XLIX. 153 CHAP. with a loud chorus of horns and hounds "2. Nor was the fupremacy of the emperor confined to Germany alone: the hereditary monarchs of Europe confeffed the pre-eminence of his rank and dignity: he was the first of the Chriftian princes, the temporal head of the great republic of the Weft : to his perfon the title of majefty was long appropriated; and he disputed with the pope the fublime prerogative of creating kings and affembling councils. The oracle of the civil law, the learned Bartolus, was a penfioner of Charles the fourth; and his fchool refounded with the doctrine, that the Roman emperor was the rightful fovereign of the earth, from the rifing to the setting fun. The contrary opinion was condemned, not as an error, but as an herefy, fince even the gofpel had pronounced," And there went forth a decree from "Cæfar Auguftus, that all the world fhould be ❝ taxed 154," Contraft of the power and modeity of Auguftus. If we annihilate the interval of time and space between Auguftus and Charles, strong and striking will be the contrast between the two Cæfars; the Bohemian, who concealed his weakness under the mask of oftentation, and the Roman, who disguised his strength under the semblance of modesty. At the head of his victorious legions, in his reign over the fea and land, from the Nile and Euphrates to the Atlantic ocean, Auguftus profeffed himself the 152 See the whole ceremony, in Struvius, p. 629. 153 The republic of Europe, with the pope and emperor at its head, was never reprefented with more dignity than in the council of Conftance. See Lenfant's History of that affembly. 154 Gravina, Origines Juris Civilis, p. 108. fervant XLIX. fervant of the state and the equal of his fellow- CHAP. citizens. The conqueror of Rome and her provinces affumed the popular and legal form of a cenfor, a conful, and a tribune. His will was the law of mankind, but in the declaration of his laws he borrowed the voice of the fenate and people; and, from their decrees, their master accepted and renewed his temporary commission to administer the republic. In his drefs, his domeftics 55, his titles, in all the offices of focial life, Auguftus maintained the character of a private Roman; and his most artful flatterers refpected the fecret of his abfolute and perpetual monarchy. 155 Six thousand urns have been difcovered of the flaves and freedmen of Augustus and Livia. So minute was the divifion of office, that one slave was appointed to weigh the wool which was spun by the emprefs's maids, another for the care of her lap dog, &c. (Camere Sepolchrale, &c. by Bianchini. Extract of his work, in the Bibliotheque Italique, tom. iv. p. 175. His Eloge, by Fontenelle, tom. vi. p. 356.). But these fervants were of the fame rank, and poffibly not more numerous than those of Pollio or Lentulus. They only prove the general riches of the city. CHA P. CHAP. L. Defcription of Arabia and its Inhabitants.-Birth, Character, and Doctrine of Mahomet.-He preaches at Mecca.-Flies to Medina.- Propagates his Religion by the Sword.-Voluntary or reluctant Submission of the Arabs.-His Death and Succeffors.-The Claims and Fortunes of Ali and bis Defcendants. AF FTER pursuing above fix hundred years the fleeting Cæfars of Conftantinople and Germany, I now defcend, in the reign of Heraclius, on the eastern borders of the Greek monarchy.. While the state was exhaufted by the Perfian war, and the church was diftracted by the Neftorian and Monophyfite fects, Mahomet, with the fword in one hand and the koran in the other, erected his throne on the ruins of Christianity and of Rome. The genius of the Arabian prophet, the manners of his nation, and the fpirit of his religion, involve the caufes of the decline and fall of the Eastern empire; and our eyes are curiously intent on one of the most memorable revolutions which have impressed a new and lasting character on the nations of the globe' As in this and the following chapter I fhall difplay much Arabic learning, I must profefs my total ignorance of the Oriental tongues, and my gratitude to the learned interpreters, who have transfufed their fcience into the Latin, French, and English languages. Their collections, verfions, and hiftories, I fhall occafionally notice, In L. of Arabia In the vacant space between Perfia, Syria, CHA P. Egypt, and Æthiopia, the Arabian peninsula may be conceived as a triangle of fpacious but irregular Defcription dimenfions. From the northern point of Beles 3 on the Euphrates, a line of fifteen hundred miles is terminated by the ftreights of Babelmandel and the land of frankincense. About half this length may be allowed for the middle breadth, from east to weft, from Baffora to Suez, from the Perfian Gulf to the Red fea. The fides of the triangle are 2 The geographers of Arabia may be divided into three claffes: 1. The Greeks and Latins, whose progressive knowledge may be traced in Agatharcides (de Mari Rubro, in Hudson, Geograph. Minor. tom. i.), Diodorus Siculus (tom. i. 1. ii. p. 159–167. l. iii. p. 211-216. edit. Weffeling), Strabo (1. xvi. p. 1112–1114. from Eratosthenes, p. 1122-1132. from Artemidorus), Dionyfius (Periegefis, 927—969.), Pliny (Hift. Natur. v. 12. vi. 32.), and Ptolemy (Defcript. et Tabulæ Urbium, in Hudson, tom. iii.). 2. The Arabic writers, who have treated the subject with the zeal of patriotism or devotion: the extracts of Pocock (Specimen Hist. Arabum, p. 125 -128.) from the Geography of the Sherif al Edriffi, render us ftill more diffatisfied with the verfion or abridgment (p. 24-27. 44-56. 108, &c. 119, &c.) which the Maronites have published under the abfurd title of Geographia Nubienfis (Paris, 1619.); but the Latin and French tranflators, Greaves (in Hudson, tom. iii.). and Galland (Voyage de la Palestine par la Roque, p. 265-346.), have opened to us the Arabia of Abulfeda, the most copious and correct account of the peninfula, which may be enriched, however, from the Bibliotheque Orientale of d'Herbelot, p. 120. et alibi passim. 3. The European travellers; among whom Shaw (p 438-455.) and Niebuhr (Defcription, 1773. Voyages, tom. i. 1776.) deferve an honourable diftinction: Bufching (Geographie par Berenger, tom. viii. p. 416-510.) has compiled with judgment; and d'Anville's Maps (Orbis Veteribus Notus, and Ire Partie de l'Afie) fhould lie before the reader, with his Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 208-231. 3 Abulfed. Defcript. Arabiæ, p. 1. D'Anville, l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 19, 20. It was in this place, the paradife or garden of a fatrap, that Xenophon and the Greeks first passed the Euphrates (Anabasis, 1. i. c. 10. p. 29. edit. Wells.). 4 Reland has proved, with much superfluous learning, 1. That our Red Sea (the Arabian Gulph) is no more than a part of the Mare Rubrum, he Ερυθρα С НА Р. L. climate. are gradually enlarged, and the fouthern bafis prefents a front of a thoufand miles to the Indian ocean. The entire furface of the peninfula exceeds in a fourfold proportion that of Germany or France; but the far greater part has been justly ftigmatised The foil and with the epithets of the Stony and the fandy. Even the wilds of Tartary are decked by the hand of nature, with lofty trees and luxuriant herbage; and the lonesome traveller derives a fort of comfort and fociety from the prefence of vegetable life. But in the dreary waste of Arabia, a boundless level of fand is interfected by fharp and naked mountains; and the face of the defert, without fhade or fhelter, is fcorched by the direct and intenfe rays of a tropical fun. Instead of refeshing breezes, the winds, particularly from the fouth-weft, diffufe a noxious" and even deadly vapour; the hillocks of fand which they alternately raise and scatter, are compared to the billows of the ocean, and whole caravans, whole armies, have been loft and buried in the whirlwind. The common benefits of water are an object of defire and contest; and fuch is the scarcity of wood, that fome art is requifite to preferve and propagate the element of fire. Arabia is deftitute of navigable rivers, which fertilize the foil, and convey its produce to the adjacent regions: the torrents that fall from the hills are imbibed by the thirsty earth the rare and hardy plants, the tamarind or the acacia, that ftrike their roots into the clefts Equbga baλacon of the ancients, which was extended to the indefinite space of the Indian ocean. 2. That the fynonymous words spuogos, arbrats, alluded to the colour of the blacks or negroes (Differt. Mifcell. tom. i. P. 591-617.), of |