Chapter XL: Reign Of Justinian.—Part IV

Dishonor might be ultimately reflected on the character of
Justinian; but much of the guilt, and still more of the profit,
was intercepted by the ministers, who were seldom promoted for
their virtues, and not always selected for their talents. 91 The
merits of Tribonian the quaestor will hereafter be weighed in the
reformation of the Roman law; but the economy of the East was
subordinate to the Praetorian præfect, and Procopius has
justified his anecdotes by the portrait which he exposes in his
public history, of the notorious vices of John of Cappadocia. 92

921 His knowledge was not borrowed from the schools, 93 and his
style was scarcely legible; but he excelled in the powers of
native genius, to suggest the wisest counsels, and to find
expedients in the most desperate situations. The corruption of
his heart was equal to the vigor of his understanding. Although
he was suspected of magic and Pagan superstition, he appeared
insensible to the fear of God or the reproaches of man; and his
aspiring fortune was raised on the death of thousands, the
poverty of millions, the ruins of cities, and the desolation of
provinces. From the dawn of light to the moment of dinner, he
assiduously labored to enrich his master and himself at the
expense of the Roman world; the remainder of the day was spent in
sensual and obscene pleasures, 931 and the silent hours of the
night were interrupted by the perpetual dread of the justice of
an assassin. His abilities, perhaps his vices, recommended him to
the lasting friendship of Justinian: the emperor yielded with
reluctance to the fury of the people; his victory was displayed
by the immediate restoration of their enemy; and they felt above
ten years, under his oppressive administration, that he was
stimulated by revenge, rather than instructed by misfortune.
Their murmurs served only to fortify the resolution of Justinian;
but the præfect, in the insolence of favor, provoked the
resentment of Theodora, disdained a power before which every knee
was bent, and attempted to sow the seeds of discord between the
emperor and his beloved consort. Even Theodora herself was
constrained to dissemble, to wait a favorable moment, and, by an
artful conspiracy, to render John of Coppadocia the accomplice of
his own destruction. 932 At a time when Belisarius, unless he had
been a hero, must have shown himself a rebel, his wife Antonina,
who enjoyed the secret confidence of the empress, communicated
his feigned discontent to Euphemia, the daughter of the præfect;
the credulous virgin imparted to her father the dangerous
project, and John, who might have known the value of oaths and
promises, was tempted to accept a nocturnal, and almost
treasonable, interview with the wife of Belisarius. An ambuscade
of guards and eunuchs had been posted by the command of Theodora;
they rushed with drawn swords to seize or to punish the guilty
minister: he was saved by the fidelity of his attendants; but
instead of appealing to a gracious sovereign, who had privately
warned him of his danger, he pusillanimously fled to the
sanctuary of the church. The favorite of Justinian was sacrificed
to conjugal tenderness or domestic tranquility; the conversion of
a præfect into a priest extinguished his ambitious hopes: but the
friendship of the emperor alleviated his disgrace, and he
retained in the mild exile of Cyzicus an ample portion of his
riches. Such imperfect revenge could not satisfy the unrelenting
hatred of Theodora; the murder of his old enemy, the bishop of
Cyzicus, afforded a decent pretence; and John of Cappadocia,
whose actions had deserved a thousand deaths, was at last
condemned for a crime of which he was innocent. A great minister,
who had been invested with the honors of consul and patrician,
was ignominiously scourged like the vilest of malefactors; a
tattered cloak was the sole remnant of his fortunes; he was
transported in a bark to the place of his banishment at
Antinopolis in Upper Egypt, and the præfect of the East begged
his bread through the cities which had trembled at his name.
During an exile of seven years, his life was protracted and
threatened by the ingenious cruelty of Theodora; and when her
death permitted the emperor to recall a servant whom he had
abandoned with regret, the ambition of John of Cappadocia was
reduced to the humble duties of the sacerdotal profession. His
successors convinced the subjects of Justinian, that the arts of
oppression might still be improved by experience and industry;
the frauds of a Syrian banker were introduced into the
administration of the finances; and the example of the præfect
was diligently copied by the quaestor, the public and private
treasurer, the governors of provinces, and the principal
magistrates of the Eastern empire. 94

91 (return) [ One of these, Anatolius, perished in an
earthquake—doubtless a judgment! The complaints and clamors of
the people in Agathias (l. v. p. 146, 147) are almost an echo of
the anecdote. The aliena pecunia reddenda of Corippus (l. ii.
381, &c.,) is not very honorable to Justinian’s memory.]

92 (return) [ See the history and character of John of Cappadocia
in Procopius. (Persic, l. i. c. 35, 25, l. ii. c. 30. Vandal. l.
i. c. 13. Anecdot. c. 2, 17, 22.) The agreement of the history
and anecdotes is a mortal wound to the reputation of the
praefct.]

921 (return) [ This view, particularly of the cruelty of John of
Cappadocia, is confirmed by the testimony of Joannes Lydus, who
was in the office of the præfect, and eye-witness of the tortures
inflicted by his command on the miserable debtors, or supposed
debtors, of the state. He mentions one horrible instance of a
respectable old man, with whom he was personally acquainted, who,
being suspected of possessing money, was hung up by the hands
till he was dead. Lydus de Magist. lib. iii. c. 57, p. 254.—M.]

93 (return) [ A forcible expression.]

931 (return) [ Joannes Lydus is diffuse on this subject, lib.
iii. c. 65, p. 268. But the indignant virtue of Lydus seems
greatly stimulated by the loss of his official fees, which he
ascribes to the innovations of the minister.—M.]

932 (return) [ According to Lydus, Theodora disclosed the crimes
and unpopularity of the minister to Justinian, but the emperor
had not the courage to remove, and was unable to replace, a
servant, under whom his finances seemed to prosper. He attributes
the sedition and conflagration to the popular resentment against
the tyranny of John, lib. iii. c 70, p. 278. Unfortunately there
is a large gap in his work just at this period.—M.]

94 (return) [ The chronology of Procopius is loose and obscure;
but with the aid of Pagi I can discern that John was appointed
Praetorian præfect of the East in the year 530—that he was
removed in January, 532—restored before June, 533—banished in
541—and recalled between June, 548, and April 1, 549. Aleman. (p.
96, 97) gives the list of his ten successors—a rapid series in a
part of a single reign. * Note: Lydus gives a high character of
Phocas, his successor tom. iii. c. 78 p. 288.—M.]

V. The edifices of Justinian were cemented with the blood and
treasure of his people; but those stately structures appeared to
announce the prosperity of the empire, and actually displayed the
skill of their architects. Both the theory and practice of the
arts which depend on mathematical science and mechanical power,
were cultivated under the patronage of the emperors; the fame of
Archimedes was rivalled by Proclus and Anthemius; and if their
miracles had been related by intelligent spectators, they might
now enlarge the speculations, instead of exciting the distrust,
of philosophers. A tradition has prevailed, that the Roman fleet
was reduced to ashes in the port of Syracuse, by the
burning-glasses of Archimedes; 95 and it is asserted, that a
similar expedient was employed by Proclus to destroy the Gothic
vessels in the harbor of Constantinople, and to protect his
benefactor Anastasius against the bold enterprise of Vitalian. 96
A machine was fixed on the walls of the city, consisting of a
hexagon mirror of polished brass, with many smaller and movable
polygons to receive and reflect the rays of the meridian sun; and
a consuming flame was darted, to the distance, perhaps of two
hundred feet. 97 The truth of these two extraordinary facts is
invalidated by the silence of the most authentic historians; and
the use of burning-glasses was never adopted in the attack or
defence of places. 98 Yet the admirable experiments of a French
philosopher 99 have demonstrated the possibility of such a
mirror; and, since it is possible, I am more disposed to
attribute the art to the greatest mathematicians of antiquity,
than to give the merit of the fiction to the idle fancy of a monk
or a sophist. According to another story, Proclus applied sulphur
to the destruction of the Gothic fleet; 100 in a modern
imagination, the name of sulphur is instantly connected with the
suspicion of gunpowder, and that suspicion is propagated by the
secret arts of his disciple Anthemius. 101 A citizen of Tralles
in Asia had five sons, who were all distinguished in their
respective professions by merit and success. Olympius excelled in
the knowledge and practice of the Roman jurisprudence. Dioscorus
and Alexander became learned physicians; but the skill of the
former was exercised for the benefit of his fellow-citizens,
while his more ambitious brother acquired wealth and reputation
at Rome. The fame of Metrodorus the grammarian, and of Anthemius
the mathematician and architect, reached the ears of the emperor
Justinian, who invited them to Constantinople; and while the one
instructed the rising generation in the schools of eloquence, the
other filled the capital and provinces with more lasting
monuments of his art. In a trifling dispute relative to the walls
or windows of their contiguous houses, he had been vanquished by
the eloquence of his neighbor Zeno; but the orator was defeated
in his turn by the master of mechanics, whose malicious, though
harmless, stratagems are darkly represented by the ignorance of
Agathias. In a lower room, Anthemius arranged several vessels or
caldrons of water, each of them covered by the wide bottom of a
leathern tube, which rose to a narrow top, and was artificially
conveyed among the joists and rafters of the adjacent building. A
fire was kindled beneath the caldron; the steam of the boiling
water ascended through the tubes; the house was shaken by the
efforts of imprisoned air, and its trembling inhabitants might
wonder that the city was unconscious of the earthquake which they
had felt. At another time, the friends of Zeno, as they sat at
table, were dazzled by the intolerable light which flashed in
their eyes from the reflecting mirrors of Anthemius; they were
astonished by the noise which he produced from the collision of
certain minute and sonorous particles; and the orator declared in
tragic style to the senate, that a mere mortal must yield to the
power of an antagonist, who shook the earth with the trident of
Neptune, and imitated the thunder and lightning of Jove himself.
The genius of Anthemius, and his colleague Isidore the Milesian,
was excited and employed by a prince, whose taste for
architecture had degenerated into a mischievous and costly
passion. His favorite architects submitted their designs and
difficulties to Justinian, and discreetly confessed how much
their laborious meditations were surpassed by the intuitive
knowledge of celestial inspiration of an emperor, whose views
were always directed to the benefit of his people, the glory of
his reign, and the salvation of his soul. 102

95 (return) [ This conflagration is hinted by Lucian (in Hippia,
c. 2) and Galen, (l. iii. de Temperamentis, tom. i. p. 81, edit.
Basil.) in the second century. A thousand years afterwards, it is
positively affirmed by Zonaras, (l. ix. p. 424,) on the faith of
Dion Cassius, Tzetzes, (Chiliad ii. 119, &c.,) Eustathius, (ad
Iliad. E. p. 338,) and the scholiast of Lucian. See Fabricius,
(Bibliot. Graec. l. iii. c. 22, tom. ii. p. 551, 552,) to whom I
am more or less indebted for several of these quotations.]

96 (return) [ Zonaras (l. xi. c. p. 55) affirms the fact, without
quoting any evidence.]

97 (return) [ Tzetzes describes the artifice of these
burning-glasses, which he had read, perhaps, with no learned
eyes, in a mathematical treatise of Anthemius. That treatise has
been lately published, translated, and illustrated, by M. Dupuys,
a scholar and a mathematician, (Memoires de l’Academie des
Inscriptions, tom xlii p. 392—451.)]

98 (return) [ In the siege of Syracuse, by the silence of
Polybius, Plutarch, Livy; in the siege of Constantinople, by that
of Marcellinus and all the contemporaries of the vith century.]

99 (return) [ Without any previous knowledge of Tzetzes or
Anthemius, the immortal Buffon imagined and executed a set of
burning-glasses, with which he could inflame planks at the
distance of 200 feet, (Supplement a l’Hist. Naturelle, tom. i.
399—483, quarto edition.) What miracles would not his genius have
performed for the public service, with royal expense, and in the
strong sun of Constantinople or Syracuse?]

100 (return) [ John Malala (tom. ii. p. 120—124) relates the
fact; but he seems to confound the names or persons of Proclus
and Marinus.]

101 (return) [ Agathias, l. v. p. 149—152. The merit of Anthemius
as an architect is loudly praised by Procopius (de Edif. l. i. c.
1) and Paulus Silentiarius, (part i. 134, &c.)]

102 (return) [ See Procopius, (de Edificiis, l. i. c. 1, 2, l.
ii. c. 3.) He relates a coincidence of dreams, which supposes
some fraud in Justinian or his architect. They both saw, in a
vision, the same plan for stopping an inundation at Dara. A stone
quarry near Jerusalem was revealed to the emperor, (l. v. c. 6:)
an angel was tricked into the perpetual custody of St. Sophia,
(Anonym. de Antiq. C. P. l. iv. p. 70.)]

The principal church, which was dedicated by the founder of
Constantinople to St. Sophia, or the eternal wisdom, had been
twice destroyed by fire; after the exile of John Chrysostom, and
during the Nika of the blue and green factions. No sooner did the
tumult subside, than the Christian populace deplored their
sacrilegious rashness; but they might have rejoiced in the
calamity, had they foreseen the glory of the new temple, which at
the end of forty days was strenuously undertaken by the piety of
Justinian. 103 The ruins were cleared away, a more spacious plan
was described, and as it required the consent of some proprietors
of ground, they obtained the most exorbitant terms from the eager
desires and timorous conscience of the monarch. Anthemius formed
the design, and his genius directed the hands of ten thousand
workmen, whose payment in pieces of fine silver was never delayed
beyond the evening. The emperor himself, clad in a linen tunic,
surveyed each day their rapid progress, and encouraged their
diligence by his familiarity, his zeal, and his rewards. The new
Cathedral of St. Sophia was consecrated by the patriarch, five
years, eleven months, and ten days from the first foundation; and
in the midst of the solemn festival Justinian exclaimed with
devout vanity, “Glory be to God, who hath thought me worthy to
accomplish so great a work; I have vanquished thee, O Solomon!”
104 But the pride of the Roman Solomon, before twenty years had
elapsed, was humbled by an earthquake, which overthrew the
eastern part of the dome. Its splendor was again restored by the
perseverance of the same prince; and in the thirty-sixth year of
his reign, Justinian celebrated the second dedication of a temple
which remains, after twelve centuries, a stately monument of his
fame. The architecture of St. Sophia, which is now converted into
the principal mosque, has been imitated by the Turkish sultans,
and that venerable pile continues to excite the fond admiration
of the Greeks, and the more rational curiosity of European
travellers. The eye of the spectator is disappointed by an
irregular prospect of half-domes and shelving roofs: the western
front, the principal approach, is destitute of simplicity and
magnificence; and the scale of dimensions has been much surpassed
by several of the Latin cathedrals. But the architect who first
erected an _aerial_ cupola, is entitled to the praise of bold
design and skilful execution. The dome of St. Sophia, illuminated
by four-and-twenty windows, is formed with so small a curve, that
the depth is equal only to one sixth of its diameter; the measure
of that diameter is one hundred and fifteen feet, and the lofty
centre, where a crescent has supplanted the cross, rises to the
perpendicular height of one hundred and eighty feet above the
pavement. The circle which encompasses the dome, lightly reposes
on four strong arches, and their weight is firmly supported by
four massy piles, whose strength is assisted, on the northern and
southern sides, by four columns of Egyptian granite.

A Greek cross, inscribed in a quadrangle, represents the form of
the edifice; the exact breadth is two hundred and forty-three
feet, and two hundred and sixty-nine may be assigned for the
extreme length from the sanctuary in the east, to the nine
western doors, which open into the vestibule, and from thence
into the narthex or exterior portico. That portico was the humble
station of the penitents. The nave or body of the church was
filled by the congregation of the faithful; but the two sexes
were prudently distinguished, and the upper and lower galleries
were allotted for the more private devotion of the women. Beyond
the northern and southern piles, a balustrade, terminated on
either side by the thrones of the emperor and the patriarch,
divided the nave from the choir; and the space, as far as the
steps of the altar, was occupied by the clergy and singers. The
altar itself, a name which insensibly became familiar to
Christian ears, was placed in the eastern recess, artificially
built in the form of a demi-cylinder; and this sanctuary
communicated by several doors with the sacristy, the vestry, the
baptistery, and the contiguous buildings, subservient either to
the pomp of worship, or the private use of the ecclesiastical
ministers. The memory of past calamities inspired Justinian with
a wise resolution, that no wood, except for the doors, should be
admitted into the new edifice; and the choice of the materials
was applied to the strength, the lightness, or the splendor of
the respective parts. The solid piles which contained the cupola
were composed of huge blocks of freestone, hewn into squares and
triangles, fortified by circles of iron, and firmly cemented by
the infusion of lead and quicklime: but the weight of the cupola
was diminished by the levity of its substance, which consists
either of pumice-stone that floats in the water, or of bricks
from the Isle of Rhodes, five times less ponderous than the
ordinary sort. The whole frame of the edifice was constructed of
brick; but those base materials were concealed by a crust of
marble; and the inside of St. Sophia, the cupola, the two larger,
and the six smaller, semi-domes, the walls, the hundred columns,
and the pavement, delight even the eyes of Barbarians, with a
rich and variegated picture. A poet, 105 who beheld the primitive
lustre of St. Sophia, enumerates the colors, the shades, and the
spots of ten or twelve marbles, jaspers, and porphyries, which
nature had profusely diversified, and which were blended and
contrasted as it were by a skilful painter. The triumph of Christ
was adorned with the last spoils of Paganism, but the greater
part of these costly stones was extracted from the quarries of
Asia Minor, the isles and continent of Greece, Egypt, Africa, and
Gaul. Eight columns of porphyry, which Aurelian had placed in the
temple of the sun, were offered by the piety of a Roman matron;
eight others of green marble were presented by the ambitious zeal
of the magistrates of Ephesus: both are admirable by their size
and beauty, but every order of architecture disclaims their
fantastic capital. A variety of ornaments and figures was
curiously expressed in mosaic; and the images of Christ, of the
Virgin, of saints, and of angels, which have been defaced by
Turkish fanaticism, were dangerously exposed to the superstition
of the Greeks. According to the sanctity of each object, the
precious metals were distributed in thin leaves or in solid
masses. The balustrade of the choir, the capitals of the pillars,
the ornaments of the doors and galleries, were of gilt bronze;
the spectator was dazzled by the glittering aspect of the cupola;
the sanctuary contained forty thousand pounds weight of silver;
and the holy vases and vestments of the altar were of the purest
gold, enriched with inestimable gems. Before the structure of the
church had arisen two cubits above the ground, forty-five
thousand two hundred pounds were already consumed; and the whole
expense amounted to three hundred and twenty thousand: each
reader, according to the measure of his belief, may estimate
their value either in gold or silver; but the sum of one million
sterling is the result of the lowest computation. A magnificent
temple is a laudable monument of national taste and religion; and
the enthusiast who entered the dome of St. Sophia might be
tempted to suppose that it was the residence, or even the
workmanship, of the Deity. Yet how dull is the artifice, how
insignificant is the labor, if it be compared with the formation
of the vilest insect that crawls upon the surface of the temple!

103 (return) [Among the crowd of ancients and moderns who have
celebrated the edifice of St. Sophia, I shall distinguish and
follow, 1. Four original spectators and historians: Procopius,
(de Edific. l. i. c. 1,) Agathias, (l. v. p. 152, 153,) Paul
Silentiarius, (in a poem of 1026 hexameters, and calcem Annae
Commen. Alexiad.,) and Evagrius, (l. iv. c. 31.) 2. Two legendary
Greeks of a later period: George Codinus, (de Origin. C. P. p.
64-74,) and the anonymous writer of Banduri, (Imp. Orient. tom.
i. l. iv. p. 65—80.)3. The great Byzantine antiquarian. Ducange,
(Comment. ad Paul Silentiar. p. 525—598, and C. P. Christ. l.
iii. p. 5—78.) 4. Two French travellers—the one, Peter Gyllius,
(de Topograph. C. P. l. ii. c. 3, 4,) in the xvith; the other,
Grelot, (Voyage de C. P. p. 95—164, Paris, 1680, in 4to:) he has
given plans, prospects, and inside views of St. Sophia; and his
plans, though on a smaller scale, appear more correct than those
of Ducange. I have adopted and reduced the measures of Grelot:
but as no Christian can now ascend the dome, the height is
borrowed from Evagrius, compared with Gyllius, Greaves, and the
Oriental Geographer.]

104 (return) [ Solomon’s temple was surrounded with courts,
porticos, &c.; but the proper structure of the house of God was
no more (if we take the Egyptian or Hebrew cubic at 22 inches)
than 55 feet in height, 36 2/3 in breadth, and 110 in length—a
small parish church, says Prideaux, (Connection, vol. i. p. 144,
folio;) but few sanctuaries could be valued at four or five
millions sterling! * Note *: Hist of Jews, vol i p 257.—M]

105 (return) [ Paul Silentiarius, in dark and poetic language,
describes the various stones and marbles that were employed in
the edifice of St. Sophia, (P. ii. p. 129, 133, &c., &c.:)

1. The Carystian—pale, with iron veins.

2. The Phrygian—of two sorts, both of a rosy hue; the one with a
white shade, the other purple, with silver flowers.

3. The Porphyry of Egypt—with small stars.

4. The green marble of Laconia.

5. The Carian—from Mount Iassis, with oblique veins, white and
red. 6. The Lydian—pale, with a red flower.

7. The African, or Mauritanian—of a gold or saffron hue. 8. The
Celtic—black, with white veins.

9. The Bosphoric—white, with black edges. Besides the
Proconnesian which formed the pavement; the Thessalian,
Molossian, &c., which are less distinctly painted.]

So minute a description of an edifice which time has respected,
may attest the truth, and excuse the relation, of the innumerable
works, both in the capital and provinces, which Justinian
constructed on a smaller scale and less durable foundations. 106
In Constantinople alone and the adjacent suburbs, he dedicated
twenty-five churches to the honor of Christ, the Virgin, and the
saints: most of these churches were decorated with marble and
gold; and their various situation was skilfully chosen in a
populous square, or a pleasant grove; on the margin of the
sea-shore, or on some lofty eminence which overlooked the
continents of Europe and Asia. The church of the Holy Apostles at
Constantinople, and that of St. John at Ephesus, appear to have
been framed on the same model: their domes aspired to imitate the
cupolas of St. Sophia; but the altar was more judiciously placed
under the centre of the dome, at the junction of four stately
porticos, which more accurately expressed the figure of the Greek
cross. The Virgin of Jerusalem might exult in the temple erected
by her Imperial votary on a most ungrateful spot, which afforded
neither ground nor materials to the architect. A level was formed
by raising part of a deep valley to the height of the mountain.
The stones of a neighboring quarry were hewn into regular forms;
each block was fixed on a peculiar carriage, drawn by forty of
the strongest oxen, and the roads were widened for the passage of
such enormous weights. Lebanon furnished her loftiest cedars for
the timbers of the church; and the seasonable discovery of a vein
of red marble supplied its beautiful columns, two of which, the
supporters of the exterior portico, were esteemed the largest in
the world. The pious munificence of the emperor was diffused over
the Holy Land; and if reason should condemn the monasteries of
both sexes which were built or restored by Justinian, yet charity
must applaud the wells which he sunk, and the hospitals which he
founded, for the relief of the weary pilgrims. The schismatical
temper of Egypt was ill entitled to the royal bounty; but in
Syria and Africa, some remedies were applied to the disasters of
wars and earthquakes, and both Carthage and Antioch, emerging
from their ruins, might revere the name of their gracious
benefactor. 107 Almost every saint in the calendar acquired the
honors of a temple; almost every city of the empire obtained the
solid advantages of bridges, hospitals, and aqueducts; but the
severe liberality of the monarch disdained to indulge his
subjects in the popular luxury of baths and theatres. While
Justinian labored for the public service, he was not unmindful of
his own dignity and ease. The Byzantine palace, which had been
damaged by the conflagration, was restored with new magnificence;
and some notion may be conceived of the whole edifice, by the
vestibule or hall, which, from the doors perhaps, or the roof,
was surnamed chalce, or the brazen. The dome of a spacious
quadrangle was supported by massy pillars; the pavement and walls
were incrusted with many-colored marbles—the emerald green of
Laconia, the fiery red, and the white Phrygian stone, intersected
with veins of a sea-green hue: the mosaic paintings of the dome
and sides represented the glories of the African and Italian
triumphs. On the Asiatic shore of the Propontis, at a small
distance to the east of Chalcedon, the costly palace and gardens
of Heraeum 108 were prepared for the summer residence of
Justinian, and more especially of Theodora. The poets of the age
have celebrated the rare alliance of nature and art, the harmony
of the nymphs of the groves, the fountains, and the waves: yet
the crowd of attendants who followed the court complained of
their inconvenient lodgings, 109 and the nymphs were too often
alarmed by the famous Porphyrio, a whale of ten cubits in
breadth, and thirty in length, who was stranded at the mouth of
the River Sangaris, after he had infested more than half a
century the seas of Constantinople. 110

106 (return) [ The six books of the Edifices of Procopius are
thus distributed the first is confined to Constantinople: the
second includes Mesopotamia and Syria the third, Armenia and the
Euxine; the fourth, Europe; the fifth, Asia Minor and Palestine;
the sixth, Egypt and Africa. Italy is forgot by the emperor or
the historian, who published this work of adulation before the
date (A.D. 555) of its final conquest.]

107 (return) [ Justinian once gave forty-five centenaries of gold
(180,000 L.) for the repairs of Antioch after the earthquake,
(John Malala, tom. ii p 146—149.)]

108 (return) [ For the Heraeum, the palace of Theodora, see
Gyllius, (de Bosphoro Thracio, l. iii. c. xi.,) Aleman. (Not. ad.
Anec. p. 80, 81, who quotes several epigrams of the Anthology,)
and Ducange, (C. P. Christ. l. iv. c. 13, p. 175, 176.)]

109 (return) [ Compare, in the Edifices, (l. i. c. 11,) and in
the Anecdotes, (c. 8, 15.) the different styles of adulation and
malevolence: stripped of the paint, or cleansed from the dirt,
the object appears to be the same.]

110 (return) [ Procopius, l. viii. 29; most probably a stranger
and wanderer, as the Mediterranean does not breed whales.
Balaenae quoque in nostra maria penetrant, (Plin. Hist. Natur.
ix. 2.) Between the polar circle and the tropic, the cetaceous
animals of the ocean grow to the length of 50, 80, or 100 feet,
(Hist. des Voyages, tom. xv. p. 289. Pennant’s British Zoology,
vol. iii. p. 35.)]

The fortifications of Europe and Asia were multiplied by
Justinian; but the repetition of those timid and fruitless
precautions exposes, to a philosophic eye, the debility of the
empire. 111 From Belgrade to the Euxine, from the conflux of the
Save to the mouth of the Danube, a chain of above fourscore
fortified places was extended along the banks of the great river.
Single watch-towers were changed into spacious citadels; vacant
walls, which the engineers contracted or enlarged according to
the nature of the ground, were filled with colonies or garrisons;
a strong fortress defended the ruins of Trajan’s bridge, 112 and
several military stations affected to spread beyond the Danube
the pride of the Roman name. But that name was divested of its
terrors; the Barbarians, in their annual inroads, passed, and
contemptuously repassed, before these useless bulwarks; and the
inhabitants of the frontier, instead of reposing under the shadow
of the general defence, were compelled to guard, with incessant
vigilance, their separate habitations. The solitude of ancient
cities, was replenished; the new foundations of Justinian
acquired, perhaps too hastily, the epithets of impregnable and
populous; and the auspicious place of his own nativity attracted
the grateful reverence of the vainest of princes. Under the name
of Justiniana prima, the obscure village of Tauresium became the
seat of an archbishop and a præfect, whose jurisdiction extended
over seven warlike provinces of Illyricum; 113 and the corrupt
appellation of Giustendil still indicates, about twenty miles to
the south of Sophia, the residence of a Turkish sanjak. 114 For
the use of the emperor’s countryman, a cathedral, a place, and an
aqueduct, were speedily constructed; the public and private
edifices were adapted to the greatness of a royal city; and the
strength of the walls resisted, during the lifetime of Justinian,
the unskilful assaults of the Huns and Sclavonians. Their
progress was sometimes retarded, and their hopes of rapine were
disappointed, by the innumerable castles which, in the provinces
of Dacia, Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace, appeared to
cover the whole face of the country. Six hundred of these forts
were built or repaired by the emperor; but it seems reasonable to
believe, that the far greater part consisted only of a stone or
brick tower, in the midst of a square or circular area, which was
surrounded by a wall and ditch, and afforded in a moment of
danger some protection to the peasants and cattle of the
neighboring villages. 115 Yet these military works, which
exhausted the public treasure, could not remove the just
apprehensions of Justinian and his European subjects. The warm
baths of Anchialus in Thrace were rendered as safe as they were
salutary; but the rich pastures of Thessalonica were foraged by
the Scythian cavalry; the delicious vale of Tempe, three hundred
miles from the Danube, was continually alarmed by the sound of
war; 116 and no unfortified spot, however distant or solitary,
could securely enjoy the blessings of peace. The Straits of
Thermopylae, which seemed to protect, but which had so often
betrayed, the safety of Greece, were diligently strengthened by
the labors of Justinian. From the edge of the sea-shore, through
the forests and valleys, and as far as the summit of the
Thessalian mountains, a strong wall was continued, which occupied
every practicable entrance. Instead of a hasty crowd of peasants,
a garrison of two thousand soldiers was stationed along the
rampart; granaries of corn and reservoirs of water were provided
for their use; and by a precaution that inspired the cowardice
which it foresaw, convenient fortresses were erected for their
retreat. The walls of Corinth, overthrown by an earthquake, and
the mouldering bulwarks of Athens and Plataea, were carefully
restored; the Barbarians were discouraged by the prospect of
successive and painful sieges: and the naked cities of
Peloponnesus were covered by the fortifications of the Isthmus of
Corinth. At the extremity of Europe, another peninsula, the
Thracian Chersonesus, runs three days’ journey into the sea, to
form, with the adjacent shores of Asia, the Straits of the
Hellespont. The intervals between eleven populous towns were
filled by lofty woods, fair pastures, and arable lands; and the
isthmus, of thirty seven stadia or furlongs, had been fortified
by a Spartan general nine hundred years before the reign of
Justinian. 117 In an age of freedom and valor, the slightest
rampart may prevent a surprise; and Procopius appears insensible
of the superiority of ancient times, while he praises the solid
construction and double parapet of a wall, whose long arms
stretched on either side into the sea; but whose strength was
deemed insufficient to guard the Chersonesus, if each city, and
particularly Gallipoli and Sestus, had not been secured by their
peculiar fortifications. The long wall, as it was emphatically
styled, was a work as disgraceful in the object, as it was
respectable in the execution. The riches of a capital diffuse
themselves over the neighboring country, and the territory of
Constantinople a paradise of nature, was adorned with the
luxurious gardens and villas of the senators and opulent
citizens. But their wealth served only to attract the bold and
rapacious Barbarians; the noblest of the Romans, in the bosom of
peaceful indolence, were led away into Scythian captivity, and
their sovereign might view from his palace the hostile flames
which were insolently spread to the gates of the Imperial city.
At the distance only of forty miles, Anastasius was constrained
to establish a last frontier; his long wall, of sixty miles from
the Propontis to the Euxine, proclaimed the impotence of his
arms; and as the danger became more imminent, new fortifications
were added by the indefatigable prudence of Justinian. 118

111 (return) [ Montesquieu observes, (tom. iii. p. 503,
Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Decadence des Romains, c.
xx.,) that Justinian’s empire was like France in the time of the
Norman inroads—never so weak as when every village was
fortified.]

112 (return) [ Procopius affirms (l. iv. c. 6) that the Danube
was stopped by the ruins of the bridge. Had Apollodorus, the
architect, left a description of his own work, the fabulous
wonders of Dion Cassius (l lxviii. p. 1129) would have been
corrected by the genuine picture Trajan’s bridge consisted of
twenty or twenty-two stone piles with wooden arches; the river is
shallow, the current gentle, and the whole interval no more than
443 (Reimer ad Dion. from Marsigli) or 5l7 toises, (D’Anville,
Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 305.)]

113 (return) [ Of the two Dacias, Mediterranea and Ripensis,
Dardania, Pravalitana, the second Maesia, and the second
Macedonia. See Justinian (Novell. xi.,) who speaks of his castles
beyond the Danube, and on omines semper bellicis sudoribus
inhaerentes.]

114 (return) [ See D’Anville, (Memoires de l’Academie, &c., tom.
xxxi p. 280, 299,) Rycaut, (Present State of the Turkish Empire,
p. 97, 316,) Max sigli, (Stato Militare del Imperio Ottomano, p.
130.) The sanjak of Giustendil is one of the twenty under the
beglerbeg of Rurselis, and his district maintains 48 zaims and
588 timariots.]

115 (return) [ These fortifications may be compared to the
castles in Mingrelia (Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tom. i. p. 60,
131)—a natural picture.]

116 (return) [ The valley of Tempe is situate along the River
Peneus, between the hills of Ossa and Olympus: it is only five
miles long, and in some places no more than 120 feet in breadth.
Its verdant beauties are elegantly described by Pliny, (Hist.
Natur. l. iv. 15,) and more diffusely by Aelian, (Hist. Var. l.
iii. c. i.)]

117 (return) [ Xenophon Hellenic. l. iii. c. 2. After a long and
tedious conversation with the Byzantine declaimers, how
refreshing is the truth, the simplicity, the elegance of an Attic
writer!]

118 (return) [ See the long wall in Evagarius, (l. iv. c. 38.)
This whole article is drawn from the fourth book of the Edifices,
except Anchialus, (l. iii. c. 7.)]

Asia Minor, after the submission of the Isaurians, 119 remained
without enemies and without fortifications. Those bold savages,
who had disdained to be the subjects of Gallienus, persisted two
hundred and thirty years in a life of independence and rapine.
The most successful princes respected the strength of the
mountains and the despair of the natives; their fierce spirit was
sometimes soothed with gifts, and sometimes restrained by terror;
and a military count, with three legions, fixed his permanent and
ignominious station in the heart of the Roman provinces. 120 But
no sooner was the vigilance of power relaxed or diverted, than
the light-armed squadrons descended from the hills, and invaded
the peaceful plenty of Asia. Although the Isaurians were not
remarkable for stature or bravery, want rendered them bold, and
experience made them skilful in the exercise of predatory war.
They advanced with secrecy and speed to the attack of villages
and defenceless towns; their flying parties have sometimes
touched the Hellespont, the Euxine, and the gates of Tarsus,
Antioch, or Damascus; 121 and the spoil was lodged in their
inaccessible mountains, before the Roman troops had received
their orders, or the distant province had computed its loss. The
guilt of rebellion and robbery excluded them from the rights of
national enemies; and the magistrates were instructed, by an
edict, that the trial or punishment of an Isaurian, even on the
festival of Easter, was a meritorious act of justice and piety.
122 If the captives were condemned to domestic slavery, they
maintained, with their sword or dagger, the private quarrel of
their masters; and it was found expedient for the public
tranquillity to prohibit the service of such dangerous retainers.
When their countryman Tarcalissaeus or Zeno ascended the throne,
he invited a faithful and formidable band of Isaurians, who
insulted the court and city, and were rewarded by an annual
tribute of five thousand pounds of gold. But the hopes of fortune
depopulated the mountains, luxury enervated the hardiness of
their minds and bodies, and in proportion as they mixed with
mankind, they became less qualified for the enjoyment of poor and
solitary freedom. After the death of Zeno, his successor
Anastasius suppressed their pensions, exposed their persons to
the revenge of the people, banished them from Constantinople, and
prepared to sustain a war, which left only the alternative of
victory or servitude. A brother of the last emperor usurped the
title of Augustus; his cause was powerfully supported by the
arms, the treasures, and the magazines, collected by Zeno; and
the native Isaurians must have formed the smallest portion of the
hundred and fifty thousand Barbarians under his standard, which
was sanctified, for the first time, by the presence of a fighting
bishop. Their disorderly numbers were vanquished in the plains of
Phrygia by the valor and discipline of the Goths; but a war of
six years almost exhausted the courage of the emperor. 123 The
Isaurians retired to their mountains; their fortresses were
successively besieged and ruined; their communication with the
sea was intercepted; the bravest of their leaders died in arms;
the surviving chiefs, before their execution, were dragged in
chains through the hippodrome; a colony of their youth was
transplanted into Thrace, and the remnant of the people submitted
to the Roman government. Yet some generations elapsed before
their minds were reduced to the level of slavery. The populous
villages of Mount Taurus were filled with horsemen and archers:
they resisted the imposition of tributes, but they recruited the
armies of Justinian; and his civil magistrates, the proconsul of
Cappadocia, the count of Isauria, and the praetors of Lycaonia
and Pisidia, were invested with military power to restrain the
licentious practice of rapes and assassinations. 124

119 (return) [ Turn back to vol. i. p. 328. In the course of this
History, I have sometimes mentioned, and much oftener slighted,
the hasty inroads of the Isaurians, which were not attended with
any consequences.]

120 (return) [ Trebellius Pollio in Hist. August. p. 107, who
lived under Diocletian, or Constantine. See likewise Pancirolus
ad Notit. Imp. Orient c. 115, 141. See Cod. Theodos. l. ix. tit.
35, leg. 37, with a copious collective Annotation of Godefroy,
tom. iii. p. 256, 257.]

121 (return) [ See the full and wide extent of their inroads in
Philostorgius (Hist. Eccles. l. xi. c. 8,) with Godefroy’s
learned Dissertations.]

122 (return) [ Cod. Justinian. l. ix. tit. 12, leg. 10. The
punishments are severs—a fine of a hundred pounds of gold,
degradation, and even death. The public peace might afford a
pretence, but Zeno was desirous of monopolizing the valor and
service of the Isaurians.]

123 (return) [ The Isaurian war and the triumph of Anastasius are
briefly and darkly represented by John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 106,
107,) Evagrius, (l. iii. c. 35,) Theophanes, (p. 118—120,) and
the Chronicle of Marcellinus.]

124 (return) [ Fortes ea regio (says Justinian) viros habet, nec
in ullo differt ab Isauria, though Procopius (Persic. l. i. c.
18) marks an essential difference between their military
character; yet in former times the Lycaonians and Pisidians had
defended their liberty against the great king, Xenophon.
(Anabasis, l. iii. c. 2.) Justinian introduces some false and
ridiculous erudition of the ancient empire of the Pisidians, and
of Lycaon, who, after visiting Rome, (long before Aeenas,) gave a
name and people to Lycaoni, (Novell. 24, 25, 27, 30.)]