Chapter IV: Pre-Imperial Career of Theodora: the Consort of Justinian (5)

[737] These brigands had been subsidized to the amount of 5,000 lb. of gold annually (Jn. Antioch., Müller, v, p. 30, says only 1,500 lb.), which was henceforth saved to the treasury; Evagrius, iii, 35. All the most troublesome characters were captured and settled permanently in Thrace; Procopius, Gaz. Paneg., 10. For a monograph on this war see Brooks, Eng. Hist. Rev., 1893.

[738] Kavádh in recent transliteration. Persian history has been greatly advanced by modern Orientalists; see especially Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser, Leyden, 1887. But the history of Tabari is absurdly wrong in nearly all statements respecting the Romans and the translations of Nöldeke and Zotenberg vary so much that we often seem to be reading different works.

[739] Theodore Lect., ii; Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 7, _et seq._; De Aedific., iii, 2, _et seq._

[740] _Ibid._; De Bel. Pers., ii, 3.

[741] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 7; cf. his parallel story of Attila and the storks at Aquileia; De Bel. Vand., i, 4 (copied, perhaps, by Jordanes). While such anecdotes may enliven the page of history, their effectivity must always be accepted with suspicion.

[742] If the statements of Zacharias Myt. and Michael Melit. can be accepted, the town must have been very populous, as the number of citizens slain is put by them at eighty thousand.

[743] The Nephthalites or White Huns who occupied Bactria, previously the seat of a powerful Greek kingdom under a dynasty of Alexander’s successors.

[744] Ammianus, xxv, 7.

[745] Procopius, De Aedific., ii, 1; cf. Jn. Malala, xvi, etc.

[746] Jordanes, 58. I am putting it, perhaps, too mildly in the text if Theodoric, who was a vassal of the Empire, knew beforehand of the course taken by his general. Sabinianus was chiefly supported by Bulgarians in consequence of Zeno’s treaty with them; cf. Ennodius, Panegyr. Theodor. Petza had only 2,000 foot and 500 horse.

[747] Marcellinus Com., an. 505; Ennodius, _loc. cit._

[748] Marcellinus Com., an. 508. Doubtless this was the event which caused Theodoric to build a large fleet; Cassiodorus, Var. Epist., v, 15, 16.

[749] Cassiodorus, Var. Epist., i, 1, might apply here; in any case the sentiments of Theodoric are clearly expressed by Jordanes, 59; cf. 57.

[750] Jn. Antioch. and Jn. Malala, Hermes, vi (Mommsen), pp. 344, 389.

[751] Marcellinus Com., an. 514; Jn. Malala, xvi; Theophanes, an. 6005, etc.

[752] Marcellinus Com., an. 514; Theophanes, an. 6005. The texts merely imply, perhaps, that they deserted to Vitalian. Hypatius, the Byzantine general, and nephew to Anastasius, was taken prisoner, deliberately given up in fact. A second engagement, however, under Cyril, was undoubtedly bloody; Jn. Malala, xvi.

[753] Jn. Malala, xvi; Zonaras (xiv, 3) says the fleet was inflamed by burning (concave) mirrors.

[754] As a ransom for their captives; Marcellinus Com., an. 515; Theophanes, an. 6006. The Senate negotiated for Anastasius.

[755] Marcellinus Com., an. 515.

[756] See, besides the above authorities, the correspondence between Emperor and Pope (in Migne, S.L., lxiii, also Concil. and Baronius).

[757] Theophanes, an. 6006; Cedrenus, i, p. 632.

[758] All the chronographists relate the vision of Anastasius, to whom, just before his death, a figure with a book appeared, saying: “For your insatiable avarice I erase fourteen years.” Every one must regret the inherent defect of character which deprived us of a centenarian emperor.

[759] That of Anastasius is the last life written by Tillemont, which, as usual, he has illustrated by his wide erudition in ecclesiastical literature. But the infantile credulity of the man in theological matters abates much of the critical value of his work. Thus he gravely questions if the action of the Deity was correct when, for the benefit of the Persian king, he allowed a Christian bishop to release a treasure guarded by demons whom the Magi had failed to exorcise. He believes implicitly that an orthodox bishop emerged from the flames intact so as to convince an Arian congener of his error, etc. Rose’s thesis (Halle, 1886) on these wars is of some value.

[760] Strabo, II, i, 30, etc.; Pliny, Hist. Nat., ii, 112. The earth was thought to be about 9,000 miles long and half that width, north to south.

[761] Cosmas Indicopleustes, a merchant who eventually turned monk, in his Christian Topography is our chief authority for popular cosmogony and trade in the sixth century (in Migne, S.G.). The theories of philosophers jar with his Biblical convictions and excite his antagonism. He writes to prove that the world is flat, that the sun rounds a great mountain in the north to cause night, etc. Being something of a draughtsman he explains his views by cosmographical diagrams, and figures many objects seen in his travels. There is an annotated translation by McCrindle, Lond., 1899 (Hakluyt Soc.).

[762] Diodorus, Sic., v, 19, 22, etc. For tin to the Scilly Is., etc.

[763] Phoenician trade is summarized with considerable detail by Ezekiel, xxvii; cf. Genesis, xxxvii, 25. But a couple of centuries earlier the race was well known to Homer, who often adverts to their skill in manufactures, as also to their knavery and chicanery:

Αὐτὴ δ’ ἐς θάλαμον κατεβήσατο κηώεντα,
Ἔνθ’ ἔσαν οἱ πέπλοι παμποίκιλοι, ἔργα γυναικῶν
Σιδονίων. κ.τ.λ.
Iliad, vi, 288.

Ἔνθα δὲ Φοίνικες ναυσίκλυτοι ἤλυθον ἄνδρες
Τρῶκται, μυρί’ ἄγοντες ἀθύρματα νηῒ μελαίνῃ ...
Τὴν δ’ ἄρα Φοίνικες πολυπαίπαλοι ἠπερόπευον. κ.τ.λ.
Odyssey, xv, 415.

The recently discovered ruins in Mashonaland (Rhodesia) prove, perhaps, that their unrecorded expeditions reached to S. Africa; see works by Bent, Neal and Hall, Keane, etc.

[764] 326 B.C. In Arrian’s Indica, 18, _et seq._

[765] Strabo, XVII, i, 13.

[766] Pliny, Hist. Nat., vi, 26; Pseud-Arrian, Peripl. Mar. Erythr., 57. For a discussion as to the date of Hippalus see Vincent, Commerce of the Ancients, ii, p. 47, etc. The S.W. monsoon blows from April to October, the N.E. in the interval.

[767] Very small, however, according to modern ideas; Pliny (_op. cit._, vi, 24) gives them 3,000 _amphorae_, not more than 40 or 50 tons register. Arrian (_op. cit._, 19) marks the distinction between “long, narrow war-galleys and round, capacious trading ships.” A few great ships—floating palaces rather—were built by the Ptolemies and Hiero of Syracuse, but they were never seriously employed in navigation; Athenaeus, v, 36, _et seq._ Yet ships of at least 250 tons register were in common use by 170; Pand., L, v, 3.

[768] Pliny, _op. cit._, vi, 26, _et seq._; Pseud-Arrian, _op. cit._, 57. The vessels had to be armed lest they should fall in with pirates. “The merchant floating down the stream; the caravan crossing the desert, mounting the defile, looking out upon the sea and its harbours; the ferry passing the river; the mariners in their little ship—they are real figures, yet they are nameless, all but a few; they suffer and they succumb without ever finding a voice for their story. On the desert, perhaps, a cloud of robber horse burst upon them; on the river the boat sinks, overladen; in the mountain passes they drop with cold; in the dirty lanes of the mart they die of disease. Commerce is not organized, safeguarded, universalized, as at present, but, such as it is, it reaches wide, and its life is never quite extinct.” Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography, i, p. 177.

[769] Pliny, _op. cit._, vi, 19. He remarks that Pompey, during the Mithridatic war, first made the existence of this trade known to the Romans; cf. Strabo, XI, ii, 16; the geographer notes that Dioscurias, about 50 miles north of Phasis, was a great barbarian mart frequented by 70, or even, as some said, by 300 different nations; see also Ammianus, xxiii, 6.

[770] Cosmas, _op. cit._, ii; cf. Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 20.

[771] So called from a sophist who was murdered there; Libanius, Epist., 20. Previously Nicephorium.

[772] Cod. Theod., VII, xvi, 2, 3, and Godfrey _ad loc._; Cod., IV, lxiii, 4.

[773] The inhabitants were a mixed race, containing Semitic and Hellenic elements, etc. Greek inscriptions were common there; Cosmas, _op. cit._, ii; cf. Philostorgius, iii, 6, etc.

[774] For the transport of an army to the opposite coast the king was able to collect 120 Roman, Persian, and native vessels; Act. Sanct. (Boll.), lviii, p. 747 (not 1,300 as Finlay, i, p. 264, which comes from adding a cipher to the figures in Surius).

[775] Called Taprobane by the Greek and Roman writers. It was distinguished by the possession of an immense lustrous jewel (ruby perhaps) which scintillated from the top of a temple; Cosmas, _op. cit._, xi.

[776] The junks from Annam, as it appears, ploughed round the Malay peninsula to Galle; Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, 1885, p. 178. The Cingalese took no active part in the trade!; Tennant, Ceylon, i, p. 568 (_ibid._).

[777] Cosmas, _op. cit._, xi. His own trade seems to have lain chiefly between Adule and Malabar. In this age all the southern regions eastward of the Nile were commonly referred to as India; and that river was often named as the boundary between Africa and Asia. Hence the Nile was said to rise in India; Procopius, De Aedific., vi, 1, etc.

[778] Now Somaliland.

[779] Cosmas, _op. cit._, xi; cf. Strabo, XVI, iv, 14. When Nonnosus went to Axume, _c._ 330, he saw 5,000 elephants grazing in a vast plain; Excerpt., p. 480.

[780] Cosmas, _op. cit._, ii. This kind of wordless barter was also the mode of trading with the Serae or Chinese on the higher reaches of the Brahmaputra (?); Pliny, Hist. Nat., vi, 24; Ammianus, xxiii, 6; cf. Herodotus, iv, 196.

[781] Pliny, _op. cit._, xii, 30. This district was also called the land of Frankincense; cf. Strabo, XVI, iv, 25; Pseud-Arrian, _op. cit._, 29. There was also a port called Arabia Felix on or near the site of modern Aden.

[782] Cosmas, _op. cit._, xi. White slaves, especially beautiful females for concubinage, were among the most important exports to India; Pseud-Arrian, _op. cit._, 49. One Eudoxus tried to reach that country by rounding West Africa with a cargo of choir girls, physicians, and artisans, but twice failed; Strabo, II, iii, 4. In the time of Pliny the Empire was drained by the East yearly to the amount of £800,000 in specie; Hist. Nat., xii, 41. Statues and paintings were also exported from the Empire; Strabo, XVI, iv, 26; Pseud-Arrian, _op. cit._, 48; Philostratus, Vit. Apol., v, 20. The import of precious stones, etc., may be conceived from the statement that Lollia Paulina appeared in the theatre wearing emeralds and pearls to the value of £304,000; Pliny, _op. cit._, ix, 58.

[783] Cosmas, _op. cit._, ii.

[784] Malchus, p. 234; Theophanes, an. 5990. The island was taken by the Scenite (tent-dwelling) Arabs under Theodosius II, but was recovered by Anastasius.

[785] _Ibid._

[786] Antoninus Martyr, Perambulatio, etc., 38, 41 (trans. in Pal. Pilgr. Text Soc., ii). The martyr, however, is a liar, as he professes to have produced wine from water at Cana, unless some brother monk in copying has been anxious to enhance his reputation. Clysma is now Suez.

[787] Rhinocolura, near Gaza, was the depôt for this trade in the time of Strabo (XVI, iv, 24).

[788] Strabo, XVII, i, 45; Pliny, Hist. Nat., vi, 26; Pseud-Arrian, _op. cit., passim_. Cosmas does not mention Berenice, but it was flourishing in the time of Procopius (De Aedific., vi, 2).

[789] Strabo, XVII, i, 45; Pliny, _op. cit._, vi, 26.

[790] Strabo, XVI, iv, 24; XVII, iv, 10, _et seq._ There was a canal from the Red Sea to the Nile, but it silted up too rapidly to be permanently used. In Roman times Trajan last reopened it; see Lethaby and S., _op. cit._, p. 236, for monographs on this subject.

[791] Notitia Or., X, XII; Cod. Theod., X, xx, xxi, xxii, and Godefroy’s commentaries; Cod., XI, viii, ix, x.

[792] Strabo, XVI, iv, 24; Pliny, _op. cit._, v, 16. There were different shades of purple and only the imperial shade was prohibited; Pliny, _op. cit._, xxi, 22. The murex was gathered in several other places, especially Laconia, where it was inferior only to that of Tyre; Pausanias, iii, 21, etc.

[793] Sozomen, v, 15. Much money was also coined at Cyzicus.

[794] Cod. Theod., X, xx, 8.

[795] Cod., IV, lxxxiii, 6. This doubtless applied only to great houses, not to petty retail dealers and shopkeepers (to the ἔμπορος not the κάπηλος); the number seems too large to understand it of the capital alone.

[796] Pliny, _op. cit._, viii, 73; Athenaeus, i, 50; xv, 17, etc.

[797] Strabo, XII, viii, 16; Pliny, _op. cit._, 73, etc.

[798] Athenaeus, ii, 30; vi, 67.

[799] Pliny, _op. cit._, xi, 27, etc. It is a question whether the transparent Coan fabrics were of silk, linen, or cotton, or a mixture.

[800] Procopius, Anecdot., 25.

[801] _Ibid._

[802] Athenaeus, i, 50.

[803] Pliny, _op. cit._, xxxv, 46.

[804] Strabo, XVI, ii, 25; Pliny, _op. cit._, xxxvi, 65. False stones were plentifully manufactured; _ibid._, xxxvii, 78, etc.

[805] Strabo, XIII, iv, 17.

[806] Athenaeus, i, 50; xiii, 24.

[807] Pliny, _op. cit._, xiii, 21.

[808] Strabo, XVII, i, 15; Pliny, _op. cit._, xiii, 22; Hist. August. Firmus, etc.

[809] Pausanias, v, 5; vii, 21.

[810] Strabo, XIII, iv, 14.

[811] Cod. Theod., XV, xi; Cod., XI, xliv. Indigenously called Mabog. It was a mart of venal beauty as well as of beasts; Lucian, De Syria Dea.

[812] Ammianus, xxix, 4; Procopius, Anecdot. 21.

[813] Pliny, _op. cit._, iv, 27; xxxvii, 11.

[814] Pliny, _op. cit._, xiv, _passim_; Athenaeus, i, 52, 55; x, _passim_.

[815] Strabo, XVII, iii, 23; Pliny, xxiv, 48; measuring more than 100 by 30 miles. What silphium really was is now indeterminate, but it was economically akin to garlic and asafoetida. It seems to have been indispensable in ordinary cooking.

[816] Totius Orb. Descript. (Müller, Geog. Graec. Min., Paris, 1861) 36; Procopius, De Aedific., v, 1.

[817] Tot. Orb. Descr., 51, 53. This tract from a Greek original (_c._ 350) summarizes the productions of the whole Empire, and for the most part confirms the continuance of the industries adverted to by the earlier and more copious writers.

[818] Athenaeus, i, 49.

[819] _Ibid._

[820] Strabo, VII, vi, 2; Pliny, ix, 17, _et seq._

[821] Cosmas, _op. cit._, ii.

[822] Several “embassies” from Rome are mentioned in the Chinese annals, but nothing seems to have been known of them in the West. Stray merchants sometimes penetrated very far; Strabo, XV, i, 4. At first Rome is disguised as _Ta-thsin_, but later (643) the Byzantine power figures as _Fou-lin_; see Pauthier, Relat. polit. de la Chine avec les puiss. occid., 1859; cf. Hirth, _op. cit._, who was without books to pursue the inquiry; Florus, iv, 12, etc.

[823] Aristotle, Hist. Animal., v, 19; Pliny, _op. cit._, xi, 26; Pausanias, vi, 26.

[824] Cosmas, _op. cit._, ii.

[825] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 30.

[826] A serf was called _colonus_, _inquilinus_, or _adscriptus glebae_, terms fairly synonymous; Cod., XI, xlvii, 13. Godefroy’s paratitlon to Cod. Theod., V, ix, x, is an epitome of everything relating to the serfs of antiquity; cf. Savigny, Römische Colonat u.s.w. Berlin Acad., 1822-3. The name of modern works on slavery and serfdom is legion.

[827] Cod., XI, xlvii, 21.

[828] _Ibid._, 18, 23.

[829] Cod. Theod., X, xv, and Godefroy _ad loc._; Pand., XLVII, vi; Novel., xvii, 17; lxxxv, 4, etc. This general disarmament of the industrial classes often left them defenceless against the barbarian raiders, as is instanced practically by Synesius, Epist. 107. Yet in an age of non-explosives peasants armed only with agricultural implements could become terrible, as was shown in Paphlagonia (359), when the incensed Novatian sectaries routed the legionaries sent against them with their hatchets, reaping-hooks, etc.; Socrates, ii, 30; Sozomen, iv, 21.

[830] Cod. Theod., X, xx, 16.

[831] _Ibid._, X, xx, xxi, xxii; Cod., XI, viii, ix, x. To be a public baker (_manceps_) was a particular sort of punishment; Cod. Theod., XIV, lii, 22, etc.

[832] _Ibid._, X, xx, 3, 5, 10, 15. Male and female alike, as well as their offspring, became bound to the sodality into which they married. The _addicti_ were branded on the arm like recruits; _ibid._, X, xxi, 4; cf. IX, xl, 2; Cod., XI, ix, 2. Scarcely less stringent were the rules by which even the private guilds or colleges were governed. All the trades were incorporated in such associations under an official charter; Cod. Theod., XIV, ii-viii. But the note of personal liberty had already been sounded, and the more coercive restrictions were omitted from the later Code; cf. Choisy, L’art de batir chez les Byzantins, Paris, 1883, p. 200, etc. (Mommsen’s pioneer work on guilds is well known).

[833] Cod. Theod., XIII, v, vi, ix; Cod., X, ii, etc. (and Godefroy).

[834] Procopius, De Aedfiic., v, 1.

[835] Although their property was held in lien by the state as security for the maintenance of ships, it appears that they could grow rich through the facilities they enjoyed for private commerce and possess an independent fortune; Cod. Theod., XIII, vi; cf. Pand., L, iv, 5. Hence some joined voluntarily.

[836] Cod. Theod., XII, i. This title, the longest of all (192 laws), provides us with a plummet with which we may sound the depths of their misery, and exemplifies their eagerness to escape to any other mode of existence as well as the stringency with which they were reclaimed.

[837] Hence their property was always in chancery, as we may say, and the Curia to which they belonged was their reversionary heir, necessarily to a fourth; Cod., X, xxxiv. In the Code the laws relating to them are reduced to about seventy; X, xxxi, _et seq._ Their duties and liabilities are indexed in Godefroy’s paratitlon. Libanius had seen people of substance reduced to beggary by these obligations; Epitaph. Juliani (R., I., p. 571). Majorian (457-61) attempted reforms in the West.

[838] See Libanius, Epist., 248, 339, 825, 1079, 1143, etc. The sophist had much interest owing to the number of pupils he had trained to succeed in advocacy, etc., and could often beg off one old disciple by appealing to another. A Rector’s nod in such cases was more potent than an Imperial rescript; Cod. Theod., XII, i, 17; _ibid._, 1, notwithstanding. Zeno enacted that even some Illustrious officials should not be exempt after vacating their office; Cod., X, xxxi, 64, 65.

[839] Fathers of a dozen children were released or not called upon; Cod. Theod., XII, i, 55; Cod., X, xxxi, 24. Otherwise disease or decrepit old age seem to have the only effective claims for relief, apart from interest, bribery, etc. The general result of this political economy was that the Empire resembled a great factory, in which each one had a special place, and was excluded from everywhere else. “In England a resident of Leeds is at home in Manchester, and has judicially the same position as a citizen of Manchester, whereas in the Roman Empire a citizen of Thessalonica was an alien in Dyrrachium; a citizen of Corinth an alien in Patras”; Bury, Later Rom. Emp., i, p. 38.

[840] The Verrine sequence of Cicero’s speeches remains a picture up to this date of the usual tyranny of a Roman governor. Few went to the provinces with any other idea but that of rapine. “Cessent jam nunc rapaces officialium manus,” says Constantine, “cessent inquam: nam si moniti non cessaverint, gladiis praecidentur,” etc.; Cod. Theod., I, vii, 1. The revolution of two centuries brings no improvement: “Confluunt huc (Constantinople) omnes ingemiscentes, sacerdotes, et curiales, et officiales, et possessores, et populi, et agricolae, judicum furta merito et injustitias accusantes,” etc.; Novel., viii, Pro. For this law, ineffective as ever, all are enjoined to return thanks to God! a vain parade of legislation.

[841] Cod. Theod., X, xxiv; XII, ix; Salvian, De Gubern. Dei, v, 4, _et passim_. Titles x, xi, xii, xiii, xiv (of X) deal with the self-seekers who, in the guise of delators or informers, infested the Court in unsettled times and tried to oust people from their possessions by accusing them of treason; cf. Ammianus, xix, 12, etc.

[842] Cod. Theod., XI, vi; Ammianus, xvii, 3; Salvian, _op. cit._, v, 7, etc.

[843] So Verres, ii, 38, etc.

[844] Cod. Theod., XII, vi, 27, etc.

[845] _Ibid._, XI, vi, viii; XV, i; and Godefroy’s commentaries. The Defenders of the Cities seem to have been in general too cowed to exercise their prerogative or were gained over.

[846] _Ibid._, VIII, xv. In this, as in other instances, I refer to the laws against the offences which were committed in disregard of them. Godefroy usually supplies exemplifications.

[847] _Ibid._, XI, xxx, 4; xxxiv.

[848] Cod. Theod., X, ix, 1, and Godefroy _ad loc._; cf. _ibid._, i, 2; Novel. xvii, 15; Agathias, v, 4. They even attempted to invalidate Imperial grants. Notices on purple cloth were suspended to denote confiscation of estates to the crown.

[849] Cassiodorus, Var. Epist., v, 34; ix, 14, etc.

[850] Palladius, Vit. Paphnutii; Hist. Lausiaca, 63 (not by Jerome, as Godefroy _ad_ Cod. Theod., III, iii).

[851] Synesius, Epist., 79, 96, etc. These may have been isolated devices of Andronicus at Ptolemais. One of his subordinates used to seize objects of art _à la_ Verres. Yet these men were only reached by the happy thought of excommunicating them. In this the great Athanasius had set the example.

[852] Cod. Theod., IX, xxxv, and Godefroy. This was the regular method of scourging, but illegal as a means of enforcing payment of taxes; _ibid._, XI, vii, 7. The Egyptians were particularly obstinate, and even proud to show the weals they had suffered sooner than pay; Ammianus, xxii, 6, 16.

[853] Cod. Theod., XI, xxviii, 10, 14; cf. vii, 20.

[854] Evagrius, iii, 39. He pretended to have made a sad mistake, and spread a report that he would promptly reimpose it were he not without documentary evidence to enable the books to be reopened. Enticed by this ruse the knavish collectors brought in the accounts they had kept back and a second conflagration was made with them.

[855] Under Arcadius the traffic was barefaced by Eutropius, and probably little less so in the succeeding reign by Chrysaphius:

Vestibulo pretiis distinguit regula gentes.
Tot Galatae, tot Pontus, eat, tot Lydia nummis.
Si Lyciam tenuisse velis, tot millia ponas, etc.
Claudian, In Eutropium, i, 202.

Afterwards it was more underhand; see Novel. viii.

[856] As Bury well observes; Gibbon, v, p. 533.

[857] Cod., I, xlviii.

[858] Novel. viii; xcv; clxi.

[859] Cod. Theod., III, iii; V, viii; XI, xxvii, and Godefroy’s illustrations. Sold in this way, Roman citizens were not held in perpetual bondage, but regained their liberty after serving for a term; cf. Cassiodorus, Var. Ep., viii, 33. Constantine was shocked to find that deaths from starvation were frequent in his dominions, and so advertised a measure of outdoor relief, which Rectors were instructed to exhibit conspicuously in all parts; cf. Lactantius, Divin. Inst., vi, 20. The same Constantine is the author of an extravagant law by which lovers who elope together are subjected to capital (?) punishment without any suffrance of accommodation, whilst even persons who may have counselled them to the step are condemned to perish by having molten lead poured down their throats. By such frantic whims could legislation be travestied in those days; Cod. Theod., IX, xxiv.

[860] Cod. Theod., II, xiv; Cod., II, xvi; Augustine, Enarr. in Psalm. XXI, etc.

[861] Cod., IX, xii, 10. See Priscus for a general outline of some of the grievances dealt with in this article; Hist. Goth. Excerpt., p. 190; cf. Nov. xxxiii, etc.

[862] Cod. Theod., XI, xxiv; Cod., XI, liii; cf. liv. Libanius in the East and Salvian in the West, at the distance of nearly a century, complain in analogous terms of the manner in which the wealthy residents turned the tribulations of their poorer neighbours to their own profit; De Prostasiis (ii, p. 493 R.); De Gubern. Dei, v, 8, 9; cf. Nov. xxxiii, etc.

[863] Cod. Theod., XIII, i, 16; XVI, ii, 10, etc. “Distincta enim stipendia sunt religionis et calliditatis” is the caustic taunt put into the mouth of Arcadius. The concessions were withdrawn by Valentinian III (Novel. II, xii), ineffectively we may safely assume from Nov. xliii; 1,100 duty-free shops at CP. belonging to St. Sophia alone.

[864] Cod. Theod., XII, xiv.

[865] _Ibid._, IX, xxx, 2, 5; xxxi. A further hardship was the quartering of soldiers on private persons, but this, of course, was only local and temporary. The Goths and other barbarians were especially harsh and grasping among those who had to receive them when in transit through the country; see Jos. Stylites, _op. cit._, 86. Generally the military were arrogant towards, and contemned the civil population; Zosimus, ii, 34.

[866] There seems to be no good reason why children should not now be taught from a primer of scientific cosmology, and have a catechism of ethics as well to the exclusion of everything mythological. The human brain is a weak organ of mind, and requires, above all things, a tonic treatment. Nothing can be more enfeebling than any teaching which causes children to imagine that they are surrounded by unseen intelligences having the power to affect them for good or evil. In most instances, a mind so subdued never recovers its resiliency; liberty of thought is always hampered by dread of the invisible; and many of our greatest men have been unable in after life to free themselves from this fatuity. There should, however, be places of public assembly where people could resort for ethical direction and encouragement, without the lessons taught being vitiated or nullified by being made to depend on mythology. But the objectionable name “agnostic” should be discarded, as if to be properly educated were to belong to a peculiar sect. It suggests a country in which a special designation has to be given to all who are neither diseased nor deformed.

[867] Even Cicero affects to think it _infra dig._ for him to show any correct knowledge of the most famous Greek sculptors; Verres, II, iv.

[868] Suetonius, De Ill. Gram., 2; De Clar. Rhet., 1; Aul. Gell., xv, 11. Crates Mallotes has the credit of being the first Greek Grammarian who taught at Rome, _c. 157_ B.C. The Rhetoricians had migrated earlier, and in 161 a SC. was launched against them, and again a few years later.

[869] When the system was fully organized under Ant. Pius (138-161), the largest communities were allowed ten Physicians, five Rhetoricians (or Sophists), and three Grammarians; the smallest recognized under the scheme, five Physicians, three Rhetoricians, and three Grammarians; Pand., XXVII, i, 6; Hist. August. Ant. Pius, 11. Antonius Musa, physician to Augustus, seems to have been the first learned man to whom public honours were decreed at Rome, viz., a statue of brass on the recovery of the Emperor, 23 B.C.; Suetonius, August., 59, 81. He was even the cause of privileges being conferred on his profession generally; Dion Cass., liii, 30. Vespasian was the first to give regular salaries to Rhetoricians; he also gave handsome presents to poets, artists, and architects, and granted relief from public burdens to physicians and philosophers; Suetonius in Vita, 18; Pand., L, iv, 18(30). But the idea of remitting their taxes to learned men was old; Diogenes Laert., Pyrrho, 5. That of selling philosophers for slaves when they could not pay them, was also old; _ibid._, Xenocrates; Bion. Hadrian, called _Graeculus_ from his pedantry, also did much for the cause of learning; Hist. August. in Vita, 1, 17, and commentators. The Athenaeum at Rome was his foundation, an educational college of which no details are known; Aurel. Victor, in Vita. Alexander Sev. went further than any of his predecessors in granting an allowance to poor students; Hist. August. in Vita, 44.

[870] Cod. Theod., XV, i, 53, and Godefroy _ad loc._

[871] Zacharias, De Opific., Mund., 40, _et seq._ (in Migne, S. G., lxxxv, 1011); See Hasaeus, De Acad. Beryt., etc. Halae Magd., 1716. The humblest school was adorned with figures of the Muses; Athenaeus, viii, 41; Diogenes Laert., Diog., 6. A lecture hall was generally called a “Theatre of the Muses”; Himerius, Or., xxii; Themistius, Or., xxi.

[872] Diogenes Laert., Theophrastus, 14; Eumenius, De Schol. Instaur.; Themistius, Or., xxvi, etc.

[873] Gregory Naz., Laud. Basil, 14, _et seq._ In Julian, ii; Zosimus, v, 5. Synesius pictures the schools as deserted when he visited Athens (_c. 410_); no philosophers, no painted porches, nothing in evidence but the jars of honey from Hymettus. Hypatia, in fact, was attracting every one to Alexandria. After her murder, however, it doubtless began to recuperate (_c_. 415). Themistius inveighs against those parents who sent their sons to a _place_ on account of its repute, instead of looking out for the _best man_. He mentions that pupils came to him at CP. from Greece and Ionia; Or., xxvii; xxiii. The students of this age are described as extremely fractious. At Athens, a great commotion greeted the arrival of a freshman, who was put through a rude ordeal until they had passed him into the public bath, whence he issued again as an accepted comrade; Gregory Naz., Laud. Basil., 16. There also they fought duels, and Libanius reprobates their presenting themselves to him slashed with knives; Epist., 627; Himerius, Or., xxii. Practical jokes amongst themselves, or played on the professors, were often pushed by the students to the verge of criminality; Pand. praef., 2(9). At Carthage St. Augustine found his class for rhetoric so unruly that he threw it up and migrated to Rome. There, indeed, they were more orderly, but indulged in the galling practice of flocking in a body to a certain teacher, whom they suddenly abandoned after a time, forgetting to pay their fees. Sick of it all, he eagerly closed with an offer of the P. U. to take up a salaried post at Milan; Confess., v, 8, 12, 13.

[874] Cod. Theod., XIV, ix, 3; Cod., XI, xviii.

[875] _Ibid._

[876] Cod. Theod., XIV, ix, 2. Constantius seems to have founded the first great library (_c._ 351), and another was originated by Julian; Themistius, Or., iv; see p. 88. Themistius says that he spent twenty years in studying the “old treasures” of literature at CP.; Or., xxxiii (p. 359, Dind.).

[877] Themistius, Or., xxiii; xxviii, etc. Chrysostom, Ad Pop. Ant. Hom. xvii, 2 (in Migne, ii, 173).

[878] See p. 58; Themistius, Or., xxiv; cf. Cresollius, Theatr. Vet. Rhet., Paris, 1620, a huge repertory of details relating to this class.

[879] Themistius, Or., xxviii, etc.

[880] Themistius, Or., xiii; Chrysostom, In Epist. ad Ephes. Hom. xxi, 3 (in Migne, xi, 153); Eunapius, Proaeresius. These popular lectures were often merely colloquial entertainments, such as used to be associated with the name of Corney Grain, without the music. See the correspondence of Basil Mag. with Libanius, Epist., 351 (Migne), _et seq._, L.’s most effective piece, a dialogue in which he mimicked the fretfulness of a morose man.

[881] Cod. Theod., XIII, iii, 1, and Godefroy _ad loc._ At this time, however, pagan professors were often much persecuted by Christian fanatics, and Themistius complains that they were even officially muzzled; Or., xxvi, and _ibid._ Professors were naturally the last to become converts. As to the general esteem in which the class was held, see the poetical commemoration of the Bordeaux professors by Ausonius. Lucian deals satirically with philosophers in his Eunuch, De Merc. Cond., Hermotimus, etc.

[882] Cod. Theod., XIII, iii, 7, and Godefroy _ad loc._; Cod., X, lii, 8; Themistius, Or., xxi, etc. Chrysostom, _loc. cit._ (note 4 _supra_).

[883] Cod. Theod., XIII, iii, 5. A law of Julian to facilitate his ousting Christian professors, but retained for its literal application.

[884] Themistius fairly covers the ground as to this question; Or., xxi; xxiii. The inferior teachers were exacting, and even extortionate. They accused him of requiring a talent (£240?), but he asked nothing at CP. where he was subsidized; on the contrary, he assisted needy pupils. Still, he received a great deal of money as presents. At Antioch, where it was the custom, he took fees like the rest. For more ancient times and generally, see Cresollius, _op. cit._, v, 3, 4, etc. What the government paid is uncertain. Augustus gave V. Flaccus £800 a year for acting exclusively as tutor to his nephews; Suetonius, De Ill. Gram., 17. £1,040 has been conjectured as the salary of Eumenius (600,000 _nummi_, _op. cit._). In Diocletian’s Act for fixing prices, ordinary schoolmasters are allowed only about 4_s._ a month, professors 12_s._; for each pupil in a class, of course. The case of M. Aurelius bestowing £400 per ann. on the professors at Athens is also to be noted; Dion Cass., lxxxi, 31.

[885] Chrysostom, Genesis, i, Hom. iii, 3 (in Migne, iv, 29); In Epist. ad Coloss. Hom. iv, 3 (in Migne, xi, 328); Paulus Aegin., i, 14; cf. Quintilian, i, 1, etc. Youths from the provinces studying at Rome were packed home again at twenty, but this order seems to have been dropped later on; Cod. Theod., XIV, ix, 1 (not retained in Code).

[886] On first methods with children, see Quintilian, i; Jerome, Epist., 107; Chrysostom, Ad Pop. Ant. Hom. xvi, 14 (in Migne, ii, 168); De Mut. Nom. ii, 1 (in Migne, iii, 125); Genesis, i, Hom. iii, 3; Epist. Coloss. i, Hom. iv, 3 (in Migne, xi, 329), etc. Libanius, In Chriis (Reiske, ii, p. 868). The first book of Augustine’s Confessions gives many particulars as to his own bringing up in childhood. Greek nursemaids were hired at Rome so that young children might learn the language; Tacitus, De Caus. Cor. Eloq., 29. Wooden or ivory letters were used as playthings. These schoolmasters are represented as very harsh instructors, who cowed the spirit of their pupils. The rod was freely used, and chiefly by the paedagogue. Even scholars of maturer age were corrected by whipping. Libanius used to “wake up the lazy ones with a strap, the incorrigible he expelled.” Epist., 1119. Chrysostom himself accepts as axiomatic that nothing can be done with boys without beating; Act. Apost. Hom. xlii, 4 (in Migne, ix, 308). Quintilian and Paul of Aegina, however, advise going on the opposite tack; _loc. cit._

[887] Pand., L, v, 2, etc.

[888] Martianus Capella, an African who lived in the fifth century, is the author of the only self-contained manual of liberal education which has come down to us. His treatise seems to contain all the book-work a student was expected to do while under oral teaching by the professors. Cassiodorus has left a slight tract, but he recommends other volumes to supplement his own merely tentative work. Isidore of Seville, a century later, has also included an epitome of the seven liberal arts in the first three books of his Etymologies, but his exposition is almost as thin as that of Cassiodorus. The remaining seventeen books are a sort of encyclopaedic dictionary with explanatory jottings on almost every subject, well worth dipping into.

[889] Introduced, perhaps, by Boethius; De Arith., i, 1. Τετρακτὺς is found in Greek; Anna Comn.; i, pref.; see Ducange, _sb. voc._ The latter word is really the original and goes back to Pythagorean times.

[890] See Priscian, Partitiones, xii, Vers. Aen., etc.

[891] After Rome had produced good writers, such as Virgil, Horace, Livy, etc., they were added to the course of literature in the West; Quintilian, i, 8; x.

[892] There is some obscurity about his date, which suggests that he was a centenarian. Ordericus Vit. says he died in 425; cf. Cassiodorus, De Orthograph., 12, etc.

[893] “One father,” says Chrysostom, “points out to his son how some one of low birth by learning eloquence obtained promotion to high office, won a rich wife, and became possessed of wealth with a fine house, etc., or how another through a mastery of Latin achieved a great position at Court”; Adv. Oppug. Vit. Mon., iii, 5 (in Migne, i, 357).

[894] The details of teaching are presented most circumstantially in the rhetorical catechism of Fortunatianus (_c. 450_).

[895] Cresollius has brought together an immense amount of information on this branch of the art in his Vacationes Autumnales, Paris, 1620; cf. Kayser in his introduction to the lives of Philostratus (Teubner). Blandness of voice was sedulously pursued by professional sophists, and _plasmata_, or emollient medicaments were much resorted to. There was a _phonascus_, or voice-trainer, who paid special attention to such matters.

[896] Libanius has outlined very clearly the course of instruction through which he put his class; Epist., 407.

[897] Nothing could be more meagre than the allusions to this subject; even the treatise on geometry by Boethius, which seems to have been the only one current, contains little more than enunciations of propositions.

[898] I have already referred to the geography of this period, see p. 182.

[899]

Altera pars orbis sub aquis jacet invia nobis,
Ignotaeque hominum gentes, nec transita regna,
Commune ex uno lumen ducentia sole, etc.
Manilius (Weber), i, 375.

The Christian fathers ridicule the antipodes severely. “More rational to say that black was white”; Lactantius, Div. Inst., iii, 24; Epitome, 39. “The earth stands firm on water [going back to Thales] and does not turn”; Chrysostom, Genesis, Hom. xii, 3, 4 (in Migne, iv, 101); In Titum Hom. iii, 3 (in Migne, xi, 680); cf. Cosmas Ind., _op. cit._, x, for other theological authorities on cosmology.

[900] Such as that five represents the world, being made up of three and two, which typify male and female respectively; or that seven equates Minerva, the virgin, neither contained or containing; and other Pythagorean notions; see M. Capella, vii, and the arithmetic of Boethius.

[901] Such is the well-known system elaborated by Hipparchus and Ptolemy, but the Pythagoreans put the sun at the centre, though without definite reasons and with imaginative details; see Diogenes Laert. and Delambre’s Hist. Astron. Ant. Although Democritus, Epicurus, and others held that there were an infinite number of worlds (κόσμοι), they regarded the objective universe as only one of them, and had no idea that myriads of systems similar to that in which they lived lay before their eyes.

[902] Thus M. Capella states that Mercury and Venus revolve round the sun; and Isidore of Seville says the crystalline sphere runs so fast that did not the stars retard it by running the opposite way the universe would fall to pieces; Etymolog., iii, 35.

[903] See Themistius, Or., xxvi (p. 327 Dind.); cf. Boethius (?), De Discipl. Scholar., iii.

[904] Graduated from about A below treble stave to E in fourth space (A to E″ = La_{2} to Mi_{4}), but there seems to have been great variety in pitch.

[905] Cassiodorus often alludes to the organ of his time, especially in Exposit. Psal. CL, where he describes many instruments. See Daremberg and Saglio, _sb. voc._

[906] See M. Capella, ix; Boethius on Music, etc., and Hadow’s Oxford History of Music, 1901.

[907] See Plato, Protagoras, 43, etc. Even in the time of Homer the Greek warriors were practical musicians, but the Romans were not so originally. I can make no definite statement as to how far the Byzantine upper classes were performers on instruments at this date, but see Jerome, Ep., 107. Further remarks on Greek education, with references to an earlier stratum of authors, will be found in Hatch, Hibbert Lectures, 1888, ii, _et seq._ There is a great compilation by Conringius (De Antiq. Academ., Helmstadt, 1651), which I have found extremely useful. From the observations of Chrysostom (see p. 118), it appears that little advantage was taken of educational facilities in his day, but it may be assumed that the foundation of the Auditorium caused mental culture to be fashionable, at least for a time.

[908] Themistius, Or., xxvi, _loc. cit._ Theodosius II was the first Christian emperor who systematically fostered philosophy by creating a faculty at CP. and extending clearly to philosophers the immunities granted to other professors; Cod. Theod., XIII, iii, 16; XIV, ix, 3; Cod., X, lii, 14, etc. We are continually reminded that Socrates brought down the sophists of his time from star-gazing and speculation as to the origin of things to the ethics of common life. Thence arose a succession of dialogues in which Utopian republics were discussed, where wives should be in common so that everybody might be the supposititious brother, etc., of every one else. A more harmonious community could not be engendered by such a device; cf. Herodotus, iv, 104.

[909] See the elogium of Berytus in Nonnus, Dionysiacs, xli. From 389, etc., Hasacus (_op. cit._) thinks that the school was founded by Augustus after the battle of Actium, but it is first distinctly noted as flourishing _c. 231_; Gregory Thaum., Panegyric. in Origen, 1, 5 (in Migne, S. G., 1051).

[910] Pand. praef., 2 [7]; Totius Orb. Descript.; Gotlefroy _ad_ Cod. Theod., XI, i, 19, etc.

[911] Nowhere definitely expressed, but inferred from Pand. praef., 2 (superscription), with confirmative evidence; see Hasaeus, _op. cit._, viii, 2, _et seq._

[912] The freshmen rejoiced in the “frivolous and ridiculous cognomen” of _Dupondii_ (equivalent to “Tuppennies,” apparently); in the second year they became _Edictionaries_ (students of Hadrian’s Perpetual Edict); thirdly, _Papinianistae_ (engaged on the works of Papinian); fourthly, Αύται (when reading Paulus); fifthly, the last year, _Prolytae_ (mainly given up to reviewing previous studies); Pand. praef., 2. The last two terms are not explained; the idea is evidently that of being _loosed_ or dismissed from the courses. Cf. Macarius Aegypt. Hom. xv, 42 (in Migne, S. G., xxxiv, 604), who presents a different scheme, perhaps, from the Alexandrian law-school.

[913] The first attempt at consolidating the laws was the Perpetual Edict of Hadrian, _c. 120_.

[914] Pand., _loc. cit._ And many more were probably dragged up in court from time to time, which it would be the bent of despotism to taboo. Cod. Theod., I, iv, gives the rule as to deciding knotty points by the collation of legal experts.

[915] It was specially decreed by Diocletian that students might remain at B. to the age of twenty-five; Cod., X, xlix, 1. This law could doubtless be pleaded even against a call to their native Curia. We need not suppose that the periods allotted to the various branches of education were always rigidly adhered to in spite of circumstances. Thus Libanius complains that his pupils used to run off to the study of law before he had put them through the proper routine of rhetorical training, the moment they had mastered a little Latin in fact; iii, p. 441-2 (Reiske).

[916] Sufficiat medico ad commendandam artis auctoritatem, si Alexandriae se dixerit eruditum; Ammianus, xxii, 16. This celebrity was won _c. 300_ B.C. through the distinction acquired by Erasistratus and Herophilus. See Conringius, _op. cit._, i, 26.

[917] Cod., I, ii, 19, 22; this and the next title for charities _passim_.

[918] Even Plato held this notion (Timaeus, 72), but it was flouted at once by Chrysippus; Plutarch, De Stoic. Repug., 29.

[919] Galen gives very correct descriptions of the action of the larynx; Oribasius, xxiv, 9; and tells us how he satisfied himself by various vivisections that the blood actually flowed in the arteries; An Sanguis in Arter. Nat. Cont.; De Placit., i, 5; vi, 7, 8, etc.

[920] Themistius, Or., i.

[921] What appears to be an epitome of current knowledge of natural history and botany is given by Cicero in De Nat. Deor., ii, 47, etc.

[922] See especially Dioscorides, ii. Tinctures and ointments made from toads, scorpions, bugs, woodlice, centipedes, cockroaches, testes of stag and horse, etc., were staple preparations. The realistic coloured illustrations in the great edition published by Lonicerus in 1563 with a colossal commentary, are worth looking at. The pills of seminal fluid (_à la_ Brown-Séquard) decried in the _Pistis Sophia_ appear to have been merely a mystic remedy.

[923] The profession did not yet stand apart from the lay community as pronouncedly as at present. Thus Celsus, author of a noted medical treatise, was an amateur, a Roman patrician in fact; and the precious MS. of Dioscorides, with coloured miniatures, preserved at Vienna, was executed (_c. 500_) for a Byzantine princess, Julia Anicia, daughter of Olybrius, one of the fleeting emperors of the West.

[924] Less than a century previously Plutarch had declared the common opinion that Fortune, having divested herself of her pinions and winged shoes, had settled down as a permanent inhabitant of the Palatine Hill; De Fortuna Rom.

[925] Art in the time of Augustus and Tiberius has to be judged mainly by the wall-paintings recovered at Rome and Pompeii, many of which are highly meritorious. For succeeding centuries a series of sculptures remain which allow us to keep the retreat of art in constant view. The chief landmarks are: 1. The arch of Titus and the column of Trajan; 2. The Antonine column and the arch of Severus; 3. The arch of Constantine, remarkable for its crudity and for some spaces being filled by figures ravished from that of Titus; 4. The Theodosian column at CP.; though much defaced, the incapacity of the executant is still recognizable. The reproduction of the Arcadian pillar published by Banduri (see p. 49) cannot be regarded as a faithful copy, it being evident that the artist has elevated the bas-reliefs to his own standard. In Agincourt, _op. cit._, and Mau’s Pompeii these subjects are pictorially represented, as well as in many other works.

[926] Cod. Theod., XIII, iv, 1. Architectis plurimis opus est, sed quia non sunt, etc. (334). His buildings were so hastily run up that they soon went to ruin; Zosimus, ii, 32. Hence, perhaps, C.’s opinion that there were no proper architects.

[927] Cod. Theod., XIII, iv, 1, 4. Few, however, of these regulations, if any, were new; they were mostly in force before the reign of Commodus; Pand., L, vi, 9.

[928] In the eleventh century, after a flush of splendour in the already greatly contracted Empire, owing to the conquests of the Saracens, this particular form of degeneracy began to be manifested. “Les personnages sont trop longs, leur bras trop maigres, leur gestes et leur mouvements plein d’affectation; une rigidité cadavérique est repandue sur l’ensemble”; Kondakoff, Hist. de l’art byz., Paris, 1886, ii, p. 138.

[929] This was not altogether new to the Greeks; for in the juxtaposition of Athenian and Assyrian bas-reliefs at the British Museum it can be seen that even the school of Phidias adhered to some types which had originated in the East, drawing of horses, etc.

[930] See Lethaby and Swainson for arguments on this head. Certain churches in the domical style at Antioch, Salonica, etc., are maintained by some authorities to be anterior to the sixth century; _op. cit._, x. For illustrations see Vogüé, Archit. de la Syrie cent., Paris, 1865-77.

[931] Thus even maidens in a state of nudity engaged publicly in the athletic games at Sparta and Chios; Plutarch, Lycurgus; Athenaeus, xiii, 20. The parade of virgins before Zeuxis at Agrigentum in order that he might select models for his great picture of the birth of Venus, as related by Pliny, has often been quoted; Hist. Nat., xxxv, 36. Yet even among the Greeks a squeamish modesty existed in some quarters, as is evidenced by the famous statue of Venus by Praxiteles having been rejected by the Coans in favour of a draped one, previous to its being set up at Cnidus; _ibid._, xxxvi, 4; cf. Lucian, Amores.

[932] Thus Shakespeare:

See what a grace was seated on this brow:
Hyperion’s curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury,
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill.
Hamlet, III, 4.

[933] See p. 109.

[934] They vary in merit considerably; see some reproductions of the better ones in Bayet, L’art byz., Paris, 1892, ii, 3, and other similar works, especially Gori, _op. cit._ Specimens at South Kensington.

[935] Choricius of Gaza (_c._ 520) has left us an elaborate description of such a church interior and also of the frescoes in a palace. The whole has been republished by Bertrand in his work, Un art crit. dans l’antiq., Paris, 1882. Modern Greek churches are precisely similar, and those belonging to the monasteries of Mt. Athos are especially noteworthy; see Bayet, _op. cit._, iv, 2. Two can be inspected in London. That in Bayswater is a “Kutchuk Aya Sofia.” Walsh’s CP., Lond., 1838, has a good engraving; ii, p. 31. See also the striking mosaics of St. George’s, Salonica (Texier and P., _op. cit._), the Pompeiesque style of which suggest an early date in church building—vistas of superimposed arcades raised on a forest of fantastically graceful, but impossible columns, architecture run wild in fact.

[936] “Du moment qu’il avait exécuté une composition dans la manière antique et qu’il y avait mis toute la splendeur de sa palette, il ne se demandait pas si le dessin de ses personnages était correct ou non, s’ils se trainaient bien sur leur jambes, s’ils étaient réellement assis sur une chaise ou un fauteuil, ou simplement appuyés contre ces meubles”; Kondakoff, _op. cit._, i, 108. Of existing MSS. with coloured miniatures, only some six or eight date back to these early centuries. Labarte’s Hist. des arts indust., Paris, 1892, with coloured facsimiles is the most satisfying work in which to study mediaeval art objectively. At South Kensington a variety of specimens are to be found, including ivories, enamels, paper casts of mosaics, reproductions of frescoes, etc., many of which go as far back as the sixth century.

[937] Oribasius, physician to Julian, seems to be the genuine father of bookmaking, the real prototype of the “scissors and paste” author, but he foreran the swarming of the brood by a couple of centuries.

[938] Gregory Nys., De Vit. S. Macrinae (in Migne, iii, 960). Whence it appears that it was unusual for them to be taught to apply themselves to the distaff or the needle. Maidenhood was mostly passed in luxury and adornment; Chrysostom, Qual. Duc. Sint Uxores, 9 (in Migne, iii, 239); in Epist. ad Ephes., iv, Hom. xiii, 3 (in Migne, xi, 97); cf. Jerome, Epist., 128, 130. The latter sets forth his ideas as to the training of a girl at some length. As soon as she has imbibed the first rudiments she is to begin psalm-singing and reading of prophets, apostles, etc. Later she should proceed to the study of the fathers, especially Cyprian, Athanasius, and Hilarius. She should spend much time in church with her parents, and must be guarded circumspectly from the attentions of the curled youth (_cincinatti_, _calamistrati_). She rises betimes to sing hymns, and employs herself generally in weaving plain textures. Silks and jewellery are to be rigorously eschewed; and the saint cannot reconcile himself to the idea of an adult virgin making use of the bath, as she should blush to see herself naked; Epist., 107. His remarks, of course, apply directly to life at Rome.

[939] From Jerome’s letter just quoted it appears that it was usual for girls to play on the lyre, pipe, and organ.

[940] See her life by Gregorovius, 1892. Her cento of Homeric verses applied to Christ is extant. To her inspiration most probably is due the foundation of the Auditorium at CP., and the prominence given to philosophy. Pulcheria was occupied in building churches and in disinterring the relics of martyrs.

[941] She is best known from the epistles of Synesius. Nothing of hers is extant. Murdered 415, wife or maid uncertain; see Suidas, _sb. nom._ She was scraped to pieces with shells, a mode of official torture peculiar to the Thebais, which may have been inflicted often on Christian ladies during Pagan persecutions. In other districts an iron scraper was used; Eusebius, Hist. Eccles., viii, 9; 3, etc.

[942] I need not refer more particularly to the phenomena of radio-activity and cathode rays, information concerning which has been exploited by every popular periodical. The atoms (electrons) which become visible in the low-pressure tube have been calculated to be of but 1∕800 the magnitude of the hydrogen atom, and many physicists are inclined to regard them as the first state of matter on its way to resolution into the formless protyle or ether.

[943] A great part of modern books on chemistry is now devoted to synthesis. Not only have such well-known organic substances as indigo, vanilla, citric acid, etc., been prepared artificially, but also those new articles of commerce, the aniline dyes, saccharine, etc. Numbers of new drugs for therapeutic experiment are synthetized annually in the great German laboratories of Bayer, Merck, etc.

[944] Especially suggestive are the ingenious experiments with ferments, which tend to show that the anabolic and katabolic activities of living matter may soon be imitated in the laboratory; see Buchner, Bericht d. deutsch. chem. Gesel., xxx, xxxi, xxxii; also recent physiological treatises in which are contained the speculations of Pflüger and others as to the “biogens” of protoplasm, etc. Most important of all is Loeb’s discovery of the possibility of chemical fertilization; see Boveri, Das Problem der Befruchtung, Jena, 1902.

[945] Archytas, with his flying wooden dove, was the most noted mechanician in this line; A. Gellius, x, 12, etc.

[946] Even windmills were unknown until they were introduced into Europe by the Saracens in the twelfth century.