XLVI. lion. CHAP. hope of reconciliation. The hiftorians of the times adopt the vulgar fufpicion, that Maurice confpired to destroy the troops whom he had laboured to reform; the mifconduct and favour of Commen tiolus are imputed to this malevolent defign; and every age must condemn the inhumanity or ava rice" of a prince, who, by the trifling ranfom of fix thousand pieces of gold, might have prevented the maffacre of twelve thousand prifoners in the and rebel. hands of the chagan. In the juft fervour of indignation, an order was fignified to the army of the Danube, that they fhould fpare the magazines of the province, and establish their winter-quarters in the hostile country of the Avars. The measure of their grievances was full: they pronounced Maurice unworthy to reign, expelled or flaughtered his faithful adherents, and, under the command of Phocas, a fimple centurion, returned by hafty marches to the neighbourhood of Conftantinople. Election of After a long feries of legal fucceffion, the military Phocas, diforders of the third century were again revived; October. yet fuch was the novelty of the enterprise, that the A.D. 602) infurgents were awed by their own rafhnefs. They hefitated to inveft their favourite with the vacant purple, and while they rejected all treaty with Maurice himself, they held a friendly correfpondence with his fon Theodofius, and with Germanus 42 Theophylact and Theophanes féem ignorant of the confpiracy and avarice of Maurice. These charges, so unfavourable to the memory of that emperor, are first mentioned by the author of the Pafehal Chronicle (p. 379, 380); from whence Zonaras (tom. ii. 1. xiv. p. 77, 78.) has transcribed them. Cedrenus (p. 399.) has fol'lowed another computation of the ransom. the XLVI. the father-in-law of the royal youth. So obfcure CHAP. had been the former condition, of Phocas, that the emperor was ignorant of the name and character of his rival: but as foon as he learned, that the centurion, though bold in fedition, was timid in the face of danger, "Alas!" cried the defponding prince, "if he is a coward, he will furely be a "murderer." Yet if Conftantinople had been firm and faithful, Revolt of the murderer might have spent his fury against the Conftanti walls; and the rebel army would have been gradually confumed or reconciled by the prudence of the emperor. In the games of the circus, which he repeated with unusual pomp, Maurice disguised, with smiles of confidence, the anxiety of his heart, condefcended to folicit the applause of the factions and flattered their pride by accepting from their respective tribunes a list of nine hundred blues and fifteen hundred greens, whom he affected to esteem as the folid pillars of his throne. Their treacherous or languid fupport betrayed his weakness and haftened his fall; the green faction were the fecret accomplices of the rebels, and the blues recommended lenity and moderation in a conteft with their Roman brethren. The rigid and parfimonious virtues of Maurice had long fince alienated the hearts of his fubjects: as he walked barefoot in a religious proceffion, he was rudely affaulted with stones, and his guards were compelled to prefent their iron maces in the defence of his person. A fanatic monk ran through the streets with a drawn fword, denouncing against him the wrath and nople. XLVI. CHAP. and the fentence of God, and a vile plebeian, who reprefented his countenance and apparel, was feated on an ass, and pursued by the imprecations of the multitude 43. The emperor fufpected the popularity of Germanus with the foldiers and citizens; he feared, he threatened, but he delayed to ftrike; the patrician fled to the fanctuary of the church; the people rose in his defence, the walls were deserted by the guards, and the lawless city was abandoned to the flames and rapine of a nocturnal tumult. In a fmall bark, the unfortunate Maurice, with his wife and nine children, escaped to the Afiatic fhore, but the violence of the wind compelled him to land at the church of St. Autonomus ** near Chalcedon, from whence he dispatched Theodofius, his eldest fon, to implore the gratitude and friendship of the Perfian monarch. For himself, he refused to fly: his body was tortured with fciatic pains 45, his mind was enfeebled by 44 43 In their clamours againft Maurice, the people of Conftantinople Branded him with the name of Marcionite or Marcionist: a heresy (fays Theophylact, 1. viii. c. . 9) μετα τιν μωρας ευλάβειας, ευήθης τε και καταγελας Θ. Did they only caft out a vague reproach-or had the emperor really liftened to fome obfcure teacher of those ancient Gnoftics? 44 The church of St. Autonomus (whom I have not the honour to know) was 150 ftadia from Conftantinople (Theophylact, 1. viii. c. 9.). The port of Eutropius, where Maurice and his children were murdered, is described by Gyllius de Bosphoro Thracio, l. iii. c. xi.) as one of the two harbours of Chalcedon. 45 The inhabitants of Conftantinople were generally fubject to the vorol afßgentides; and Theophylact infinuates (1. viii. c. 9.), that if it were confiftent with the rules of history, he could affign the medical caufe. Yet fuch a digreffion would not have been more impertinent than his inquiry (1. vii. c. 16, 17.) into the annual inundations of the Nile, and all the opinions of the Greek philofophers on that fubject. fuper XLVI. fuperftition; he patiently waited the event of the CHAP. revolution, and addreffed a fervent and public prayer to the Almighty, that the punishment of his fins might be inflicted in this world rather than in a future life. After the abdication of Maurice, the two factions disputed the choice of an emperor; but the favourite of the blues was rejected by the jealousy of their antagonists, and Germanus himfelf was hurried along by the crowds, who rushed to the palace of Hebdomon, seven miles from the city, to adore the majesty of Phocas the centurion. A modeft wifh of refigning the purple to the rank and merit of Germanus was opposed by his refolution, more obftinate and equally fincere : the fenate and clergy obeyed his fummons, and as foon as the patriarch was affured of his orthodox belief, he confecrated the fuccessful ufurper in the church of St. John the Baptift. On the third day, amidst the acclamations of a thoughtlefs people, Phocas made his public entry in a chariot drawn by four white horfes: the revolt of the troops was rewarded by a lavish donative, and the new fovereign, after vifiting the palace, beheld from his throne the games of the hippodrome. In a difpute of precedency between the two factions, his partial judgment inclined in favour of the greens. "Remember that Maurice is ftill alive," refounded from the oppofite fide; and the indifcreet clamour of the blues admonished and stimulated the cruelty of the tyrant. The minifters of death were dispatched to Chalcedon: they dragged the emperor from his fanctuary: and the five fons of Maurice were fucceffively murdered before the VOL. VIII. P eyes CHAP. Maurice and his children, Nov. 27. eyes of their agonizing parent. At each stroke which he felt in his heart, he found strength to Death of rehearse a pious ejaculation: "Thou art just, O "Lord, and thy judgments are righteous." And A D. 602, fuch, in the last moments, was his rigid attachment to truth and justice, that he revealed to the foldiers the pious falfehood of a nurse who prefented her own child in the place of a royal infant 45. The tragic fcene was finally clofed by the execution of the emperor himself, in the twentieth year of his reign and the fixty-third of his age. The bodies of the father and his five fons were caft into the fea, their heads were expofed at Conftantinople to the infults or pity of the multitude, and it was not till fome figns of putrefaction had appeared, that Phocas connived at the private burial of these venerable remains. In that grave, the faults and errors of Maurice were kindly interred. His fate alone was remembered; and at the end of twenty years, in the recital of the history of Theophylact, the mournful tale was interrupted by the tears of the audience *7. Phocas 47 Such tears must have flowed in fecret, and fuch A. D. 602. compaffion would have been criminal, under the emperor, 46 From this generous attempt, Corneille has deduced the intricate web of his tragedy of Heraclius, which requires more than one representation to be clearly understood (Corneille de Voltaire, tom. v. p. 300.); and which, after an interval of fome years, is faid to have puzzled the author himself (Anecdotes Dramatiques, tom. i. p. 422.). 47 The rovolt of Phocas and death of Maurice are told by Theophylact Simocatta (1. viii. c. 7-12.), the Pafchal Chronicle (p. 379, 380.) Theophanes (Chronograph. p. 238-244.), Zonaras (tom, ii. 1. xiv. p. 77-80.) and Cedrenus (p. 399–404.). |