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

The most lofty titles, and the most humble postures, which
devotion has applied to the Supreme Being, have been prostituted
by flattery and fear to creatures of the same nature with
ourselves. The mode of adoration, 49 of falling prostrate on the
ground, and kissing the feet of the emperor, was borrowed by
Diocletian from Persian servitude; but it was continued and
aggravated till the last age of the Greek monarchy. Excepting
only on Sundays, when it was waived, from a motive of religious
pride, this humiliating reverence was exacted from all who
entered the royal presence, from the princes invested with the
diadem and purple, and from the ambassadors who represented their
independent sovereigns, the caliphs of Asia, Egypt, or Spain, the
kings of France and Italy, and the Latin emperors of ancient
Rome. In his transactions of business, Liutprand, bishop of
Cremona, 50 asserted the free spirit of a Frank and the dignity
of his master Otho. Yet his sincerity cannot disguise the
abasement of his first audience. When he approached the throne,
the birds of the golden tree began to warble their notes, which
were accompanied by the roarings of the two lions of gold. With
his two companions Liutprand was compelled to bow and to fall
prostrate; and thrice to touch the ground with his forehead. He
arose, but in the short interval, the throne had been hoisted
from the floor to the ceiling, the Imperial figure appeared in
new and more gorgeous apparel, and the interview was concluded in
haughty and majestic silence. In this honest and curious
narrative, the Bishop of Cremona represents the ceremonies of the
Byzantine court, which are still practised in the Sublime Porte,
and which were preserved in the last age by the dukes of Muscovy
or Russia. After a long journey by sea and land, from Venice to
Constantinople, the ambassador halted at the golden gate, till he
was conducted by the formal officers to the hospitable palace
prepared for his reception; but this palace was a prison, and his
jealous keepers prohibited all social intercourse either with
strangers or natives. At his first audience, he offered the gifts
of his master, slaves, and golden vases, and costly armor. The
ostentatious payment of the officers and troops displayed before
his eyes the riches of the empire: he was entertained at a royal
banquet, 51 in which the ambassadors of the nations were
marshalled by the esteem or contempt of the Greeks: from his own
table, the emperor, as the most signal favor, sent the plates
which he had tasted; and his favorites were dismissed with a robe
of honor. 52 In the morning and evening of each day, his civil
and military servants attended their duty in the palace; their
labors were repaid by the sight, perhaps by the smile, of their
lord; his commands were signified by a nod or a sign: but all
earthly greatness stood silent and submissive in his presence. In
his regular or extraordinary processions through the capital, he
unveiled his person to the public view: the rites of policy were
connected with those of religion, and his visits to the principal
churches were regulated by the festivals of the Greek calendar.
On the eve of these processions, the gracious or devout intention
of the monarch was proclaimed by the heralds. The streets were
cleared and purified; the pavement was strewed with flowers; the
most precious furniture, the gold and silver plate, and silken
hangings, were displayed from the windows and balconies, and a
severe discipline restrained and silenced the tumult of the
populace. The march was opened by the military officers at the
head of their troops: they were followed in long order by the
magistrates and ministers of the civil government: the person of
the emperor was guarded by his eunuchs and domestics, and at the
church door he was solemnly received by the patriarch and his
clergy. The task of applause was not abandoned to the rude and
spontaneous voices of the crowd. The most convenient stations
were occupied by the bands of the blue and green factions of the
circus; and their furious conflicts, which had shaken the
capital, were insensibly sunk to an emulation of servitude. From
either side they echoed in responsive melody the praises of the
emperor; their poets and musicians directed the choir, and long
life 53 and victory were the burden of every song. The same
acclamations were performed at the audience, the banquet, and the
church; and as an evidence of boundless sway, they were repeated
in the Latin, 54 Gothic, Persian, French, and even English
language, 55 by the mercenaries who sustained the real or
fictitious character of those nations. By the pen of Constantine
Porphyrogenitus, this science of form and flattery has been
reduced into a pompous and trifling volume, 56 which the vanity
of succeeding times might enrich with an ample supplement. Yet
the calmer reflection of a prince would surely suggest that the
same acclamations were applied to every character and every
reign: and if he had risen from a private rank, he might
remember, that his own voice had been the loudest and most eager
in applause, at the very moment when he envied the fortune, or
conspired against the life, of his predecessor. 57

49 (return) [ The respectful salutation of carrying the hand to
the mouth, ad os, is the root of the Latin word adoro, adorare.
See our learned Selden, (vol. iii. p. 143-145, 942,) in his
Titles of Honor. It seems, from the 1st book of Herodotus, to be
of Persian origin.]

50 (return) [ The two embassies of Liutprand to Constantinople,
all that he saw or suffered in the Greek capital, are pleasantly
described by himself (Hist. l. vi. c. 1-4, p. 469-471. Legatio ad
Nicephorum Phocam, p. 479-489.)]

51 (return) [ Among the amusements of the feast, a boy balanced,
on his forehead, a pike, or pole, twenty-four feet long, with a
cross bar of two cubits a little below the top. Two boys, naked,
though cinctured, (campestrati,) together, and singly, climbed,
stood, played, descended, &c., ita me stupidum reddidit: utrum
mirabilius nescio, (p. 470.) At another repast a homily of
Chrysostom on the Acts of the Apostles was read elata voce non
Latine, (p. 483.)]

52 (return) [ Gala is not improbably derived from Cala, or
Caloat, in Arabic a robe of honor, (Reiske, Not. in Ceremon. p.
84.)]

53 (return) [ It is explained, (Codin, c. 7. Ducange, Gloss.
Graec. tom. i. p. 1199.)]

54 (return) [ (Ceremon. c. 75, p. 215.) The want of the Latin ‘V’
obliged the Greeks to employ their ‘beta’; nor do they regard
quantity. Till he recollected the true language, these strange
sentences might puzzle a professor.]

55 (return) [ (Codin.p. 90.) I wish he had preserved the words,
however corrupt, of their English acclamation.]

56 (return) [ For all these ceremonies, see the professed work of
Constantine Porphyrogenitus with the notes, or rather
dissertations, of his German editors, Leich and Reiske. For the
rank of standing courtiers, p. 80, not. 23, 62; for the
adoration, except on Sundays, p. 95, 240, not. 131; the
processions, p. 2, &c., not. p. 3, &c.; the acclamations passim
not. 25 &c.; the factions and Hippodrome, p. 177-214, not. 9, 93,
&c.; the Gothic games, p. 221, not. 111; vintage, p. 217, not
109: much more information is scattered over the work.]

57 (return) [ Et privato Othoni et nuper eadem dicenti nota
adulatio, (Tacit. Hist. 1,85.)]

The princes of the North, of the nations, says Constantine,
without faith or fame, were ambitious of mingling their blood
with the blood of the Caesars, by their marriage with a royal
virgin, or by the nuptials of their daughters with a Roman
prince. 58 The aged monarch, in his instructions to his son,
reveals the secret maxims of policy and pride; and suggests the
most decent reasons for refusing these insolent and unreasonable
demands. Every animal, says the discreet emperor, is prompted by
the distinction of language, religion, and manners. A just regard
to the purity of descent preserves the harmony of public and
private life; but the mixture of foreign blood is the fruitful
source of disorder and discord. Such had ever been the opinion
and practice of the sage Romans: their jurisprudence proscribed
the marriage of a citizen and a stranger: in the days of freedom
and virtue, a senator would have scorned to match his daughter
with a king: the glory of Mark Antony was sullied by an Egyptian
wife: 59 and the emperor Titus was compelled, by popular censure,
to dismiss with reluctance the reluctant Berenice. 60 This
perpetual interdict was ratified by the fabulous sanction of the
great Constantine. The ambassadors of the nations, more
especially of the unbelieving nations, were solemnly admonished,
that such strange alliances had been condemned by the founder of
the church and city. The irrevocable law was inscribed on the
altar of St. Sophia; and the impious prince who should stain the
majesty of the purple was excluded from the civil and
ecclesiastical communion of the Romans. If the ambassadors were
instructed by any false brethren in the Byzantine history, they
might produce three memorable examples of the violation of this
imaginary law: the marriage of Leo, or rather of his father
Constantine the Fourth, with the daughter of the king of the
Chozars, the nuptials of the granddaughter of Romanus with a
Bulgarian prince, and the union of Bertha of France or Italy with
young Romanus, the son of Constantine Porphyrogenitus himself. To
these objections three answers were prepared, which solved the
difficulty and established the law. I.

The deed and the guilt of Constantine Copronymus were
acknowledged. The Isaurian heretic, who sullied the baptismal
font, and declared war against the holy images, had indeed
embraced a Barbarian wife. By this impious alliance he
accomplished the measure of his crimes, and was devoted to the
just censure of the church and of posterity. II. Romanus could
not be alleged as a legitimate emperor; he was a plebeian
usurper, ignorant of the laws, and regardless of the honor, of
the monarchy. His son Christopher, the father of the bride, was
the third in rank in the college of princes, at once the subject
and the accomplice of a rebellious parent. The Bulgarians were
sincere and devout Christians; and the safety of the empire, with
the redemption of many thousand captives, depended on this
preposterous alliance. Yet no consideration could dispense from
the law of Constantine: the clergy, the senate, and the people,
disapproved the conduct of Romanus; and he was reproached, both
in his life and death, as the author of the public disgrace. III.
For the marriage of his own son with the daughter of Hugo, king
of Italy, a more honorable defence is contrived by the wise
Porphyrogenitus. Constantine, the great and holy, esteemed the
fidelity and valor of the Franks; 61 and his prophetic spirit
beheld the vision of their future greatness. They alone were
excepted from the general prohibition: Hugo, king of France, was
the lineal descendant of Charlemagne; 62 and his daughter Bertha
inherited the prerogatives of her family and nation. The voice of
truth and malice insensibly betrayed the fraud or error of the
Imperial court. The patrimonial estate of Hugo was reduced from
the monarchy of France to the simple county of Arles; though it
was not denied, that, in the confusion of the times, he had
usurped the sovereignty of Provence, and invaded the kingdom of
Italy. His father was a private noble; and if Bertha derived her
female descent from the Carlovingian line, every step was
polluted with illegitimacy or vice. The grandmother of Hugo was
the famous Valdrada, the concubine, rather than the wife, of the
second Lothair; whose adultery, divorce, and second nuptials, had
provoked against him the thunders of the Vatican. His mother, as
she was styled, the great Bertha, was successively the wife of
the count of Arles and of the marquis of Tuscany: France and
Italy were scandalized by her gallantries; and, till the age of
threescore, her lovers, of every degree, were the zealous
servants of her ambition. The example of maternal incontinence
was copied by the king of Italy; and the three favorite
concubines of Hugo were decorated with the classic names of
Venus, Juno, and Semele. 63 The daughter of Venus was granted to
the solicitations of the Byzantine court: her name of Bertha was
changed to that of Eudoxia; and she was wedded, or rather
betrothed, to young Romanus, the future heir of the empire of the
East. The consummation of this foreign alliance was suspended by
the tender age of the two parties; and, at the end of five years,
the union was dissolved by the death of the virgin spouse. The
second wife of the emperor Romanus was a maiden of plebeian, but
of Roman, birth; and their two daughters, Theophano and Anne,
were given in marriage to the princes of the earth. The eldest
was bestowed, as the pledge of peace, on the eldest son of the
great Otho, who had solicited this alliance with arms and
embassies. It might legally be questioned how far a Saxon was
entitled to the privilege of the French nation; but every scruple
was silenced by the fame and piety of a hero who had restored the
empire of the West. After the death of her father-in-law and
husband, Theophano governed Rome, Italy, and Germany, during the
minority of her son, the third Otho; and the Latins have praised
the virtues of an empress, who sacrificed to a superior duty the
remembrance of her country. 64 In the nuptials of her sister
Anne, every prejudice was lost, and every consideration of
dignity was superseded, by the stronger argument of necessity and
fear. A Pagan of the North, Wolodomir, great prince of Russia,
aspired to a daughter of the Roman purple; and his claim was
enforced by the threats of war, the promise of conversion, and
the offer of a powerful succor against a domestic rebel. A victim
of her religion and country, the Grecian princess was torn from
the palace of her fathers, and condemned to a savage reign, and a
hopeless exile on the banks of the Borysthenes, or in the
neighborhood of the Polar circle. 65 Yet the marriage of Anne was
fortunate and fruitful: the daughter of her grandson Joroslaus
was recommended by her Imperial descent; and the king of France,
Henry I., sought a wife on the last borders of Europe and
Christendom. 66

58 (return) [ The xiiith chapter, de Administratione Imperii, may
be explained and rectified by the Familiae Byzantinae of
Ducange.]

59 (return) [ Sequiturque nefas Aegyptia conjux, (Virgil, Aeneid,
viii. 688.) Yet this Egyptian wife was the daughter of a long
line of kings. Quid te mutavit (says Antony in a private letter
to Augustus) an quod reginam ineo? Uxor mea est, (Sueton. in
August. c. 69.) Yet I much question (for I cannot stay to
inquire) whether the triumvir ever dared to celebrate his
marriage either with Roman or Egyptian rites.]

60 (return) [ Berenicem invitus invitam dimisit, (Suetonius in
Tito, c. 7.) Have I observed elsewhere, that this Jewish beauty
was at this time above fifty years of age? The judicious Racine
has most discreetly suppressed both her age and her country.]

61 (return) [ Constantine was made to praise the the Franks, with
whom he claimed a private and public alliance. The French writers
(Isaac Casaubon in Dedicat. Polybii) are highly delighted with
these compliments.]

62 (return) [ Constantine Porphyrogenitus (de Administrat. Imp.
c. 36) exhibits a pedigree and life of the illustrious King Hugo.
A more correct idea may be formed from the Criticism of Pagi, the
Annals of Muratori, and the Abridgment of St. Marc, A.D.
925-946.]

63 (return) [ After the mention of the three goddesses, Luitprand
very naturally adds, et quoniam non rex solus iis abutebatur,
earum nati ex incertis patribus originera ducunt, (Hist. l. iv.
c. 6: ) for the marriage of the younger Bertha, see Hist. l. v.
c. 5; for the incontinence of the elder, dulcis exercipio
Hymenaei, l. ii. c. 15; for the virtues and vices of Hugo, l.
iii. c. 5. Yet it must not be forgot, that the bishop of Cremona
was a lover of scandal.]

64 (return) [ Licet illa Imperatrix Graeca sibi et aliis fuisset
satis utilis, et optima, &c., is the preamble of an inimical
writer, apud Pagi, tom. iv. A.D. 989, No. 3. Her marriage and
principal actions may be found in Muratori, Pagi, and St. Marc,
under the proper years.]

65 (return) [ Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 699. Zonaras, tom. i. p. 221.
Elmacin, Hist. Saracenica, l. iii. c. 6. Nestor apud Levesque,
tom. ii. p. 112 Pagi, Critica, A.D. 987, No. 6: a singular
concourse! Wolodomir and Anne are ranked among the saints of the
Russian church. Yet we know his vices, and are ignorant of her
virtues.]

66 (return) [ Henricus primus duxit uxorem Scythicam, Russam,
filiam regis Jeroslai. An embassy of bishops was sent into
Russia, and the father gratanter filiam cum multis donis misit.
This event happened in the year 1051. See the passages of the
original chronicles in Bouquet’s Historians of France, (tom. xi.
p. 29, 159, 161, 319, 384, 481.) Voltaire might wonder at this
alliance; but he should not have owned his ignorance of the
country, religion, &c., of Jeroslaus—a name so conspicuous in the
Russian annals.]

In the Byzantine palace, the emperor was the first slave of the
ceremonies which he imposed, of the rigid forms which regulated
each word and gesture, besieged him in the palace, and violated
the leisure of his rural solitude. But the lives and fortunes of
millions hung on his arbitrary will; and the firmest minds,
superior to the allurements of pomp and luxury, may be seduced by
the more active pleasure of commanding their equals. The
legislative and executive powers were centred in the person of
the monarch, and the last remains of the authority of the senate
were finally eradicated by Leo the philosopher. 67 A lethargy of
servitude had benumbed the minds of the Greeks: in the wildest
tumults of rebellion they never aspired to the idea of a free
constitution; and the private character of the prince was the
only source and measure of their public happiness. Superstition
rivetted their chains; in the church of St. Sophia he was
solemnly crowned by the patriarch; at the foot of the altar, they
pledged their passive and unconditional obedience to his
government and family. On his side he engaged to abstain as much
as possible from the capital punishments of death and mutilation;
his orthodox creed was subscribed with his own hand, and he
promised to obey the decrees of the seven synods, and the canons
of the holy church. 68 But the assurance of mercy was loose and
indefinite: he swore, not to his people, but to an invisible
judge; and except in the inexpiable guilt of heresy, the
ministers of heaven were always prepared to preach the
indefeasible right, and to absolve the venial transgressions, of
their sovereign. The Greek ecclesiastics were themselves the
subjects of the civil magistrate: at the nod of a tyrant, the
bishops were created, or transferred, or deposed, or punished
with an ignominious death: whatever might be their wealth or
influence, they could never succeed like the Latin clergy in the
establishment of an independent republic; and the patriarch of
Constantinople condemned, what he secretly envied, the temporal
greatness of his Roman brother. Yet the exercise of boundless
despotism is happily checked by the laws of nature and necessity.
In proportion to his wisdom and virtue, the master of an empire
is confined to the path of his sacred and laborious duty. In
proportion to his vice and folly, he drops the sceptre too
weighty for his hands; and the motions of the royal image are
ruled by the imperceptible thread of some minister or favorite,
who undertakes for his private interest to exercise the task of
the public oppression. In some fatal moment, the most absolute
monarch may dread the reason or the caprice of a nation of
slaves; and experience has proved, that whatever is gained in the
extent, is lost in the safety and solidity, of regal power.

67 (return) [ A constitution of Leo the Philosopher (lxxviii.) ne
senatus consulta amplius fiant, speaks the language of naked
despotism.]

68 (return) [ Codinus (de Officiis, c. xvii. p. 120, 121) gives
an idea of this oath so strong to the church, so weak to the
people.]

Whatever titles a despot may assume, whatever claims he may
assert, it is on the sword that he must ultimately depend to
guard him against his foreign and domestic enemies. From the age
of Charlemagne to that of the Crusades, the world (for I overlook
the remote monarchy of China) was occupied and disputed by the
three great empires or nations of the Greeks, the Saracens, and
the Franks. Their military strength may be ascertained by a
comparison of their courage, their arts and riches, and their
obedience to a supreme head, who might call into action all the
energies of the state. The Greeks, far inferior to their rivals
in the first, were superior to the Franks, and at least equal to
the Saracens, in the second and third of these warlike
qualifications.

The wealth of the Greeks enabled them to purchase the service of
the poorer nations, and to maintain a naval power for the
protection of their coasts and the annoyance of their enemies. 69
A commerce of mutual benefit exchanged the gold of Constantinople
for the blood of Sclavonians and Turks, the Bulgarians and
Russians: their valor contributed to the victories of Nicephorus
and Zimisces; and if a hostile people pressed too closely on the
frontier, they were recalled to the defence of their country, and
the desire of peace, by the well-managed attack of a more distant
tribe. 70 The command of the Mediterranean, from the mouth of the
Tanais to the columns of Hercules, was always claimed, and often
possessed, by the successors of Constantine. Their capital was
filled with naval stores and dexterous artificers: the situation
of Greece and Asia, the long coasts, deep gulfs, and numerous
islands, accustomed their subjects to the exercise of navigation;
and the trade of Venice and Amalfi supplied a nursery of seamen
to the Imperial fleet. 71 Since the time of the Peloponnesian and
Punic wars, the sphere of action had not been enlarged; and the
science of naval architecture appears to have declined. The art
of constructing those stupendous machines which displayed three,
or six, or ten, ranges of oars, rising above, or falling behind,
each other, was unknown to the ship-builders of Constantinople,
as well as to the mechanicians of modern days. 72 The Dromones,
73 or light galleys of the Byzantine empire, were content with
two tier of oars; each tier was composed of five-and-twenty
benches; and two rowers were seated on each bench, who plied
their oars on either side of the vessel. To these we must add the
captain or centurion, who, in time of action, stood erect with
his armor-bearer on the poop, two steersmen at the helm, and two
officers at the prow, the one to manage the anchor, the other to
point and play against the enemy the tube of liquid fire. The
whole crew, as in the infancy of the art, performed the double
service of mariners and soldiers; they were provided with
defensive and offensive arms, with bows and arrows, which they
used from the upper deck, with long pikes, which they pushed
through the portholes of the lower tier. Sometimes, indeed, the
ships of war were of a larger and more solid construction; and
the labors of combat and navigation were more regularly divided
between seventy soldiers and two hundred and thirty mariners. But
for the most part they were of the light and manageable size; and
as the Cape of Malea in Peloponnesus was still clothed with its
ancient terrors, an Imperial fleet was transported five miles
over land across the Isthmus of Corinth. 74 The principles of
maritime tactics had not undergone any change since the time of
Thucydides: a squadron of galleys still advanced in a crescent,
charged to the front, and strove to impel their sharp beaks
against the feeble sides of their antagonists. A machine for
casting stones and darts was built of strong timbers, in the
midst of the deck; and the operation of boarding was effected by
a crane that hoisted baskets of armed men. The language of
signals, so clear and copious in the naval grammar of the
moderns, was imperfectly expressed by the various positions and
colors of a commanding flag. In the darkness of the night, the
same orders to chase, to attack, to halt, to retreat, to break,
to form, were conveyed by the lights of the leading galley. By
land, the fire-signals were repeated from one mountain to
another; a chain of eight stations commanded a space of five
hundred miles; and Constantinople in a few hours was apprised of
the hostile motions of the Saracens of Tarsus. 75 Some estimate
may be formed of the power of the Greek emperors, by the curious
and minute detail of the armament which was prepared for the
reduction of Crete. A fleet of one hundred and twelve galleys,
and seventy-five vessels of the Pamphylian style, was equipped in
the capital, the islands of the Aegean Sea, and the seaports of
Asia, Macedonia, and Greece. It carried thirty-four thousand
mariners, seven thousand three hundred and forty soldiers, seven
hundred Russians, and five thousand and eighty-seven Mardaites,
whose fathers had been transplanted from the mountains of
Libanus. Their pay, most probably of a month, was computed at
thirty-four centenaries of gold, about one hundred and thirty-six
thousand pounds sterling. Our fancy is bewildered by the endless
recapitulation of arms and engines, of clothes and linen, of
bread for the men and forage for the horses, and of stores and
utensils of every description, inadequate to the conquest of a
petty island, but amply sufficient for the establishment of a
flourishing colony. 76

69 (return) [ If we listen to the threats of Nicephorus to the
ambassador of Otho, Nec est in mari domino tuo classium numerus.
Navigantium fortitudo mihi soli inest, qui eum classibus
aggrediar, bello maritimas ejus civitates demoliar; et quae
fluminibus sunt vicina redigam in favillam. (Liutprand in Legat.
ad Nicephorum Phocam, in Muratori Scriptores Rerum Italicarum,
tom. ii. pars i. p. 481.) He observes in another place, qui
caeteris praestant Venetici sunt et Amalphitani.]

70 (return) [ Nec ipsa capiet eum (the emperor Otho) in qua ortus
est pauper et pellicea Saxonia: pecunia qua pollemus omnes
nationes super eum invitabimus: et quasi Keramicum confringemus,
(Liutprand in Legat. p. 487.) The two books, de Administrando
Imperio, perpetually inculcate the same policy.]

71 (return) [ The xixth chapter of the Tactics of Leo, (Meurs.
Opera, tom. vi. p. 825-848,) which is given more correct from a
manuscript of Gudius, by the laborious Fabricius, (Bibliot.
Graec. tom. vi. p. 372-379,) relates to the Naumachia, or naval
war.]

72 (return) [ Even of fifteen and sixteen rows of oars, in the
navy of Demetrius Poliorcetes. These were for real use: the forty
rows of Ptolemy Philadelphus were applied to a floating palace,
whose tonnage, according to Dr. Arbuthnot, (Tables of Ancient
Coins, &c., p. 231-236,) is compared as 4 1/2 to 1 with an
English 100 gun ship.]

73 (return) [ The Dromones of Leo, &c., are so clearly described
with two tier of oars, that I must censure the version of
Meursius and Fabricius, who pervert the sense by a blind
attachment to the classic appellation of Triremes. The Byzantine
historians are sometimes guilty of the same inaccuracy.]

74 (return) [ Constantin. Porphyrogen. in Vit. Basil. c. lxi. p.
185. He calmly praises the stratagem; but the sailing round
Peloponnesus is described by his terrified fancy as a
circumnavigation of a thousand miles.]

75 (return) [ The continuator of Theophanes (l. iv. p. 122, 123)
names the successive stations, the castle of Lulum near Tarsus,
Mount Argaeus Isamus, Aegilus, the hill of Mamas, Cyrisus,
Mocilus, the hill of Auxentius, the sun-dial of the Pharus of the
great palace. He affirms that the news were transmitted in an
indivisible moment of time. Miserable amplification, which, by
saying too much, says nothing. How much more forcible and
instructive would have been the definition of three, or six, or
twelve hours!]

76 (return) [ See the Ceremoniale of Constantine Porphyrogenitus,
l. ii. c. 44, p. 176-192. A critical reader will discern some
inconsistencies in different parts of this account; but they are
not more obscure or more stubborn than the establishment and
effectives, the present and fit for duty, the rank and file and
the private, of a modern return, which retain in proper hands the
knowledge of these profitable mysteries.]

The invention of the Greek fire did not, like that of gun powder,
produce a total revolution in the art of war. To these liquid
combustibles the city and empire of Constantine owed their
deliverance; and they were employed in sieges and sea-fights with
terrible effect. But they were either less improved, or less
susceptible of improvement: the engines of antiquity, the
catapultae, balistae, and battering-rams, were still of most
frequent and powerful use in the attack and defence of
fortifications; nor was the decision of battles reduced to the
quick and heavy fire of a line of infantry, whom it were
fruitless to protect with armor against a similar fire of their
enemies. Steel and iron were still the common instruments of
destruction and safety; and the helmets, cuirasses, and shields,
of the tenth century did not, either in form or substance,
essentially differ from those which had covered the companions of
Alexander or Achilles. 77 But instead of accustoming the modern
Greeks, like the legionaries of old, to the constant and easy use
of this salutary weight, their armor was laid aside in light
chariots, which followed the march, till, on the approach of an
enemy, they resumed with haste and reluctance the unusual
encumbrance. Their offensive weapons consisted of swords,
battle-axes, and spears; but the Macedonian pike was shortened a
fourth of its length, and reduced to the more convenient measure
of twelve cubits or feet. The sharpness of the Scythian and
Arabian arrows had been severely felt; and the emperors lament
the decay of archery as a cause of the public misfortunes, and
recommend, as an advice and a command, that the military youth,
till the age of forty, should assiduously practise the exercise
of the bow. 78 The bands, or regiments, were usually three
hundred strong; and, as a medium between the extremes of four and
sixteen, the foot soldiers of Leo and Constantine were formed
eight deep; but the cavalry charged in four ranks, from the
reasonable consideration, that the weight of the front could not
be increased by any pressure of the hindmost horses. If the ranks
of the infantry or cavalry were sometimes doubled, this cautious
array betrayed a secret distrust of the courage of the troops,
whose numbers might swell the appearance of the line, but of whom
only a chosen band would dare to encounter the spears and swords
of the Barbarians. The order of battle must have varied according
to the ground, the object, and the adversary; but their ordinary
disposition, in two lines and a reserve, presented a succession
of hopes and resources most agreeable to the temper as well as
the judgment of the Greeks. 79 In case of a repulse, the first
line fell back into the intervals of the second; and the reserve,
breaking into two divisions, wheeled round the flanks to improve
the victory or cover the retreat. Whatever authority could enact
was accomplished, at least in theory, by the camps and marches,
the exercises and evolutions, the edicts and books, of the
Byzantine monarch. 80 Whatever art could produce from the forge,
the loom, or the laboratory, was abundantly supplied by the
riches of the prince, and the industry of his numerous workmen.
But neither authority nor art could frame the most important
machine, the soldier himself; and if the ceremonies of
Constantine always suppose the safe and triumphal return of the
emperor, 81 his tactics seldom soar above the means of escaping a
defeat, and procrastinating the war. 82 Notwithstanding some
transient success, the Greeks were sunk in their own esteem and
that of their neighbors. A cold hand and a loquacious tongue was
the vulgar description of the nation: the author of the tactics
was besieged in his capital; and the last of the Barbarians, who
trembled at the name of the Saracens, or Franks, could proudly
exhibit the medals of gold and silver which they had extorted
from the feeble sovereign of Constantinople. What spirit their
government and character denied, might have been inspired in some
degree by the influence of religion; but the religion of the
Greeks could only teach them to suffer and to yield. The emperor
Nicephorus, who restored for a moment the discipline and glory of
the Roman name, was desirous of bestowing the honors of martyrdom
on the Christians who lost their lives in a holy war against the
infidels. But this political law was defeated by the opposition
of the patriarch, the bishops, and the principal senators; and
they strenuously urged the canons of St. Basil, that all who were
polluted by the bloody trade of a soldier should be separated,
during three years, from the communion of the faithful. 83

77 (return) [ See the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters, and, in
the Tactics of Leo, with the corresponding passages in those of
Constantine.]

78 (return) [ (Leo, Tactic. p. 581 Constantin. p 1216.) Yet such
were not the maxims of the Greeks and Romans, who despised the
loose and distant practice of archery.]

79 (return) [ Compare the passages of the Tactics, p. 669 and
721, and the xiith with the xviiith chapter.]

80 (return) [ In the preface to his Tactics, Leo very freely
deplores the loss of discipline and the calamities of the times,
and repeats, without scruple, (Proem. p. 537,) the reproaches,
nor does it appear that the same censures were less deserved in
the next generation by the disciples of Constantine.]

81 (return) [ See in the Ceremonial (l. ii. c. 19, p. 353) the
form of the emperor’s trampling on the necks of the captive
Saracens, while the singers chanted, “Thou hast made my enemies
my footstool!” and the people shouted forty times the kyrie
eleison.]

82 (return) [ Leo observes (Tactic. p. 668) that a fair open
battle against any nation whatsoever: the words are strong, and
the remark is true: yet if such had been the opinion of the old
Romans, Leo had never reigned on the shores of the Thracian
Bosphorus.]

83 (return) [ Zonaras (tom. ii. l. xvi. p. 202, 203) and
Cedrenus, (Compend p. 668,) who relate the design of Nicephorus,
most unfortunately apply the epithet to the opposition of the
patriarch.]

These scruples of the Greeks have been compared with the tears of
the primitive Moslems when they were held back from battle; and
this contrast of base superstition and high-spirited enthusiasm,
unfolds to a philosophic eye the history of the rival nations.
The subjects of the last caliphs 84 had undoubtedly degenerated
from the zeal and faith of the companions of the prophet. Yet
their martial creed still represented the Deity as the author of
war: 85 the vital though latent spark of fanaticism still glowed
in the heart of their religion, and among the Saracens, who dwelt
on the Christian borders, it was frequently rekindled to a lively
and active flame. Their regular force was formed of the valiant
slaves who had been educated to guard the person and accompany
the standard of their lord: but the Mussulman people of Syria and
Cilicia, of Africa and Spain, was awakened by the trumpet which
proclaimed a holy war against the infidels. The rich were
ambitious of death or victory in the cause of God; the poor were
allured by the hopes of plunder; and the old, the infirm, and the
women, assumed their share of meritorious service by sending
their substitutes, with arms and horses, into the field. These
offensive and defensive arms were similar in strength and temper
to those of the Romans, whom they far excelled in the management
of the horse and the bow: the massy silver of their belts, their
bridles, and their swords, displayed the magnificence of a
prosperous nation; and except some black archers of the South,
the Arabs disdained the naked bravery of their ancestors. Instead
of wagons, they were attended by a long train of camels, mules,
and asses: the multitude of these animals, whom they bedecked
with flags and streamers, appeared to swell the pomp and
magnitude of their host; and the horses of the enemy were often
disordered by the uncouth figure and odious smell of the camels
of the East. Invincible by their patience of thirst and heat,
their spirits were frozen by a winter’s cold, and the
consciousness of their propensity to sleep exacted the most
rigorous precautions against the surprises of the night. Their
order of battle was a long square of two deep and solid lines;
the first of archers, the second of cavalry. In their engagements
by sea and land, they sustained with patient firmness the fury of
the attack, and seldom advanced to the charge till they could
discern and oppress the lassitude of their foes. But if they were
repulsed and broken, they knew not how to rally or renew the
combat; and their dismay was heightened by the superstitious
prejudice, that God had declared himself on the side of their
enemies. The decline and fall of the caliphs countenanced this
fearful opinion; nor were there wanting, among the Mahometans and
Christians, some obscure prophecies 86 which prognosticated their
alternate defeats. The unity of the Arabian empire was dissolved,
but the independent fragments were equal to populous and powerful
kingdoms; and in their naval and military armaments, an emir of
Aleppo or Tunis might command no despicable fund of skill, and
industry, and treasure. In their transactions of peace and war
with the Saracens, the princes of Constantinople too often felt
that these Barbarians had nothing barbarous in their discipline;
and that if they were destitute of original genius, they had been
endowed with a quick spirit of curiosity and imitation. The model
was indeed more perfect than the copy; their ships, and engines,
and fortifications, were of a less skilful construction; and they
confess, without shame, that the same God who has given a tongue
to the Arabians, had more nicely fashioned the hands of the
Chinese, and the heads of the Greeks. 87

84 (return) [ The xviith chapter of the tactics of the different
nations is the most historical and useful of the whole collection
of Leo. The manners and arms of the Saracens (Tactic. p. 809-817,
and a fragment from the Medicean Ms. in the preface of the vith
volume of Meursius) the Roman emperor was too frequently called
upon to study.]

85 (return) [ Leon. Tactic. p. 809.]

86 (return) [ Liutprand (p. 484, 485) relates and interprets the
oracles of the Greeks and Saracens, in which, after the fashion
of prophecy, the past is clear and historical, the future is
dark, enigmatical, and erroneous. From this boundary of light and
shade an impartial critic may commonly determine the date of the
composition.]

87 (return) [ The sense of this distinction is expressed by
Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 2, 62, 101;) but I cannot recollect the
passage in which it is conveyed by this lively apothegm.]