Part IV.
Dishonor might be ultimately reflected on the character of
Justinian; but much of the guilt, and still more of the profit, was intercepted by the ministers, who were seldom promoted for their virtues, and not always selected for their talents. ^91 The merits of Tribonian the quaestor will hereafter be weighed in the reformation of the Roman law; but the economy of the East was subordinate to the Praetorian praefect, and Procopius has justified his anecdotes by the portrait which he exposes in his public history, of the notorious vices of John of Cappadocia. ^92 ^* His knowledge was not borrowed from the schools, ^93 and his style was scarcely legible; but he excelled in the powers of native genius, to suggest the wisest counsels, and to find expedients in the most desperate situations. The corruption of his heart was equal to the vigor of his understanding. Although he was suspected of magic and Pagan superstition, he appeared insensible to the fear of God or the reproaches of man; and his aspiring fortune was raised on the death of thousands, the poverty of millions, the ruins of cities, and the desolation of provinces. From the dawn of light to the moment of dinner, he assiduously labored to enrich his master and himself at the expense of the Roman world; the remainder of the day was spent in sensual and obscene pleasures, ^* and the silent hours of the night were interrupted by the perpetual dread of the justice of an assassin. His abilities, perhaps his vices, recommended him to the lasting friendship of Justinian: the emperor yielded with reluctance to the fury of the people; his victory was displayed by the immediate restoration of their enemy; and they felt above ten years, under his oppressive administration, that he was stimulated by revenge, rather than instructed by misfortune. Their murmurs served only to fortify the resolution of Justinian; but the resentment of Theodora, disdained a power before which every knee was bent, and attempted to sow the seeds of discord between the emperor and his beloved consort. Even Theodora herself was constrained to dissemble, to wait a favorable moment, and, by an artful conspiracy, to render John of Coppadocia the accomplice of his own destruction. ^! At a time when Belisarius, unless he had been a hero, must have shown himself a rebel, his wife Antonina, who enjoyed the secret confidence of the empress, communicated his feigned discontent to Euphemia, the daughter of the praefect; the credulous virgin imparted to her father the dangerous project, and John, who might have known the value of oaths and promises, was tempted to accept a nocturnal, and almost treasonable, interview with the wife of Belisarius. An ambuscade of guards and eunuchs had been posted by the command of Theodora; they rushed with drawn swords to seize or to punish the guilty minister: he was saved by the fidelity of his attendants; but instead of appealing to a gracious sovereign, who had privately warned him of his danger, he pusillanimously fled to the sanctuary of the church. The favorite of Justinian was sacrificed to conjugal tenderness or domestic tranquility; the conversion of a praefect into a priest extinguished his ambitious hopes: but the friendship of the emperor alleviated his disgrace, and he retained in the mild exile of Cyzicus an ample portion of his riches. Such imperfect revenge could not satisfy the unrelenting hatred of Theodora; the murder of his old enemy, the bishop of Cyzicus, afforded a decent pretence; and John of Cappadocia, whose actions had deserved a thousand deaths, was at last condemned for a crime of which he was innocent. A great minister, who had been invested with the honors of consul and patrician, was ignominiously scourged like the vilest of malefactors; a tattered cloak was the sole remnant of his fortunes; he was transported in a bark to the place of his banishment at Antinopolis in Upper Egypt, and the praefect of the East begged his bread through the cities which had trembled at his name. During an exile of seven years, his life was protracted and threatened by the ingenious cruelty of Theodora; and when her death permitted the emperor to recall a servant whom he had abandoned with regret, the ambition of John of Cappadocia was reduced to the humble duties of the sacerdotal profession. His successors convinced the subjects of Justinian, that the arts of oppression might still be improved by experience and industry; the frauds of a Syrian banker were introduced into the administration of the finances; and the example of the praefect was diligently copied by the quaestor, the public and private treasurer, the governors of provinces, and the principal magistrates of the Eastern empire. ^94
[Footnote 91: One of these, Anatolius, perished in an earthquake
[Footnote *: This view, particularly of the cruelty of John of Cappadocia, is confirmed by the testimony of Joannes Lydus, who was in the office of the praefect, and eye-witness of the tortures inflicted by his command on the miserable debtors, or supposed debtors, of the state. He mentions one horrible instance of a respectable old man, with whom he was personally acquainted, who, being suspected of possessing money, was hung up by the hands till he was dead. Lydus de Magist. lib. iii. c. 57,
[Footnote *: Joannes Lydus is diffuse on this subject, lib. iii.
[Footnote !: According to Lydus, Theodora disclosed the crimes
and unpopularity of the minister to Justinian, but the emperor
had not the courage to remove, and was unable to replace, a
servant, under whom his finances seemed to prosper. He
attributes the sedition and conflagration to the popular
resentment against the tyranny of John, lib. iii. c 70, p. 278.
Unfortunately there is a large gap in his work just at this
period. - M.]
[Footnote 94: The chronology of Procopius is loose and obscure;
but with the aid of Pagi I can discern that John was appointed
Praetorian praefect of the East in the year 530 - that he was
removed in January, 532 - restored before June, 533 - banished in
541 - and recalled between June, 548, and April 1, 549. Aleman.
Note: Lydus gives a high character of Phocas, his successor
tom. iii. c. 78 p. 288. - M.]
- The edifices of Justinian were cemented with the blood
and treasure of his people; but those stately structures appeared
to announce the prosperity of the empire, and actually displayed
the skill of their architects. Both the theory and practice of
the arts which depend on mathematical science and mechanical
power, were cultivated under the patronage of the emperors; the
fame of Archimedes was rivalled by Proclus and Anthemius; and if
their miracles had been related by intelligent spectators, they
might now enlarge the speculations, instead of exciting the
distrust, of philosophers. A tradition has prevailed, that the
Roman fleet was reduced to ashes in the port of Syracuse, by the
burning-glasses of Archimedes; ^95 and it is asserted, that a
similar expedient was employed by Proclus to destroy the Gothic
vessels in the harbor of Constantinople, and to protect his
benefactor Anastasius against the bold enterprise of Vitalian.
^96 A machine was fixed on the walls of the city, consisting of a
hexagon mirror of polished brass, with many smaller and movable
polygons to receive and reflect the rays of the meridian sun; and
a consuming flame was darted, to the distance, perhaps of two
hundred feet. ^97 The truth of these two extraordinary facts is
invalidated by the silence of the most authentic historians; and
the use of burning-glasses was never adopted in the attack or
defence of places. ^98 Yet the admirable experiments of a French
philosopher ^99 have demonstrated the possibility of such a
mirror; and, since it is possible, I am more disposed to
attribute the art to the greatest mathematicians of antiquity,
than to give the merit of the fiction to the idle fancy of a monk
or a sophist. According to another story, Proclus applied
sulphur to the destruction of the Gothic fleet; ^100 in a modern
imagination, the name of sulphur is instantly connected with the
suspicion of gunpowder, and that suspicion is propagated by the
secret arts of his disciple Anthemius. ^101 A citizen of Tralles
in Asia had five sons, who were all distinguished in their
respective professions by merit and success. Olympius excelled in
the knowledge and practice of the Roman jurisprudence. Dioscorus
and Alexander became learned physicians; but the skill of the
former was exercised for the benefit of his fellow-citizens,
while his more ambitious brother acquired wealth and reputation
at Rome. The fame of Metrodorus the grammarian, and of Anthemius
the mathematician and architect, reached the ears of the emperor
Justinian, who invited them to Constantinople; and while the one
instructed the rising generation in the schools of eloquence, the
other filled the capital and provinces with more lasting
monuments of his art. In a trifling dispute relative to the
walls or windows of their contiguous houses, he had been
vanquished by the eloquence of his neighbor Zeno; but the orator
was defeated in his turn by the master of mechanics, whose
malicious, though harmless, stratagems are darkly represented by
the ignorance of Agathias. In a lower room, Anthemius arranged
several vessels or caldrons of water, each of them covered by the
wide bottom of a leathern tube, which rose to a narrow top, and
was artificially conveyed among the joists and rafters of the
adjacent building. A fire was kindled beneath the caldron; the
steam of the boiling water ascended through the tubes; the house
was shaken by the efforts of imprisoned air, and its trembling
inhabitants might wonder that the city was unconscious of the
earthquake which they had felt. At another time, the friends of
Zeno, as they sat at table, were dazzled by the intolerable light
which flashed in their eyes from the reflecting mirrors of
Anthemius; they were astonished by the noise which he produced
from the collision of certain minute and sonorous particles; and
the orator declared in tragic style to the senate, that a mere
mortal must yield to the power of an antagonist, who shook the
earth with the trident of Neptune, and imitated the thunder and
lightning of Jove himself. The genius of Anthemius, and his
colleague Isidore the Milesian, was excited and employed by a
prince, whose taste for architecture had degenerated into a
mischievous and costly passion. His favorite architects
submitted their designs and difficulties to Justinian, and
discreetly confessed how much their laborious meditations were
surpassed by the intuitive knowledge of celestial inspiration of
an emperor, whose views were always directed to the benefit of
his people, the glory of his reign, and the salvation of his
soul. ^102
[Footnote 95: This conflagration is hinted by Lucian (in Hippia,
[Footnote 96: Zonaras (l. xi. c. p. 55) affirms the fact, without quoting any evidence.]
[Footnote 97: Tzetzes describes the artifice of these burning-glasses, which he had read, perhaps, with no learned eyes, in a mathematical treatise of Anthemius. That treatise has been lately published, translated, and illustrated, by M. Dupuys, a scholar and a mathematician, (Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom xlii p. 392 - 451.)]
[Footnote 98: In the siege of Syracuse, by the silence of Polybius, Plutarch, Livy; in the siege of Constantinople, by that of Marcellinus and all the contemporaries of the vith century.]
[Footnote 99: Without any previous knowledge of Tzetzes or Anthemius, the immortal Buffon imagined and executed a set of burning-glasses, with which he could inflame planks at the distance of 200 feet, (Supplement a l'Hist. Naturelle, tom. i. 399 - 483, quarto edition.) What miracles would not his genius have performed for the public service, with royal expense, and in the strong sun of Constantinople or Syracuse?]
[Footnote 100: John Malala (tom. ii. p. 120 - 124) relates the
fact; but he seems to confound the names or persons of Proclus
and Marinus.]
[Footnote 101: Agathias, l. v. p. 149 - 152. The merit of
Anthemius as an architect is loudly praised by Procopius (de
Edif. l. i. c. 1) and Paulus Silentiarius, (part i. 134, &c.)]
[Footnote 102: See Procopius, (de Edificiis, l. i. c. 1, 2, l.
The principal church, which was dedicated by the founder of
Constantinople to St. Sophia, or the eternal wisdom, had been twice destroyed by fire; after the exile of John Chrysostom, and during the Nika of the blue and green factions. No sooner did the tumult subside, than the Christian populace deplored their sacrilegious rashness; but they might have rejoiced in the calamity, had they foreseen the glory of the new temple, which at the end of forty days was strenuously undertaken by the piety of Justinian. ^103 The ruins were cleared away, a more spacious plan was described, and as it required the consent of some proprietors of ground, they obtained the most exorbitant terms from the eager desires and timorous conscience of the monarch. Anthemius formed the design, and his genius directed the hands of ten thousand workmen, whose payment in pieces of fine silver was never delayed beyond the evening. The emperor himself, clad in a linen tunic, surveyed each day their rapid progress, and encouraged their diligence by his familiarity, his zeal, and his rewards. The new Cathedral of St. Sophia was consecrated by the patriarch, five years, eleven months, and ten days from the first foundation; and in the midst of the solemn festival Justinian exclaimed with devout vanity, "Glory be to God, who hath thought me worthy to accomplish so great a work; I have vanquished thee, O Solomon!" ^104 But the pride of the Roman Solomon, before twenty years had elapsed, was humbled by an earthquake, which overthrew the eastern part of the dome. Its splendor was again restored by the perseverance of the same prince; and in the thirty- sixth year of his reign, Justinian celebrated the second dedication of a temple which remains, after twelve centuries, a stately monument of his fame. The architecture of St. Sophia, which is now converted into the principal mosch, has been imitated by the Turkish sultans, and that venerable pile continues to excite the fond admiration of the Greeks, and the more rational curiosity of European travellers. The eye of the spectator is disappointed by an irregular prospect of half-domes and shelving roofs: the western front, the principal approach, is destitute of simplicity and magnificence; and the scale of dimensions has been much surpassed by several of the Latin cathedrals. But the architect who first erected and aerial cupola, is entitled to the praise of bold design and skilful execution. The dome of St. Sophia, illuminated by four-and-twenty windows, is formed with so small a curve, that the depth is equal only to one sixth of its diameter; the measure of that diameter is one hundred and fifteen feet, and the lofty centre, where a crescent has supplanted the cross, rises to the perpendicular height of one hundred and eighty feet above the pavement. The circle which encompasses the dome, lightly reposes on four strong arches, and their weight is firmly supported by four massy piles, whose strength is assisted, on the northern and southern sides, by four columns of Egyptian granite.
A Greek cross, inscribed in a quadrangle, represents the form of
the edifice; the exact breadth is two hundred and forty-three
feet, and two hundred and sixty-nine may be assigned for the
extreme length from the sanctuary in the east, to the nine
western doors, which open into the vestibule, and from thence
into the narthex or exterior portico. That portico was the
humble station of the penitents. The nave or body of the church
was filled by the congregation of the faithful; but the two sexes
were prudently distinguished, and the upper and lower galleries
were allotted for the more private devotion of the women. Beyond
the northern and southern piles, a balustrade, terminated on
either side by the thrones of the emperor and the patriarch,
divided the nave from the choir; and the space, as far as the
steps of the altar, was occupied by the clergy and singers. The
altar itself, a name which insensibly became familiar to
Christian ears, was placed in the eastern recess, artificially
built in the form of a demi-cylinder; and this sanctuary
communicated by several doors with the sacristy, the vestry, the
baptistery, and the contiguous buildings, subservient either to
the pomp of worship, or the private use of the ecclesiastical
ministers. The memory of past calamities inspired Justinian with
a wise resolution, that no wood, except for the doors, should be
admitted into the new edifice; and the choice of the materials
was applied to the strength, the lightness, or the splendor of
the respective parts. The solid piles which contained the cupola
were composed of huge blocks of freestone, hewn into squares and
triangles, fortified by circles of iron, and firmly cemented by
the infusion of lead and quicklime: but the weight of the cupola
was diminished by the levity of its substance, which consists
either of pumice-stone that floats in the water, or of bricks
from the Isle of Rhodes, five times less ponderous than the
ordinary sort. The whole frame of the edifice was constructed of
brick; but those base materials were concealed by a crust of
marble; and the inside of St. Sophia, the cupola, the two larger,
and the six smaller, semi-domes, the walls, the hundred columns,
and the pavement, delight even the eyes of Barbarians, with a
rich and variegated picture. A poet, ^105 who beheld the
primitive lustre of St. Sophia, enumerates the colors, the
shades, and the spots of ten or twelve marbles, jaspers, and
porphyries, which nature had profusely diversified, and which
were blended and contrasted as it were by a skilful painter. The
triumph of Christ was adorned with the last spoils of Paganism,
but the greater part of these costly stones was extracted from
the quarries of Asia Minor, the isles and continent of Greece,
Egypt, Africa, and Gaul. Eight columns of porphyry, which
Aurelian had placed in the temple of the sun, were offered by the
piety of a Roman matron; eight others of green marble were
presented by the ambitious zeal of the magistrates of Ephesus:
both are admirable by their size and beauty, but every order of
architecture disclaims their fantastic capital. A variety of
ornaments and figures was curiously expressed in mosaic; and the
images of Christ, of the Virgin, of saints, and of angels, which
have been defaced by Turkish fanaticism, were dangerously exposed
to the superstition of the Greeks. According to the sanctity of
each object, the precious metals were distributed in thin leaves
or in solid masses. The balustrade of the choir, the capitals of
the pillars, the ornaments of the doors and galleries, were of
gilt bronze; the spectator was dazzled by the glittering aspect
of the cupola; the sanctuary contained forty thousand pounds
weight of silver; and the holy vases and vestments of the altar
were of the purest gold, enriched with inestimable gems. Before
the structure of the church had arisen two cubits above the
ground, forty-five thousand two hundred pounds were already
consumed; and the whole expense amounted to three hundred and
twenty thousand: each reader, according to the measure of his
belief, may estimate their value either in gold or silver; but
the sum of one million sterling is the result of the lowest
computation. A magnificent temple is a laudable monument of
national taste and religion; and the enthusiast who entered the
dome of St. Sophia might be tempted to suppose that it was the
residence, or even the workmanship, of the Deity. Yet how dull
is the artifice, how insignificant is the labor, if it be
compared with the formation of the vilest insect that crawls upon
the surface of the temple!
[Footnote 103: Among the crowd of ancients and moderns who have
celebrated the edifice of St. Sophia, I shall distinguish and
follow, 1. Four original spectators and historians: Procopius,
(de Edific. l. i. c. 1,) Agathias, (l. v. p. 152, 153,) Paul
Silentiarius, (in a poem of 1026 hexameters, and calcem Annae
Commen. Alexiad.,) and Evagrius, (l. iv. c. 31.) 2. Two legendary
Greeks of a later period: George Codinus, (de Origin. C. P. p. 64
[Footnote 104: Solomon's temple was surrounded with courts, porticos, &c.; but the proper structure of the house of God was no more (if we take the Egyptian or Hebrew cubic at 22 inches) than 55 feet in height, 36 2/3 in breadth, and 110 in length - a small parish church, says Prideaux, (Connection, vol. i. p. 144, folio;) but few sanctuaries could be valued at four or five millions sterling!
Note *: Hist of Jews, vol i p 257. - M]
[Footnote 105: Paul Silentiarius, in dark and poetic language, describes the various stones and marbles that were employed in the edifice of St. Sophia, (P. ii. p. 129, 133, &c., &c.:)
So minute a description of an edifice which time has
respected, may attest the truth, and excuse the relation, of the innumerable works, both in the capital and provinces, which Justinian constructed on a smaller scale and less durable foundations. ^106 In Constantinople alone and the adjacent suburbs, he dedicated twenty-five churches to the honor of Christ, the Virgin, and the saints: most of these churches were decorated with marble and gold; and their various situation was skilfully chosen in a populous square, or a pleasant grove; on the margin of the sea-shore, or on some lofty eminence which overlooked the continents of Europe and Asia. The church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople, and that of St. John at Ephesus, appear to have been framed on the same model: their domes aspired to imitate the cupolas of St. Sophia; but the altar was more judiciously placed under the centre of the dome, at the junction of four stately porticos, which more accurately expressed the figure of the Greek cross. The Virgin of Jerusalem might exult in the temple erected by her Imperial votary on a most ungrateful spot, which afforded neither ground nor materials to the architect. A level was formed by raising part of a deep valley to the height of the mountain. The stones of a neighboring quarry were hewn into regular forms; each block was fixed on a peculiar carriage, drawn by forty of the strongest oxen, and the roads were widened for the passage of such enormous weights. Lebanon furnished her loftiest cedars for the timbers of the church; and the seasonable discovery of a vein of red marble supplied its beautiful columns, two of which, the supporters of the exterior portico, were esteemed the largest in the world. The pious munificence of the emperor was diffused over the Holy Land; and if reason should condemn the monasteries of both sexes which were built or restored by Justinian, yet charity must applaud the wells which he sunk, and the hospitals which he founded, for the relief of the weary pilgrims. The schismatical temper of Egypt was ill entitled to the royal bounty; but in Syria and Africa, some remedies were applied to the disasters of wars and earthquakes, and both Carthage and Antioch, emerging from their ruins, might revere the name of their gracious benefactor. ^107 Almost every saint in the calendar acquired the honors of a temple; almost every city of the empire obtained the solid advantages of bridges, hospitals, and aqueducts; but the severe liberality of the monarch disdained to indulge his subjects in the popular luxury of baths and theatres. While Justinian labored for the public service, he was not unmindful of his own dignity and ease. The Byzantine palace, which had been damaged by the conflagration, was restored with new magnificence; and some notion may be conceived of the whole edifice, by the vestibule or hall, which, from the doors perhaps, or the roof, was surnamed chalce, or the brazen. The dome of a spacious quadrangle was supported by massy pillars; the pavement and walls were incrusted with many-colored marbles - the emerald green of Laconia, the fiery red, and the white Phrygian stone, intersected with veins of a sea-green hue: the mosaic paintings of the dome and sides represented the glories of the African and Italian triumphs. On the Asiatic shore of the Propontis, at a small distance to the east of Chalcedon, the costly palace and gardens of Heraeum ^108 were prepared for the summer residence of Justinian, and more especially of Theodora. The poets of the age have celebrated the rare alliance of nature and art, the harmony of the nymphs of the groves, the fountains, and the waves: yet the crowd of attendants who followed the court complained of their inconvenient lodgings, ^109 and the nymphs were too often alarmed by the famous Porphyrio, a whale of ten cubits in breadth, and thirty in length, who was stranded at the mouth of the River Sangaris, after he had infested more than half a century the seas of Constantinople. ^110
[Footnote 106: The six books of the Edifices of Procopius are thus distributed the first is confined to Constantinople: the second includes Mesopotamia and Syria the third, Armenia and the Euxine; the fourth, Europe; the fifth, Asia Minor and Palestine; the sixth, Egypt and Africa. Italy is forgot by the emperor or the historian, who published this work of adulation before the date (A.D. 555) of its final conquest.]
[Footnote 107: Justinian once gave forty-five centenaries of gold (180,000l for the repairs of Antioch after the earthquake, (John Malala, tom. ii p 146 - 149.)]
[Footnote 108: For the Heraeum, the palace of Theodora, see Gyllius, (de Bosphoro Thracio, l. iii. c. xi.,) Aleman. (Not. ad. Anec. p. 80, 81, who quotes several epigrams of the Anthology,) and Ducange, (C. P. Christ. l. iv. c. 13, p. 175, 176.)]
[Footnote 109: Compare, in the Edifices, (l. i. c. 11,) and in the Anecdotes, (c. 8, 15.) the different styles of adulation and malevolence: stripped of the paint, or cleansed from the dirt, the object appears to be the same.] [Footnote 110: Procopius, l. viii. 29; most probably a stranger and wanderer, as the Mediterranean does not breed whales. Balaenae quoque in nostra maria penetrant, (Plin. Hist. Natur.
The fortifications of Europe and Asia were multiplied by
Justinian; but the repetition of those timid and fruitless precautions exposes, to a philosophic eye, the debility of the empire. ^111 From Belgrade to the Euxine, from the conflux of the Save to the mouth of the Danube, a chain of above fourscore fortified places was extended along the banks of the great river. Single watch-towers were changed into spacious citadels; vacant walls, which the engineers contracted or enlarged according to the nature of the ground, were filled with colonies or garrisons; a strong fortress defended the ruins of Trajan's bridge, ^112 and several military stations affected to spread beyond the Danube the pride of the Roman name. But that name was divested of its terrors; the Barbarians, in their annual inroads, passed, and contemptuously repassed, before these useless bulwarks; and the inhabitants of the frontier, instead of reposing under the shadow of the general defence, were compelled to guard, with incessant vigilance, their separate habitations. The solitude of ancient cities, was replenished; the new foundations of Justinian acquired, perhaps too hastily, the epithets of impregnable and populous; and the auspicious place of his own nativity attracted the grateful reverence of the vainest of princes. Under the name of Justiniana prima, the obscure village of Tauresium became the seat of an archbishop and a praefect, whose jurisdiction extended over seven warlike provinces of Illyricum; ^113 and the corrupt apellation of Giustendil still indicates, about twenty miles to the south of Sophia, the residence of a Turkish sanjak. ^114 For the use of the emperor's countryman, a cathedral, a place, and an aqueduct, were speedily constructed; the public and private edifices were adapted to the greatness of a royal city; and the strength of the walls resisted, during the lifetime of Justinian, the unskilful assaults of the Huns and Sclavonians. Their progress was sometimes retarded, and their hopes of rapine were disappointed, by the innumerable castles which, in the provinces of Dacia, Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace, appeared to cover the whole face of the country. Six hundred of these forts were built or repaired by the emperor; but it seems reasonable to believe, that the far greater part consisted only of a stone or brick tower, in the midst of a square or circular area, which was surrounded by a wall and ditch, and afforded in a moment of danger some protection to the peasants and cattle of the neighboring villages. ^115 Yet these military works, which exhausted the public treasure, could not remove the just apprehensions of Justinian and his European subjects. The warm baths of Anchialus in Thrace were rendered as safe as they were salutary; but the rich pastures of Thessalonica were foraged by the Scythian cavalry; the delicious vale of Tempe, three hundred miles from the Danube, was continually alarmed by the sound of war; ^116 and no unfortified spot, however distant or solitary, could securely enjoy the blessings of peace. The Straits of Thermopylae, which seemed to protect, but which had so often betrayed, the safety of Greece, were diligently strengthened by the labors of Justinian. From the edge of the sea-shore, through the forests and valleys, and as far as the summit of the Thessalian mountains, a strong wall was continued, which occupied every practicable entrance. Instead of a hasty crowd of peasants, a garrison of two thousand soldiers was stationed along the rampart; granaries of corn and reservoirs of water were provided for their use; and by a precaution that inspired the cowardice which it foresaw, convenient fortresses were erected for their retreat. The walls of Corinth, overthrown by an earthquake, and the mouldering bulwarks of Athens and Plataea, were carefully restored; the Barbarians were discouraged by the prospect of successive and painful sieges: and the naked cities of Peloponnesus were covered by the fortifications of the Isthmus of Corinth. At the extremity of Europe, another peninsula, the Thracian Chersonesus, runs three days' journey into the sea, to form, with the adjacent shores of Asia, the Straits of the Hellespont. The intervals between eleven populous towns were filled by lofty woods, fair pastures, and arable lands; and the isthmus, of thirty seven stadia or furlongs, had been fortified by a Spartan general nine hundred years before the reign of Justinian. ^117 In an age of freedom and valor, the slightest rampart may prevent a surprise; and Procopius appears insensible of the superiority of ancient times, while he praises the solid construction and double parapet of a wall, whose long arms stretched on either side into the sea; but whose strength was deemed insufficient to guard the Chersonesus, if each city, and particularly Gallipoli and Sestus, had not been secured by their peculiar fortifications. The long wall, as it was emphatically styled, was a work as disgraceful in the object, as it was respectable in the execution. The riches of a capital diffuse themselves over the neighboring country, and the territory of Constantinople a paradise of nature, was adorned with the luxurious gardens and villas of the senators and opulent citizens. But their wealth served only to attract the bold and rapacious Barbarians; the noblest of the Romans, in the bosom of peaceful indolence, were led away into Scythian captivity, and their sovereign might view from his palace the hostile flames which were insolently spread to the gates of the Imperial city. At the distance only of forty miles, Anastasius was constrained to establish a last frontier; his long wall, of sixty miles from the Propontis to the Euxine, proclaimed the impotence of his arms; and as the danger became more imminent, new fortifications were added by the indefatigable prudence of Justinian. ^118 [Footnote 111: Montesquieu observes, (tom. iii. p. 503, Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Decadence des Romains, c. xx.,) that Justinian's empire was like France in the time of the Norman inroads - never so weak as when every village was fortified.]
[Footnote 112: Procopius affirms (l. iv. c. 6) that the Danube was stopped by the ruins of the bridge. Had Apollodorus, the architect, left a description of his own work, the fabulous wonders of Dion Cassius (l lxviii. p. 1129) would have been corrected by the genuine picture Trajan's bridge consisted of twenty or twenty-two stone piles with wooden arches; the river is shallow, the current gentle, and the whole interval no more than 443 (Reimer ad Dion. from Marsigli) or 5l7 toises, (D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 305.)] [Footnote 113: Of the two Dacias, Mediterranea and Ripensis, Dardania, Pravalitana, the second Maesia, and the second Macedonia. See Justinian (Novell. xi.,) who speaks of his castles beyond the Danube, and on omines semper bellicis sudoribus inhaerentes.]
[Footnote 114: See D'Anville, (Memoires de l'Academie, &c., tom. xxxi p. 280, 299,) Rycaut, (Present State of the Turkish Empire,
[Footnote 115: These fortifications may be compared to the castles in Mingrelia (Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tom. i. p. 60, 131) - a natural picture.]
[Footnote 116: The valley of Tempe is situate along the River Peneus, between the hills of Ossa and Olympus: it is only five miles long, and in some places no more than 120 feet in breadth. Its verdant beauties are elegantly described by Pliny, (Hist. Natur. l. iv. 15,) and more diffusely by Aelian, (Hist. Var. l.
[Footnote 117: Xenophon Hellenic. l. iii. c. 2. After a long and tedious conversation with the Byzantine declaimers, how refreshing is the truth, the simplicity, the elegance of an Attic writer!]
[Footnote 118: See the long wall in Evagarius, (l. iv. c. 38.) This whole article is drawn from the fourth book of the Edifices, except Anchialus, (l. iii. c. 7.)]
Asia Minor, after the submission of the Isaurians, ^119
remained without enemies and without fortifications. Those bold
savages, who had disdained to be the subjects of Gallienus,
persisted two hundred and thirty years in a life of independence
and rapine. The most successful princes respected the strength
of the mountains and the despair of the natives; their fierce
spirit was sometimes soothed with gifts, and sometimes restrained
by terror; and a military count, with three legions, fixed his
permanent and ignominious station in the heart of the Roman
provinces. ^120 But no sooner was the vigilance of power relaxed
or diverted, than the light-armed squadrons descended from the
hills, and invaded the peaceful plenty of Asia. Although the
Isaurians were not remarkable for stature or bravery, want
rendered them bold, and experience made them skilful in the
exercise of predatory war. They advanced with secrecy and speed
to the attack of villages and defenceless towns; their flying
parties have sometimes touched the Hellespont, the Euxine, and
the gates of Tarsus, Antioch, or Damascus; ^121 and the spoil was
lodged in their inaccessible mountains, before the Roman troops
had received their orders, or the distant province had computed
its loss. The guilt of rebellion and robbery excluded them from
the rights of national enemies; and the magistrates were
instructed, by an edict, that the trial or punishment of an
Isaurian, even on the festival of Easter, was a meritorious act
of justice and piety. ^122 If the captives were condemned to
domestic slavery, they maintained, with their sword or dagger,
the private quarrel of their masters; and it was found expedient
for the public tranquillity to prohibit the service of such
dangerous retainers. When their countryman Tarcalissaeus or Zeno
ascended the throne, he invited a faithful and formidable band of
Isaurians, who insulted the court and city, and were rewarded by
an annual tribute of five thousand pounds of gold. But the hopes
of fortune depopulated the mountains, luxury enervated the
hardiness of their minds and bodies, and in proportion as they
mixed with mankind, they became less qualified for the enjoyment
of poor and solitary freedom. After the death of Zeno, his
successor Anastasius suppressed their pensions, exposed their
persons to the revenge of the people, banished them from
Constantinople, and prepared to sustain a war, which left only
the alternative of victory or servitude. A brother of the last
emperor usurped the title of Augustus; his cause was powerfully
supported by the arms, the treasures, and the magazines,
collected by Zeno; and the native Isaurians must have formed the
smallest portion of the hundred and fifty thousand Barbarians
under his standard, which was sanctified, for the first time, by
the presence of a fighting bishop. Their disorderly numbers were
vanquished in the plains of Phrygia by the valor and discipline
of the Goths; but a war of six years almost exhausted the courage
of the emperor. ^123 The Isaurians retired to their mountains;
their fortresses were successively besieged and ruined; their
communication with the sea was intercepted; the bravest of their
leaders died in arms; the surviving chiefs, before their
execution, were dragged in chains through the hippodrome; a
colony of their youth was transplanted into Thrace, and the
remnant of the people submitted to the Roman government. Yet
some generations elapsed before their minds were reduced to the
level of slavery. The populous villages of Mount Taurus were
filled with horsemen and archers: they resisted the imposition of
tributes, but they recruited the armies of Justinian; and his
civil magistrates, the proconsul of Cappadocia, the count of
Isauria, and the praetors of Lycaonia and Pisidia, were invested
with military power to restrain the licentious practice of rapes
and assassinations. ^124
[Footnote 119: Turn back to vol. i. p. 328. In the course of
this History, I have sometimes mentioned, and much oftener
slighted, the hasty inroads of the Isaurians, which were not
attended with any consequences.]
[Footnote 120: Trebellius Pollio in Hist. August. p. 107, who
lived under Diocletian, or Constantine. See likewise Pancirolus
ad Notit. Imp. Orient c. 115, 141. See Cod. Theodos. l. ix. tit.
35, leg. 37, with a copious collective Annotation of Godefroy,
tom. iii. p. 256, 257.]
[Footnote 121: See the full and wide extent of their inroads in
Philostorgius (Hist. Eccles. l. xi. c. 8,) with Godefroy's
learned Dissertations.]
[Footnote 122: Cod. Justinian. l. ix. tit. 12, leg. 10. The
punishments are severs - a fine of a hundred pounds of gold,
degradation, and even death. The public peace might afford a
pretence, but Zeno was desirous of monopolizing the valor and
service of the Isaurians.]
[Footnote 123: The Isaurian war and the triumph of Anastasius are
briefly and darkly represented by John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 106,
107,) Evagrius, (l. iii. c. 35,) Theophanes, p. 118 - 120,) and
the Chronicle of Marcellinus.]
[Footnote 124: Fortes ea regio (says Justinian) viros habet, nec
in ullo differt ab Isauria, though Procopius (Persic. l. i. c.