Justinian.
Part IV.
About two years after the last victory of Belisarius, the
emperor returned from a Thracian journey of health, or business,
or devotion. Justinian was afflicted by a pain in his head; and
his private entry countenanced the rumor of his death. Before
the third hour of the day, the bakers' shops were plundered of
their bread, the houses were shut, and every citizen, with hope
or terror, prepared for the impending tumult. The senators
themselves, fearful and suspicious, were convened at the ninth
hour; and the praefect received their commands to visit every
quarter of the city, and proclaim a general illumination for the
recovery of the emperor's health. The ferment subsided; but every
accident betrayed the impotence of the government, and the
factious temper of the people: the guards were disposed to mutiny
as often as their quarters were changed, or their pay was
withheld: the frequent calamities of fires and earthquakes
afforded the opportunities of disorder; the disputes of the blues
and greens, of the orthodox and heretics, degenerated into bloody
battles; and, in the presence of the Persian ambassador,
Justinian blushed for himself and for his subjects. Capricious
pardon and arbitrary punishment imbittered the irksomeness and
discontent of a long reign: a conspiracy was formed in the
palace; and, unless we are deceived by the names of Marcellus and
Sergius, the most virtuous and the most profligate of the
courtiers were associated in the same designs. They had fixed
the time of the execution; their rank gave them access to the
royal banquet; and their black slaves ^65 were stationed in the
vestibule and porticos, to announce the death of the tyrant, and
to excite a sedition in the capital. But the indiscretion of an
accomplice saved the poor remnant of the days of Justinian. The
conspirators were detected and seized, with daggers hidden under
their garments: Marcellus died by his own hand, and Sergius was
dragged from the sanctuary. ^66 Pressed by remorse, or tempted by
the hopes of safety, he accused two officers of the household of
Belisarius; and torture forced them to declare that they had
acted according to the secret instructions of their patron. ^67
Posterity will not hastily believe that a hero who, in the vigor
of life, had disdained the fairest offers of ambition and
revenge, should stoop to the murder of his prince, whom he could
not long expect to survive. His followers were impatient to fly;
but flight must have been supported by rebellion, and he had
lived enough for nature and for glory. Belisarius appeared before
the council with less fear than indignation: after forty years'
service, the emperor had prejudged his guilt; and injustice was
sanctified by the presence and authority of the patriarch. The
life of Belisarius was graciously spared; but his fortunes were
sequestered, and, from December to July, he was guarded as a
prisoner in his own palace. At length his innocence was
acknowledged; his freedom and honor were restored; and death,
which might be hastened by resentment and grief, removed him from
the world in about eight months after his deliverance. The name
of Belisarius can never die but instead of the funeral, the
monuments, the statues, so justly due to his memory, I only read,
that his treasures, the spoil of the Goths and Vandals, were
immediately confiscated by the emperor. Some decent portion was
reserved, however for the use of his widow: and as Antonina had
much to repent, she devoted the last remains of her life and
fortune to the foundation of a convent. Such is the simple and
genuine narrative of the fall of Belisarius and the ingratitude
of Justinian. ^68 That he was deprived of his eyes, and reduced
by envy to beg his bread, ^* "Give a penny to Belisarius the
general!" is a fiction of later times, ^69 which has obtained
credit, or rather favor, as a strange example of the vicissitudes
of fortune. ^70
[Footnote 65: They could scarcely be real Indians; and the
Aethiopians, sometimes known by that name, were never used by the
ancients as guards or followers: they were the trifling, though
costly objects of female and royal luxury, (Terent. Eunuch. act.
[Footnote 66: The Sergius (Vandal. l. ii. c. 21, 22, Anecdot. c.
Note: Some words, "the acts of," or "the crimes cf," appear
to have false from the text. The omission is in all the editions
I have consulted. - M.]
[Footnote 67: Alemannus, (p. quotes an old Byzantian Ms., which
has been printed in the Imperium Orientale of Banduri.)]
[Footnote 68: Of the disgrace and restoration of Belisarius, the genuine original record is preserved in the Fragment of John Malala (tom. ii. p. 234 - 243) and the exact Chronicle of Theophanes, (p. 194 - 204.) Cedrenus (Compend. p. 387, 388) and Zonaras (tom. ii. l. xiv. p. 69) seem to hesitate between the obsolete truth and the growing falsehood.]
[Footnote *: Le Beau, following Allemannus, conceives that Belisarius was confounded with John of Cappadocia, who was thus reduced to beggary, (vol. ix. p. 58, 449.) Lord Mahon has, with considerable learning, and on the authority of a yet unquoted writer of the eleventh century, endeavored to reestablish the old tradition. I cannot acknowledge that I have been convinced, and am inclined to subscribe to the theory of Le Beau. - M.]
[Footnote 69: The source of this idle fable may be derived from a miscellaneous work of the xiith century, the Chiliads of John Tzetzes, a monk, (Basil. 1546, ad calcem Lycophront. Colon. Allobrog. 1614, in Corp. Poet. Graec.) He relates the blindness and beggary of Belisarius in ten vulgar or political verses, (Chiliad iii. No. 88, 339 - 348, in Corp. Poet. Graec. tom. ii.
This moral or romantic tale was imported into Italy with the language and manuscripts of Greece; repeated before the end of the xvth century by Crinitus, Pontanus, and Volaterranus, attacked by Alciat, for the honor of the law; and defended by Baronius, (A.D. 561, No. 2, &c.,) for the honor of the church. Yet Tzetzes himself had read in other chronicles, that Belisarius did not lose his sight, and that he recovered his fame and fortunes.
Note: I know not where Gibbon found Tzetzes to be a monk; I
suppose he considered his bad verses a proof of his monachism. Compare to Gerbelius in Kiesling's edition of Tzetzes. - M.]
[Footnote 70: The statue in the villa Borghese at Rome, in a sitting posture, with an open hand, which is vulgarly given to Belisarius, may be ascribed with more dignity to Augustus in the act of propitiating Nemesis, (Winckelman, Hist. de l'Art, tom.
Note: Lord Mahon abandons the statue, as altogether
irreconcilable with the state of the arts at this period, (p. 472.) - M.]
If the emperor could rejoice in the death of Belisarius, he
enjoyed the base satisfaction only eight months, the last period of a reign of thirty- eight years, and a life of eighty-three years. It would be difficult to trace the character of a prince who is not the most conspicuous object of his own times: but the confessions of an enemy may be received as the safest evidence of his virtues. The resemblance of Justinian to the bust of Domitian, is maliciously urged; ^71 with the acknowledgment, however, of a well-proportioned figure, a ruddy complexion, and a pleasing countenance. The emperor was easy of access, patient of hearing, courteous and affable in discourse, and a master of the angry passions which rage with such destructive violence in the breast of a despot. Procopius praises his temper, to reproach him with calm and deliberate cruelty: but in the conspiracies which attacked his authority and person, a more candid judge will approve the justice, or admire the clemency, of Justinian. He excelled in the private virtues of chastity and temperance: but the impartial love of beauty would have been less mischievous than his conjugal tenderness for Theodora; and his abstemious diet was regulated, not by the prudence of a philosopher, but the superstition of a monk. His repasts were short and frugal: on solemn fasts, he contented himself with water and vegetables; and such was his strength, as well as fervor, that he frequently passed two days, and as many nights, without tasting any food. The measure of his sleep was not less rigorous: after the repose of a single hour, the body was awakened by the soul, and, to the astonishment of his chamberlain, Justinian walked or studied till the morning light. Such restless application prolonged his time for the acquisition of knowledge ^72 and the despatch of business; and he might seriously deserve the reproach of confounding, by minute and preposterous diligence, the general order of his administration. The emperor professed himself a musician and architect, a poet and philosopher, a lawyer and theologian; and if he failed in the enterprise of reconciling the Christian sects, the review of the Roman jurisprudence is a noble monument of his spirit and industry. In the government of the empire, he was less wise, or less successful: the age was unfortunate; the people was oppressed and discontented; Theodora abused her power; a succession of bad ministers disgraced his judgment; and Justinian was neither beloved in his life, nor regretted at his death. The love of fame was deeply implanted in his breast, but he condescended to the poor ambition of titles, honors, and contemporary praise; and while he labored to fix the admiration, he forfeited the esteem and affection, of the Romans.
The design of the African and Italian wars was boldly conceived and executed; and his penetration discovered the talents of Belisarius in the camp, of Narses in the palace. But the name of the emperor is eclipsed by the names of his victorious generals; and Belisarius still lives, to upbraid the envy and ingratitude of his sovereign. The partial favor of mankind applauds the genius of a conqueror, who leads and directs his subjects in the exercise of arms. The characters of Philip the Second and of Justinian are distinguished by the cold ambition which delights in war, and declines the dangers of the field. Yet a colossal statue of bronze represented the emperor on horseback, preparing to march against the Persians in the habit and armor of Achilles. In the great square before the church of St. Sophia, this monument was raised on a brass column and a stone pedestal of seven steps; and the pillar of Theodosius, which weighed seven thousand four hundred pounds of silver, was removed from the same place by the avarice and vanity of Justinian. Future princes were more just or indulgent to his memory; the elder Andronicus, in the beginning of the fourteenth century, repaired and beautified his equestrian statue: since the fall of the empire it has been melted into cannon by the victorious Turks. ^73
[Footnote 71: The rubor of Domitian is stigmatized, quaintly enough, by the pen of Tacitus, (in Vit. Agricol. c. 45;) and has been likewise noticed by the younger Pliny, (Panegyr. c. 48,) and Suetonius, (in Domitian, c. 18, and Casaubon ad locum.) Procopius (Anecdot. c. 8) foolishly believes that only one bust of Domitian had reached the vith century.]
[Footnote 72: The studies and science of Justinian are attested by the confession (Anecdot. c. 8, 13) still more than by the praises (Gothic. l. iii. c. 31, de Edific. l. i. Proem. c. 7) of Procopius. Consult the copious index of Alemannus, and read the life of Justinian by Ludewig, (p. 135 - 142.)] [Footnote 73: See in the C. P. Christiana of Ducange (l. i. c. 24, No. 1) a chain of original testimonies, from Procopius in the vith, to Gyllius in the xvith century.]
I shall conclude this chapter with the comets, the
earthquakes, and the plague, which astonished or afflicted the age of Justinian.
- In the fifth year of his reign, and in the month of
September, a comet ^74 was seen during twenty days in the western
quarter of the heavens, and which shot its rays into the north.
Eight years afterwards, while the sun was in Capricorn, another
comet appeared to follow in the Sagittary; the size was gradually
increasing; the head was in the east, the tail in the west, and
it remained visible above forty days. The nations, who gazed
with astonishment, expected wars and calamities from their
baleful influence; and these expectations were abundantly
fulfilled. The astronomers dissembled their ignorance of the
nature of these blazing stars, which they affected to represent
as the floating meteors of the air; and few among them embraced
the simple notion of Seneca and the Chaldeans, that they are only
planets of a longer period and more eccentric motion. ^75 Time
and science have justified the conjectures and predictions of the
Roman sage: the telescope has opened new worlds to the eyes of
astronomers; ^76 and, in the narrow space of history and fable,
one and the same comet is already found to have revisited the
earth in seven equal revolutions of five hundred and seventy-five
years. The first, ^77 which ascends beyond the Christian aera one
thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven years, is coeval with
Ogyges, the father of Grecian antiquity. And this appearance
explains the tradition which Varro has preserved, that under his
reign the planet Venus changed her color, size, figure, and
course; a prodigy without example either in past or succeeding
ages. ^78 The second visit, in the year eleven hundred and
ninety-three, is darkly implied in the fable of Electra, the
seventh of the Pleiads, who have been reduced to six since the
time of the Trojan war. That nymph, the wife of Dardanus, was
unable to support the ruin of her country: she abandoned the
dances of her sister orbs, fled from the zodiac to the north
pole, and obtained, from her dishevelled locks, the name of the
comet. The third period expires in the year six hundred and
eighteen, a date that exactly agrees with the tremendous comet of
the Sibyl, and perhaps of Pliny, which arose in the West two
generations before the reign of Cyrus. The fourth apparition,
forty-four years before the birth of Christ, is of all others the
most splendid and important. After the death of Caesar, a
long-haired star was conspicuous to Rome and to the nations,
during the games which were exhibited by young Octavian in honor
of Venus and his uncle. The vulgar opinion, that it conveyed to
heaven the divine soul of the dictator, was cherished and
consecrated by the piety of a statesman; while his secret
superstition referred the comet to the glory of his own times.
^79 The fifth visit has been already ascribed to the fifth year
of Justinian, which coincides with the five hundred and
thirty-first of the Christian aera. And it may deserve notice,
that in this, as in the preceding instance, the comet was
followed, though at a longer interval, by a remarkable paleness
of the sun. The sixth return, in the year eleven hundred and
six, is recorded by the chronicles of Europe and China: and in
the first fervor of the crusades, the Christians and the
Mahometans might surmise, with equal reason, that it portended
the destruction of the Infidels. The seventh phenomenon, of one
thousand six hundred and eighty, was presented to the eyes of an
enlightened age. ^80 The philosophy of Bayle dispelled a
prejudice which Milton's muse had so recently adorned, that the
comet, "from its horrid hair shakes pestilence and war." ^81 Its
road in the heavens was observed with exquisite skill by
Flamstead and Cassini: and the mathematical science of Bernoulli,
Newton ^*, and Halley, investigated the laws of its revolutions.
At the eighth period, in the year two thousand three hundred and
fifty-five, their calculations may perhaps be verified by the
astronomers of some future capital in the Siberian or American
wilderness.
[Footnote 74: The first comet is mentioned by John Malala (tom.
Note: See Lydus de Ostentis, particularly c 15, in which the
author begins to show the signification of comets according to the part of the heavens in which they appear, and what fortunes they prognosticate to the Roman empire and their Persian enemies.
The chapter, however, is imperfect. (Edit. Neibuhr, p. 290.) -
[Footnote 75: Seneca's viith book of Natural Questions displays, in the theory of comets, a philosophic mind. Yet should we not too candidly confound a vague prediction, a venient tempus, &c., with the merit of real discoveries.] [Footnote 76: Astronomers may study Newton and Halley. I draw my humble science from the article Comete, in the French Encyclopedie, by M. d'Alembert.]
[Footnote 77: Whiston, the honest, pious, visionary Whiston, had fancied for the aera of Noah's flood (2242 years before Christ) a prior apparition of the same comet which drowned the earth with its tail.]
[Footnote 78: A Dissertation of Freret (Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. x. p. 357-377) affords a happy union of philosophy and erudition. The phenomenon in the time of Ogyges was preserved by Varro, (Apud Augustin. de Civitate Dei, xxi. 8,) who quotes Castor, Dion of Naples, and Adastrus of Cyzicus - nobiles mathematici. The two subsequent periods are preserved by the Greek mythologists and the spurious books of Sibylline verses.]
[Footnote 79: Pliny (Hist. Nat. ii. 23) has transcribed the original memorial of Augustus. Mairan, in his most ingenious letters to the P. Parennin, missionary in China, removes the games and the comet of September, from the year 44 to the year 43, before the Christian aera; but I am not totally subdued by the criticism of the astronomer, (Opuscules, p. 275 )] [Footnote 80: This last comet was visible in the month of December, 1680. Bayle, who began his Pensees sur la Comete in January, 1681, (Oeuvres, tom. iii.,) was forced to argue that a supernatural comet would have confirmed the ancients in their idolatry. Bernoulli (see his Eloge, in Fontenelle, tom. v. p.
[Footnote 81: Paradise Lost was published in the year 1667; and the famous lines (l. ii. 708, &c.) which startled the licenser, may allude to the recent comet of 1664, observed by Cassini at Rome in the presence of Queen Christina, (Fontenelle, in his Eloge, tom. v. p. 338.) Had Charles II. betrayed any symptoms of curiosity or fear?]
[Footnote *: Compare Pingre, Histoire des Cometes. - M.]
- The near approach of a comet may injure or destroy the
globe which we inhabit; but the changes on its surface have been
hitherto produced by the action of volcanoes and earthquakes. ^82
The nature of the soil may indicate the countries most exposed to
these formidable concussions, since they are caused by
subterraneous fires, and such fires are kindled by the union and
fermentation of iron and sulphur. But their times and effects
appear to lie beyond the reach of human curiosity; and the
philosopher will discreetly abstain from the prediction of
earthquakes, till he has counted the drops of water that silently
filtrate on the inflammable mineral, and measured the caverns
which increase by resistance the explosion of the imprisoned air.
Without assigning the cause, history will distinguish the periods
in which these calamitous events have been rare or frequent, and
will observe, that this fever of the earth raged with uncommon
violence during the reign of Justinian. ^83 Each year is marked
by the repetition of earthquakes, of such duration, that
Constantinople has been shaken above forty days; of such extent,
that the shock has been communicated to the whole surface of the
globe, or at least of the Roman empire. An impulsive or
vibratory motion was felt: enormous chasms were opened, huge and
heavy bodies were discharged into the air, the sea alternately
advanced and retreated beyond its ordinary bounds, and a mountain
was torn from Libanus, ^84 and cast into the waves, where it
protected, as a mole, the new harbor of Botrys ^85 in Phoenicia.
The stroke that agitates an ant-hill may crush the insect-myriads
in the dust; yet truth must extort confession that man has
industriously labored for his own destruction. The institution
of great cities, which include a nation within the limits of a
wall, almost realizes the wish of Caligula, that the Roman people
had but one neck. Two hundred and fifty thousand persons are
said to have perished in the earthquake of Antioch, whose
domestic multitudes were swelled by the conflux of strangers to
the festival of the Ascension. The loss of Berytus ^86 was of
smaller account, but of much greater value. That city, on the
coast of Phoenicia, was illustrated by the study of the civil
law, which opened the surest road to wealth and dignity: the
schools of Berytus were filled with the rising spirits of the
age, and many a youth was lost in the earthquake, who might have
lived to be the scourge or the guardian of his country. In these
disasters, the architect becomes the enemy of mankind. The hut
of a savage, or the tent of an Arab, may be thrown down without
injury to the inhabitant; and the Peruvians had reason to deride
the folly of their Spanish conquerors, who with so much cost and
labor erected their own sepulchres. The rich marbles of a
patrician are dashed on his own head: a whole people is buried
under the ruins of public and private edifices, and the
conflagration is kindled and propagated by the innumerable fires
which are necessary for the subsistence and manufactures of a
great city. Instead of the mutual sympathy which might comfort
and assist the distressed, they dreadfully experience the vices
and passions which are released from the fear of punishment: the
tottering houses are pillaged by intrepid avarice; revenge
embraces the moment, and selects the victim; and the earth often
swallows the assassin, or the ravisher, in the consummation of
their crimes. Superstition involves the present danger with
invisible terrors; and if the image of death may sometimes be
subservient to the virtue or repentance of individuals, an
affrighted people is more forcibly moved to expect the end of the
world, or to deprecate with servile homage the wrath of an
avenging Deity.
[Footnote 82: For the cause of earthquakes, see Buffon, (tom. i.
[Footnote 83: The earthquakes that shook the Roman world in the reign of Justinian are described or mentioned by Procopius, (Goth. l. iv. c. 25 Anecdot. c. 18,) Agathias, (l. ii. p. 52, 53, 54, l. v. p. 145-152,) John Malala, (Chron. tom. ii. p. 140-146, 176, 177, 183, 193, 220, 229, 231, 233, 234,) and Theophanes, (p. 151, 183, 189, 191-196.)
Note *: Compare Daubeny on Earthquakes, and Lyell's Geology,
vol. ii. p. 161 et seq. - M]
[Footnote 84: An abrupt height, a perpendicular cape, between Aradus and Botrys (Polyb. l. v. p. 411. Pompon. Mela, l. i. c. 12, p. 87, cum Isaac. Voss. Observat. Maundrell, Journey, p. 32,
[Footnote 85: Botrys was founded (ann. ante Christ. 935 - 903) by Ithobal, king of Tyre, (Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 387, 388.) Its poor representative, the village of Patrone, is now destitute of a harbor.]
[Footnote 86: The university, splendor, and ruin of Berytus are celebrated by Heineccius (p. 351 - 356) as an essential part of the history of the Roman law. It was overthrown in the xxvth year of Justinian, A. D 551, July 9, (Theophanes, p. 192;) but Agathias (l. ii. p. 51, 52) suspends the earthquake till he has achieved the Italian war.]
- Aethiopia and Egypt have been stigmatized, in every
age, as the original source and seminary of the plague. ^87 In a
damp, hot, stagnating air, this African fever is generated from
the putrefaction of animal substances, and especially from the
swarms of locusts, not less destructive to mankind in their death
than in their lives. The fatal disease which depopulated the
earth in the time of Justinian and his successors, ^88 first
appeared in the neighborhood of Pelusium, between the Serbonian
bog and the eastern channel of the Nile. From thence, tracing as
it were a double path, it spread to the East, over Syria, Persia,
and the Indies, and penetrated to the West, along the coast of
Africa, and over the continent of Europe. In the spring of the
second year, Constantinople, during three or four months, was
visited by the pestilence; and Procopius, who observed its
progress and symptoms with the eyes of a physician, ^89 has
emulated the skill and diligence of Thucydides in the description
of the plague of Athens. ^90 The infection was sometimes
announced by the visions of a distempered fancy, and the victim
despaired as soon as he had heard the menace and felt the stroke
of an invisible spectre. But the greater number, in their beds,
in the streets, in their usual occupation, were surprised by a
slight fever; so slight, indeed, that neither the pulse nor the
color of the patient gave any signs of the approaching danger.
The same, the next, or the succeeding day, it was declared by the
swelling of the glands, particularly those of the groin, of the
armpits, and under the ear; and when these buboes or tumors were
opened, they were found to contain a coal, or black substance, of
the size of a lentil. If they came to a just swelling and
suppuration, the patient was saved by this kind and natural
discharge of the morbid humor. But if they continued hard and
dry, a mortification quickly ensued, and the fifth day was
commonly the term of his life. The fever was often accompanied
with lethargy or delirium; the bodies of the sick were covered
with black pustules or carbuncles, the symptoms of immediate
death; and in the constitutions too feeble to produce an
irruption, the vomiting of blood was followed by a mortification
of the bowels. To pregnant women the plague was generally
mortal: yet one infant was drawn alive from his dead mother, and
three mothers survived the loss of their infected foetus. Youth
was the most perilous season; and the female sex was less
susceptible than the male: but every rank and profession was
attacked with indiscriminate rage, and many of those who escaped
were deprived of the use of their speech, without being secure
from a return of the disorder. ^91 The physicians of
Constantinople were zealous and skilful; but their art was
baffled by the various symptoms and pertinacious vehemence of the
disease: the same remedies were productive of contrary effects,
and the event capriciously disappointed their prognostics of
death or recovery. The order of funerals, and the right of
sepulchres, were confounded: those who were left without friends
or servants, lay unburied in the streets, or in their desolate
houses; and a magistrate was authorized to collect the
promiscuous heaps of dead bodies, to transport them by land or
water, and to inter them in deep pits beyond the precincts of the
city. Their own danger, and the prospect of public distress,
awakened some remorse in the minds of the most vicious of
mankind: the confidence of health again revived their passions
and habits; but philosophy must disdain the observation of
Procopius, that the lives of such men were guarded by the
peculiar favor of fortune or Providence. He forgot, or perhaps
he secretly recollected, that the plague had touched the person
of Justinian himself; but the abstemious diet of the emperor may
suggest, as in the case of Socrates, a more rational and
honorable cause for his recovery. ^92 During his sickness, the
public consternation was expressed in the habits of the citizens;
and their idleness and despondence occasioned a general scarcity
in the capital of the East.
[Footnote 87: I have read with pleasure Mead's short, but
elegant, treatise concerning Pestilential Disorders, the viiith
edition, London, 1722.]
[Footnote 88: The great plague which raged in 542 and the
following years (Pagi, Critica, tom. ii. p. 518) must be traced
in Procopius, (Persic. l. ii. c. 22, 23,) Agathias, (l. v. p.