: their views are narrow, their judgment is feeble or corrupt; and we close the volume of copious barrennefs, ftill ignorant of the causes of events, the characters of the actors, and the manners of the times, which they celebrate or deplore. XLVIII. deplore. The observation which has been applied CHAP. to a man, may be extended to a whole people, that the energy of the fword is communicated to the pen; and it will be found by experience that the tone of history will rife or fall with the spirit of the age. From these confiderations, I fhould have abandoned without regret the Greek flaves and their fervile hiftorians, had I not reflected that the fate of the Byzantine monarchy is passively connected with the most splendid and important revolutions which have changed the ftate of the world. The fpace of the loft provinces was immediately replenished with new colonies and rising kingdoms: the active virtues of peace and war deserted from the vanquished to the victorious nations; and it is in their origin and conquefts, in their religion and government, that we must explore the caufes and effects of the decline and fall of the Eastern empire. Nor will this scope of narrative, the riches and variety of thefe materials, be incompatible with the unity of defign and compofition. As, in his daily prayers, the Mufulman of Fez or Delhi ftill turns his face towards the temple of Mecca, the hiftorian's eye fhall be always fixed on the city of Conftantinople. The excurfive line may embrace the wilds of Arabia and Tartary, but the circle will be ultimately reduced to the decreafing limit of the Roman monarchy. plan tion with Its connecthe revolu tions of the world, The volumes. On this principle I fhall now establish the of the four laft volumes of the prefent work. first chapter will contain, in a regular feries, the emperors who reigned at Constantinople during a pe |