Chapter LIII: Fate Of The Eastern Empire.—Part I

Fate Of The Eastern Empire In The Tenth Century.—Extent And
Division.—Wealth And Revenue.—Palace Of Constantinople.— Titles
And Offices.—Pride And Power Of The Emperors.— Tactics Of The
Greeks, Arabs, And Franks.—Loss Of The Latin Tongue.—Studies And
Solitude Of The Greeks.

A ray of historic light seems to beam from the darkness of the
tenth century. We open with curiosity and respect the royal
volumes of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 1 which he composed at a
mature age for the instruction of his son, and which promise to
unfold the state of the eastern empire, both in peace and war,
both at home and abroad. In the first of these works he minutely
describes the pompous ceremonies of the church and palace of
Constantinople, according to his own practice, and that of his
predecessors. 2 In the second, he attempts an accurate survey of
the provinces, the themes, as they were then denominated, both of
Europe and Asia. 3 The system of Roman tactics, the discipline
and order of the troops, and the military operations by land and
sea, are explained in the third of these didactic collections,
which may be ascribed to Constantine or his father Leo. 4 In the
fourth, of the administration of the empire, he reveals the
secrets of the Byzantine policy, in friendly or hostile
intercourse with the nations of the earth. The literary labors of
the age, the practical systems of law, agriculture, and history,
might redound to the benefit of the subject and the honor of the
Macedonian princes. The sixty books of the Basilics, 5 the code
and pandects of civil jurisprudence, were gradually framed in the
three first reigns of that prosperous dynasty. The art of
agriculture had amused the leisure, and exercised the pens, of
the best and wisest of the ancients; and their chosen precepts
are comprised in the twenty books of the Geoponics 6 of
Constantine. At his command, the historical examples of vice and
virtue were methodized in fifty-three books, 7 and every citizen
might apply, to his contemporaries or himself, the lesson or the
warning of past times. From the august character of a legislator,
the sovereign of the East descends to the more humble office of a
teacher and a scribe; and if his successors and subjects were
regardless of his paternal cares, we may inherit and enjoy the
everlasting legacy.

1 (return) [ The epithet of Porphyrogenitus, born in the purple,
is elegantly defined by Claudian:— Ardua privatos nescit fortuna
Penates; Et regnum cum luce dedit. Cognata potestas Excepit Tyrio
venerabile pignus in ostro.

And Ducange, in his Greek and Latin Glossaries, produces many
passages expressive of the same idea.]

2 (return) [ A splendid Ms. of Constantine, de Caeremoniis Aulae
et Ecclesiae Byzantinae, wandered from Constantinople to Buda,
Frankfort, and Leipsic, where it was published in a splendid
edition by Leich and Reiske, (A.D. 1751, in folio,) with such
lavish praise as editors never fail to bestow on the worthy or
worthless object of their toil.]

3 (return) [ See, in the first volume of Banduri’s Imperium
Orientale, Constantinus de Thematibus, p. 1-24, de Administrando
Imperio, p. 45-127, edit. Venet. The text of the old edition of
Meursius is corrected from a Ms. of the royal library of Paris,
which Isaac Casaubon had formerly seen, (Epist. ad Polybium, p.
10,) and the sense is illustrated by two maps of William
Deslisle, the prince of geographers till the appearance of the
greater D’Anville.]

4 (return) [ The Tactics of Leo and Constantine are published
with the aid of some new Mss. in the great edition of the works
of Meursius, by the learned John Lami, (tom. vi. p. 531-920,
1211-1417, Florent. 1745,) yet the text is still corrupt and
mutilated, the version is still obscure and faulty. The Imperial
library of Vienna would afford some valuable materials to a new
editor, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi. p. 369, 370.)]

5 (return) [ On the subject of the Basilics, Fabricius, (Bibliot.
Graec. tom. xii. p. 425-514,) and Heineccius, (Hist. Juris
Romani, p. 396-399,) and Giannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli,
tom. i. p. 450-458,) as historical civilians, may be usefully
consulted: xli. books of this Greek code have been published,
with a Latin version, by Charles Annibal Frabrottus, (Paris,
1647,) in seven tomes in folio; iv. other books have been since
discovered, and are inserted in Gerard Meerman’s Novus Thesaurus
Juris Civ. et Canon. tom. v. Of the whole work, the sixty books,
John Leunclavius has printed, (Basil, 1575,) an eclogue or
synopsis. The cxiii. novels, or new laws, of Leo, may be found in
the Corpus Juris Civilis.]

6 (return) [ I have used the last and best edition of the
Geoponics, (by Nicolas Niclas, Leipsic, 1781, 2 vols. in octavo.)
I read in the preface, that the same emperor restored the
long-forgotten systems of rhetoric and philosophy; and his two
books of Hippiatrica, or Horse-physic, were published at Paris,
1530, in folio, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi. p. 493-500.)]

7 (return) [ Of these LIII. books, or titles, only two have been
preserved and printed, de Legationibus (by Fulvius Ursinus,
Antwerp, 1582, and Daniel Hoeschelius, August. Vindel. 1603) and
de Virtutibus et Vitiis, (by Henry Valesius, or de Valois, Paris,
1634.)]

A closer survey will indeed reduce the value of the gift, and the
gratitude of posterity: in the possession of these Imperial
treasures we may still deplore our poverty and ignorance; and the
fading glories of their authors will be obliterated by
indifference or contempt. The Basilics will sink to a broken
copy, a partial and mutilated version, in the Greek language, of
the laws of Justinian; but the sense of the old civilians is
often superseded by the influence of bigotry: and the absolute
prohibition of divorce, concubinage, and interest for money,
enslaves the freedom of trade and the happiness of private life.
In the historical book, a subject of Constantine might admire the
inimitable virtues of Greece and Rome: he might learn to what a
pitch of energy and elevation the human character had formerly
aspired. But a contrary effect must have been produced by a new
edition of the lives of the saints, which the great logothete, or
chancellor of the empire, was directed to prepare; and the dark
fund of superstition was enriched by the fabulous and florid
legends of Simon the Metaphrast. 8 The merits and miracles of the
whole calendar are of less account in the eyes of a sage, than
the toil of a single husbandman, who multiplies the gifts of the
Creator, and supplies the food of his brethren. Yet the royal
authors of the Geoponics were more seriously employed in
expounding the precepts of the destroying art, which had been
taught since the days of Xenophon, 9 as the art of heroes and
kings. But the Tactics of Leo and Constantine are mingled with
the baser alloy of the age in which they lived. It was destitute
of original genius; they implicitly transcribe the rules and
maxims which had been confirmed by victories. It was unskilled in
the propriety of style and method; they blindly confound the most
distant and discordant institutions, the phalanx of Sparta and
that of Macedon, the legions of Cato and Trajan, of Augustus and
Theodosius. Even the use, or at least the importance, of these
military rudiments may be fairly questioned: their general theory
is dictated by reason; but the merit, as well as difficulty,
consists in the application. The discipline of a soldier is
formed by exercise rather than by study: the talents of a
commander are appropriated to those calm, though rapid, minds,
which nature produces to decide the fate of armies and nations:
the former is the habit of a life, the latter the glance of a
moment; and the battles won by lessons of tactics may be numbered
with the epic poems created from the rules of criticism. The book
of ceremonies is a recital, tedious yet imperfect, of the
despicable pageantry which had infected the church and state
since the gradual decay of the purity of the one and the power of
the other. A review of the themes or provinces might promise such
authentic and useful information, as the curiosity of government
only can obtain, instead of traditionary fables on the origin of
the cities, and malicious epigrams on the vices of their
inhabitants. 10 Such information the historian would have been
pleased to record; nor should his silence be condemned if the
most interesting objects, the population of the capital and
provinces, the amount of the taxes and revenues, the numbers of
subjects and strangers who served under the Imperial standard,
have been unnoticed by Leo the philosopher, and his son
Constantine. His treatise of the public administration is stained
with the same blemishes; yet it is discriminated by peculiar
merit; the antiquities of the nations may be doubtful or
fabulous; but the geography and manners of the Barbaric world are
delineated with curious accuracy. Of these nations, the Franks
alone were qualified to observe in their turn, and to describe,
the metropolis of the East. The ambassador of the great Otho, a
bishop of Cremona, has painted the state of Constantinople about
the middle of the tenth century: his style is glowing, his
narrative lively, his observation keen; and even the prejudices
and passions of Liutprand are stamped with an original character
of freedom and genius. 11 From this scanty fund of foreign and
domestic materials, I shall investigate the form and substance of
the Byzantine empire; the provinces and wealth, the civil
government and military force, the character and literature, of
the Greeks in a period of six hundred years, from the reign of
Heraclius to his successful invasion of the Franks or Latins.

8 (return) [ The life and writings of Simon Metaphrastes are
described by Hankius, (de Scriptoribus Byzant. p. 418-460.) This
biographer of the saints indulged himself in a loose paraphrase
of the sense or nonsense of more ancient acts. His Greek rhetoric
is again paraphrased in the Latin version of Surius, and scarcely
a thread can be now visible of the original texture.]

9 (return) [ According to the first book of the Cyropaedia,
professors of tactics, a small part of the science of war, were
already instituted in Persia, by which Greece must be understood.
A good edition of all the Scriptores Tactici would be a task not
unworthy of a scholar. His industry might discover some new Mss.,
and his learning might illustrate the military history of the
ancients. But this scholar should be likewise a soldier; and
alas! Quintus Icilius is no more. * Note: M. Guichardt, author of
Memoires Militaires sur les Grecs et sur les Romains. See
Gibbon’s Extraits Raisonnees de mes Lectures, Misc. Works vol. v.
p. 219.—M]

10 (return) [ After observing that the demerit of the
Cappadocians rose in proportion to their rank and riches, he
inserts a more pointed epigram, which is ascribed to Demodocus.
The sting is precisely the same with the French epigram against
Freron: Un serpent mordit Jean Freron—Eh bien? Le serpent en
mourut. But as the Paris wits are seldom read in the Anthology, I
should be curious to learn, through what channel it was conveyed
for their imitation, (Constantin. Porphyrogen. de Themat. c. ii.
Brunck Analect. Graec. tom. ii. p. 56. Brodaei Anthologia, l. ii.
p. 244.)]

11 (return) [ The Legatio Liutprandi Episcopi Cremonensis ad
Nicephorum Phocam is inserted in Muratori, Scriptores Rerum
Italicarum, tom. ii. pars i.]

After the final division between the sons of Theodosius, the
swarms of Barbarians from Scythia and Germany over-spread the
provinces and extinguished the empire of ancient Rome. The
weakness of Constantinople was concealed by extent of dominion:
her limits were inviolate, or at least entire; and the kingdom of
Justinian was enlarged by the splendid acquisition of Africa and
Italy. But the possession of these new conquests was transient
and precarious; and almost a moiety of the Eastern empire was
torn away by the arms of the Saracens. Syria and Egypt were
oppressed by the Arabian caliphs; and, after the reduction of
Africa, their lieutenants invaded and subdued the Roman province
which had been changed into the Gothic monarchy of Spain. The
islands of the Mediterranean were not inaccessible to their naval
powers; and it was from their extreme stations, the harbors of
Crete and the fortresses of Cilicia, that the faithful or rebel
emirs insulted the majesty of the throne and capital. The
remaining provinces, under the obedience of the emperors, were
cast into a new mould; and the jurisdiction of the presidents,
the consulars, and the counts were superseded by the institution
of the themes, 12 or military governments, which prevailed under
the successors of Heraclius, and are described by the pen of the
royal author. Of the twenty-nine themes, twelve in Europe and
seventeen in Asia, the origin is obscure, the etymology doubtful
or capricious: the limits were arbitrary and fluctuating; but
some particular names, that sound the most strangely to our ear,
were derived from the character and attributes of the troops that
were maintained at the expense, and for the guard, of the
respective divisions. The vanity of the Greek princes most
eagerly grasped the shadow of conquest and the memory of lost
dominion. A new Mesopotamia was created on the western side of
the Euphrates: the appellation and praetor of Sicily were
transferred to a narrow slip of Calabria; and a fragment of the
duchy of Beneventum was promoted to the style and title of the
theme of Lombardy. In the decline of the Arabian empire, the
successors of Constantine might indulge their pride in more solid
advantages. The victories of Nicephorus, John Zimisces, and Basil
the Second, revived the fame, and enlarged the boundaries, of the
Roman name: the province of Cilicia, the metropolis of Antioch,
the islands of Crete and Cyprus, were restored to the allegiance
of Christ and Caesar: one third of Italy was annexed to the
throne of Constantinople: the kingdom of Bulgaria was destroyed;
and the last sovereigns of the Macedonian dynasty extended their
sway from the sources of the Tigris to the neighborhood of Rome.
In the eleventh century, the prospect was again clouded by new
enemies and new misfortunes: the relics of Italy were swept away
by the Norman adventures; and almost all the Asiatic branches
were dissevered from the Roman trunk by the Turkish conquerors.
After these losses, the emperors of the Comnenian family
continued to reign from the Danube to Peloponnesus, and from
Belgrade to Nice, Trebizond, and the winding stream of the
Meander. The spacious provinces of Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece,
were obedient to their sceptre; the possession of Cyprus, Rhodes,
and Crete, was accompanied by the fifty islands of the Aegean or
Holy Sea; 13 and the remnant of their empire transcends the
measure of the largest of the European kingdoms.

12 (return) [ See Constantine de Thematibus, in Banduri, tom. i.
p. 1-30. It is used by Maurice (Strata gem. l. ii. c. 2) for a
legion, from whence the name was easily transferred to its post
or province, (Ducange, Gloss. Graec. tom. i. p. 487-488.) Some
etymologies are attempted for the Opiscian, Optimatian,
Thracesian, themes.]

13 (return) [ It is styled by the modern Greeks, from which the
corrupt names of Archipelago, l’Archipel, and the Arches, have
been transformed by geographers and seamen, (D’Anville,
Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 281. Analyse de la Carte de la
Greece, p. 60.) The numbers of monks or caloyers in all the
islands and the adjacent mountain of Athos, (Observations de
Belon, fol. 32, verso,) monte santo, might justify the epithet of
holy, a slight alteration from the original, imposed by the
Dorians, who, in their dialect, gave the figurative name of
goats, to the bounding waves, (Vossius, apud Cellarium, Geograph.
Antiq. tom. i. p. 829.)]

The same princes might assert, with dignity and truth, that of
all the monarchs of Christendom they possessed the greatest city,
14 the most ample revenue, the most flourishing and populous
state. With the decline and fall of the empire, the cities of the
West had decayed and fallen; nor could the ruins of Rome, or the
mud walls, wooden hovels, and narrow precincts of Paris and
London, prepare the Latin stranger to contemplate the situation
and extent of Constantinople, her stately palaces and churches,
and the arts and luxury of an innumerable people. Her treasures
might attract, but her virgin strength had repelled, and still
promised to repel, the audacious invasion of the Persian and
Bulgarian, the Arab and the Russian. The provinces were less
fortunate and impregnable; and few districts, few cities, could
be discovered which had not been violated by some fierce
Barbarian, impatient to despoil, because he was hopeless to
possess. From the age of Justinian the Eastern empire was sinking
below its former level; the powers of destruction were more
active than those of improvement; and the calamities of war were
imbittered by the more permanent evils of civil and
ecclesiastical tyranny. The captive who had escaped from the
Barbarians was often stripped and imprisoned by the ministers of
his sovereign: the Greek superstition relaxed the mind by prayer,
and emaciated the body by fasting; and the multitude of convents
and festivals diverted many hands and many days from the temporal
service of mankind. Yet the subjects of the Byzantine empire were
still the most dexterous and diligent of nations; their country
was blessed by nature with every advantage of soil, climate, and
situation; and, in the support and restoration of the arts, their
patient and peaceful temper was more useful than the warlike
spirit and feudal anarchy of Europe. The provinces that still
adhered to the empire were repeopled and enriched by the
misfortunes of those which were irrecoverably lost. From the yoke
of the caliphs, the Catholics of Syria, Egypt, and Africa retired
to the allegiance of their prince, to the society of their
brethren: the movable wealth, which eludes the search of
oppression, accompanied and alleviated their exile, and
Constantinople received into her bosom the fugitive trade of
Alexandria and Tyre. The chiefs of Armenia and Scythia, who fled
from hostile or religious persecution, were hospitably
entertained: their followers were encouraged to build new cities
and to cultivate waste lands; and many spots, both in Europe and
Asia, preserved the name, the manners, or at least the memory, of
these national colonies. Even the tribes of Barbarians, who had
seated themselves in arms on the territory of the empire, were
gradually reclaimed to the laws of the church and state; and as
long as they were separated from the Greeks, their posterity
supplied a race of faithful and obedient soldiers. Did we possess
sufficient materials to survey the twenty-nine themes of the
Byzantine monarchy, our curiosity might be satisfied with a
chosen example: it is fortunate enough that the clearest light
should be thrown on the most interesting province, and the name
of Peloponnesus will awaken the attention of the classic reader.

14 (return) [ According to the Jewish traveller who had visited
Europe and Asia, Constantinople was equalled only by Bagdad, the
great city of the Ismaelites, (Voyage de Benjamin de Tudele, par
Baratier, tom. l. c. v. p. 46.)]

As early as the eighth century, in the troubled reign of the
Iconoclasts, Greece, and even Peloponnesus, 15 were overrun by
some Sclavonian bands who outstripped the royal standard of
Bulgaria. The strangers of old, Cadmus, and Danaus, and Pelops,
had planted in that fruitful soil the seeds of policy and
learning; but the savages of the north eradicated what yet
remained of their sickly and withered roots. In this irruption,
the country and the inhabitants were transformed; the Grecian
blood was contaminated; and the proudest nobles of Peloponnesus
were branded with the names of foreigners and slaves. By the
diligence of succeeding princes, the land was in some measure
purified from the Barbarians; and the humble remnant was bound by
an oath of obedience, tribute, and military service, which they
often renewed and often violated. The siege of Patras was formed
by a singular concurrence of the Sclavonians of Peloponnesus and
the Saracens of Africa. In their last distress, a pious fiction
of the approach of the praetor of Corinth revived the courage of
the citizens. Their sally was bold and successful; the strangers
embarked, the rebels submitted, and the glory of the day was
ascribed to a phantom or a stranger, who fought in the foremost
ranks under the character of St. Andrew the Apostle. The shrine
which contained his relics was decorated with the trophies of
victory, and the captive race was forever devoted to the service
and vassalage of the metropolitan church of Patras. By the revolt
of two Sclavonian tribes, in the neighborhood of Helos and
Lacedaemon, the peace of the peninsula was often disturbed. They
sometimes insulted the weakness, and sometimes resisted the
oppression, of the Byzantine government, till at length the
approach of their hostile brethren extorted a golden bull to
define the rites and obligations of the Ezzerites and Milengi,
whose annual tribute was defined at twelve hundred pieces of
gold. From these strangers the Imperial geographer has accurately
distinguished a domestic, and perhaps original, race, who, in
some degree, might derive their blood from the much-injured
Helots. The liberality of the Romans, and especially of Augustus,
had enfranchised the maritime cities from the dominion of Sparta;
and the continuance of the same benefit ennobled them with the
title of Eleuthero, or Free-Laconians. 16 In the time of
Constantine Porphyrogenitus, they had acquired the name of
Mainotes, under which they dishonor the claim of liberty by the
inhuman pillage of all that is shipwrecked on their rocky shores.
Their territory, barren of corn, but fruitful of olives, extended
to the Cape of Malea: they accepted a chief or prince from the
Byzantine praetor, and a light tribute of four hundred pieces of
gold was the badge of their immunity, rather than of their
dependence. The freemen of Laconia assumed the character of
Romans, and long adhered to the religion of the Greeks. By the
zeal of the emperor Basil, they were baptized in the faith of
Christ: but the altars of Venus and Neptune had been crowned by
these rustic votaries five hundred years after they were
proscribed in the Roman world. In the theme of Peloponnesus, 17
forty cities were still numbered, and the declining state of
Sparta, Argos, and Corinth, may be suspended in the tenth
century, at an equal distance, perhaps, between their antique
splendor and their present desolation. The duty of military
service, either in person or by substitute, was imposed on the
lands or benefices of the province; a sum of five pieces of gold
was assessed on each of the substantial tenants; and the same
capitation was shared among several heads of inferior value. On
the proclamation of an Italian war, the Peloponnesians excused
themselves by a voluntary oblation of one hundred pounds of gold,
(four thousand pounds sterling,) and a thousand horses with their
arms and trappings. The churches and monasteries furnished their
contingent; a sacrilegious profit was extorted from the sale of
ecclesiastical honors; and the indigent bishop of Leucadia 18 was
made responsible for a pension of one hundred pieces of gold. 19

15 (return) [ Says Constantine, (Thematibus, l. ii. c. vi. p.
25,) in a style as barbarous as the idea, which he confirms, as
usual, by a foolish epigram. The epitomizer of Strabo likewise
observes, (l. vii. p. 98, edit. Hudson. edit. Casaub. 1251;) a
passage which leads Dodwell a weary dance (Geograph, Minor. tom.
ii. dissert. vi. p. 170-191) to enumerate the inroads of the
Sclavi, and to fix the date (A.D. 980) of this petty geographer.]

16 (return) [ Strabon. Geograph. l. viii. p. 562. Pausanius,
Graec. Descriptio, l. c 21, p. 264, 265. Pliny, Hist. Natur. l.
iv. c. 8.]

17 (return) [ Constantin. de Administrando Imperio, l. ii. c. 50,
51, 52.]

18 (return) [ The rock of Leucate was the southern promontory of
his island and diocese. Had he been the exclusive guardian of the
Lover’s Leap so well known to the readers of Ovid (Epist. Sappho)
and the Spectator, he might have been the richest prelate of the
Greek church.]

19 (return) [ Leucatensis mihi juravit episcopus, quotannis
ecclesiam suam debere Nicephoro aureos centum persolvere,
similiter et ceteras plus minusve secundum vires suos, (Liutprand
in Legat. p. 489.)]

But the wealth of the province, and the trust of the revenue,
were founded on the fair and plentiful produce of trade and
manufacturers; and some symptoms of liberal policy may be traced
in a law which exempts from all personal taxes the mariners of
Peloponnesus, and the workmen in parchment and purple. This
denomination may be fairly applied or extended to the
manufacturers of linen, woollen, and more especially of silk: the
two former of which had flourished in Greece since the days of
Homer; and the last was introduced perhaps as early as the reign
of Justinian. These arts, which were exercised at Corinth,
Thebes, and Argos, afforded food and occupation to a numerous
people: the men, women, and children were distributed according
to their age and strength; and, if many of these were domestic
slaves, their masters, who directed the work and enjoyed the
profit, were of a free and honorable condition. The gifts which a
rich and generous matron of Peloponnesus presented to the emperor
Basil, her adopted son, were doubtless fabricated in the Grecian
looms. Danielis bestowed a carpet of fine wool, of a pattern
which imitated the spots of a peacock’s tail, of a magnitude to
overspread the floor of a new church, erected in the triple name
of Christ, of Michael the archangel, and of the prophet Elijah.
She gave six hundred pieces of silk and linen, of various use and
denomination: the silk was painted with the Tyrian dye, and
adorned by the labors of the needle; and the linen was so
exquisitely fine, that an entire piece might be rolled in the
hollow of a cane. 20 In his description of the Greek
manufactures, an historian of Sicily discriminates their price,
according to the weight and quality of the silk, the closeness of
the texture, the beauty of the colors, and the taste and
materials of the embroidery. A single, or even a double or treble
thread was thought sufficient for ordinary sale; but the union of
six threads composed a piece of stronger and more costly
workmanship. Among the colors, he celebrates, with affectation of
eloquence, the fiery blaze of the scarlet, and the softer lustre
of the green. The embroidery was raised either in silk or gold:
the more simple ornament of stripes or circles was surpassed by
the nicer imitation of flowers: the vestments that were
fabricated for the palace or the altar often glittered with
precious stones; and the figures were delineated in strings of
Oriental pearls. 21 Till the twelfth century, Greece alone, of
all the countries of Christendom, was possessed of the insect who
is taught by nature, and of the workmen who are instructed by
art, to prepare this elegant luxury. But the secret had been
stolen by the dexterity and diligence of the Arabs: the caliphs
of the East and West scorned to borrow from the unbelievers their
furniture and apparel; and two cities of Spain, Almeria and
Lisbon, were famous for the manufacture, the use, and, perhaps,
the exportation, of silk. It was first introduced into Sicily by
the Normans; and this emigration of trade distinguishes the
victory of Roger from the uniform and fruitless hostilities of
every age. After the sack of Corinth, Athens, and Thebes, his
lieutenant embarked with a captive train of weavers and
artificers of both sexes, a trophy glorious to their master, and
disgraceful to the Greek emperor. 22 The king of Sicily was not
insensible of the value of the present; and, in the restitution
of the prisoners, he excepted only the male and female
manufacturers of Thebes and Corinth, who labor, says the
Byzantine historian, under a barbarous lord, like the old
Eretrians in the service of Darius. 23 A stately edifice, in the
palace of Palermo, was erected for the use of this industrious
colony; 24 and the art was propagated by their children and
disciples to satisfy the increasing demand of the western world.
The decay of the looms of Sicily may be ascribed to the troubles
of the island, and the competition of the Italian cities. In the
year thirteen hundred and fourteen, Lucca alone, among her sister
republics, enjoyed the lucrative monopoly. 25 A domestic
revolution dispersed the manufacturers to Florence, Bologna,
Venice, Milan, and even the countries beyond the Alps; and
thirteen years after this event the statutes of Modena enjoin the
planting of mulberry-trees, and regulate the duties on raw silk.
26 The northern climates are less propitious to the education of
the silkworm; but the industry of France and England 27 is
supplied and enriched by the productions of Italy and China.

20 (return) [ See Constantine, (in Vit. Basil. c. 74, 75, 76, p.
195, 197, in Script. post Theophanem,) who allows himself to use
many technical or barbarous words: barbarous, says he. Ducange
labors on some: but he was not a weaver.]

21 (return) [ The manufactures of Palermo, as they are described
by Hugo Falcandus, (Hist. Sicula in proem. in Muratori Script.
Rerum Italicarum, tom. v. p. 256,) is a copy of those of Greece.
Without transcribing his declamatory sentences, which I have
softened in the text, I shall observe, that in this passage the
strange word exarentasmata is very properly changed for
exanthemata by Carisius, the first editor Falcandus lived about
the year 1190.]

22 (return) [ Inde ad interiora Graeciae progressi, Corinthum,
Thebas, Athenas, antiqua nobilitate celebres, expugnant; et,
maxima ibidem praeda direpta, opifices etiam, qui sericos pannos
texere solent, ob ignominiam Imperatoris illius, suique principis
gloriam, captivos deducunt. Quos Rogerius, in Palermo Siciliae,
metropoli collocans, artem texendi suos edocere praecepit; et
exhinc praedicta ars illa, prius a Graecis tantum inter
Christianos habita, Romanis patere coepit ingeniis, (Otho
Frisingen. de Gestis Frederici I. l. i. c. 33, in Muratori
Script. Ital. tom. vi. p. 668.) This exception allows the bishop
to celebrate Lisbon and Almeria in sericorum pannorum opificio
praenobilissimae, (in Chron. apud Muratori, Annali d’Italia, tom.
ix. p. 415.)]

23 (return) [ Nicetas in Manuel, l. ii. c. 8. p. 65. He describes
these Greeks as skilled.]

24 (return) [ Hugo Falcandus styles them nobiles officinas. The
Arabs had not introduced silk, though they had planted canes and
made sugar in the plain of Palermo.]

25 (return) [ See the Life of Castruccio Casticani, not by
Machiavel, but by his more authentic biographer Nicholas Tegrimi.
Muratori, who has inserted it in the xith volume of his
Scriptores, quotes this curious passage in his Italian
Antiquities, (tom. i. dissert. xxv. p. 378.)]

26 (return) [ From the Ms. statutes, as they are quoted by
Muratori in his Italian Antiquities, (tom. ii. dissert. xxv. p.
46-48.)]

27 (return) [ The broad silk manufacture was established in
England in the year 1620, (Anderson’s Chronological Deduction,
vol. ii. p. 4: ) but it is to the revocation of the edict of
Nantes that we owe the Spitalfields colony.]