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HISTORY OF GREECE 



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%onlion 
HENRY FROWDE 



OZFOBD mJ IVBUW ITY FBSSB WAELBHOUBB 
7 FATBENOSTBB BOW 



Dictzed by Google 



A 

HISTORY OF GREECE 

FKOM ITS 

CONQUEST BY THE ROMANS TO THE PRESENT TIME 

B.C. 146 TO A.D. 1864 
BY 

GEORGE FINLAY, LL.D. 

A NEW EDITION, REVISED THROUGHOUT, AND IN PART RE-WRITTEN, 
WITH CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS, BV THE AUTHOR, 

REV. H. F. TOZER, M.A. 

m SEVEN VOLUMES 

VOL, II 

THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. PART I 

A.D. 716 — 1057 

s 

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 
M DCCC LXXVII 



I 



A^ £ ic:. 



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CONTENTS. 



BOOK FIRST. 

THE CONTEST WITH THE ICONOCLASTS.— A.D. Jl6-86y. 



CHAPTER I. 



Tbe IswiTlan Dyiuwt?. — A.D. 716-797. 



i I. Characteristics of Byiantine history 

Its divisions . . . ■ ■ 

Extent and adminUtratiTe divisions of the empire 

i 1. Reign of Leo III. (the Isanriaa), a.d. 7KS-741 

Siege of Constantinople 
Ciicumstances fovourable to Leo's lefornii 
Fables concerning Leo IIL 
Militajy. financial, and legal reforms . 
Ecclesiastical policy . 
Rebellion in Greece 
Papal opposition to the Iconoclasts 
Phy^cal phenomena 
i 3. Constantine V. (Copronymtis), aj). 741-775 
Character of Constantine V. ■ 
Rebellion of ArtavBsdos 



Balgarian war .... 
Internal policy of the empire 
Policy regarding image-worship 
Physical phenomena 
Plague at Coostandoople 
VOL. II. b 



DgIC 



CONTENTS. 



f. Reignt of L«o IV. (the Khaur), CoDslintioe VI,, and Irene, . 

77S-80J 

Irene regent ....... 

RestaralioD of inugc-worahip ..... 

Secood Coancil of Nicx* ..... 

ExIinclioD of Byzantine Butbonly at Rome 

Ci>nstantiae VI. assumes the covenunent 

Divorces Maria and marries Theodola 

Opposition of monks ...... 

Persecution of Theodore Studita . . . , 

Irene dethrones hei son. Constaotine VI. 

Policy of f^venunent during the reigns of Constantine and Irene 



CHAPTER II. 



Beigiu of Nloeplionu I., HloliMl I., uid tieo V. (the 
Armeniui). — A.C 803-830. 



u Family and character of Nicephor 
Rebellion of Bardanes . 
Tolerant ecclesiastical policy . 
Oppressive fiscal administration 
Relations with Charlemagne . 
Saracen war 
Defeat of Sclavonians at Patrae 



Death of Nicepbonis I. 
f 1. Michael I. (Rhangab^). a.d. Sii-Si 

Religious zeal of Michael I. 

Bulgarian war . 

Defeat of Michael I. . 
( 3. Leo V. (the Armemaa). a.d. 813-8: 

Policy of Leo V. 

Treacherous attack on Cnunn, king of the Bulgarians 

Victory over the Bulgarians 

Affairs of Italy and Sicily 

Moderation in ecclesiastical contests . 

Coundl of the church favourable to the Iconoclasts 

Impartial administration of justice 

Conspiracy against Leo V., and his 



CHAPTER in. 

The AmorUn Dyiuutr. — A.D. 

[. Michad II. (the Stammerer), aa Sio-^ig 

Birth of Michael II 

Rebellion of Thomas .... 



D,,,iz.....A<oot^lc 



CONTENTS. 



Loss of Crete and SicUy ...... i34 

Ecdesiastiod policy . . . . . .140 

Michael's nuiriage and death ...... 141 

{ 1. Theopbiliu, aj<. 8>9-S41 ...... 141 

Anecdotes concerning the emperor*! love of justice • • 144 

Anecdotes concerning his maniage . . . 1 46 

Ecclesiastical persecation ...-.• 14S 

Love of art ,.,..-•■ 150 

Colony on the Don ....... is» 

SanccD war ....-••■ >S3 

Theophilns destroys Zapetra . . . ■ 'SS 

Motassem destroys Amoritun . . . - ■ ■ 58 

Death of Theophilus ....... 160 

i 3. Michael III, (the Drunkard) a.d. 841-367 . .161 

Regency ofliieodoni . ■ ' . i6t 

Moral aiHl religions reaction in Byianline society . . 161 

Restoration of image-worship ...... 163 

Rebellion of the Sclavoniana in the Peloponnesus . . . 166 

Saracen war ........ 166 

Persecution of the Paulicians ...... 16S 

Personalcooduct of Michael III. ..... 171 

Wealth in the Byzantine treasury ..... 17J 

Banlas ......... 173 

Ignatius and Photins ....... 175 

Origin of Papal authority in the chnrdi - . ,179 

General council in S61 , . . . .181 

Bulgarian war ........ 1S4 

Saracen war .... .... 1S6 

Victory of Fetronas . ...... 187 

Rnisians attack Constantinople . . . . 1S8 

Slate of the court ....... 190 

Assassinations ........ 193 

Origin of the tale of the blindness of Bellsarius . . .194 

nationof Michael III. ...... 196 



CHAPTER IV. 



Btate of the Brvsntlne BmpiTo daring the loonoolut Period. 



f. Public administration. Diplomatic artd commercial relations 
Constantinople was neither a Koman nor a Greek city 
The Greek race not the dominant people in the Byzantine empire 
Circumstances which modified the despotic power of the emperors 
Extent of the empire ...... 

Military strength ...... 

Loss of Italy, Sicily, and Crete .... 

Embassy of John the Grammarian to Bagdad . 

Commercial policy . . .... 

Wetilth of the Byiantin« empire and the neighbouring stales . 

b2 



031c 



1 1- Stale of sociely in the Byzantine empire during the eighth and ninth 



Dediae orcivitization . 
Influence of the Greek church . 

Theological spirit of the people 
State of science and art 
Literature 



BOOK SECOND. 

— A.D. 867-105J. 



CHAPTER 1 



S I. Reign of Basil I. (the Macedonian), *.d. afij-SBC 

Personal history 0! Ba^l I. . 

Ecclesiastical administration . 

Financial administration 

L^slation ..... 

Militaiy administration 

Paulician war ..... 

Campaigns in Asia Minor 

Saracens ravage Sicily and Italy 

Court and cliaracter of Basil I. 
( J. Leo VI. [the Philosopher), aji. 686-911 

Character and court of Leo VI. 

Ecclesiastical administration . 

Legislation ..... 

Taking of Thessalonica by the Saracens 
Expedition to reconquer Crete . 
Af&irs of Italy ..... 
Bulgarian war ..... 
{ 3. Alexander— Minority of Constantine VII.— Romanus I. 
Reign of Alexander, a.D. gii-913 
Minority of Constantine VII. (Porpbyrogenitns), t 
Sedition of Constantine Dukas 
Byzantine army defeated by Simeon, King of the Bulgaria 



.6, 
.6j 



DgIC 



CONTENTS. 



lotrignes it CoDstonlinople . 

Roaunns I. (Lecspenus) makes himself emperor, 
Conspirades against Romanns I. 
Romanus I. dethroned by his son Stephanos . 
i 4- Constantine VII. (Forphytogetiitus). Rommius U. 
Character o( Constantine VII., aji. 945-959 . 
literary works of Constantine VII, (PoipbyrogenJtDs) 
Death of Constantine VII. 
Conspiracies during his reign . 
Pride of Byzantine court 
Internal condition of the empire 
Sclavonians in the Pelopounetus 
Mainales 



Bulgarian wai—HaDgarion 
Character of Romanus II. , . 
Conquest of Crete 
Conditioo of Greece 



Italian al&iis 
959-963 



CHAPTER II. 



Period of ComiaMt and HQitarr Olorr.— A.I>. SM-I0S5. 



I. Nicephorus II. (Phokas), John 1. (Zimiskes), a.d. 9! 
AdministralioQ of Joseph Bringas 
Character of Nicephorus II. (Phokas), A.D. 963-969 

Public admioialration . 

Afiaire in Sicily. Italy, and Bulgaria 
Assassination of Nicephorus 11. 
Character of John I. (Zimibkes), a,d. 969-976 
Russian war .... 
Republic trf Chetson 
Saracen war .... 
Death of John I. 
I. Ba^l II. (Bttl^roktonos), a.D. 976-1025 
Character of Basil II. . 
Rebellion of Bardas Skleros 
Rebellion of Bardai Phokas . 
Wealth of private individuals . 
Bulgarian war .... 
Defeat of Basil II. 

Samuel, king of Bulgaria, founds the kingdc 
Defeats of Samuel 

Basil II. puts out the eyes of his prisoners 
Conquest of tile kingdom of Achrida . 
Basil n. visits Athens . 
Conquests in Annenia . 
Death of Basil II. 



DgIC 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 



Period of OonaerrktUm and SUtionair Proaperity-— 
A.D. 103B-1067. 



t, CoDsUoline Vlll., a.d. 1015-1016 

Conditioa of the empire 

Character of ConsUntine VIII. 

Govenuneot administered by his eunuchs 

OppressiTC (inandal adminisUatioa 

Many nobles deprived of sight . 

MarrUge of Zoe with Romanos Arghyros— death of Coostanlioe \ 
I. Reigns of the husbands and creatures ofZoe, A.D. 1018-10^4 . 

Conduct of Romaaus HI., 1018-1034 ' 

Conspiracies 

Saracen wai— defeat of Romanus III. . 

Exploits of Maniakes . 

Autograph of Christ taken at Edessa . 

Acquisition of Peikrin . 

Naval operations 

Death of Romanus III. 

Character of Michael IV. (the Faphlagonian), aj>. 1034-1041 

John the Orphaootrophos 

Financial oppression 

Anecdotes 

Conspiracies 

Saracens attempt to surprise Edessa 

War in Sicily . 

I.01S of Serria . 

Rebellion of the Sclavonians and Bulgarians 

Energetic conduct of Michael IV., and his death 

Michael V. (the KaJaphalei), «.d. 1041 

Zoe and Theodora, aji. 1041 . 

Meeting of Zoe and Constaniioos Dalassenos . 

Constanline IX. (Monomachos), aj*. 1041-1054 

Skleraina, the concubine of Constantine IX., empn 

Lavish expenditure 

Cruelty of Theodora . 

Sedition in Cyprus 

Rebellion of Maniakes . 

Rebellion of Tornikios . 

Court plots 

Servian war 

Russian war 

Palzinnk war . 

War in Italy . 

Conquest of Armenia . 

Invasion of the empire by the Seljouk Tui ks . 

Schism of the Greek and I^tin churches 

Death of Zoe and Constantine IX. 



CONTENTS. 



{ 3. Theodora and Michael VI. (Stntiotilcos), aj>. 1054-1057 
Chaiacter and administration of Theodora, aj>. 1054-1056 . 
Incapacity of Michael VI. ..... 

Administration transferred lo the ennucht of tbe imperial honsehold 

Consi^rac]' of great nobles in Asia Minor 

Michael VI. dethroned ..... 

General obsenvtioDt ...... 



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HISTORY OF THE BYZANTINE 
EMPIRE. 



BOOK FIRST: 
The Contest with the Iconoclasts, a.d. 716-867. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Isaurian Dynasty, a.d, 716-797^ 

Sect. I. — Characteristics of Byzantine History — Its Divisions 
— Extent and Administrative Divisions of the Empire. 

The institutions of Imperial Rome long thwarted the great 
law of man's existence which impels him to better his con- 
dition. Both the material and intellectual progress of society- 
had been deliberately opposed by the imperial legislation. 
A spirit of conservatism persuaded the legislators of the 
Roman empire that its power could not decline, if each order 
and profession of its citizens was fixed irrevocably in the 
sphere of their own peculiar duties by hereditary succession. 
An attempt was really made to divide the population into 
castes. But the political laws which were adopted to retain 
mankind in a state of stationary prosperity by these trammels. 



* Theopliuies Cp. 317) iDa]<e£ the reien of Leo IIL commence A.U. 6909. vhich 
may be from Seplember 716. but Nicephorus Falriarcha is Ckron. Compmd. at the 
end of STncetluB (p. 403) makes him reign 1^ yean. 3 months, and t j days, and 



a* he di«i on the 18th June. 741. this makes his reign conmRice Irom the ti 
he was prodoimed emperor by his troops ia March. 716. irhile Theodosius IIL 
T»s emperor at CcnUantinople. Muralt. £biii dt Ckniiologit Byzaniimr, p. 336. 
VOL. II. B 

r 



2 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.I.{i. 
depopulated and impoverished the empire, and threatened to 
dissolve the very elements of society. The Western Empire, 
under their operation, fell a prey to small tribes of northern 
nations ; the Eastern was so depopulated that it was on the 
eve of being repeopled by Sclavonian colonists, and conquered 
by Saracen invaders. 

The accession of Leo the Isaurian opened a new era in the 
Eastern Empire, and under his government the empire not 
only ceased to decline, but even began to regain much of its 
early vigour. Reformed modifications of the old Roman 
authority developed new energy. Great political reforms, 
and still greater changes in the condition of the people, mark 
the eighth century as an epoch of transition, though the im- 
proved condition of the mass of the population is in some 
degree concealed by the prominence given to the disputes 
concerning image-worship in the records of this period. But 
the increased strength of the empire, and the energy infused 
into the administration, are forcibly displayed by the fact, 
that the Byzantine armies began from this time to oppose 
a firm barrier to the progress of the invaders of the empire. 

When Leo IIL was proclaimed Emperor, it seemed as if no 
human power could save Constantinople from falling as Rome 
had fallen. The Saracens considered the sovereignty of every 
land, in which any remains of Roman civilization survived, as 
within their grasp. Leo, an Isaurian, and consequently a 
foreigner, ascended the throne of Constantine, and arrested 
the victorious career of the Mohammedans. He then re- 
organized the whole administration so completely in accord- 
ance with the new exigencies of Eastern society, that the 
reformed empire outlived for many centuries every govern- 
ment contemporary with its establishment 

The Eastern Roman Empire, thus reformed, is called by 
modern historians the Byzantine Empire ; and the term is 
well devised to mark the changes effected in the government, 
after the extinction of the last traces of the military monarchy 
of ancient Rome. The social condition of the inhabitants of 
the Eastern Empire had already undergone a considerable 
change during the century which elapsed from the accession 
of Heraclius to that of Leo, from the influence of causes to be 
noticed in the following pages ; and this change in society 
created a new phase in the Roman empire. The gradual 



DgIC 



COMMENCEMENT OF BYZANTINE EMPIRE. 3 

"». 716-797.] 

prepress of this change has led some writers to date the com- 
mencement of the Byzantine Empire as early as the reigns of 
Zeno and Anastasius, and others to descend so late as the 
times of Maurice and Heraclius^ But as the Byzantine 
Empire was only a continuation of the Roman govemment 
under a reformed system, it seems most correct to date its 
commencement from the period when the new social and 
political modifications produced a visible effect on the fate 
of the Eastern Empire. This period is marked by the acces- 
sion of Leo the Isaurian. 

The administrative system adopted by Constantine con- 
tinued in operation, though subjected to frequent reforms, 
until Constantinople was stormed by the Crusaders, and the 
Greek church enslaved by papal domination. The General 
Council of Nicaea, and the dedication of the imperial city, 
with their concomitant legislative, administrative, and judicial 
institutions, engendered a succession of pcJitical measures, 
whose direct relations were uninterrupted until terminated by 
foreign conquest. The govemment of Great Britain has under- 
gone greater changes during the last three centuries than that 
of the Eastern Empire during the nine centuries which elapsed 
from the foundation of Constantinople in 330, to its conquest 
in 1204. 

Yet Leo III. has strong claims to be regarded as the first 
of a new series of emperors. He was the founder of a dynasty, 
the saviour of Constantinople, and the reformer of the church 
and state. He was the first Christian sovereign who arrested 
the torrent of Mohammedan conquest; he improved the con- 
dition of his subjects; he attempted to purify their religion 
from the superstitious reminiscences of Hellenism, with which 
it was still debased, and to stop the development of a quasi- 
idolatiy in the orthodox church- Nothing can prove more 
decidedly the right of his empire to assume a new name than 
the contrast presented by the condition of its inhabitants to 



• ' Clinton, Foili RomoHi, Introduction, p. »iii. says, ' The empire of Rome, pro- 
peily so called, ends at a.d. 476.' which is Ihe tbiril year of Zeno. Numismatists 

place Ihe commcncemenl of the Byiantine empire io the reign of Anastasius I. 
Saulcy, Essai dt Classifiealion da Suim Monitaint Byianlina. Gibbon tells us, 
'Tiberius by the Arabs, and Maurice by the Itslians. are dbtinguished as the first 
of the Greek Caesars, as the founders of a new dynasty and empire. The silent 
revolution was accomplished before the death of Heraclius.' Dttliru and Fall, 
c liii ; vol. vii p. 38, edit. Smith. 



ityGoogIc 



4 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.I.|i. 
that of the subjects of the preceding dynasty. Under the 
successors of Heraclius, the Roman Empire presents the 
spectacle of a declining society, and its thinly-peopled pro- 
vinces were exposed to the intrusion of foreign colonists and 
hostile invaders. But, under Leo, society offers an aspect of 
improvement and prosperity; the old population revives from 
its lethai^y, and soon increases, both in number and strength, 
to such a d^ree as to drive back all intruders on its territories. 
In the records of human civilization, Leo the Isaurian must 
always occupy a high position, as a type of what the central 
power in a state can effect even in a declining empire. 

Before reviewing the history of Leo's reign, and recordii^ 
his brilliant exploits, it is necessary to sketch the condition to 
which the Roman administrative system had reduced the 
empire. It would be an instructive lesson to trace the pro- 
gress of the moral and mental decline of the Greeks, from the 
age of Plato and Aristotle to the time of the sixth oecumenical 
council, in the reign of Justinian JI. ; for the moral evils 
nourished in Greek society degraded the nation, before the 
oppressive government of the Romans impoverished and 
depopulated Greece. When the imperial authority was fully 
established, we easily trace the manner in which the inter- 
communication of different provinces and orders of society 
became gradually restricted to the operations of material 
interests, and how the limitation of ideas yose from this want 
of communication, until at length civilization decayed. Good 
roads and commodious passage-boats have a more direct con- 
nection with the development of human culture, as we see it 
reflected in the works of Phidias and the writings of Sopho- 
cles, than is generally believed. Under the jealous system of 
the imperial government, the isolation of place and class 
became so complete, that even the highest members of the 
aristocracy received their ideas from the inferior domestics 
with whom they habitually associated in their own house- 
holds—not from the transitory intercourse they held with 
able and experienced men of their own class, or with philo- 
sophic and religious teachers. Nurses and slaves implanted 
their ignorant superstitions in the households where the rulers 
of the empire and the provinces were reared ; and no public 
assemblies existed, where discussion could efface such impres- 
sions. Family education became a more influential feature 



DgIC 



DECLINE OF SOCIETY. 5 

A.D. 71 6-797-] 

in society than public instruction ; and though family educa- 
tion, from the fourth to the seventh century, appears to have 
improved the morality of the population, it certainly increased 
superstition and limited men's understandings. Emperors, 
senators, landlords, and merchants, were alike educated under 
these influences ; and though the church and the law opened 
a more enlarged circle of ideas, from creating a deeper sense 
of responsibility, still the prejudices of early education circum- 
scribed the sense of duty more and more in each succes- 
sive generation. The military class, which was the most 
powerful in society, consisted almost entirely of mere barba- 
rians. The mental d^radation, resulting from superstition, 
bigotry, and ignorance, which forms the marked social feature 
of the period between the reigns of Justinian I. and Leo III., 
brought the Eastern Empire to the state of depopulation and 
weakness that had delivered the Western a prey to small 
tribes of invaders. 

The fiscal causes of the depopulation of the Roman empire 
have been noticed in a prior volume, as well as the extent to 
which immigrants had intruded themselves on the soil of 
Greece'. The corruption of the ancient language took place 
at the same time, and arose out of the causes which dis- 
seminated ignorance. At the accession of Leo, the disorder 
in the central administration, the anarchy in the provincial 
government, and the ravages of the Sclavonians and Saracens, 
had rendered the condition of the people intolerable. The 
Roman government seemed incapable of upholding legal 
order in society, and its extinction was regarded as a proxi- 
mate event^. All the provinces between the shores of the 
Adriatic and the banks of the Danube had been abandoned 
to Sclavonian tribes. Powerful colonies of Sclavonians had 
been planted by Justinian 11. in Macedonia and Bithynia, in 
the rich valleys of the Strymon and the Artanes*. Greece , 
was filled with pastoral and agricultural hordes of the same 
race, who became in many districts the sole cultivators of the 

■ Grtect tindtr tht Ramans, pp. 38, 399. 

' This feeling can be traced as early as Ihe reign of Maurice. Theopbylaclui 
Simocatta (p- ") records that an angel appeared in a dream to the Emperor 
Tiberius II., and uttered these words; 'The Lord announces to thee, O emperor, 
that in thy reign (he days of anarchy shall cot commence.' 

' Constant. Porphyr. Dt Thtm. lib. ii. p. ij, edit. Paris; Theoph. 304, 305, 36^; 
Nicephonis Pair. 44, eiliL Paris. 



DgIC 



6 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.I.f I. 
soil, and effaced the memory of the names of mountains and 
streams, which will be immortal in the world's literature*. 
The Bulgarians plundered all Thrace to the walls of Constan- 
tinople*. Thessalonica was repeatedly besieged by Sclavo- 
nians^ The Saracens inundated Asia Minor with their 
armies, and were preparing to extirpate Christianity in the 
East. Such was the crisis at which Leo was proclaimed 
emperor by the army, in Amorium, A.D. 716. 

Yet peculiar circumstances in the condition of the surviving 
population, and an inherent vigour in the principles of the 
Roman administration, still operated powerfully in resisting 
foreign domination. The people felt the necessity of defend- 
ing the administration of the law, and of upholding com- 
mercial intercourse. The ties of interest consequently ranged 
a large body of the inhabitants of every province round the 
central administration at this hour of difficulty. The very 
circumstances which weakened the power of the court of 
Constantinople, conferred on the people an increase of 
authority, and enabled them to take effectual measures for 
their own defence. This new energy may be traced in the 
resistance which Ravenna and Cherson offered to the tyranny 
of Justinian II. * The orthodox church, also, served as an 
additional bond of union among the people, and throughout 
the wide extent of the imperial dominions its influence 
connected the local feelings of the parish with the general 
interests of the church and the empire. The misfortunes, 
which brought the state to the verge of ruin, relieved com- 
merce from much fiscal oppression and many monopolies. 
Facilities were thus given to trade, which afforded to the 
population of the towns additional sources of employment 
The commerce of the Eastern Empire had already gained 
by the conquests of the barbarians in the West, for the 
ruling classes in the countries conquered by the Goths and 
Franks destroyed many monopolies and local privil^es ; 
and they rarely engaged in trade or accumulated capital*. 

I Constant. Porphyr. Or Tiam. il. p. 15; Slrabomi Epil. vol. iii. p. 386, edit. 
Corny. MaratboD became Vrana; Salamis, Kiluri ; Plataea, Kochia; Myceae, 
Kharvati; Olyropia, Miraka; and Delphi, ICastri. 

' Theoph. 3 JO. 

* Tafel, Dt Thtaalonica iJHiqui Agro, prol. xciv. 

' This fad explains the increase m the numbers of the Jews, and their commer- 
cial imporUoce, in the seventh century. The conquered Romans were bound to 



DgIC 



DECLINE OF SOCIETY. 7 

AJi. 716-79M 

The advantage of possessing a systematic administration 
of justice, enforced by a fixed legal procedure, attached 
the commercial classes and the town population to the 
person of the emperor, whose authority was considered the 
fountain of legal order and judicial impartiality. A fixed 
legislation, and an uninterrupted administration of justice, 
prevented the political anarchy that prevailed under the suc- 
cessors of Heraclius from ruining society ; while the arbitrary 
judicial power of provincial governors, in the dominions 
of the caliphs, rendered property ■ insecure, and undermined 
national wealth. 

There was likewise another feature in the Eastern Empire 
which deserves notice. The number of towns was very 
great, and they were generally more populous than the 
political state of the country would lead us to expect. In- 
deed, to estimate the density of the urban population, in 
comparison with the extent of territory from which it appar- 
ently derived its supplies, we must compare it with the actual 
condition of Malta and Guernsey, or with the state of Lom- 
bardy and Tuscany in the middle ages. This density of 
population, joined to the great difference in the price of the 
produce of the soil in various places, afforded the Roman 
government the power of collecting from its subjects an 
amount of taxation unparalleled in modem times, except 
in E^ypt'. The whole surplus profits of society were 

their corporations by their own law, to which they ching, and almost (o the trades 
of their fathers ; for the Rotnaos were serfs of their corporations before serfdom 
was extended by their conqueron to the soil. Compare Cod. Thsod. lib. x. t. lo, 
1. 10, with Cod. ytaiin. lib. xi. t. 47 it uq. One of the three ambassadors sent by 
ChariemBgne to Haroun A\ Rashid was a Jew. He was doubtless charged with 
the commercial business. 

' The peculiarities in Egypt, which enabled the government of Mehemet Ali to 
extract about two millions sterling annually from a population of two millions of 
paupers, were the following : The surplus in the produce of the country makes the 
price of the immense quantity produced in Upper Egypt very low. Government 
can. consequently, either impose a tax on the produce of the upper country equal 
to the difference of price at Siout and Alexandria, less the expense of transport, or 
it can constitute itself the sole master of the transport on the Nile, and make 
a monopoly both of the right of purchase and of freight. The expense of trans- 
port is trifling, as the stream carries a loaded boat steadily down the river, while 
the north wind drives an ei^ly one up against the current, almost with the regu- 
larity of a Bteam-engine. The Nile offers, in this manner, all the advantages of a 
railway, nature having constructed the road and supplied the locomotive power: 
while a monopoly of their use is vested in the hand) of every tyrant who rules the 
conntry. Mehemet Ali, not content with this, created an almost universal mono- 
poly in fiivour of his government. The whole produce of the country was pur- 
chased at a tariff price, the cultivator being only allowed to retain the means of 
perpetuating his class. The number of towns and the density of population in the 



DgIC 



8 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.I. {1. 
annually drawn into the coffers of the state, leaving the 
inhabitants only a bare sufficiency for perpetuating the race 
of tax-payers. History, indeed, shows that the agricultural 
classes, from the labourer to the landlord, were unable to 
retain possession of the savings required to replace that de- 
preciation which time is constantly producing in all vested 
capital, and that their numbers gradually diminished. 

After the accession of Leo III., a new condition of society 
is soon apparent ; and though many old political evils con- 
tinued to exist, it becomes evident that a greater d^[ree of 
personal liberty, as well as greater security for property, was 
henceforth guaranteed to the mass of the inhabitants of the 
empire. Indeed, no other government of which history has 
preserved the records, unless it be that of China, has secured 
equal advantages to its subjects for so long a period. The 
empires of the caliphs and of Charlemagne, though historians 
have celebrated their praises loudly, cannot, in their best 
days, compete with the administration oi^anized by Leo 
on this point ; and both sank into ruin while the Byzantine 
empire continued to flourish in full vigour. It must be 
confessed that eminent historians present a totally different 
picture of Byzantine history to their readers. Voltaire speaks 
of it as a worthless repertory of declamation and miracles, 
disgraceful to the human mind ^. Even the sagacious Gib- 
bon, after enumerating with just pride the extent of his 
labours, adds, ' From these considerations, I should have 
abandoned without regret the Greek slaves and their servile 
historians, had I not reflected that the fate of the Byzantine 
monarchy is passively connected with the most splendid and 
important revolutions which have changed the state of the 
world *.' The views of Byzantine history unfolded in the 
following pages, are frequently in direct opposition to these 
great authorities. The defects and vices of the political 
system will be carefully noticed, but the splendid achieve- 

Byiantine emi)ire arose from the immense anount of capital which ages of security 
had expended in itnproving the 5oil. and from its cullivatioa as garden-land with 
the spade and mattock. Both these facts are easily proved. 

' Lt PyrrhoHitnu di rmsioiri, chap, iv. bo« i. Whh this remark, the records 
of an empire, which witnessed the rise and fall of the Caliphs and the Carlovin- 
^ana, are dismissed by one who exclaimed, •ydrtrni aux naiiaa It bmidum di 

' Dtilmt and FaU, chap, xlviii. vol. vi. p. 70, edit. Smith. 

D.j.icdt, Google 



DIVISIONS OF BYZANTINE HISTORY. 9 

AJ.. 716-797.] 

ments of the emperors, and the great merits of the judicial 
and ecclesiastical establishments, will be contrasted with their 
faults. 

The history of the Byzantine empire divides itself into 
three periods, stroi^ly marked by distinct characteristics. 

The first period commences with the reign of Leo III. in 
716, and terminates with that of Michael III. in 867, It 
comprises the whole history of the predominance of the 
Iconoclasts in the established church, and of the reaction 
which reinstated the orthodox in power. It opens with the 
efforts by which Leo and the people of the empire saved 
Roman law and Christianity from the conquering Saracens. 
It embraces a long and violent struggle between the govern- 
ment and the people, the emperors seeking to increase the 
central power by annihilating every local franchise, and even 
the right of private opinion, among their subjects. The 
contest concerning image- worship, from the prevalence of 
ecclesiastical ideas, became the expression of this stru^le. 
Its object was as much to consolidate the supremacy of the 
imperial authority, as to purify the practice of the church. 
The emperors wished to constitute themselves the fountains 
of ecclesiastical as completely as of civil legislation. 

The loi^ and bloody wars of this period, and the vehement 
character of the sovereigns who filled the throne, attract the 
attention of those who love to dwell on the romantic facts of 
history. Unfortunately, the biographical sketches and in- 
dividual characters of the heroes of these ages lie concealed 
in the dullest chronicles. But the true historical feature 
of this memorable period is the aspect of a declining empire, 
saved by the moral vigour developed in society, and of 
the central authority struggling to restore national prosperity. 
Never was such a succession of able sovereigns seen following 
one another on any other throne. The stern Iconoclast, Leo 
the Isaurian, opens the line as the second founder of the 
Eastern Empire. His son, the fiery Constantine, who was 
said to prefer the odour of the stable to the perfumes of his 
palaces, replanted the Christian standards on the banks of 
the Euphrates. Irene, the beautiful Athenian, presents a 
strange combination of talent, heartlessness, and orthodoxy. 
The finance minister, Nicephorus, perishes on the field of 
battle like an old Roman. The Armenian Leo falls at 



DgIC 



lo ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.I.{t. 
the altar of his private chapel, murdered as he is singing 
psalms with his deep voice, before day-dawn. Michael the 
Amorian, who stammered Greek with his native Phrygian 
accent, became the founder of an imperial dynasty, destined 
to be extinguished by a Sclavonian groom. The accom- 
plished Theophilus lived in an age of romance, both in action 
and hterature. His son, Michael, the last of the Amorian 
family, was the only contemptible prince of this period, 
and he was certainly the most despicable buffoon that ever 
occupied a throne. 

The second period commences with the reign of Basil I. 
in 867, and terminates with the deposition of Michael VI. 
in 1057. During two centuries the imperial sceptre was 
retained by members of the Basilian family, or held by 
those who shared their throne as guardians or husbands. 
At this time the Byzantine empire attained its highest pitch 
of external power and internal prosperity. The Saracens 
were pursued into the plains of Syria. Antioch and Edessa 
were reunited to the empire. The Bulgarian monarchy was 
conquered, and the Danube became again the northern 
frontier. The Sclavonians in Greece were almost exter- 
minated. Byzantine commerce filled the whole Mediter- 
ranean, and legitimated the claim of the emperor of 
Constantinople to the title of Autocrat of the Mediterranean 
sea •- But the real glory of this period consists in the power 
of the law. Respect for the administration of justice pervaded 
society more generally than it had ever done at any preceding 
period of the history of the world — a fact which our greatest 
historians have overlooked, though it is all-important in the 
history of human civilization. 

The third period extends from the accession of Isaac I. 
(Comnenus) in 1057, to the conquest of the Byzantine empire 
by the Crusaders in 1204. This is the true period of the 
decline and fall of the Eastern Empire. It commenced by 
a rebellion of the great nobles of Asia, who effected an 
internal revolution in the Byzantine empire by wrenching 
the administration out of the hands of well-trained officials, 
and destroying the responsibility created by systematic 

» Constant. Porphyr. D« Tiitm. ii. p, 37 : Aii tJ Ti* hirrosf&TCfa SanrTavmnni- 



DKjiiiz.vjtyCoo'^ic 



VARIOUS NATIONS IN THE EMPIRE. II 

ij). 716-797.] 

procedure. A despotism supported by personal influence 
soon ruined the scientific fabric which had previously upheld 
the imperial power. The people were ground to the earth by 
a fiscal rapacity, over which the splendour of the house of 
Comnenus throws a thin veil. The wealth of the empire was 
dissipated, its prosperity destroyed, the administration of 
justice comipted, and the central authority lost all control 
over the population, when a band of 30,000 adventurers, 
masked as crusaders, put an end to the Roman empire of the 
East 

In the eighth and ninth centuries the Byzantine empire 
continued to embrace many nations differing from the Greeks 
in language and manners. Even in religion there was a 
strong tendency to separation, and many of the heresies 
noticed in history assumed a national character, while the 
orthodox church circumscribed itself more and more within 
the nationality of the Greeks, and forfeited its oecumenical 
characteristics. The empire still included within its limits 
Romans, Greeks, Armenians, Isaurians, Lycaonians, Phry- 
gians, Syrians, and Gallo-Grecians. The great Thracian race, 
which had once been inferior in number only to the Indian, 
and which, in the first century of our era, had excited the 
attention of Vespasian by the extent of the territory it 
occupied, had now almost disappeared '. Great part of the 
country formerly peopled by the Thracian race was now 
peopled by Sclavonian tribes. A diminished Greek and 
Roman population survived in the towns, and the Bulgarians, 
a Turkish tribe, ruled as the dominant race from Mount 
Haemus to the Danube. The range of Mount Haemus 
generally formed the Byzantine frontier to the north, and its 
mountain passes were guarded by imperial garrisons^. Scla- 
vonian colonies had established themselves over all the 
European provinces, and penetrated into the Peloponnesus. 
The military government of Stiymon, above the passes in the 
plain of Heraclea Sintica, was formed to prevent the country 
to the south of Mounts Orbelus and Skomius from becoming 
an independent Sclavonian state. 

' Herod, v. 3 ; Eiistathius Thess, Comm. m Dlonyt. Ptrkgetem, v. 513. 
* The country wiihia Mount Haemus, called Zigora, was only uded to the 
Bulgarians in the reign o( Michael III. Scriflorts foil Thtoph. ; Conlio. 101 ; ihid. 
. Symcon Mag. 440; Cedrenus, i. 446; ii. 541. 



DgIC 



I a ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.I. ti. 

The provincial divisions of the Roman empire had fallen 
into oblivion. A new geographical arrangement into Themes 
appears to have been established by Heraclius, when he 
recovered the Asiatic provinces from the Persians : it was 
reorganized by Leo, and endured as long as the Byzantine 
government'. The number of themes varied at different 
periods. The Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, writing 
about the middle of the tenth century, counts sixteen in the 
Asiatic portion of the empire, and twelve in the European. 

Seven great themes are particularly prominent in Asia 
Mi^or^ Optimaton, Opsikion, the Thrakesian, the Anatolic, 
the Bukellarian, the Kibyrraiot, and the Armeniac. In each 
of these a large military force was permanently maintained, 
under the command of a general of the province ; and in 
Opsikion, the Thrakesian, and the Kibyrraiot, a naval force 
was likewise stationed under its own officers. The com- 
manders of the troops were called Strat^oi, those of the 
navy Drungarioi. Several subordinate territorial divisions 
existed, called Tourms, and separate military commands were 
frequently established for the defence of important passes, 
traversed by great lines of communication, called Kleisouras. 
Several of the ancient nations in Asia Minor still continued to 
preserve their national peculiarities, and this circumstance has 



' The term ihtma was first applied to ihe Roman lej-ion. The military districts, 
garrisoaed by legions, were then called ihimata, and ultimately Ihe word was used 
merely to indicate geogiapMcii,! administrative divisions. Ducange, Glouariim 



towards the Bosphoras. 6. Buitllarion, Galalia. 7. Paphlagon. 
the country about Trcbiiond. 9. Mesopotamia, the trifling possessions of the 
empire on the Mesopatamian frontier. lo. Kotontia, the country between Pontus 
and Armenia Minor, through which the Lycus flows, near Neocaesarca. 11. Si- 
baileia. the second Armenia (Script, post Thioph. in), ij. Lycandos, a theme 
formed by Leo VI. (the Wise) on the border of Anuenia. 13. Tht Kibyrraiot, 
Caria. Lycia, and the coast of Cilicia. 14. Cyprus. 15. Samoi. 16. Tlu Atgtan. 
Cappadocia is mentioned as a theme (Script, post Thtopk. iij) and Charsiania 
(Genesius, 46), They had formed pari of the Armeniac theme. 

The twelve European themes were;— 1. Thrait. 1. Macedonia. 3. SlrymoH. 
4. Thrsiolonica. 5. Htllas. b. Piloponnems. J. Ctphalltnia. 8. Nicopolis. 9. Dyr- 
rachium. 10. Sicily. 11. Longibardia (Calabria). 13. Cktrion. The islands of 
the Archipelago, which fonn^ the 16th Asiatic theme, were the usual station 
of the European naval squadron, under Ihe command of a Drungarios. They are 
often called Dodtkan»sos, and their admiral was nn officer of consideration at Ibe 
end of the eighth century. Th'oph. 383. The list of the themes given by Con- 
stantine Porphyrogenitus is traditional, not from offidal documents. Cyprus and 
Sicily had been conquered by the Arabs long before he wrote. 



LEO THE ISAURIAN. 1 3 

A.D. 716-797.] 

induced the Byzantine writers frequently to mention their 
countries as recc^ised geographical divisions of the empire. 

The European provinces were divided into eight continental 
and five insular or transmarine themes, until the loss of the 
exarchate of Ravenna reduced the number to twelve. Venice 
and Naples, though they acknowledged the suzerainty of the 
Eastern Empire, acted generally as independent cities. Sar- 
dinia was lost about the time of Leo's accession, and the 
circumstances attending its conquest by the Saracens are 
unknown. 

The ecclesiastical divisions of the empire underwent fre- 
quent modifications ; but after the provinces of Epirus, Greece, 
and Sicily were withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the Pope, 
and placed under that of the Patriarch of Constantinople by 
Leo III., that patriarchate embraced the whole Byzantine 
empire. It was then divided into 52 metropolitan dioceses, 
which were subdivided into 649 suffragan bishoprics, and 
13 archbishoprics, in which the prelates were independent 
(airoK^^oAoi), but without any suffragans. There were, more- 
over, 34 titular archbishops'. 



Sect. 11-^— Reign of Leo TIL {ike /saurian), A.D. 716-741 K 

Saracen mir. — Siege of CoDGtaiitinople. — Circumstances bvanmble to Leo's 
refonns. — Fables conceniiiiE Leo. — MiliUiy, financial, and legal reforms. — 
Ecclesiastical policy. — Rebellion in Greece. — Papal opposition.— Physical phe- 



When Leo was raised to the throne, the empire was threat- 
ened with immediate ruin. Six emperors had been dethroned 
within the space of twenty-one years. Of these, four perished 
by the hand of the public executioner^, one died in obscurity, 
after being deprived of sight*, and the other was only allowed 
to end his days peacefully in a monastery, because Leo felt 
the imperial sceptre firmly fixed in his own grasp*. Every 

' Compare Codinus. Noiliiat Graeeamm Efiitopaluum, with the index to the 
fint volume of Le Quien, Oritns CArua'anut. 

' The most complete work on the history of the Iconoclast period ia that of 
Schlosser, Gtiehicku dtr Bitdtnlwviaidtn Kainr, iSii. It is a work of letuning 
and original lesearch. 

* I^eoncius, Tiberius III. (Apsimar), Justinian 11., Ptiilippicas. 

* Anastasius 11. ' Theodosius in. ' 



A'OogIc 



14 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk-I-Ch-I-S*. 
army assembled to encounter the Saracens had broken out 
into rebellion. The Bulgarians and Sclavonians wasted Europe 
up to the walls of Constantinople ; the Saracens ravaged the 
whole of Asia Minor to the shores of the Bosphorus. 

Amorium was the principal city of the theme Anatolikon'. 
The Caliph Suleiman sent his brother, Moslemah, with a 
numerous army, to complete the conquest of the Roman 
empire, which appeared to be an enterprise of no extra- 
ordinary difficulty, and Amorium was besi^ed by the Sara- 
cens. Leo, who commanded the Byzantine troops, required 
some time to concert the operations by which he hoped to 
raise the siege. To gain the necessary delay, he opened 
negotiations with the invaders, and, under the pretext of 
hastening the conclusion of the treaty, he visited the Saracen 
general engaged in the siege with an escort of only 500 horse. 
The Saracens were invited to suspend their attacks until the 
decision of Moslemah — who was at the head of another 
division of the Mohammedan army — could be known. In 
an interview which took place with the bishop and principal 
inhabitants of Amorium, relating to the proffered terms, Leo 
contrived to exhort them to continue their defence, and assured 
them of speedy succour. The besiegers, nevertheless, pressed 
forward their approaches. Leo, after his interview with the 
Amorians, proposed that the Saracen general should accom- 
pany him to the headquarters of Moslemah. The Saracen 
readily agreed to an arrangement which would enable him 
to deliver so important a hostage to the commander-in-chief. 
The wary Isaurian, who well knew that he would be closely 
watched, had made his plan of escape. On reaching a narrow 
defile, from which a cross road led to the advanced posts of 
his own army, Leo suddenly drew his sabre and attacked the 
Saracens about his person ; while his guards, who were pre- 
pared for the signal, easily opened a way through the two 
thousand hostile cavalry of the escort, and all reached the 
Byzantine camp in safety. Leo's subsequent military disposi- 
tions and diplomatic negotiations induced the enemy to raise 
the siege of Amorium, and the grateful inhabitants united 
with the army in saluting him Emperor of the Romans. But 



LEO'S DIFFICULTIES. 15 

in his arrangements with Moslemah, he is accused by his 
enemies of having agreed to conditions which facilitated the 
further progress of the Mohammedans, in order to secure his 
own march to Constantinople, On this march he was opposed 
by the son of Theodosius III., whom he defeated. Theodo- 
sius resigned his crown, and retired into a monastery': Leo 
made his triumphal entry into the capital by the Golden 
Gate, and was crowned by the Patriarch in the church of St. 
Sophia on the 25th of March 717. 

The position of Leo continued to be one of extreme diffi- 
culty. The Caliph Suleiman, who had seen one private 
adventurer succeed the other in quick succession on the impe- 
rial throne, deemed the moment favourable for the final 
conquest of the Christians ; and he ordered his brother 
Moslemah, whose army he reinforced, to lay siege to Con- 
stantinople. The Saracen empire had now reached its 
greatest extent. From the banks of the Jihun and the Indus 
to the shores of the Atlantic in Mauretania and Spain, the 
orders of Suleiman were implicitly obeyed. The conquest 
of Spain in the West, and of Fergana, Cashgar, and Sind in 
the East, had animated the confidence of the Mohammedans 
to such a degree that no enterprise appeared difficult. The 
army Moslemah led against Constantinople was the best- 
appointed that had ever been assembled by the followers of 
Mahomet to attack the Christians : it consisted of eighty 
thousand warriors. The caliph announced his intention of 
taking the field in person with additional forces, should the 
capital of the Christians offer a protracted resistance to the 
arms of Islam. The whole expedition is said to have em- 
ployed one hundred and eighty thousand men ; and the 
number does not appear to be greatly exaggerated, if it be 
supposed to include the sailors of the fleet, and the reinforce- 
ments which reached the camp before Constantinople'. 

Moslemah, after capturing Pergamos, marched to Abydos, 

• Theodosius ended his life al Epheaus, where he was buried in the church of 
St. Philip. He ordered that his lombstooe should bear qo ioscriptioa but the 
word TriEIA— ■ Health,' 

' Compare Const. Potphyr, Di Adm. Imp. c it, p. 74. with Weil. Goekiehtt dtr 
Ckati/tn, I. f;66, 571, note, and Price, Maltomnudan Empiri, i. 518. These numbers 
enable us to estimate the credit due to the Western chronicles coQceming the 
plundering expedition of Abd-el-Rahman into France, which was de(eat«l by 
Charles Martel. Paulus Diaconus (lib. vi. c 47) says that three hundred thoustuia 
Samceoa perished during the siege of Constaatinople. 



o^^le 



1(5 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.t.Ch.I.(i. 
where he was joined by the Saracen fleet. He then trans- 
ported his army across the Hellespont, and, marching along 
the shore of the Propontis, invested Leo in his capital both by 
land and sea. The strong walls of Constantinople and the 
engines of defence with which Roman and Greek art had 
covered the ramparts, directed by the skill of the Byzantine 
engineers, rendered every attempt to carry the place by assault 
hopeless, so that the Saracens were compelled to trust to the 
effect of a strict blockade for gaining possession of the city. 
They surrounded their camp with a deep ditch, and strength- 
ened it with a strong dyke. Moslemah then sent out large 
detachments to collect forage and destroy the provisions, 
which might otherwise find their way into the besieged city. 
The presence of an active enemy and a populous city required 
constant vigilance on the part of a great portion of his land 
forces. 

The Saracen fleet consisted of eighteen hundred vessels of 
war and transports. In order to form the blockade, it was 
divided into two squadrons : one was stationed on the Asiatic 
coast, in the ports of Eutropius' and Anthimus, to prevent 
supplies arriving from the Archipelago ; the other occupied 
the bay on the European shore above the point of Galata, in 
order to cut off all communication with the Black Sea and 
the cities of Cherson and Trebiaond, The first naval engage- 
ment took place as the fleet was taking up its position within 
the Bosphorus. The current, rendered impetuous by a change 
of wind, threw the heavy ships and transports into confusion. 
The besieged directed some fireships against the crowded 
vessels, and succeeded in burning several, and driving others 
on shore under the walls of Constantinople. The Saracen 
admiral, Suleiman, confident in the number of his remaining 
ships of war, resolved to avenge his partial defeat by a com- 
plete victory. He placed one hundred chosen Arabs, in 
complete armour, in each of his best vessels, and, advancing 
to the walls of Constantinople, made a vigorous attempt to 
enter the place by assault, as it was entered long after by 
Doge Dandolo. Leo was well prepared to repulse the attack, 
and, under his experienced guidance, the Arabs were com- 
pletely defeated. A number of the Saracen ships were 

' Mundi BuiuoQ. 



J, Google 



SIEGE OF CONSTANTINOPLE. i^ 

AJ^ 716-741.] 

burned by the Greek fire which the besieged launched from 
their walls ', After this defeat, Suleiman withdrew the Euro- 
pean squadron of his fleet into the Sosthenian bay. 

The besiegers encamped before Constantinople on the 15th 
August 717. The Caliph Suleiman died before he was able 
to send any reinforcements to his brother. The winter proved 
unusually severe. The country all round Constantinople 
remained covered with deep snow for many weeks*. The 
greater part of the horses and camels in the camp of Moslemah 
perished ; numbers of the best soldiersj accustomed to the 
mild winters of Syria, died from having neglected to take the 
requisite precautions against the cold of a northern climate. 
The difficulty of procuring food ruined the discipline of the 
troops. These misfortunes were increased by the untimely 
death of the admiral, Suleiman. In the mean time, Leo and 
the inhabitants of Constantinople, having made the necessary 
preparations for a long siege, passed the winter in security, 
A fleet, fitted out at Alexandria, brought supplies to Mos- 
lemah in spring. Four hundred transports, escorted by men- 
of-war, sailed past Constantinople, and, entering the Bos- 
phonis, took up their station at Kalos Agros'. Another 
fleet, almost equally numerous, arrived soon after from Africa, 
and anchored in the bays on the Bithynian coast*. These 
positions rendered the current a protection against the fire- 
ships of the garrison of Constantinople. The crews of the 
new transports were in great part composed of Christians, 
and the weak condition of Moslemah's anny filled them with 
fear. Many conspired to desert. Seizing the boats of their 
respective vessels during the night, numbers escaped to 
Constantinople, where they informed the emperor of the exact 
disposition of the whole Saracen force. Leo lost no time in 

' On the sabjeM of Greek liie, w* Reiiiaud et Fav£, Da Feu Onga's, chap, iil., 
Paris, 1845; and Purvey, Mftnoiri ivr la Ditomtru tris-anciiane (n Asit di la 
Poudri & Caaan tl da Armtt i Ftu, Paris, 1850. The efficacity of Creek lite axox 
from Ihe drcDniEtance of the combatants being compelled to bring large masses 
into closer vicinity and more direct collision than in modem tactics. 

' Theophanes (331) and Nicephonis Pat. (35), with the oidiniry love of the 
marvellous, say the snow coveted the ground for a hundred days. 

■ Buyuk-der*. and not a place in Bilhynia, as Le Beau {Hiuain du Bas-Empirs, 
xii. IiS) and Schlosser {Gt^chicku dtr bildtrslurmendtn Kaiar, 151) infer from 
'Niceph.Fat. 35, See Ducange, Coiat. Ckrin. 177; and Gyllius, Dt Bosph. Tknu. 
ii clutp. xviii p. 301. 

* Theophanes (331) says this fleet consisted of 360 transports. It anchored at 
Satyros, Biyu, and Kartalimen. 

VOL. II. C 



DjizcJtyGoOgle 



1 8 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.I. {«. 
taking advantage of the enemy's embarrassments. Fireships 
were sent with a favourable wind among the transports, while 
ships of war, furnished with engines for throwing Greek fire, 
increased the confusion. This bold attack was successful, and 
a part of the naval force of the Saracens was destroyed. 
Some ships fell a prey to the flames, some were driven on 
shore, and some were captured by the Byzantine squadron. 
The blockade was now at an end ; Moslemah's troops were 
dying from want, while the besieged were living in plenty; 
but the Saracen obstinately persisted in maintaining pos- 
session of his camp in Europe. It was not until his foraging 
parties were repeatedly cut off, and all the beasts of burden 
were consumed as food, that he consented to allow the 
standard of the Prophet to "retreat before the Christians. 
The remains of his army were embarked in the relics of the 
fleet, and on the 15th of August 718, Moslemah raised the 
si^e, after ruining one of the finest armies the Saracens ever 
assembled, by obstinately persisting in a hopeless undertaking^. 
The troops were landed at Proconnesus, and marched back 
to Damascus, through Asia Minor ; but the fleet encountered 
a violent storm in passing through the Archipelago. The 
dispersed ships were pursued by the Greeks of the islands, 
and so many were lost or captured that only five of the 
Syrian squadron returned home. 

Few military details concerning Leo's defence of Constan- 
tinople have been preserved, but there can be no doubt that 
it was one of the most brilliant exploits of a warlike age. 
The Byzantine army was superior to every other in the art of 
defending fortresses. The Roman arsenals, in their best days, 
could probably have supplied no scientific or mechanical 
contrivance unknown to the corps of engineers of Leo's army, 
for we must recollect that the education, discipline, and prac- 
tice of these engineers had been perpetuated in uninterrupted 
succession from the times of Trajan and Constantine, We 
are not to estimate the decline of mechanical science by the 
degradation of art, nor by the decay of military power in the 
field ^. The depopulation of Europe rendered soldiers rare 

' Theoph. 334- Kkephonu Pat. (35)1 howcrer, says the riege lasted thirteen 
months. Tlie Mohammedan accounts report, that of the one hundred and eighty 
thousand men who composed the eitpedilion, only thirty thousand returned. 

* It was in the time of Coastaatius, a-d. 357, that the Urgest obelisk at Rome 



SIEGE OF CONSTANTINOPLE. I9 

A.i>. 716-741.] 

and dear, and a considerable part of the Byzantine armies 
was composed of foreign mercenaries. The army of Leo, 
though far inferior in number to that of Moslemah, was its equal 
in discipline and military skill ; while the walls of Constan- 
tinople were garnished with engines from the ancient arsenals 
of the city, far exceeding in power and number any with 
which the Arabs had been in the habit of contendii^. The 
vanity of Gallic writers has magnified the success of Charles 
' Martel over a plundering expedition of the Spanish Arabs 
into a marvellous victory, and attributed the deliverance of 
Europe from the Saracen yoke to the valour of the Franks. 
But it was the defeat of the great army of the Saracens before 
Constantinople by Leo IIL which first arrested the torrent of 
Mohammedan conquest, although Europe refuses her gratitude 
to the iconoclast hero who averted the greatest religious, 
political, and ethnological revolution with which she has ever 
been threatened. A veil has been thrown over the talents 
and courage of Leo, who though just seated on the imperial 
throne, defeated the loi^-planned schemes of conquest of the 
caliphs Welid and Suleiman. It is unfortunate that we have 
no Isaurian literature. 

The catastrophe of Moslemah's army, and the state of the 
caliphate during the reigns of Omar II. and Yesid II., re- 
lieved the empire from all immediate danger, and Leo was 
enabled to pursue his schemes for reorganizing the army and 
defending his dominions against future invasions. The war 
was languidly carried on for some years, and the Saracens 
were gradually expelled from most of their conquests beyond 
Mount Taurus. In the year 726, Leo was embarrassed by 
seditions and rebellions, caused by his decrees gainst im^e- 
worship. Hescham seized the opportunity, and sent two 
powerful armies to invade the empire. Caesarea was taken 
by Moslemah ; while another army, under Moawyah, pushing 
forward, laid siege to Nicaea. Leo was well pleased to see 
the Saracens consume their resources in attacking a distant 
fortress ; but though they were repulsed before Nicaea, they 

was traasported from Alcxaniiria. It sUnda at St. John Lateran. and '\% «aid to 
^'e'e'i 445 •on'' (^) Sir Gardner Wilkinson makes the fireat obelisk at Kamak 
weigh less than three hundred tons. Modem Egypt and Tkihts, ii. 145. (Sh 
Ammianns Marcellbus (xvii. 4). who gives an account of the process of trans- 
porting this obelisk Irom Heliopolts to Alexandria, and from thence to Rome, and 
of erecting it there. En.] 

c a 



:A'Ol><^[C - 



20 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.l.Ch.I. {1. 
retreated without serious loss, canying off immense plunder. 
The plundering excursions of the Arabs were frequently 
renewed by land and sea. In one of these expeditions, the 
celebrated 5id-al-Battal carried off an individual who was set 
up by the Saracens as a pretender to the Byzantine throne, 
under the pretext that he was Tiberius, the son of Justinian 11. 
Two sons of the caliph appeared more than once at the head of 
the invading armies. In the year 739, the Saracen forces 
poured into Asia Minor in immense numbers, with all their 
early energy. Leo, who had taken the command of the 
Byzantine army, accompanied by his son Constantine, marched 
to meet Sid-al-Battal, whose great fame rendered him the 
most dangerous enemy, A battle took place at AcroTnon, in 
the Anatolic theme, in which the Saracens were totally de- 
feated. The valiant Sid, the most reno\vned champion of 
Islamism, perished on the iield \ but the fame of his exploits 
has filled many volumes of Moslem romance, and furnished 
some of the tales that have adorned the memory of the Cid of 
Spain, three hundred years after the victory of Leo '. The 
Western Christians have robbed the Byzantine empire of its 
glory in every way. After this defeat the Saracen power 
ceased to be formidable to the empire, until the energy of the 
caliphate was revived by the vigorous administration of the 
Abassides. 

Leo's victories over the Mohammedans were an indispens- 
able step to the establishment of his personal authority. But 
the measures of administrative wisdom which rendered his 
reign a new era in Roman history, are its most important 
feature in the annals of the human race. His military ex- 
ploits were the result of ordinary virtues, and of talents 
common in every age ; but the ability to reform the internal 
government of an empire, in accordance with the exigencies of 
society, can only be appreciated by those who have made the 
causes and the progress of national revolutions the object of 
loi^ thought. The intellectual superiority of Leo may be 
estimated by the incompetence of sovereigns in the present 

' Acrolnon was doubtless at Sid*e1-GhazL, nine hours to the south of EskiEbebr 
(DoryUeum), where the tomb of Sid^l-Batta.l-clGhazi is still shown. Leake, - 
Am Uiwr. »i. Weit {Oeahichl, dtr Ckalifin. i. 638) calls Ihe hero Abd Allah ; 
while tTHerbelot {Bibliolhiqin Qrintalt, 1. v. • Batthal ') calls hira At>u Mahammed. 
Theophanes (345) calls him dmpljt Bariix. See'tUso Hammei, Hitioirt di VEm^r* 
Ottoman, par Helleit, i, 60, 371. 



DgIC 



CIRCUMSTANCES FAVOURABLE TO LEO. %\ 

i.D. 716-741.] 

century to meet new exigencies of society. Leo judiciously 
availed hinnself of many circumstances that favoured his 
reforms. The inherent vigour which is nourished by parochial 
and municipal responsibilities, bound together the remnants of 
the free population in the eastern Roman empire, and operated 
powerfully in resisting foreign domination. The universal 
respect felt for the administration of justice, and the general 
deference paid to the ecclesiastical establishment, inspired the 
inhabitants with energies wanting in the West. Civilization 
was so generally diffused, that the necessity of upholding the 
civil and ecclesiastical tribunals, and defending the channels 
of commercial intercourse, reunited a powerful body of the 
people in every province to the central administration, by the 
strongest ties of interest and feeling. 

The oppressive authority of the court of Constantinople 
had been much weakened by the anarchy that prevailed 
throughout the empire in the latter part of the seventh 
century. The government had been no longer able to inun- 
date the provinces with those bands of officials who had 
previously consumed the wealth of the curia; and the local 
authorities in each city had been compelled to provide for its 
defence by assuming powers hitherto reserved to the imperial 
oflicers. These new duties had inspired the people with new 
vigour, and developed unexpected talents. The ^scal guaran- 
tees, and the restrictions on individual action by which the 
administration of imperial Rome fettered the Industry of its 
subjects, from the senator to the ticket-porter, were lightened 
when the Western Empire fell a prey to foreign conquerors, 
and when the Eastern became iilled with foreign colonists '. 
The curiales and the corporations at last relieved themselves 
from the attempt of the Roman government to fix society in 
a stationary condition, and the relief was followed by imme- 
diate improvement. Troubled times had also made the clergy 
more anxious to conciliate public opinion than official favour. 
A better and more popular class of bishops replaced the 
worldly priests satirized by Gregory Nazianzenus '. The 
influence of this change was very great, for the bishop, as 
the defender of the curia, and the real head of the people 



ng.i ...A'OOgle 



22 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Cfa.I.fi. 
in the municipality, enjoyed extensive authority over the 
corporations of artisans and the mass of the labouring popu- 
lation. From a judge he gradually acquired the power of 
a civil governor, and the curia became his senate. The 
ordinary judicial tribunals being cut off from direct com- 
munication with the supreme courts, peculiar local usages 
gained force, and a customary law arose in many provinces 
restricting the application of the code of Justinian. The 
orthodox church alone preserved its unity of character, and 
its priests continued to be guided by principles of centraliza- 
tion, which preserved their connection with the seat of the 
patriarchate at Constantinople, without injuring the energetic 
spirit of their local resistance to the progress of the Moham- 
medan power. Throughout the wide extent of the Eastern 
Empire, the priesthood served as a bond to connect the local 
feelings of the parish with the general interests of the orthodox 
church. Its authority was, moreover, endeared to a large 
body of the population from its language being Greek, and 
from its holy legends embodying national feelings and pre- 
judices. Repulsive as the lives of the saints now appear 
to our taste, they were the delight of millions for many 
centuries. 

From the earliest period to the present hour, the wealth of 
most of the cities in the East has been derived from their 
importance as points of commercial communication. The 
insane fury of the Emperor Justinian II., in devastating the 
flourishing cities of Ravenna and Cherson, failed to rain these 
places, because they were then great commercial entrepots 
of the trade between India and Europe. The alarm felt for 
the ruin of commerce throughout the Christian world, during 
the anarchy that existed in the last years of the seventh and 
early years of the eighth centuries, contributed much to render 
men contented with the firm government of Leo, even though 
they may have considered him a heretic. On the other hand, 
the anarchy prevailing in the central administration had 
relieved commerce both from much fiscal oppression and 
many official monopolies. The moment the financial burdens 
of the commercial classes were lightened, they experienced all 
the advantage of possessing a systematic administration of 
justice, enforced by a fixed legal procedure, and consequently 
they very naturally became warm partisans of the imperial 



:A'00' 



.3IC 



CIRCUMSTANCES FAVOURABLE TO LEO. 23 

Aji. 716-741.] 

authority, as, in their opinion, the personal influence of the 
emperor constituted the true fountain of legal order and 
judicial impartiality. A fixed l^islation saved society from 
dissolution during many years of anarchy. 

The obscure records of the eighth century allow us to 
discern through their dim atmosphere a considerable increase 
of power in popular feelings, and they even afford some 
glimpses of the causes of this new energy. The fermentation 
which then pervaded Christian society marks the commence- 
ment of modem civilization, as contrasted with ancient times. 
Its force arose out of the general diminution of slave labour. 
The middle classes in the towns were no longer rich enough 
to be purchasers of slaves, consequently the slave population 
henceforward became a minority in the Eastern Empire ; and 
those democratic ideas which exist among free labourers 
replaced the aristocratic caution, inseparable from the neces- 
sity of watching a numerous population of slaves. The 
general attention was directed to the equal administration of 
justice. The emperor alone appeared to be removed above 
the influence of partiality and bribery; under his powerful 
protection the masses hoped to escape official and aristocratic 
oppression, by the systematic observance of the rules of 
Roman law. The prosperity of commerce seemed as directly 
connected with the imperial supremacy as judicial equity 
itself, for the power of the emperor ojuld alone enforce one 
uniform system of customs from Cherson to Ravenna. Every 
trader, and indeed every citizen, felt that the apparatus of 
the imperial government was necessary to secure financial 
and l^al unity. Above all, Leo, the conqueror of the hitherto 
victorious Saracens, seemed the only individual who possessed 
the civil as well as the military talents necessary for averting 
the ruin of the empire. Thus many circumstances conduced 
to favour the schemes and fashion the policy of Leo, and 
to convert the strong attachment to the laws of Rome pre- 
valent in society into a lever of political power, and to render 
the devotion felt for the personal authority of the sovereign 
a means of increasing the centralization of power in the 
reformed fabric of the Roman administration. The laws of 
Rome, therefore, rather than the military power of the em- 
peror, saved Christianity. The direct result of the victories of 
Leo in the field only enabled him to consolidate his power 



DgIC 



14 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[BIcLCh.!. ia. 
and to give the imperial administration its Byzantine type, in 
defiance of the Greek nation and the orthodox church. 

As long as Mohammedanism was only placed in collision 
with the fiscality of the Roman government and the intoler- 
ance of the orthodox church, the Saracens were everywhere 
victorious, and found everywhere Christian allies in the pro- 
vinces they invaded. But when anarchy and misfortune had 
destroyed the fiscal power of the state, and weakened the 
ecclesiastical intolerance of the clergy, a new point of com- 
parison between-the governments of the emperors and the 
caliphs presented itself to the attention. The question, how 
justice was administered in the ordinary relations of life, 
became of vital interest. The code of Justinian was compared 
with that of the Koran. The courts presided over by judges 
and bishops were compared with those in which Mohammedan 
lawyers dispensed justice, and the feelings which arose in the 
breasts of the subjects of the Byzantine emperors changed the 
current of events. The torrent of Mohammedan conquest was 
arrested, and as long as Roman law was cultivated in the 
empire, and administered under proper control in the pro- 
vinces, the invaders of the Byzantine territory were everywhere 
unsuccessful. The inhabitants boasted with a Just pride that 
they lived under the systematic rule of the Roman law, and 
not under the arbitrary sway of despotic power ^ 

Such was the state of the Roman empire when Leo com- 
menced his reforms. We must now proceed to examine what 
history has recorded concerning this great reformer. 

Leo was bom at Germanicia, a city of Armenia Minor, in 
the mountains near the borders of Cappadocia and Syria ^. 
Germanicia was taken by the Saracens, and the parents of 
Leo emigrated with their son to Mesembria in Thrace. They 



' Eveiy emperor was bound to make a confession of faith in a certaiD fonnulo, 
ntTd rb i9iii6r. Genesius, p. ii, edit. Venct. Compare the coronation Oath in 
Codious, Dt Offieiis Conuanl. c, xvii., with Corput Juris Civ. i. 14. 4, 5; Baatica, 
ii. 6. 9. lO; see also Constant. Poipliyr. Di Adm. Imp. p. 64. and the Edc^ of 
l«o III. in Leundavius and Freher, Jus Grateo'Romaniim, i. p. 178; ii. p. Ej; 
lit. ii. % 4. 

' The family of Leo, being neither Greeic nor Roman, was regarded by these 
nations as foreign. The Isauiians appear to have been the subjects of the empire 
who had retained the greatest share of their original nationality. The Armenians 
and Syrians, though numerous, were always regarded as strangers rather than 
hereditary subjects. Theophanes (337, 330) and Anastasius (Sisf. 118) call Leo 
a Syrian. He seems to have considered tumself an Anneuian, and he married his 
daughter t ' * 



Dictzed by Google 



FABLES CONCERNING LEO. 25 

AJ). 716-741.] 

were persons of sufficient wealth to make the Emperor Justi- 
nian II. a present of five hundred sheep, as he was advancing 
to regain possession of his throne with the assistance of the 
Bulgarians. This well-timed gift gained young Leo the rank 
of spatharios, the personal favour of the tyrant, and a high 
command on the Lazian frontier. His prudence and courage 
raised him, during the reign of Anastastus II., to the command 
of the Anatolic theme. 

But another history of his life, unknown to the early 
historians, Theophanes and Nicephorus, though both these 
orthodox writers were his bitter enemies and detractors, 
became current in after tirties, and deserves notice as pre- 
senting us with a specimen of the tales which then fed the 
mental appetite of the Greeks '. Some fables concerning his 
life and fortunes owe their existence to the aversion with 
which his religious opinions were regarded by the Greeks. 
They supply us, in all probability, with a correct portraiture 
of the popular mind, but they certainly do not furnish us with 
accurate materials for Leo's biography. Prodigies, prophecies, 
and miracles were universally believed. Restricted communi- 
cations and neglected education were conducting society to an 
infantine dotc^e. Every unusual event was said to have been 
predicted by some prophetic revelation ; and as the belief in 
the prescience of futurity was universal, public deceivers and 
self-deceivers were always found acting the part of prophets. 
It is said to have been foretold to Leontius that he ^ould 
ascend the throne, by two fnonks and an abbot*. The 
restoration of Justinian II. had been announced to him, while 
he was in exile, by a hermit of Cappadocia^ Philippicus had 
it revealed in a dream, that he was to become emperor ; and 
he was banished by Tiberius II, (Apsimar), when this vision 
became publicly known*. It is not, therefore, wonderful that 
Leo should have l>een honoured with communications from 
the other world ; though, as might have been expected from 
bis heretical opinions and the orthodoxy of hjs historians, 
these communications are represented to have been made by 
agents from the lower rather than the higher regions. 

' Compaie Theophanes {336). who has no objections to calumniate Leo, with 
the later writers, Cedtenus, 4S0; Zooaras, ii. 103; Const. Manasses, 86; Glyos, 
38OJ Leo Gnunm. 173, edit. Bonn. 

» Theoph. 307; Niceph. PaL 15. ' Theoph. 313. • B>. 311, 319. 



DgIC 



26 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.l.(). 
A circumstance which it is believed had happened to the 
Caliph Yezid I., proved most satisfactorily to the Greeks that 
Satan often transacted business . publicly by means of his 
agents on earth. Two Jews— for Jews are generally selected 
by the orthodox as the fittest agents of the demon— presented 
themselves to the caliph claiming the gift of prophecy. They 
announced that, if he should put an end to the idolatrous 
worship of images throughout his dominions, fate had pre- 
destined him to reign for forty years over a rich and flourishing 
empire. Yezid was a man of pleasure and a bigot, so that the 
prophecy was peculiarly adapted to flatter his passions. The 
images and pictures which adorned the Christian churches 
were torn down and destroyed throughout the caliph's domi- 
nions. But while Yezid was carrying his decree into executipn 
he died. His son, Moawyah 11., sought the Jewish prophets 
in vain, in order that he might punish them as impostors. 
The prince of darkness concealed them from his search, and 
transported them into the heart of Asia Minor, where they had 
new services to perform. 

A young man named Conon, who had quitted his native 
mountains of Isauria to gain his living as a pedlar in the 
wealthier plains, drove his ass, laden with merchandise, to 
a grove of evergreen oaks near a bubbling fountain that he 
might rest during the heat of the day, and count his recent 
gains. The ass was turned loose to pasture in the little 
meadow formed by the stream of the fountain, and Conon sat 
down in the shade, by the chapel of St. Theodore, to eat his 
frugal meal. He soon perceived two travellers resting like 
himself, and enjoying their noontide repast. These travellers 
entered into conversation with young Conon, who was a lad of 
remarkable strei^th, beauty, and intelligence. They allowed 
the fact to transpire that they were Jews, prophets and astrolo- 
gers, who had recently quitted the court of the caliph at Damas- 
cus, which very naturally awakened in the mind of the young 
pedlar a wish to know his future fortune, for he may have 
aspired at becoming a great post-contractor or a rich banker. 
The two Jews readily satisfia! his curiosity, and, to his utter 
astonishment, informed him that he was destined to rule the 
Roman empire. As a proof of their veracity, the prophets 
declared that they sought neither wealth nor honours for 
themselves, but they conjured Conon to promise solemnly 



FABLES CONCERNING LEO. a? 

Aji. 7i6-74>] 

that, when he ascended the throne, he would put an end to 
the idolatry which di%raced Christianity in the East. If he 
ei^pged to do this, they assured him that his fulfilling the 
will of Heaven would bring prosperity to himself and to the 
empire. Young Conon, believing that the prophets had 
revealed the will of God, pledged himself to purify the 
Christian church ; and he kept this promise, when he ascended 
the throne as Leo thelsaurian. But as the prophets had made 
no stipulation for the free exercise of their own creed, he did 
not consider himself guilty of ii^ratitude, when, as emperor, 
he persecuted the Jewish religion with the greatest severity. 
In the opinion of the historians who repeated this tale, it 
seems that Satan took no care of the Jews. 

Such is the fable by which the later Byzantine historians 
explain Leo's hostility to image-worship. This adventure 
appeared to them a probable origin of the ecclesiastical 
reforms which characterize Leo's domestic policy. In the 
bright days of Hellenic genius, such materials would have 
been woven into an immortal myth ; the chapel of St. 
Theodore, its fountain, and its evergreen oaks, Conon drivii^ 
his ass with the two unearthly Jews reclining in the shade, 
would have formed a picture familiar to the minds of 
millions ; but in the hands of ignorant monks and purblind 
chroniclers, it sinks into a dull and improbable narrative. 

Unfortunately, it is almost as difficult to ascertain the 
precise l^islative and executive acts by which Leo re- 
formed the military, financial, and legal administration, as 
it is to obtain an impartial account of his ecclesiastical 
measures. 

The military establishment of the empire had gradually 
lost its national character, from the impossibility of recruiting 
the army from among Roman citizens. In vain the soldier's 
son was fettered to his father's profession, as the artisan was 
bound to his corporation, and the proprietor to his estate *. 



' The tendencr of Roman despotism to reduce society to castes is remarkable. 
Oxf. Tktod. vii. ]]. 8. This feeling nuy be traced to the last days of the Byian- 
tine power. Gemistos Plethon, in the projects of reform at the beEinning of (he 
fifteenth centuiy. by which be hoped to save the Peloposnesus from the Turks, 
insists on the separation of the classes of soldiers and tuipayeis. See his me- 
morial on the State of the Peloponnesus, addressed to the despot Theodore, at 
the end of two books of Stobaeus, published by Canter, printed by Christopher 
Plantin, Antwerp, 1575, fol. p. ill. 



DgIC 



a8 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

■ [Bk.I.Cb,I.Si. 
Yet the superiority of the Roman armies seems to have 
suffered little from the loss of national spirit, as long as strict 
discipline was maintained in their ranks. For many centuries 
the majority of the imperial forces consisted of conscripts 
drawn from the lowest ranks of society, from the rude moun- 
taineers of almost independent provinces, or from foreigners 
hired as mercenaries ; yet the armies of all invaders, from 
the Goths to the Saracens, were repeatedly defeated in 
pitched battles. The state maxims which separated the 
servants of the emperor from the people, survived in the 
Eastern provinces after the loss of the Western, and served 
as the basis of the military policy of the Byzantine empire, 
when reformed by Leo. The conditions of soldier and citizen 
were deemed incompatible. The law prevented the citizen 
from assuming the position of a soldier, and watched with 
jealousy any attempt of the soldier to acquire the rights and 
feelings of a citizen. An impassable barrier was placed 
between the proprietor of the soil, who was the tax-payer, 
and the defender of the state, who was an agent of the 
imperial power*. It is true that, after the loss of the Western 
provinces, the Roman armies were recruited from the native 
subjects of the empire to a much greater degree than for- 
merly; and that, after the time of Heraclius, it became 
impossible to enforce the fiscal arrangements to which the 
separation of the citizen from the soldier owed its origin, 
at least with the previous strictness ^ Still the old imperial 
maxims were cherished in the reign of Leo, and the numerous 
colonies of Sclavonians, and other foreigners, established in 
the empire, owed their foundation to the supposed necessity 
of seeking for recruits as little as possible from among the 
native population of agriculturists. These colonies were 
governed by peculiar r^ulations, and their most important 

' A tixed number of conscripts was drawn from each province after the time 
of Constantine ; and the pruprieLors, who were prohibited from serving in persqn, 
hid to furnish conscripts. They were allowed to hiie any freeman, beggar, or 
barbarian, with youth and strength. When the recruitment became stilT more 
difficult, on account of the diminished population, the Empeior Valena commuted 
the conscription for a payment of thirty-six solidi for each conscript. Cod. ThMd. 
vii. 13. 7. 

' For the Roman legislation relating to the aimy, see Cod, Jtul. i, 3a. 17: 
xi. 48. 18 ; lii. 3]. I, 4 ; Dig. ilii. 16. 9, 13. Colons and serfs were prohibited 
from entering the army even at those periods of pubUc calamity which compelled 
ihe government to admit slaves as recruits. The views of Gibbon (vol. ti. p. 3»4, 
Smith's edit.) require to be modified. 



DgIC 



MIUTARY REFORMS. 29 

*j). 7i6-r*i.] 

service was supplying a number of troops for the imperial 
army. Isauria and other mountainous districts, where it was 
diiEcult to collect any revenue by a land-tax, also supplied a 
fixed military contingent ^. 

Whatever modifications Leo made in the military system, 
and however great were the reforms he effected in the 
organization of the army and the discipline of the troops, 
the mass of the population continued in the Byzantine empire 
to be excluded from the use of arms, as they had been in the 
Roman times ; and this circumstance was the cause of that 
unwarlike disposition, which is made a standing reproach from 
the days of the Goths to those of the Crusaders. The state 
of society engendered by this policy opened the Western 
Empire to the northern nations, and the empire of Charle- 
magne to the Normans. Leo's great merit was, that without 
any violent political change he infused new enei^ into the 
Byzantine military establishment, and organized a force that 
for five centuries defended the empire without acquiring the 
power of domineering in the state. As the army was destitute 
of patriotic feeling, it was necessary to lessen the influence of 
its commanders. This was done by dividing the provinces 
into themes, appointing a general for each theme, and group- 
ing together in different stations the various corps of conscripts, 
subject nations, and hired mercenaries^. The adoption like- 
wise of different arms, armour, and manoeuvres in the various 
corps, and their seclusion from close intercommunication with 
the native legions, guarded against the danger of those 
rebellious movements which in reality destroyed the Western 

' An anecdote of the time of Theodosius II., a.c. 448. gives a coirect idea of 
the condition of the Greek population of the Easterfl Empire, at least until the 
time of the anarchy under Phocas. Priscns, the envoy of Theodosius II. to Attila, 
mentioDS that, in the Scythiim territory, he was addressed in Greek by a man in 
the dress of the country — a drcumslance which surprised him, as Lalin was the 
enstomary langjuage of communicalion with foreigners, and few strangers, ex^t 
the slaves brought from Thrace and the coast of lllvria, ever spoke Greek. The 
man proved to be a Greek who was living among the Huns. He contrasted bis 
past condition, as a citizen under the Roman emperors with his present portion 
as a freeman under Atlila. The Roman cjtiten, he said, was compelled to Imst 
for defence to (he arms of others, because the Roman despotism prohibited the 
use of arms lo the citizen. In the time of war. consequently, he was a prey either 
to the enemy or to the mercenary troops of the emperor, while in the time of 
peace his life was rendered intolerable by liscal oppression and official injustice. 
Sxt. $ Priai Hislaria, 59, edit. Paris ; 190, edit. Bonn. 

' Leo is said to have had a body of Frank mercenaries in his service during the 
siege of Constanliaople. The aatboritf is too modem to be implicitly relied 00. 
Abulpliaragius, C/i. Arab. 130. 



ogtc 



30 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.I.f 1. 
Empire. As much caution was displayed in the Byzantine 
empire to prevent the army from endai^ering the government 
by its seditions, as to render it formidable to the enemy by its 
strength *. 

The finances are soon felt to be the basis of government in 
all civilized states. Augustus experienced the truth of this as 
much as Louis XIV. The progress of society and the 
accumulation of wealth have a tendency to sink governments 
into the position of brokers of human intelligence, wealth, and 
labour ; and the finances form the symbol indicating the 
quantity of these which the central authority can command. 
The reforms, therefore, which it was in the power of Leo III. 
to effect in the financial administration, must have proceeded 
from the force of circumstances rather than from the mind of 
the emperor. To this cause we must attribute the durability 
of the fabric he constructed. He confined himself to arranging 
prudently the materials accumulated to hts hand. But no 
sovereign, and indeed no central executive authority, can form 
a correct estimate of the taxable capacity of the people. 
Want of knowledge increases the insatiable cOvetousness 
su^ested by their position ; and the wisest statesman is 
almost as likely to impose ruinous burdens on the people, 
if vested with despotic power, as the most rapacious tyrant 
The people alone can find ways of levying on themselves 
an amount of taxation exceeding any burdens that the 
boldest despot could hope to impose; for the people alone 
can perceive what taxes will have the least effect in arresting 
the increase of the national wealth. 

Leo, who felt the importance of the financial administration 
as deeply as Augustus, reserved to himself the immediate 
superintendence of the treasury; and this special control over 
the finances was retained by his successors, so that, during 
the whole duration of the Byzantine empire, the emperors 
may be regarded as their own ministers of finance. The 
grand Logothetes, who was the official minister, was in 
reality nothing more than the emperor's private secretary 
for the department. While Leo improved the central ad- 

' There ate several works on military affairs by Bjizantine emperors; — Tkt 
Straltgikm of ihe Emperor Maurice; Tht Tacihs of Leo the Wise; Thi Taelict 
and SlraltgHoa of Constantine Foiphyrogenilus ; and lo these may be added 
Tki itn/ici nfliglu Iroopi, by NJccphoius II. [Phokas). 



:v Google 



FINANCIAL REFORMS. 31 

»j). 716-74'] 

ministration, the invasions of the Saracens and Bulgarians 
made him extremely cautious in imposing heavy fiscal 
burdens on the distant cities and provinces of his dominions. 
But his reforms were certainly intended to circumscribe the 
authority of municipal and provincial institutions. The free 
cities and municipalities which had once been intrusted with 
the duty of apportioning their quota of the land-tax, and 
collecting the public burdens of their district, were now 
deprived of this authority. All fiscal business was transferred 
to the imperial officers. Each province had its own collectors 
of the revenue, its own officials chained to complete the 
registers of the public burdens, and to verify all statistical 
details. The traditions of imperial Rome still required that 
this mass of information should be regularly transmitted to 
the cabinet of the Byzantine emperors, as at the birth of our 
Saviour '. 

The financial acts of Leo's reign, though they show that he 
increased the direct amount of taxation levied from his sub- 
jects, prove nevertheless, by the general improvement which 
took place in the condition of the people, that his reformed 
system of financial administration really lightened the weight 
of the public burdens. Still, there can be no doubt that the 
stringency of the measures adopted in Greece and Italy, for 
rendering the census more productive, was one of the causes 
of the rebellions in those countries, for which his Iconoclastic 
decrees served as a more honourable war-cry. In Calabria 
and Sicily he added one-third to the capitation ; he con- 
fiscated to the profit of the treasury a tribute of three talents 
and a half of gold which had been remitted annually to Rome, 
and at the same time he ordered a correct roister to be kept 
of all the males bom in his dominions. This last regulation 
excites a burst of indignation from the orthodox historian and 
confessor Theophanes, who allows neither his reason nor his 
memory to restrain his bigotry when recording the acts of the 
first Iconoclast emperor. He likens Leo's edict to Pharaoh's 
conduct to the children of Israel, and adds that the Saracens, 

> I.nke ii. 1. The Book of AcconnCs 01 tax (ariff of Alexius I., pnblishrd in 
the Analecla Gratca of the Benedictine*, Pouget, Loppin, and Montfaucon, Paris, 
16S8, entitled Antiquvm Ralioitarium Augiaii Cattaria, proves by its title the 
nnintemipted transmission of Romio administrative traoitions. Novel of John 
Cotnnenu^ in Leonclavius. jtus Graem-Romanttm, i. 147 ; Novel of Mauaet, i. 156 1 
Mortreuil, Biuairt du Droit Byzanim, iii. 107. 



ityGoogIc 



32 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.l. Cb.l. (t. 
Leo's teachers in wickedness, had never exercised the like 
oppression — foi^etting, in his zeal against taxation, that the 
Caliph Abdelmelik had established the haratch or capitation 
of Christians as early as the commencement of the reign of 
Justinian II., A.D. 69a \ 

An earthquake that ruined the walls of Constantinople, and 
many cities in Thrace and Bithynia, induced Leo to adopt 
measures for supplying the treasury with a special fund for 
restoring them, and keeping their fortifications constantly in 
a state to resist the Bulgarians and Saracens. The municipal 
revenues which had once served for this purpose had been 
encroached upon by Justinian I,, and the policy of Leo led 
him to diminish in every way the sphere of action of all local 
authorities. 

The care of the fortifications was undoubtedly a duty to 
which the central government required to give its direct 
attention ; and to meet the extraordinary expenditure caused 
by the calamitous earthquake of 740, an addition of one- 
twelfth was made to the census. This tax was called the 
dikeralon, because the payment appears to have been generally 
made in the silver coins called keratia, two of which were equal 
to a miliaresion, the coin which represented one-twelfth of the 
nomisma, or gold byzant '. Thus a calamity which diminished 
the public resources increased the public burdens. In such 
a contingency it seems that a paternal government and a wise 
despot ought to have felt the necessity of diminishing the 
pomp of the court, of curtailing the expenses of ecclesiastical 
pt^eants, and of reforming the extravagance of the popular 
amusements of the hippodrome, before imposing new burdens 
on the suffering population of the empire. Courtiers, saints, 
and charioteers ought to have been shorn of their splendour, 
before the groans of the provinces were increased. Yet Leo 
was neither a luxurious nor an avaricious prince ; but, as has 
been said already, no despotic monarch can wisely measure 
the burden of taxation. 

The influence of the provincial spirit on the legislation 
of the empire is stroi^ly marked in the history of juris- 

» Theoph. 343. 

* Theoph. .145 ; CoDEtan, Manasses, 93 ; Glycas, 386 ; and Ihe words ^dXa and 
ntf&rtw in Ducange's Glattarium Mid. tl In/imai Graicilahi : see vol. i, Gmet 
tatdtr Ihi Ramans, Appendix ; On Rcmai: and Byzaaiitu Monty. 



n,,i„jt,Google 



LEO'S 'ecloga: 33 

*j>.Ji6-74i.] 

prudence during Leo's reign. The anarchy which had long 
interrupted the official communications between the provinces 
and the capital lent an increased authority to local usages, 
and threw obstacles in the way of the regular administration 
of justice, according to the strict letter of the voluminous laws 
of Justinian. The consequence was, that various local abridg- 
ments of the law were used as manuals, both by lawyers and 
judges, in the provincial tribunals, where the great expense of 
procuring a copy of the Justinianean collection prevented its 
use. Leo published a Greek manual of law, which by its 
official sanction became the primary authority in all the courts 
of the empire. This imperial abridgment is called the Eclc^a; 
it affords some evidence concerning the state of society and 
the classes of the people for which it was prepared. Little 
notice is taken of the rights of the agriculturists ; the various 
modes of acquiring property and constituting servitudes are 
omitted. The Ecl(^a has been censured for its imperfections 
by Basil L, the founder of a legislative dynasty, who speaks 
of it as an insult to the earlier legislators ; yet the orthodox 
lawgiver, while he pretended to reject every act of the heretical 
Isaurian, servilely imitated all his political plans. The brevity 
and precision of Leo's Ecloga were highly appreciated both 
by the courts of law and the people, in spite of the heterodox 
opinions of its promulgator. It so judiciously supplied a want 
long felt by a large portion of society, that neither the attempt 
of Basil I. to supplant it by a new official manual, nor the 
publication of the great code of the Basilika in Greek, de- 
prived it of value among the jurisconsults of the Byzantine 
empire ^. 

The legislative labours of Leo were not circumscribed to 
the publication of the Ecloga. He seems to have sanctioned 
various minor codes, by which the regulations in use relating 
to military, agricultural, and maritime law were reduced into 
systematic order. The collections which are attached to the 
Ecloga, under the heads of military, agricultural, and Rhodian 
laws, cannot, however, be considered as official acts of his 
reign ; still, they are supposed to ailbrd us a correct idea of 



' See the works of Zachariae, whose enlightened criticUni hu shed light en 
this obscnre period of history. Hitlariia yurii Graao-Ronuaii Ddiiualio, pp. 14-41 - 
'O vp^x"^' >^tw>, Heidelb., 1B37, p. xviii Ac ; Btloga Lumit t: OuuUuuini, 
Leipiig. 185 J, 

VOL. 11. D 



o^^le 



34 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.LCh.I.{j. 
the originals he published. Some abstract of the provisions 
contained in the Roman legislation on military affairs was 
rendered necessary by the practice of maintaining corps of 
foreign mercenaries in the capital. A military code was like- 
wise rendered necessary, in consequence of the changes that 
took place in the old system, as the Asiatic provinces were 
gradually cleared of the invading bands of Saracens ^ The 
agricultural laws appear to be a tolerably exact copy of the 
enactments of Leo. The work bears the impress of the con- 
dition of society in his time, and it is not surprising that the 
title which perpetuated the merits and the memory of the 
heterodox Leo was suppressed by orthodox bigotry. The 
maritime laws are extremely interesting, from affording a 
picture of the state of commercial legislation in the eighth 
century, at the time when commerce and law saved the 
Roman empire. The exact date of the collection we possess 
is not ascertained. That Leo protected commerce, we may 
infer from its reviving under his government ; whether he 
promulgated a code to sanction or enforce his reforms, or 
whether the task was completed by one of his successors, is 
doubtful. 

The whole policy of Leo's reign has been estimated by his 
ecclesiastical reforms. These have been severely judged by 
all historians, and they appear to have encountered a violent 
opposition from a large portion of his subjects. The general 
dissatisfaction has preserved sufficient authentic information 
to allow of a candid examination of the merits and errors of 
his policy. Theophanes considers the aversion of Leo to the 
adoration of images as originating in an impious attachment 
to the unitarianism of the Arabs. His own pages, however, 
refute some of his calumnies, for he records that Leo per- 
secuted the unitarianism of the Jews, and the tendency to it 
in the Montanists ^. Indeed, all those who differed from the 



' Mortreuil, Hisiciri du Dmil Byiantin, i. 393, 

• Theoph. 336, 343. Mortreuil. in his HiUoirt du Droit Byzmlin (i. 348), cite* 

the law against the Tews and Montanisli from Bonefidius {Jurit Oritnialii Libri 
Trts\ and refers lo CedrenuS. But most of the laws cited by Bonefidius from 
Cedrenns will be found in Theophanes and the older Byzantine wrileis, not 
published when Bonefidius made his compilation; and reference ought to be 
made to these authorilies. In this case, what is called a law seems to have been 
a series of edicts. Theophanes says that the Jews submitted to baptism and 
mocked the sacraments ; the more cmsdentious Montanists bumed themselves 
in Iheir places of worship. 



Dictzed by Google 



ECCLESIASTICAL POLICY OF LEO. 35 

>.I..7I6-7^l.] 

most orthodox acknowledgment of the Trinity received very 
little Christian charity at the hands of the Isaurian, who 
placed the cross on the reverse of many of his gold, silver, 
and copper coins, and over the gates of his palace, as a symbol 
for universal adoration. In his Iconoclast opinions, Leo is 
merely a type of the more enlightened laymen of his age. 
A strong reaction against the superstitions introduced into 
the Christian religion by the increasing ignorance of the 
people pervaded the educated classes, who. were anxious to 
put a stop to what might be considered a revival of the ideas 
and feelings of paganism. The Asiatic Christians, who were 
brought into frequent collision with the followers of Mahomet, 
Zoroaster, and Moses, were compelled to observe that the 
worship of the common people among themselves was sensual, 
when compared with the devotion of the infidels. The wor- 
ship of God was neglected, and his service transferred to some 
human symbol. The favourite saint was usually one whose 
faults were found to bear some aaaXogy to the vices of his 
worshipper, and thus pardon was supposed to be obtained for 
sin on easier terms than accords with Divine justice, and vice 
was consequently rendered more prevalent. The clergy had 
yielded to the popular ignorance ; the walls of churches were 
covered with pictures which were reported to have wrought 
miraculous cures ; their shrines were enriched by paintings 
not made with hands ' ; the superstitions of the people were 
increased, and the doctrines of Christianity were neglected. 
Pope Gregory II., in a letter to Leo, mentions the fact, that 
men expended their estates to have the sacred histories 
represented in paintings^ 

In a time of general reform, and in a government where 
ecclesiastics acted as administrative officials of the central 
authority, it was impossible for Leo to permit the church to 
remain quite independent in ecclesiastical atfairs, unless he 
was prepared for the clergy assuming a gradual supremacy in 
the state. The clei^, beii^ the only class in the adminis- 
tration of public affairs connected with the people by interest 

' 'A]((ipowii(>)Ta. Nothing can better prove the extent to which supeistitioo 
had conCaminaled religion than the assertion of the Patriarch Genuanos, that 
miracles were daily vrougbl W the images of Christ and the sainis, and that 
balsam distilled from the paioted hand of an image of the Virgin Maiy. Neaodn, 
HiiKuy ofiki Ckrisu'an RtUgion and Ckarch (Torrey's translatioa), iiL 106, 

* Neander, iii. 313. 

D 3 



A'OOgle 



36 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Mc.I.Cli.H». 
and feelings, was always sure of a powerful popular support. 
It appeared, therefore, necessary to the emperor to secure 
them as sincere instruments in carrying out all his reforms, 
otherwise there was some reason to fear that they might 
constitute themselves the leaders of the people in Greece and 
Asia, as they had already done at Rome, and control the 
imperial administration throughout the whole Eastern Empire, 
as completely as they did in the Byzantine possessions in 
central Italy. 

Leo commenced his ecclesiastical reforms in the year 736, 
by an edict ordering all pictures in churches to be placed so 
high as to prevent the people from kissing them, and prohibit- 
ing prostration before these symbols, or any act of public wor- 
ship being addressed to them. Against this moderate edict of 
the emperor, the Patriarch Germanos and the Pope Gr^ory II. 
made strot^ representations. The opposition of interest which 
reigned between the church and the state impelled the two 
bodies to a contest for supremacy which it required centuries 
to decide, and both Germanos and Gregory were sincere 
supporters of image-worship. To the ablest writer of the 
time,^the celebrated John Damascenus, who dwelt under the 
protection of the caliph at Damascus, among Mohammedans 
and Jews, — this edict seemed to mark a relapse to Judaism, 
or a tendency to Islamism. He felt himself called upon to 
combat such feelings with all the eloquence and power of 
aigument he possessed. The empire was thrown into a 
ferment ; the lower clergy and the whole Greek nation de- 
clared in favour of image-worship. The professors of the 
university of Constantinople, an institution of a Greek cha- 
racter, likewise declared their opposition to the edict. Liberty 
of conscience was the watchword against the imperial autho- 
rity. The Pope and the Patriarch denied the right of the 
civil power to interfere with the doctrines of the church ; the 
monks everywhere echoed the words of John Damascenus, ' It 
is not the business of the emperor to make laws for the 
church. Apostles preached the gospel ; the welfare of the 
state is the monarch's care ; pastors and teachers attend to 
that of the church •.' The despotic principles of Leo's admi- 
nistration, and the severe measures of centralization which 



DgIC 



' John Danuuceaut, Oral. ii. 11, quoted k Neandei's History, ii 



REBELLION IN GREECE. 37 

*.!.. ri6-74i0 

he enforced as the means of reoi^nizing the public service, 
created many additional enemies to his government. 

The rebellion of the inhabitants of Greece, which occurred 
in the year 727, seems to have originated in a dissatisfaction 
with the fiscal and administrative reforms of Leo, to which 
local circumstances, unnoticed by historians, gave peculiar 
violence, and which the edict against image-worship fanned 
into a flame. The unanimity of ail classes, and the violence 
of the popular zeal in favour of their local privil^es and 
superstitions, suggested the hope of dethroning Leo, and 
placii^ a Greek on the throne of Constantinople. A naval 
expedition, composed of the imperial fleet in the Cyclades, 
and attended by an army from the continent, was fitted out to 
attack the capital. Agallianos, who commanded the imperial 
forces stationed to watch the Sclavonians settled in Greece, 
■was placed at the head of the army destined to assail the 
conqueror of the Saracens. A new emperor was proclaimed, 
whose name was Kosmas. tn the month of April the Greek 
fleet appeared before Constantinople, but events soon proved 
that the Greeks, confiding in the goodness of their cause, had 
greatly overrated their own valour and strength, or strangely 
overlooked the resources of the Iconoclasts. Leo met the 
fleet as it approached his capital, and completely defeated 
it. Agallianos, with the spirit of a hero, when he saw the 
utter ruin of the enterprise, plunged fully armed into the sea 
rather than surrender. Kosmas was taken prisoner, with 
another leader, and immediately beheaded. Leo, however, 
treated the mass of the prisoners with mildness '. 

Even if we admit that the Greeks displayed considerable 
presumption in attacking the Isaurian emperor, still we must 
accept the fact as a proof of the populous condition of the 
cities and islands of Greece, and of the flourishing condition of 
their trade, at a period generally represented as one of 
wretchedness and poverty. Though the Peloponnesus was 
filled with Sclavonian emigrants, and the Greek peasantry 
were in many districts excluded from the cultivation of the 
land in the seats of their ancestors, nevertheless their cities then 

Tbeophsnes (333) calls the bsn^ents Haiadiici, and Cedrecns (i. 454) copies 
scomrul expression. Had (he insurrectioD been believed to have originated 



expression. Had (he insarrection been believed to have originated 
:ren as mactTi*. 



in reli^ous feeling, surel; the orthodox confeasor Theophanes would have regarded 
thesnVei "-* 



38 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.l.{j. 
contained the mercantile wealth and influence, wtiich passed 
some centuries later into the possession of Venice, Amalfi, 
Genoa, and Pisa. 

The opposition Leo encountered only confirmed him in his 
persuasion that it was indispensably necessary to increase the 
power of the central government in the provinces. As he was 
sincerely attached to the opinions of the Iconoclasts, he was 
led to connect his ecclesiastical reforms with his political mea< 
sures, and to pursue both with additional zeal. In order to 
secure the active support of all the officers of the administra- 
tion, and exclude all image-worshippers from power, he con- 
voked an assembly, called a silention, consisting of the senators 
and the highest functionaries in the church and state- In this 
solemn manner it was decreed that images were to be removed 
from all the churches throughout the empire. In the capital 
the change met with no serious opposition. The population 
of Constantinople, at every period of its history, has consisted 
of a mixed multitude of different nations ; nor has the majority 
ever been purely Greek for any great length of fime. Nicetas, 
speaking of a time when the Byzantine empire was at the 
height of its power, and when the capital was more a Greek 
city than at any preceding or subsequent period, declares that 
its population was composed of various races '. The cause of 
image-worship was, however, generally the popular cause, and 
the Patriarch Germanos steadily resisted every change in the 
actual practice of the church until that change should be 
sanctioned by a general council '. 

The turn now given to the dispute put an end to the power 
of the Eastern emperors in central Italy. The Latin provinces 
of the Roman empire, even before their conquest by the 
bariDarians, had sunk into deeper ignorance than the Eastern. 
Civilization had penetrated farther into society among the 
Greeks, Armenians, and Syrians than among the Italians, 
Gauls, and Spaniards. Italy was already dissatisfied with 
the Constantinopolitan domination, when Leo's fiscal and 
religious reforms roused local interests and national prejudices 
to unite in opposing his government. The Pope of Rome had 
long been regarded by orthodox Christians as the head of the 



DgIC 



PAPAL OPPOSITION. 39 

Aj>. 715-741.] 

church ; even the Greeks admitted his right of inspection 
over the whole body of the clei^, in virtue of the superior 
dignity of the Roman see^. From being the heads of the 
church, the popes became the defenders of the liberties of the 
people. In this character, as leaders of a lawful opposition 
to the tyranny of the imperial administration, they grew up to 
the possession of immense influence in the state. This power, 
having its basis in democratic feelings and energies, alarmed 
the emperors, and many attempts were made to circumscribe 
the papal authority. But the popes themselves did more to 
diminish their own influence than their enemies, for instead of 
remaining the protectors of the people, they aimed at making 
themselves their masters. Gregory II., who occupied the 
papal chair at the commencement of the contest with Leo, 
was a man of sound judgment, as well as an able and zealous 
priest. He availed himself of all the advantages of his posi- 
tion, as political chief of the Latin race, with prudence and 
moderation ; nor did he neglect the power he derived from 
the circumstance that Rome was the fountain of religious 
instruction for all western Europe. Both his political and 
ecclesiastical position entitled him to make a direct opposition 
to any oppressive measure of the emperor of Constantinople, 
when the edicts of Leo III. concerning image-worship 
prompted him to commence the contest, which soon ended 
in separating central Italy from the Byzantine empire. 

The possessions of the Eastern emperors in Italy were still 
considerable. Venice, Rome, Ravenna, Naples, Bari, and 
Tarentum were all capitals of well-peopled and wealthy 
districts. The province embracing Venice and Rome was 
governed by an imperial viceroy or exarch who resided at 
Ravenna, and hence the Byzantine possessions in central 
Italy were called the Exarchate of Ravenna. Under the 
orders of the exarch, three governors or dukes commanded 
the troops in Ravenna, Rome, and Venice. As the native 
militia enrolled to defend the province from the Lombards 
formed a considerable portion of the military force, the 
popular feelings of the Italians exercised some influence over 
the soldiery. The Constantinopolitan governor was generally 
disliked, on account of the fiscal rapacity of which he was the 

' SoHuneD, Hia. EecUt. iiL c. 8. 

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40 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.l.Ch.I.{). 
agent ; and nothing but the dread of greater oppression on the 
part of the Lombards, whom the Italians had not the courage 
to encounter without the assistance of the Byzantine troops, 
preserved the people of central Italy in their all^iance. 
They hated the Greeks, but they feared the Lombards. 

Gregory II. sent Leo strong representations against his first 
edicts on the subject of image-worship, and after the silention 
he repeated these representations, and entered on a more 
decided course of opposition to the emperor's ecclesiastical 
reforms, being then convinced that there was no hope of Leo 
abandoning his heretical opinions. It seems that Italy, like 
the rest of the empire, had escaped in some d^jree from the 
oppressive burden of imperial taxation during the anarchy 
that preceded Leo's election. But the defeat of the Saracens 
before Constantinople had been followed by the re-establish- 
ment of the fiscal system. To overcome the opposition now 
made to the financial and ecclesiastical reforms, the exarch 
Paul was ordered to march to Rome and support Marinus, 
the duke, who found himself unable to contend against the 
papal influence ^ The whole of central Italy burst into rebel- 
lion at this demonstration against its civil and religious 
interests. The exarch was compelled to shut himself up in 
Ravenna ; for the cities of Italy, instead of obeying the impe- 
rial officers, elected magistrates of their own, on whom they 
conferred, in some cases, the title of duke^. Assemblies were 
held, and the project of electing an emperor of the West was 
adopted ; but the unfortunate result of the rebellion of Greece 
damped the courage of the Italians ; and though a rebel, 
named Tiberius Fetasius, really assumed the purple in Tus- 
cany, he was easily defeated and slain by Eutychius, who 
succeeded Paul as exarch of Ravenna. Luitprand, king 
of the Lombards, taking advantage of these dissensions, 
invaded the imperial territory, and gained possession of 
Ravenna ; but Gr^ory, who saw the necessity of saving 
the country from the Lombards and from anarchy, wrote to 
Ursus the duke of Venice, one of his warm partisans, and 
persuaded him to join Eutychius. The Lombards were 
defeated by the Byzantine troops, Ravenna was recovered, 



^Aioo^^lc 



PAPAL OPPOSITION. 41 

4j..;ifr-74iO 

and Eutychius entered Rome with a victorious army *. Gre- 
gory died in 731. Though he excited the Italian cities to 
resist the imperial power, and approved of the measures 
they adopted for stopping the remittance of their taxes to 
Constantinople*, he does not appear to have adopted any 
measures for declaring Rome independent. That he con- 
templated the possibility of events taking a turn that might 
ultimately lead him to throw off his allegiance to the Emperor 
Leo, is nevertheless evident, from one of his letters to that 
emperor, in which he boasts very s^iticantly that the eyes 
of the West were fixed on his humility, and that if Leo 
attempted to injure the Pope, he would find the West ready 
to defend him, and even to attack Constantinople. The 
allusion to the protection of the king of the Lombards and 
Charles Martel was certainly, in this case, a treasonable threat 
on the part of the Bishop of Rome to his sovereign '. Besides 
this, Gr^ory 11. excommunicated the exarch Paul, and all 
the enemies of image-worship who were acting under the 
orders of the emperor, pretending to avoid the guilt of treason 
by not expressly naming the Emperor Leo in his anathema *. 
On the other hand, when we consider that Leo was striving to 
extend the bounds of the imperial authority in an arbitrary 
manner, and that his object was to sweep away every barrier 
against the exercise of despotism in the church and the state, we 
must acknowledge that the opposition of Gr^ory was founded 
in justice, and that he was entitled to defend the municipal 
institutions and locdl usages of Italy, and the constitution of 
the Romish church, even at the price of declaring himself a 
rebel. 

The election of Gr^ory III. to the papal chair was con- 
firmed by the Emperor Leo in the usual form ; nor was that 
pope consecrated until the mandate from Constantinople 
reached Rome. This was the last time the emperors of the 
East were solicited to confirm the election of a pope. Mean- 
while Leo steadily pursued his schemes of ecclesiastical 

' Baronii Ana. Eccltt. ix. p. 127. a.d. 719. 

• Theoph. 338. 
' Hiiioiri dit Souviraint Pontiffs Romaini, par le Chev. Attaud de Montor, 

i. 43II. This work is more remaikable for popish bigotiy than for hi«lorical 

— Kotacy. Two epislles of Gregjorj II. are prew — ■" -■■- -' '"-- 

cond council of Nicaes, Coleti, Acia S. Coiteil. vii 

* Tbcoph. 341 ; Aaaitos. Dt Vii. Font. Rom. 69. 

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41 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.1. i». 

reform, and the opposition to his measures gathered strength. 
Gregory III. assembled a council in Rome, at which the 
municipal authorities, whose power Leo was endeavouring 
to circumscribe, were present along with the nobles ; and 
in this council the whole body of the Iconoclasts was excom- 
municated. Leo now felt that force alone could maintain 
Rome and its bishops in their allegiance. With his usual 
energy, he despatched an expedition under the command 
of Manes, the general of the Kibyrraiot theme, with orders 
to send the pope a prisoner to Constantinople, to be tried 
for his treasonable conduct. A storm in the Adriatic, the 
lukewarm conduct of the Greeks in the imperial service, and 
the courage of the people of Ravenna, whose municipal 
institutions still enabled them to act in an organized manner, 
caused the complete overthrow of Manes. Leo revenged 
himself for this loss by confiscating all the estates of the 
papal see in the eastern provinces of his empire, and by 
separating the ecclesiastical government of southern Italy, 
Sicily, Greece, Illyria, and Macedonia, from the papal juris- 
diction, and placing these countries under the immediate 
authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople. 

From this time, a.d. 733, the city of Rome enjoyed 
political independence under the guidance and protection of 
the popes ' ; but the officers of the Byzantine emperors were 
allowed to reside in the city, justice was publicly administered 
by Byzantine judges, and the supremacy of the Eastern 
Empire was still recc^ised. So completely, however, had 
Gregory III. thrown off his all^iance, that he entered into 
negotiations with Charles Martel, in order to induce that 
powerful prince to take an active part In the affairs of Italy'. 
The pope was now a much more powerful personage than the 
Exarch of Ravenna, for the cities of central Italy, which had 
assumed the control of their local government, intrusted the 
conduct of their external political relations to the care of 
Gregory, who thus held the balance of power between the 
Eastern emperor and the Lombard king '. In the year 74a, 
while Constantine V., the son of Leo, was engaged with a 
civil war, the Lombards were on the eve of conquerii^ 

■ Anaslas, Dt fit. Pont. Rom. 74. 

' Bossuet, Dt/aa. Clir. Oallu. ii. c, xviii. 

' Faulus Diaconus, vi. c. 54. 



3 Google 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA. 43 

Aj.. 716-741-] 

Ravenna, but Pope Zacharias threw the whole of the Latin 
influence into the Byzantine scale, and enabled the exarch to 
maintain his position until the year 751, when Astolph, king 
of the Lombards, captured Ravenna \ The exarch retired to 
Naples, and the authority of the Byzantine emperors in 
central Italy ended. 

The physical history of our globe is so intimately connected 
with the condition of its inhabitants, that it is well to record 
those remarkable variations from the ordinary course of nature 
which strongly affected the minds of contemporaries. The 
influence of famine and pestilence, during the tenth and 
eleventh centuries, in accelerating the extinction of slavery, 
has been pointed out by several recent writers on the subject, 
though that effect was not observed by the people who lived 
at the time. The importance of the late famine in Ireland, 
as a political cause, must be felt by any one who attempts to 
trace the origin of that course of social improvement on which 
the Irish seem about to enter. The severity of the winter of 
717 aided Leo in defeating the Saracens at Constantinople. 
In the year 726, a terrific eruption of the dormant submarine 
volcano at the island of Thera (Santorin), in the Archipelago, 
was regarded by the bigoted image-worshippers as a mani- 
festation of divine wrath against Leo's reforms. For several 
days the sea between Thera and Therasia boiled up with 
great violence, vomiting forth flames, and enveloping the 
neighbourii^ islands in clouds of vapour and smoke. The 
flames were followed by showers of dust and pumice-stone, 
which covered the surface of the sea, and were carried by 
the waves to the shores of Asia Minor and Macedonia *. At 
last a new island rose out of the sea, and gradually ex- 
tended itself until it joined the older rocky islet called 
Hiera>. 

' The exarchate is usually said lo have lermlnated in 753, arier existing 1S4 
ytaxi; bnl there is an act of Astolph, dated at Ravenna, 4th July, 751- Fan- 
tucd, Monvmtnd Ravtnnali, torn. v. pp. 13, 303 ; Maratori. AnI. Ilal. v. 689. 

* Pumice-stone is somelimes found floating in the Archipelago at (he present 
dfty, and there is generally a good deal od the shore of Attica, near Cape Zoster, 
vashed thither from Suitoriu. 

' Theoph. 339; Niceph. Pat. 37. This addition to Hiera (Palaia Kaumene) 
may stitl be traced. Hiilain a Ph/nominn du Volcan d4 Sanloria, par I'AbM 
Fugues, 136; Ross, Rtistn auf dn QriKhiickm Inaln, i. Bj). The author is re- 
minded by this note of the pleasure he derived from a visit to Sanlorin in 1S37. 
with Professor Ross of Halle, a most accomplished and profound scholar, and 
ProfcMOt C. Ritler, the great geographer of Berlin. [Hiera was thrown up in 



DgIC 



44 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

\Wt.l.Cb.\.%t. 

In the year 740, a terrible earthquake destroyed great part 
of the walls of Constantinople. The statue of Arcadius, on 
the Theodosian column in Xerolophon, and the statue of 
Theodosius over the golden gate, were both thrown down ^. 
Churches, monasteries, and private buildings were ruined : 
the walls of many cities in Thrace and Bithynia, particularly 
Nicomedia, Praenetus, and Nicaca, were so injured as to 
require immediate restoration. This great earthquake caused 
the imposition of the tax already alluded to, termed the 
dikeration. 

Leo has been accused as a persecutor of learning. It is by 
no means impossible that his Asiatic education and puritanical 
opinions rendered him hostile to the legendary literature and 
ecclesiastical art then cultivated by the Greeks ; but the 
circumstance usually brought forward in support of his 
barbarism is one of the calumnies invented by his enemies, 
and re-echoed by orthodox bigotry. He is said to have 
ordered a library consisting of 35,000 Volumes, in the neigh- 
bourhood of Sl Sophia's, to be burned, and the professors of 
the university to be thrown into the flames. A valuable 
collection of books seems to have fallen accidentally a prey 
to the flames during his reign, and neither his liberality nor 
the public spirit of the Greeks induced them to display any 
activity in replacii^ the loss". 

Leo III. died in the year 741, He had crowned his son 
Constantine emperor in the year 710, and married him 
to Irene, the daughter of the Khan of the Khazars, in 
733- 

the year iq6 b.c. Of the two other ishinds. which with Hiera fonn the groap 
in the centre of the basm between Thera and Therasia, that called Mikra Kaumene 
rose from Ihe sea in a.u. 1573, while that which lies between them, and is bjr far 
Ibe largest of the three. Nea Kaumoie, rose in 1707. This last was the scene 
of the great eruption of 1866, which has occurred since the author wrote, and the 
crater then formed still emits sulphurous steam. Ed.1 

■ Ducan^, ConslwUiHopolis Christiana, 7S, Si. Scarlatos Byiantios, 'H Kawrrm^ 
Tivoura\ii, I. iSg. The latter is a work of more pretension than value. 

* Constant. Manasses. 87 ; Scblosser, OachiehU der hildtrsiurnundtii Kaistr, 163 j 
Spanherm, /fiiCorin Imagirmm Rttlilula, 115. Maimbourg {ffisioin dt VHiriat dtt 
Icoaotlailts, i. 58) believes and magnilies the accounts of the later Byzantine chro- 
nicles, in spile of Ihe silence of Leo's earlier enemies. According to Ephraeroius 
(v. 1007) a library of 110.000 volumes had been destroyed by fire in the rdgn of 
Zeno, in which was the MS of the Iliad and Odyssey, written with letters of gold 
on serpeat's skin This MS. was 110 feet long. 



Dictzed by Google 



CONSTANTINE V. 



Sect. III. — Constantine V. (Copronymus), A.D, 741-775. 

Character of ConstaotiDe V.— Rebellion of ArtaTasdos. — Saracen war. — Bulgarian 
war. — Internal conditioD of the empire. — Policy regarding image-worship. — 
Physical pbenomena Plague at Constantiuople. 

Constantine v., called Copronymus\ ascended the throne 
at the age of twenty-two, but he had already borne the title 
of emperor as his father's colleague one and twenty years, for 
the Byzantine empire preserved so strictly the elective type 
of the Roman imperial dignity, that the only mode of securing 
the hereditary transmission of the empire was for the reigning 
emperor to obtain his son's election during his own lifetime. 
Historians tell us that Constantine was a man possessing 
every vice disgraceful to humanity, combined with habits and 
tastes which must have rendered his company di^usting and 
his person contemptible. Yet they record facts proving that 
he possessed great talents, and that, even when his fortunes 
appeared desperate, he found many devoted friends. The 
obloquy heaped on his name must therefore be ascribed to 
the blind passion inspired by religious bigotry. The age was 
not one of forbearance and charity. The wisest generally 
considered freedom of opinion a species of anarchy incom- 
patible with orthodoxy, moral duty, and good government ; 
consequently, both Iconoclasts and image-worshippers ap- 
proved of persecution, and practised calumny in favour of 
what each considered the good cause. Constantine tortured 
the image- worshippers — they revenged themselves by de- 
faming the emperor. But the persecutions which rendered 
Constantine a monster in the eyes of the Greeks and Italians, 
elevated him to the rank of a saint in the opinion of a lai^e 
body of the population of the empire, who regarded the 
worship of pictures as a species of idolatry abhorrent to 
Christianity. His religious zeal, political success, courage, 
military talents, together with the prosperity that attended 
his government, all conspired to make him the idol of 



' Constantine received his name of Copronymns from having defiled the bap- 
tisDul font when the Patriarch plunged him bto the water according to the usage 
of the Greek Church ) if not in lact, at least metajdiorically. 



DgIC 



46 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Blc.l ai.I.{3. 
the Iconoclasts, who regarded hi9 tomb as a sacred shrine 
until it was destroyed by Michael the orthodox drunkard '. 

Constantine was able, prudent, active, and brave; but he 
was not more tender of human suffering than great monarchs 
generally are. The Patriarch Nicephorus justly accuses him 
of driving monks from their monasteries, and converting 
sacred buildings into barracks. In modem times orthodox 
papist sovereigns have frequently done the same thing, 
without exciting much ecclesiastical indignation. But when 
the Patriarch assures us that the emperor's mind was as 
filthy as his name, we may be allowed to suspect that his 
pen is guided by orthodoxy instead of truth ; and when we 
find grave historians recording that he loved the odour of 
horse-dung, and carried on amours with old maids, we are 
reminded of the Byzantine love of calumny which could 
delight in the anecdotes of Procopius, and believe that the 
Emperor Justinian was a man of such diabolical principles, 
that he was not ashamed to walk about his palace for many 
hours of the night without his head ', An account of rfie 
reign of Constantine by an intelligent Iconoclast, even if he 
represented the eiilperor as a saint, would be one of the most 
valuable illustrations of the history of the eighth century 
which time could have spared. He was accused of rejecting 
the practice of invoking the intercession of the Vii^n Mary, 
though it is admitted he called her the Mother of God. He 
was also said to have denied the right of any man to be called 
a saint ; and he had even the audacity to maintain, that 
though the martyrs benefited themselves by their sufferings, 
their merit, however great it might be, was not a quality that 
could be transferred to others. His enemies regarded these 
opinions as damnable heresies ^ Few reputations, however, 
have passed through such an ordeal of malice as that of 
Constantine, and preserved so many undeniable virtues. 

Shortly after his succession, Constantine lost possession of 
Constantinople through the treachery of his brother-in-law 
Artavasdos, who assumed the title of emperor, and kept pos- 
session of the throne for two years. Artavasdos was an 



' Serif lora post Thmfhaium: Symean Ma£. 449; Georg. Mon. 541. 
' Niceph. Pat. 88; Suidas, t.v. KaKorarrttot ; Procop. Hiaoria knaita, iu. 80, 
edit. Bonn. 
• Neander, Hiilx)ry ofthi Chriilian Rdigion, iii. J 1 8. 



:v Google 



REBELUON OF ARTAVASDOS. 47 

Armenian noble, who had commanded the troops ol the 
Armeniac theme in the reign of Theodosius III,, and aided 
Leo to mount the throne. He was rewarded with the hand of 
Anna, the Isaurian's only daughter, and with the dignity of 
curopalates, second only to that of Caesar, a rank then usually 
reserved for the imperial blood. Artavasdos had increased 
his influence by favouring the orthodox ; his long services in 
the highest administrative offices had enabled him to attach 
many partisans to his personal cause in every branch of the 
public service. The manner in which Constantine was 
engaged in a civil war with his brother-in-law reflected no 
dishonour on the character of the yout^ emperor. 

The Saracens had pushed their incursions into the Opsikian 
theme, where the imperial guards, under the command of 
Artavasdos, were stationed. Constantine took the field in 
person to oppose the enemy, and advanced to the plains of 
Krasos. Here he ordered Artavasdos, who was at Dorylaeum, 
to join him with the troops of the Opsikian theme. The order 
alarmed Artavasdos, who seems to have been already engaged 
in treasonable intrigues. Instead of obeying, he assumed the 
title of emperor, and attacked Constantine so unexpectedly 
that the imperial army was easily dispersed, and the young 
emperor could only avoid being taken prisoner by galloping 
off alone. When his own horse sank from fatigue, Constan- 
tine was fortunate enoi^h to find another waiting ready 
saddled at the door of a post-house, which he mounted and 
continued his flight. He succeeded in reaching Amorium 
in safety'. 

Artavasdos marched to Constantinople, where, it appears 
from coins, he affected for some time to act as the colleague 
of Constantine ; and it is possible that some treaty may have 
been concluded between the brothers-in-law '. The usurper, 
however, soon considered himself strong enough, with the 
support of the orthodox, to set Constantine aside. The pope 
acknowledged him as emperor, pictures were replaced in the 
churches, a strong body of Armenian troops was collected, 
and Nicephorus, the eldest son of Artavasdos, was crowned as 
his father's colleague; while Niketas, the second, took the 

* Theoph..i47; NicMih. Pat. jSj Le Bean Hin^ire du Bas-Empirt, xii. ijoj 
S«nl-Martin'» noles- Krasos was ft towo of Phrygia Pacatiana. 

* De Saulcy, Ei$ai di Gauifiauion dtt Suiin MoiUuum BjzatUaut, 1 5S. 



c.,i„..t, Google 



48 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.I.i3. 
command of the Armeniac theme, where the family possessed 
great influence. All persona suspected of favouring Constan- 
tine were persecuted as heretics hostile to picture-worship. 

In the following year (742) Constantine assembled an army 
composed chiefly of the troops of the Thrakesian and Anatolic 
themes. With this force he marched to Chrysopolis (Scutari), 
hoping that a party in Constantinople would declare in his 
favour ; but, being disappointed, he was compelled to with- 
draw to Amoriura, where he passed the winter. In spring, 
Artavasdos marched to dislodge him, ordering his son Niketas 
to bring up the Armenian troops to operate on the right flank 
of the young emperor. The usurper laid waste all the country 
on his line of march, as if it was a territory he never hoped to 
govern, Constantine, whose military genius had been cul- 
tivated by his father, formed a daring plan of campaign, and 
executed it in the most brilliant manner. While his enemies 
believed that they were advancing to attack him with superior 
forces, he moved forward with such celerity as to become the 
attacking party, before they could approach near enough to 
combine any simultaneous movements. His first attack was 
directed against Artavasdos, whose numerous army was infe- 
rior in discipline to that of Niketas, and over which he 
expected an easier victory. A general engagement took place 
near Sardis, on quitting the Kelvian plain, watered by the 
Kayster, The victory was complete. The usurper was 
closely pursued to Cyzicus, from whence he escaped by sea 
to Constantinople. Constantine then moved forward to meet 
Niketas, who was defeated in a bloody battle fought at 
Modrina, in the Boukellarian theme, to the east of the San- 
garius. The Armenian auxiliaries and the troops of the 
Armeniac theme sustained their high reputation, and long 
disputed the victory. 

The emperor then marched to invest Constantinople, cross- 
ing the Bosphonis with one division of his army, and sending 
another, under the command of Sisinnios, the general of the 
Thrakesian theme, to cross the Hellespont at Abydos, and 
reduce the cities on the shores of the Propontis. The fleet of 
the Kibyrraiot theme blockaded the capital by sea. All 
communications with Greece, one of the strongholds of the 
image-worshippers, were thus cut off. Constantine repulsed 
every sally by land, and famine quickly made frightful ravages 



DgIC 



REBELLION OF ARTAVASDOS. 49 

i.1.. 741-775] 

in the dense population of the capital, where no preparations 
had been made for a siege. Constantine acted on this occa- 
sion in a very different manner from Artavasdos during the 
campaign in Asia Minor. He felt that the people suddenly 
besieged were his own subjects ; and his enemies record that 
he allowed all the starving population to seek refuge in his 
camp^ 

Niketas quickly reassembled the fugitives'of his own and his 
father's army, and made an attempt to cut off Constantine's 
communications in Bithynia ; but the emperor left the camp 
before Constantinople, and, putting himself at the head of 
the troops tn Asia, again defeated Niketas near Nicomedia> 
Niketas and the orthodox archbishop of Gangra were both 
taken prisoners. The belligerent prelate was immediately 
beheaded as a traitor ; but Niketas was carried to Constanti- 
nople, where he was exhibited before the walls laden with 
fetters. Artavasdos still rejected all terms of capitulation, 
and Constantine at last ordered a general assault, by which he 
reconquered his capital on the ad November 743. Artavasdos 
escaped by sea to a fortress called Pyzanitis, in the Opsikian 
theme, where he was soon after taken prisoner. His eyes, 
and those of his sons, Nicephorus and Niketas, were put out ; 
and' in this condition they were exhibited as a triumphal 
spectacle to the inhabitants of Constantinople, at the chariot 
races given by the emperor to celebrate his re-establishment 
on the throne. They were then immured in a monastery. 
Some of their principal adherents were beheaded. The head 
of Vaktageios, the principal minister of the usurper, was 
exhibited for three days in the Augusteon — a custom per- 
petuated by the Ottoman emperors in similar circumstances 
until our own times, the heads of rebel viziers having adorned 
the gate of the Serail during the reign of the late sultan ^. 
The Patriarch Anastasios was pardoned, and allowed to 
remain in possession of his dignity^. Sisinnios, who had 



' r>-e. SnlUa MaWnd 



1. 35a. 



^ js (353) says th»t the patrikrcb's ey« were pnt oot «nd thjit he wm 

exposed to the insulls of the mob in the circus, mounted on an ass. but the 
Patriarch NicephoruE. who, in a Iragmeot preserved bjr Pbotins (fiiUioflica, p. S6), 
bas lecapitulated all the miEdeeds of Constantine with orthodox exae^enition, 
makes no mention of this treatment of his predecessor, Anastasios continued to 
occup; the patriarchal thriaie ten fears aKei the talcing of Conalantini^le. and 
died A.D. 753. There appeara to be some accidental mistake in what Theophonea 
VOL, II. E 



^Aioo^^lc 



CO ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

pk.I.Cb.I.(3. 
commanded one division of the emperor's army, was soon 
found to be engaged in treasonable intrigues, and lost his 
eyes forty days after he entered the capital in triumph with 
his sovere^n. 

Constantine no sooner found himself firmly established on 
the throne than he devoted his attention to completing the 
oi^;anizatton of the empire traced out by his father. The 
constant attacks of the Saracens and Bulgarians called him 
frequently to the head of his armies, for the state of society 
rendered it dangerous to intrust large forces to the command _ 
of a subject. In the Byzantine empire few individuals had 
any scruple of violating the political constitution of their 
country, if by so doing they could increase their own power. 

The incursions of the Saracens first required to be repressed. 
The empire of the caliphs was already distracted by the civil 
wars which preceded the fall of the Ommiad dynasty, Coo"- 
stantine took advantage of these troubles. He reconquered 
Germanicia and Doliche, and occupied for a time a consider- 
able part of Commagene ; but as he found it impossible to 
retain possession of the country, he removed the Christian 
population to Thrace, where he founded several flourishing 
colonies, long distinguished by their religious opinions from the 
surrounding population ; A,D, 746 ^ The Saracens attempted 
to indemnify themselves for these losses by the conquest of 
Cyprus. Tiiis island appears to have been reconquered by 
Leo III., for it had been abandoned to the Mohammedans by 
Justinian II. The fleet of the caliph sailed from Alexandria, 
and landed an army at the port of Kerameia ; but the fleet of 
the Kibyrraiot theme arrived in time to blockade the enemy's 
ships, and of a thousand Mohammedan vessels three only 
escaped ; A.D. 748. The war was continued. In 752 the 
imperial armies took the cities of Melitene and Theodosio- 
polis, but some years later the Caliph AI Mansour recovered 
Melitene and Germanicia ; he seems, however, to have con- 
adered the tenure of the last so insecure that he transported 

tajrs with regard (o AnasUsioE, for both be and Nicephonis recount similar dr- 
cnmstances ts accoinpuiying the deposition and death at the successor of Anas- 
tasios, ConstantiDos 11. Tbeoph. 371 ; Niceph. Pat. 4S. 

• Theophanes tJS4) mentions that these colonists retained in his time the 
heietical addition to the TrisMiion of Peter the Fuller, ■ O holy God 1 O holy 
Almighty I O holy Eternal, who was cradfied for oil' Sm Hosheim's Etiln 
Hut. 1. 483, edit. Soames. 



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BULGARIAN WAR. 51 

the inhabitants into Palestine. The Saracens invaded the 
empire almost eveiy summer, but these incursions led to no 
permanent conquests. The agricultural population along the 
frontiers of the two empires must have been greatly dimi- 
nished during these successive ravages; for farm-buildings 
and fruit-trees were constantly destroyed, and slaves formed 
the most valuable booty of the soldiers. The mildness and 
tolerant government of the emperor of Romania (for that 
name began now to be applied to the part of Asia Minor 
belonging to the Byzantine empire^) was so celebrated in 
the East, in spite of his persecution of the image-worshippers 
at Constantinople, that many Christians escaped by sea from 
the dominions of the Caliph AI Mansour to settle in those of 
Constantine '- In the year 769 an exchat^e of prisoners took 
place, but without interrupting the course of hostilities, which 
were continued almost incessantly on the frontiers of the two 
empires '. 

The vicinity of the Bulgarians to Constantinople rendered 
them more dangerous enemies than the Saracens, though their 
power was much inferior. The Bulgarians were a people who 
looked on war as the most honourable means of acquiring 
wealth, and they had long pursued it with profit : for as long 
as the Byzantine frontiers were populous, they obtained booty 
and slaves by their incursions ; while, as soon as they became 
depopulated by these ravages, the Bulgarians were enabled to 
occupy the waste districts with their own pastoral hordes, and 
thus increase their numbers and strength. To resist thdr 
incursions, Constantine gradually repaired all the fortifications 
of the towns on the northern frontier, and then commenced 
fortifying the passes, until the Bulgarians found their pre- 
datory incursions attended with loss instead of gain. Tlieir 
king was now compelled to make the cause of the predatory 
bands a national question, and an embassy was sent to Con- 
stantinople to demand payment of an annual tribute, under 
the pretext that some of the fortifications erected to guard the 
passes were situated in the Bulgarian territory, but, in reality, 
to replace the loss of the plunder which had enabled many of 
the warlike Bulgarians to live in idleness and luxury. The 



ng.i ...A'OOgle 



ca ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.1. Ch.1. (3- 
demands of the king were rejected, and he immediately invaded 
the empire with a powerful army. The Bulgarians carried 
their ravages up to the long wall ; but though they derived 
assistance from the numerous Sclavonian colonies settled in 
Thrace, they were defeated, and driven back into their own 
territory with great slaughter ; A.D, 757. 

Constantine carried on a series of campaigns, systematically 
planned, for the purpose of weakening the Bulgarian power. 
Instead of allowing his enemy to make any incursions into 
the empire, he was always ready to carry the war into their 
territory. The difficulties of his enterprise were great, and he 
suffered several defeats ; but his military talents and persever- 
ing energy prevented the Bulgarians from profiting by any 
partial success they obtained, and he soon regained the supe- 
riority. In the campaigns of 760, 763, and 765, Constantine 
marched far into Bulgaria, and carried off immense booty. 
In the year 766 he intended to complete the conquest of the 
, country, by openii^ the campaign at the comm«icement of 
spring. His fleet, which consisted of two thousand six hun- 
dred vessels, in which he had embarked a considerable body 
of infantry in order to enter the Danube, was assailed by one 
of those furious storms that often sweep the Euxine. The 
force which the emperor expected would soon render him 
master of Bulgaria was suddenly ruined. The shores of the 
Black Sea were covered with the wrecks of his ships and the 
bodies of his soldiers. Constantine immediately abandoned 
all thought of continuing the campaign, and employed his 
H*oIe army in alleviating the calamity to the survivors, and 
in securing Christian burial and funeral honours to the dead. 
A truce was concluded with the enemy, and the Roman 
army beheld the emperor as eager to employ their services in 
the cause of humanity and religion, as he had ever been to 
lead them in fields of blood and conquest. His conduct on 
this occasion gained him as much popularity with the people 
of Constantinople as with the troops >. 

In the year 774 he again assembled an army of eighty 
thousand men, accompanied by a fleet of two thousand trans- 



' Niceph. Pat. 47; Theoph. 368. The great serrices and Tictories of Con- 
Btantine m the Bulgaiun wm wete kckaowledged t? posterity. Leo Kaconos, 
104, «dit. UoQO. 



DgIC 



ORGANIZED BRIGANDAGE. 53 

ports, and invaded Bulgaria. The Bulgarian monarch con- 
cluded a treaty of peace — which, however, was broken as soon 
35 Constantine returned to bis capital. But the emperor was 
not unprepared, and the moment he heard that the enemy 
had laid si^e to Verzetia, one of the fortresses he had con- 
structed to defend the frontier, he quitted Constantinople in 
the month of October, and, falling suddenly on the besiegers, 
routed their army with great slaughter. The following year 
his army was again ready to take the field ; but as Constan- 
tine was on his way to join it he was attacked by a mortal 
illness, which compelled him to retrace his steps. Having 
embarked at Selymbria, in order to reach Constantinople 
with as little fatigue as possible, he died on board the vessel 
at the castle of Strongyle, just as he reached the walls of his 
capital, on the 23rd September 775 '. 

The long war with the Bulgarians was carried on rather 
with the object of securing tranquillity to the northern pro- 
vinces of the empire, than from any desire of a barren conquest 
The necessity of reducing the Sclavonian colonies in Thrace 
and Macedonia to complete obedience to the central adminis- 
tration, and of secluding them from all political communica- 
tion with one another, or with their countrymen in Bulgaria, 
Servia, and Dalmatia, imposed on the emperor the necessity 
of maintaining strong bodies of troops, and suggested the 
policy of forming a line of Greek towns and Asiatic colonies 
along the northern frontier of the empire. When this was 
done, Constantine began to root out the brigandage, which 
had greatly extended itself during the anarchy which preceded 
his father's election, and which Leo had never been able to 
exterminate. Numerous bands lived by plunder, in a state 
of independence, within the bounds of the empire. They 
were called Skamars, and, like the Ba^auds of Gaul, formed 
oi^anized confederacies of outlaws, originally consisting of 
men driven to despair by the intolerable burden of taxation 



' StroDgfle is the same with the Cydobion or Seven Towets. Bandnri, Imp. 
Orim. it 530, edit. Veo. ; Ducanze, Coim. CSrui, 45, toi. MagDaora vas Ihe 
ifesleni point of Constinlinople (Zonaias. Ji. S9) ; though the aathority of Theo- 
phanes (1^) would place it at the Hebdomon. Mother passage, however, 
corrects this (p. 331), and proves that both Magnaura and Cyclobion were without 
the chain which dosed the port at the points of the triangle towards the Pro- 
pODtis. Dncange, Cami. Ciriii. 117. Gflliiu Gccms wrong; Dt Topog. Comi. 



^Aioo^^lc 



54 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

and the severity of the fiscal legislation '. When the incur- 
sions of the Bulgarians had wasted the fields of the cultivator, 
the government still called upon him to pay the full amount 
of taxation imposed on his estate in {»osperous times: 
his produce, his cattle, his slaves, and his seed-corn were 
carried away by the imperial officers. He could then only 
live by plundering his fellow-subjects, who had hitherto 
escaped the calamities by which he had been ruined ; and 
thus the oppression of the imperial government was avenged 
on the society that submitted to it without striving to reform 
its evils. Constantine rooted out these bands. A celebrated 
chief of the Skamars was publicly executed at Constantinople 
with the greatest barbarity, his living body being dissected by 
suigeons after the amputation of his hands and feet. The 
habitual barbarity of legal punishments 19 the Byzantine 
empire can hardly relieve the memory of Constantine from 
the reproach of cruelty, which this punishment proves he was 
ready to employ against the enemies of his authority, whether 
br^ands or image- worshippers. His error, therefore, was not 
only passing laws against liberty of conscience — which was 
a fault in accwdance with the spirit of the age — but in carry- 
ing these laws into execution with a cruelty offensive to 
human feelings. Yet on many occasions Constantine gave 
proofs of humanity, as well as of a desire to protect his 
subjects. The Sclavonians on the coast of Thrace, having 
fitted out «)me piratical vessels, carried off jnany of the 
inhabitants of Tenedos, Imbros, and Samothrace, to sell them 
as slaves. The emperor on this occasion ransomed two thou- 
sand five hundred of his subjects, preferring to lower his own 
dignity, by paying a tribute to the pirates, rather than allow 
those who looked to him for protection to pine away their 
lives in hopeless misery. No act of his reign shows so much 
real greatness of mind as this. He also concluded the con- 
vention with the Saracees for an exchange of prisoners, which 
has been already mentioned — one of the earliest examples of 
the exchanges between the Mohammedans and the Christians, 
which afterwards became frequent on the Byzantine frontiers. 
Man was exchanged for man, woman for woman, and child for 



' Compare Dncange, Olouarima Mid. tt Infim. Latunlatit, i 
Wallon, Hiiloin dt TEjtlatagt daiu rAmiqiiiii, Hi. 287. 



DgIC 



INTERNAL POLICY. 55 

i.B. 74»-77i.] 

child*. These conventions tended to save the lives of in- 
numerable prisoners, and rendered the future wars between 
the Saracens and Romans less barbarous. 

Constantine was active in his internal administration, and 
his schemes for improving the condition of the inhabitants of 
his empire were carried out on a far more gigantic scale than 
modem governments have considered practicable. One of his 
plans for reviving agriculture in uncultivated districts was by 
repeopling them with colonies of emigrants, to whom he 
secured favourable conditions and efficient protection. On 
the banks of the Artanes in Eithsoiia, a colony of two 
hundred thousand Sclavoaians was formed^ The Christian 
population of Germanicia, Doliche, Melitene, and Theodosio- 
polis was established in Thrace, to watch and restrain the 
rude' Sclavonians settled in that province ; and these Asiatic 
colonists long continued to flourish and multiply ^ They are 
even accused of spreading the heretical opinions which they 
had brought from the East throughout great part of western 
Europe, by the extent of their commercial relations and the 
example of their prosperity and honesty*. It is not to be 
supposed that the measures of Constantine's administration, 
however great his political abilities might be, were competent 
to remove many of the social evils of his ^e. Agriculture 
was still carried on in the rudest manner ; and as communica- 
tions were difficult and insecure, and transport expensive, 
capital could hardly be laid out on land to any extent with 
much profit. As usual under such circumstances, we find 
years of famine and plenty alternating in close succes- 
sion. Yet the bitterest enemy of Constantine, the abbot 
Theophanes, confesses that his reign was one of general 
abundance. It is true, he reproaches him with loading the 
husbandmen with taxes; but he also accuses him of being 



* Theoph. J74. At Ihia time the sUve-tiade was very active, and the Venetians 
cairied on a floarishing commerce in Christian slaves with the Mohammedans 
Anastas. Di Vil. PoM. Ram. 79 ; Episl. Hadriani. i. ep. xii. Even duriag the anarchy 
that prevailed in western Europe at ihe end of the seventh century, Roman slave. 
merchants imported slaves from Britain, as we know from the anecdote of St. 
Gr^ory, repeated by all our historians, 

* Niceph, Pal. 44 j Theoph. 364. 

* Niceph. Pat. 43; Theoph. 354, 360. 

' How (ar the Albigenses were indebted for their doctrines to these colonie» 
i« still a question. See Schmidt, HiOoirt «r Doclriit dt la Sitlt dts CatSarti an 
Albigtoii. 3 vols. 1849- 



DgIC 



56 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.I.f3. 
a new Midas, who made gold so common in the hands of all 
that it became cheap. The abbot's political economy, it must 
be confessed, is not so orthodox as his calumny. If the 
Patriarch Nlcephorus, another enemy of Constantine, is to be 
believed, grain was so abundant, or gold so rare, that sixty 
measures of wheat, or seventy measures of barley, were sold 
for a nomisma, or gold byzant'. To guard against severe 
drought in the capital, and supply the gardens in its immediate 
vicinity with water, Constantine repaired the great aqueduct 
of Valehs. The flourishing condition of the towns in Greece 
at the time is attested by the fact, that the best workmen in 
cement were sought in the Hellenic cities and the islands of 
the Archipelago '. 

The time and attention of Constantine, during his whole 
reign, were principally engaged in military occupations. In 
the eyes of his contemporaries he was Judged by his military 
conduct. His strategic abilities and indefatigable activity 
were the most striking characteristics of his administration. 
His campaigns, his financial measures, and the abundance 
they created, were known to all ; but his .ecclesiastical policy 
affected comparatively few. Yet by that policy his reign has 
been exclusively judged and condemned in modern times. 
The grounds of the condemnation are unjust. He has not, 
like his father, the merit of having saved an empire from ruin ; 
but he may claim the honour of perfecting the reforms planned 
by his father, and of re-establishing the military power of the 
Roman empire on a basis that perpetuated Byzantine supre- 
macy for several centuries. Hitherto historians have treated 
the events of his reign as an accidental assemblage of facts ; 
but surely, if he is to be rendered responsible for the persecu- 
tion of the image-worshippers, in which he took comparatively 
little part, he deserves credit for his military successes and 
prosperous administration, since these were the result of his 
constant personal occupation. The history of his ecclesiastical 
measures, however, really possesses a deep interest, for they 

' Nicqih. Pat. 48 ; Tb«oph. 373. As a contntst to this cheapness. Theophuies 
(351) mentions that n measure of barley was sold for twelve nomismata while 
Artavflsdos was besieged in Constantinople, 

' Theoph. 371. Six thousand nine hundred workmen were employed. One 
Ihonsand masons and two hundred plasterers were broa^t from Asia Minor and 
Pontus; five hiudred workers in cement from Greece and the islands of the 
Archipelago J five thouMnd labouKti bota Thrace, with two hundred potten. 



DgIC 



POUCY REGARDING IMAGE-WORSHIP. 57 

*■»■ 741-775] 

reflect with accuracy the feelings and ideas of milHons of 
his subjects, as well as of the emperor. 

Constantine was a sincere enemy of image-worship, and 
in his age sincerity implied bigotry, for persecution was 
considered both lawful and meritorious. Yet with all his 
eneigy, he was prudent in his first attempts to carry out 
his father's policy. While he was stn^glii^ with Artavasdos, 
and labouring to restore the discipline of his troops, and 
re-establish the military superiority of the Byzantine arms, 
he left the religious controversy concerning image-worship 
to the two parties of the clei^ who then disputed for 
pre-eminence in the church. But when his power was 
consolidated, he steadily pursued his father's plans for cen- 
tralizing the ecclesiaistical administration of the empire. To 
prepare for the final decision of the question, which probably, 
in his mind, related as much to the i^ht of the emperor to 
govern the church, as to the question whether pictures were 
to be worshipped or not, he ordered the metropolitans and 
archbishops to hold provincial synods, in order to discipline 
the people for the execution of the edicts to which he pro- 
posed to obtain the sanction of a general council of the 
Eastern church '. 

This general council was convoked at Constantinople in 
the year 754. It was attended by 338 bishops, forming the 
most numerous assembly of the Christian clergy which had 
ever been collected together for ecclesiastical legislation. 
Theodosius, metropolitan of Ephesus, son of the Emperor 
Tiberius III,, presided, for the patriarchal chair had been 
kept vacant since the death of Anastasios in the preceding 
year. Neither the Pope nor the patriarchs of Antioch, 
Alexandria, and Jerusalem sent representatives to this council, 
which was solely composed of the Byzantine clei^, so that it 
had no right to assume the rank of an oecumenical council. 
Its decisions were all against image-worship, which it declared 
to be contrary to Scripture. It proclaimed the use of images 
and pictures in churches to be a pagan and antichristian 
practice, the abolition of which was necessary to avoid leading 
Christians into temptation. Even the use of the crucifix was 



^Aioo^^lc 



58 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.I.|j. 
condemned, on the ground that the only true symbol of the 
incarnation was the bread and wine which Christ had com- 
manded to be received for the remission of sins. In its 
opposition to the worship of pictures, the council was led 
into the display of some animosity against painting itself; 
and every attempt at embodying sacred subjects by what it 
styled the dead and accursed art, foolishly invented by the 
pagans, was strongly condemned. The common people were 
thus deprived of a source of ideas, which, though liable to 
abuse, tended in general to civilize their minds, and might 
awaken noble thoughts and religious aspirations. We may 
fully agree with the Iconoclasts in the religious importance of 
not worshipping images, and not allowing the people to 
prostrate themselves on the pavements of churches before 
pictures of saints, whether said to be painted by human 
artists or miraculous agency ; while at the same time we 
think that the walls of the vestibules or porticoes of sacred 
edifices may with propriety be adorned with pictures repre- 
senting those sacred subjects most likely to awaken feelii^ 
of Christian charity. It is by embodying and ennobling the 
expression of feelings common to all mankind, that modem 
artists can alone unite in their works that combination ^ of 
truth with the glow of creative imagination which gives a 
divine stamp to many pagan works. There is nothing in 
the circle of human affairs so democratic as art. The Council 
of 754, however, deemed that it was necessary to sacrifice art 
to the purity of religion. ' The godless art of painting ' was 
proscribed. All who manufactured crucifixes or sacred paint- 
ings for worship, in public or private, whether laymen or 
monks, were ordered to be excommunicated by the church 
and punished by the state. At the same time, in order to 
guard against the indiscriminate destruction of sacred build- 
ings and shrines possessing valuable ornaments and rich plate 
and jewels, by Iconoclastic zeal, or under its pretext, the 
council commanded that no alteration was to be made in 
existing churches, without the special permission of the 
patriarch and the emperor — a regulation bearing strong marks 
of the fiscal rapacity of the central treasury of the Roman 
empire. The bigotry of the age was displayed in the ana- 
thema which this council pronounced against three of the 
most distinguished and virtuous advocates of im^e-worship, 



POLICY REGARDING IMAGE-WORSHIP. 59 

*j>. 7HI-77S-] 

Germanos, the Patriarch of Constantinople, Geor^ of Cyprus, 
and John Damascenua, the last of the fathers of the Greek 
church '. 

The ecclesiastical decisions of the council served as the 
basis for penal enactments by the dvil power. The success 
of the emperor in restoring prosperity to the empire, induced 
many of his subjects to believe that he was destined to reform 
the church as well as the state, and few thinking men could 
doubt that corruption had entered deep into both. In many 
minds there was a contest between the superstitions of picture- 
worship and the feeling of respect for the emperor's admin- 
istration ; but there were still in the Roman empire many 
persons of education, unconnected with the church, who 
r^arded the superstitions of the people with aversion. To 
them the reverence paid by the ignorant to images said to 
have fallen from heaven, to pictures painted by St. Luke, 
to vii^ns who wept, and to saints who supplied the lamps 
burning before their efligies with a perpetual fountain of chI, 
appeared rank idolatry ^. There were also still a few men of 
philosophic minds who exercised the right of private judgment 
on public questions, both civil and ecclesiastical, and who felt 
that the emperor was making popular superstition the pretext 
for rendering his power despotic in the church as in the state. 
His conduct appeared to these men a violation of those 
principles of Roman law and ecclesiastical legislation which 
rendered the systematic government of society in the Roman 
empire superior to the arbitrary rule of Mohammedan 
despotism, or the wild license of Gothic anarchy. The Greek 
church had not hitherto made it imperative on its members to 
worship images ; — it had only tolerated popular abuse in the 
reverence paid to these symbols— so that the ignorant monks 
who resisted the enlightened Iconoclasts might, by liberal- 
minded men, be considered as the true defenders of the right 
of private judgment, and as benefactors of mankind. There 
is positive evidence that such feelings really existed, and they 
could not exist without producing some influence on society 

* Tbe Bets of tKis council ar« only known from the garbled portions pi«s«rved 
by its enemies in the sets of the second council of Nicaea and the hostile historians. 
Coleti, Aita S. ConeHionm, torn. viii. p. 1457. 

' ' At Athens is a church of the blessed Virgin Maiy, which has a lamp that 
boms always, and neter wants oil.' T}i» TravU ofSatinU, 31, in EaHy TrawU m 
Fata^t, Bohn'a edit. 



DgIC 



fio ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[BlcI.Ch.1. (3. 
generally. Less than forty years after the death of Constan- 
tine, the tolerant party was so numerous that it could stni^le 
in the imperial cabinet to save heretics from persecution, on 
the ground that the church had no authority to ask that men 
should be condemned to death for matters of belief, as God 
may always turn the mind of the sinner to repentance. 
Thcophanes has recorded the existence of these humane 
sentiments in his eagerness to blame them ', 

Many of the clei^ boldly resisted the edicts of Constan- 
tine to enforce the new ecclesiastical l^islation against 
images and pictures. They held that all the acts of the 
council of Constantinople were void, for a general council 
could only be convoked by an orthodox emperor ; and they 
took upon themselves to declare the opinions of Constantine 
heterodox. The monks engaged with eagerness in the 
controversy which arose. The Pope, the patriarchs of 
Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, replied to the excom- 
munications of the council by condemning all its supporters 
to eternal perdition. The emperor, enraged at the opposition 
he met with, enforced the execution of his edicts with all the 
activity and enei^ of his character ; his political as well as 
his religious views urged him to be a persecutor. It is evident 
that policy and passion were as much connected with his 
violence against the image-worshippers as religious feeling, 
for he treated many heretics with toleration who appeared 
to be quiet and inoffensive subjects, incapable of offering 
any opposition to his political and ecclesiastical schemes. The 
Theopaschites, the Faulicians, and the Monophysites enjoyed 
religious toleration during his whole reign '. 

In the year 7(5(5 the edicts against image-worship were 
extended in their application, and enforced with additional 
rigour. The use of relics and the practice of praying to 
saints were prohibited. Many monks, and several members 
of the dignified clergy, were banished ; stripes, loss of the 
eyes and of the tongue, were inflicted as legal punishments 
for prostration before a pcture, or praying before a relic. 
Yet, even at this period of the greatest excitement, the 
emperor at times displayed great personal forbearance ; 

Tbecnih. 419: JS<r]r/iiIn(M- S) d^oWM f4 'f*<>«< Ufnav AsofotrM^n aoril 
9£r MraTM'. 



» Theoph. JM. jfc- 



Dictzed by Google 



POLICY REGARDING IMAGE-WORSHIP. 6l 

*J>- 741-7750 

when, however, either policy or passion prompted him to 
order punishment to be inflicted, it was done with fearful 
severity \ 

Two cases may be mentioned as affording a correct elucida- 
tion of the personal conduct of Constantine. A hermit, 
named Andreas the Kalybite, presented himself before the 
emperor, and upbraided him for causing dissension in the 
church. ' If thou art a Christian, why dost thou persecute 
Christians ? ' shouted the monk to his prince, with audacious 
orthodoxy. Constantine ordered him to be carried off to 
prison for insulting the imperial authority. He was then 
called upon to submit to the decisions of the general council.; 
and when he refused to admit the validity of its canons, and 
to obey the edicts of the emperor, he was tried and con- 
demned to death. After being scourged in the hippodrome, 
he was beheaded, and his body, accordii^ to the practice of 
the age, was cast into the sea. 

Stephen, the abbot of a monastery near Nicomedia, was 
banished to the island of Proconnesus, on account of his firm 
opposition to the emperor's edicts ; but his fame for piety 
drew numerous votaries to his place of banishment, who 
flocked thither to hear him preadu This assembly of seditious 
and pious persons roused the anger of the civil authorities, 
and Stephen was brought to Constantinople, to be more 
strictly watched. His eloquence still drew crowds to the door 
of his prison ; and the reverence shown to him by his followers 
vexed the emperor so much, that he gave vent to his mortifi- 
cation by exclaiming — ' It seems, in truth, that this monk is 
really emperor, and I am nothing in the empire.' This speech 
was heard by some of the officers of the imperial guard. Like 
that c^ Henry II, concerning Thomas-i-Becket, it caused the 
death of Stephen. He was dragged from his prison by some 
of the emperor's guard, and cruelly murdered. The soldiery 
and the people joined in dra^ti^ his body through the 
streets, and his unburied remains were left exposed in the 
place destined to receive those of the lowest criminals. Both 
Stephen and Andreas were declared martyrs, and rewarded 
with a place in the calendar of Greek saints'. 

> Thcoph. 370. Bonefidins Cot OritHlaU, 4) qaotea thii edict kgtunst relio 
from Cedrenng. Mortreail, i. 349. 
* Tbeir fettiTsl is celebrated on tile 98th Norember, old sMe. Jlf«Dl<piiin 
jhunr Aulu/nif., 3 voU. foL,Urbiiii, 1717, ToLi. »i6. 



6a ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.I. (3. 

Orthodox zeal and party ambition combined to form a 
dangerous conspiracy against Constantine. Men of the 
highest rank engaged in the plot, and even the Patriarch 
Constantinos, though himself an Iconoclast, appears to have 
joined the conspirators. He was removed from the patri- 
archate, and the dignity was conferred on a Sclavonian 
prelate, named Niketas^. The deposed Patriarch was brought 
to trial and condemned to death. Constantinos, after his 
condemnation, and apparently with the hope of having his 
life spared, signed a declaration that he believed the worship 
of imf^es to be idolatry, that the decrees of the council of 
Constantinople cont^ned the true doctrines of the orthodox 
church, and that the faith of the emperor was pure. This 
last article was added because the patriarch was accused 
of having countenanced reports chaining the emperor with 
heterodox opinions concerning the Virgin. If ConstanHnos 
expected mercy by his pliancy, he was mistaken. His sen- 
tence was carried into execution in the crudest manner. The 
head of the Greek church was placed on an ass, with his face 
towards the tail, and conducted through the streets of the 
capital, while the mob treated him with every insult On 
reaching the amphitheatre, his head was struck off. It may 
easily be supposed that, when the highest ecclesiastic in the 
empire was treated in this manner in the capital, the severity 
of the imperial agents in the distant provinces was often fear- 
fully tyrannical. 

The spirit of ecclesiastical bigotry which has so often led 
popes, princes, and Protestants to bum those who differed 
from them in matters of opinion, gave the image-worshippers 
as much fortitude to resist as it gave their opponents cruelty 
to persecute. The religious and political reforms of the 
Isaurian emperors were equally a subject of aversion to the 
Pope and the Italians; and all the possessions of the emperors 
in central Italy had been rendered virtually independent, even 



n society at C<HiEtantiDopU wu not yet the 
aU-predominant. Tbe Pafriaidi Niketas may have spoken Latin better than 
Greek, for there nas somediiDg lai from Hellenic in \a% accent and ideas. One 
day, readiag the New Testament, lie pronounced the name of the evanMlitt 
HarMlai', imd not HoTAum'. One of his suite observed that the vowelsof the 
diphthong were not to be separated. The SctaToniaa patriarch, displeased at 
the coirecdoo, turned angrily round, and said, ' Don't talk nonsente ; my wml 
otteriy abhors diphthongs and triphthongs I ' 



:v Google 



ITALY, 63 

*■»■ 741-775-] 

before Constantine convoked tire council of Constantinople. 
His struggle with the Saracens and Bulgarians had prevented 
his making any effort in Italy. At Rome, however, the popes 
continued to acknowledge the ctvit and judicial supremacy of 
the emperor of the East, even after the Lombards had 
conquered the exarchate of Ravenna. But the impossibility 
of receiving any support from Constantine against the en- 
croachments of the Lombards, induced Pope Stephen II. 
to apply to Pepin of France for assistance. Pope Paul I. 
afterwards carried his eagerness to create a quarrel between 
Pepin and Constantine so far, that he accused the emperor of 
hostile designs against Italy, which he was well aware Con- 
stantine had little time or power to execute'. Pepin, who 
was anxious to gain the aid of papal authority in his projects 
of usurpation, made a donation of the exarchate of Ravenna 
to the papal see in the year 755, though he had not the 
smallest right to dispose of it. The donation, however, sup- 
plied the Pope with a pretext for laying claim to the sove- 
reignty over the country; and there can be no doubt that the 
papal government was at this period very popular among the 
Italians, for it secured them the administration of justice 
according to the Roman law, guaranteed to them a con- 
siderable degree of municipal independence, and permitted 
them to maintain their commercial relations with the Byzan- 
tine empire. The political dependence of many of the cities 
in central Italy, which escaped the Lombard domination, was 
not absolutely withdrawn from the empire of the East until 
s new emperor of the West was created, on the assumption of 
the imperial crown by Charlemagne, to whom the allegiance 
of the Italians, who threw off Constantine's authority, was at 
last transferred'. 

Some remarkable physical phenomena occurred during the 
reign of Constantine. An unnatural darkness obscured the 
sun from the 10th to the 15th of August in the year 746. It 
terrified the inhabitants of Constantinople at the time it 
occurred ; and when the great pestilence broke out in the 
following year, it was regarded as a prognostic of that calamity. 
In the year 7jo, violent earthquakes destroyed whole towns 



S,A.D, 758; Schlosser, aig. 

Djiz.dty Google 



$4 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.I.{3. 
in Syria. In the month of October 763, a winter of singular 
severity commenced long before severe cold generally sets in 
at Constantinople. The Bosphorus was frozen over, and men 
passed on foot between Europe and Asia in several places. 
The Black Sea was covered with ice from the Palus Maeotis 
to Mes^mbria. When the thaw began in the month of Feb- 
ruary 764, immense mountains of ice were driven through 
the Bosphorus, and dashed with such violence against the 
walls of Constantinople as to threaten them with ruin. These 
icebei^s were seventy feet in thickness ; and Theophanes 
mentions that, when a boy, he mounted on one of them with 
thirty of his young companions '. 

One calamity in the age of Constantine appears to have 
travelled over the whole habitable world ; this was the great 
pestilence, which made its appearance in the Byzantine 
empire as early as 745. It had previously carried off a con- 
^derable portion of the population of Syria, and the Caliph 
Yezid III. perished of the disease in 744. From Syria it 
visited Egypt and Africa, from whence it passed into Sicily. 
After making great ravages in Sicily and Calabria, it spread 
to Greece ; and at last, in the year 749, it broke out with 
terrible violence in Constantinople, then probably the most 
populous city in the universe. It was supposed to have been 
introduced, and dispersed through Christian countries, by the 
Venetian and Greek ships employed in carrying on a contra- 
band trade in slaves with the Mohammedan nations, and it 
spread wherever commerce extended. Monemvasia, one of 
the great commercial cities at the time, received the con- 
tagion with the return of its trading vessels, and disseminated 
the disease over all Greece and the islands of the Archipelago. 
On the continent, this plague threatened to exterminate the 
Hellenic race. 

Historians have left us a vivid picture of the horrors of 
this fearful visitation, which show us that the terror it inspired 
disturbed the fabric of society. Strange superstitions pre- 
occupied men's minds, and annihilated every sense of duty. 
Some appeared to be uiged by a demoniacal impulse to 
commit heinous but useless crimes, with the wildest reckless- 
ness. Small crosses of unctuous matter were supposed to 



■ llieoph. 365. 



:v Google 



PLAGUE AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 6^' 

appear suddenly, traced by an invisible hand on the clothes" 
of persons as they were ei^aged in their ordinary pursuits ; 
examples were narrated of their having appeared suddenly 
visible to the eyes of the assembled congregation on the 
vestments of the priest as he officiated at the altar. The 
mdividual thus marked out was invariably assailed by the 
disease on his return home, and soon died. Crosses were 
constantly found traced on the doors and outer walls of build- 
ings ; houses, palaces, huts, and monasteries were alike marked. 
This was considered as an intimation that some of the inmates 
were ordered to prepare for immediate death. In the de- 
lirium of fear and the first paroxysms of the plague, many 
declared that they beheld hideous spectres wandering about ; 
these apparitions were seen flitting through the crowded 
streets of the city, at times questioning the passengers, at 
times walking into houses before the inmates, and then 
driving the proprietors from the door. At times it was said 
that these spectres had even attacked the citizens with naked 
swords. That these things were not reported solely on the 
delusion of the fancy of persons rendered insane by attacks 
of disease, is asserted by a historian who was born about ten 
years later, and who certainly passed his youth at Constanti- 
nople '. The testimony of Theophanes is confirmed by the 
records of similar diseases in other populous cities. The 
Uncertainty of life offers additional chances of impunity to 
crime, and thus relaxes the power of the law and weakens 
the bonds of moral restraint. Danger is generally what man 
fears little, when there are several chances of escape. The 
bold and wicked, deriding the general panic, frequently make 
periods of pestilence times of revelry and plunder ; the very 
individuals charged as policemen to preserve order in society, 
finding themselves free from control, have been known to 
assume the disguise of demons, in order to plunder the 
terrified and superstitious with impunity. The predominant 
passions of all find full scope when the feeling of responsibility 
is removed ; shame is thrown aside, the most unfeeling avarice 
and the wildest debauchery are displayed. But, at the same' 
time, it is on such fearful occasions that we see examples 
of the noblest courage, the most devoted self-sacrifice, and 

> Tbeoph. 355- He wu bora a.d. 7gS. . . ' 

VOL. 11. F 

n,3,i,z.dty Google 



66 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.I.i5. 
the purest charity. Boccaccfo and Defoe, in describing the 
scenes which occurred at Florence in 1348, and at London in 
id6j, afford a correct picture of what happened at Constanti- 
nople in 747. 

The number of dead was so great, that when the ordinary 
means of transportii^ the bodies to interment were insufficient, 
boxes were slung over the pack-saddles of mules, into which 
the dead were cast without distinction of rank. When the 
mules became insufficient, low chariots were constructed to 
receive piles of human bodies, and these frightful hearses 
were drawn through the streets to receive their loads, by 
a crowd of men who received a fixed sum of money with 
each body. Long trenches were prepared without the walls, 
to serve as graves for hundreds of bodies, and into these the 
i^ed b^^r and the youthful noble were precipitated side by 
side. When all the cemeteries around the capital were filled, 
and the panic kept the mass of the population shut up in 
their dwellings, bodies were interred in the fields and vine- 
yards nearest to the city gates,-or they were cast into vacant 
houses and empty cisterns. The disease prevailed for a year, 
and left whole houses tenantless, having exterminated many 
families >. We possess no record of the number of deaths it 
caused, but if we suppose the population of Constantinople at 
the time to have exceeded a million, we may form an estimate 
of the probable loss it sustained, by observing that, during 
the great plague at Milan, in 1630, about eighty-six thousand 
persons perished in the course of a year, in a population 
hardly exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand souls*. 

After the plague had completely disappeared, the capital 
required an immense influx of new inhabitants. To fill up 
the void, Constantine induced many Greek families from the 
continent and the islands to emigftite to Constantinople. 
These new citizens immediately occupied a well-defined social 
position ; for whether artisans, tradesmen, merchants, or house- 
holders, they became members of established corporations, 
and knew how to act in their new relations of life without 
embarrassment. It was by the perfection of its corporate 

» Niceph. PaL 43. 87. 

* Ripamonti, la Pott di MSano dd 1630, dot orieiaal Latino da Franmct 
CHtaKi. MUano, 1S41. At Florence, one tiundied ttiouHUid aie uid to hav^ 
died of the pbgne; atLondoOi nioety thonmid. 



PLAGUE AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 67 

*J>-74i-775] 

societies and police regulations, that the Byzantine empire 
effected the translocation of the inhabitants of whole cities 
and provinces, without misfortune or discontent. By modify* 
ing the fiscal severity of the Roman government, by relieving 
the members of the municipality from the ruinous obligation 
of mutual responsibility for the total amount of the land-tax, 
and by relaxii^ the laws that fettered children to the pro- 
fession or handicraft of their parents, the Byzantine adminis- 
tration infused new enetgy into an enfeebled social system. 
It still preserved, as an inheritance from Rome, an intimate 
knowledge of the practical methods of r^ulating the relative 
supplies of labour, food, and population in the manner least 
likely to inconvenience the government, though undoubtedly 
with little reference to the measures best calculated to advance 
the happiness of the people \ 

This memorable pestilence produced as great changes in 
the provinces as in the capital. While the population of Con- 
stantinople lost much of its Roman character and traditions 
by the infusion of a large number of Greek emigrants, Greece 
itself lost also much of its Hellenic character and ancient 
traditions, by the departure of a considerable portion of its 
native middle classes for Constantinople, and the destruction 
of a large part by the plague itself. The middle classes 
of the Hellenic cities flocked to Constantinople, while an 
inferior class from the villages crowded to supply their place, 
and thus a general translocation of the population was effected ; 
and though this em^ration may have been confined principally 
to the Greek race, it must have tended greatly to separate the 
future traditions of the people from those of an earlier period. 
The Athenian or the Lacedaemonian who settled at Constan- 
tinople lost all local characteristics ; and the emigrants from 
the islands, who supplied their place at Athens and Lacedae- 
mon, mingled their traditions an^ dialect with the Attic and 
Doric prejudices of their new homes: ancient traditions were 
thus consigned to oblivion. The depopulation ' on the con- 
tinent and in the Peloponnesus was also so great that the 
Sclavonian population extended their settlements over the 
greater part of the open country; the Greeks crowded into 



ifie Byzantine Eytton of taxstjon. as far as direct payment bv the indi- 
I concerned, see Zooaras, ii. 314; Cedienus, 706-713; Mortreuit iii. 105. 

n,.i,i..,.,L.OO'^[C 



F » 



68 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch 1.(3. 
the towns, or into the districts immediately under the protec- 
tion of their walls. The Sclavonian colonies, which had been 
gradually increasing ever since the reign of Heraclius, attained 
at this time their greatest extension; and the depopulation 
caused by this pestilence is said by the Emperor Constantine 
Porphyrc^enitus, who wrote two centuries later, to have been 
so great, that the Sclavonians occupied the whole of the open 
country in Greece and the Peloponnesus, and reduced it to a 
state of barbarism '. The emperor perhaps confounded in 
some degree the general translocation of the Greek population 
itself with the occupation of extensive districts, then aban- 
doned to Sclavonian cultivators and herdsmen. It is certain, 
however, that from this time the oblivion of the ancient 
Hellenic names of villages, districts, rivers, and mountains 
became general ; and the final extinction of those dialects, 
which marked a direct afhliation of the inhabitants of par- 
ticular spots with the ancient Hellenic population of the same 
districts, was Consummated. The new names which came 
into use, whether Sclavonian or Greek, equally mark the loss 
of ancient traditions ^. 

In closing the history of rfie reign of Constantine V., it is 
necessary to observe that he deserves praise for the care with 
which he educated his family. The most bigoted image- 
worshippers inform us that he was so mild in his domestic 
circle that he permitted his third wife to protect a nun named 
Anthusa, who was a most devoted worshipper of images ; and 
one of the emperor's daughters received from this nun both 
her name and education. The Princess Anthusa was dis- 
tinguished for her benevolence and piety; she is said to have 
founded one of the first orphan asylums established in the 
Christian world; and her "orthodox devotion to pictures 
obtained for her a place among the saints of the Greek church, 
an honour granted also to her godmother and teacher '. 



:v Google 



Sect. IV.—R^igits of Leo IV. {the Khazar), Constantine VI., 
and Irene, A.D. 775-801. 

Leo IV„ *,D. 775-780. — Irene regent for her son. — Restores imB^e-worship. — 
Second Council of Nicaea. — Entinclion of Byzantine authority at Rome. — 
Constantine assumes tbe guvemmetit. — Divorces Maria uid marries Theodata. 
— Opposition of monks. — Persecution of Theodore Sludita. — Irene dethrones 
Constantine VI,— Policy of reigns of CcHistantine VI. «nd Irene. — Saracen 

Leo rV. succeeded his father at the age of twenty-five. 
His mother, Irene, was the daughter of the emperor or chagan 
of the Khazars, then a powerful people, through whose terri- 
tories the greater part of the commercial intercourse between 
the Christians and the rich countries \tt eastern Asia was 
carried on. Leo inherited from his mother a mild and 
amiable disposition ; nor does he appear to have been desti- 
tute of some portion of his father's talents, but the state of his 
health prevented him from displaying the same activity. His 
reign lasted four years and a half, and his administration was 
conducted in strict accordance with the policy of his father 
and grandfather. The weak state of his health kept the 
public attention fixed on the question of the imperial succes- 
sion. Constantine V. had selected an Athenian lady, of great 
beauty and accomplishments, named Irene, to be his son's 
wife, and Leo had a son named Constantine, who was bom in 
the year 771. The indefinite nature of the imperial succes- 
sion, and the infancy of Leo's child, gave the two half-brothers 
of the emperor, who had been invested by their father with 
the rank of Caesar, some hope of ascending the throne on 
their brother's death. Leo conferred on his infant son the 
title of Emperor, in order to secure his succession ; and this 
was done in a more popular manner than usual, at the express 
desire of the senate, in order to give the ceremony all the 
character of a popular election. The young emperor's five 
uncles — the two Caesars, and three who bore the title of 
Nobilissimi — were compelled to take the same oath of alle- 
giance as the other subjects'. Yet shortly after this the elder 

' Theoph. 380; Zonaras, ii. 114, where the popular character of the assembly 
is expressly pointed out: KoI &iu>sa* iwayrn cAx el t^i ZiryiAfrov pavK^ inti 
ot Tou OTpariiiiarot iiiron, iXKi jnu 6 I);>i^>Si)i Sx^o* «vl If«n>^ nl ot rSr Ipjaii- 
rtffiw vpotarliiHaar, aol lyfpa^ nipt roiirav i(i6trTe. This mention of the 
corporation of artisans it curiow. 



DgIC 



TO ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

|;Bk.l.ClLl.f4. 
Caesar, Nicephorus, formed a conspiracy to render himself 
master of the government. Leo, who felt that he was rapidly 
sinking into the grave, referred the decision of his brother's 
guilt to a Silention, which condemned all the conspirators to 
death. Nicephonis was pardoned, but his partisans were 
scourged and banished to Cherson. The death of Leo IV. 
happened on the 8th of September 780'. 

Constantine was ten years old when his father died, so that 
the whole direction of the empire devolved on his mother, 
Irene, who had received the imperial crown from Constantine 
V. ; for that emperor seems to have felt that the weak state of 
Leo's health would require the assistance of Irene's talents. 
The virtues Irene had displayed in a private station were 
insufficient to resist the corrupting influence of irresponsible 
power. Ambition took possession of her whole soul, and it 
was the ambition of reignii^ alone, not of reigning well. The 
education of her son was neglected — perhaps as a means c^ 
securing her power; favour was avowedly a surer road to 
preferment than long service, so that the court became a 
scene of political intrigue, and personal motives decided most 
public acts. As no oi^n of public opinion possessed the 
power of awakening a sense of moral responsibility among 
the officers c^ state, the intrigues of the court ended in 
conspiracies, murder, and treason. 

The parties stru^ling for power soon ranged themselves 
under the banners of the ecclesiastical factions that had long 
divided the empire. Little, probably, did many of the leaders 
care what party they espoused in the religious question ; but 
it was necessary to proclaim themselves members of an eccle- 
siastical faction in order to secure a popular following. The 
Empress Irene was known to favour image-worship : as a 
woman and a Greek, this was natural ; yet policy would have 
dictated to her to adopt that party as the most certain manner 
of securing support powerful enoi^h to counterbalance the 



' I doubt whether the authority of Cedrenus (469). negatived by the silence of 
earlier zealots, can authorise our believing the anecdote that the Emperor Le» 
discovered {Hctotes of saints under Irene's pillow, and quanelled with her in 
consequence; nor do I think the story of bis having taken one of the crovrns 
from the church of St. Sophia of any importance, since it could not have been the 
cause of iiis death. Divine vengeance certainlv did not visit Leo with sudden 
death, whether he took tbe crown from SL Sophia's or not. See the torn Coa- 
staiiliae Porphyrogenitos gives the anecdote ; Ot Aim- Imf. 64. 



DgIC 



IRENE REGENT. 71 

AJ.77S-80J-] 

family influence of the Isaurian dynasty, which was now 
wielded by the uncles of the young emperor. The conflict 
between the image-worshippers and the Iconoclasts soon com- 
menced. The Caesar Nicephorus, who was as ambitious as 
his sister-in-law, was eager to drive her from the regency. 
He organized a conspiracy, in which several ministers and 
members of the senate took part. Irene obtained full proof 
of all its ramifications before the conspirators were prepared 
to act, seized her five brothers-in-law, and compelled them to 
enter the priesthood. In order to make it generally known 
that they had assumed the sacerdotal character, they were 
obliged to officiate during the Christmas ceremonies at the 
high altar of St. Sophia's, while the young emperor and his 
mother restored to the church the rich jewels of which it had 
been deprived by the preceding emperors. The intendant- 
general of posts, the general of the Armeniac theme, the 
commander of the imperial guard, and the admiral of the ■ 
Archipelago, who had all taken part in the conspiracy, were 
scoui^ed and immured as monks in distant monasteries. 
Elpidios, the governor of Sicily, assumed the title of emperor 
as soon as he found that his participation in the plot was 
known at court ; but he was compelled to seek shelter among 
the Saracens, in whose armies he afterwards served. Nice- 
phorus Doukas, another conspirator, fled to the Mohamme- 
dans '. Some years later, when Constantine VI, had assumed 
the government into his own hands, a new conspiracy was 
formed by the partisans of his uncles (a.D. 793). The princes 
were then treated with great severity. The Caesar Nice- 
phorus was deprived of sight ; and the tongues of the others 
were cut out, by the order of their nephew, not long before he 
lost his own eyes by the order of his mother. 

The influence of the clergy in the ordinary administration 
of justice, and the great extent to which ecclesiastical legisla- 
tion regulated civil rights, rendered councils of the church an 
important feature in those forms and usages that practically 
circumscribed the despotic power of the emperor by a frame- 
work of customs, opinions, and convictions which he could 

' Theoph, 383. 384. Theophylactoa. aon of Rhangabi, was th« admiral of the 
Archipelago, or Druncarios 01 Dodekanesos. This is the earllesi mention of the 
tvetve islands as a geographical and administrative division of the empire. It 
irai retained by the Cnuadeis when they conqpNed Greece. 

r,,.:,i.., ■:A'00'^IC 



7 a ICONOCLAST PERIOD, 

[BkI.CIi.I, t^. 
with difficulty alter, and rarely oppose without danger. The 
political ambition of Irene, the national vanity of the Greeks, 
and the religious feelings of the orthodox, required the sanction 
of a constitutional public authority, before the la\v3 against 
image- worship could be openly repealed. The Byzantine 
empire had at this time an ecclesiastical, though not a 
political constitution. The will of the sovereign was alone 
insufficient to change an oi^nic law, forming part of the 
ecclesiastical administration of the empire. It was necessary 
to convoke a general council to legalize image-worship ; and 
to render such a council a tit instrument for the proposed 
revolution, much arrangement was necessary. No person was 
ever endued with greater talents for removing opposition and 
conciliating personal support than the empress. The Patri- 
arch Paul, a decided Iconoclast, was induced to resign, and 
declare that he repented of his hostility to image-worship, 
because it had cut off the church of Constantinople from 
communion with the rest of the Christian world. This 
declaration pointed out the necessity of holding a general 
council, in order to re-establish that communion. The crisis 
required a new Patriarch of stainless character, great ability; 
and perfect acquaintance with the party connections and 
individual characters of the leading bishops. No person could 
be selected from among the dignitaries of the church, who 
had been generally appointed by Iconoclast emperors. The 
choice of Irene fell on a civilian. Tarasios, the chief 
secretary of the imperial cabinet — a man of noble birth, 
considerable popularity, and a high reputation for learning 
and probity — was suddenly elevated to be the head of the 
Greek church, and allowed to be not unworthy of the high 
rank. The orthodox would probably have raised a question 
concerning the legality of nominating a layman, had it not 
been evident that the objection would favour the interests of 
their opponents. The empress and her advisers were not 
bold enough to venture on an irretrievable declaration in 
favour of image-worship, until they had obtained a public 
assurance of popular support. An assembly of the inhabi- 
tants of the capital was convoked in the palace of Magnaura, 
in order to secure a majority pledged to the cause of Tarasios. 
The fact that such an assembly was considered necessary, is a 
strong proof that the strength of the rival parties was very 



DgIC 



SECOND COUNCIL OF NtCAEA. 73 

nearly balanced, and that this manifestation of public opinion 
was required in order to relieve the empress from personal 
responsibility. Irene proposed to the assembly that Tarasios 
should be elected Patriarch, and the proposal was received 
with general acclamation. Tarasios, however, refused the 
dignity, declaring that he would not accept the Patriarchate 
unless a general council should be convoked for restoring unity 
to the church. The convocation of a council was adopted, 
and the nomination of Tarasios ratified. Though great care 
had been taken to fill this assembly with image-worshippers, 
nevertheless several dissentient voices made themselves heard, 
protesting against the proceedings as an attack on the exist- 
ing legislation of the empire'. 

The Iconoclasts were still strong in the capital, and the 
opposition of the soldiery was excited by the determination 
of Tarasios to re-establish ims^e-worship. They openly 
declared that they would not allow a council of the church to 
be held, nor permit the ecclesiastics of their party to be 
unjustly treated by the court. More than one tumult warned 
the empress that no council could be held at Constantinople. 
It was found necessary to disperse the Iconoclastic soldiery in 
distant provinces, and form new cohorts of guards devoted to 
the court, before any steps could be publicly taken to change 
the laws of the church. The experience of Tarasios as a 
minister of state was more useful to Irene during the first 
period of his patriarchate than his theolc^cal learning. It 
required nearly three years to smooth the way for the 
meeting of the council, which was at length held at Nicaea, 
in September 787. Three hundred and sixty-seven members 
attended, of whom, however, not a few were abbots and 
monks, who assumed the title of confessors from having been 
ejected from their monasteries by the decrees of the Icono- 
clast sovereigns. Some of the persons present deserve to be 
particularly mentioned, for they have individually conferred 
greater benefits on mankind by their learned labours, than they 
rendered to Christianity by their zealous advocacy of image- 
worship in this council. The secretary of the two commis- 
sioners who represented the imperial authority was Nicephorus 
the historian, subsequently Patriarch of Constantinople'. His 



.L.oogic 



?4 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.l.Ch.I.{4. 
sketch of the history of the empire, from the year 603 to 
770, is a valuable work, and indicates that he was a man of 
judgment, whenever his perceptions were not obscured by 
theolc^ical and ecclesiastical prejudices. Two other eminent 
Byzantine writers were also present, Geoi^e, called Syn- 
cellus, from the office he held under the Patriarch Tarasios. 
He has left us a chronolc^cal work, which has preserved the 
knowledge of many important facts recorded by no other 
ancient authority '. Theophanes, the friend and companion . 
of the Syncellus, has continued this work ; and his chrono- 
graphy of Roman and Byzantine history, with all its faults, 
forms the best picture of the condition of the empire that 
we possess for a long period. Theophanes enjoyed the 
honour of becoming, at a later day, a confessor in the cause 
of ima^e-worship ; he was exiled from a monastery which 
he had founded, and died in the island of Samothrace, 
A. D. 817^. 

The second council of Nicaea had no better title than the 
Iconoclast council of Constantinople to be regarded as a 
general council of the church. The Pope Hadrian, indeed, 
sent deputies from the Latin church ; but the churches of 
Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, whose patriarchs were 
groaning under the government of the caliphs, did not dare to 
communicate with foreign authorities. An attempt was 
nevertheless made to deceive the world into a belief that they 
were represented, by allowing two monks from Palestine to 
present themselves as the syncelli of these patriarchs, without 
scrutinizing the validity of their credentials. Pope Hadrian, 
though he sent deputies, wrote at the same time to Tarasios, 
making several demands tending to establish the ecclesias- 
tical supremacy of the papal See, and complaining in strong 
terms that the Patriarch of Constantinople had no right to 
assume the title of oecumenic. The hope of recovering the 
estates of the patrimony of St. Peter io the Byzantine pro- 
vinces, which had been sequestrated by Leo HI., and of 
re-establishing the supremacy of the See of Rome, made 

n Soo. KU chronc^^pbj extends from Adam to 



His life, bj Theodoras, abbot of Studion in Constantinople, is prefixed Ig t 
editions of the chroaogiapby. 



SECOND COUNCIL OF NICAEA. 75 

*j). 775-8o».] 

Hadrian overlook much that was ofTemive to papal 
pride '. 

The second council of Nicaea authorized the worship of 
images as an orthodox practice. Forged passages, pretending 
to be extracts from the earlier fathers, and genuine quotations 
from the modem, were cited in favour of the practice. 
Simony was already a prevailing evil in the Greek church. 
Many of the bishops had purchased their sees, and most of 
these naturally preferred doing violence to their opinions 
rather than lose thdr revenues. From this cause, unanimity 
was easily obtained by court influence. The council decided, 
that not only was the cross an object of reverence, but also 
that the images of Christ and the pictures of the Virgin 
Mary — of angels, saints, and holy men, whether painted in 
colours, or worked in embroidery in sacred ornaments, or 
formed in mosaic in the walls of churches — ^werc all lawful 
objects of worship. At the same time, in order to guard 
against the accusation of idolatry, it was declared that the 
worship of an image, which is merely a sign of reverence, 
must not be confounded with the adoration due only to God. 
The council of Constantinople held in 754 was declared 
heretical, and all who maintained its doctrines, and con- 
demned the use of images, were anathematized. The patri- 
archs Anastasios, Constantinos, and Niketas were especially 
doomed to eternal condemnation. 

The Pope adopted the decrees of this council, but he 
refused to confirm them officially, because the empress 
delayed restoring the estates of St. Peter's patrimony. In 
the countries of western Europe which had formed parts of 
the Western Empire, the superstitions of the image-wor- 
shippers were viewed with as much dissatisfaction as the 
fanaticism of the Ico«ocI*sts ; »nd the council of Nicaea was 
as much condemned as th»t of Constantinople by a laige 
body of enlightened ecclesiastics. The public mind in the 
West was almost as much divided as in the East ; and if a 
general council of the Latin church had been assembled, its 
unbiassed decisions would probably have been at variance 
with those supported by the Pope and the council of Nicaea. 



.,:.L>OO^IC 



j6 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.l.|4. 
Charlemagne published a refutation of the doctrines of this 
council on the subject of image-worship. His work, called the 
Caroline Books, consists of four parts, and was certainly 
composed under his immediate personal superintendence, 
though he was doubtless incapable of writing it himself*. 
At all events, it was published as his composition. This 
work condemns the superstitious bigotry of the Greek image- 
worshippers in a decided manner, while at the same time it 
only blames the mi^^uided zeal of the Iconoclasts. Altogether, 
it is a very remarkable production, and gives a more cor- 
rect idea of the extent to which Roman civilization still 
survived in Western society, and counterbalanced ecclesias- 
tical influence, than any other contemporary document \ In 
794 Charlemagne assembled a council of three hundred 
bishops at Frankfort ; and, in the presence of the papal 
legates, this council maintained that pictures ought to be 
placed in churches, but that they should not be worshipped, 
but only regarded with respect, as recalling more vividly to 
the mind the subjects represented ^. The similarity existing 
at this time in the opinions of enlightened men throughout 
the whole Christian world must be noted as a proof that 
general communications and commercial intercourse sttll 
aflbrded mediums for pervading society with common senti- 
ments. The dark night of mediaeval ignorance and local 



■ The tille of the first edition is Opus iUuU. Viri Caroli Magni Regis Fraiuanim 

orroganur gala eu. Sec. 1549. i6mo. It was published by Jean du Tillet (Eli 
Phili), Bflenrards bishop of Meaux. There is an edition, with a learned preface, 
by Christopher A. Heumann, Hanover. 1731. 8vo. Alcnin, of course, deservei 
atl the credit due to the literary and theological merits of the Caroline Books. 

* Charlemagne mentions that he had learned from his ambassadors, that though 
the Greeks eipended large sums on decorations and paintings, they allowed their 
churches lo fall to niin ; and he conlra-sts the magnificent endowments of the 
Frank churches with the meanness of the Greek. It is really surprising how few 
churches of any siie appear to have been constructed in the Byzantine empire, 
when we remember that foi many centuries it was the richest country in the 
world, and the one most occupied witli ecclesiastical affairs and church cercmoniec 
Several small Byiantine churches at Athens are said to have lieen constructed 
by Irene; common tradition says twelve. A few exist; some were destroyed 
daring the war of the Revolution ; others were swept away by the Bavarian plans 
of the town. 

* The council of Frankfort blames that of Nicaea for inculcating the worship 
of images; but that coundl really draws a distinctitm between the leverence it 
inculcales, n/iijT<«4 wpoominjffn, and the devotion it condemns, Xarptla. This 
distinction — lo which, of course, the people paid no attention — serves the Greek 
church as a defence agsinsl the accusation of idolatrous practice. For (he 
opinions of tbe British clergy on the question, see Spelman, Concilia Magnat 
Brilaaniat, i. 73. 



SECOND COUNCIL OF NICAEA. fl 

*.i..r75-8<».] 

prejudices had not yet settled on the West ; nor had feudal 
anarchy confined the ideas and wants of society to the narrow 
sphere of provincial interests. The aspect of public opinion 
alarmed Pope Hadrian, whose interests required that the 
relations of the West and East should not become friendly. 
His position, however, rendered him more suspicious of Con- 
stantine and Irene, in spite of their orthodoxy, than of 
Charlemagne, with all his heterodox ideas. The Frank 
monarch, though he differed in ecclesiastical opinions, was 
sure to be 9 political protector. The Pope consequently 
laboured to foment the jealousy that reigned between the 
Frank and Byzantine governments concernii^ Italy, where 
the commercial relations of the Greeks still counterbalanced 
the military influence of the Franks. When writing to 
Charlemagne, he accused the Greeks and their Italian 
partisans of eveiy crime likely to arouse the hostility of the 
Franks. They were reproached, and not unjustly, with 
carrying on an extensive trade in slaves, who were purchased 
in western Europe, and sold to the Saracens, The Pope knew 
well that this commerce was carried on in all the trading 
cities of the West, both by Greeks and Latins ; for slaves 
then constituted the principal article of European export to 
Africa, Syria, and Egypt, in payment of the produce of the 
East, which was brought from those countries. The Pope 
seized and burnt some Greek vessels at Centumcellae (Civita- 
Vecchia), because the crews were accused of kidnapping the 
people of the neighbourhood. The violent expressions of 
Hadrian, in speaking of the Greeks, could not fail to produce 
a great effect in western Europe, where the letters of the 
popes formed the literary productions most generally read and 
studied by all ranks ^ His calumnies must have sunk deep 
into the public mind, and tended to impress on Western 
nations that aversion to the Greeks, which was subsequently 
increased by mercantile jealousy and religious strife. 

The extinction of the last traces of the supremacy of the 
Eastern Empire at Rome was the most gratifying result of 

' Hadriini I. S^f. 13, 13. 'Nef«ndiBsimi Neapolitani et Deo odibiles Graeci;' 
Scfalosser, 161. Pope Stephen III. had given au example of national calumny. 
He wrote to Charlemagne, ' Perfida et foetentissima Langobardonim gens — quae 
in Dumero genliuin oequaquam compulatur, de cujus natione et Icprosonim genua 
oriri certum est.' It is a task of difficulty to extract impartial history from the 
records of aa age wlien the head of the Chnstiau church nsed Mich language. 



DgIC 



78 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.I.»4. 
their machinations to the popes. On Christmas day, A.D. 
800, Cliarlemagne revived the existence of the Western 
Empire, and received the imperial crown from Pope Leo III. 
in the church of St, Peter. Hitherto the Frank monarch 
had acknowledged a titular supremacy in the Eastern Empire, 
and had borne the title of Patrician of the Roman empire, as 
a mark of dignity conferred on him by the emperors of Con- 
stantinople ; but he now raised himself to an equality with the 
emperors of the East, by assuming the title of Emperor of the 
West. The assumption of the title of emperor of the Romans 
was not an act of idle vanity. Roman usages, Roman pre- 
judices, and Roman law still exercised a powerful influence 
over the minds of the most numerous body of Charlemagne's 
subjects ; and by alt the clergy and lawyers throughout his 
dominions the rights and prerogatives of the Roman emperors 
of the West were held to be legally vested in his person by the 
fact of his election, such as it was, and his coronation by the 
Pope. The political allegiance of the Pope to the emperor, 
which was then undisputed, became thus transferred from 
the emperor of the East to the emperor of the West, as a 
matter of course ; while the papal rights of administration 
over the former exarchate of Ravenna, the Pentapolis, and the 
dukedom of Rome, acquired, under the protection of the 
Franks, the character of a decided sovereignty. Many towns 
of Italy at this time acquired a degree of municipal inde- 
pendence which made them almost independent republics. 
The influence of Roman law in binding society tt^ether, the 
military weakness of the papal power, and the rapid decline of 
the central authority in the empire of the Franks, enabled 
these towns to perpetuate their peculiar constitutions and 
independent jurisdictions down to the French Revolution '. 

A female regency in an absolute government must always 
render the conduct of public aflairs liable to be directed by 
court intrigues. When Irene wished to gain Charlemagne as 
an ally, in order to deprive the Iconoclasts of any hope of 
foreign assistance, she had n^otiated a treaty of marriage 
between her son and Rotrud, the eldest daughter of the Frank 
monarch, a.d. ^&\. But when the question of image-worship 

,' HiehuWa Hiuarj of Romt./rimtlu Ftrit Pome War lo tki DittJn^ OonatimtiK*, 
bfh. ScbniU, i. 4>4 (toI. ii. al LacturtKm ilu Hitary a/Romt), 



DgIC 



CONSTANTJNE VI. AND IRENE, 79 

was settled, she begaa to fear that this alliance might become 
the means of excluding her from power, and she then broke 
off the treaty, and compelled her son to marry a Paphlagonian 
lady of the court named Maria, whom the young emperor 
soon regarded with aversion. Constantine, however, submitted 
quietly to his mother's domination until his twentieth year. 
He then began to display dissatisfaction at the state of 
tutelage in which he was held, and at his complete seclusion 
from public business- A plan was formed by many leading 
men in the administration to place him at the head of affairs, 
but it was discovered before it was ripe for execution. Irene 
on this occasion displayed unseemly violence, in her eagerness 
to retain a power she ought immediately to have resigned. 
The conspirators were seized, scourged, and banished. When 
her son was conducted into her presence, she struck him, and 
overwhelmed him with reproaches and insults. The young 
emperor was then confined so strictly in the palace that all 
commonication with his friends was cut off. 

This unprincipled conduct of the regent-mother became the 
object of general reprobation. The troops of the Armeniac 
theme refused to obey her orders, and marched to the capital 
to deliver Constantine. On the way they were joined by 
other legions, and Irene found herself compelled to release her 
son, who immediately hastened to the advancing army. A 
total revolution was effected at court. The ministers and 
creatures of Irene were removed from office, and some who 
had displayed particular animosity against Constantine were 
scourged and beheaded', Constantine ruled the empire for 
about six years (a.d. 790-797)- But his education had been 
neglected in a di^raceful manner, and his mind was perhaps 
naturally fickle. Though he displayed the courage of his 
family at the head of his army, his incapacity for business, 
and his inconstancy in his friendships, soon lost him the 
support of his most devoted partisans. He lost his popu- 
larity by putting out the eyes of his uncle, Nicephorus, and 
cutting out the tongues of his (bur uncles, who were accused 
of having taken part in the plots of their brother. He 
alienated the attachment oi the Armenian troops by putting 
out the eyes of their general, Alexis Mouselen, who had been 

' TbeofA. 393, 

DiyiizcdtvGoOJ^Ic 



8o ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.l.Ch.I.S4. 
the means of delivering him from confinement. The folly of' 
this last act was even greater than the ingratitude, for it was 
done to gratify the revengeful feelings of his mother. These 
acts of folly, cruelty, and ingratitude destroyed his influence, 
and induced his sincerest friends to make their peace with 
Irene, whom it was evident her son would ultimately allow to 
rule the empire. 

The unhappy marriage into which Constantine had been 
forced by his mother, she at last converted into the cause of 
his ruin. The emperor fell in love with Theodota, one of his 
mother's maids of honour, and determined to divorce Maria in 
order to marry her. Irene, whose ambition induced her to 
stoop to the basest intrigues, flattered him in this project, 
as it seemed likely to increase her influence and ruin his 
reputation. The Empress Maria was induced to retire into 
a monastery, and the emperor expected to be able to cele- 
brate his marriage with Theodota without difficulty. But the 
usage of the Byzantine empire required that the Patriarch 
should pronounce the sentence of divorce, and this Tarasios, 
who was a devoted partisan and active political agent of Irene, 
long refused to do. The imprudence of Constantine, and the 
insidious advice of Irene, soon involved the emperor in a dis- 
pute with the whole body of monks, who had an overwhelming 
influence in society. The Patriarch at last yielded to the 
influence of Irene, so far as to allow his catechist to give the 
veil to the Empress Maria, whom he pronounced divorced, 
and then to permit the celebration of the emperor's marriage 
with Theodota by Joseph, one of .the principal clei^ of the. 
patriarchal chapter, and abbot of a monastery in the capital *. 

In -the Byzantine empire at this time, constant religious 
discussions, and pretensions to superior sanctity, had intro- 
duced a profound religious spirit into the highest ranks of 
society. Numbers of the wealthiest nobles founded monas- 
teries, into which they retired. The manners, the extensive 
charity, and the pure morality of these abbots, secured them 
the love and admiration of the people, and tended to dis- 
seminate a hi.'^her standard of morality than had previously 
prevailed in Constantinople. This fact must not be over- 
looked in estimating the various causes which led to the 



' Theoi*. J9T. 



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MONASTIC INFLUENCE. 8i 

A.I.. 775-801.] 

regeneration of the Eastern Empire under the Iconoclast 
emperors. Security of life and property, and all the founda- 
tions of national prosperity, are more closely connected with 
moral purity than the ruling classes are inclined to allow. 
It may not be quite useless, as an illustration of the state 
of the Byzantine empire, to remind the reader of the violence, 
injustice, and debauchery which prevailed at the courts of the 
west of Europe, including that of Charlemagne. While the 
Pope winked at the disorders in the palace of Charlemagne, 
the monks of the East prepared the public mind for the 
dethronement of Constantine, because he obtained an illegal 
divorce, and formed a second marriage. The corruption of 
morals, and the irregularities prevalent in the monasteries 
of the West, contrast strongly with the condition of the 
Eastern monks V 

The habit of buildii^ monasteries as a place of retreat, 
adopted by some from motives of piety, was also adopted 
by others as a mode of securing a portion of their wealth 
from confiscation, in case of their condemnation for political 
crimes, peculiar privileges being reserved in the monasteries 
so founded for members of the founder's family *. At this 
time Plato, abbot of the monastery of Sakkoudion, on Mount 
Olympus in Bithynia, and his nephew Theodore, who was 
a relation of the new Empress Theodota, were the leaders 
of a powerful party of monks possessing great influence in 
the church, Theodore (who is known by the name Studita, 
from having been afterwards appointed abbot of the celebrated 
monastery of Studion) had founded a monastery on his own 
property, in which he assembled his father, two brothers, 
and a young sister, and, emancipating all his household and 

> Mosfaeim, Inttitaits of BecUatatiad Bitlory (transbted by Murdoch), ii. iij. 
iSi ; Soames' edil, 1S4J. But not to wrong St. Eljgius. see also Amold, /nfro- 
duclory tichira on Modtn Hiilory, loi. Maitland {The Dark Agis, lai) oiske* 
the most of Mosheim's enor. The times, however, were not better than Moaheim 
Tepresents them. 

' The abuse of fictitious donations to monasteries had become so great an evil 
in Western Europe, as to require numeraua laws to restrab the practice. The 
Lombard law allowed the gruitcrs to revoke ihesf donalions donng their lives, 
and they reserved possi^ssion on paying a small annual sum ks rent 10 the monits- 



tery. Charlemagne declared all such donations irrevocable in order to check the 
evil. The abuse existed among the Anglo-Saxons. Lingard's Hiilory o/Eng' 
The Empress Irene founded the monastery of Si. Euphrosyne, wberi 



■on Constantine, his divorced wife Maria, and his two daughters were buried; 
and also the monastery in Prince's Islaad, to which she Wfts seat after her de- 
thronement, and before her banishment to Lesbos. 



VOL. II, 



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8a ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.l.Ch.l.{4. 
agricultural slaves, established them as lay brethren on the 
farms. Most of the abbots round Constantinople were men of 
family and wealth, as well as learning and piety ; but they 
repaid the sincere respect with which they were regarded by 
the people, by participating in popular prejudices, so that we 
cannot be surprised to find them constantly acting the part 
of demagc^es. Plato separated himself from all spiritual 
communion with the Patriarch Tarasios, whom he declared to 
have violated the principles of Christianity in permitting the 
adulterous marriage of the emperor. His views were warmly 
supported by his nephew Theodore, and many monks began 
openly to preach both against the Patriarch and the emperor. 
Irene now saw that the movement was taking a turn favour- 
able to her ambition. She encouraged the monks, and 
prepared Tarasios for quitting the party of his sovereign. 
Plato and Theodore were dangerous enemies, from their great 
reputation and extensive political and ecclesiastical connec- 
tions, and into a personal contest with these men Constantine 
rashly plunged. 

Plato was arrested at his monastery, and placed in confine- 
ment under the wardship of the abbot Joseph, who had 
celebrated the imperial marri^e. Theodore was banished 
to Thessalonica, whither he was conveyed by a detachment 
of police soldiers. He has left us an account of his journey, 
which proves that the orders of the emperor were not carried 
into execution with undue severity V Theodore and his 
attendant monks were seized by the imperial officers at a 
distance from the monastery, and compelled to commence 
their journey on the first horses their escort could procure, 
instead of being permitted to send for their ambling mules. 
They were hurried forward for three days, resting during the 
night at Kathara in Liviana, Leuka, and Phyraion. At the 
last place they encountered a melancholy array of monks, 
driven from the great monastery at Sakkoudion after the 
arrest of Plato ; but with these fellow-sufferers, though ranged 
along the road, Theodore was not allowed to communicate, 
except by bestowing on them his blessing as he rode past. 

' Thetdori StudiUe Optra, iw; Schlosser. 319. Some letters of Theodore 
Studita are given by Baronios. I have extracted the accopnt of the journey from 
Sclilosaer {GtsckUhit dir bildtrairmtadta Kaiur), for I hive not been able to 
supply myself with the works of Theodore. 



ityGoo^lc 



PERSECUTION OF THEODORE STUDITA. 83 

A.D. 77J-8o».] 

He was then carried to Paula, from whence he wrote to Plato 
that he had seen his sister, with the venerable Sabas, abbot of 
the monastery of Studion. They had visited him secretly, 
but had been allowed by the guards to pass the evening in 
his society. Next night they reached Loupadion, where the 
exiles were kindly treated by their host. At Tilin they were 
joined by two abbots, Zacharias and Pionios, but they were 
not allowed to travel in company. The journey was con- 
tinued by Alberiza, Anagegrammenos, Perperina, Parium, 
and Horkos, to Lampsacus, On the road, the bishops 
expressed the greatest sympathy and eagerness to serve 
them ; but the bigoted Theodore declared that his conscience 
would not permit him to hold any communication with those 
who were so unchristian as to continue in communion with 
Tarasios and the emperor. 

From Lampsacus the journey was prosecuted by sea. A 
pious governor received them at Abydos with great kindness, 
and they rested there eight days. At Elaeus there was again 
a detention of seven days, and from thence they sailed to 
Lemnos, where the bishop treated Theodore with so much 
attention that his b^otry was laid asleep. The passage from 
Lemnos to Thessalonica was not without danger from the 
piratical boats of the Sclavonians who dwelt on the coast of 
Thrace, and exercised the trades of robbers and pirates as 
well as herdsmen and shepherds. A favourable wind carried 
the exiles without accident to Kanastron, from whence they 
touched at Pallene before entering the harbour of Thessa- 
lonica, which they reached on the 25th March 797. Here 
they were received by a guard, and conducted through the 
city to the residence of the governor. The people assembled 
in crowds to view the pious opponents of their emperor; 
while the governor received them with marks of personal 
respect, which showed him more anxious to conciliate the 
powerful monks than to uphold the dignity of the weak 
emperor. He conducted Theodore to the cathedral, that he 
might return thanks to God publicly for his safe arrival ; he 
then waited on him to the palace of the archbishop, where 
he was treated to a bath, and entertained most hospitably. 
The exiles were, however, according to the tenor of the 
imperial orders, placed in separate places of confinement ; 
and even Theodore and his brother were not permitted to 
G 2 



A'OO' 



'cS'^' 



84 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[BlcI.Ch.I.{4. 
dwell together. The day of their triumph was not far distant, 
and their banishment does not appear to have subjected them 
to much inconvenience. They became confessors at a small 
cost. 

As soon as Irene thought that her son had rendered him- 
self sufficiently unpopular throughout the empire, she formed 
her plot for dethroning him. The support of the principal 
officers in the palace was secured by liberal promises of 
wealth and advancement: a band of conspirators was then 
appointed to seize Constantine, but a timely warning enabled 
him to escape to Triton on the Propontis. He might easily 
have recovered possession of the capital, had he not wasted 
two months in idleness and folly. Abandoned at last by 
every friend, he was seized by his mother's emissaries and 
dragged to Constantinople. After being detained some time 
a prisoner in the porphyry apartment in which he was born, 
his eyes were put out on the 19th August 797'. Constantine 
had given his cruel mother public marks of that affection 
which he appears really to have felt for her, and to which he 
had sacrificed his best friends. He had erected a statue of 
bronze to her honour, which long adorned the hippodrome 
of Constantinople ^ 

Irene was now proclaimed sovereign of the empire. She 
had for some time been allowed by her careless son to direct 
the whole administration, and it was his confidence in her 
maternal aff'ection which enabled her to work his ruin. She 
of course immediately released all the ecclesiastical opponents 
of her son from confinement, and restored them to their 
honours and offices. The Patriarch Tarasios was ordered to 
make his peace with the monks by excommunicating his 
creature, the abbot Joseph ; and the closest alliance was 
formed between him and his former opponents, Plato and 
Theodore, the latter of whom was shortly after rewarded for 
his sufferings by being elevated to the dignity of abbot of the 
great monastery of Studion. 

The Empress Irene reigned five years, during which her 
peace was disturbed by the political intrigues of her ministers. 

' Gibbon, vi. 87. Tbe authorities which prove that Constantine did not die 
of the iohuiDui treatment be received, but was hviog when Ni[:ephon]s dethroned 
his mother, aie Coatin., in Script, pral Tluapk. 33 ; 1^ Gnmm. 101, edit. Bonn. 

' CodiDtu, Di Orig. Coiutaiuiaop. 6t. 



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CHARACTER OF IRENE. 85 

iJ». 77S-802.] 

Her life offers a more interesting subject for bit^raphy than 
for history, for it is more striking by its personal details, than 
important in its political effects. But the records of private 
life in the age in which she lived, and of the state of society 
at Athens, where she was educated, are so few, that it would 
require to be written by a novelist, who could combine the 
strange vicissitudes of her fortunes with a true portraiture of 
human feelings, coloured with a train of thought, and enriched 
with facts gleaned from contemporary lives and letters of 
Greek saints and monks'. Born in a private station, and 
in a provincial, though a wealthy and populous city, it must 
have required a rare combination of personal beauty, native 
grace, and mental superiority, to fill the rank of empress of 
the Romans, to which she was suddenly raised, at the court of 
a haughty sovereign like her father-in-law Constantine V., not 
only without embarrassment, but even with universal praise. 
Again, when vested with the regency, as widow of an Icono- 
clast emperor, it required great talent, firmness of purpose, 
and conciliation of manner, to overthrow an ecclesiastical 
party which had ruled the church for more than half a century. 
On the other hand, the deliberate way in which she under- 
mined the authority of her son, whose character she had 
corrupted by a bad education, and the callousness with which 
she gained his confidence in order to deprive him of his 
throne, and send him to pass his life as a blind monk in 
a secluded cell, proves that the beautiful empress, whose 
memory was cherished as an orthodox saint, was endowed 
with the heart and feelings of a demon. Strange to say, 
when the object of Irene's crimes was reached, she soon felt 
all the satiety of gratified ambition. She no longer took the 
interest she had previously taken in conducting the public 
business of the empire, and abandoned the exercise of her 
power to seven eunuchs, whom she selected to perform the 
duties of ministers of state. She forgot that her own elevation 
to the throne offered a tempting premium to successful 
treason. Nicephorus, the grand treasurer, cajoled her favourite 
eunuchs to join a plot, by which she was dethroned, and 
exiled to a monastery she had founded in Prince's Island ; 



DgIC 



86 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.l.Ch.1,}^, 
but she was soon after removed to Lesbos, where she died in 
a few months, almost forgotten ^ Her fate after her death 
was as singular as during her life. The unnatural mother was 
canonized by the Greeks as an orthodox saint, and at her 
native Athens several churches are still pointed out which she 
is said to have founded, though not on any certain authority^. 
Under the government of Constantine VI. and Irene, the 
imperial policy, both in the civil administration and external 
relations, followed the course traced out by Leo the Isaurian. 
To reduce all the Sclavonian colonists who had formed settle- 
ments within the bounds of the empire to complete submis- 
sion, was the first object of Irene's regency. The extension 
of these settlements, after the great plague in 747, alarmed 
the government. Extensive districts in Thrace, Macedonia, 
and the Peloponnesus, assumed the form <A independent com- 
munities, and hardly adcnowledged allegiance to the central 
administration at Constantinople. Irene naturally took more 
than ordinary interest in the state of Greece. She kept up 
the closest communications with her family at Athens, and 
shared the desire of every Greek to repress the presumption of 
the Sclavonians, and restore the ascendancy of the Greek 
population in the rural districts. In the year 783 she sent 
Staurakios at the head of a well-appointed army to Thessa- 
lonica, to reduce the Sclavonian tribes in Macedonia to direct 
dependence, and enforce the regular payment of tribute ^ 
From Thessalonica, Staurakios marched through Macedonia 
and Greece to the Peloponnesus, puni^ing the Sclavonians 
for the disorders they had committed, and carrying off a 
number of their able-bodied men to serve as soldiers or to be 
sold as slaves. In the foUowii^ year Irene led the young 
Emperor Constantine to visit the Sclavonian settlements in 
the vicinity of Thessalonica, which had been reduced to 
absolute submission. Berrhoea, like several Greek cities, had 
fallen into ruins ; it was now rebuilt, and received the name 
of Irenopolis. Strong garrisons were placed in Philippopolis 

' Irene most h«Te fell that there was some Justice in the saying by which the 
Greeks duuacleriied the honelcss demotaliintion of her favourites: "If yon have 
an eunuch, kill him ; if you haven't one, buy one, and kill him.' 

' It is to St. Irene Ibe martyr, and not to the impeiial saint, that the present 
cathedral of Athens is dedicated. The festival of tSe empress saint is on the 
7th August. Mimiagiiim, iii. 195. 

' Stauntkioa was one of Irene's laToarite euoitchs. Tbeoph. 384. 



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POLICY OF THE REIGN OF {RENE. 87 

AJ.. 775-801.1 

and Anchialos, to cut off all communication between the 
Sclavonians in the empire, and their countrymen under the 
Bulgarian government. The Sclavonians in Thrace and Mace- 
donia, though unable to maintain their provincial independ- 
ence, still took advantage of their position, when removed 
from the eye of the local administration, to form bands of 
robbers and pirates, which rendered the communications with 
Constantinople and Thessalonica at times insecure both by 
land and sea 1. 

After Irene had dethroned her son, the Sclavonian popula- 
tion gave proofs of dangerous activity. A conspiracy was 
formed to place one of the sons of Constantine V. on the 
■ throne. Irene had banished her brothers-in-law to Athens, 
where they were sure of being carefully watched by her rela- 
tions, who were strongly interested in supporting her cause. 
The project of the partisans of the exiled princes to seize 
Constantinople was discovered, and it was found that the 
chief reliance of the Isaurian party in Greece was placed in the 
assistance they expected to derive from the Sclavonian popu- 
lation. The chief of Velzetia was to have carried off the sons 
of Constantine V. from Athens, when the plan was discovered 
and frustrated by the vigilance of Irene's friends*. The four 
unfortunate princes, who had already lost their tongues, were 
now deprived of sight, and exiled with their brother Nice- 
phorus to Panormus, where they were again made the tools of 
a conspiracy in the reign of Michael I. 

The war with the Saracens was carried on with varied 
success during the reigns of Leo IV., Constantine VI., and 
Irene. The military talents of Leo III. and Constantine V. 
had formed an army that resisted the forces of the caliphs 
under the powerful government of Mansur; and even after 
the veterans had been disbanded by Irene, the celebrated 
Haroun Al Rashid was unable to make any permanent 
conquests, though the empire was engaged in war with the 
Saracens, the Bulgarians, and the troops of Charlemagne at 
the same time. 

' St* the duiger to which Theodore Studila was exposed, at p. 83, 
' Theoph. 400. It is difficult to fix the position of Velietia. The geographicil 
nomenclature of the Sclavonians gives us the same repetition of the same naniM, 
in widely distant districts, Ihal we find in our own colonies. Theophanes (376) 
mentions Verzelia as a frontier district of Bulgaria This ^sage is remaikaUe 
for containing the earliest mention of the Russians in Bfzantine history. 



DgIC 



88 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.I.S4. 
In the year 782, Haroun was sent by his father, the Caliph 
Mahdy, to invade the empire, at the head of one hundred 
thousand men, attended by Rabia and Jahja the Bannecid. 
The object of the Mohammedan prince was, however, rather 
directed to pillaging the country, and carrying off prisoners to 
supply the slave-markets of his father's dominions, than to 
effect permanent conquests. The absence of a considerable 
part of the Byzantine army, which was engaged in Sicily 
suppressing the rebellion of Elpidios, enabled Haroun to 
march through all Asia Minor to the shores of the Bosphorus, 
and from the hill above Scutari to gaze on Constantinople, 
which must then have presented a more imposing aspect than 
Bagdad. Irene was compelled to purchase peace, or rather to 
conclude a truce for three years, by paying an annual tribute 
of seventy thousand pieces of gold, and stipulating to allow 
the Saracen army to retire unmolested with all its plunder ; 
for Haroun and his generals found that their advance had 
involved them in many difficulties, of which an active enemy 
might have taken advantage. Haroun Al Rashid is said to 
have commanded in person against the Byzantine empire in 
eight campaigns. Experience taught him to respect the 
valour and discipline of the Christian armies, whenever able 
officers enjoyed the confidence of the court at Constantinople ; 
and when he ascended the throne, he deemed it necessary to 
form a permanent army along the Mesopotamian frontier, 
to strengthen the fortifications of the towns with additional 
works, and add to their means of defence by planting in them 
new colonies of Mohammedan inhabitants'. During the time 
Constantine VI. ruled the empire, he appeared several times 
at the head of the Byzantine armies, and his fickle character 
did not prevent his displaying firmness in the field. His 
popularity with the soldiers was viewed with jealousy by his 
mother, who laboured to retard his movements, and prevent 
him from obtaining any decided success. The Saracens 
acknowledged that the Greeks were their superiors in naval 
affairs ; but in the year 792 they defeated the Byzantine fieet 
in the gulf of Attalia with great loss. The admiral, Theo- 
philos, was taken prisoner, and solicited by the caliph to abjure 
Christianity and enter his service. The admiral refused to 

> Weil, attchichlc do- Oialifin, A. ijj. 

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SARACEN WAR. 89 

i.D. r7S-8o3.J 

forsake his religion or serve against his country, and Haroun 
Al Rashid was mean enough to order him to be put to 
death. 

When the Saracens heard that Constantine had been 
dethroned, and the empire was again ruled by a woman 
whom they had already compelled to pay tribute, they 
renewed their invasions, and plundered Asia Minor up to 
the walls of Ephesus. Irene, whose ministers were occupied 
with court intrigues, took no measures to resist the enemy, 
and was once more obliged to pay tribute to the caliph'. 
The annual incursions of the Saracens into the Christian 
territory were made principally for the purpose of carrying 
away slaves j and great numbers of Christians were sold 
throughout the caliph's dominions into hopeless slavery. 
Haroun therefore took the field in his wars with the Byzantine 
empire more as a slave-merchant than a conqueror. But 
this very circumstance, which made war a commercial specu- 
lation, introduced humanity into the hostile operations of 
the Christians and Mohammedans : the lower classes were 
spared, as they were immediately sold for the price they 
would bring in the first slave-market ; while prisoners of 
the better class were retained, in order to draw from them 
a higher ransom than their value as slaves, or to exchange 
them for men of equal rank who had fallen into the hands 
of the enemy. This circumstance had brought about regular 
exchanges of prisoners as early as the reign of Constantine 
V„ A.D. 769'. In the year 797, a new clause was inserted 
in a treaty for the exchange of prisoners, binding the con- 
tracting parties to release all supernumerary captives, on 
the payment of a fixed sum for each individual^ This 
arrangement enabled the Christians, who were generally the 
greatest sufferers, to save their friends from death or perpetual 
slavery, but it added to the inducements of the Saracens 
to invade the empire. The Byzantine, or, as they were 



> Theophanes ^ves tbe By^anliae account of the Saracen war, which has 
been compared with the Arabian authorities by Weil, Gtsthiehtt itr Chalifiii, 
ii. ".15- 

" Theoph. 3U- 

* Three thousand seven hundred prisoners were exchanEed, exclusive of the 
additional individuals ransomed by the Christians. A similar treaty was con- 
cluded between Haroun and Nicefdionis in 805. Nolictt tl Eiclrails da MSS. 
Tiit. 193. 



^Aioo^^lc 



90 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.1.Cb.l. if. 
still called, the Roman armies, were placed at a disadvantage 
in this species of warfare. Their discipline was adapted to 
defensive military operations, or to meet the enemy on the 
field of battle, but not to act with rapidity in plundering 
and carrying off slaves ; while the state of society in Christian 
countries rendered the demand for slaves less constant than 
in countries where polygamy prevailed, and women were 
excluded from many of the duties of domestic service. 

The war on the Bulgarian frontier was carried on simul- 
taneously with that against the Mohammedans. In the year 
788, a Bulgarian army surprised the general of Thrace, who 
had encamped carelessly on the banks of the Strymon, and 
destroyed him, with the greater part of his troops. In 791, 
Constantine VI. took the field in person against Cardam, 
king of the Bulgarians, but the campaign was without any 
result : in the following year, however, the emperor was 
defeated in a pitched battle, in which several of the ablest 
generals of the Roman armies were slain. Yet, in 79S, 
Constantine again led his troops against the Bulgarians : 
though victorious, he obtained no success sufficient to com- 
pensate his former defeat. The effects of the military 
organization of the frontier by Constantine V. are visible 
in the superiority which the Byzantine armies assumed, even 
after the loss of a battle, and the confidence with which 
they carried the war into the Bulgarian territory^ 

The Byzantine empire was at this period the country in 
which there reigned a higher degree of order, and a more 
regular adininistration of justice, than in any other. This 
is shown by the extensive emigration of Armenian Christians 
which took place in the year 787. The Caliph Haroun 
Al Rashid, whose reputation among the Mohammedans has 
arisen rather from his orthodoxy than his virtues, persecuted 
his Christian subjects with great cruelty, and at last his 
oppression induced twelve thousand Armenians to quit their 
native country, and settle in the Byzantine empire ^ Some 
years later, in the reign of Michael III. the drunkard, ortho- 
doxy became the great feature in the Byzantine administration; 

' Theoph. 391-394. Constantine VI.. and his grandfather, Constantine V., are 
said to have been the only emperors before John I. (Zimiskes) who defealed 
the Bulgarians in theit own country. Leo Diaconus. 104, edit. Bonn. 

' Chamich, Hiilory of Armaiia (Eng. Trans.), ii- 393- 



BULGARIAN WAR. 9I 

i.D. 775-803.] 

and, unfortunately, Christian orthodoxy strongly resembled 
Mohammedanism in the spirit of persecution. The Faulicians 
were then persecuted by the emperors, as the Armenians 
had previously been by the caliphs, and fled for toleration 
to the Mohammedans. 



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CHAPTER II. 



The Reigns of Nicephorus I., Michael I., and Leo V. 
THE Armenian. — a,d. 802-820. 

Sect. \.— Nicephorus I. — 802-811, 

His family and character. — Rebellion of Bardanes.— Tolerant ecclesiastical policy. 
—Oppressive fiscal administration. — Relations with Charlemagne. — Saracen 
war. — Defeat of Sdavonians at Patiae. — Bulgarian war. — Death of Nice- 
phorus. 

Nicephorus held the office of grand Ic^othetes, or treasurer, 
when he dethroned Irene. He was born at Seleucia, in 
Pisidia, of a family which claimed descent from the Arabian 
kings. His ancestor Djaballah, the Christian monarch of 
Ghassan in the time of HeracHus, abjured the allegiance of 
the Roman empire, and embraced the Mohammedan religion. 
He carried among the stern and independent Moslems the 
monarchical pride and arrc^ance of a vassal court. As he 
was performing the religious rites of the pilgrimage in the 
mosque at Mecca, an Arab accidentally trode on his cloak; 
Djaballah, enraged that a king should be treated with so 
little respect, struck the careless Arab in the face, and knocked 
out some of his teeth. The justice of the Caliph Omar 
knew no distinction of persons, and the king of Ghassan 
was ordered to make satisfactory reparation to the injured 
Arab, or submit to the law of retaliation. The monarch's 
pride was so deeply wounded by this sentence that he 
fled to Constantinople, and renounced the Mohammedan 

n,.,iv,.A>OOQle 



'cS'^' 



NICEPHORUS I. 93 

religion'. From this king the Arabs, who paid the most 
minute attention to geneali^y, allow that Nicephonis was 
lineally descended *. 

The leading features of the reign of Nicephorus were 
political order and fiscal oppression. His character was said 
to be veiled in impenetrable hypocrisy; yet anecdotes are 
recounted which indicate that he made no secret of his avarice 
and the other vices attributed to him. His orthodoxy was 
certainly suspicious, but, on the whole, he appears to have 
been an able and humane prince. He has certainly obtained 
a worse reputation in history than many emperors who have 
been guilty of greater crimes. Many anecdotes are recounted 
concerning his rapacity. 

As soon as he received the imperial crown, he bethought 
himself of the treasures Irene had concealed, and resolved 
to gain possession of them. Byzantine historians im^ine 
that these treasures formed part of the immense sums Leo 
in. and Constantine V. were supposed to have accumulated. 
The abundance and low price of provisions which had pre- 
vailed, particularly in the reign of Constantine V., was 
ascribed to the rarity of specie caused by the large sums 
of money which these emperors withdrew from circulation. 
Irene was said to know where all this wealth was concealed ; 
and though her administration had been marlced by lavish 
expenditure and a diminution of the taxes, still she was believed 
to possess immense sums. If we believe the story of the 
chronicles, Nicephorus presented himself to Irene in a private 
garb, and assured her that he had only assumed the imperial 
crown to serve her and save her life. By flattery mingled 
with intimidation, he obtained possession of her treasures, 
and then, in violation of his promises, banished her to Lesbos. 

The dethroned Constantine had been left by his mother 
in possession of great wealth. Nicephorus is accused of 
ingratiating himself into the confidence of the blind prince, 
gaining possession of these treasures, and then neglecting 
him. Loud complaints were made against the extortion of the 

' AbalpharagiuE, Cirwi. Syr. 139; Ockley. HisloTj of A* Saraant, i, 150. 
Eichhom (Dt AntiquUi. HiU. Arab. Momivunlis, 171) gives an accooDt of the 
Mune event &om Itni KatKaiba. 

' Waiedy, Canquiit dt T Egypt, publiie par HiimJter, 66 ; Le Beau, Hittmn du 
Bat-Empirt, liv. J93. nott 1, edit, Saint-Martin. 



D,:„l,;cdtv Google 



94 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.l.Ch.II. Si. 
tax-gatherers in the reigns of Constantine VI. and Irene, and 
Nicephorus established a court of review to revise the accounts 
of every public functionary. But his enemies accused him of 
converting this court into a means of confiscating the property 
of the guilty, instead of enabling the sufferers to recover their 
losses. 

The accession of Nicephorus was an event unexpected both 
by the people and the army; and the success of a man whose 
name was previously almost unknown beyond the circle pf the 
administration, held out a hope to every man of influence that 
an emperor, who owed his elevation to a conspiracy of eunuchs 
and a court intrigue, might easily be driven from the throne. 
Bardanes, whom Nicephorus appointed general of the troops 
of five Asiatic themes to march against the Saracens, instead 
of leading this army against Haroun Al Rashid, proclaimed 
himself emperor. He was supported by Thomas the Sclavo- 
nian, as well as by Leo the Armenian and Michael the 
Amorian, who both subsequently mounted the throne. The 
crisis was one of extreme difficulty, but Nicephorus soon 
convinced the world that he was worthy of the throne. The 
rebel troops were discouraged by his preparations, and ren- 
dered ashamed of their conduct by his reproaches. Leo and 
Michael were gained over by a promise of promotion; and 
Bardanes, seeing his army rapidly dispersing, negotiated for 
his own pardon. He was allowed to retire to a monastery 
he had founded in the island of Prote, but his estates were 
confiscated. Shortly after, while Bardanes was living in 
seclusion as an humble monk, a band of Lycaonian brigands 
crossed over from the Asiatic coast and put out his eyes. As 
the perpetrators of this atrocity were evidently moved by 
personal vengeance, suspicion fell so strongly on the emperor, 
that he deemed it necessary to take a solemn oath in public 
that he had no knowledge of the crime, and never entertained 
a thought of violating the safe-conduct he had given to 
Bardanes. This safe-conduct, it must be observed, had re- 
ceived the ratification of the Patriarch and the senate. Bar- 
danes himself did not appear to suspect the emperor ; he 
showed the greatest resignation and piety ; gave up the use 
of wheaten bread, wine, oil, and fish, living entirely on barley 
cakes, which he baked in the embers. In summer he wore 
a single leather garment, and in winter a mantle of hair- 



POLICY OF CENTRALIZATION. 95 

A.D.80]-Stt.3 

cloth. In this way he lived contentedly, and died during the 
reign of Leo the Armenian. 

The civil transactions of the reign of Nicephorus present 
some interesting facts. Though a brave soldier, he was 
essentially a statesman, and his conviction that the finance 
department was the peculiar business of the sovereign, and 
the key of public aflTairs, can be traced in many significant 
events. He eagerly pursued the centralizing policy of his 
Iconoclast predecessors, and strove to render the civil power 
supreme over the clei^ and the Church, He forbade the 
Patriarch to hold any communications with the Pope, whom 
he considered as the Patriarch of Charlemagne ; and this 
prudent measure has caused much of the virulence with which 
his memory has been attacked by ecclesiastical and orthodox 
historians'. The Patriarch Tarasios had shown himself no 
enemy to the supremacy of the emperor, and he was highly 
esteemed by Nicephorus as one of the heads of the party, 
both in the church and state, which the emperor was anxious 
to conciliate. When Tarasios died, A.D. 806, Nicephorus 
made a solemn display of his grief. The body, clad in the 
patriarchal robes, crowned with the mitre, and seated on the 
episcopal throne, according to the usage of the East, was 
transported to a monastery founded by the deceased Patri- 
arch on the shores of the Bosphorus, where the funeral was 
performed with great pomp, the emperor assisting, embracii^ 
the body, and covering it with his purple robe *. 

Nicephorus succeeded in finding an able and popular 
prelate, disposed to support his secular views, worthy to suc- 
ceed Tarasios. This was the historian Nicephoros. He had 
already retired from public life, and was residing in a monas^ 
tery he had founded, though he had not yet taken monastic 
vows. On his election, he entered the clergy, and took the 
monastic habit. This last step was rendered necessary by the 
usage of the Greek church, which now only admitted monks 
to the episcopal dignity. To give the ceremony additional 
splendour, Staurakios, the son of the Emperor Nicephorus, 
who had received the imperial crown from his father, was 
deputed to be present at the tonsure. 

The Patriarch Nicephoros was no sooner installed than the 

' TheopL 419. • Theoph. 407. 



96 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Cb.n.ti. 
emperor began to execute his measures for establishing the 
supremacy of the civil power. Tarasios, after sanctioning 
the divorce of Constantine VI., and allowing the celebration 
of his second marriage, had yielded to the influence of Irene 
and the monks, and declared both acts illegal. The Emperor 
Nicephonis considered this a dangerous precedentj and re- 
solved to obtain an affirmation of the validity of the second 
marriage. The new Patriarch assembled a synod, in which 
the marriage was declared valid, and the abbot Joseph, who 
had celebrated tt, was absolved from all ecclesiastical censure. 
The monastic party, enraged at the emperor seeking emanci- 
pation from their authority, broke out into a furious opposi- 
tion. Theodore Studita, their leader, calls this synod an 
assembly of adulterers and heretics, and reproached the 
Patriarch with sacrificing the interests of religion •. But, 
Nicephorus having succeeded in bringing about this explosion 
of monastic ire on a question in which he had no personal 
interest, the people, who now r^arded the unfortunate Con- 
stantine VI. as hardly used on the subject of his marriage 
with Theodota, could not be persuaded to take any part in 
the dispute. Theodore's violence was also supposed to arise 
from his disappointment at not being elected Patriarch. 

Public opinion became so favourable to the emperor's eccle- 
siastical views, that a synod assembled in 809 declared the 
Patriarch and bishops to possess the power of granting dispen- 
sations from rules of ecclesiastical law, and that the emperor 
was not bound by l^islative provisions enacted for subjects. 
Nicephorus considered the time had now come for compelling 
the monks to obey his authority. He ordered Theodore 
Studita and Plato to take part in the ecclesiastical ceremonies 
with the Patriarch ; and when these refractory abbots refused, 
he banished them to Prince's Island, and then deposed them. 
Had the monks now opposed the emperor on the reasonable 
ground that he was violatir^ the principles on which the 
security of society depended, by setting up his individual will 
against the systematic rules of justice, the maxims of Roman, 
law, the established usages of the empire, and the eternal 
rules of equity, they would have found a response in the 
hearts of the people. Such doctrines might have led to some 



' In ft letter to the Pope. Baroiiii Anncda Eala. U. p. 64G, a. d. 3o6. 



(yi\<i 



TOLERANT ECCLESIASTICAL POLICY. 97 

4^809-811.] 

political refortn in the government] and to the establishment 
of some constitutional check on the exercise of arbitrary 
■power ; and the exclamation of Theodore, in one of his letters 
to the Pope, 'Where now is the gospel for kings?' might then 
have revived the spirit of liberty among the Greeks. 

At this time there existed a party which openly advocated 
the right of every man to the free exercise of his own religious 
opinions in private, and urged the policy of the government 
abstaining from every attempt to enforce unity. Some of 
this party probably indulged in as liberal speculations con- 
cerning the political rights of men, but such opinions were 
generally considered incompatible with social order'. The 
emperor, however, favoured the tolerant party, and gave its 
members a predominant influence in his cabinet. Greatly to 
the dissatisfaction of the Greek party, he refused to persecute 
the Paulicians, who formed a considerable community in the 
eastern provinces of Asia Minor ; and he tolerated the Athin- 
gans in Pisidia and Lycaonia, allowing them to exercise their 
religion in peace, as long as they violated none of the laws of 
the empire*. 

The financial administration of Nicephorus is justly accused 
of severity, and even of rapacity. He affords a good personi- 
fication of the fiscal genius of the Roman empire, as described 
by the Emperor Justin 11^ upwards of three centuries earlier '. 
His thoughts were chiefly of tribute and taxes ; and, un- 
fortunately for his subjects, his intimate acquaintance with 
financial affairs enabled him in many cases to extort a great 
increase of revenue, without appearing to impose on them any 
new burdens. But though he is justly accused of oppression, 
he does not merit the reproach of avarice often uiged against 
him. When he considered expenditure necessary for the 
good of the empire, he was liberal of the public money. He 
spared no expense to keep up numerous armies, and it was 
not from ill-judged economy, but from want of military 
talents, that his campaigns were unsuccessful. 

' Compare Theoph. 413 uid 419, 

' Theoph. 413. For the Pauliciuis, >ee Gibbon, vii. 47; Mosbeiw, U. 135; 
Neandei, lii. 144. 



e. quaiiU in locU opporlunis Eimt Decessaria et muime pro tnbutis atqne 

Tcditibns, SIDE quibns impo^bile est aLquid agere pro^ierum.' Cmht, Jutmiani 
yiatini t TA. ixvii, 3; DtJUOs Ubtramm, in Corf. Jur. Civ. iL fij, 4(0 edit 
iter, i iii. 337, ediL EUerir. 1663, 

VOL. II. H 



DgIC 



q8 iconoclast period. 

[8k.t.ai.ir.fi. 
Nicephorus restored the duties levied at the entrance of the 
Hellespont and the Bosphorus, which had been remitted by 
Irene to purchase popularity after her cruelty to her son'. 
He ordered all the provinces to furnish a stated number of 
able-bodied recruits for the army, drawn from among the 
poor ; and obliged each district to pay the sum of eighteen 
nomismata a-head for their equipment — enforcing the old 
Roman principle of mutual responsibility for the payment 
of taxes, in case the recruits should possess property liable 
to taxation*. One-twelfth was likewise added to the duty 
on public documents. An additional tax of two nomismata 
was imposed on all domestic slaves purchased beyond the 
Hellespont. The inhabitants of Asia Minor engaged in com- 
merce were compelled to purchase a certain quantity of 
landed property beloi^ng to the fisc at a fixed valuation : and, 
what tended to blacken the emperor's reputation more than 
anything else, he extended the hearth-tax to the property of 
the church, to monasteries, and charitable institutions, which 
had hitherto been exempted from the burden ; and he en- 
forced the payment of arrears from the commencement of his 
reign. The innumerable private monasteries, which it was 
the fashion to multiply, withdrew so much property from 
taxation that this measure was absolutely necessary to pre- 
vent frauds on the fisc; but though necessary, it was un- 
popular. Nicephorus, moreover, permitted the sale of gold 
and silver plate dedicated as holy offerings by private super- 
stition ; and, like many modem princes, he quartered troops 
in monasteries. It is also made an accusation against his 
government, that he furnished the merchants at Constantinople 
engaged in foreign trade with the sum of twelve pounds' 
weight of gold, for which they were compelled to pay twenty 
per cent, interest. It is difficult, from the statements of the 
Byzantine writers concerning these legislative acts, to form 
a precise idea of the emperor's object in some cases, or the 
effects of the law in others. His enemies do not hesitate to 
enumerate among his crimes the exertions he made to establish 



ftbo ■ more importuit part Artillery was then inferior, and less eipensiTe. We 
most not forget that, during (he penod embraced in this volume, ttie Byzantine 
Bimy was the finest in the world. 



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OPPRESSIVE FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 99 

A.D. 801-811.] 

military colonies in the waste districts on the Bulgarian 
frontier, secured by the line of fortresses constructed by 
Constantine V. His object was to cut off effectually all 
communication between the unruly Sclavonians in Thrace 
and the population to the north. There can be no doubt 
of his enforcing every claim of the government with rigour. 
He ordered a strict census of all agriculturists who were not 
natives to be made throughout the provinces, and the land 
they cultivated was declared to belong to the imperial domain. 
He then converted these cultivators into slaves of the fisc, by 
the application of an old law, which declared that all who had 
cultivated the same land for the space of thirty years con- 
secutively, were restricted to the condition of colon!, or serfs 
attached to the soil '. 

The conspiracies which were formed against Nicephorus 
cannot be admitted as evidence of his unpopularity, for the 
best of the Byzantine monarchs were as often disturbed by 
secret plots as the worst. The elective title to the empire 
rendered the prize to successful ambition one which over- 
powered the respect due to their country's laws in the breasts 
of the courtiers of Constantinople. It is only from popular 
insurrections that we can judge of the sovereign's unpopularity. 
The principles of humanity that rendered Nicephorus averse 
to religious persecution, caused him to treat conspirators with 
much less cruelty than most Byzantine emperors. Perhaps 
the historians hostile to his government have deceived posterity, 
giving considerable importance to insignificant plots, as we 
see modem diplomatists continually deceiving their courts 
by magnifying trifling expressions of dissatisfaction into 
dangerous presages of widespread discontent. In the year 
808, however, a conspiracy was really formed to place 
Arsaber — a patrician, who held the office of quaestor, or 
minister of legislation— on the throne. Though Arsaber 
was of an Armenian family, many persons of rank were 
leagued with him ; yet Nicephorus only confiscated his 
estates, and compelled him to embrace the monastic life',. 

* Theopb. 411, 413, 414; Cedreaus, ii. 480; Cod. Jtatiii., Dt Agrieolis ti Cm- 
ulu. Hi. 47. 18. 

' Anaba and Birdanes were both of Armentan desccDt. Chamich (or Tcham- 

tchian) says. 'In this ngc, three Armenians were elected at diiferent periods to 

the imperial throne of th» Greeks. Two of them, Vardan and Ajshavir, only 

held that high post for a fen days. The other, Lerood (Leo V.}, an Annnian, 

H 2 



:A>00' 



'cS'^' 



loo ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.l.C1i.n.lt. 
An attempt was made to assassinate the emperor by a man 
who rushed into the palace, seized the sword of one of the 
guards of the imperial chamber, and severely wounded many 
persons before he was secured. The criminal was a monk, 
who was put to the torture, according to the cruel practice of 
the time ; but Nicephorus, on learning that he was a maniac, 
ordered him to be placed in a lunatic asylum. Indeed, though 
historians accuse Nicephorus of inhumanity, the punishment 
of death, in cases of treason, was never carried into effect 
during his reign. 

The relations of Nicephorus with Charlemagne were for 
a short time amicable. A treaty was concluded at Aix-la- 
Chapelle, in 803, regulating the frontiers of the two empires. 
In this treaty, the supremacy of the Eastern Empire over 
Venice, Istria, the maritime parts of Dalmatia, and the south 
of Italy, was acknowledged ; while the authority of the 
Western Empire in Rome, the exarchate of Ravenna, and 
the Pentapolis, was recognised by Nicephorus'. The com- 
merce of Venice with the East was already so important, 
and the Byzantine administration afforded so many guarantees 
for the security of property, that the Venetians, in spite of 
the menaces of Charlemagne, remained firm in their allegiance 
to Nicephorus. Istria, on the other hand, placed itself sub- 
sequently under the protection of the Frank emperor, and 
paid him a tribute of 354 marks. Pepin, king of Italy, was 
also charged by his father to render the Venetians, and the 
allies of the Byzantine empire in the north of Italy, tributary 
to the Franks ; but Nicephorus sent a fleet into the Adriatic, 
and effectually protected his friends. A people, called 
Orobiatae, who maintained themselves as an independent 
community in the Apennines, pretending to preserve their 
allegiance to the emperor of Constantinople, plundered Popu- 
lonium in Tuscany. They afford us proof how much easier 
Charlemagne found it to extend his conquests than to preserve 
order ^. Venice, it is true, found itself in the end compelled 
to purchase peace with the Frank empire, by the payment 

conians, (, 

bj his undaunted valour and s 

Avdall), vol. i. 399. 

> A. Duidolo ; in Mnntori, Script. Sm: llal, x 

* E^^intuird, jln. Fr«at. *.d. 809. 



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SARACEN WAR. loi 

A.D.S01-S11.] 

of an annual tribute of thirty-six pounds of gold, in order 
to secure its commercial relations from interruption ; and 
it was not released from this tribute until the time of Otho 
the Great '. It was during the reign of Nicephorus that the 
site of the present city of Venice became the seat of the 
Venetian government, Rivalto (Rialto) becoming the residence 
of the duke and the principal inhabitants, who retired from 
the continent to escape the attacks of Pepin. Heraclea had 
previously been the capita] of the Venetian municipality. 
In 810, peace was again concluded between Nicephorus and 
Charlemagne, without making any change in the frontier of 
the two empires. 

The power of the caliphate was never more actively em- 
ployed than under Haroun Al Rashid, but the reputation of 
that prince was by no means so great among his contempo- 
raries as it became in after times. Nicephorus was no sooner 
seated on the throne, than he refused to pay the caliph the 
tribute imposed on Irene. The Arabian historians pretend 
that his refusal was communicated to Haroun in an insolent 
letter*. To resist the attacks of the Saracens, which he well 
knew would follow his refusal, he collected a powerful army in 
Asia Minor ; but this army broke out into rebellion, and, as 
has been already mentioned, proclaimed Bardanes emperor. 
The caliph, availing himself of the defenceless state of the 
empire, laid waste Asia Minor; and when the rebellion of 
Bardanes was extinguished, Nicephorus, afraid to trust any 
veteran general with the command of a large army, took the 
command himself, and was defeated in a great battle at 
Krasos in Phrygian After this victory the Saracens laid 
waste the country in every direction, until a rebellion in 
Chorasan compelled Haroun to withdraw his best troops 
from the Byzantine frontier, and gave Nicephorus time to 
re-assemble a new army. As soon as the affairs in the East 
were tranquillized, the caliph again invaded the Byzantine 
empire. Haroun fixed his headquarters at Tyana, where he 
built a mosque, to mark that he annexed that city to the Mo- 
hammedan empire. One division of his army, sixty thousand 

* Constut. Porphyi. Di Adm. Imp. c. iS, a-d. 969. 

■ Weil (GachUliit drr Chaiifn, il. 159) gives the letter of the emperor and the 
uisner of the caliph. I caonot suppose they are authentic 
' Theoph. 406. 



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102 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.II. Si. 
Strong, took and destroyed Ancyra. Heraclea on Mount 
Taurus was also captured, and sixteen thousand prisoners 
were carried off in a single campaign ', A.D. 806. Nicephorus, 
unable to arrest these ravages, endeavoured to obtain peace ; 
and in spite of the religious bigotry which is supposed to have 
envenomed the hostilities of Haroun, the imperial embassy 
consisted of the bishop of Synnada, the abbot of Gulaias, and 
the oeconomos of Amastris. As winter was af^roachii^, and 
the Saracens were averse to remain longer beyond Mount 
Taurus, the three ecclesiastical ambassadors succeeded in 
arranging a treaty; but Nicephorus was compelled to submit 
to severe and degrading conditions. He engaged not to 
rebuild the frontier fortifications which had been destroyed 
by the caliph's armies, and he consented to pay a tribute of 
thirty thousand pieces of gold annually, adding three addi- 
tional pieces for himself, and three for his son and colleague 
Staurakios, which we must suppose to have been medallions 
of superior size, since they were offered as a direct proof that 
the emperor of the Romans paid a personal tribute to the 
caliph '. 

Nicephorus seems to have been sadly deficient in feelings 
of honour, for, the moment he conceived he could evade the 
stipulations of the treaty without danger, he commenced 
repairing the ruined fortifications. His subjects suffered for 
his conduct. The caliph again sent troops to invade the 
empire ; Cyprus and Rhodes were ravaged ; the Bishop of 
Cyprus was compelled to pay one thousand dinars as his 
ransom ; and many Christians were carried away from Asia 
Minor, and settled in Syria. 

The death of Haroun, in 809, delivered the Christians from 
a barbarous enemy, who ruined their country like a brigand, 
without endeavouring to subdue it like a conqueror. Haroun's 
personal valour, his charity, his liberality to men of letters, 
and his religious zeal, have secured him interested panegyrics, 
which have drowned the voice of justice. The hero of the 

' Gibbon (vi. 406) adopts the opinion that the Pontic Hemdea was taken in 
an earlier campaign ; but SuDt-Martin, in bis notes to Le Beau (xii. 416), points 
out that this is not probable. Theoph. 407 ; Schlosser, Jf o ; Weil, ii. 160. 

' If these tribute-pieces were medallicws like the celebrated medal of Jaa- 
tinian I., which was stolen from the National Library at Paris, the sight of one 
would gladden the heart of a nnmUmatist. S^ Finder and FHedluider, d> 
Mvatn Jtadmsmt, plate ii. 



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SCLAVONIANS IN PELOPONNESUS. 10\ 

A4..8oa-8ii.] 

Arabian Tales and the ally of Charlemagne is vaunted as one 
of the greatest princes who ever occupied a throne. The dis- 
graceful murder of the Barmecides, and many other acts of 
injustice and cruelty, gave him a very diflTerent character in 
history. His plundering incursions into the Byzantine empire 
might have been glorious proofs of courage in some petty 
Syrian chieftain, but they degrade the ruler of the richest and 
most extensive empire on the earth into a mere slave-dealer '. 

The Saracens continued their incursions, and in the year 
8ii, Leo the Armenian, then lieutenant-governor of the 
Armeniac theme, left a sum of thirteen hundred pounds' 
weight of silver, which had been collected as taxes, at 
Euchaites, without a sufficient guard. A band of Saracens 
carried off this money ; and for his negligence Leo was 
ordered to Constantinople, where the future emperor was 
scourged, and deprived of his command ^ 

The Sclavonian colonies in Greece were now so powerful 
that they formed Utie project of r^dering themselves masters 
of the Peloponnesus, and expelling the Greek population. 
The Byzantine expedition, in the early part of the regency 
of Irene, had only subjected these intruders to tribute, without 
diminishing their numbers or breaking their power*. The 
troubled aspect of public affairs, after Nicephorus seized the 
throne, induced them to consider the moment favourable for 
gaining their independence. They assembled a numerous 
force under arms, and selected Patrae as their first object of 
attack. The possession of a commercial port was necessary 
to their success, in order to enable them to supply their wants 
from abroad, and obtain a public revenue by the duties on the 
produce they exported. Patrae was then the most flourishing 
city on the west coast of Greece, and its possession would 
have enabled the Sclavonians to establish direct communica- 
tions with, and draw assistance from, the kindred race estab- 
lished on the shores of the Adriatic, and from the Saracen 
pirates, among whose followers the Saclavi, or Sclavonian 



' The aiory of the three apples m the Arabian Nights gives a correct idea of 
the violence and injustice of the celebrated caliph, whose hasty temper was well 
known. For the causes of Haroun's injustice to the Barmecides, see Weil, 
OtstkiekU dir Chaliftn. H. I3;. 

' Theoph. 414; Coaiia^'va Script, pait Tktoph. 7; Genesius, 6. 

' Theoph. 385. 



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I04 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.II.f[. 
captives and renegades, made a considerable figure'. The 
property of the Greeks beyond the protection of the walled 
towns was plundered, to supply the army destined to besiege 
Patrae with provisions ; and a communication was opened 
with a Saracen squadron of African pirates which blockaded 
the gulf ^. Patrae was closely invested, until want began to 
threaten the inhabitants with death, and compelled them to 
think of surrender (a.d, 807). 

The Byzantine government had no r^ular troops nearer 
than Corinth, which is three days' march from Patrae. But 
the governor of the province who resided there was unable 
immediately to detach a force sufficient to attack the 
besieging army. In the mean time, as the inhabitants were 
anxiously waiting for relief, one of their scouts, stationed to 
announce the approach of succours from Corinth, accidentally 
gave the signal agreed upon. The enthusiasm of the Greeks 
was excited to the highest pitch by the hopes of speedy 
deliverance, and, e^er for revenge on their enemies, they 
threw open the city gates and made a vigorous attack on the 
besiegers, whom they drove from their position with consider- 
able loss. 

The Byzantine general arrived three days after this victory. 
His jealousy of the military success of the armed citizens 
induced him to give currency to the popular accounts, which 
he found the superstition of the people had already circulated, 
that St. Andrew, the Patron of Patrae, had shown himself on 
the field of battle. The devastations committed by the 
Sclavonians, the victory of the Greeks, and the miraculous 
appearance of the apostle at the head of the besieged, were 
all announced to the Emperor Nicephorus, whose political 
views rendered him more willing to reward the church for 
St. Andrew's assistance, than to allow his subjects to perceive 
that their own valour was sufficient to defend their property : 
he feared they might discover that a well-constituted muni- 
cipal government would always be able to protect them, while 
a distant central authority was often incapable of sending 
them efficient aid and generally indifferent to their severest 
sufferings. Nicephonis was too experienced a statesman, 
with the examples of Venice and Cherson before his eyes, not 



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BULGARIAN WAR. 105 

A.i>. 801-81 1.] 

to fear that Such a discovery among the Greek population 
in the Peloponnesus would tend to circumscribe the fiscal 
enei^ of the ConstantinopoUtan treasury. The church, and 
not the people, profited by the success of the Greeks : the 
imperial share of the spoil taken from the Sclavonians, both 
property and slaves, was bestowed on the church of St. 
Andrew; and the bishops of Methone, Lacedaemon, and 
Corone were declared suffragans of the metropolitan of 
Patrae. The charter of Nicephorus was ratified by Leo VI., 
the Wise, in a new and extended act '. 

The Bulgarians were always troublesome neighbours, as a 
rude and warlike people generally proves to a wealthy popu- 
lation. Their king, Cnimn, was an able and warlike prince. 
For some time after his accession, he was occupied by hostili- 
ties with the Avars, but as soon as that war was terminated, 
he seized an opportunity of plundering a Byzantine military 
chest, containing, eleven hundred pounds of gold, destined for 
the payment of the troops stationed on tiie banks of the 
Strymon. After surprising the camp, dispersing the troops, 
murderii^ the oificers, and capturing the treasure, he extended 
his ravages as far as Sardica, where he slew six thousand 
Roman soldiers. 

Nicephorus immediately assembled a considerable army, and 
marched to re-establish the security of his northern frontier. 
The death of Haroun left so lar^e a force at his disposal 
that he contemplated the destruction of the Bulgarian king- 
dom ; but the Byzantine troops in Europe were in a disaffected 
state, and their indiscipline rendered the campaign abortive. 
The resolution of Nicephorus remained, nevertheless, unshaken 
though his life was in danger from the seditious conduct of the 
soldiery; and he was in the end compelled to escape from his 
own camp, and seek safety in Constantinople. 

In 811, a new army, consisting chiefly of conscripts and 
raw recruits, was hastily assembled, and hurried into the field. 
In preparing for the campaign, Nicephorus displayed extreme 
financial severity, and ridiculed the timidity of those who 
counselled delay with a degree of cynicism which paints 
well the singular character of this bold financier. Having 
resolved to tax monasteries, and levy an augmentation of the 



s. Jus Qratco-Romanvm, 178 ; he Quien, Oraas CtruAontu, ii. 1 79. 



DgIC 



I06 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk. I. Ch. II. % I. 
land-tax from the nobility for the eight preceding years, his 
ministers endeavoured to persuade him of the impolicy of his 
proceedings ; but he only exclaimed, ' What can you expect I 
God has hardened my heart, and my subjects can expect 
nothing else from me.' The historian Theophanes says that 
these words were repeated to him by Theodosios, the minister 
to whom they were addressed '. The energy of Nicephorus 
was equal to his rapacity, but it was not supported by a 
corresponding degree of military skill. He led his army so 
rapidly to Markelles, a fortress built by Constantine VI^ 
within the line of the Bulgarian frontier, that Cnimn, alarmed 
at his vigour, sent an embassy to solicit peace ^. This pro- 
posal was rejected, and the emperor pushed forward and 
captured a residence of the Bulgarian monarch's near the 
frontiers, in which a considerable amount of treasure was 
found. Crumn, dispirited at this loss, offered to accept any 
terms of peace compatible with the existence of his inde- 
pendence, but Nicephorus would agree to no terms but 
absolute submission. 

The only contemporary account of the following events is 
in the chronicle of Theophanes, and it leaves us in doubt 
whether the rashness of Nicephorus or the treason of his 
generals was the real cause of his disastrous defeat. Even if 
we give Crumn credit for great military skill, the success of 
the stratagem, by which he destroyed a Byzantine army 
greatly superior to his own, could not have been achieved 
without some treasonable co-operation in the emperor's camp. 
It is certain that an officer of the imperial household had 
deserted at Markelles, carrying away the emperor's wardrobe 
and one hundred pounds' we^ht of gold, and that one of the 
ablest engineers in the Byzantine service had previously fled 
to Bulgaria. It seems not improbable, that by means of 
these officers treasonable communications were maintained 
with the disaiTected in the Byzantine army. 

When Nicephorus entered the Bulgarian territory, Crumn 
had a much larger force in his immediate vicinity than the 



' Tbeoph. 414: Cedreniu. ii. 48: ; Zonaras, ii. 134. Theodosios perished tv 
his master, theretare these words were repeated while he was a favourite minist 
and i( may thence be bferred that some misconstniction has been put ou 1 
drcumstaocea by the prejudices of Theophanes, 

= Theoph. 394. 



:v Google 



DEFEAT AND DEATH OF NICEPHORUS I. I07 
Aj>.8o]-8ii.] 

Byzantine generals supposed. The Bulgarian troops, though 
defeated in the advance, were consequently allowed to watch 
the movements ol the invaders, and to entrench at no great 
distance without any attempt to dislodge them. It is even 
said that Crumn was allowed to work for two days, forming 
a strong palisade to circumscribe the operations of the 
imperial army, while Nicephorus was wasting his time collect- 
ing the booty found in the Bulgarian palace ; and that, when 
the emperor saw the work finished, he exclaimed, 'We have 
no chance of safety except by being transformed into birds |! 
Yet even in this desperate position the emperor is said to 
have neglected the usual precautions to secure his camp 
against a night attack. Much of this seems incredible. 

Crumn made a grand nocturnal attack on the camp of 
Nicephorus, just six days after the emperor had invaded the 
Bulgarian kingdom. The Byzantine army was taken by 
surprise, and the camp entered on every side ; the whole 
l><^g&ge and military chest were taken ; the Emperor Nice- 
phorus and six patricians, with many officers of the highest 
rank, were slain ; and the Bulgarian king madea drinking-cup 
of the skull of the emperor of the Romans, in which the 
Sclavonian princes of the Bulgarian court pledged him in the 
richest wines of Greece when he celebrated his triumphal 
festivals \ The Bulgarians must have abandoned their 
strong palisade when they attacked the camp, for a con- 
siderable portion of the defeated army, with the Emperor 
Staurakios, who was severely wounded, Stephen the general 
of the guard, and Theoctistos the master of the palace, 
reached Adrianople in safety. Staurakios was immediately 
proclaimed his father's successor, and the army was able and 
willing to maintain him on the throne, had he possessed 
health and ability equal to the crisis. But the fiscal severity 
of his father had created a host of enemies to the existing 
system of government, and in the Byzantine empire a change 
of administration implied a change of the emperor. The 
numerous statesmen who expected to profit by a revolution 
declared in favour of Michael Rhangab^, an insignificant 
noble, who had married Procopia the daughter of Nicephorus. 
Staurakios was compelled by his brother-in-law to retire into 

' Tbeoph 416. Nicephonis was slain on tbe ajth July, Sii, 



lo8 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.n. {*. 
a monastery, where he soon died of his wounds. He had 
occupied the throne two months. 



Sect. U.— Michael I. {Rhangabi), A. D. 812-813. 
Religiaus zeal of Micluel. — Bulgarian war. — Defeat of MIctuieL 

Michael I. was crowned by the Patriarch Nicephoros, after 
signing a written declaration that he would defend the church, 
protect the ministers of religion, and never put the orthodox 
to death. This election of a tool of the bigoted party in the 
Byzantine church was a reaction i^ainst the tolerant policy of 
Nicephorus. The new emperor began his reign by remitting 
all the additional taxes imposed by his predecessor which had 
awakened clerical opposition. He was a weak, well-meanii^ 
man ; but his wife Procopia was a lady of superior qualifica- 
tions, who united to a virtuous and charitable disposition 
something of her father's vigour of mind. Michael's reign 
proved the necessity of always having a firm hand to guide 
that complicated administrative machine which the Byzantine 
sovereigns inherited from the empire of Rome. 

Michael purchased popularity in the capital by the lavish 
manner in which he distributed the wealth left by Nicephorus 
in the imperial treasury. He bestowed large sums on monas- 
teries, hospitals, poor-houses, and other charitable institutions, 
and he divided liberal gratuities among the leading members 
of the clergy, the chief dignitaries of the state, and the highest 
officers of the army'. His piety as well as his party con- 
nections induced him to admit several monks to a place in 
his council ; and he made it an object of political importance to 
reconcile the Patriarch Nicephoros with Theodore Studita. 
But by abandoning the policy of his predecessor, after it had 
received the Patriarch's sanction and become the law of the 
church, Michael lost more in public opinion than he gained 
by the alliance of a troop of bigoted monks, who laboured to 
subject the power of the emperor and the policy of the state 

' Theoph, 418,419. The following sums ue recorded in detail: — Fift; potinds' 
wdght of gold to the Patriarch Nicephoros; twenty-five to the detgy, at the 
coronation; live hundred lb. of gold to the widows of those who fell wiih Nice- 
phonii ; one hundred lb. of gold, besides robes and ornaments, to the Fatriarcti 
and clergy, at the corooatioo of his son TheophyUctut. 



DgIC 



RELIGIOUS ZEAL OF MICHAEL. 109 

4 J). 81 »-Bi3.] 

to their own narrow ideas. The abbot Joseph, who had 
celebrated the marriage of the Emperor Constantine VI., was 
again excommunicated, as the peace-offering which allowed 
the bigots to renew their communion with the Patriarch. 

The counsels of Theodore Studita soon involved the govern- 
ment in fresh embarrassment. To signalize his zeal for 
orthodoxy, he persuaded the emperor to persecute the Icono- 
clasts, who, during the preceding reign, had been allowed 
to profess their opinions without molestation. It was also 
proposed, in an assembly of the senate, to put the leaders 
of the Paulicians and Athingans to death, in order to intimi- 
date their followers, and persuade them to become orthodox 
Christians. This method of converting men to the Greek 
church excited strong opposition on the part of the tolerant 
members of the senate ; but, the Patriarch and clergy having 
deserted the cause of humanity, the permanent interests of 
Christianity were sacrificed to the cause of orthodoxy. 

While the emperor persecuted a large body of his subjects 
on the northern and eastern frontiers of his empire, he 
neglected to. defend the provinces against the incursions of 
the Bulgarians, who ravaged great part of Thrace and Mace- 
donia, and took several large and wealthy towns. The weight 
of taxation which fell on the mass of the population was not 
lightened when the emperor relieved the cleigy and the 
nobility from the additional burdens imposed on them by 
Nicephorus. Discontent spread rapidly. A lunatic girl, 
placed in a prominent position, as the emperor passed through 
the streets of Constantinople, cried aloud — 'Descend from 
thy seat I descend, and make room for another ! ' The con- 
tinual disasters which were announced from the Bulgarian 
frontier made the people and the army remember with regret 
the prosperous days of Constantine V., when the slave-markets 
of the capital were filled with their enemies. Encouraged by 
the general dissatisfaction, the Iconoclasts formed a conspiracy 
to convey the sons of Constantine V., who were living, blind 
and mute, in their exile at Panormus, to the army. The plot 
was discovered, and Michael ordered the helpless princes to be 
conveyed to Aphiusa, a small island in the Propontis, where 
they could be closely guarded. One of the conspirators had 
his tongue cut out. 

The wars of Mohammed Alemen and Almamun, the sons 



DgIC 



110 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Cb.II.Ii. 
of Haroun Al RashJd, relieved the empire from all serious 
danger on the side of the Saracens. But the Bulgarian war, 
to which Michael owed his throne, soon caused him to lose it. 
The army and the people despised him, because he owed his 
elevation, not to his talents, but to the accident of his mar- 
riage, his popularity with the monks, and the weakness of his 
character, which made him an instrument in the hands of 
a party. Public opinion soon decided that he was unfit to 
rule the empire. The year after the death of Nicephorus, 
Crumn invaded the empire with a numerous army, and took 
the town of Develtos. Michael left the capital accompanied 
by the Empress Procopia, in order to place himself at the 
head of the troops in Thrace ; but the soldiers showed so 
much dissatisfaction at the presence of a female court, that the 
emperor turned back to Constantinople from Tzourlou. The 
Bulgarian king took advantage of the disorder which ensued 
to capture Anchialos, Berrhoea, Nicaea, and Probaton in 
Thrace ; and that province fell into such a state of anarchy, 
that many of the colonists established by Nicephorus in Philip- 
popolis and on the banks of the Strymon abandoned their 
settlements and returned to Asia. 

Crumn nevertheless offered peace to Michael, on the basis 
of a treaty concluded between the Emperor Theodosius III. 
and Comesius, prior to the victories of the Iconoclast princes. 
These terms, fixing the frontier at Meleona, and regulating 
the duties to be paid on merchandise in the Bulgarian kJi^- 
dom, would have been accepted by Michael, but Cnimn 
availed himself of his success to demand that all deserters 
and refugees should be given up. As the Bulgarians were in 
the habit of ransoming the greater part of their captives at 
the end of each campaign, and of killing the remainder, or 
sellii^ them as slaves, this clause was introduced into the 
treaty to enable Crumn to gratify his vengeance against 
a number of refugees whom his tyranny had caused to 
quit Bulgaria, and who had generally embraced Christianity. 
The emperor remitted the examination of these conditions to 
the imperial council, and in the discussion which ensued, he, 
the Patriarch Nicephoros, and several bishops, declared them- 
selves in favour of the treaty, on the ground that it was 
necessary to sacrifice the refugees for the safety of the natives 
of the empire who were in slavery in Bulgariaj and to preserve 



DgIC 



BULGARIAN WAR. Ill 

*ji, 8ii-8i3.] 

the population from further suffering. But Theoctistos the 
master of the palace, the enei^etic Theodore Studita, and 
a majority of the senators, declared that such conduct would 
be an indelible stain on the Roman empire, and would only- 
invite the Bulgarians to recommence hostilities by the fear 
shown in the concession. The civilians declared it would be 
an act of infamy to consign to death, or to a slavery worse than 
death, men who had been received as subjects; and Theodore 
pronounced that it was an act of impiety to think of deliver- 
ing Christians into the hands of pagans, quoting St. John, 
' All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him 
that Cometh to me I will in no wise cast out '.' The emperor, 
from motives of piety, yielded to the advice of Theodore. 
Could he have adopted something of the firm character of 
the abbot, he might, in all probability, either have obtained 
peace on his own terms, or secured victory to his arms. 

While the emperor was debating at Constantinople, Crumn 
pushed forward the siege of Mesembria, which fell into his 
hands in November 812, He acquired great booty, as the 
place was a commercial town of considerable importance ; 
and he made himself master of twenty-six of the brazen 
tubes used for propelling Greek fire, with a quantity of the 
combustible material prepared for this artillery. Yet, even 
after this alarming news had reached Constantinople, the weak 
emperor continued to devote his attention to ecclesiastical 
instead of to military affairs. He seems to have felt that 
he was utterly unfit to conduct the war in person ; yet 
the Byzantine or Roman army demanded to be led by the 
emperor. 

In the spring of 813, Michael had an army in the field 
prepared to resist the Bulgarians; and Crumn, finding that 
his troops were suffering from a severe epidemic, retreated. 
The emperor, proud of his success, returned to his capital. 
The epidemic which had interrupted the operations of the 
enemy was ascribed to the intervention of Tarasios, who had 
been canonized for his services to orthodoxy; and the em- 
peror, in order to mark his gratitude for his unexpected 
acquisition of military renown, covered the tomb of St. Tara- 
sios with plates of silver weighing ninety-five lb., an act of 

' St. John, Ti. 37. 

Diyiizcdtv Google 



1 1 2 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.11. St. 
piety which added to the contempt the army already felt for 
their sovereign's courage and capacity. 

In the month of May, Michael again resumed the command 
of the army, but instead of listening to the advice of the 
experienced generals who commanded the troops, he allowed 
himself to be guided by civilians and priests, or by the su^es- 
tions of his own timidity. There were at the time three able 
officers in the army — Leo the Armenian, the general of the 
Anatolic theme ; Michael the Amorian, who commanded one 
wing of the army ; and John Aplakes, the general of the 
Macedonian troops. Leo and Aplakes urged tiie emperor to 
attack the Bulgarians ; but the Amorian, who was intriguing 
against Theoctistos the master of the palace, seems to have 
been disinclined to serve the emperor with sincerity. The 
Bulgarians were encamped at Bersinikia, about thirty miles 
from the Byzantine army; and Michael, after changing his 
plans more than once, resolved at last to risk a battle. 
Aplakes, who commanded the Macedonian and Thracian 
troops, consistii^ chiefly of hardy Sclavonian recruits, defeated 
the Bulgarian division opposed to him ; but a panic seized 
a part of the Byzantine army; and Leo, with the Asiatic 
troops, was accused of allowing Aplakes to be surrounded and 
slain, when he might have saved him. Leo certainly saved his 
own division, and made it the rallying-point for the fugitives ; 
yet he does not appear to have been considered guilty of any 
neglect by the soldiers. The emperor fled to Constantinople, 
while the defeated army retreated to Adrianople. 

Michael assembled his ministers in the capital, and talked 
of resigning his. crown ; for he deemed his defeat a judgment 
for mounting the throne of his brother-in-law. Procopia and 
his courtiers easily persuaded him to abandon his half-formed 
resolution. The army in the mean time decided the fate of 
the empire. Leo the Armenian appeared alone worthy of 
the crown. The defeated troops saluted him Emperor, and 
marched to Constantinople, where nobody felt inclined to 
support the weak Michael ; so that Leo was acknowledged 
without opposition, and crowned in St. Sophia's on the nth 
July, 813. 

The dethroned emperor was compelled to embrace the 
monastic life, and lived unmolested in the island of Prote, 
where he died in 845. His son, Theophylactus, n^o had 



DgIC 



POUCY OF LEO V. 119 

Aj.. 813-810.] 

been crowned as his colleague, and his brother Ignatius, were 
emasculated and forced to become monks. Ignatius became 
Patriarch of Constantinople in the reign of Michael III.' 



Sect. III.— iw V. [tke Arnunian)\ a.d. 813-820. 

Policy of Leo. — Treacherous attack 00 Cmmn. — Victoij over BulgariaiB. — Affain 
of Italy and Sicily- — Moderation in ecclesiastical contests. — Coimdl favourable 
to Iconoclasts. — Impartial administration of justice. — Conspiracy against Leo. 
— HU u 



When Leo entered the capital, the Patriarch Nicephoros 
endeavoured to convert the precedent which Michael I. had 
given, of signing a written declaration of orthodoxy, into an 
established usage of the empire ; but the new emperor excused 
himself from signing any document before his coronation, and 
afterwards he denied the right to require it ^ Leo was in- 
clined to favour the Iconoclasts, but he was no bigot. The 
Asiatic party in the army and in the administration, which 
supported him, were both enemies to image-worship. To 
strengthen the influence of his friends was naturally the first 
step of his reign. Michael the Amorian, who had warmly 
supported his election, was made a patrician. Thomas, 
another general, who is said to have been descended from 
the Sclavonian colonists settled in Asia Minor, was appointed 
general of the federates *. Manuel, an Armenian of the noble 
race of the Mamiconians, received the command of the 
Armenian troops, and subsequently of the Anatolic theme '■, 



7W*. 13 



f Biji., at flw end of Tbeoi*., 431 ; Contin., in Scr^. prat 

on of Bardas, a patrician of the distinguished Annenian family 
of the Ardzrounians. Genesius, 10 ; Chamich, i, 390. 

' Theophanes {416) says Leo gave the Palriaicn a wrilten assurance of his 
orthodoxy, and he is followed by the anonymous chronicle (431). by Leu Gram- 
niaticns (445), by Symeon Hag. (40a), and Georg. Mon. (499). But the anony- 
mous history wrilten by the older of Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the Scriptorn 
fau Thmphantm (ig), and Genesius {11), give the statement in the text, which is 
ccnfinned by Ignatius in his life of the Patriarch Nicephoros. Atie Saaci. Marl. 
710, The authority of the Patriarch Ignalius fat outweighs every other, Schlosser. 
391 ; Neander, iii. 53a. The Emperor Leo doubtless made the customary general 
declaration of orthodoxy contained in the coronation oath, which had appeared 
so vague as to require the written supplement signed by his predecessor. 

* Genesius, 3, 14 ; Contin„ in Scnpl. poU Thiopk. 3a, We must conclude that 
one of the parents of Thomas wasaSdaTODian.the other aoAimenian (see p. 130, 

* Contm. 15, 68. 

VOL. IL I 



Dictzed by Google 



1 14 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bl[.I.CIi.lI. «3. 
At Christmas the title of Emperor was conferred on Sembat, 
the eldest son of Leo, who then changed his name to Con- 
stantine. 

Leo was allowed little time to attend to civil business, for, 
six days after his coronation, Crumn appeared before the 
walls of Constantinople. The Bulgarian king encamped in 
the suburb of St. Mamas ^ and extended his lines from the 
Blachemian to the Golden Gate ; but he soon perceived that 
his army could not long maintain its position, and he allowed 
his troops to plunder and destroy the property of the citizens 
in every direction, in order to hasten the conclusion of a treaty 
of peace. Leo was anxious to save the possessions of his 
subjects from ruin, Crumn was eager to retreat without losing 
any of the plunder his army had collected. A treaty might 
have been concluded, had not Leo attempted to get rid of his 
enemy by an act of the basest treachery. A conference was 
appointed, to which the emperor and the king were to repair, 
attended only by a Axed number of guards. Leo laid a plot 
for assassinating Crumn at this meeting, and the Bulgarian 
monarch escaped with the greatest difficulty, leaving his chan- 
cellor dead, and most of his attendants captives. This 
infamous act was so generally approved by the perverted 
religious feelings of the Greek ecclesiastics, that the historian 
Theophanes, an abbot and holy confessor, in concluding his 
chronological record of the transactions of the Roman em- 
perors, remarks that the empire was not permitted to witness 
the death of Crumn by this ambuscade, in consequence of the 
multitude of the people's sins ^. 

The Bulgarians avenged the emperor's treachery on the 
helpless inhabitants of the empire in a terrible manner. They 
began by destroying the suburb of St. Mamas ; palaces, 
churches, public and private buildings were burnt to the 
ground ; the lead was torn from the domes, which were fire- 
proof; the vessels taken at the head of the port were added 
to the conflagration ; numerous beautiful works of art were 
destroyed, and many carried off, among which particular men- 
tion is made of a celebrated bronze lion, a bear, and a hydra ^ 

• Between Eyoub and the walls of Conslantinople. 
' Theoph. 4J?. 

• Theoph. 437; Leo Grammaticus, 446; Anonym. Hi Ani. Coiut. Nos. 163, 
146, In Banduil, Imp, Oritni. ii. 58, 87, edit. Paris; and Cyllitu, Dt Tt^grafk. 
Cofilaal., ibid, 416. 



ih.GoogIc 



VICTORY OVER THE BULGARIANS. 1 15 

Aj>.Bi3-Sio.] 

The Bulgarians then quitted their lines before Constantinople, 
and marched to Selymbria, destroying on their way the 
immense stone bridge over the river Athyras, (Karasou,) 
celebrated for the beauty of its construction^. Selymbria, 
Rhedestos, and Apres were sacked ; the country round Ganas 
was ravaged, but Heraclea and Fanion re^sted the assaults 
of the invaders. Men were everywhere put to the sword, 
while the young women, children, and cattle were driven away 
to Bulgaria. Part of the army penetrated into the Thracian 
Chersonese, and laid waste the country. Adrianople was 
compelled to surrender by famine, and after it had been plun- 
dered, the barbarians retired unmolested with an incredible 
booty and an innumerable train of slaves. 

The success of this campaign induced a body of 30,000 
Bulgarians to invade the empire during the winter. They 
captured Arcadiopolis ; and though they were detained for 
a fortnight, durir^ their retreat, by the swelling of the river 
Rheginas ^, (Bithyas,) Leo could not venture to attack them. 
They regained the Bulgarian frontier, carrying away fifty 
thousand captives and immense booty, and leaving behind 
them a terrible scene of desolation '. 

Emboldened by the apparent weakness of the empire, 
Crumn made preparations for besi^ng Constantinople, by 
collecting all the machines of war then in use*. Leo thoi^ht 
it necessary to construct a new wall beyond that in exist- 
ence at the Blachemian gate, and to add a deep ditch, for in 
this quarter the fortifications of the capital appeared weak. 
Crumn died before the opening of the campaign ; and Leo, 
having by the greatest exertion at last collected an army 
capable of taking the field, marched to Mesembria. There 
he succeeded in surprising the Bulgarians, by a night attack 
on their camp. The defeat was most sanguinary. The Bul- 
garian army was annihilated, and the place where the dead 
were buried was long called the Mountain of Leo, and avoided 
by the Bulgarians as a spot of evil augury. After this victory 



' &guiu5? Scylax, 181 Flinii H. N., u^' M}ra. Hleiodes (31) and Constant. 
Forphyr. (Z)< Thiem. ii. 3) mcntian Ganos. 

' The bctoty conKisted of Araienian blankets, carpels, dolhing, uid brazen pans. 
Symeon Mag. 410; Aact. interf. Hhi., at the end of Theopbanes, 434. 

< Atat. inctrt. Bin, 434, where a curioat Ust of the ancient macbinet then in 
nee ia given. 

13 



D^itzed by Google 



1 1 6 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.a>.II. ts- 
the emperor invaded Bulgaria, which he ravaged with as much 
cruelty as Crumn had ever showa in plundering the empire. 
At last a truce for thirty years was concluded with Mortagon, 
the new king. The power of these dangerous neighbours was 
so weakened by the recent exertions they had made, and by 
the wealth they had acquired, that for many years they were 
disposed to remain at peace. 

The influence of the Byzantine emperors in the West, 
though much diminished by the conquests of Cbarlem*^ne, 
the independence of the popes, and the formation of two 
Saracen kingdoms in Africa and Spain, continued, neverthe- 
less, to be very great, in consequence of the extensive mer- 
cantile connections of the Greeks, who then possessed the 
most lucrative part of the commerce of the Mediterranean. 

At this time the Aglabites of Africa and the Ommiades of 
Spain ruled a rebellious and ill-organized society of Moham- 
medan chiefs of various races, which even arbitrary power 
could not bend to the habits of a settled administration. 
Both these states sent out piratical expeditions by sea, when 
their incursions by land were restrained by the warlike power 
of their neighbours. Michael I, had been compelled to send 
an army to Sicily, to protect it from the incursions of pirates 
both from Africa and Spain. Lampedosa had been occupied 
by Saracen corsairs, and many Greek ships captured, before 
the joint forces of the Dukes of Sicily and Naples, with the 
vessels from Amalfi and Venice, defeated the plunderers, and 
cleared the sea for awhile. The quarrels of the Aglabites and 
Ommiades induced the former to conclude a truce for ten 
years with Leo, and to join the naval forces of the Greeks and 
Venetians in attacking the Spanish Saracens '. 

The disturbances which prevailed in the East durit^ the 
caliphate of Almamun insured tranquillity to the Asiatic 
frontier of the empire, and allowed Leo to devote his whole 
attention to the internal state of his dominions. The church 
was the only public institution immediately connected with 
the feelings of the whole population. By its conduct the 
people were directly interested in the proceedings of the impe- 
rial government. Ecclesiastical aiTairs, offering the only field 
for the expression of public opinion, became naturally the 

' Schlosser, 403 ; Pope Leo"s leller is Coleti, Ada S. CwaS. ii. 157. 

r,,,,i ■..,■:, LiOO^^Ie 



MODERATION IN ECCLESIASTICAL CONTESTS, 11? 

A.D. 813-810.] 

centre of all political ideas and party stru^Ies. Even in an 
administrative point of view, the regular ot^anization of the 
clergy under parish priests, bishops, and provincial councils, 
gave the church a degree of power in the state which com- 
pelled the emperor to watch it attentively. The principles of 
ecclesiastical independence inculcated by Theodore Studita, 
and adopted by the monks, and that portion of the clergy 
which favoured image-worship, alarmed the emperor. This 
party inculcated a belief in contemporary miracles, and in 
the daily intervention of God in human affairs. All prudence, 
all exertion on the part of individuals, was as nothing com- 
pared to the favour of some image accidentally endowed with 
divine grace. That such images could at any time reveal the 
existence of a hidden treasure, or raise the possessor to high 
official rank, was the common conviction of the superstitious 
and enthusiastic, both among the laity and the clei^y ; and 
such doctrines were especially favoured by the monks, so that 
the people, under the guidance of these teachers, became 
negligent of moral duties and regular industry. The Icono- 
clasts themselves appealed to the decision of Heaven as 
favouring their cause, by pointing to the misfortunes of Con- 
stantine VI,, Irene, Nicephorus, and Michael I., who had 
supported image-worship, and contrasting their reigns with 
the victories and peaceful end of Leo the Isaurian, Constan- 
tine v., and Leo IV., who were the steady opponents of 
idolatry. 

Leo v., though averse to image-worship, possessed so much 
prudence and moderation, that ha was inclined to rest satisfied 
with the direct acknowledgment that the civil power possessed 
the right of tolerating religious difference. But the army 
demanded the abolition of image-worship, and the monks the 
persecution of Iconoclasts. Leo's difficulties, in meddling 
with ecclesiastical affairs, gave his policy a dubious diaracter, 
and obtained for him, among the Greeks, the name of the 
Chameleon. Several learned members of the clei^ were 
opposed to image-worship ; and of these the most eminent 
were the abbot John Hylilas, and Antony, bishop of Syllaeum. 
John, called, from his superior learning, the Grammarian, was 
accused by the ignorant of studying magic ; and the nickname 
of Lekanomantis was given him, because he was said to read 
the secrets of futurity in a brazen basin. The Iconoclasts 



:A'00' 



.3IC 



Il8 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.II.(3. 
were also supported by Theodotos Kassiteras, son of the 
patrician Michael Melissenos, whose sister had been the third 
wife of Constantine V. These three endeavoured to persuade 
Leo to declare openly against image-worship. On the other 
hand, the majority of the Greek nation was firmly attached 
to image-worship ; and the cause was supported by the 
Patriarch, by Theodore .Studita, and a host of monks. The 
emperor Battered himself that he should be able to bring 
about an amicable arrangement to ensure general toleration, 
and commanded John Hylilas to draw up a report of the 
opinions expressed by the earhest fathers of the church on the 
subject of image-worship. 

As soon as he was in possession of this report, he asked the 
Patriarch to make some concessions on the subject of pictures, 
in order to satisfy the army and preserve peace in the church. 
He wished that the pictures should be placed so high as to 
prevent the people making the gross display of superstitious 
worship constantly witnessed in the churches. But the Patri- 
arch boldly pronounced himself in favour of images and 
pictures, whose worship, he declared, was authorized by im- 
memorial tradition, and the foundation of the orthodox faith 
was formed according to the opinion of the church on tradition 
as well as on Holy Scripture. He added that the opinions of 
the church were inspired by the Holy Spirit as well as the 
Scriptures. The emperor then proposed a conference between 
the two parties, and the clergy were thrown into a state of the 
greatest excitement at this proposition, which implied a doubt 
of their divine inspiration. The Patriarch summoned his 
partisans to pass the night in prayers for the safety of the 
church, in the cathedral of St. Sophia. The emperor had 
some reason to regard this as seditious, and he was alarmed 
at the disorders which must evidently arise from both parties 
appealing to popular support. He summoned the Patriarch 
to the palace, where the night was spent in controversy. 
Theodore Studita was one of those who attended the Patriarch 
on this occasion, and his steady assertion of ecclesiastical 
supremacy rendered him worthy, from his bold and un- 
compromising views, to have occupied the chair of St. Peter. 
He told the emperor plainly that a temporal sovereign had no 
authority to interfere with the doctrines of the church, since 
his rule only extended over the civil and military government 



DgIC 



CONTEST ON IMAGE-WORSHIP. 119 

Aj>. 813-810.] 

of the empire. The church had full authority to govern itself, 
Leo was enri^ed at this boldness, and dissatisfied with the 
conduct of the Patriarch, who anathematized Antony, the 
bishop of Syllaeum, as the leader of the Iconoclasts ; but for 
the present the clergy were only required to abstain from 
holding public assemblies. 

The Iconoclasts, however, now b^an to remove images and 
pictures from the churches in possession of the clergy of their 
party, and the troops on several occasions insulted the image 
over the entrance of the imperial palace, which had been 
removed by Leo the Isaurian and replaced by Irene. The 
emperor now ordered it to be again removed, on the ground 
that this was necessary to avoid public disturbance. These 
acts induced Theodore Studita to call on the monks to 
subscribe a declaration that they adhered firmly to the 
doctrines of the church, with respect to image-worship, as 
then established. The emperor, alarmed at the danger of 
causing a new schism in the church, but feeling himself called 
upon to resist the attacks now made on his authority, de- 
termined to relieve the civil power from the necessity of 
engaging in a contest with the ecclesiastical, by assembling 
a general council of the church, and leaving the two parties 
in the priesthood to settle their own differences. As he was 
in doubt how to proceed, it happened that both the Patriarch 
and the abbot, John Hylilas, were officiating together in the 
Christmas ceremonies while Leo was present, and that John, 
in the performance of his duty, had to repeat the words of 
Isaiah, 'To whom then will ye liken God? or what will ye 
compare unto him ? The workman melteth a graven image, 
and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth 
silver chains^.' In pronouncing these words he turned to the 
emperor, and uttered them in the most emphatic manner. 
A few days afler this scene, a band of mutinous soldiers broke 
into the patriarchal palace, destroyed the pictures of the 
saints with which the building was adorned, and committed 
other disorders, until they were driven out by the r^jular 
guard. At length, in the month of April 815, Leo ordered 
a provincial synod to assemble at Constantinople, and before 
this assembly the Patriarch Nicephoros was brought by force, 

'■ Isaiah, xl. iS, 19. 

Diyiizcdtv Google 



120 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.ll.t3. 
for he denied its competency to take cognizance of his con- 
duct. He was deposed, and confined in a monastery which 
he had founded, where he survived twelve years — a time 
which he passed more usefully for the world, in compiling 
the historical works we possess, than he could have passed 
them amidst the contests of the patriarchal dignity^. 

The bigotry of both parties rendered the moderate policy 
of the emperor of no effect ; and public attention became so 
exclusively absorbed by the state of the church, that it was 
impossible for him to remain any loiter neutral. His first 
decided step was to nominate a new Patriarch hostile to 
image-worship ; and he selected Theodotos Melissenos, a 
layman already mentioned, who held a high post in the 
imperial court The example of the election of Tarasios 
prevented the votaries of image-worship disputing the l^ality 
of the election of a layman ; but they refused to acknowledge 
Theodotos, on the ground that the deposition of Nicephoros 
was illegal, and that he was consequently still their lawful 
Patriarch. Theodotos was nevertheless ordained and con- 
secrated, A.D. 8i5- He was a man of learning and ability, 
but his habits as a military man and a courtier were said to 
be visible in his manners, and he was accused of living with 
too great splendour, keeping a luxurious table, and indulging 
habitually in society of too worldly a character. 

A general council of the church was held at Constantinople, 
in which the new Patriarch, and Constantine the son of Leo, 
presided ; for the emperor declined taking a personal part in 
the dispute, in order to allow the church to decide on ques- 
tions of doctrine without any direct interference of the civil 
power. This council re-established the acts of that held in 
754 hy Constantine V., abolishing image-worship, and it 
anathematized the Patriarchs Tarasios and Nicephoros, and 
all image-worshippers. The clergy, therefore, who adhered 
to the principles of the image-worshippers were, in conse- 
quence, deprived of their ecclesiastical dignities, and sent 

> NicephonM died a.d. SaSL Hie works ire — Bmiaritim niuorkum di RAui 
Ges6i ab Obilu Maurieii ad ComtanCinum usaut Copmnyttwm, in Ihe Bynuitine col- 
lection, and a Chronographia annexed to the work of Syncellus. TTie Piliiardi 
Pholius. in a letter to the Emperor Basil I., meotioni that Leo treated the deposed 
Putriarch with indulgence. He enjoyed the use of his books and the society of 
his friends, a.% well as the possession of his private fortune. Photii Epiitolat, 
No. 97, p. 136, edit. Land. 



DgIC 



VICTORY OF ICONOCLASTS. lai 

AJl. 813-810,] 

into banishment ; but the party revolutions that had frequently 
occurred in the Greek church had introduced a dishonourable 
system of compliance with the reigning faction, and most of 
the clergy were readier to change their opinions than to quit 
their benefices '. This habitual practice of falsehood received 
the mild name of arrangement, or economy, to soften the 
public aversion to such conduct '. 

The Iconoclast party, on this occasion, used its victory with 
unusual mildness. They naturally drove their opponents 
from their ecclesiastical offices ; and when some bold monks 
persisted in preaching against the acts of the council, they 
banished these non-conformists to distant monasteries ; but it 
does not appear that the civil power was called upon to 
enforce conformity with the customary rigour *. The council 
decided that images and pictures were to be removed from 
the churches, and if the people resisted their removal, or the 
clergy or monks replaced them, severe punishments were to 
be inflicted for this violation of the law. Cruelty was a 
feature in the Byzantine civil ad'ministration, without any 
impulse of religious fanaticism. 

Theodore Studita, who feared neither patriarch nor emperor, 
and acknowledged no authority in ecdesiastical alTairs but 
the church, while he recc^nised nothing as the church but 
what accorded with his own standard of orthodoxy, set the 
decrees of this council at defiance. He proceeded openly 
through the streets of the capital, followed by his monks in 
solemn procession, bearing aloft the pictures which had been 
removed from the churches, to give them a safe asylum 
within the walls of the monastery of Studion. For this con- 
tempt for the law he was banished by the emperor to Asia 
Minor ; and his conduct in exile affords us a remarkable proof 
of the practical liberty the monks had acquired by their 
honest and steady resistance to the civil power. All eyes 
were fixed on Theodore as the leader of the monastic party ; 
and so great was the power he exerted over public opinion, 
that the emperor did not venture to employ any illegal 

' Tbe historian Theophuifs, author of the ChroDograjphy, which has been at 
times our only, and oflen our best, guide in the preceding pages, was a noble 
exception to the system of compliance. He was among those who were bMUshed, 
And died shortly after in exile in Samothrace. 

' OUoroiiia vas the word. Neander, iii. 541. 

' Pholii Ep. No. 97. 



:v Google 



132 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.n. i3. 
severity against the bold monk he had imprisoned. Indeed, 
the administration of justice in the Byzantine empire seems 
never to have been more regular and equitable than during 
the reign of Leo the Armenian. 

Theodore from his prison corresponded not only with the 
most eminent bishops and monks of his party, and with 
ladies of piety and wealth, but also with the Pope, to whom, 
though now a foreign potentate, the bold abbot sent deputies, 
as if he were himself an independent authority in the Eastern 
church '. His great object was to oppose the Iconoclasts in 
every way, and prevent all those over whose minds he 
exercised any influence from holding communion with those 
who conformed to their authority. One thing seems to have 
distressed and alarmed him, and he exerted all his eloquence 
to expose its fallacy. The Iconoclasts declared that no one 
could be a martyr for Christ's sake who was only punished by 
the civil power for image-worship, since the question at issue 
had no connection with the truth of Christianity. Theodore 
ai^ued that the night of heresy was darker than that of 
ignorance, and the merit of labouring to illuminate it was at 
least as great. The Emperor Leo was, however, too prudent to 
give any of Theodore's party the slightest hope of obtaining 
the crown of martyrdom. He persisted in his policy of 
enforcing the decrees of the council with so much mildness, 
and balancing his own expressions of personal opinion with 
such a degree of- impartiality, that he excited the dissatisfac- 
tion of the violent of both parties *. 

Even in a corrupted and factious society,most men appreciate 
the equitable administration of justice. Interest and ambition 
may indeed so far pervert the feelings of an administrative or 
aristocratic class, as to make the members of such privileged 
societies r^ard the equal distribution of justice to the mass of 
the people as dangerous to order ; and the passions en- 
gendered by religious zeal may blind those under its influence 



' He seems to have been the chief mover in the fonndation of tbe monastery of 
Si. Praxedea at Rome, in which Ihe Greek monks who fled from persecution were 
estftblished by Pope Paschal. Anastasius, Dt Vilia Pont. 150. 

' The letters ot Theodore Studila furnish information concerning the mildness 
of Leo's government. The fai^ that the banished abbot could carry on so exten- 
sive a correspondence, proves that Ihe liberty guaranteed by the laws of the 
Roman empire, when these laws were equitably administered, was not tm idle 
phrase at Constantinople under the Iconoclasts. 



ADMINISTRATION OF LEO. 123 

A.D. 813-810.] 

to any injustice committed against men of dlfTerent opinions. 
Hence it is that a government, to secure the administration 
of justice, must be established on a broader basis than 
administrative wisdom, aristocratic pre-eminence, or religious 
orthodoxy. In the Byzantine empire, public opinion can 
hardly be said to have existed among the mass of the 
population, whose minds and actions were regulated and 
enslaved by administrative influence, by the power of the 
wealthy, and by the authority of the clet^y and the monks '. 
One result of this state of society is visible in the violence of 
party passion displayed concerning insignificant matters in 
the capital ; and hence it arose that the political interests of 
the empire were frequently disconnected with the questions 
that exercised the greatest influence on the fate of the 
government. The moderation of Leo, which, had public 
opinion possessed any vitality, ought to have rendered his 
administration popular with the majority of his subjects in 
the provinces, certainly rendered it unpopular in Constanti- 
nople. Crowds under the influence of passion and excitement, 
express the temporary feelii^ of the people before deliberation 
can acquire the power of fixing public opinion. Leo was 
hated by the Greeks as an Armenian and an Iconoclast ; and 
he was disliked by many of the highest officers in the state 
and the army for the severity of his judicial administration, 
and the strictness with which he maintained moral as well as 
military discipline, so that no inconsiderable number of the 
class who directed state affairs was disposed to welcome a 
revolution. Irene had governed the empire by eunuchs, who 
had put up everything for sale ; Nicephorus had thought of 
those reforms only that tended to fill the treasury; Michael I. 
had been the tool of a bigoted faction. All these sovereigns 
had accumulated opposition to good government. 

Leo undertook the task of purifying the administration, 
and he commenced his reforms by enforcing a stricter dispen- 
sation of justice. His enemies acknowledged that he put a 
stop to corruption with wonderful promptitude and ability. 

' In Ihe Byzantine, as in the Roman empire, tlie ndministration, including the 
emperor and all his servants, or, as the servants of the state were called, his 
household, formed a class apart from the inhabitants of the empire, governed 
bf different laws, while the subjects under the civil laws of Rome were again 
separated into the rich and the poor, <A Sworol and ol Wnjm. whom usage more 
thko l^slMion constituted into separate classes. 



DgIC 



124 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.lI. {3. 
He restored the discipline of the army, he repressed bribery 
in the courts of justice,- by strictly reviewing all judicial 
decisions, and he re-established an equitable system of 
collecting the revenue '. He repaired the fortresses destroyed 
by the Bulgarians, and placed all the frontiers of the empire 
in a respectable state of defence. All this, it was universally 
acknowledged, was due to his personal activity in watching 
over the proceedings of his ministers. Even the Patriarch 
Nicephoros, whom he had deposed, gave testimony to his 
merits as an emperor. When he heard of Leo's assassination, 
he exclaimed, ' The church is delivered from a dangerous 
enemy, but the empire has lost a useful sovereign.' 

The officers of the court, who expected to profit by a 
change of measures, formed a conspiracy to overthrow Leo's 
government, which was joined by Michael the Amorian, who 
had long been the emperor's most intimate friend. The 
ambition of this turbulent and unprincipled soldier led him to 
think that he had as good a right to the throne as Leo ; and 
when he perceived that a general opposition was felt in Con- 
stantinople to the emperor's conduct, his ambition got the 
better of his gratitude, and he plotted to mount the throne. 
It was generally reported that JLeo had refused to accept the 
imperial crown, when proclaimed emperor by the army at 
Adrianople, from his knowledge of the difficulties with which 
he would have to contend, and that Michael forced him to 
yield his assent, by declaring that he must either accept the 
crown, or be put to death to make way for a new candidate. 
The turbulent character of Michael gave currency to this 
anecdote. 

Michael's conduct had long been seditious, when at length 
his share in a conspiracy against the government was dis- 
covered, and he was tried, found guilty, and condemned to 
death. It is said by the chronicles that the court of justice 
left it to the emperor to order his execution in any way he 
might think proper, and that Leo condemned him to be 
immediately cast into the furnace used for heating the baths 
of the palace, and prepared to attend the execution in person. 

* A case- of his personal decision, where the praetor had Tefused justice against 
a wnator, is icported as a proof of his li^d attention lo the equal adminislration 
of the law. Gcnesius, 8 ; Contin , in Scripl. foil Tkmph. 19. Mortreuil (i. 355) 
gives il from Bonelidius (;), who has extracted it fmn Cedienas (ii. 491). 



CONSPIRACY AGAINST LEO. 1*5 

<ji.8i3-8m.] 

It is needless to say that, though cruelty was the vice of the 
Byzantiae court, we must rank this story as a tale fitter for 
the l^ends of the saints than for the history of the empire. 
The event took [dace on Christmas-eve, when the empress, 
hearing what was about to happen, and moved with com- 
passion for one who had long been her husband's intimate 
friend, hastened to Leo, and implored him to defer the 
execution until after Christmas-day. She urged the sin of 
participating in the holy communitMi with the cries of the 
dying companion of his youth echoing in his ear, Leo— who, 
though severe, was not personally cruel — yielded to his wife's 
entreaties, and consented with great reluctance to postpone 
the punishment, for his knowledge of the extent of the con- 
spiracy gave him a presentiment of danger. After giving 
orders for staying the execution, he turned to the empress 
and said, ' I grant your request : you think only of my 
eternal welfare *, but you expose my life to the greatest peril, 
and your scruples may bring misfortune on you and on our 
children.' 

Michael was conducted back to his dungeon, and the key 
of his fetters was brought to Leo. It was afterwards told in 
Constantinople that during the night the emperor was unable 
to sleep. A sense of impending danger, disturbii^ his 
imagination, impelled him to rise from his bed, envelop 
himself in a mantle, and secretly visit the cell in which 
Michael was confined. There he found the door unlocked, 
and Michael stretched on the bed of his jailor, buried in 
profound sleep, while the jailor himself was lying on the 
criminal's bed on the floor. The emperor's alarm was 
increased at this spectacle. He withdrew to consider what 
measures he should take to watch both the prisoner and 
the jailor. But Michael had already many partisans within 
the walls of the palace, and one of these having observed the 
emperor's nocturnal visit to the criminal's cell, immediately 
awakened Michael. There was not a moment to lose. A 
friendly confessor had been introduced into the palace to 
aSbrd the condemned criminal the consolations of religion : 
this priest was hurried off to Theoctistos to announce that, 
unless a blow was instantly struck, Michael would at day- 
light purchase his own pardon by revealing the names 
of the principal, conspirators. This messf^e caused the 



DgIC 



126 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.n.i3. 
conspirators to resolve on the immediate assassination of 
the emperor. 

The imperial palace was a fortress separated from the 
city like the present serai of the sultan. It was the practice 
of Leo to attend matins in his chapel, and as it was Christmas- 
day, a number of the best singers in Constantinople were 
that morning admitted at a postem-gate before daybreak, in 
order to join in the celebration of the service, whose solemn 
chant was then the admiration of the Christian world ^. 
Leo, who was of a religious turn of mind, delighted in 
displaying his deep sonorous voice in the choir. He delayed 
his measures for securing Michael and the jailor to hasten to 
the chapel, and the conspirators availed themselves of his 
presence during the celebration of divine service to execute 
their plans. Disguised as choristers, with da^ers concealed 
in their clothes, they obtained admittance at the postern, and 
ranged themselves among the singers in the imperial chapel. 

The morning was dark and cold, and both the emperor and 
the officiating chaplain were enveloped in furred mantles, which, 
with the thick bonnets they wore as a protection against 
the damp, effectually concealed their faces. But as soon as 
the powerful voice of Leo was heard in the solemn hymns, 
the assassins pressed forward to stab him. Some, however, 
mistaking the chaplain for the emperor, wounded the priest, 
whose cries revealed the mistake, and then all turned on Leo, 
who defended himself for some time with a crucifix which he 
snatched up. His hand was soon cut off, and he fell before 
the communion-table, where his body was hewed in pieces. 

The assassins then hurried to the cell of Michael, whom they 
proclaimed emperor, and thus consummated the revolution 
for which he was under sentence of death. Few sovereigns of 
the Byzantine empire seem to have exerted themselves more 
sincerely than Leo V. to perform the duties of their station, 

' Charlemagne was profoundlj aflected by the solemn mmic of the Greek 
Eervice. We ma; conclude that it bore a closer lesemblance to the music of 
the Russian churdi of to-day than to the naso] melody of modem Greek ^almody. 
See the enthusiastic manner in which Joannes Cameniates speaks of Byiantioe 
chnrch-iauiic in the tenth century. De fiwi'dio Thtaidoidcma, c !« in Script, fati 
Tieoph. p. 316. [Still, the fact that, after the capture of Salonica in 1185, when 
the Greek priests chanted their service, the Norman soldiers howled out a chorus 
in imitation of beaten hounds, seems a sufficient proof of the nasal character ttf 
the ectlesiastical music of that period ; and it probably was tradititmaL Those 
who sing nasally, naturally admire nasal music. Co.] 



DgIC 



MURDER OF LEO. 127 

AJl. 813-810.] 

yet few have received less praise for their good qualities ; nor 
did his assassination create any reaction of public opinion in 
his favour. Though he died with the crucifix in his hand, 
he was condemned as if he had been a bigoted Iconoclast. 
His wife and children were compelled to adopt a monastic 
hfe '. 



' For Ihe reign of Leo V.. see the anonymous author at the aid of Theophanea ; 
Leo Grammaticui. 445 ; the continuator of Theopbanet, by order of Constantine 
Porphyrogenilus, in Script, post Thtopk.: Symeon Log. et Mag. 411, and Georg. 
" I. 500, both in the Script, post Thcopk.; Genesius; Cedrenus, 487; Zonaras, 
liclea. 



; and the shorter chroniclea 



Do.icdt, Google 



CHAPTER III. 
The Amorian Dynasty, a.d. 820-867. 

Sect. I.— Michael II. {the Stammerer), A.D. 820-839. 

BirthofMichaein.— Rebellion of Thomas.— Loss of Crete and Sidly.— Michael's 
ecclesiastical policy. — Marriage and death. 

Michael II. was proclaimed emperor with the fetters on 
his limbs ; and the first spectacle of his reign was the jailor 
delivering him from a felon's bonds. When relieved from 
his irons, he proceeded to the church of St. Sophia, where he 
was crowned by the Patriarch. 

Michael II. was bom in the lowest rank of society. He 
entered the army as a private soldier in early youth, but 
his attention to his duties, and his military talents, quickly 
raised him to the rank of general. His influence over the 
troops aided in placing Leo V. on the imperial throne. 
Amorium was his birthplace — an important and wealthy 
city, inhabited by a mixed population of various races and 
languages, collected tt^ether by trading interests'. The 
Phrygians, who formed the majority, still retained many 
native usages, and some religious ideas adverse to Greek 
prejudices. Many Jews had also been established in the 
city for ages, and a sect called the Athingans, who held 
that the touch of many thii^ was a contamination, had 
numerous votaries*. 

The low origin of Michael, and the half-suppressed 
contempt he disclosed for Greek learning, Roman pride, 
and ecclesiastical tradition, awakened some animosity in 



^Aioo^^lc 



ACCESSION OF MICHAEL II. 129 

the breasts of the pedants, the nobles, and the orthodox of 
Constantinople^. It is not surprising, therefore, that the 
historians who wrote under the patronage of the enemies 
of the Amorian dynasty should represent its founder as a 
horse-jockey, a heretic, and a stammerer. As he showed 
no particular favour to the Greek party in the Byzantine 
church, his orthodoxy was questioned by the great body of 
theclei^y; and as he very probably expressed himself with 
hesitation in the Greek lai^uage, as spoken at court, any 
caJumny would find credit with the Hellenic populace, who 
have always been jealous of strangers, and eager to avenge, 
by words, the compliance they are generally too ready to 
yield in their actions to foreign masters. 

Michael, however, had sagacity to observe the difficulties 
which the various parties in the church and court might create 
to his administration. To gain time, he began by conciliating 
every party. The orthodox, headed by Theodore Studita 
and the exiled Patriarch Nicephoros, was the most powerful. 
He flattered these two ecclesiastics, by allowing them to 
return to the capital, and he even permitted Theodore to 
resume his functions as abbot of Studion ; but, on the other 
hand, he refused to adopt their su^estions for a reaction 
in favour of image-worship. He seems to have been naturally 
inclined to religious toleration, and he was anxious to repress 
all disputes within the pale of the church, as the best means 
of maintaining the public tranquillity. In order to give a 
public guarantee for the spirit of the civil power, which he 
desired should characterize his reign, he held a silention to 
announce toleration of private opinion in ecclesiastical ques- 
tions ; but it was declared that the existing laws against the 
exhibition of images and pictures in churches were to be 
strictly enforced*. The indifference of Michael to the 
ecclesiastical disputes which agitated a church, to many of 
whose doctrines he was at heart adverse, did not create so 
violent an opposition as the sincerer conduct of his predeces- 
sors, who banished images on religious grounds. 

■ TV 'EUt/vur^v wutttinrir SuHrrvan-, Ccmtin., in Script, pott Thtoph. :,!. Abul- 
pharagius (C*. Syr. 15*) says Michael was the koq of a converted Jew. Niketas, 
m his Life of Ignatius (Labbe, Caruil. viii. i tSj). says be was o( the Sabbatlm 
heresy. Some modems wish to make both the emperor and the Athingans gipsies 
vilhoat any reason. 

' Pagiad Baron. Ann. Seelti. Ji.a. 811. 
VOL. II, K 



Dictzed by Google 



IM ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk,i.a.in.(i. 
The elevation of a new emperor, who possessed few claims 
to distinction, awakened, as usual, the hopes of every ambi- 
tious general. A formidable rival appeared in the person of 
Thomas, the only officer of eminence who had remained 
faithful to the rebel Bardanes, when Leo and Michael deserted 
his standard. Thomas, as has been already mentioned, was 
appointed general of the federates by Leo V., but, owing to 
some circumstances which are not recorded, he had retired 
into the dominions of the caliph, and remained for some time 
on the borders of Armenia '. His origin, whether Sclavonian 
or Armenian, by separating him in an unusual degree from 
the ruling classes in the empire — for he was, like Michael, of a 
very low rank in society— caused him to be regarded as a 
friend of the people ; and all the subject races in the empire 
espoused his cause, which in many provinces took the form of 
an attack on the Roman administration, rather than of a 
revolution to place a new emperor on the throne*. This 
rebellion Is remarkable for assuming more of the character of 
a social revolution than of an ordinary insurrection'. Thomas 
overran all Asia Minor without meeting with any serious 
opposition even on the part of the towns ; so that, with the 
exception of the Armeniac theme and Opsikion, his authority 
was universally acknowledged, and the administration was 
conducted by his officers. He concluded an alliance with the 
Saracens to enable him to visit Antioch and receive the 
imperial crown from the hands of the Patriarch Job *• This 
alliance with the infidels tended to injure his popularity; and 
when he returned accompanied by large bodies of mercenary 
troops, collected from the Mohammedan tribes on the frontier, 
the public enthusiasm for his cause became sensibly dimin- 
ished. Thomas, too, feeling more confidence in the power of 

■ Schloiser, GtKkiekit dtr bOd. Kaittr, 437. The letter of Michael to "Loxaa le 
D^bonnure, in Baionius, Am. Eicltt. ix. p. 898, a-d. S34 ; Fleuiy, Hiil. Eulii. 
lib. xlviii. c. 4, 

' Compue GenesiuB (3, 14) with CoDtinualor {Script, pou TktopK 5), who says 
ThomBB was bom at the lalie Gazuras. The town of GuiurA. dcst llie rirer Iris 
in Pontus. is mentioned b; Stiabo, lii. 3. p. 547. Su Hamilton, Rtuantta i» 
Alia Minor, i. 3S9' He " wiii to •"ve lived long among the Saracens, uid to 
have given him&clf out for CoDStautine VI, Some of the reports seem irrecon- 
olable, uid look as if the history of two persons had been confounded. 

* Cuntb., in Script, poti Tkiopk. 4: ^rTtiBtr moI Boi\ei kutA tt<noTSr ml «Tpa- 
riimiM Mari ratiiiTm, mi ADxaydi mri irtfantyhoa jip x'vo fortionf mMnrXiC*. 
K.r.K. 

* Contio. 3S( Genoius, 15. 



Dictzed by Google 



REBELLION OF THOMAS. \%\ 

tj). 810-819.] 

his army, b^an to show himself careless of the good-will of 
the people. 

The only manner of putting an end to the war was by 
taking Constantinople, and this Thomas prepared to attempt 
An immense fleet was assembled at Lesbos. Gregorios 
Pterotes, a relation of Leo V^ who had been banished to 
Skyros by Michael, was sent into Thrace at the head of ten 
thousand men to prepare for the arrival of Thomas, who soon 
followed with the bulk of .his army, and formed the si^e of 
Constantinople. Michael had made preparations for sustain- 
ing a long si^e, and Thomas committed a serious error in 
attacking so strong a city, while the troops of the Armeniac 
theme and of Opsikion were in sufficient strei^th in his rear 
to interrupt his communications with the centre of Asia 
Minor. These troops maintained a constant communication 
with the garrison of Constantirtople from the coast of Bithynia. 
The army of Thomas, though very numerous, was in part 
composed of an undisciplined rabble, whose plundering pro- 
pensities increased the difficulty of obtaining supplies. On the 
other hand, Constantinople, though closely invested, was well 
supplied with all kinds of provisions and stores, the inhabitants 
displayed great firmness in opposing an enemy whom they 
saw bent on plunder, and Michael and his son Theophilus 
performed the duties of able generals. Two attempts were 
made to storm the fortifications, one during the winter, in 
821, and the other in the spring of 8aa ; both were equally 
unsuccessful, and entailed considerable loss on the besiegers. 
In the mean time the partisans of Michael collected a fleet of 
350 ships in the islands of the Archipelago and Greece ; and 
this force, having gained a complete victory over the fleet of 
Thomas, cut ofl^the communications of the besi^ers with Asia. 

The Bulgarians, in order to profit by the civil war, invaded 
the empire, and plundered the country from which the rebels 
drew their supplies. Thomas marched to oppose them with a 
part of his army, but was defeated, and lost the greater part 
of his ba^age. He was so much weakened by this defeat 
that Michael sallied out from Constantinople, again routed 
him, and compelled the rebel army to retire to Arcadiopolis, 
where Thomas was soon closely besieged K For five months 

(19] and Georg. Mod. (In Strifl, pal llu«fh, 3S4) mention Arcadi- 
K 2 



DgIC 



laa ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.IIl.{i. 
the place was obstinately defended, but at last Thomas was 
delivered up by his own followers ; and his adopted son, who 
had been invested with the title of Emperor, was captured 
shortly after in Byza. Both were hanged after their limbs 
had been cut off'. This junction of a son with the reigning 
emperor as his successor had become a rule of the Byzantine 
constitution, which was rarely n^lected hy any sovereign. 
Two chiefs attached to the party of Thomas continued for 
some time to defend the towns of Kabala and Saniana in Asia 
Minor, until the latter place was betrayed by one who bar- 
gained to be appointed archbishop of Neocaesarea, a fact 
recorded in a satirical verse preserved by one of the Byzantine 
historians *. 

This remarkable civil war lasted nearly three years, and is 
distinguished by some features of unusual occurrence from 
most of the great rebellions in the Byzantine empire. The 
large fleets collected on both sides prove that the population 
and wealth of the coasts and islands of the Archipelago had 
not declined under the administration of the Iconoclasts, 
though this part of the empire was likely to be least favoured 
by the central power, as having attempted to dethrone Leo III., 
and having always firmly supported the party of the image- 
worshippers ^. The most numerous partisans of Thomas, and 
those who gave the strong revolutionary impulse to the rebel- 
lion at its commencement, were that body of the Asiatic 
population which national distinctions or religious opinions 
excluded from participation in public and local affairs, and to 
whom even the ecclesiastical courts were shut, on account of 
their heretical opinions ; and to the ecclesiastical courts alone 
recourse could be had for the equitable administration of 
justice in some cases. The discontent of these classes, joined 
to the poverty created by excessive taxation, supplied the army 
of Thomas with those numerous bands of marauders, eager to 
seek revenge, who spread desolation far and wide, alarmed all 
men possessing property, and ultimately ruined his enterprise. 

opolii. Contm. (31) tux) the later writers, Cedrenus and Zonans, say Adriaoopte. 
Schlosser, 446. now. 

' Michael's own letter to Louis !e D^bonnaire is tbe authority for this cruelty, 
as well as the early historiajis. Baronius, 1161 lupra. 

* Saniana was in the mountains of tbe (heme Chaisionon. Constant. Porphyr. 
I>* Thtm. lib. i. p. 11 j Dt Adm. Imp. cap. 50; Contin,, in Script, pnu Thtofh. 45. 

* CoDtin. 40; Genetiui, iB. 



DgIC 



CAUSES OF THE REBELLION. I33 

A.e. 810-S39.] 

The indiscipline of his troops, and his incapacity to apply any 
remedy to the financial oppression and religious intolerance 
against which the population of the Asiatic provinces had 
taken up arms, alienated the minds of all who expected to 
find in him an instrument for reforming the empire. But had 
Thomas really been a man of a powerful mind, he might have 
laid the foundation of a new state of society in the Eastern 
Empire, by lightening the burden of taxation, carrying out 
toleration for religious opinions, securing an impartial admin- 
istration of justice even to heretics, and giving every class of 
subjects, witliout distinction of nationality or race, equal 
security for their lives and property. The spirit of the age 
was, however, averse to toleration, and the sense of justice 
was so defective that these equitable principles could only 
have been upheld by the power of a well-disciplined mer- 
cenary army. 

The necessity of improving the condition of the people was 
not felt by Michael II., even when this rebellion was sup- 
pressed ; and though he saw that some reduction of taxation 
to the lower classes was required, he restricted the boon to the 
Armeniac theme and Opsikion, because these provinces had 
not joined Thomas in the civil war'; and even in them he 
only reduced the hearth-tax to one-half of the amount im- 
posed by Nicephorus I. The rest of the empire was oppressed 
more than usual, as a punishment. It is certain that this 
unfortunate rebellion caused an immense destruction of pro- 
perty in Asia Minor, and was no inconsiderable cause of the 
accumulation of property Jn immense estates, which began to 
depopulate the country, and prepare it for the reception of 
a new race of inhabitants. 

The state of society under every known government was at 
this period troubled by civil wars. The seeds of these con- 
vulsions may, therefore, be sought in some general cause 
affecting the relations of the various classes of men in the 
development of social progress, and so far it lay beyond the 
immediate influence of the political laws of the respective 
governments, whether Mohammedan or Christian. The frame 
of society in the Saracen and Frank empires betrayed as 
many signs of decay as in the Byzantine. One of the 

' CoDtin., in Script. p<nl Tkiofli. 34; Theoph. 411. 



n,3,izc.JtyG00gIe 



1 34 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.in.Si- 
remarkable features of the age is the appearance of bands 
of men, so powerful as to set the existing governments every- 
where at defiance. These bands consisted in great part of 
men of what may be called the middle and higher classes of 
society, driven by dissatisfaction with their prospects in life to 
seek their fortunes as brigands and [Hrates ; and the extent to 
which slavery and the slave-trade prevailed, afforded them 
a ready means of recruiting their forces with daring and 
desperate men. The feeling which in our days impels nations 
to colonize new countries and improve uncultivated lands, in 
the ninth century led the Saracens and Normans to ravage 
every country they could enter, destroy capital, and conse- 
quently diminish cultivation and population. 

Crete and Sicily, two of the most valuable provinces of the 
Byzantine empire, inhabited almost exclusively by Greeks, 
and both in a high state of civilization and prosperity, were 
conquered by the Saracens without offering the resistance 
that might have been expected from the wealth and numbers 
of the inhabitants. Indeed, we are compelled to infer that 
the change from the orthodox sway of the emperors of Con- 
stantinople to the domination of the Mohammedans, was not 
considered by the majority of the Greeks of Crete and Sicily 
so severe a calamity as we generally believe. In almost 
every case in which the Saracens conquered Christian nations, 
history unfortunately reveals that they owed their success 
chiefly to the favour with which their progress was regarded 
by the mass of the people. To the disgrace of most Christian 
governments, it will be found that their administration was 
more oppressive than that of the Arabian conquerors. Op- 
pression commenced when the rude tribes of the desert 
adopted the corruptions of a ruling class. The inhabitants 
of Syria welcomed the first followers of Mahomet ; the Copts 
of Egypt contributed to place their country under the domina- 
tion of the Arabs ; the Christian Berbers aided in the conquest 
of Africa. All these nations were induced, by hatred of the 
government at Constantinople, to place themselves under the 
sway of the Mohammedans. The treachery of the nobles, 
and the indifference of the people, made Spain and the south 
of France an easy prey to the Saracens. The conquest of 
Crete and Sicily must be traced to the same causes, for if the 
mass of the people had not been indifferent to the change, the 



DgIC 



LOSS OF CRETE. 135 

A J). Saa-Sa^.] 

Byzantine government could easily have retained possession of 
these valuable islands. The same di^raceful characteristic of 
Christian monarchies is also apparent at a much later period. 
The conquest of the Greeks, Servians, and Vallachians by the 
Othoman Turks was effected rather by the voluntary submis- 
sion of the mass of the Christians than by the power of the 
Mohammedans. This fact is rendered apparent by the 
effective resistance offered by the Albanians under Scander- 
b^. Church and state must divide between them this blot 
on Christian society, for it is difficult to apportion the share 
due to the fiscal oppression of Roman centralization and to 
the unrelenting persecution of ecclesiastical orthodoxy. 

Crete fell a prey to a band of pirates. The reign of Al 
Hakem, the Ommiade caliph of Spain, was disturbed by con- 
tinual troubles j and some theological disputes having created 
a violent insurrection in the suburbs of Cordova, about 15,000 
Spanish Arabs were compelled to emigrate in the year 815. 
The greater part of these desperadoes established themselves 
at Alexandria, where they soon took an active part in the 
civil wars of Egypt. The rebellion of Thomas, and the 
absence of the naval forces of the Byzantine empire from the 
Archipelago, left the island of Crete unprotected. The Anda- 
lusian Arabs in Alexandria availed themselves of this circum- 
stance to invade the island, and form a settlement on it, In the 
year 823 *, Michael was unable to expel these invaders, and 
an event soon happened in Egypt which added greatly to the 
strength of the Saracen colony. The victories of the lieute- 
nants of the Caliph Almamun compelled the remainder of the 
Andalusian Arabs to quit Alexandria ; and under the com- 
mand of Abou Hafs, who collected forty ships, they joined 
their countrymen in Crete, determined to make the new settle- 
ment their permanent home^. It is said by the Byzantine 
writers that they commenced their conquest of the island by 
destroying their fleet, and constructing a strong fortified camp, 
surrounded by an immense ditch, from which it received the 
name of Chandak, now corrupted by the Western nations into 
Candia*. The construction of a new city, as the capital of 

> Conlin., in Script, foil Titofk. 35, 47 ; Genesius, 31. The Saracens ue said 
to have establbhed Ihemselves first at SiuU. 

• Abou Hafs i« called b)[ the Greeks Apochaps. 

* The &Touiable diiposition of a portion of the Crettiiu is indicated by the 



DgIC 



J 36 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.ra.ii. 
their conquests, was part of the Saracen system of establishing 
their domination. The foundation of Cairo, Cairowan, Fez, 
Cufa, and Bagdad, was the result of this policy. A new state 
of society, and new institutions, were introduced with greater 
facility in a new residence. 

The Saracen pirates derived some facilities towards render- 
ing their conquests permanent, from the circumstance that 
their bands generally consisted of young men, destitute of 
domestic ties, who were seeking family establishments as well 
as wealth. It was thus that they became real colonists, to 
a much greater extent than is usually the case with conquerors 
in civilized countries. The ease, moreover, with which the 
Saracens, even of the highest rank, formed marriages with the 
lower orders, and the equality which reigned among the fol- 
lowers of the Prophet, presented fewer barriers to the increase 
of their number than prevailed in the various orders and • 
classes of Byzantine society. The native population of Crete 
was in a stationary, if not a declining condition, at the time 
of the arrival of the Saracens, while these new colonists were 
introduced into the country under circumstances extremely 
favourable to a rapid increase of their numbers. History, 
however, rarely enables us to mark, from age to age, the 
increase and decrease of the different classes, tribes, and 
nations concerning whose affairs it treats, though no fact is 
more important to enable us to form a correct estimate of the 
wrtues and vices of society, to trace the progress of civilization, 
and understand the foundations of political power. 

The Emperor Michael II, was at length, by the defeat of 
Thomas, enabled to make some attempts to drive the invaders 
out of Crete. The first expedition was intrusted to the com- 
mand of Photinos, general of the Anatolic theme, a man of 
high rank and family; it was also strengthened by a reinforce- 
ment under Damianos, count of the imperial stables and 
protospatharios ; but this expedition was completely defeated. 
Damianos was slain, and Photinos escaped with a single galley 
to Dia. The second attack on the Saracens was commanded 



tradition, ih«t « native mmk pointed oat to the Saracens the site of Chandak; 
•nd the power of the i^>laIl<te^t to have ofTered a more effectual Tesistance than 
they did, li ihown by one district obtaining leave to preserve its own Uwi and 
uwgci, without any interference on the part of the Saracens, This was probably 
Spbal(ia. Contui. 48; Genesiui, 11. 



^Aioo^^lc 



LOSS OF CRETE. 137 

AX. 810-819.] 

by Krateros, the general of the Klbyrraiot theme, who was 
accompaaied by a fleet of seventy ships of war. The Byzan- 
tine historians pretend that their army was victorious in a 
battle on shore, but that the Saracens, rallying during the 
night, surprised the Christian camp, and captured the whole 
fleet. Krateros escaped in a merchant vessel, but was pur- 
sued and taken near Cos, where he was immediately crucifled 
by the Saracens. 

The Saracens, having established their sovereignty over the 
twenty-eight districts into which Crete was then divided, sent 
out piratical expeditions to plunder the islands of the 
Archipelago and the coasts of Greece. Michael, alarmed 
lest more of his subjects should prefer the Saracen to the 
Byzantine government, fitted out a well-appointed fleet to 
cruise in the A^ean Sea, and named Oryphas to command 
it. A squadron of well-appointed galleys having been 
collected, the services of the best soldiers in the empire 
were secured, by paying a bounty of forty byzants a man ; 
and with this experienced body of warriors on board, the 
Byzantine admiral scoured the Archipelago 1. The Saracen 
pirates from Syria, Egypt, Africa, and Spain, who had been 
stimulated by the successes of their countrymen to plunder 
the Greeks, were pursued and destroyed ; but Oryphas was 
unable to effect anything, when he attacked the Cretan 
colony on shore ^. This fleet was subsequently neglected; 
and, in the first year of the reign of Theophilus, an imperial 
squadron was totally destroyed by the Saracens, in a naval 
engagement near Thasos, leaving the corsairs masters of the 
sea. The islands of the Archipelago were then plundered, 
and immense booty in property and slaves was carried off ^. 
The Saracens retained possession of Crete for one hundred 
and thirty- five years. 

The conquest of Sicily was facilitated by the treachery of 
EuphemioSj a native Greek of high rank, who is said to have 



' It is remartsble, as a proof of the relative value of money, that the price 
of a substitute was fixed at 36 solidi hj the Emperor Valens, a.d. 375. Hhd. 
Tluod, vii. 13. 7. This shows how little change ionr centuries and a half had 
made in the value of the drculatiiig medium, and in the condition of the people 
throughout the Eastern Empire. Uenesius, 13. Undoubtedly gold and silver 
it have been worked to a considerable extent, in oider to maintain this 



* Contin. 85. 

n,.i,i ...A'OOgle 



138 ICONOCLA^ PERIOD. 

[Bk. I. Ch. m. 1 1, 
carried off a nun, and whom the emperor ordered to be 
punished by the loss of his nose ; for though Michael himself 
espoused Euphrosync, the daughter of Constantine VI., after 
she had taken the veil, he did not intend that any of his 
subjects should be allowed a similar license. Euphemios was 
informed of the emperor's order in time to save his nose, by 
exciting a sedition in Syracuse, his native city *. la this 
tumult, Gregoras the Byzantine governor was slain, Michael 
then deputed Photinos, whose unsuccessful expedition to 
Crete has been already mentioned, to supply the place of 
Gregoras, and carry on the war against the Saracens <rf 
Africa, whom Euphemios had already invited into Sicily, to 
distract the attention of the Byzantine military. Ziadet 
Allah, the Aglabite sovereign of Cairowan, had paid particular 
attention to his fleet, so that he was well prepared to carry on 
the war, and delighted to gain an entrance for his troops into 
Sicily. In June 827 his admiral effected a junction with the 
ships of Euphemios, who had been driven out of Syracuse, and 
the Saracens landed at Mazara. Photinos was defeated in a 
battle near Platana, and retreated to Enna, The Saracens 
occupied Girgenti, but they were not strong enough to com- 
mence offensive operations until the Byzantine fleet was 
driven off the coast by the arrival of a squadron of ships from 
Spain, which joined the Aglabites, and enabled fresh rein- 
forcements to arrive from Africa. The war was then carried 
on with activity: Messina was taken in 831; Palermo 
capitulated in the following year; and Enna was besi^ed, 
for the 'first time, in 856. The war continued with various 
success, as the invaders received assistance from Africa, and 
the Christians from Constantinople. The Byzantine forces 

' The story that Enphnnios carried cS a dud looks somethlag like an invention 
of the orthodoi, who wished to point out thai the Bin of Michael had been 
punished by a divine jud^^ment. Joha the Deacon, in his history of the Bishops 
of Naples, only says that he Am to Africa with his wife and son. Muratori, 
Serift. Rtr. lialitarum, i. pars a, p. 313. Euphemios is said to have been killed 
before the walls of Syracuse, as he was inviting the inhabitants to change the 
oppressive government of the Byzantine emperon for the lighter yoke of the 
Sanuxns. Cedrenus, ii. 51a. [Amari, in his Storia dti Mundmuni di Sicilia, after 
comparing the Italian, Byzantine, and Musulman accounts of the story of Euphe- 
mios, shows that he had been involved in a rising of the discontented population, 
and that hii maitiage to a nun, the truth of which Amari allows, was made 
a pretext for attack on the part of the Byzantine goiemmeDl (i. p 349). Amari's 
book ii of great importance for the histoiy of the toss of Sicily to the Eastern 
Empire. In chap. ix. of Book I. he gives ao account of the condition of Sicily 
under the Byzantine emperors. Ed.] 



DgIC 



LOSS OF SICILY. 139 

1.1). S 10-419.] 

recovered possession of Messina, which was not permanently 
occupied by the Saracens until 843. The Emperor Theo- 
philus was too much engaged by his military operations in 
Asia Minor to send effectual aid to the Sicilians *; while his 
father Michael II. had been too fond of his e<(se on the throne 
to devote the requisite attention to the business of the distant 
provinces. Michael III. thought of nothing but his pleasures. 
At length, in the year 859, £nna was taken by die Saracens. 
Syracuse, in order to preserve its commerce from ruin, had 
purchased peace by paying a tribute of 50,000 byzants ; and 
it was not until the reign of Basil I., in the year 878, that it 
was compelled to surrender, and the conquest of Sicily was 
completed by the Arabs*. Some districts, however, con- 
tinued, either by treaty or by force of arms, to preserve 
their municipal independence, and the exclusive exercise of 
the Christian religion, within their territory, to a later 
period*. 

The loss of Crete and Sicily seems to have been viewed 
with strange apathy by the court at Constantinople. The 
reason of this is probably to be attributed to the circumstance 
that the surplus revenue was comparatively small, and the 
defence of these distant possessions required a military force 
which could not always be spared from the neighbourhood of 
the capital. The indifference of the statesmen of Constanti- 
nople was doubtless increased by the circumstance that a 
portion of the population, both ia Crete and Sicily, had 
acquired a degree of municipal independence, which rendered 
it extremely adverse to the fiscal policy of the imperial 
cabinet. 

The bold and indefatigable abbot, Theodore Studita, still 
struggled to establish the supremacy of the church over the 
emperor in religious and ecclesiastical affairs. He appears to 
deserve the credit of having discovered the necessity of 

' TheophiluE seems lo have named Ms brother-in-law, Alexis Moii»el, Stralq^ 
and Doke of Sicily, merely (o send him into exile. Symeon Mag. 418, 

' ChnmitOH Sitidam; Canisius, Biblioihtea Uia. RtgTii Siciliat, 6. Symeon Mag. 
places the taking ofSyratuse in the ninth yeai of Basil I., which would be neetly 
two years earlier. 

* The authorities for the conquest of Sicily are reviewed by Schlosser (Gackicku 

<br bad. Kaatr, 455) and Weil {Gtscliichit dtr ChaSifm, ii. i^q). The Byzantbe 

writers who lived nearest to the time conceal the lacts, as the ultimate loss of 

the itiaad reSected disgrace on Basil I., the Krandlather of their palroa Cod- 

. itantine VU. ^Poiphyrogenitus), 



DgIC 



I40 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[fik.I.Cb.ni.{i. 
creating a systematic restraint on the arbitrary authority of 
the sovereign ; but his scheme for making the ecclesiastical 
legislation superior to the executive power was defective, 
inasmuch as it sought to confer on the church a more 
irresponsible and dangerous authority than that of which the 
emperor would have been deprived. Experience had not yet 
taught mankind that no irresponsible power, whether it be 
intrusted to king or priest, in a monarchy or a republic, can 
be exercised without abuse> Until the law is superior to the 
executive government, there is no true liberty; but in the 
Byzantine empire the emperor was above the law, while the 
imperial officials and the clergy had a law of their own, so 
that the people was doubly oppressed. 

The conduct of Michael in conducting ecclesiastical business 
indicates that he was not destitute <A statesman-like qualities, 
though he generally thought rather of enjoying his ease on 
the throne than of fulfilling the duties of his high station \ 
During the civil war he was anxious to secure the good-will 
of the monks and of the Greek party in the church. He 
recalled Theodore from banishment, and declared himself in 
favour of perfect toleration. This was far from satisfying the 
enthusiastic abbot and the bigoted ecclesiastics. After the 
establishment of tranquillity they incited the image-worshippers 
to an open violation of the laws against presenting pictures to 
the adoration of the people. Theodore also engaged with 
fresh zeal in an extensive correspondence with all persons of 
influence whom he knew to be favourable to his party. The 
emperor ordered him to discontinue this correspondence, as of 
a seditious tendency; but the bold abbot ventured to argue 
the case with Michael himself in a long letter, which is pre- 
served in his works '. 

The policy of forming friendly relations with the western 
nations of Europe was every day becoming more apparent to 
the rulers of the Byzantine empire, as the political influence 
of the Popes extended itself, and the power of the western 
nations increased. Michael II., in order to prevent the 
discontented image-worshippers from receiving support from 
the Franks, opened negotiations with the Emperor Louis le 

' Constantine Forphyrt^enitns accuses Michael of neglecting the interesti of 
the empire in Dltmatia as much as in Sicily and Crete. Dt Adm. Imp. c. ig. 
' S. Theod. Stud. Epui., « alia Scripia Dagmaiica, Paris, 1696, lib. ii. ep. 199. 



DgIC 



ECCLESIASTICAL POLICY. 141 

Aj>.8io-Si9.] 

B^bonnaire, in the hope of obtaining a condemnation of 
image-worship, similar to that of Charlemagne. In the year 
824, an embassy, bearing a vainglorious and bombastical 
letter, announcing the defeat of Thomas, reached the court 
of Louis >. In this epistle Michael recapitulates the religious 
principles which ought to guide the emperors of the Romans 
in their ecclesiastical affairs. He alludes to the condemna- 
tion of image-worship by the council of Frankfort, and 
declares that he has not destroyed holy images and pictures, 
but only removed them to such an elevation as was necessary 
to prevent the abuses caused by popular superstition*. He 
considers the councils held for the condemnation of image- 
worship merely as local synods, and fully recognises the 
existence of a higher authority in general councils of the 
church, giving, at the same time, his own confession of faith, 
in terms which he knew would secure the assent of Louis and 
the Frank clergy. He then solicits the Frank emperor to 
induce the Pope to withdraw his protection from the rebellious 
image-worshippers who had fled from the Byzantine empire to 
Rome. A synod was convoked at Paris in consequence of 
this communication, which condemned the worship of images 
in the same terms as the Caroline Books, and blamed the 
second council of Nicaea for the superstitious reverence it had 
shown for images, but, at the same time, approved of the 
rebuke given to the Eastern emperors, for their rashness in 
removing and destroying images, by Pope Hadrian, a.D. 835. 
The Emperor Louis was also requested by the synod to 
forward a letter to Pope Eugenius, inviting him to write to 
the Emperor Michael, in order to re-establish peace and unity 
in the Christian church. But the Pope, the two emperors, 
and Theodore Studita, were all afraid of plunging into 
ecclesiastical discussions at this period ; for public opinion 
had been so exercised in these polemics, that it was impos- 
sible to foresee Uie result of the contest. Matters were 
therefore allowed to go on during the reign of Michael 
without any open rupture. The imprisonment of Methodios, 

* For Ihis leltei, see Baroaiiis, torn. ix. k.o. 814 ; Coleti, Condi, ii. 641 ; Maosi, 
CoHtS. xiv. 419. 

* Pictures were sometimes made godfathers and godmothers at the baptism of 
children. The sacramental wine was mixed with painl sciafied from the tignres 
of saints, and [he consecrated bread was placed on (he hand of the imaigc to 
nu^ it co-patta][ei ia the sacnunenU Neander, iii. 546. 



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143 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.III. (». 
afterwards Patriarch of Constantinople, and the condemnation 
to death of Euthymios, bishop of Sardis, were the only acts 
of extreme severity with which the image-worshippers could 
reproach Michael ; and these seem to have originated from 
political and party motives rather than from religious opinions, 
though the zeal of these ecclesiastics rendered them eager to 
be considered as martyrs ^. 

The marriage of Michael with Euphrosyne, the daughter of 
Constantine VI., who had already taken the veil, was also 
made a ground for exciting public reprobation against the 
emperor. It is probable, however, that more importance is 
given to this marriage, as a violation of religion, by later 
writers, than it received among contemporaries. The Patri- 
arch absolved Euphrosyne from her vows, and the senate 
repeatedly solicited the emperor to unite himself with the 
last scion of Leo the Isaurian, the second founder of the 
Eastern Empire. Michael affected to be averse to second 
marriages, and to yield only to the public wish. That the 
marriage of the emperor with a nun excited the animosity 
of the monks, who regarded marriage as an evil, and second 
marriages as a delict, is very natural ; and it would, of course, 
supply a fertile source of calumnious gossip to the enemies of 
the Amorian dynasty. 

Michael II. died in October 829, and his body, placed in a 
sarcophagus of green Thessalian marble, was buried in the 
sepulchral chapel erected by Justinian in the Church of the 
Holy Apostles'. 



Sect. ll.^Tkeopkilus, a.d. 8*9-842. 

Anecdoles concemiag tlie emperor's lore of joEtice. — Cfmcenung bis maniage. — 
EcclesiasticaJ persecution. — Love of art. — Colony on the Don. — Saracen 
war. — TheophiluB destroys Zapetnu — Motassem destroys Amorium, — Death 
of Tbec^lulus. 

No emperor ever ascended the throne of Constantinople 
with greater personal and political advantages than Theo- 
philus. His education had been the best the age could 



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THEOPHILUS. 143 

supply, and he possessed considerable talent and great 
industry. The general direction of his education had been 
intrusted to John the Grammarian, one of the most accom- 
plished as well 33 the most learned men of the time '. In 
arts and arms, in law and theology, the emperor was equally 
well instructed : his taste made him a lover of poetry, music, 
and architecture ; his courage rendered him a brave soldier, 
his sense of justice a sound legislator : but his theolc^y 
made him a stem bigot ; and a discontented temperament of 
mind prevented his accomplishments and virtues from pro- 
ducing a harmonious union. All acknowledged his merit, 
none seemed affectionately attached to his person ; and in the 
midst of his power he was called the Unfortunate. During his 
father's lifetime he had been intrusted with an aptive share in 
the government, and had devoted particular attention to the 
ecclesiastical department. He embraced the party of the 
Iconoclasts with fervour ; and though his father endeavoured 
to moderate his zeal, his influence seems to have produced 
the isolated acts of persecution which occurred during the 
reign of Michael, and were at variance with that emperor's 
general policy. 

Theophilus observed that the population of the empire was 
everywhere sufferit^ from the defects of the central govern- 
ment, and he was anxious to remedy the evil. He erroneously 
attributed the greatest part of the sufferings of the people to 
the corruption of the administration, instead of ascribing it to 
the fact that the central authorities assumed duties which 
they were unable to execute, and prevented local bodies, who 
could easily have performed these duties in an efficient 
manner, from attemptii^ to undertake them. TheophiUis, 
however, justly believed that a great reform m^ht be effected 
by improving the administration of justice, and he set about 
the task with vigour ; still many of his measures for enforcing 
equitable conduct on the part of the judges were so strongly 
marked with personality, tiiat his severity, even when necessary 

' John Hylilai, as has been alreadir moitioiied (p. 117), wu called Lekanomant 
bjF ihe people, because he waa said to use a polished basin Tor the pumosc of 
divination. He was Patriarch of Constantinople from 833 to 841. He was 
a meiober of the distinguished bmily of the Morocharzanians. Coatio. 96,- 
Cedrenus, 536. Saint-Maitin conjectares that this lamily was of Arroeniui origin, 
and bis brother's name was Arsaber, which at least U an Amimian nanie. 
Contin. 97 ; Le Beau, xiii. 14. 



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144. ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Cb.III. Si. 
was stigmatized as cruel. He was in the habit of riding 
through the streets of Constantinople on a weekly visit to the 
church of St. Mary at Blachem, in order to afford his subjects 
a public opportunity of presenting such petitions as might 
otherwise never reach his hands '. A similar practice is per- 
petuated in the Othoman empire to this day. The sultan 
pays a public visit to one of the principal mosques of his 
capital weekly for the same purpose. In both cases it may 
be received as a proof of the want of a better and more 
systematic control over the judicial administration of a mighty 
empire. There was no emperor, to parade the streets of 
provincial towns, where control was most wanted ; and there 
is no substitute for the sultan's procession to the mosque in 
the provincial cities of Turkey. 

The first proof Theophilus gave of his love of justice was 
so strangely chosen, that it was represented as originating in 
the wish to get rid of some dangerous courtiers, rather than in 
a sense of equity. He assembled the senate, and, exhibitit^ 
to its astonished members the candelabrum of which one of 
the branches had been struck off at the assassination of 
Leo v., he demanded whether the laws of the empire and 
divine justice did not both call for the punishment of the men 
who had committed the double sacrilege of murderii^ their 
emperor and shedding his blood before the altar. Some 
senators, prepared for the scene, su^ested that, in order 
to avert the vengeance of heaven, it was necessary to put the 
traitors to death. Theophilus immediately ordered the 
prefect of Constantinople to arrest every person concerned in 
Leo's assassination and bring them to trial, whether they 
belonged to the party of the image-worshippers or of the 
Greek ecclesiastics. They were all convicted, and executed 
in the Hippodrome, vainly protesting against the injustice of 
their sentence, since their deed had been ratified and par- 
doned by the Emperor Michael II., and the reigning emperor 
confirmed that ratification by retaining the throne whidi he 
occupied iri virtue of their act ^ 

Other examples of the emperor's severity were less liable to 
suspicion. A poor widow accused Petronas, the emperor's 
brother-in-law, an officer of talents and courage, of havii^ 



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THEOPHILUS' LOVE OF JUSTICE. 14$ 

in violation of law, raised his house so high as to render 
hers almost uninhabitable from want of air and light. The 
laws concerning the disposition of private buildings in Con- 
stantinople were always regarded as an important object of 
imperial legislation. Theophilus ordered the grievance to be 
redressed ; but the complaint was subsequently reiterated, 
and the emperor discovered that his brother-in-law had dis» 
obeyed his decision. He now gave orders that the newly- 
built house should be levelled with the ground, and condemned 
Petronas to be scourged in the public highway '. Some time 
after this, Petronas was appointed to the high post of 
governor of Cherson, and during the reign of his nephew, 
Michael III., he defeated the Saracens in an important battle 
in Asia ^inor, as will be hereafter related. This anecdote 
illustrates the state of society at the Byzantine court, by the 
contrast it presents between the servile feelings of the Romans 
and Greeks of Constantinople, and the independent spirit of 
the Franks and Germans of western Europe. In the Eastern 
Empire the shame of blows was nothing, and a bastinado 
inflicted on an emperor's brother-in-law, who retained his 
official rank, was not likely to be a very painful operation. 
The degradation of the punishment was effaced by the 
arbitrary nature of the power that inflicted it. The sense 
of justice inherent in mankind is always wounded by the 
infliction of arbitrary punishment ; cruelty or caprice are 
supposed to dictate the sentence ; the public attention is 
averted from the crime, and pity is often created when the 
sufferer really deserves to be branded with infamy. 

On another occasion, as Theophilus rode through the 
streets, a man stepped forward, and, laying his hand on the 
horse the emperor was riding, exclaimed, ' This horse is mine, 
O emperor ! ' On investigating the circumstances, it appeared 
that the horse had really been taken by force from its pro- 
prietor by an officer of rank, who wished to present it to the 
emperor on account of its beauty. This act of violence was 
.also punished, and the proprietor received two pounds' weight 

' The law of Zeno, Biving the rules to be followed in conalnirting private 
hooses at Constantinople, is conlwned in the Corpus Juris Civilis; Cad. Jmt, 
viii. lo. II, Di Atdificiii Privaiis, Dirksen has published a memoir containing 
much informfllioB explanalor? of this law. in the Transaclions of the Berliii 
Academy for 1S44: it is entitled, Das Foliai-atstiz da Kaittri Ztno ubtr dit 
bavlieht Aalagt dtr Prhatkauier in Coialanlinopd. 
VOL.11. L 



A>00' 



.3IC 



146 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.II[.{s. 

of gold as an indemnity for the loss be had sustained. The 
horse was worth about one hundred byzants'. 

Theophilus was also indefatigable in examining the police 
details of the capital, and looking into the state of the 
markets. It is true that the abundance of provisions, and 
their price at Constantinople, was a matter of great import- 
ance to the Byzantine government, which, like the Roman, 
too often sacrificed the prosperity of the provinces to the 
tranquillity of the capital ; yet still the minute attention which 
Theophilus gave to performing the duties of a prefect, indicates 
that he was deficient in the grasp of intellect required for 
a clear perception of the duties of an emperor. 

The reign of Theophilus was an age <rf anecdotes and tales. 
It had many poetic aspirations, smothered in chronicles and 
legends of saints. Volumes of tales were then current, which 
would have given us a better insight into Byzantine manners 
than the folios of the historians, who have preserved an 
outline of a few of these stories. Theophilus seems to have 
been a kind of Byzantine Haroun Al Rashid. Unfortunately 
the Iconoclasts appear to have embodied more of this species 
of literature in their habits than the orthodox, who delighted 
in silly legends concerning saints rather than in imaginative 
pictures of the deeds of men ; and thus the mirror of truth 
has perished, while the fables that have been preserved are 
neglected from their unnatural stupidity '. 

Theophilus was unmarried when he ascended the throne, 
and he found difficulty in choosing a wife*. At last he 
arranged with his stepmother, Euphrosyne, a project for 
enabling him to make a suitable selection, or at least to make 
his choice from a goodly collection. The empress-mother 
invited all tlie most beautiful and accomplished viigins at 
Constantinople to a ffite in her private apartments. When 
the gaiety of the assembled beauties had removed their first 
shyness, Theophilus entered the rooms, and walked forward 
with a golden apple in his hand. Struck by the grace and 

' Leo Gnmm. 45<. Se«nt¥-two byiants were reckoned to the pound of gold. 

* T presume few pereoni liave now either time or opportunity to read much of 
the Acta Sanclorvm. fifty-three volumes of which were published al Antweip from 
1641 to 1753. This only goes ai far u the 14th of October; yel much of the 
(ocial hiitory of the middle ages can be sought for in no other source, 

■ It seemi probable he was a widower, bam the a^e of hit dangfalen. Stt 
p. 154, oott a. 



DgIC 



SELECTION OF A WIFE. 147 

A.D. 819-841.] 

beauty of Eikasia, with whose features he must have l>een 
already acquainted, and of whose accomplishments he had 
often heard, he stopped to address her. The proud beauty 
felt herself already an empress ; but Theophilus commenced 
his conversation with the ungallant remark, 'Woman is the 
source of evil ;' to which the youi^ lady too promptly replied 
' But woman is also the cause of much good,' The answer or 
the tone jarred on the captious mind of the emperor, and he 
walked on. His eye then fell on the modest features of the 
young Theodora, whose eyes were fixed on the ground. To 
her he gave the apple without risking a word. Eikasia, who 
for a moment had felt the throb of gratified ambition, could 
not recover from the shock. She retired into a monastery 
which she founded, and passed her life dividing her time 
between the practice of devotion and the cultivation of her 
mind. She composed some hymns, which continued long in 
use in the Greek church'. A short time after this, the 
Empress Euphrosyne retired into the monastery of Gastria, 
an agreeable retreat, selected also by Theoctista, the mother 
of Theodora, as her residence *. 

Theodora herself is the heroine of another tale, illustratii^ 
the corruption of the officials about the court, and the inflexible 
love of justice of the emperor. The courtiers in the service 
of the imperial family had been in the habit of drawing 
large profits from evading the custom-duties to which other 
traders were liable, by engaging the empress to participate 
in their commercial adventures. The revenue of the state 
and the commerce of the honest merchant both suflered by 
this aristocratic mode of trading, Theof^ilus, who knew of 
the abuse, learned that the young empress had been per- 
suaded to lend her name to one t/ these trading speculations, 
and that a ship, laden with a valuable cat^o in her name, 
was about to arrive at Constantinople, In order to put 
an end to these frauds by a inking example, he took care 
to be informed as this ^ip entered the port. When the 
vessel arrived, it displayed the imperial standard, and stood 

* Zonaras, ii. 141 ; Codiniig, Oi Orig. Ctnil. 61, X>4; Banduri, Jm/. Orunlalt, 

' Contin. 56. Gastria was certainly not selected as a place of exile, as modem 
writers have aqpposed, or Euphrosyne wooid, in all probability, have been sent 
back to the monasteiy in Prince's Island, which she had quitted lo ascend Iha. 
throne. 



^AiOO^^IC 



148 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Cl>.tII. SJ. 
proudly towards the public warehouses with a fair wind. 
Theophilus, who had led the court to a spot overlooking the 
port, pretending to be struck by the gallant appearance of the 
vessel, demanded with what military stores she was laden, 
and whence she came. The truth was soon elicited, and when 
he obtained a full confession of the nature of the cargo, he 
ordered it to be landed and publicly burned ; for he said, it was 
never heard that a Roman emperor or empress turned trader". 

The principles of toleration which guided the imperial 
administration during the preceding reigns were not entirely 
laid aside by Theophilus, and though his religious bigotry 
was strong, he preferred punishing the image-worshippers 
for disobedience to the civil laws to persecuting them for 
their ecclesiastical opinions. The emperor's own prejudices 
in favour of the divine right of kings were as intolerant as 
his aversion to image-worship, so that he really acted as 
much on political as religious grounds. His father had not 
removed pictures from the walls of churches when they were 
placed in elevated situations ; and had Theophilus followed 
his example, Iconoclasts and image-worshippers might at 
last have accepted the compromise, and dwelt peaceably 
together in the Eastern church. The monks, too, had been 
wisely allowed considerable latitude within the walls of their 
monasteries, though they were forbidden to preach publicly 
to the people in favour of image-worship. Theophilus was 
inclined to imitate the policy of Leo the Isaurian, but he 
could not venture to dissolve the refractory monasteries and 
imprison the monks. The government of the earlier Icono- 
clasts reposed on an army organized by themselves, and ready 
to enforce all their orders; but in the time of Theophilus, 
the army neither possessed the same power over society, nor 
was it equally devoted to the emperor. 

In the year 83a, an edict was issued prohibiting every 
display of picture-worship, and commanding that the word 
holy, usually placed in letters of gold before the name of 
a saint, should be erased. This edict was at times carried 
into execution in an arbitrary and oppressive manner, and 
caused discontent and opposition''. A celebrated painter of 

' Contin. Sf ; Zonaras. ii. 143. The reference to Syria by Zonaras is, as 
Sditosscr observes, a mislake originating in the if ebpiiu of the elder historian. 
* Conlin. 6); Cedrenus, JI4. 



DgIC 



ECCLESIASTICAL PERSECUTION. I49 

A.e. S 99 -841] 

ecclesiastical subjects, named Lazaros, who acquired great 
fame during the reign of Michael III,, was imprisoned and 
scourged, but subsequently released from confinement at the 
intercession of Theodora', Two monks, Theophanes the 
Singer and Theodore Graptos, were mudi more cruelly 
treated, for, in addition to other tortures, some verses were 
branded on the forehead of Theodore, who from that circum- 
stance received his surname of Graptos *. 

Some time after the publication of this edict against 
image-worship, John the Grammarian was elected Patriarch. 
Though a decided opponent of image-worship, he was a 
man of a latter intellect and more tolerant disposition than 
his imperial pupil, over whose mind, however, he fortunately 
retained considerable influence'. Still, when the emperor 
found his edict unavailing, he compelled the Patriarch to 
assemble a synod, which was induced to excommunicate all 
image-worshippers. As the Patriardi was averse to these 
violent proceedings, it can hardly be supposed that they 
produced much effect within the pale of the church ; but 
they certainly tended to inflame the. zeal of those marked 
out for persecution, and strei^hened the minds of the orthodox 
to perform what they considered to be their duty, arming 
them with faith to resist the civil power. The spirit of 
religious strife was awakened, and the emperor was so impru- 
dent as to engage personally in controversies with monks 
and priests. These discussions ruffled his temper and increased 
his severity, by exposing his lofty pretensions, his dignity 
and talents, to be slighted by men who gloried in displaying 
their contempt for all earthly power. Theophllus songht 



' Schlosset, QtuliilhU lUr bild. Kaiitr, 513. 

■ The chronoli^ of J«bn's patriaichate presents lome difRcuUies, Schlossel 
places his election in Sij; u> hii note, p. 486. Pmgt and Banduri in 832 ; Imp. 
Oritnl, ii. 90B. The length of his patriarchate is given differently in the various 
lists we possess. Some lii it at niae yean, Zonaras (ii, 15,^) says be was only 
sii years Patriarch, Symeon Mag. (431) says he was electwi the eighth year of 
Theophllus, These two writers conseqaently place his election in 837. The 
Continuator {Scripi. pott ITuoph. jf.) sayt he wss elected on Sunday, iist April, 
Now it appears from L'Art di Virifiir Ut Data that Easter Sunday fell on [he 
list of April in 8jl and B36, and not in any intermediate yea>. The embassy of 
John to Bagdad preceded his election. It is placed by Sjmeon Mag (4:9) in tie 
filth jear of Theophilns. Weil {OatUtku air Ckalifm, a. 397) considers that it 
Dccuned at the end of the year S33. 



DgIC 



150 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.[.Ch.[n. {>. 
revenge for his injured vanity. The monks who persisted 
in publicly displaying images and pictures were driven from 
their monasteries ; and many members of the clei^, dis- 
tinguished for learning and beloved for virtue, were imprisoned 
and scourged. Yet, even during the height of his resentment, 
the emperor winked at the superstition of those who kept 
their opinions private, tolerated the prejudices of the Empress 
Theodora, and at her request released Methodios, the future 
Patriarch of Constantinople, from prison ^. 

The wealth of the Byzantine empire was at this period 
very great, and its industry in the most flourishing condition. 
Theophilus, though engaged in expensive and disastrous wars, 
found the imperial revenues so much increased by the aug- 
mented commerce of his subjects that he was able to indulge 
an inordinate passion for pomp and display. His love of 
art was gratified by the fantastic employment of rich materials 
in luxurious ornament, rather than by durable works of useful 
grandeur. His architectural taste alone took a direction at 
times advantageous to the public. The walls of Constantinople 
towards the sea were strengthened, aad their height increased. 
He founded a hospital, which remained one of the most 
useful institutions of the city to the latest days of Byzantine 
history^ ; but, at the same time, he gratified his love of 
display in architecture by constructing palaces, at an enormous 
expense, in no very durable manner. One of these, built 
in imitation of the great palace of the caliphs at Bagdad, 
was erected at Bryas, on the Asiatic shore'. The varied 
form, the peculiar arches, the coloured decorations, the 
mathematical tracery, and the rich gilding, had induced 
John the Grammarian, when he visited the Caliph Motassem 
as ambassador from Theophilus, to bring back drawings and 

■ Gibbon {Dtclitu pad Fall, vi. ga) hft* exat^reted the cruelty of the punish- 
ments inflicted by Theophilus. Schlosser (514) remaHiE that he his foimd no 
authority to anthoriie the reproadies of eice»ive t}Tinny. Eyen the Jesuit 
Msimbourg (Hiiloiri dt FHM^t du laaunlaua, ii. tjj) mentions the imprisoo- 
ment of Methodioe with a dud robber, and the branding tctms on the foreheads 
of Tlieodore and Theophanci (if the latter suflei«d this punishment), as the most 
inhunum acts of Theophilus. Contin, 65. 

The story that Theodora persuaded her husband to believe that some images 
of saints in her possession were only dolls for her diildren's amusement, is a 
popnlar anecdote more deserring of a place in the dull Legends of tbe Saints 
than in the Byiantine court anecdotes, 

■ Codinns, Ik Orig. Caul. ]8 ; Baaduri, Imp. Oriml. iL 64S. 
> Contin. 61 ; Ducange, Const. Chriii. lib. iv. 177. 



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ENCOURAGEMENT OF ART. 151 

A.D.839-S41.] 

plans of this building, which was totally difTerent from the 
Byzantine style. Other buildings constructed by Theophilus 
are described by historians in a way that indicates they must 
have been far supericH' in magnificence to the works of 
preceding or following emperors '. 

Theophilus was also an enthusiastic admirer of music, and 
as church-music was in his time one of the principal amuse- 
ments of persons of taste, musical science was employed to 
add to the grandeur and solemnity of ecclesiastical ceremonies. 
In works of art, the emperor's taste appears not to have been 
very pure. A puerile vanity induced him to lavish enormous 
sums in fabricating gorgeous toys of jewellery. In these 
ornaments, singular mechanical contrivances were combined 
with rich figures to astonish the spectator. A golden plane- 
tree, covered with tnaumerable artificial birds, that warbled 
and fluttered their wings on its branches, vultures that 
screamed, and lions that roared, stood at the entrance of the 
hall of stat& Invisible organs, that filled the ceilii^s of the 
apartments with soft melody, were among the strange things 
that Theophilus placed in the great palace of Constantinople. 
They doubtless formed the theme of many Byzantine tales, 
of which we still see a reflected image in the Arabian Nights ^. 

Two laws of Theophilus deserve especial notice : one 
exhibits him in the character of a capricious tyrant ; the other 
reveals the extent to which elements adverse to Roman and 
Greek nationality pervaded Byzantine society. The first of 
these edicts ordered all the Romans — that is, all the subjects 
of the empire — to wear their hair cropped short, under the 
pain of the bastinado. Theophilus pret-ended that he wished 
to restore old Roman fashions, but the world believed that 
the flowing locks of others raidered him ashamed of his own 
bald head. The other law declared that the marriage of 
Persians and Romans did in no way derogate from the rights 
of those who were citizens of the empire ; and It shows that a 
very great emigration of Persian Christians from the dominions 

* Stukoq Ma£. (450) t«lls US tlia.t Leo, a gitat mathematician, invented a Icind 
of telegraph, with a dial, in the palaE« of Tbeophilus in Constonliaople, wMeb 
reported the news tranamilted Erom the Cilidan frontier by fire-signals to the 
Bosphorus. 

* Coolin. 107; Leo Gtamm. 450; Const. Markasses, 1071 Glycas, 991; Ce- 
drenas, Zonaras. and tbe later writert. Many of tbese works were executed under 
the direction of John Hylilis and Leo the Mathematician. 



^Aioo^^lc 



15a 7C0X0CLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk. I. Ch.III.il. 
or the caliphs must have taken place, or such a law would 
not have become necessary. Theophobos, one of the most 
distinguished leaders of the Persians, who claimed descent from 
the Sassanides, married Helena, the emperor's sister^. 

The wide extended frontiers of the empire required Theo- 
philus to maintain relations with the sovereigns of a large 
portion of Asia and Europe. To secure allies against his 
great enemy, the Caliph of Bagdad, he renewed the ancient 
alliance of the emperors of Constantinople with the sovereign 
of the Khazars ; but this people was now too much occupied 
in defending its own territories against a new race of intruders, 
called Patzinaks, to renew their invasions of the northern 
provinces of the Mohammedan empire. The progress of the 
Patzinaks alarmed Theophilus for the security of the Byzan- 
tine commerce with the northern nations, from which the 
imperial treasury drew immense duties; and he sent his 
brother-in-law Petronas (whom, as we have mentioned, he 
had condemned to be scourged) to Cherson, which was then 
a free city like Venice, with orders to construct a fortress for 
the protection of a commercial settlement on the banks of the 
Don. This colony, called Sarkel, was the principal dep6t of 
the Byzantine trade with the nations to the north of the Black 
Sea *. A friendly intercourse was kept up with Louis le 
D^bonnaire and his son, Lothaire. The Venetians were 
invited to assist in the naval war for the defence of Sicily 
and southern Italy against the Saracens of Africa '. An 
embassy was sent to Abderrahman II., the caliph of Spain, to 
secure the commerce of the Greeks in the West from any 
interruption, and to excite the Ommiad caliph to hostilities 
against the Abassides of Bagdad *. 

When Theophilus ascended' the throne, the Byzantine and 
Saracen empires enjoyed peace ; but they were soon involved 
in a fierce contest, which bears some resemblance to the 



' Conlin. 67-70. 

* Cheraon is now reguning its uident celebrity >nd importance as Sebastopol. 
It was then governed by a president sud senate, elected by the citizens, and no 
govemor was sent from Constantinople. Theophilus succeeded in redudng it 
to complete dependence. Contin. 76; Constant. Porphyi. Di Adm. Imp. it. 
c 43. Sarkel is supposed to have been at Bielaveja, near Tdierkask, the capital 
of the Don Cossacks. Lehrberg. UiitrtuchtmgtH zur Srlavumng dtr alltm 
Onctr'ci/i A uii/aiufi. Petersburg. iNiA; Cedrenus. 415. 

' Dandoli>, Chnm. viii. 4. 6. in Muratori, loin. i. 

' tAat^Yiy'i Hiiiiry 1^ ikt Mohammtdan Em^rt m Sfain,^Zi A.D.S3g. 



Aioogic 



SARACEN iVAR. 153 

m. 819-641.] 

mortal combat between the Roman and Persian empires in 
the time of Heraclius. Almanrun, who ruled the caliphate 
from 813 to 833, was a magnificent and liberal sovereign, 
distinguished for his love of science and literature, and eager 
to surpass the Greeks in knowledge and the Romans in arms. 
Though not himself a soldier, his armies were commanded by 
several celebrated generals. The want of a moral check on 
the highest othcials of arbitrary governments usually prevents 
the existence of a sense of duty in political relations, and 
hence rebellions and civil wars become prevalent. In the 
reign of Almamun, the disturbances in Persia reduced the 
population, whether fire-worshippers or Christians, to despair ; 
and a great number, unable to live in their native country, 
escaped into the Byzantine empire, and established themselves 
at Sinope. This immigration seems to have consisted chiefly 
of Christians, who feared equally the government of Almamun 
and of the rebel Babek, who, though preaching the equality 
of all mankind, was accused of allowing every license to his 
own followers. The Persian troops at Sinope were placed 
under the command of Theophobos, and their number was 
increased by an addition of seven thousand men who joined 
them when Afshin, the general of the Caliph Motassem^ 
defeated Babek, and extinguished the civil war in Persia '. 

The protection granted by Theophilus to refugees from the 
caliph's dominions, induced Almamun to invade the empire in 
the year 831 ; and the Saracen general, Abu Chazar, com- 
pletely defeated the Byzantine army, commanded by Theo- 
philus in person. The emperor repaired this disgrace in the 
following year by gaining a victory over the Saracens in 
Charsiana, which he celebrated with great pomp and vaii^lory 
in the hippodrome of Constantinople^. Almamun revenged 
the defeat of his generals by putting himself at the head of hts 
army, ravaging Cappadocia, and capturing Heracleia. 

' The Babek who is said by the Byzantine historians to have fled inio the 
empire with seven thousaud followers, was certaialy a different pers<Mi from the 
celebiated leader of the rebellion. The arrival of this refugee \% placed before 
the commencement of the war bttvreen Theophilus and Almamun, a.d. 831. The 
great rebel Babtk sustained an important defeat in S33, when many oi^ his fol- 
lowers fled into Armenia and the Byiantine provinces, according to the Arabian 
historians; but he still continued die war in Adierbijan. Compare Contin. 70 1 
Symeon Mag. 41 s ; Cedrenos, ii. 513 ; and Weil, Gnehichu dtr ChalifiH. ii. 239. 

* Constant, Poiphyr, Dt Catremonia Aulai Byzaiuiiiat. i. 503, edit. Bonn. Rnske 
considers that this account of the triumph of Theophilus refers to his return after 
the destruction of Zapetra ; ii. 590. 



154 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.i.ai.m.i». 

The armies of the Byzantine empire consisted in great part 
of foreign mercenaries. Some secondary causes, connected 
with the development of society, wliich have escaped the 
notice of historians, operated to render the recruitment of 
armies more than usually difficult among the civilized portions 
of mankind, and caused all the powerful sovere^ns of the age 
to exclude thor native subjects as much as possible from the 
use of arms. In the Saracen empire this feeling led to the 
transference of all military power into the hands of Turkish 
mercenaries ; and in the Frank empire it led to the exposure 
of the country, without defence, to the incursions of the 
Normans. It is true that jealousy of the Arab aristocracy in 
one case, and fear of the hostile disposition of the Romanized 
population in the other, had considerable influence on the 
conduct of the caliphs and of the Western emperors. The 
Byzantine empire, though under the influence of similar 
tendencies, was saved from a similar fate by a higher d^ree 
of political civilization. The distrust of Theophilus for his 
generals was shown by the severity with which he treated 
them. Manuel, one of the best officers of the empire, 
di^usted at his suspicions, fled to the Saracens, and served 
with distinction in their armies against the rebels of Chor- 
asan*. Alexios Mousel, an Armenian, who received the 
favourite daughter of Theophilus in marriage, with the rank of 
Caesar, was degraded and scourged in consequence of his 
father-in-law's suspicions^. 

Immediately after the death of Almamun, the emperor 
sent John the Grammarian on an embassy to Motassem, who 
succeeded his brother as caliph. The object of this embassy 
was to conclude a lasting peace, and at all events to persuade 
Manuel, whose fame in the war of Chorasan had reached the 
ears of Theophilus, to return home. With the caliph the 

' See ibe Tomandc accotinl of the nploiu of Msnnd, which as they set chro. 
nology at deliuice, cannot be rcMived >s historical. ContiD. 74; Cedrenus, 
ii. sj?. 

' It vould seem that Theo|AilDs had been nunied before Us father's death. 
HarU, the wife of Alenos, was the yooi^esl of live daughters, and her marriage, 
even according to Symeon Mag., vrho says she was the daught^ of Theodom. 
took place in the thitd year of the reiga of Theophilus (417.418). We must 
suppose that both the wives of TheophUus were named Theodora, and that he 
waa a widower at his father's death, after which be married (he second. But 
even then difficulties will be found, and the chronology of this period is singularly 
confused. TheUa, the eldest daughter of TheopbLhis, reccivea the imperial title 
from her father before the birth of Michael lU. 



DgIC 



SARACEN WAR. 15,5 

tut. 839-S41.] 

negotiations appear not to have been as successful as the 
emperor expected, but with Manuel they succeeded perfectly. 
The magnificence of John on this occasion gave rise to many 
wonderful tales, and the Greeks were long amused by the 
accounts of the marvellous wealth displayed by the priestly 
ambassador. 

Not very long after this embassy, Theophilus, availing 
himself of the troubles occasioned in the caliph's dominions 
by the civil wars arising out of the heretical opinions concern- 
ing the human composition of the Koran, which had been 
favoured by Almamun, invaded the caliph's dominions. The 
Byzantine troops ravaged the country to the south of 
Melitene, anciently called Commagene, defeated the Saracens 
with great loss, captured Zapetra, and penetrated as far as 
Samosata, which TheofAilus also took and destroyed. Zape- 
tra, or Sosopetra, lay about two days' journey to the west of 
the road from Melitene to Samosata^, The Greeks pretended 
that it was the birthplace of Motassem, and that the caliph 
sent an embassy to the emperor entreating him to spare the 
town, which he offered to ransom at any [Mice; but Theophilus 
dismissed the ambassadors, and razed Zapetra to the ground'. 
This campaign seems to have been remarkable for the cruelty 
with which the Mohammedans were treated, and the wanton 
ravages committed by the Persian emigrants in the Byzantine 
service. The Saracens repeated one of the tales in connection 
with this expedition which was current among their country- 
men, and applied, as occasion served, from the banks of the 
Guadalquivir to those of the Indus. In Spain it was told of 
Al Hakem, in Asia of Motassem. A female prisoner, when 
insulted by a Christian soldier, was reported to have exclaimed 
in her agony, 'Oh, shame on Motassem^!' The circumstance 
was repeated to the caliph, who learned at the same time that 
the unfortunate woman was of the tribe of Hashem, and 
consequently, according to the clannish feelings of the 
Arabs, a member of his own family. Motassem swore by 

' Abnireda. clKd b; Weil, ii 309, luttt 1. 

* Conlin. 77. GenesiusOi) lays i 
Symetn Mag. (411) places the 
llieophnDs. 

* Gibbon, vi 413. edit. Smitb. The stot?. u (old of Motassem. is given by 
Price, MoliamrMdait Hisltry, ii. 147; as told of At Hakem, by Muiphjr, Hiilorj 
^ iki Atokamwudan Emfirt in Sfoia, 90. 



^Aioo^^lc 



ik6 iconoclast period. 

[Bk.I.Ch.ni.f *. 

the Prophet he would do everything in his power to revenge 
her. 

In the mean time Theophilus, proud of his easy victories, 
returned to Constantinople, and instead of strengthening his 
frontier, and placing strong garrisons near the mountain-passes, 
brought his best troops to Constantinople to attend on his 
own person. As he entered the hippodrome in a chariot 
drawn by four white horses, wearing the colours of the blue 
faction, hts happy return was hailed by the people with loud 
shouts. His welcome was more like that of a successful 
charioteer than of a victorious general. 

The Persian mercenaries, whose number had now increased 
to thirty thousand, were placed in winter-quarters at Sinope 
and Amastris, where they began to display a seditious spirit ; 
for Theophilus could neither trust his generals nor acquire the 
confidence of his soldiers. These mercenaries at last broke 
out into rebellion, and resolved to form a Persian kingdom 
in Pontus. They proclaimed their general Theophobos king ; 
but that officer had no ambition to insure the ruin of his 
brother-in-law's empire by grasping a doubtful sceptre j and 
he sent assurances to Theophilus that he would remain faithful 
to his allegiance, and do everything tn his power to put an 
end to the rebellion. Without much difficulty, therefore, 
this army of Persians was gradually dispersed through the 
difTerent themes, but tranquillity was obtained by sacrificing 
the efficiency of one of the best armies in the empire. 

Molassem, having also re-established tranquillity in the 
interior of his dominions, turned his whole attention to the 
war with the Byzantine empire. A well-appointed army of 
veterans, composed of the troops who had suppressed the 
rebellion of Babek, was assembled on the frontiers of Cilicia, 
and the caliph placed himself at the head of the army, on the 
banks of the Cydnus, in the year 838 '. A second army of 
thirty thousand men, under Afshin, advanced into the empire 
at a considerable distance to the north-east of the grand army, 
under the immediate orders of the caliph. Afshin had sup- 

> Contin. ;8i Symeon Mag. 413. This kst places the defeat of Theophilus 
and Ihe death of Manuel in Ihe ninth year of Theophilus, and the tailing of 
Amorium in the tealh. The reign of 'rheophilus comntenced in October S39. 
They evidently occurred in on* campaign, and the Arabian bistorians give Ibie 
3311! September S3S as the dale of the capture oS Amohum. Weil, ii. 315. 



SARACEN WAR. 157 

pressed the rebellion of Babek after it had lasted twenty 
years, and was considered the ablest general of the Saracens. 
On hearing that the army of Afshin had invaded Lykandos, 
Theophilus intrusted the defences of the Cilician passes, by 
which the caliph proposed to advance, to Actios, the general ■ 
of the Anatolic theme, and hastened to stop the progress of 
Afshin, whose army, strengthened by a strong body of Arme- 
nians under Sembat the native governor of the country, and 
by ten thousand Turkish mercenaries, who were then con- 
sidered the best troops in Asia, was overrunning Cappadocia. 
Theophilus, apprehensive that this army might turn his flank, 
and alarmed lest the Armenians and Persians, of which it was 
part composed, might seduce those of the same nations in his 
service, was anxious to hasten an ei^agement. The battle 
was fought at Dasymon, where the Byzantine army, com- 
manded by Theophobos and Manuel, under the immediate 
orders of Theophilus, attacked the Saracens. The field was 
fiercely contested, and for some time it seemed as if victory 
would favour the Christians ; but the admirable discipline of 
the Turkish archers decided the fate of the day. In vain the 
emperor exposed his person with the greatest valour to recover 
the advant^e he had lost ; Manuel was compelled to make 
the most desperate efforts to save him, and induce him to 
retreat. The greater part of the Byzantine troops fled from 
the field, and the Persian mercenaries alone remained to 
guard the emperor's person. During the night, however, 
Theophilus was informed that the foreigners were negotiating 
with the Saracens to deliver him up a prisoner, and he was 
compelled to mount his horse, and ride almost unattended to 
Chiliokomon, where a portion of the native troops of the 
empire had rallied '. From thence he retired to Dorylaeum, 
where he endeavoured to assemble an army to defend Amo- 
rium. Manuel died of the wounds he received in saving the 
emperor. 

While Theophilus was marching to his defeat, the advanced 
guard of the caliph's army, under Ashnas* and Wassif, 
tiireaded the Cilician passes in the direction of Tyana ; and 
Actios, unable to resist their advance, allowed the main body 

' Strabo, xii. p. i;6i. North of Amasia. the native place of the geographer. 
' Ashnas wa^ a Turk. Motassem had collected at this time about 70,000 Turks 
in his service. Weil, ii. 304. 



^AiOO^^lC 



158 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk-TOt. 111.(1; 
of the Saracens to penetrate into the central plains of A^a 
Minor without opposition. Abandoning the whole of the 
Anatolic theme to the invaders, he concentrated his forces 
under the walls of Amorium. After ravaging Lycaonia and 
Pisidta, Motassem marched to beside Amorium. The capture 
of this city, as the birthplace of the Amorian dynasty, had 
been announced by the caliph to be the object of the cam- 
paign; and it was said that 150,000 men had marched out 
of Tarsus with AMORIUM painted on their shields. Motassem 
expected to carry the place by assault; and the defeat of 
Theophilus by his lieutenants inspired him with the hope 
of carrying his arms to the shores of the Bosphorus, and 
plundering the Asiatic suburb of Constantinople. But all his 
attempts to storm Amorium, though repeated with fresh 
troops on three successive days, were defeated by Actios, who 
had thrown himself into the city with the best soldiers in his 
army, and the caliph found himself obliged to commence 
a regular siege. Theophilus now sued for peace. The bishop 
of Amorium and the leading citizens offered to capitulate, for 
the numerous army within the walls soon exhausted the 
provisions. But Motassem declared that he would neither 
conclude a peace nor grant terms of capitulation ; vengeance 
was what he sought, not victory. Amorium was valiantly 
defended for fifty-five days, but treachery at length enabled 
the caliph to g^tify hb passion, just as he was preparing to 
try the fortune of a fourth general assault The traitor who 
sold his post and admitted the Saracens into the city was 
named Void itzes. In this case both the Christian and Moham- 
medan accounts agree in ascribing the success of the be- 
siegers to treason in the Christian ranks, and the defence 
appears to have been conducted by Aetios both with skill 
and valour'. The cruelty of Motassem far exceeded that of 
Theophilus. Thirty thousand persons were massacred, and the 
inhabitants who were spared were sold as slaves. The city of 
Amorium was burned to the ground, and the walls destroyed. 
The ambassadors sent by Theophilus to beg for peace had 
been detained by the caliph, to witness his conquest. They 
were now sent back with this answer, 'Tell your master that 
I have at last dischai^ed the debt contracted at Zapetra,' 



' ContiD. 8i. 



:v Google 



DESTRUCTTON OF AMORIUM. 159 

AJl. S39-S43.] 

Motassem, however, perceived that a considera'ble change 
had taken place in the empire since the days in which the 
Saracens had besi^cd Constantinople. He did not consider 
it prudent to approach the shores of the Bosphonis, but 
returned to his own dominions, carrying with him Actios and 
forty officers of rank captured in Amorium. For seven years 
these men were vainly urged to embrace the Mohammedan 
faith ; at last they were put to death by Vathek, the son of 
Motassem, and they are regarded as martyrs by the orthodox 
church '. Theophilus is said to have offered the Caliph 
Motassem the sum of 2400 lb. of gold to purchase peace and 
the deliverance of all the Christians who had been taken 
prisoner during the war ; but the caliph demanded in addition 
that a Persian refugee named Naser, and Manuel, of whose 
death he appears not to have been assured, should also be 
given up. Theophilus refused to di^race himself by delivering 
up Naser, and the treaty was broken off. Naser was shortly 
after killed in an engagement on the frontier. 

The war was prosecuted for some years in a languid manner, 
and success rather inclined to the Byzantine arms. The port 
of Antioch, on the Orontes, was taJcen and plundered by 
a Greek fleet ; the province of Melitene was ravaged as far 
as Marash ; Abou Said, who had defeated and slain Naser, 
was in turn himself defeated and taken prisoner. At last 
a truce seems to have been concluded, but no exchange of 
prisoners took place'. 

Theophilus never recovered from the wound his pride 
received at Amorium. The frequent defeats he sustained in 
those battles where he was personally engaged, contrasted 
with the success of his generals, rankled in his melancholy 
disposition. His sensitive temperament and the fatigues of 
his campaigns undermined his health. To divert his mind, 
he indulged his passion for building ; and so great were the 
resources of the Byzantine treasury, that even at this period 
of misfortune he could lavish enormous sums in unprofitable 
magnificence. It would have been well, both for him and for 
the Christian world, had he employed some of this wealth at 
an earlier period in fortifying the frontier and diminishing the 

■ Their martyrdom is celebrated on Ibe 6lb Much It occoired in 845. Jlf«> 

logium Graieonim, iii. 7, 

■ No exchange of priMnera took place uutil September S45. Weil, ii. 34}. 

n,.i,i ,:.LkX)g[c 



l6o ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk. I. CIi.III.il. 
burden of the land-tax. He now erected a new chapel called 
Triconchos, a circus for public races, a staircase called Sigma, 
a whispering gallery called the Mystery, and a magnificent 
fountain called Phiala '. But the emperor's health continued 
to decline, and he perceived that his end was not very 
distant. 

Theophilus prepared for death with courage, but with that 
suspicion which di^raced his character, A council of regency 
was named to assist Theodora. His habitual distrust induced 
him to fear lest Theophobos might seize the throne by means 
of the army, or establish an independent kingdom in the 
Armeniac theme by means of the Persian mercenaries. The 
conspiracy on the night after the defeat at Dasymon had 
augmented the jealousy with which the emperor regarded his 
brother-in-law ever after the rebellion of the Persian troops at 
Sinope and Amastris. He now resolved to secure his son's 
throne at the expense of his own conscience, and ordered 
Theophobos to be beheaded. Recollecting the fortune of his 
father, and the fate of Leo the Armenian, he commanded the 
head of his brother-in-law to be brought to his bedside. The 
agitation of the emperor's mind, after issuing this order, 
greatly increased his malady; and when the lifeless head of 
his former friend was placed before him, he gazed long and 
steadily at its features, his mind doubtless wandering over the 
memory of many a battle-field in which they had fought 
together. At last he slowly exclaimed, ' Thou art no longer 
Theophobos, and I am no more Theophilus:' then, turning 
away his head, he sank on his pillow, and never again opened 
his lips. 

' Contin. 6j, 86 ; Symeon Mag. 424. An account of the buildings of Theo- 
philus will be found in Schnaase's Gtichicku dir bildtridtn Kuaili im MitultilUTt 
Allchrisdieht und Mohammtdaaittlu Kiuul, i. 151 (vol. iii, of the complete Work). 



D,i.,.db, Google 



REGENCY OF THEODORA. l6\ 

*j).84»-867.] 

Sect. lll.—Muhael III. {the Drunkard), A.D. 842-867. 

Regency of Theodora. — Moral and religious reaction. — Restoration of image- 
wonhip. — RebellioD of the SclavoDians in the Peloponnesus. —Saracen ynx. 
— Penecution of the PauUdant. — Personal conduct of Midiael m. — Wealth 
in the treamrf. — Bardas. — Ignatioi and PhotJus. — Origin of papal sothoiity 
in the church. — General council in 86i. — Bulgarian war.— ^racen Wai. — 
Viclorj of Petronas. — Rus^ans attack Constantinople.— State of the court. 
— AuBisbations. — Origin of the tale of Bdisarins. — Assaaaioalion of Michael 
III. by Baiil the Macedonian. 

Michael the son of Theophilus was between three and four 
years old when hts father died. His mother Theodora, having 
been crowned empress, was regent in her own right- The will 
of her husband had joined with her, as a council of administra- 
tion, Theoktistos, the ablest statesman in the empire ; Manuel, 
the uncle of the empress ; and Bardas, her brother '. Thekla, 
an elder sister of Michael, had also received the title of 
Empress before her father's death. 

The great struggle between the Iconoclasts and the image- 
worshippers was terminated during the regency of Theodora, 
and she is consequently regarded by the orthodox as a pattern 
of excellence, though she countenanced the vices of her son 
by beii^ present at his most di^raceful scenes of debauchery. 
The most remarkable circumstance, at the termination of this 
long religious contest, is the immorality which invaded all 
ranks of society. The strict morality and religious sincerity 
which, during the government of the early Iconoclasts, had 
raised the empire from the verge of social dissolution to 
d^ity and strength, had subsequently been supplanted by 
a degree of cant and hypocrisy that became at last intolerable. 
The sincerity of both the ecclesiastical parties, in their early 
contests, obtained for them the respect of the people; but 
when the political question concerning the subjection of the 
ecclesiastical to the civil power became the principal object of 
dispute, official tyranny and priestly ambition only used a 
hypocritical veil of religious phrases for the purpose of con- 
cealing their interested ends from popular scrutiny. As usual, 

' TheoktbtoE was a eunuch, and held the office of It^otbeles of the dromos, — 
a kind of postmaster-goieral. He iras made kanicldos, or keeper of Ihe purpl« 
ink, with which the emperor signed his name to official documents. The post- 
master was a most important officer in Ihe Satacen as well as in the Byiantine'. 



DgIC 



1 62 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.IU.S3. 
the people saw much farther than their rulers supposed, and 
the consequence was that, both parties being suspected of 
hypocrisy, the influence of true religioa was weakened and 
the moat sacred ties of society rent asunder. The Byzantine 
clergy showed themselves ready on all occasions to flatter the 
vices of the civil government : the monks were eager for 
popular distinction, and acted the part of demagogues ; while 
servile prelates and seditious monks were both equally indif- 
ferent to alleviating the people's burdens. 

Every rank of society at last proclaimed that it was weary 
of religious discussion and domestic strife. Indifference to 
the ecclesiastical questions so long predominant, produced 
indifference to religion itself, and the power of conscience 
became dormant ; enjojrment was soon considered the object 
of life ; and vice, under the name of pleasure, became the 
fashion of the day. In this state of society, of which the 
germs were visible 'in the reign of Theophilus, superstition was 
sure to be more powerful than religion. It was easier to pay 
adoration to a picture, to reverence a relic, or to observe 
a ceremony, than to regulate one's conduct in life by the 
principles of morality and the doctrines of religion. Pictures, 
images, relics, and ceremonies became consequently the great 
objects of veneration. The Greek population of the empire 
had identified its national feelings with traditional usages 
rather than with Christian doctrines, and its opposition to the 
Asiatic Puritanism of the Isaurian, Armenian, and Amorian 
emperors, ingrafted the reverence for relics, the adoration of 
pictures, and the worship of saints, into the religious fabric of 
the Eastern church, as essentials of Christian worship. What- 
ever the church has gained in this way, in the amount of 
popular devotion, seems to have been lost to popular morality. 

The senate possessed considerable influence in administra- 
tive business. It was called upon to ratify the will of Theo- 
philus, and a majority of its members were gained over to the 
party of the empress, who was known to favour image-worship*. 
The people of Constantinople had always been of this party; 
and the Iconoclasts of the higher ranks, tired of the persecu- 
tions which had been the result of the ecclesiastical quarrel, 
desired peace and toleration more than victory. The Patriarch, 



> Contln. 85. 



:v Google 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS REACTION. 163 

AA. 841-867.] 

John the Grammarian, and some of the highest dignitaries in 
the church, were, nevertheless, conscientiously opposed to a 
species of devotion which they thought too closely resembled 
idolatry, and from them no public compliance could be ex- 
pected. Manuel, however, the only member of the regency 
who had been a fervent Iconoclast, suddenly abandoned the 
defence of his opinions ; and his change was so unexpected 
that it was reported he had been converted by a miracle. A 
sudden illness brought him to the point of death, when the 
prayers and the images of the monks of Studion as suddenly 
restored him to health. Such was the belief of the people 
of Constantinople, and it must have been a belief extremely 
profitable to the monks. 

It was necessary to hold a general council in order to effect 
the restoration of image-worship ; but to do this as long as 
John the Grammarian remained Patriarch was evidently im- 
possible. The regency, however, ordered him to convoke a 
synod, and invite to it all the bbhops and abbots sequestered 
as image-worshippers, or else to resign the patriarchate. John 
refused both commands, and a disturbance occurred, in which 
he was wounded by the imperial guards. The court party 
spread a report that he had wounded himself in an attempt to 
commit suicide — the greatest crime a Christian could commit. 
The great mechanical knowledge of John, and his studies in 
natural philosophy, were already considered by the ignorant 
as criminal in an ecclesiastic ; so that the calumnious accusa- 
tion, like that already circulated of his magical powers, found 
ready credence among the orthodox Greeks, The court seized 
the opportunity of deposing him. He was first exiled to a 
monastery, and subsequently, on an accusation that he had 
picked out the eyes m a pi<;ture of a s^nt, he was scourged, 
and his own eyes were put out. His mental superiority was 
perhaps as much the cause of his persecution as his religious 
opinions. 

Methodios, who had been released from imprisonment by 
Theopbilus at the intercession of Theodora, was named Patri- 
arch, and a council of the church was held at Constantinople 
in 842, to which all the exiled bishops, abbots, and monks who 
had distinguished themselves as confessors in the cause of 
image-worship were admitted. Those bishops who remamed 
firm to thdr Iconoclastic opinions were expelled from their 

■ M 3 



164 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.m.ij. 
sees, and replaced by the most eminent confessors. The 
practices and doctrines of the Iconoclasts were formally ana- 
thematized, and banished for ever from the orthodox church. 
A crowd of monks descended from the secluded monasteries 
of Olympus, Ida, and Athos', to revive the enthusiasm of the 
people in favour of images, pictures, and relics ; and the last 
remains of traditional idolatry were carefully interwoven with 
the established religion in the form of the legendary history 
of the saints*. 

A singular scene was enacted in this synod by the Empress 
Theodora. She presented herself to the assembled clergy, 
and asked for an act declaring that the church pardoned all 
the sins of her deceased husband, with a certificate that divine 
grace had effaced the record of his persecutions. When she 
saw dissatisfaction visible in the looks of a majority of the 
members, she threatened, with frank simplicity, that if they 
would not do her that favour, she would not employ her in- 
fluence as empress and regent to give them the victory over 
the Iconoclasts, but would leave the affairs of the church in 
their actual situation. The Patriarch Methodios answered, 
that the church was bound to employ its influence in relieving 
the souls of orthodox princes from the pains of hell, but, un- 
fortunately, the prayers of the church had no power to obtain 
fot^iveness from God for those who died without the pale of 
orthodoxy. The church was only intrusted with the keys of 
heaven to open and shut the gates of salvation to the living — 
the dead were beyond its help, Theodora, however, deter- 



' [It does not seem slrictlr (ccurste to spesk of monasleries as existing on 
Athos at this time. Id the pi&sage of Genesius here refened to, only idodIu and 
not monasteries are mentioned. And though several o( the Athos monasteries 
■t the present day claim an earlier date for their foundation, yel the earliest con- 
temporary evidence on the subject is of the year a.d. £85, when the Emperor 
Basil the Macedonian issued a rescript, forbidding the inhabitants of the neigh- 
bouring country to disturb the ' hoi]' hermits.' At that lime these monks were 
def|endent on a monastery at Hieiissus (Erisso), a restriction on their freedom 
which was removed by the next emperor, Leo the Philosopher ; and from the fact 
that in bis rescript they are still termed hermits (nl rJi' ifofiun^ Plow tk6iuroi\ 
we may conclude that no monastery had yet been founded. Very shortly aJterwaids, 
however, and perhaps in consequence of the removal of (his restriction, such a 
society most have been formed, for in qa^ a golden bull of Romanus Lecipenai 
speaks of the restoration by that emperor of the monastery of Xeropolamu, which 
bad been destroyed by the Saracens, and was now rebuilt. See Gass, i>i elauurit 
Bt MonU A'lm lilii eonaattuetio hitiorica. p. 6. The Olympus mentioned in the 



Ed.] 



l'*o uni iBitantmeno huionca, p. 6. The Otj^pus mentioned in the 
h called b^ Genesius ' the celebrated Mount Olympus,' i» undoobtedly 

Dictzed by Google 



RESTORATION OF IMAGE-WORSHIP. 165 

A.i..84i-8670 

mined to secure the services of the church for her deceased 
husband. She declared that in his last agony Theophilus had 
received and kissed an image she laid on his breast. Although 
it was more than probable that the agony had really passed 
before the occurrence happened, her statement satisfied Me- 
thodios and the synod, who consented to absolve their dead 
emperor from excommunication as an Iconoclast, and admit 
him into the bosom of the orthodox church, declaring that, 
things having happened as the Empress Theodora certified 
in a written attestation, Theophilus had found pardon from 
God'. 

The victory of the image-worshippers was celebrated by the 
installation of the long-banished pictures in the church of 
St. Sophia, on the 19th February 842, just thirty days after 
the death of Theophilus^. This festival continues to be ob- 
served in the Greek church as the feast of orthodoxy on the 
first Sunday of Lent^ 

The first military expedition of the r^ency was to repress 

■ CoDlin. q^. 

* Paei id Baron., a.d. 843. The Patriarch MeChod[o5di<] oat escape the calunmy 
vbich Cad been employed by bis ptutisans against his predecessor. An accusation 
of adultery was brought against luni, bnt the Pntriarch is said to have proved its 
falsily to the asseinblfd clergy in a. singular manner. Conlin. 49. 

' [At (he end of this conttoversy it is interesting to enquire, bow the present 
view of the Eastern Church on the subject grew up. It is well known that that 
communion at the present day proscribea statues (JTiJAfiara), while pictures, 01 
icons, {tliiint) are universally revered. Bnt througbnut the Iconocla.-,tic contro- 
versy, statues were the objects o[ s.<ta.ck and defence just as much as pictures, and 
in the acts of the Fourth Synod of Constantinople, in 875, no Such distinction 
is made. The change seems to have been brought about very gradually ; so 
much so, that no (race remains to us of the steps by which it came to pass. The 
causes of it have been ably staled by Milman. in his Hislnry of Lntin Oirisiianiiy 
(vi. p. 41.1): 'To the keener perception of the Greeks there may have arisen 
a feeling (hat, in its more rigid and solid form, the image was more near to the 
idol. A( the same time the art of sculp(ure and casting in bronze was probably 
more degenerate and out of ase ; al all event« it was too slow and laborious to 
supply the demand of triumphant zeal for the restoration of the persecuted images. 
There was. therefore, a tacit compromise ; nothing appeared but painting, mosaics, 
engraving on cups and chalices, embroidery on vestments. The renunciation of 
sculpture grew in(o a rigid passionate aversion. The Greek at leng(h learned 
to contemplate that kind of more definite representation of the Deity, or (he 
sainls, willi the aversion of a Jew ot a Mohammedan.' That the inslinclive 
objection to a material image has been all along at work, is confirmed by the 
remark made to me by an intelligent monk on Mount Athos. that (he icon merely 
served for a likeness or remembrance of B person, while the statue expressed 
beauty and caused sensual gratification. As far as I am aware, only one statue 
now remains in the Greek Church, — a wooden statue of St Clement of Rome 
in the metropolitan church of Ochrida (Achrida) in Wesleni Macedonia. I have 
eUewbere suggested {HighlanJt r)f Turhy, i. pp. 1S7, 101) that (his statue dates 
from the time of Cyril and Methodius, who transported the body of St. Clement 
from the East (o Rome, and one of whose followers. Clement of Ochrida. after 
their death, retired to his native city and founded a monasteiy there. Reverence 



DgIC 



j66 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.La].[[I. {3. 
a rebellion of the Sclavonians in the Peloponnesus, which had 
commenced during the reign of Theophiius, On this occasion 
the mass of the Sclavonian colonists was reduced to complete 
submission, and subjected to the regular system of taxation ; 
but two tribes settled on Mount Taygetus, the Ezerits and 
Melings, succeeded in retaining a certain degree of independ- 
ence, governing themselves according to their own usages, and 
paying only a fixed annual tribute. For the Ezerits this 
tribute amounted to three hundred pieces of gold, and for the 
Melings to the trifling sum of sixty. The general who com- 
manded the Byzantine troops on this occasion was Theoktistos 
Briennios, who held the office of protospatharios*. 

In the mean time Theoktistos the regent, anxious to obtain 
that degree of power and influence which, in the Byzantine as 
in the Roman empire, was inseparable from military renown, 
took the command of a great expedition into Colchis, to con- 
quer the Abates. His fleet was destroyed by a tempest, and 
his troops were defeated by the enemy. In order to regain 
the reputation he had lost, he made an attempt in the follow- 
ing year to reconquer the island of Crete from the Saracens. 
But while he was engaged in the siege of Chandax (Candia), 
the report of a revolution at Constantinople induced him to 
quit his army, in order to look after his personal interests and 
political intrigues. The troops suflfered severely after they 
were abandoned by their general, whom they were compelled 
at last to follow*. 

The war with the caliph of Bagdad still continued, and the 
destruction of . a Saracen fleet, consisting of four hundred 
galleys, by a tempest off Cape Chelidonia, in the Kibyrraiot 
theme, consoled the Byzantine government for its other losses. 

for his memory would cause it to be spared. Von Habn, who has since visitrd 
Ochrida, is also of o[niiioD that iu date is earlier than the capture of that place 
by BlsilU. in 1018 i,Rtai durch dii GibitU dts Dria and Wardar, p. iig). The 
cnicilix came to be proscril>ed in the same way. The only remaiiimg specimens 
of ihis that I am acquainted with are one at Ochrida in the same chureh with the 
statue, and one at the monasteiy of Xeropolamu on Mount Attios, a reputed gift 
of the Empress Pulchena, There is a third at the monaslery of Chcysopegi near 
Cuien in Crete, but this presents so many unusual features, as to render it 
doubtrul whether it is truly Byzantine, or whether it is not rather a gift of the 
Venetians. Ed.} 

' Constant. Pomhyr. Di Adm. Imp. cap. 50. This Theoktistos most not be 
confounded with the regent, who never relumed successful from any expedilioD. 
Con tin. 116. 

' Contin, laG. About this lime Weil (ii, 343) mentions that a Cretan fleet 
threatened to blockade the Hellespont. 



ii'^le 



SARACEN WAR. 167 

*j>. 841-867.] 

The caliph had expected, by means of this great naval force, 
to secure the command of the Archipelago and assist the 
operations of his armies in Asia Minor. The hostilities on 
the Cilician frontier were prosecuted without any decided 
advantage to either party, until the unlucky Theoktistos 
placed himself at the head of the Byzantine troops. His 
incapacity brought on a general engagement, in which 
the imperial army was completely defeated, at a place 
called Mauropotamos, near the range of Mount Taurus '. 
After this battle, an officer of reputation, (Theophanes, from 
Fei^ana,) disgusted with the severity and blunders of Theok- 
tistos, deserted to the Saracens and embraced Islamism. At 
a subsequent period, however, he ^ain returned to the 
Byzantine service and the Christian religion '. 

In the year 845, an exchange of prisoners was effected on 
the banks of the river Lamus, a day's journey to the west of 
Tarsus. This was the first that had taken place since the 
taking of Amorium. The frequent exchange of prisoners 
between the Christians and the Mussulmans always tended 
to soften the miseries of war ; and the cruelty which inflicted 
martyrdom on the forty-two prisoners of rank taken at 
Amorium in the beginning of this year, seems to have been 
connected with the interruption of thc^n^otiations which had 
previously so often facilitated these exchanges*. 
■ A female regency was supposed by the barbarians to be of 
necessity a period of weakness. The Bulgarians, under this 
impression, threatened to commence hostilities unless the 
Byzantine government consented to pay them an annual 
subsidy. A firm answer on the part of Theodora, accom- 
panied by the display of a considerable military force on the 
frontier, however, restrained the predatory disposition of King 
Bogoris and his subjects. Peace was re-established after 



' Georg. Mon., in Script, pott Thtopk. 519. 

* Leo Gramm. 417, 4151 ; Geoi^, Hon. 533. Guards from Fergana (^opTiEvDi 
Srtfit) »re mendoned as having been Kent to Italy in the time of Romanus I.. 
A.D. 935- Constant. Porphyr. Oe Catrimomis Atdai Byzandnat, 381, 434. edit. 
Leich. It must be observed, bowever. that tbeie was a coantry called Fetgunna. 
and Fraifaneo Cjvitalea, among the Sclavonians in Pokbia. Schafarih. Slaaiulu 
AlivlhiTwr. ii. 607, 630. So extensive were the relalions of the Byzantine empire, 
that it is not eisf to decide between the Sclavonians of the West and the Turks of 
the East. 

* Abulpharagiua, Ch. Arab. 1G7 ; Coastant. Porphyr. Di Catr. Aulai Bjtaiitiiiat 
819. 



ityGoogIc 



l68 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.TCh.lII. tji 
some trifling hostilities, an exchange of prisoners took place, 
the commercial relations between the two states became closer; 
and many Bulgarians, who had lived so long in the Byzantine 
empire as to have acquired the arts of civilized life and a 
knowledge of Christianity, returning to their homes, prepared 
their countrymen for receiving a higher d^ree of social 
culture, and with it the Christian religion. 

The disturbed state of the Saracen empire, under the 
Caliphs Vathek and Motawukel, would have enabled the 
r^ency to enjoy tranquillity, had religious zeal not impelled 
the orthodox to persecute the inhabitants of the empire in the 
south-eastern provinces of Asia Minor. The regency un- 
fortunately followed the counsels of the bigoted party, which 
regarded the extinction of heresy as the most important duty 
of the rulers of the state. Christians whose opinions deviated 
from the official standard of orthodoxy, were persecuted with 
so much cruelty that they were driven to rebellion, and 
compelled to solicit protection for their lives and property 
from the Saracens, who seized the opportunity of transport- 
ing hostilities within the Byzantine frontiers. 

The Paulicians were the heretics most hateful to the 
orthodoxy of Constantinople, They were enemies of image- 
worship, and showed Jittle respect to the authority of a 
church establishment, for their priests devoted themselves to 
the service of their fellow-creatures without forming them- 
selves into a separate order of society, or attemptit^ to 
establish a hierarchical oi^nization. Their social and political 
opinions were viewed with as much hatred and alarm by the 
ecclesiastical counsellors of Theodora, as the philanthropic 
principles of the early Christians had been by the pagan 
emperors of Rome, and the same calumnies were circulated 
among the orthodox against the Paulicians, which had been 
propagated amongst the heathen against the Christians. 
They were accused of Manicbeanism, and the populace of 
Constantinople was taught to exult in their tortures as the 
populace of Rome had been persuaded to delight in the 
cruelties committed on the early Christians who were calum- 
niated as enemies of the human race. 

From the time of Constantine V, the Paulicians generally 
enjoyed some degree of toleration ; but the r^ency of 
Theodora resolved to consummate the triumph of orthodoxy, 



DgIC 



PERSECUTION OF THE PAUUCIANS. \^ 

1^0.841-867.] 

by a cruel persecution of all who refused to conform to the 
ceremonies of the established church. Imperial commis- 
sioners were sent into the Paulician districts to enforce 
ecclesiastical union, and every individual who resisted the 
invitations of the clei^ was either condemned to death or 
his property was confiscated. It is the boast of orthodox his- 
torians that ten thousand Pauliclans perished in this manner. 
Far greater numbers, however, escaped into the province of 
Melitene, where the Saracen emir granted them protection, 
and assisted them to plan schemes of revenge *. 

The cruelty of the Byzantine administration at last goaded 
the oppressed to resistance within the empire ; and the ' 
injustice displayed by the officers of the government induced 
many, who were themselves indifferent on the religious 
question, to take up arms against oppression. Karbeas, one 
of the principal officers on the staff of Theodotos Melissenos, 
the general of the Anatolic theme, hearing that his father had 
been crucified for his adherence to the doctrines of the 
Paulicians, fled to the emir of Melitene, and collected a body 
of five thousand men, with which he invaded the empire*. 
The Paulician refugees were established, by the caliph's order, 
in two cities called Argaous and Amara ; but their number 
soon increased so much, by the arrival of fresh emigrants, 
that they formed a third establishment at a place called 
Tephrilce (Divreky), in the district of Sebaste (Sivas), in a 
secluded country of difficult access, where they constructed a 
stroi^ fortress and dwelt in a state of independence '. Omar, 
the emir of Melitene, at the head of a Saracen army, and 
Karbeas with a strong body of Paulicians, ravaged the frontiers 
of the empire. They were opposed by Petronas, the brother 
of Theodora, then general of the Thrakesian theme. The 
Byzantine army confined its operations to defence; while 
Alim, the governor of Tarsus, having been defeated, and civil 
war breaking out in the Saracen dominions in consequence of 
the cruelties of the Caliph Motawukel, the incursions of the 

■ Craitin. 103. 
• Contin. 103. 

■ Saint-Maitin. Mh«airnturVArmbtit,'\. 188. The secluded position of Divreky 
made i( the seat of an almost independent band of Kurds when it was visited by 
Otter in 1743. Yayagt m Turquit ti « ptru, ii. 306. It contains at present 
about two thousand houses, situated in a fertile valley amidst luxuriant gardeus. 
Ainsworth, TrtnuU ami Rnearcktt in Alia Minor, ii. j. 



DgIC 



lyo ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.in {}. 
Paulicians were confined to mere plundering forays. In the 
mean time a considerable body of Paulicians continued to 
dwell in several provinces of the empire, escaping persecution 
by outward conformity to the Greek church, and by paying 
exactly all the dues levied on them by the Byzantine clergy. 
The whole force of the empire was not directed against the 
Paulicians until some years later, during the reign of Basil I. 

In the year 852, the r^ency revenged the losses inflicted 
by the Saracen pirates on the maritime districts of the empire, 
by invading Egypt. A Byzantine fleet landed a body of 
troops at Damietta, which was plundered and burned ; the 
country round was ravaged, and six hundred female slaves 
were carried away '. 

Theodora, like her female predecessor Irene, displayed 
considerable talents for government. She preserved the 
tranquillity of the empire, and increased its prosperity in spite 
of her persecuting policy ; but, like Irene, she neglected her 
duty to her son in the most shameful manner. In the series 
of Byzantine sovereigns from Leo III. (the Isaurian) to 
Michael III., only two proved utterly unfit for the duties of 
their station, and both appear to have been corrupted by the 
education they received from their mothers. The unfeeling 
ambition of Irene, and the heartless vanity of Theodora, were 
the original causes of the folly of Constantine VI. and the 
vices of Michael III. The system of education generally 
adopted at the time seems to have been singularly well 
adapted to form men of ability, as we see in the instances 
of Constantine V., Leo IV., and Theophilus, who were all 
educated as princes and heirs to the empire. Even if we 
take the most extended view of Byzantine society, we shall 
find that the constant supply of great talents displayed in 
the public service must have been the result of careful cultiva- 
tion and judicious systematic study. No other monarchical 
government can produce such a long succession of able 
ministers and statesmen as conducted the Byzantine adminis- 
tration during the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries. The 
remarkable deficiency of original genius during this period 
only adds an additional proof that the mind was disciplined 
by a rigid system of education. 



DgIC 



PROFLIGACY OF MICHAEL. 171 

*j. B41-867.] 

Theodora abandoned the care of her child's education to 
her brother Bardas, of whose tastes and talents she may have 
been a very incompetent judge, but of whose debauched 
manners she must have seen and heard too much. With the 
assistance of Theoktistos she arrogated to herself the sole 
direction of the public administration, and viewed with in- 
difference the course of idleness and profligacy by which 
Bardas corrupted the principles of her son in his endeavour 
to secure a mastery over his mind. Both mother and uncle 
appear to have expected to profit by the young emperor's 
vices. Bardas soon became a prime favourite, as he not only 
afforded the young emperor every facility for gratifying his 
passions, but supported him in the disputes with the regency 
that originated in his lavish expenditure. Michael at last 
came to an open quarrel with his mother. He had fallen 
in love with Eudocia, the dai^hter of Inger, of the great 
family of the Martinakes, a connection which both Theodora 
and Theoktistos viewed with alarm, as likely to create a 
powerful opposition to their political influence ^. To pre- 
vent a marriage, Theodora succeeded in compelling Michael, 
who was then in his sixteenth year, to marry another 
lady named Eudocia, the daughter of Dekapolitas. The 
young debauchee, however, made Eudocia Ingerina his 
mistress, and, towards the end of his reign, bestowed her 
in marriage on Basil the Macedonian as a mark of his favour. 
She became the mother of the Emperor Leo VI., the 
Wise*. 

This forced marriage enabled Bardas to excite the animosity 
of Michael against the regency to such a degree that he was 
persuaded to sanction the murder of Theoktistos, whose able 
financial administration was so generally acknowledged that 
Bardas feared to contend openly with so honest a minister. 
Theoktistos was arrested by order of the young emperor, and 
murdered in prison. The majority of Michael III. was not 
immediately proclaimed, but Bardas was advanced to the 

' A propbecy is said to have announced that this bmily should give the empire 
a longer succession of emperors than the Amorian ilynssl)'. Contjn. 75. 

* Tnere seems a doubt whether Eudocia Ingeiina's (int son, after her marriage 
with Basil, was named Constantine or Leo. Symeon Mag. (449^ and Leo Gramm. 
{47a) call him Constantine ; but Geoige (he Monk (S40) and Leo Gramm. him- 
self (46B) call him Leo. Whatever his name was, he was generally supposed to 
be the chUd oT Michael HI. 



DgIC 



jyz ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.nM3. 
office of Master of the Horse, and assumed the direction of 
the administration. He was consequently regarded as the 
real author of the murder of Theoktistos ^ 

Theodora, though her real power had ceased, continued to 
occupy her place as empress-r^ent ; but in order to prepare 
for her approaching resignation, and at the same time prove 
the wisdom of her financial administration, and the value 
of the services of Theoktistos, by whose counsels she had 
been guided, she presented to the senate a statement of the 
condition of the imperial treasury. By this account it 
appeared that there was then an immense accumulation of 
specie in the coflfers of the state. The sum is stated to have 
consisted of 109,000 lb. of gold, and 300,000 lb. of silver, 
besides immense stores of merchandise, jewels, and plate. 
The Empress Theodora was evidently anxious to guard 
against all responsibility, and prevent those calumnious 
accusations which she knew to be common at the Byzantine 
court. The immense treasure thus accumulated would pro- 
bably have given immortal strength to Byzantine society, 
had it been left in the possession of the people, by a wise 
reduction in the amount of taxation, accompanied by a 
judicious expenditure for the defence of the frontiers, and for 
facilitating the conveyance of agricultural produce to distant 
markets '*. 

The Empress Theodora continued to live in the imperial 
palace, after the murder of Theoktistos, until her regency 
expired, on her son attaining the age of eighteen ^ Her 
residence must have been rendered a torture to her mind 
by the unseemly exhibitions of the debauched associates 
of her son. The eagerness of Michael to be delivered from 

' Theophanea of Fcisajift, who had retorned and become caplain of the ^nard, 
was one of the murderera. Symeon Mag. 435 ; George Mon. 533. The history 
of the murder is detailed in the Continoator (105) and GenesiuE (41). 

• Coniin. 108; Symeon Mag. 436. The gold may have equalled 3,150,000 
sovereigns, and the silver 4,000.000 crown-pieces, equal perhaps in value 10 more 
than double that sum at Constantinople, and probably more valuable than four 
times thai sum in the rest of Europe. But all comparisoas of the value of monqr 
at different times must be mere conjecture. Coin travels along bad roads with 
greater difficulty than merchandise. 

' He was more than three years old at his father's death. Contin. 91. He 
rngned with Theodora more thiin fourteen years. Krug, QhrrguAatit dtr Byzan- 
hntr, 3. Theoktistos was murdered in the thirteenth year of his reign. Symeoa 
Mag. 43S- From the conclnsion of Theodora's regency Michael reigned npsvards 
of eleven years. Nice[^oius Pat. Coin^^'iil 403, at the end of Syncellus. Many 
anecdotes confirm this chronology. Schlosser, 57J. 



DgIC 



BANISHMENT OF THEODORA. 174 

*j.. 84,-867.] 

her presence at length caused bim to send both his mother 
and his sisters to reside in the Carian Palace, and even to 
attempt peisuading the Patriarch Ignatius to give them the 
veil. After her banishment from the imperial palace, Theo- 
dora still hoped to recover her influence with her son, if 
she could separate him from Bardas; and she engf^ed in 
intrigues with her brother's enemies, whose secret object 
was his assassination '. This conspiracy was discovered, and 
only tended to increase the power of Bardas. He was now 
raised to the dignity of curopalat. Theodora and the sisters 
of Michael were removed to the monastery of Gastria, the 
usual residence of the ladies of the imperial family who were 
secluded from the world. After the death of Bardas, however, 
Theodora recovered some influence over her son ; she was 
allowed to occupy apartments in the palace of St. Mamas, 
and it was at a party in her rural residence at the Anthemian 
Palace that Michael was assassinated ^, Theodora died in 
the first year of the reign of Basil I. ; and Thekla, the sister 
of Michael, who had received the imperial title, and was as 
debauched in her manners as her brother, continued her 
scandalous life during great part of Basil's reign ' ; yet 
Theodora is eulogized as a saint by the ecclesiastical writers 
of the Western as well as the Eastern church, and b honoured 
with a place in the Greek calendar. 

Encouraged by the counsels and example of Bardas, Michael 
plunged into every vice. His oigies obtained for him the 
name of the Drunkard ; but, in spite of his vicious conduct, 
his devotion to chariot-races and his love of festivals gave 
him considerable popularity among the people of Constan- 
tinople. The people were amused by his follies, and the 
citizens profited by his lavish expenditure. Many anecdotes 
concerning his vices have been preserved, but they are deserving 
of detailed notice only as proofs of the great demoralization 
then existing at Constantinople, for, as facts concerning 
Michael, it is probable they have received their colouring 
from the flatterers of the dynasty of his assassin. Michael's 
unworthy conduct, however, ultimately rendered him con- 
temptible to all classes. Had the emperor confined himself 

' Symeon Mag. 435; Georg. Mon. 534. 

' Symeon Mag' 451 ; Geoi^. Moo. 541 ; Leo Gramin. 463. 

' Georg. MoQ. 545 1 Leo Granun. 471. 



n,,i iiAioogle 



174 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.in. {3. 
to appearing as a charioteer in the Hippodrome, it would 
have been easily pardoned ; but he carried his extrav^ance 
so far as to caricature the ceremonies of the orthodox church, 
and publicly to burlesque the rel'^ous processions of the 
clei^. The indifference of the people to this ribaldry seems 
doubly stnmge, when we reflect on the state of superstition 
into which the Constantinopolitans had fallen, and on the 
important place occupied by the Eastern church in Byzantine 
society ', Perhaps, however, the endeavours which had been 
made, both by the church and the emperors, to render church 
ceremonies an attractive species of public amusement, had 
tended to prepare the public mind for this irreverent caricature. 
It is always imprudent to trifle with a serious subject, and 
more especially with religion and religious feelings. At this 
time, music, singing, eloquence, magnificence of costume, and 
scenic effiect, had all been carefully blended with architectural 
decoration of the richest kind in the splendid church of 
St. Sophia, to excite the admiration and ei^age the attention. 
The consequence was, that religion was the thing least thought 
of by the people, when they assembled together at ecclesiastical 
festivals. Their object was to enjoy the music, view the 
pageantry, and criticize the performers. Michael gratified 
the supercilious critics by his caricatures, and gave variety 
to the public entertainments by the introduction of comedy 
and farce. The necessity of this was felt in the Roman 
Catholic church, which authorized similar saturnalia, to prevent 
the ground being occupied by opponents. The Emperor 
Michael exhibited a clever but very irreverent caricature of 
the ecclesiastical processions of the Patriarch and cleigy of 
Constantinople. The masquerade consisted of an excellent 
buflbon arrayed in the patriarchal robes, attended by eleven 
mimic metropolitan bishops in full costume, embroidered with 
gold, and followed by a crowd disguised as choristers and 
priests. This cortige, accompanied by the emperor in person, 
as if in a solemn procession, walked through the streets of 
the capital singing ridiculous songs to psalm tunes, and 
burlesque hymns in praise of debauchery, mingling the rich 
melodies of Oriental church-music with the discordant nasal 



GENERAL DEPRAVITY. J7«: 

A.D. 841-867.] 

screams of Greek popular ballads. This di^raceful exhi- 
bition was frequently repeated, and on one occasion encountered 
the real Patriarch, whom the buffoon saluted with ribald 
courtesy, without excitii^ a burst of indignation from the 
pious Greeks'. 

The depraA^ty of society in all ranks had reached the 
most scandalous pitch. Bardas, when placed at the head of 
the public administration, took no cate to conceal his vices ; 
he was accused of an incestuous intercourse with his son's 
wife, while the young man held the high office of generalissimo 
of the European troops *. Ignatius the Patriarch was a man 
of the highest character, eager to obtain for the church in 
the East that moral supremacy which the papal power now 
arrogated to itself in the West. Disgusted with the vices of 
Bardas, he refused to administer the sacrament to him on 
Advent Sunday, when it was usual for all the great digni- 
taries of the empire to recwve the holy communion from 
the hands of the Patriarch ; a.d. 857. Bardas, to revenge 
himself for this public mark of infamy, recalled to the memory 
of the young emperor the resistance Ignatius had made to 
Theodora's receiving the veil, and accused him of holding 
private communication with a monk who had given himself 
out to be a son of Theodora, bom before her marriage with 
Theophilus. As this monk was known to be mad, and as 
many senators and bishops were attached to Ignatius, it 
would have been extremely difficult to convict the Patriarch 
of treason on such an accusation ; and there appeared no 
possibility of framing any charge of heresy against him. 
Michael was, however, persuaded to arrest him on various 
chains of having committed acts of sedition, and to banish 
him to the island of Terebinthos. 

It was now necessary to look out for a new Patriarch, and 
the circumstances required that the successor of Ignatius 
should be a man of high character as well as talent, for 
the deposed Patriarch had occupied no ordinary position. 
His father and his maternal grandfather (Michael I. and 



' Contin. 1 14. If the fiible of Ihe female Pope Jouin& proves anjlhing. it n»«y 
be receiTcd as evidence that (he state of society at Rome was little belter than at 
Constantinople. The imaginaiy female pope was supposed to be a coDtemporarj 
of the real dniidieD emperor. 

* SjmeoD Mag. 4J9 1 lumerpinffot twf SvncAi'. 



3 Google 



176 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bb.I.Cli.IILf3. 
Nicephorus I.) had both filled the throne of Constantinople ; 
he was celebrated for his piety and his devotion to the 
cause of the church. But his party zeal had already raised 
up a strong opposition to his measures in the bosom of the 
church ; and Bardas took advantage of these ecclesiastical 
dissensions to make the contest concerning the patriarchate 
a clerical struggle, without bringing the state into direct 
collision with the church, whose factious spirit did the work 
of its own d^radation. Gregory, a son of the Emperor 
Leo v., the Armenian, was Bishop of Syracuse. He had 
been suspended by the Patriarch Methodios for consecrating 
a priest out of his diocese. During the patriarchate of 
Ignatius, the hereditary hostility of the sons of two rival 
emperors had perpetuated the quarrel, and Ignatius had 
probably availed himself with pleasure of the opportunity 
offered him of excommunicating Gregory as some revenge 
for the loss of the imperial throne. It was pretended that 
Gregory had a hereditary aversion to image-worship, and 
the suspicions of Methodios were magnified by the animosity 
of Ignatius into absolute heresy'. This dispute had been 
referred to Pope Benedict III., and his decision in favour 
of Ignatius had induced Gr^ory and his partisans, who were 
numerous 4nd powerful, to call in question the l^ality of 
the election of Ignatius. Bardas, availing himself of this 
ecclesiastical contest, employed threats, and drained the 
influence of the emperor to the utmost, to induce Ignatius 
to resign the patriarchate ; but in vain. It was, therefore, 
decided that Photius should be elected Patriarch without 
obtaining a formal resignation of the office from Ignatius, 
whose election was declared null. 

Photius, the chief secretary of state, who was thus suddenly 
raised to the head of the Eastern church, was a man of high 
rank, noble descent, profound learning, and great personal 
influence. If we believe his own declaration, publicly and 
frequently repeated, he was elected against his will ; and 
there seems no doubt that he could not have opposed the 
selection of the emperor without forfeiting all rank at court, 



' GencMiu. 47 ; Symeon M«£. 443. Schlotser (p. 591) points onl that Gregory, 
one of the sons of Leo the Anneniui, was the same peraoo with Gregory Asbestu, 
archbishop of Syracuse. Coleti, CMin{. i. G98 1 Nicetas, Vila IgmUii. 



DgIC 



PHOT I us ELECTED PATRIARCH. 177 

*j>.84a-867.] 

and perhaps incurring personal danger •. His popularity, 
his intimate acquaintance with civil and canon law, and hts 
family alliance with the imperial house, gave him many 
advantages in his new rank. Like his celebrated predecessors, 
Tarasios and Nicephoros, he was a layman when his election 
took place. On the 20th December, 857, he was consecrated 
a monk by Gregory, archbishop of Syracuse j on the following 
day he became an an^nostes ; the day after, a sub-deacon ; 
next day he was appointed deacon ; on the a4th he received 
priest's orders. He was then formally elected Patriarch in 
a synod, and on Christmas-day solemnly consecrated in the 
church of St. Sophia ^. 

The election of Photius was evidently illegal, and it in- 
creased the dissensions already existing in the church ; but 
these dissensions drew off the attention of the people in some 
degree from political abuses, and enabled fiardas to constitute 
the civil power judge in ecclesiastical matters. Ignatius and 
the leading men of his party were imprisoned and ill treated ; 
but even the clergy of the party of Photius could not escape 
being insulted and carried before the ordinary tribunals, if 
they refused to comply with the iniquitous demands of the 
courtiers, or ventured to oppose the injustice of the govern- 
ment officials. Photius soon bitterly repented having rendered 
himself the agent of such men as Bardas and Michael ; and as 
he knew their conduct and characters before his election, we 
may believe the assertion he makes in his letters to Bardas 
himself, and which he repeats to the Pope, that he was com- 
pelled to accept the patriarchate against his wish^ 

In the mean time, Ignatius was allowed so much liberty by 
the crafty Bardas, who found Photius a less docile instrument 



' PhoKas was Ihe grand-nephew of the Patriarch Tarasios. who like himEelf 
had been raised from the post of secretary of stale to rule the church. Letter 
of Photius to Pope Nicholas in Sistairt dt Fhotim, par I'Abbi Jager (i^S) — a 
prejudiced and nol very accurate work. Irene, sister of the Empress Theodora, 
was married to Sergius, the brother of Photius. Ducange. Fam. Aug. Bye. 135; 
Conlin. 109; Cedrenus, 545. The Abbi Jager says that Arsaber, who marned 
another sister of Theodora (Kalotneria), was uncle to Pholius. 

' Batoaius {Aanalis EeeUs.x.\ Coleli (Coneil, ix. and z.),and FbotiMs (Epiitolai, 
London, 1651), are the chief sources of ecclesi.-istical history for this period. The 
account of Photius in the woik of Hankius, Di Byzantiianim Rmim Srrifltnihia 
Graieis (p. 169), deserves attenlion. 

* Photii EpUtolat, 3 and 6; Schlosser. 60a. The H'aloiri dt Phaliui, by the 
Abbi Jager. gives a letter to Pope NichoUs confirming this onwillingness, pp. 34 
and 4J3. 

VOL. II. N 



ityGoo^lc 



1 78 ICOSOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.[lI.t3. 

than he had expected, that his partisans assembled a synod in 
the church of Irene for forty days. In this assembly Photius 
and his adherents were excommunicated. Bardas, however, 
declared in favour of Photius, and allowed him to hold a 
counter-synod in the Church of the Holy Apostles, in which 
the election of Ignatius was declared uncanonical, as having 
been made by the Empress Theodora in opposition to the 
protest of several bishops'. The persecution of Ignatius was 
renewed ; he was exiled to Mitylene, and his property was 
sequestrated, in the hope that by these measures he would be 
induced to resign the patriarchal dignity. Photius, however, 
had the sense to see that this persecution only increased his 
rival's popularity and strengthened his party ; he therefore 
persuaded the emperor to recall him, and reinstate him in the 
possession of his private fortune. Photius must have felt 
that his own former intimacy with his debauched relation 
Bardas, and his toleration of the vices of Michael, had fixed 
a deep stain on his character in the eyes of all sincere 
Christians. 

It was necessary to I^alize the election of Photius, and 
obtain the ratification of the deposition of Ignatius by a 
general council of the church ; but no general council could 
be convoked without the sanction of the Pope. The Emperor 
Michael consequently despatched ambassadors to Rome, to 
invite Pope Nicholas I. to send legates to Constantinople, for 
the purpose of holding a general council, to put an end to the 
dissensions in the Eastern Church. Nicholas appointed two 
legates, Zacharias and Rodoald, who were instructed to ex- 
amine into the disputes concerning the patriarchate, and also 
to demand the restitution of the estates belonging to the 
patrimony of St. Peter in Calabria and Sicily, of which the 
papal See had been deprived in the time of Leo III. The 
Pope, moreover, required the emperor to re-establish the papal 
jurisdiction over the lUyrian provinces, and recc^nize his 
right to appoint the archbishop of Syracuse, and confirm the 
election of all the bishops in the European provinces of the 
empire. 

The Popes were now beginning to arrc^ate to themselves 
that temporal power over the whole church which had grown 

' Schloiser, 603. 

Djizcdtv Google 



ORIGIN OF PAPAL AUTHORITY. 179 

out of their new position as sovereign princes ; but they based 
their temporal ambition on that spiritual power which they 
claimed as the rock of St. Peter, not on the donation of Oiar- 
lem^ne. The truth is, that the first Christian emperors had 
laid a firm foundation for the papal power, by constituting the 
Bishop of Rome a kind of secretary of state for Christian 
aflairs. He was employed as a central authority for com- 
municating with the bishops of the provinces ; and out of this 
circumstance it very naturally arose that he acted for a con- 
siderable period as minister of religion and public instruction 
in the imperial administration ; a position which conferred 
immense power in a government so strictly centralized as that 
of the Roman empire'. The Christian emperors of the West, 
being placed in more direct collision with paganism than those 
of the East, vested more extensive powers, both of adminis- 
tration and police, in the Bishop of Rome and the provincial 
bishops of the Western Church, than the clergy attained in 
the East. This authority of the bishops increased as the civil 
and military power of the Western Empire declined ; and 
when Rome became a provincial city of the Eastern Empire, 
the popes became the political chiefs of Roman society, and 
inherited no small portion of the influence formerly exercised 
by the imperial administration over the provincial ecclesias- 
tics. It is true, the Bishops of Rome could not exercise this 
power without control, but, in the opinion of a majority of the 
subjects of the barbariui conquerors in the West, the Pope 
was the legal representative of the civilization of Imperial 
Rome as well as the legitimate successor of St. Peter and the 
guardian of the rock on which Christianity was founded. Un- 
less the authority of the popes be traced back to their original 
portion as archbishops of Rome and patriarchs of the Western 
Empire, and the institutions of the papal church be viewed as 
they originally existed in connection with the imperial ad- 
ministration, the real value of the papal claims to universal 
domination, founded on traditional feelings, cannot he justly 
estimated. The popes only imitated the Roman emperors in 
their most exorbitant pretensions; and the vicious principles 

I Lta Thtodmii li Valtnliiuam, apud Seriplora rmm Fraiuie. it GaUit. torn. 

i, 768. See Thierry, Hiifoi'n A la Caaqula di FAngltltm; tfoitt U Piettt Jiat. ; 

Cod. Tlitod. xvi. tit. 1, Dt Episcefis Bceltuii 1 CUritit .- Cod. JtMiii. l 3, Dt Efittoflt 

ti <3*ridt; Nov. Valtatin. i. tit 14, Di Efuco^onim Ordinatiaiu. 

N a 



:A'00' 



'cS'^' 



i8o ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.tCh.II[. t3> 
of Constantine, while he was still a p^an, continue to exert 
their corrupt influence over the ecclesiastical institutions of 
the greater part of Europe to the present day. 

The popes early assumed that Constantine had conferred 
on the Bishop of Rome a supreme ecclesiastical jurisdiction 
over the three European divisions of his dominions, when he 
divided the empire into four prefectures ^. There were, indeed, 
many facts which tended to support this claim. Africa, in so 
far as it belonged to the jurisdiction of the European prefec- 
tures, acknowledged the authority of the Bishop of Rome ; 
and even after the final division of the empire, Dacia, Mace- 
donia, Thessaly, Epirus, and Greece, though they were sepa- 
rated from the prefecture of lUyricum, and formed a new 
province of the Eastern Empire, continued to be dependent on 
the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Pope. The Patriarch of 
Antioch was considered the head of the church in the East. 
Egypt formed a peculiar district in the ecclesiastical, as it did 
in the civil administration of the Roman empire, and had its 
own head, the Patriarch of Alexandria. The Patriarchs of 
Jerusalem and Constantinople were modem creations. The 
bishop of Jerusalem, who had been dependent on the Patri- 
arch of Antioch, received the honorary title of Patriarch at the 
council of Nicaea, and the Emperor Theodosius II. conferred 
on him an independent jurisdiction over the three Palestines, 
the two Phoenicias, and Arabia ; but it was not until after the 
council of Chalcedon that his authority was acknowledged by 
the body of the church, and it was then restricted to the three 
Palestines; A. D. 451. 

The bishop of Byzantium had been dependent on the 
metropolitan or exarch of Heraclea before the translation of 
the imperial residence to his See and the foundation of 
Constantinople. In the council held at Constantinople in 
381, he was first ranked as Patriarch, because he was the 
bishop of the capital of the Eastern Empire, and placed 
immediately after the Bishop of Rome in the ecclesiastical 
hierarchy. St Chrysostom and his successors exercised the 
patriarchal Jurisdiction, both in Europe and Asia, over the 
Eastern Empire, just as the popes of Rome exercised it In 
the Western, yielding merely a precedence in ecclesiastical 

' Zolimiu, ii 33. 

Dn.icdt, Google 



GENERAL COUNCIL. l8i 

A.I>. 841-867.] 

honour to the representative of St, Peter ^ In spite of the 
opposition of the bishops of old Rome, the bishops of new 
Rome thus attained an equality of power which made the 
popes tremble for their supremacy, and they regarded the 
Patriarchs of Constantinople rather as rivals than as joint 
rulers of the church. Their ambitious jealousy, joined to the 
aspiring arrogance of their rivals, caused all the evils they 
feared. The disputes between Ignatius and Photius now gave 
the Pope hopes of re-establishing the supremacy of Rome 
over the whole church, and of rendering the Patriarchs of the 
East merely vicegerents of the Roman See. 

The papal legates sent by Nicholas were present at a 
general council held at Constantinople in the year 861, which 
was attended by three hundred and eighteen bishops. Bardas 
and Photius had succeeded in securing the goodwill of 
the majority of the Eastern clergy. They also succeeded in 
gaining the support of the representatives of the Pope, if they 
did not purchase it. Ignatius, who was residing in his 
mother's palace of Posis, was required to present himself 
before the council. He was deposed, though he appealed to 
the Pope's legates, and persisted in protesting that the council 
did not possess a legal right to depose him. It is said that a 
pen was placed forcibly between his fingers, and a cross drawn 
with it, as his signature to the act of deposition. He was 
then ordered to read his abdication, on the day of Pentecost, 
in the Church of the Holy Apostles ; but, to avoid this dis- 
grace, he escaped in the disguise of a slave to the Prince's 
Islands, and concealed himself among the innumerable monks 
who had taken up their abode in those delicious retreats. 
Bardas sent Oryphas with six galleys to examine every one 
of the insular monasteries in succession, in order to arrest the 
fugitive ; but the search was vain. After the termination 
of the council, Ignatius returned privately to his maternal 
palace, where he was allowed to remain unmc^sted '. The 

' Socrates, ffiV. £«;«. vii. 28; Cod. Tke,d.vn 1.45; Council of Chalc«lo», 
9th, 17th, uid iSth canons. 

* He was said to have been indebted lo an e&rthqnakc for this mitd IreatmenL. 
Bardas was frightened, and Photius was looked upon as impious for declaring 
from the pulpit that earthquakes were produced by physical causes acting upoii 
the waters under the earth, and not from divine wrath lo awaken mankind to 
a sense of thdr sios. Syineon Mag. 445. Photius, like his predecessor, John 
the Grammarian, was too learned for the populace, and his knowledge was 
attributed lo personal intercotuse with demons, who in that age were supposed 



DgIC 



l8a ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[BLi.Ch. in. fa- 
discussions of this council are said by its enemies to have 
been conducted in a very tumultuous manner ; but as the 
majority was favoured by the Patriarch, the papal l^ates, 
and the imperial administration, it is not likely that any 
confusion was allowed within the walls of the council, even 
though the party of Ignatius was supported by the Empresses 
Theodora and Eudocia, and by the great body of the monks. 
The Emperor Michael, with great impartiality, refused to 
throw the whole weight of his authority in either scale. The 
truth is, that, being somewhat of a freethinker as well as a 
debauchee, he laughed at both parties, saying that Ignatius 
was the patriarch of the people, Photius the patriarch of 
Bardas, and Gryllos (the imperial buffoon) his own patriarch ^. 
Nevertheless, Ignatius was deposed, and the acts of the 
council were ratified by the papal legates'. 

The legates of the Pope certainly yielded to improper 
influence, for, besides approving the measures of the Byzan- 
tine government with reference to the patriarchate, they 
neglected to demand the recognition of the spiritual authority 
of the papal See in the terms prescribed by their instructions. 
They were consequently disavowed on their return to Rome. 
The party of Ignatius appealed to the Pope, who seeing that 
no concessions could be gained from Michael, Bardas, or 
Photius, embraced the cause of the deposed Patriarch with 
warmth. A synod was convoked at Rome ; Photius was 
excommunicated, in case he should dare to retain possession 
of the patriarchal chair, after receiving the papal decision in 
favour of Ignatius ; A. D. 863, Gregory, the archbishop of 
Syracuse, who had ordained Photius, was anathematized, and 
declared a schismatic, if he continued to perform sacerdotal 
functions, as well as all those who held communion with him. 
When the acts of this synod were communicated to Michael 
by papal letters, the indignation of the emperor was awakened 
by what he considered the insolent interference of a foreign 
priest iff the affairs of the empire, and he replied in a violent 



to act as professors of Hctleoic litemture aad natural philosophy. Symeon give* 
aome curious anecdotes to the disadvantage of Photius. 

' Gryllos, wham the emperor had employed to enact the patrUrch, received 
from the people the name of the hog. from his low debauchery. 

' This council is called by the Greeks the first and second, from having been 
held in two separate series of sessions. It seems that it re enacted the nets of 
the synod held by Photius in 8^7. 



DgIC 



PAPAL PRETENSIONS. 183 

A.D. 841-867.] 

and unbecoming letter. He told his Holiness that he had 
invited him to send l^ates to the general council at Con- 
stantinople, from a wish to maintain unity in the church, not 
because the participation of the Bishop of Rome was 
necessary to the validity of the acts of the Eastern Church. 
This was all very reasonable ; but he went on to treat 
the Pope and the Latin clergy ag barbarians, because they 
were ignorant of Greek. For this insult, however, the 
emperor received a sharp and well-merited rebuke from Pope 
Nicholas, who asked him why he styled himself Emperor of 
the Romans, if he thought the language of the Roman 
empire and of the Roman church a barbarous one. It was a 
greater disgrace, in the opinion of the Pope, for the Roman 
emperor to be ignorant of the Roman language, than for the 
head of the Roman church to be ignorant of Greek. 

Nicholas had nothing to fear from the power of Michael, so 
that he acted without the restraint imposed on Gregory II. in 
his contest with Leo the Isaurian. Indeed, the recent success 
of the Pope, in his dispute with Lothaire, king of Austrasia, 
gave him hopes of coming off victorious, even in a quarrel 
with the Eastern emperor. He did not sufficiently understand 
the effect of more advanced civilization and extended education 
on Byzantine society. Nicholas, therefore, boldly called on 
Michael to cancel his insolent letter, declaring that it would 
otherwise be publicly burned by the Latin clergy; and he 
summoned the rival Patriarchs of Constantinople to appear in 
person before the papal court, that he might hear and decide 
their differences. 

This pretension of the Pope to make himself absolute 
master of the Christian church awakened the spirit of 
resistance at Constantinople, and caused Photius to respond 
by advancing new claims for his See. He insisted that the 
Patriarchs of Constantinople were equal in rank and authority 
to the Popes of Rome. The disputes of the clergy being the 
only subject on which the government of the Eastern Empire 
allowed any expression of public opinion, the whole attention 
of society was soon directed to this ecclesiastical quarrel. 
Michael assembled a council of the church in 866, at which 
pretended representatives of the patriarchs of Antioch, 
Alexandria, and Jerusalem were present ; and in this as- 
sembly Pope Nicholas was declared unworthy of his See, and 



DgIC 



184 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.III. {3. 
excommunicated. There was no means of rendering this 
sentence of excommunication of any effect, unless Louts II., 
the emperor of the West, could be induced, by the hatred he 
bore to Nicholas, to put it in execution. Ambassadors were 
sent to urge him to depose the Pope, but the death of Michael 
suddenly put an end to the contest with Rome, for his 
successor Basil I. embraced the party of Ignatius. 

The contest between Rome and Constantinople was not 
merely a quarrel between Pope Nicholas and the Patriarch 
Photius. There were other causes of difference between the 
two Sees, in which Ignatius was as much opposed to papal 
pretensions as Photius. Not to mention the old claim of 
Rome to recover her jurisdiction over those provinces of the 
Byzantine empire which had been dissevered from her 
authority, a new conflict had arisen for supremacy over the 
church in Bulgaria. When the Bulgarian king Crumn invaded 
the empire, after the defeat ^of Michael I., he carried away so 
many prisoners that the Bulgarians, who had already made 
considerable advances in civilization, were prepared, by their 
intercourse with these slaves, to receive Christianity. A 
Greek monk, Theodore Koupharas, who remained long a 
prisoner in Bulgaria, converted many by his preaching. 
During the invasion of Bulgaria by Leo V., a sister of King 
Bc^oris was carried to Constantinople as a prisoner, and 
educated with care. The empress Theodora exchanged this 
princess for Theodore Koupharas, and on her return she 
introduced the Christian religion into her brother's palace. 

War subsequently broke out between the Bulgarian 
monarch and the empire, and Michael and Bardas made an 
expedition against the Bulgarians in the year 861 '. The 
circumstances of the war are not detailed ; but in the end the 
Bulgarian king embraced Christianity, receiving the name of 
Michael from the emperor, who became his sponsor. To 
purchase this peace, however, the Byzantine emperor ceded 
to the Bulgarians all the country along the range of Mount 
Haemus, called by the Greeks Sideras, and by the Bulgarians 
Zagora, of which Debeltos is the chief town *. Michael 

' Synieon M»g. 440. In the fourth year of Michael's sole goverament. 

' The Continuator (ioj> attributes this Irealy to the Empress Theodora, bnt 
ihe date seems more precisely given by Symeon Macister (440), Georg. Moa. 
(534). This district bad been ceded to Uie Balgaiuoa by Justiaiao II., but 



BULGARIAN CHURCH. 185 

A.D. 841-867.] 

pretended that the cession was made as a baptismal donation 
to the king. The change in the religion of the Bulgarian 
monarch caused some discontent among his subjects, but their 
opposition was soon vanquished with the assistance of Michael, 
and the most refractory were transported to Constantinople, 
where the wealth and civilization of Byzantine society pro- 
duced such an impression on their minds that they readily 
embraced Christianity '. 

The Bulgarian monarch, fearii^ lest the influence of the 
Byzantine clergy on his Christian subjects might render him 
in some d^ree dependent on the emperor, opened communi- 
cations with Pope Nicholas for the purpose of balancing the 
power of the Greek clergy by placing the ecclesiastical alTairs 
of his kingdom under the control of the Latins. He expected 
also to derive some political support for this alliance, when he 
saw the eagerness of the Pope to drive the Eastern clei^ out 
of Bulgaria. Pope Nicholas- appeals to have thought that 
Photius would have made great concessions to the papal See, 
in order to receive the pallium from Rome; but when that 
Patriarch treated the question concerning the ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction of the Eastern church in Bulgaria as a political 
affair, and referred its decision to the imperial cabinet, the 
Pope sent legates into Bulgaria, and the churches of Rome 
and Constantinople were involved in a direct conflict for the 
ecclesiastical patronage of that extensive kingdom. At a 
later period, when Ignatius was re-established as Patriarch, 
and the general council of 86g was held to condemn the acts of 
Photius, Pope Hadrian found Ignatius as little inclined to 
make any concessions to the papal See in Bulgaria as his 
deposed rival, and this subject remained a permanent cause of 
quarrel between the two churches. 

Michael, though a drunkard, was not naturally deficient 
in ability, activity, or ambition. Though he left the ordinary 
administration of public business in the hands of Bardas, on 

recovered by Constuitine V. [As the name Zngora is found in many parts of 
Greece, il may be well to remark that it signiliea in Slavonic 'behind the moun- 
tain.' Thas the district here spoken of is thai btfmd Haemus. relatively to the 
northern kingdom of Bulgaria. Another 2^ora ii the district htkind Pindus, 
to the north-west of (he Zygos pass aiid Metzovo. A towo of the lame name 
U found on the sea-slopea of Pelion, being hthind thai mountain relatively lo 
Thessaly. Ed.] 

■ Leo Gramm. 461. For the conversion of the Bulgarians, Contin, 101 ; Ce- 
drenas, ii. 540 j Zonarat, ii. 156. 



DgIC 



1 86 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk. I.Ch.III. {3. 
whom he conferred the title of Caesar, which was then almost 
equivalent to a recognition of his title as heir-apparent to the 
empire, still he never allowed him to obtain the complete 
control over the whole administration, nor permitted him 
entirely to crush his opponents in the public service'. Hence 
many officers of rank continued to regard the emperor, with 
all his vices, as their protector in office. Like all the emperors 
of Co.istantinople, Michael felt himself constrained to appear 
frequently at the head of his armies. The tie between the 
emperor and the soldiers was perhaps strengthened by these 
\ljits, but it can hardly be supposed that the personal pre- 
sence of Michael added much to the efficiency of military 
operations. 

The war on the frontiers of the Byzantine and Saracen 
empires was carried on by Omar, the emir of Melitene, with- 
out interruption, in a series of plundering incursions on a 
gigantic scale. These were at times revenged by daring 
exploits on the part of the Byzantine generals. In the year 
856, Leo, the imperial commander-in-chief, invaded the domi- 
nions of the caliph. After taking Anazarba, he crossed the 
Euphrates at Samosata, and advanced with his army into 
Mesopotamia, ravaging the country as far as Amida. The 
Saracens revenged themselves by several plundering incur- 
sions into different parts of the empire. To stop these 
attacks, Michael put himself at the head of the army, and 
laid siege to Samosata without effect. Bardas accompanied 
the emperor rather to watch over his own influence at court 
than to assist his sovereign in obtaining military glory. The 
following year Michael was engaged in the campaign against 
the Bulgarians, of which the result has been already men- 
tioned. In 860, he led an army of 40,000 European troops 
against Omar of Mehtene, who had carried his plunderii^ 
incursions up to the walls of Sinope*. A battle took place in 

* The nominatidn of Bardas as Caesar took place in the year 861, at Easter, 
according lo GcnesiuE (46). But Symeon Magititer places il in the third year of 
Michael, or 860. while he places the victory of Fetronas (which Genesius sayt 
pieceded il) in the fifih. or &61. George the Monk and Leo Grammalicus follow 
the same order as Symeon; while the Continuator (114) agrees with Genesius. 
and places the nomination of Bardas after the victnry of I'etionas. Yel the 
nomination of Bardas seems to be rightly fixed by Genesius. while the Arabian 
historians prove thai the victory of Petronas occurred in S63. See p. 187, nalt 2. 

* The Arabian historians pretend that Omar carried off 17,000 slaves, and 
Karbeas, with his Pauliclans, jooo in one expedition. Ali Ibu Vahia, govemar 



DgIC 



SARACEN WAR. 187 

4J1.84J-867.] 

the territory of Dasymon, near the spot which had witnessed 
the defeat of Theophilus, and the overthrow of Michael was 
as complete as that of his father. The same difficulties in 
the ground which had favoured the retreat of Theophilus 
enabled Manuel, one of the generals of Michael, to save the 
army'. 

The war was still prosecuted with vigour on both sides. 
In 863, Omar entered the Armeniac theme with a large force, 
and took Amisus. Petronas, the emperor's uncle, who had 
now acquired considerable military experience and reputation 
as general of the Thrakesian theme, was placed at the head of 
the Byzantine army*. He collected his forces at Aghionoros, 
near Ephesus, and when his army was reinforced by a strong 
body of Macedonian and Thracian troops, inarched towards 
the frontier in several divisions, which he concentrated in such 
a manner as to cut off the retreat of Omar, and enclosed him 
with an overwhelming force. The troops under Nasar, the 
general of the Boukellarian theme, strengthened by the 
Armeniac and Paphlagonian legions and the troops of the 
theme Koloneia, enclosed the Saracens on the north. Petro- 
nas himself, with the Thrakesian, Macedonian, and Thracian 
legions, secured the passes and advanced from the west ; 
while the troops of the Anatolic, Opsikian, and Cappadocian 
themes, with the divisions of the Kleisourarchs ' of Seleucia 
and Charsiana, having secured the passes to the south, cut off 
the direct line of Omar's retreat. An impassable range of 
rocky mountains, broken into precipices, rendered escape to 
-the eastward impracticable. The headquarters of Petronas 
were established at Poson, a place situated on the frontiers of 
the Paphlagonian and Armeniac themes, near the river 
Lalakon, which flows from north to south. Omar had 



of Tarsus, was equally succtssful. Abulpharagius (Bar Hebraeusi says that in 
a previous caitipiiga lh« Byzantine army had made 10.000 prisoners. Weil. 
GtscAi'cAa da- Chali/tn. \\. 36.1. mtt 2. and 365. These devastations diiserve notice. 
as causes of the depopulation of the country. 

' Contin. no; Genesius. 44- It is evident that ttie details of the battle of 
Theophilus have been mixed up with those of this battle. The eiploils attribuled 
to the two Manuels ate ■ mere transcript. There is so much confusion in the 
: and chronology of Michael's war with the Saracens, that it would 
i|y too much space to examine its details. St Weil, il. jfis. nolt 1. 
■"or the dale, see Abulfeda, Annal. Mosiem. n. J09. Abulpharagius (fih. Syr. 
J49th year of the Hegita. from 33rd February 86j to uth February 864. 



passes. Eo.] 

Djiizcdtv Google 



l88 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.ni.(j. 
encamped in a plain without suspecting the danger lurking 
in its ru^ed boundary to the east. He suddenly found 
himself enclosed by the simultaneous advance of the various 
divisions of the Byzantine army, and closely blockaded. He 
attempted to escape by attacking each division of the enemy 
in succession, but the strength of the positions selected by the 
imperial officers rendered all his attacks vain. Omar at last 
fell in the desperate simple ; and Petronas, leading fresh 
troops into the plain to attack the weary Saracens, completed 
the destruction of their army. The son of Omar contrived to 
escape from the field of battle, but he was pursued and taken 
prisoner by the Kleisourarch of Charsiana, after he had crossed 
the Halys •, When Petronas returned to Constantinople, he 
was allowed to celebrate his victory with great pomp and 
public rejoicings. The Byzantine writers estimated the army 
that was destroyed at 40,000, while the Arabian historians 
reduced their loss to only 2,000 men. Public opinion in the 
enipire of the caliph, however, considered the defeat as a 
great calamity; and its real importance may be ascertained 
from the fact, that alarming seditions broke out against 
the government when the news reached Bagdad^. After this 
victory, too, the eastern frontier enjoyed tranquillity for some 
time. 

In the year 865, a nation hitherto unknown made its first 
appearance in the history of the world, where it was destined 
to act no unimportant part. Its entrance into the political 
system of the European nations was marked by an attempt to 
take Constantinople, a project which it has often revived, and 
which the progress of Christian civilization seems to indicate 
must now be realised at no very distant date, unless the 
revival of the Bulgarian kingdom to the south of the Danube 
create a new Sclavonian power in the east of Europe capable 
of arresting its progress*. In the year 862, Rurik, a Scan- 

' It is not easy to determine the apoi where this battle was fongbt. Genedas 
calls the place AbysUnos, and say& it was live hundred miles from Aminsoa 
(p. 46I. A valley in the vicinitv was called Gyris. Contin. T13. Edrisi (Ot 
Orographia, ii. 30S) places the valley Merdi Aluskuf twenty-lour miles north-west 
of BacaQda (Laronda), on the road Irom Tarsus to Abydos. This would place 
it in the Anatolic theme, among the Lycaonian counler-furts of Taurus, and would 
lead to the supposition that Omar was retreating to gain TaiSDS, in order to place 
hi> booty in security. Sit Weil, ii. 361. 

• Weil. ii. 381. 

* Since this was written, a change has been made in the stale of these countries 
by the Crimean War and by the union of Vallachia and Moldavia. [The state- 



RUSSIANS ATTACK CONSTANTINOPLE. 189 

*.B.84i-867.] 

dinavian or Varangian chief, arrived at Novgorod, and laid the 
first foundation of the state which has grown into the Russian 
empire. The Russian people, under Varangian domination, 
rapidly increased in power, and reduced many of their neigh- 
bours to submission '. Oskold and Dir, the princes of Kief, 
rendered themselves masters of the whole course of the 
Dnieper, and it would seem that either commercial jealousy 
or the rapacity of ambition produced some collision with the 
Byzantine settlements on the northern shores of the Black 
Sea ; but from what particular circumstances the Russians 
were led to make their daring attack on Constantinople is not 
known-^. The Emperor Michael had taken the command of 
an army to act against the Saracens, and Oryphas, the admiral 
of the fleet, acted as governor of the capital during his absence. 
Before the Emperor had commenced his military operations, 
a fleet of two hundred Russian vessels of small size, taking 
advantage of a favourable wind, suddenly passed through the 
Bosphorus, and anchored at the mouth of the Black River in 
the Propontis, about eighteen miles from Constantinople'. 
This* Russian expedition had already plundered the shores 
of the Black Sea, and from its station within the Bosphorus 
it ravaged the country about Constantinople, and plundered 
the Prince's Islands, pillaging the monasteries, and slaying the 
monks as well as the other inhabitants. The emperor, in- 
formed by Oryphas of the attack on his capital, hastened to 
its defence. Though a daring and cruel enemy, the Russians 
were by no means formidable to the Byzantine forces. It 
required no great exertions on the part of the imperial officers 
to equip a force sufficient to attack and put to flight these 
invaders ; but the horrid cruelty of the tKirbarians, and the 
wild daring of their Varangian leaders, made a profound 
impression on the people of Constantinople, suddenly ren- 
dered spectators of the miseries of war, in their most hideous 

meat in the text is as true now as when it was written, uid is > proof of great 
far-sightedness on the aulhor's ptul. Ed.] 

' Hiotios. Epitlolai. p. s8. 

* La Chrortiout dt ytslor. tiaduite par L. Paris, i. 11. 

' K^mw liiKa* is the b«y at the mouth of the Athfras. Baynk Tcbekmadjt. 
The Russian vessels are called /«»i£iAo ; they must have been only decked boats, 
■nd twenty men to eadl will be an ample allowance. They cannot therefore have 
carried more than 4000 men when they passed the Bosphorus, The expedition 
teems not unlike those against which, about this time, Alfred had to contend in 
EngUod, Mid Charles the Bald in Fiance. 



DgIC 



I90 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Blc.Lai.IIL is- 
form, during a moment of perfect security. We need not, 
therefore, be surprised to find that the sudden destruction of 
these dreaded enemies by the drunken emperor, of whom the 
citizens of the capital may have entwtained even more con- 
tempt than he merited as a soldier, was ascribed to the 
miraculous interposition of the Vii^n of the Blachera, rather 
than to the superior military tactics and overwhelming num- 
bers of the imperial forces. How far this expedition of the 
Russians must be connected with the enterprising spirit ctf 
those vigorous warriors and pirates from Scandinavia, who 
gave sovereigns to Normandy, Naples, Sicily, England, and 
Russia, is still a subject of learned discussion '. 

About the same time a fleet, manned by the Saracens of 
Crete, plundered the Cyclades, and ravaged the coast of Asia 
Minor, carrying off great booty and a number of slaves^. It 
would seem that the absence of the Emperor Michael from 
Constantinople at the time of the Russian attack was con- 
nected with this movement of the Saracens. 

Our conceptions of the manner in which the Byzantine 
empire was governed during Michael's reign, will become 
more precise if we enter into some details concerning the 
court intrigues and personal conduct of the rulers of the 
state. The crimes and assassinations, which figure as the 
prominent events of the age in the chronicles of the time, 
were not, it is true, the events that decided the fate of the 
people ; and they probably excited less interest among 
contemporaries who lived beyond the circle of court favour, 
than history would lead us to suppose. Each rank of society 
had its own robberies and murders to occupy its attention. 
The state of society at the court of Constantinople was not 
amenable to public opinion, for few knew much of what 
passed within the walls of the great palace ; but yet the 
immense machinery of the imperial administration gave the 



' Wilken, Vbtr dit Vtrkdllniia dtr Kuan xmn ByiarUiniic/uti Rtickt, in the 
Transactions of the Academy of Berlin, Hisi.-Philnlog. Ktasu. 1819, p. 88. For 
the dale of the expedition, see Bayer, Dt Russarvm Prima Exptditioni Caatati- 
tinopalilana. (Commtnlarii Acad. Scimt. Filropolitaiua, torn, viii.) For the facts, 
I.eo Gramm. 46.1 ; Georg, Mon. 535 ; the Life of the Patriarch Ignatins, by 
Niketas, annexed to the acts of the cigbth oecomemc caaucil, and Ne$tor'i 
Ratsian Ckronicli. 

' Contin. ua. This fleet consisted of twenty Kav/iSipia, seven foX^ai, and 
come oQToCfKu ; but it would perhaps be difEcult to determine the size and claa* 
of these different vessels. 



STATE OF THE IMPERIAL COURT. 191 

A.D. 841^67.] 

emperors' power a solid basis, always opposed to the tem- 
porary vices of the courtiers. The order which rendered 
property secure, and enabled the industrious classes to 
prosper, through the equitable administration of the Roman 
law, nourished the vitality of the empire, when the madness 
of a Nero and the drunkenness of a Michael appeared to 
threaten political order with ruin. The people, carefully 
secluded from public business, and almost without any 
knowledge of the proceedings of their government, were in 
all probability little better acquainted with the intrigues and 
crimes of their day than we are at present. They acted, 
therefore, when some real suffering or imaginary grievance 
brought oppression directly home to their interests or their 
feelings. Court murders were to them no more than a 
tragedy or a scene in the amphitheatre, at which they were 
not present. 

Bardas had assassinated Theoktistos to obtain power ; yet, 
with all his crimes, he had great natural talents and some 
literary taste. He had the reputation of being a good lawyer 
and a just judge ; and after he obtained power, he devoted 
his attention to watch over the judicial department as the 
surest basis of popularity. Nevertheless, we find the govern- 
ment of Michael accused of persecuting the wealthy, merely 
for the purpose of filling the public treasury by the 
confiscation of their property. This was an old Roman 
fiscal resource, which had existed ever since the days of the 
republic, and whose exercise under the earlier emperors calls 
forth the bitterness of Tacitus in some of his most vigorous 
pages. After Bardas was elevated to the dignity of Caesar, 
his mature age gave him a deeper interest in projects of 
ambition than in the wild debauchery of his nephew. He 
devoted more time to public business and grave society, and 
less to the wine-cap and the imperial feasts. New boon- 
companions assembled round Michael, and, to advance their 
own fortunes, strove to awaken some jealousy of the Caesar 
in the breast of the emperor. They solicited the office of 
spies to watch the conduct of one who, they said, was 
aspiring to the crown. Michael, seeing Bardas devoted to 
improving the administration of justice, reforming abuses in 
the army, regulating the affairs of the church, and protecting 
learning, felt how much he himself neglected his duties, 



DgIC 



192 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.m.ij. 
and naturally began to suspect his uncle. The reformation 
of the Caesar was an act of sedition against the worthless 
emperor. 

The favourite parasite of Michael at this time was a man 
named Basil, who from a simple groom had risen to the rank 
of lord chamberlain. Basil attracted the attention of the 
emperor while still a stable-boy in the service of an officer 
of the court. The young groom had the good fortune to 
overcome a celebrated Bulgarian wrestler at a public wrest- 
ling-match. The impression produced by this victory over 
a foreigner, who had been long considered invincible, was 
increased by a wonderful display of his power in taming 
the wildest horses, for he possessed the singular natural gift 
of subduing horses by a whisper •. The emperor took him 
into his service as a groom ; but Basil's skill as a sportsman 
soon made him a favourite companion of one who showed 
little discrimination in the choice of his associates. Basil's 
perseverance as a boon-companion at the imperial oi^ies, 
and his devotion to all the whims of the emperor, raised 
him quickly to the highest offices of the court, and he was 
placed in constant attendance on his sovereign. These 
favours awakened the jealousy of Bardas, who suspected the 
Macedonian groom of the power of whispering to Michael 
as well as to horses. At the same time it secured Basil 
the support of aU the Caesar's enemies, who considered a 
drunken groom, even thoi^h he had risen to great power at 
court, as a person not likely to be their rival in ministerial 
offices. 

Basil, however, soon received a very high mark of Michael's 
personal favour. He was ordered to divorce his wife and 
marry Eudocia Ingerina, who had long been the emperor's 
mistress ; and it was said that the intercourse continued after 
she became the wife of the chamberlain *. Every ambitious 
and debauched officer about the court now looked to the fall 



1 Basil rendered an ungoveniable horse belonging to the emperor m tamt m 
a thttp, by stretching out his hand to its ear. Leo Gramm. 45S. 

' The chronicles of Michael's reign accuse the empetor of enconrafing ■ 
criminal intercourse between Basil and Thekla his elder sister, apparently as 
a recompense for his own intimacy with Eudocia Ingerina after uie became 
Basil's wife, SymeoQ Mag. 446; Georg. Mon. 53C; Leo Gtamm. 464. As 
a farther illustistioD of the coadnct of Uieee ladies, see Leo Gtbhud. 471, 471 ; 

Georg. Mon. 543. 



Dictzed by Google 



BARDAS MURDERED BV BASIL. 193 

Aji. 841-867.] 

of Bardas as the readiest means of promotion. Symbatios an 
Armenian, a patrician and postmaster of the empire, who was 
the son-in-law of Bardas, dissatisfied with his father-in-law 
for refusing to gratify his inordinate ambition, joined Basil 
in accusii^ the Caesar of plotting to mount the throne. 
The emperor, without much hesitation, authorized the two 
intriguers to assassinate his uncle. 

An expedition for reconquering Crete from the Saracens 
was about to sail. The emperor, the Caesar, and Basil all 
partook of the holy sacrament together before embarking in 
the fleet, which then proceeded along the coast of Asia Minor 
to Kepos in the Thrakesian theme*. Here the army remained 
encamped, under the pretext that a sufficient number of 
transports had not been assembled. Bardas expressed great 
dissatisfaction at this delay ; and one day, while he was ui^ng 
Michael to give orders for the immediate embarkation of the 
troops, he was suddenly attacked by Symbatios and Basil, 
and murdered at the emperor's feet. Basil, who, as chamber- 
lain, had conducted' him to the imperial tent, stabbed him in 
the back. 

The accomplished but unprincipled Bardas being removed, 
the project of invading Crete was abandoned, and Michael 
returned to the capital. On entering Constantinople, however, 
it was evident that the assassination of his uncle had given 
universal dissatisfaction. Bardas, with all his faults, was the 
best of Michael's ministers, and the failure of the expedition 
against Crete was attributed to his death. As Michael passed 
through the streets, a monk greeted him with this bitter 
salutation: — 'All hail, emperor t all hail from your glorious 
campaign I You return covered with blood, and it is your 
own I ' The imperial guards attempted in vain to arrest the 
fanatic ; the people protected him, declaring he was mad. 

The assassination of Bardas took place in the spring of 
866 ; and on the 26th of May, Michael rewarded Basil by 
proclaiming him his collei^e, with the title of Emperor". 
Symbatios expected that his participation in his father-in- 
law's murder would have secured him the title of Caesar; 
but he soon perceived he had injured his own fortunes by 
his crime. He now sought to obtain by open force what 



* Probabtf Dcu Holicunassiu or Cnidus. ' Cootin. 119. 

VOL. II. O 



A'OOgle 



194 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.ni.|j. 
he had failed to gain by private murder. He succeeded in 
drawing Peganes, who commanded the troops in the Opsikian 
theme, into his conspiracy. The two rebels took up arms, 
and proclaimed that their object was not to dethrone Michael, 
but to depose Basil. Though they drew together a consider- 
able body of troops, rendered themselves masters of a great 
extent of country, and captured many merchant-ships on their 
passage to Constantinople, they did not venture to attack the 
capital. Their plan was ill concerted, for before the end of 
the summer they had allowed themselves to be completely 
surrounded by the imperial troops, Peganes was taken 
prisoner at Kotiaeion, and conducted to Constantinople, 
where his eyes were put out. He was then placed in the 
Milion, with a platter in his hand, to ask charity from the 
passers-by. Symbatios was subsequently captured at Kel- 
tizene. When he reached Constantinople, he was conducted 
before Michael. Peganes was brought out to meet him, with 
a censer of earthenware filled with burning sulphur instead of 
incense. Symbatios was then deprived of one of his eyes, 
and his right hand was cut off. In this condition he was 
placed before the palace of Lausus, with a dish on his 
knees, as a common beggar. After exhibiting his rebellious 
officers in this position for three days, Michael allowed them 
to be imprisoned in their own houses. When Basil mounted 
the throne, they were pardoned as men no longer dangerous. 

The degrading punishment to which two men of the highest 
rank in the empire were subjected, made a deep impression 
on the people of Constantinople, The figure of Planes — a 
soldier of high reputation — standing in the Milion, asking 
for an obolos, with a platter in his hand like a blind b^gar, 
haunted their imagination, and, finding its way into the 
romances of the age, was borrowed to illustrate the greatest 
vicissitudes of court favour, and give colouring to the stroi^est 
pictures of the ingratitude of emperors. The fate of Peganes 
and Symbatios, woven into a tale called the Life of Belisarius, 
in which the interest of tragic sentiment was heightened by 
much historical and local tnithj has gained immortality in 
European literature, and confounded the critical sagacity of 
eminent modem writers '. 

* Compaie Conslant. Porph/i. {VUa BasUU, b Scrifi. foU JTut^fh. i£0. 163) 



MICHAEL AND BASIL EMPERORS. 195 

AJ). 841-867] 

One of the few acts which aire recorded of the joint reign 
of Michael and Basil was the desecration of the tomb of 
Constantine V. (Copronymus). This base act was perpetrated 
to flatter a powerful party in the church, of which the leading 
members were hostile to Bardas, on account of his persecution 
of Ignatius. The precarious position of Photius after the 
murder of his patron, and the inherent subserviency of the 
Greek ecclesiastical dignitaries, made him ready to counten- 
ance any display of orthodoxy, however bigoted, that pleased 
the populace. The memory of Constantine V. was still 
cherished by no inconsiderable number of Iconoclasts. 
Common report still boasted of the wealth and power to 
which the empire had attained under the just administration 
of the Iconoclast emperors, and their conduct served as a 
constant reproach to Michael. The people, however, were 
easily persuaded that the great exploits of Constantine V., 
and the apparent prosperity of his reign, had been the work 
of the devil. The sarcophagus in which the body of this 
great emperor reposed was of green marble, and of the 
richest workmanship. By the order of the drunken Michael 
and the Sclavonian groom Basil it was broken open, and 
the body, after having lain for upwards of ninety years in 
peace, was draped into the circus, where the body of John 
the Grammarian, torn also from the tomb, was placed beside 
it. The remains of these great men were beaten with rods to * 
amuse the vilest populace, and then burned in the Amas- 
trianon — the filthiest quarter of the capital, and the place 
often used for the execution of malefactors *. The splendid 
sarcophagus of Constantine was cut in pieces by order of 



with SymeOQ Mag. (449!, Geom- Mon. (540), and Leo Gramm. (467) ; and for the 
resemblance irith the fable ot Belisanus, the anonymous author of An^jaiitt af 
CamlaHlinopI: in Banduri, Imprrium OrienlaU (i. 7), and Joannis Tietia« Biu, 
Var. ChiUada (94, edit. Kiesbline.); also Lord Mahon, Lj/i of B^aariM, who 
tries to support the fable; ana ' Belisarius — was he blind?' in B/oihwoifj 
Sfagainu for May 1847, where the connection of the iabJe with history is: 
pointed out. It may be worth mentioning, moreover, that Zacharift (Wi/or/a* 
phn-ii Gratm-Rotnani Diliatalia, 58) and Mortreuil {Hiiloin du Drwl Byzantin, 
■■■ 499) l*""* ho\h fallen into an error in sBpposing this Symbatios, who bad 
lost an eye and his lieht hand during the reign of Michael III., to be the same 
person as the Symbatios or SabbaCios who assisted Leo VI. in the revision of 
the BasilikL 

' Geo^. Moo. 540; Leo Gramm. 467. The anonymous author of Che Am. 
Coiuitmi. (Baoduri, Imp. Orieai. 10) says that the Amastrianoa was a favourite 
resort of demons. See the notei tq torn li. 558. 
O » 



DgIC 



ig6 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.ra.(3. 
Michael, to form a balustrade in a new chapel he was con- 
structing at Pharos. 

The drunkenness of Michael brought on delirium tremens, 
and rendered him liable to fits of madness. He observed that 
Basil's desire to maintain the high position he had reached 
produced the same reformation in his conduct which had been 
visible in that of Bardas. The Emperor Basil became a very 
different man from Basil the chamberlain. The change ren- 
dered Michael dissatisfied with his colleague, and in one of 
his fits <A madness he invested another of the companions of 
his orgies, named Basiliskian, with the imperial title. 

In such a court there could be little doubt that the three 
emperors, Michael, Basil, and Basiliskian, could not long hold 
joint sway. It was probably a race who should first be the 
murderer of his colleagues, and iii such cases the ablest man is 
generally the most successful criminal. Basil, having reason 
to fear for his own safety, planned the assassination of his 
benefactor with great deliberation. The murder was carried 
into execution after a supper party given by Theodora to her 
son in the palace of Anthimos, after he had spent a day 
hunting on the Asiatic coast Basil and his wife, Eudocia 
Ii^erina, were invited by the empress-mother to meet her 
son, for all decency was banished from this most orthodox 
court Michael, according to his usual habit, was carried from 
the supper table in a state of intoxication, and Basil accom- 
panied his colleague to his chamber, of which he had previously 
rendered the lock useless. Basiliskian, the third of this in- 
famous trio, was sleeping, in a state of intoxication, oh the 
bed placed in the imperial apartment for the chamberlain on 
duty. The chamberlain, on following his master, found the 
lock of the door useless and the bolts broken, but did not 
think of calling for assistance to secure the entrance in the 
palace of the empress-mother. 

Basil soon returned, attended by John of ChaldJa, a Persian 
officer named Apelates, a Bulgarian named Peter, Constantine 
Toxaras, his own father Bardas, his brother Marinos, and his 
cousin Ayleon. The chamberlain immediately guessed their 
purpose, and opposed their entry into the chamber. Michael, 
disturbed by the noise, rose from his drunken sleep, and was 
atUcked by John of Chaldia, who cut off both his hands 
with a blow of his sabre. The emperor fell on the ground. 



DgIC 



ASSASSINATION OF MICHAEL III. 197 

A.D. 841-867.} 

Basiliskian was slain in the mean time by Apelates. Con- 
stantine Toxaras, with the relatives of Basil, guarded the 
door and the corridor leading to the apartment, lest the 
officers of the emperor or the servants of Theodora should 
be alarmed by the noise. The shouts of tie chamberlain and 
the cries of Michael alarmed Basil and those in the chamber, 
and they rushed into the corridor to secure their retreat. But 
the tumult of debauchery had been often as loud^ and the 
cries of murder produced no extraordinary sensation where 
Michael was present All remaining silent without, some of 
the conspirators expressed alarm lest Michael should not be 
mortally wounded. John of Chaldia, the boldest of the 
assassins, returned to make his work sure. Finding the 
emperor sitting on the floor uttering bitter lamentations, be 
plunged his sword into his heart, and then returned to assure 
Basil that all was finished. 

The conspirators crossed over to Constantinople, and having 
secured their entrance into the imperial palace by means of 
two Persians, Eulc^ios and Artabasd, who were on guard, 
Basil was immediately proclaimed sole emperor, and the 
death of Michael III. was publicly announced. In the morn- 
ing the body of Michael was interred in a monastery at 
Chrysopolis, near the palace of Anthimos. Theodora was 
allowed to direct the funeral ceremonies of the son whom her 
own neglect had conducted to an early and bloody death- 

The people of Constantinople appear to have taken very 
little interest in this infamous assassination, by which a small 
band of mercenary adventurers transferred the empire of the 
Romans from the Amorian dynasty to a Macedonian groom, 
whose family reigned at Constantinople for two centuries, 
with greater power and glory than the Eastern emperors had 
attained since the days of Justinian. 



D,:„i,;cdtv Google 



CHAPTER IV. 



State of the Byzantine Empire durii^g the 
Iconoclast Period. 

Sect. I. — Public Administration — Diplomatic and Commercial 
Relations. 

CoDsLintinoplc oeithcr a Greek nor a Rom>a city.— The Greek race not the 
domiDant people in Ibe empire. — Circomituices which modiRed despotic 
power. — Eiient of the empire. — Military strength. — Loss of Italy. Sicily, 
aod Crete.— Embassy of John the Grammarian to Bagdad. — Commercial 
policy. — Wealth. 

In ancient times, when the civilization of the Greek people 
had attained its highest degree of moral culture, the Hellenic 
race was assailed almost simultaneously by the Persians, 
Carthaginians, and Tyrrhenians. The victories obtained over 
these enemies arc still regarded as the triumphs on which the 
political civilization of Europe, and of the great dwelling-place 
of liberty beyond the Atlantic, is based '. The age of Leo 
the Isaurian found the government of the Byzantine empire in 
a position not very dissimilar from that of the Greek race in 
the time of Miltiades. The Athenian people fought for poli- 
tical progress on the plain of Marathon. Leo battled for law 
and administration behind the walls of Constantinople ; the 
victory of Miltiades secured only one hundred and fifty years 
of liberty to the Greeks, that of the Iconoclast gave nearly 
five centuries of despotic power to a system hostile to the 
development of the human intellect. The voice of fame has 
conferred immortal glory on the doubtful virtues of the 
Athenian general, and treated with neglect the profound 

' A. p. 18S2. 



:v Google 



STATE OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. 199 

statesmanship of the stern Isaurian sovereign ; and it has 
done so not unjustly, for the gratitude of all succeeding ages 
is due to those who extend the political ideas of mankind) 
whereas those who only preserve property must be satisfied 
with the applause of the proprietors. Nevertheless the Icono- 
clast period of Byzantine history presents a valuable study 
to the historian, both in what it did and what it left undone — 
in the greatness of the imperial administration, and the little- 
ness of the people who were its subjects. 

The Byzantine empire passed through a more dangerous 
ordeal than classic Greece, inasmuch as patriotism is a surer 
national bulwark than mechanical administration. The 
struggle for the preservation of Constantinople from the 
Saracens awakens no generous feelings and noble aspirations; 
it only teaches those who examine history as political phi- 
losophers, what social and administrative tendencies a free 
people ought carefully to avoid. On this subject the scanty 
annals of the Greek people, as slaves of the Byzantine em- 
perors, though far from an attractive chapter in history, are 
filled with much premonitory instruction for nations in an 
advanced social condition. 

Neither the Emperors of Constantinople, though they styled 
themselves Emperors of the Romans, nor their subjects, though 
calling themselves Roman citizens, sought at this period to 
identify themselves with the reminiscences of the earlier Roman 
Empire. The Romans of Italy and the Greeks of Hellas had 
both fallen very low in public opinion^. Constantinople, as a 
Christian capital, claimed to be the mistress of a new world, 
and the emperors of the East considered themselves masters 
of all the territories of Rome, because the dominion over all 
Christians was a right inherent in the emperor of the orthodox. 
But Constantinople was founded as an antagonist to old Rome, 
and this antagonism has always been a portion of its exist- 
ence. As a Christian city, its church and its ecclesiastical 
language always stood in opposition to the church and eccle- 
siastical language of Rome. The thoughts of the one were 

■ See Pausanina {Achaiea, xvii. 2I for the character the Greeks bore in the time 
of Vespagian; and the rasaage of Luilprand (in Mutatori, Script. Rtr. Iial. ii. 
pais i. 481) for that of the Romans. Gibbon says, 'For the sins of Cato or 
Tuily. Minos might have imposed as a fit penEuice the daily perusal of this 
baibarous passage]' ch. xlix, no« 44; vol. vi. p. 15 c, Smith's edit. 



^AiOO^^IC 



300 ICONOCLAST PERIOD, 

[Bk.I.Ch.rv.|i. 
never transferred in their pure conception to the mind of the 
other. For several centuries Latin was the language of the 
court, of the civil government, and of the higher ranks at 
Constantinople. In the time of Leo III., and during the 
Byzantine Empire, Greek was the language of the adminis- 
tration and the people, as well as of the church ; but we are 
not to suppose, from that circumstance, that the inhabitants 
of the city considered themselves as Greeks by descent 
Even by the populace the term would have been looked 
upon as one <^ reproach, applicable as a national appellation 
only to the lower orders of society in the Hellenic themes. 
The people of Constantinople and of the Byzantine empire at 
large, in their civil capacity, were Romans, and in their 
religious, orthodox Christians ; in no social relation, whether 
of race or nationality, did they consider themselves Greeks. 

At the succession of Leo III., tie Hellenic race occupied 
a very subordinate position in the empire. The predominant 
influence in the political administration was in the hands of 
Asiatics, and particularly of Armenians, who filled the highest 
military commands. The family of Leo the Isaurian was s£ud 
to be of Armenian descent ; Nicephorus I. was descended from 
an Arabian family; LeoV. was an Armenian; Michael II., the 
founder of the Amorian dynasty, was of a Fhtygian stock. 
So that, for a century and a half, the Empress Irene appears 
to be the only sovereign of pure Greek blood who occupied 
the imperial throne, though it is proliable that Michael 
Rhangab^ was an Asiatic Greek. Of the numerous rebels 
who assumed the title of Emperor, the greater part were 
Armenians'. Indeed, Kosmas, who was elected by the Grebes 
when they attacked Constantinople in the year ^^^, was the 
only rebel of the Greek nation who attempted to occupy the 
throne for a century and a half. Artabasdos, who rebelled 
against his brother-in-law Constantine V., was an Armenian. 
Alexios Mousel, strangled by order of Constantine VI. in the 
year 790 ; Bardan, called the Turk, who rebelled against 
Nicephorus I, ; Arsaber, the father-in-law of Leo V., convicted 
of treason in 808 ; and Thomas, who revolted against Michael 

' See Ibe conjectares of Sabt-Marlio on the ArmenUn origin of these officers, 
iu his edition of Le Beau, HuMn du Bas-Bmpirt, xiL 355, hoU i; 404, noMj; 
431, naM 3; also Chamich, Hitierj rf Amuma, translated by J. Avdall, Calcutta. 
i9*7i i. 39S.399- 



DgIC 



ARMENIANS IN THE EMPIRE. aoi 

*j». 716-867.] 

II., were all Asiatics, and most of them Armenians. Another 
Alexios Mouse], who married Maria, the favourite daughter 
of Theophilus ; Thcophobos, the brother-in-law of the same 
emperor ; and Manuel, who became a member of the council 
of regency at his death, were likewise of foreign Asiatic 
descent. Many of the Armenians in the Byzantine empire 
belonged to the oldest and most illustrious families of the 
Christian world, and thar connection with the remains of 
Roman society at Constantinople, in which the pride of birth 
was cherished, is a proof that Asiatic influence had eclipsed 
Roman and Greek in the government of the empire. Before 
this happened, the Roman aristocracy transplanted to Con- 
stantinople must have become nearly extinct. New names 
make their first appearance under the Iconoclasts ; and the 
earliest are those of Doukas, Skleros, and Melissenos*. The 
order introduced into society by the political and ecclesiastical 
reforms of Leo III., gave a permanence to high birth and 
great wealth, which constituted henceforth a claim to hi^ 
office. A d^ree of certainty attended the transmission of 
all social advantages which never before existed in the Roman 
empire. This change would alone establish the fact that the 
reforms of Leo III. had rendered life and property more 
secure, and consequently circumscribed the arbitrary power 
of preceding emperors by stricter forms of administrative and 
legal procedure. An amusing instance of the influence of 
aristocratic and Asiatic [M'ejudices at Constantinople will 
appear in the eagerness displayed by Basil I., a Sclavonian 
groom from Macedonia, to claim descent from the Armenian 
royal family. The defence of this absurd pretension is given 
by his grandson, Constantine VII. (Porphyrogenitus)*. 

It is difficult to draw an exact picture of the Byzantine 
government at this period, for facts can easily be collected, 
which, if viewed in perfect isolation, would, according to our 
modem ideas, warrant die conclusion, either that it was a 
tyrannical despotism, or a mild legal monarchy. The personal 
exerdse of power by the emperor, in punishing his officers 
with death and stripes, without trial, and his constant inter- 
ference with the administration of justice, contrast strongly 



ng.i ...A'OOgle 



aoa ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Cb.IV. {I. 
with the boldness displayed by the monks and clergy in op- 
posing his power. In order to form a correct estimate of the 
real position occupied by the Byzantine empire in the pro- 
gressive improvement of the human race, it is necessary to 
compare it, on the one hand, with the degraded Roman empire 
which it replaced ; and on the other, with the arbitrary govern- 
ment of the Mohammedans, and the barbarous administration 
of the northern nations, which it resisted. The regularity of 
its civil, financial, and judicial administration, the defensive 
power of its military and naval establishments, are remarkable 
in an age of temporary measures and universal aggression. 
The state of education, and the moral position of the clei^, 
offer favourable points of comparison with the brilliant em- 
pires of Haroun Al Rashid and Charlemagne, On the other 
hand, fiscal rapacity was the incurable canker of the Byzan- 
tine, as it had been of the Roman government From it arose 
all those measures which reduced society to a stationary con- 
dition. No class of men was invested with a constitutional or 
legal authority to act as defenders of the people's rights 
against the fiscality of the imperial administration. Insurrec- 
tion, rebellion, and revolution were the only means of obtain- 
ing either reform or justice, when the interests of the treasury 
were concerned. Yet even in this branch of its administration 
no other absolute government ever displayed equal prudence 
and honesty. Respect for the law was regarded by the 
emperors as self-respect ; and the power possessed by the 
clergy, who in some degree participated in popular feelings, 
contributed to temper and restrain the exercise of arbitrary 
rule. 

Yet the Byzantine empire, however superior it might be to 
contemporary governments, presents points of resemblance, 
which prove that the social condition of its population was in 
no inconsiderable degree affected by some general causes 
operating on the condition of human civilization in the East 
and the West. The seventh century was a period of disorgan- 
ization in the Eastern Empire, and of anarchy in all the 
kingdoms formed out of the provinces of the Western. Even 
throughout the dominions of the Saracens, in spite of the 
power and enet^ of the central administration of the caliphs, 
the nations under their rule were in a declining state. 

The first step towards the constitution of modern society 



DgIC 



STATE OF THE GOVERNMENT. 203 

AJ.. 716-867.] 

was made at Constantinople about the commencement of the 
eighth century. The reign of Leo III. opens a new social era 
for mankind, as well as for the Eastern Empire. Much of 
this amelioration may be traced to the infusion of new vigour 
into society from popular feelings, of which it is difficult to 
trace the causes or the development. The Byzantine empire, 
though it r^ained something of the old Roman vigour at the 
centre of its power, was unable to prevent the loss of several 
provinces ; and Basil I. governed an empire of smaller extent 
than Leo III. reconstituted, though one that was far richer 
and more powerful. The exarchate of Ravenna, Rome, Crete, 
and Sicily had passed under the dominion of hostile states. 
Venice had become completely independent. On the other 
hand, it must be remembered, that in 717 the Saracens occu- 
pied great part of Asia Minor, and that they had been almost 
entirely expelled from it before 867. The only conquest of 
which the emperors of Constantinople could boast was the 
complete subjugation of the allied city of Cherson to the 
central administration. Cherson had previously enjoyed a 
degree of political independence which had for centuries 
secured its commercial prosperity. Its local freedom was de- 
stroyed by Theophilus, who sent his brother-in-law Petronas 
to occupy it with an army, and govern it as an imperial pro- 
vince. The power of the empire was, however, only momen- 
tarily increased by the destruction of the liberties of Cherson ; 
the city declined rapidly from the d^ree of wealth and energy 
which had enabled it to afford military aid to Constantine the 
Great, and to resist the tyranny of Justinian II., and lost much 
of its commercial importance. 

Historians generally speak of the Byzantine empire at this 
period as if it had been destitute of military prower. Events 
as far removed from one another, in point of time, as our own 
misfortunes in India at the Black Hole of Calcutta and the 
massacre of Cabul, are cited to prove that the Byzantine 
government was incapable, and the Byzantine army feeble 
and unwarlike. The truth is this, the Byzantine empire was 
a highly civilized society, and consequently its tendencies 
were essentially defensive when those of the rest of the world 
were aggressive. The Saracens, Franks, and Bulgarians were 
nations devoted to war, and yet the Byzantine empire effectu- 
ally resisted and long outlived these empires of warriors. No 



DgIC 



ao4 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.l.Ch.IV. ii, 
contemporary government possessed a permanent military 
establishment so perfectly oi^nized as the emperor of Con- 
stantinople, nor could any bring into the field, on a sudden 
exigency, a better appointed army. The caliphs had the 
power of deluging the frontier provinces with lai^e bodies of 
light troops which could not be prevented from plundering 
the country, for the imperial armies were compelled to act on 
the defensive, and defensive warfare can rarely protect all tiie 
assailable points of an extensive frontier. Whole provinces 
were therefore often laid waste and depopulated ; yet, under 
the Iconoclast emperors, the Byzantine territories increased in 
prosperity. The united attacks of the Saracens, Bulgarians, 
and Franks inflicted trifling evils on the Byzantine empire, 
compared with what the predatory incursions of small bands 
of Normans inflicted on the empire of the successors of Char- 
lemagne, or the incessant rebellions and civil wars on the 
dominions of the caliphs. 

The Saracens devoted the immense wealth of their empire 
to their military establishment, and they were certainly more 
formidable enemies to the Byzantine emperors than the 
Farthians had been to the Romans ; yet the emperors of Con- 
stantinople successfully resisted these powerful enemies. The 
Saracen troops were no way inferior to the Byzantine in arms, 
discipline, artillery, and military science ; their cavalry was 
mailed from head to foot, each horseman bearing a lance, a 
scimitar, and a bow slung over his shoulder. Their discipline 
was of the strictest kind, and their armies moved not only 
with catapultas and military engines for field service, but also 
with all the materials and machines requisite for besieging 
cities. Under Kassim a band of six thousand men ventured 
to invade India' ; yet the caliphs never thought of encounter- 
ing the Byzantine army unless with immense numbers of their 
chosen warriors ; and they sustained more signal defeats from 
the emperors of Constantinople than from all the other ene- 
mies they encountered together. The bloody contests and 
hard-fov^ht battles with the armies of the caliphs in, Asia 
Minor, entitle the Byzantine army to rank for several centuries 
as one of the best the world has ever seen. 

The Bulgarians were likewise dangerous enemies. Their 

■ Elphinstone's HiUory i^lht Mohwnmidaiu in India, i. 511. 

n,.i,i ,:A-OOglc 



MILITARY STRENGTH. 205 

AX. 716-867.] 

continual wars gave them no mean knowledge of military 
science ; and the individual soldiers, from their habits of life, 
possessed great activity and powers of endurance. In the 
wars at the end of the eighth and the banning of the ninth 
centuries they fought completely armed in steel, and pos- 
sessed military engines of every kind then known. We have 
the testimony of a Byzantine writer, that the armies of Crumn 
were supplied with every warlike machine discovered by the 
engineering knowledge of the Romans'. 

In all the scientific departments of war, in the application 
of mechanical and chemical skill to the art of destruction, and 
in the construction of engines for the attack and defence of 
fortresses, there can be no doubt that the Byzantine engineers 
were no way inferior to the Roman ; for in the arsenals of 
Constantinople, the workmen and the troops had been un- 
intemiptedJy employed from generation to generation in 
executing and improving the same works. One important 
invention changed, in some degree, the art of defence on 
shore, and of attack at sea : this was the discovery of Greek 
fire, and the method of launching it to a certain distance from 
brazen tubes. The Byzantine forces both by land and sea 
were indebted for many victories to the skill with which they 
applied this invention to aid their tactics. 

The aristocracy of the Byzantine empire, though not exclu- 
sively devoted to war, like the nobility of other contemporary 
nations, was still deeply imbued with the military spirit. No 
state can boast of a greater number of warlike sovereigns 
than the Byzantine empire, from the accession of Leo III. to 
the death of Michael III. During this period of a century and 
a half, not one of the emperors failed to appear at the head 
of the army; and Leo III., Constantine V., LeoV., Michael II., 
and Theophilus, were experienced generals ; the careless 
Constantine VI. and the debauched Michael III. appeared 
to greater advantage in the camp than in the capital ; and it 
was only the weak, religious persecutor, Michael Rhangab^, 
who was absolutely contemptible as a soldier. 

Amidst this military enei^, nothing seems more remarkable 
than the indifference with which the loss of central Italy, and 



DgIC 



2o6 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.i.ch.rv.ii. 
the islands of Crete and Sicily, was viewed by the Byzantine 
government \ It would seem that the value of these distant 
provinces was estimated at Constantinople solely by the 
amount of revenue they produced to the imperial treasury, 
and that when the expenses of a province absorbed all its 
revenues, or its reconquest was found to entail a d^ree 
of outlay that was never likely to be repaid, the emperors 
were often indifferent to the loss. 

The foundation of the Frank empire by Charles Martel 
very nearly corresponds with the organization of the Byzantine 
by Leo III, Theinvasionof Italy by Pepin, a. D. 754, and the 
temporal authority conceded to the popes, compelled the 
Byzantine emperors to enter into negotiations with Charle- 
magne on a footing of equality. The importance of maintain- 
ing friendly relations with Constantinople is said by Eginhard 
to have influenced Charlemagne in affecting to receive the 
imperial crown from the Pope by surprise ; he wished to be 
able to plead that his election as emperor of the West was 
unsought on his part. Interest silenced pride on both sides, 
and diplomatic relations were established between the two 
emperors of the East and the West ; embassies and presents 
were sent from Constantinople to Charlemagne and his 
successors, treaties were concluded, and the Byzantine 
government became in some d^ree connected with the inter- 
national system of mediaeval Europe^. The superiority still 

' The exarchate extended from the Fo to Fenno, and included all the conntry 
between the Adriatic and the Apennines. The Pentapolis, now the Marca 
d'Ancona, comprised the country ftom Rimini to Fermo. The duchy of Rome 
embraced the patrimony of St. Peter and the Campagna. 

* Michael II. cent a copy of the -works attributed to DionysIiiE the Areopagite 
to Louis 1e D^bonnaire, as a valuable present, in 834. The regency of Thcndom 
attached considerable importance to the embassies sent to Lotnaire and Louis H. 
Schlosser, 566. [It is important that we should understand the position of the 
West relatively to the East in respect of the establishment c-f the empire under 
Charles the Great. There was no idea on the part of the Westerns at that time 
of reviving the empire of the West; when that came to an end in a-D. 476, it 
was considered to be merged in the Eastern Empire, so that from (hat time there 
was, ss there had been before Diocletian, a single undivided Roman Empire. 
The object of Charles was to get himself recognized as in some sense the mc- 
cesEor of the Eastem emperors, and with this view he went so far, if we are 
to trust Theophanes (401), as to seek the hand of Irene in marriage. When 
these oegotialiuns failed, the Westerns, io order to remedy the evident flaw in 
their title, and give their act a sembhince of legality, profesEed that they were 
not revolting against a reiening sovereign, but legitimately filling up the place 
of the deposed Constantine VI. ■ Charles was held to be the legitimate successor, 
not of Romulus Auoustulus. but ol Heraclius, Justinian, Arcadiot, and the whole 
Eutem line ; and hence it b that in all the annals of the time and of many 



DgIC 



DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS. 20? 

u. 716-867.] 

held by the court of Constantinople in public opinion is 
manifest in the Greek salutations with which the Pope 
flattered Charlemagne at the commencement of his letters ; 
yet Greek official salutations had only lately supplanted 
Latin at Constantinople itself*. 

The political alliances and diplomatic relations of the 
Byzantine court were very extensive j but the most impor- 
tant were those with the Khan of the Khazars, who ruled all 
the northern shores of the Caspian Sea, and with the Ommiad 
caliphs of Spain. Scandinavian ambassadors who had passed 
through Russia visited the splendid court of Theophilus ; but 
their mission related rather to mercantile questions, or to the 
manner of furnishing recruits to the mercenary l^ons at 
Constantinople, than to political alliance ^. 

The remarkable embassy of John the Grammarian, who 
was sent by Theophilus as ambassador to the Caliph Motas- 
sem, deserves particular notice, as iUustratii^ the external 
character of Byzantine diplomacy ^ The avowed object of 
the mission was to conclude a treaty of peace, but the 
ambassador had secret instructions to employ every art of 
persuasion to induce Manuel, one of the ablest generals of the 
empire, who had distinguished himself greatly in the civil 
wars of the Saracens, to return to his allegiance. The 
personal qualities of John rendered him peculiarly well suited 
for this embassy. To great literary attainments he joined a 
degree of scientific knowledge, which gained him the reputa- 
tion of a mf^ician, and he was perfectly acquainted with the 
Arabic language^. All these circumstances insured him a 

succeeding centuries, the name of Conatantine VI., the sixtr-GCrenlh in order from 
Augustus, is followed without a break by that of Charles, the sixlj-eighth.' 
Bryce's Holy Rontait Emfirt, 4th edit. pp. 60-63. f'nlay's statem 
subject, therefore, on p. 78, require to be somewhat modified. En.] 

' Constant. Forphyr. Di Catrimon. Aulai Byzanliaa; ij. tg. 

' Schlossei, Giichichti dtr bildtnArmtndtn Kaittr, 483. 

■ There is some difficulty in fixing tbe precise date of (his embassy. WeiUii. 197) 
with great proliabilily places il at the end 0/ 8,13. Compare Contin. 60 ; Symeon 
Mag. 4ig ; Geaesius.ap; Leo Gramm. 451 j also note j at p. 149 of this volume. 

' The people of ConslantiDOple regarded Leo, the archbishop of Thessaionica, 
as a necromancer or magician, as well as John, on accoual of tbegieat mechanical 
works executed under bis direction. This need not appear surprising, wben we 
recoUect that English tradition ascribes feats of magic to a hero so modem as 
Sir Francis Drake, for eieculing the aqueduct that supplies Plymouth with water. 
It was completed with wonderful celerity, and hence the people relate that Sr 
Francis made a contract with the devil, in virtue of which the water flowed after , 
his horse's feet as he galloped from the qjring to the town. Roger Bacon, on 
account of his rare knowledge as a natural philosopher, and Faustus as the first 
printer, were both supposed to hate unlawful dealings with the other world. 



DgIC 



2o8 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

(Bk.l.Ch.IV. |i. 
good reception at the court of Bagdad, which had been so 
lately and so loi^ governed by the Caliph Almamun, one of 
the greatest encouragers of science and literature who ever 
occupied a throne. The Byzantine ambassador was equally 
celebrated for his knowledge of medicine, architecture, " 
mechanics, mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, and astrology ; 
and probably even the Caliph Motassem, though a free- 
thinker and a disbeliever in the divine origin of the Koran, 
shared so much of the popular belief as to credit the tale that 
the learned Christian priest could read the secrets of futurity 
in a brazen basin, and felt great curiosity to converse with a 
man who possessed this rare gift '. 

On quitting Constantinople, John was furnished with the 
richest furniture, splendid carpets, damasked silk hai^ngs, 
and plate chased and inlaid with the most beautiful ornaments 
from the imperial palaces, to which was added 400 lb. of gold 
for the current expenses of the embassy. 

According to the usage of the East, the ambassador was 
lodged at Bagdad in a palace furnished by the caliph. The 
magnificent style in which the diplomatic priest installed 
himself in the apartments he reserved for his own use made a 
sensation at the court of Motassem, though many then living 
had witnessed the splendour of Haroun Al Rashid. This 
lavish display of wealth was better adapted to gratify the 
vanity of Theophilus than to advance the conclusion of a 
lasting peace. If we could place implicit confidence in the 
stories recorded by the Byzantine writers, of various tricks to 
which the ambassador resorted in order to augment the 
wonder of the Saracen nobles at the enormous wealth of the 
Christians, we should be inclined to question the judgment of 
John himself. His conduct could only have originated in 
personal pride ; and the course attributed to him would have 
been more likely to excite the Mohammedans to active 
warfare, where they had a prospect of plundering so rich an 
enemy, than of persuading them to conclude a treaty of 
peace. 

One anecdote, dwelt on with peculiar satisfaction, deserves to 
be recorded. John possessed a splendid golden basin and ewer, 



n,.i,i ...A'OOgle 



EMBASSY OF JOHN THE GRAMMARIAN. 209 
iJh 718-867.] 

richly chased and ornamented with jewels, and of this he 
made a great display. Throughout the East, and in 
many parts of European Turkey at the present day, where 
knives and forks are not yet in use, it is the practice to wash 
the hands immediately before commencing a meal, and on 
rising from the table. A servant pours water from a ewer 
over the hands of the guest, while another holds a basin to 
receive it as it falls. This, being done by each guest in turn, 
would leave ample time for observing the magnificent golden 
utensils of John at the entertainments he was in the habit of 
giving to the leading men in Bagdad. At a grand entertain- 
ment given by the Byzantine ambassador to the principal 
nobility of the caliph's court, the slaves rushed into the 
hall where the guests were assembled, and informed John, in 
a state of great alarm, that his magnificent golden basin was 
not to be found. The Saracens eagerly suggested measures 
for its recovery; but John treated the affair with indifference, 
and calmly ordered his steward to give the slaves another. 
Soon two slaves appeared, one bearing in his hand a golden 
ewer, and the other a basin, larger and more valuable, if not 
more elegant, than that which it was supposed had been 
stolen. These had been hitherto kept concealed, on purpose 
to attract public attention by this pitiful trick. 

John, however, gained the respect of the Saracens by his 
disinterested conduct, for he declined to receive any present 
of value for himself, even from the caliph. Motassem, 
therefore, presented him with a hundred Christian captives ; 
but even then he sent immediately to Theophilus, to b^ 
him to return a like number of Saracen prisoners to the 
caliph. No general exchange of prisoners, however, appears 
to have been effected at the time of this embassy, which, 
with other circumstances, affords a proof that the avowed 
object of the embassy totally failed. When John returned 
to Constantinople, he persuaded the Emperor Theophilus 
to construct the palace of Bryas in the varied style of 
Saracenic architecture, of which those who have seen the 
interior of the palaces at Damascus, the work of Owen Jones 
on the Alhambra, or the Alhambra court at the crystal palace 
of Sydenham, with its gofgeous ornaments, can alone form an 
adequate idea. 

The great wealth of the Byzantine government at this 

VOL. II. P 

n,.i,|...,.A'00'^IC 



aio ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.lV. {I. 
period was derived from the commercial pre-eminence it 
then enjoyed among the nations of the earth. The com- 
merce of Europe centred at Constantinople in the eighth 
and ninth centuries more completely than it has ever since 
done in any one city '. The principles of the government, 
which reprobated monopoly, and the moderation of its duties, 
which repudiated privileges, were favourable to the extension 
of trade. While Charlemi^ne ruined the internal trade of his 
dominions by fixing a maximum of prices, and destroyed 
foreign commerce under the persuasion that, by discouraging 
luxury, he could enable his subjects to accumulate treasures 
which he might afterwards extort or filch into his own 
treasury, Theophilus prohibited the persons about his court 
from engagii^ in mercantile speculations, lest by so doing 
they should injure the r^iular channels of commercial 
intercourse, by diminishing the profits of the individual 
dealer'. Theophilus proclaimed that commerce was the 
principal source of the wealth of his people, and that as 
many derived their means of subsistence from trade, and 
drew from it alone the funds for payment of the public 
burdens, any interference with the liberty of commerce was 
a public as well as a private injury. The political importance 
of the commercial classes induced Irene, when she usurped 
the empire, to purchase their favour by diminishing the 
duties levied at the passages of the Bosphorus and the 
Hellespont *. 

During this period the western nations of Europe drew their 
supplies of Indian commodities from Constantinople, and the 
Byzantine empire supplied them with all the gold coin in 
circulation for several centuries. 

The Greek navy, both mercantile and warlike, was the most 
numerous then in existence. Against the merchant-ships of 
the Greeks, the piratical enterprises of the Egyptian, African, 
and Spanish Arabs were principally directed. Unfortunately 
we possess no authentic details of the commercial state of the 



' The short tc^ of TheodoEiat III. ' 
A «ty important commetaUl treaty wil . _ „ . 
ihe buiia of the IihsI ttipuUtioiu for B long period- 



3 Google 



BYZANTINE COMMERCE. %\\ 

*j>. 716-867.] 

Byzanrine empire, nor of the Greek population during the 
Iconoclast period, yet we may safely transfer to this time 
the records that exist proving the extent of Greek commerce 
under the Basilian dynasty. Indeed, we must remember 
that, as the ignorance and poverty of western Europe was 
much greater in the eleventh and twelfth centuries than In 
the eighth and ninth, we may conclude that Byzantine 
commerce was also greater durit^ the earlier period. 

The influence of the trade of the Arabians with the East 
Indies on the supply of the markets of western Europe has 
been overrated, and that of the Greeks generally lost sight of. 
This is, in some d^ree, to be attributed to the circumstance 
that the most westerly nations, in the times preceding the 
Crusades, were better acquainted with the commerce and the 
literature of the Arabs of Spain than with those of the 
Byzantine Greeks, and also to the preservation of an inter- 
esting account of the extensive voyages of the Arabs in the 
Indian seas during this very period, when we are deprived 
of all records of Byzantine commerce". The Byzanrine 
markets drew their supplies of Indian and Chinese productions 
from Central Asia, the trade passing north of the caliph's 
dominions through the territory of the Khazars to the Black 
Sea. This route was long frequented by the Christians, to 
avoid the countries in the possession of the Mohammedans, 
and was the highway of European commerce for several 
centuries. Though it appears at present a far more difHcult 
and expensive route than that by the Red Sea and the 
Indian Ocean, it was really safer, more rapid, and more 
economical, in the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries. This 
requires no proof to those who are acquainted with caravan 
life in the East, and who reflect on the imperfections of 
ancient navigation, and the dangers and delays to which 
sailing vessels of any burden are exposed in the Red Sea. 
When the Venetians and Genoese b^an to surpass the 
Greeks in commercial enterprise, they endeavoured to occupy 
this route ; and we have some account of the line it followed, 
and the manner in which it was carried on, after the East had 
been thrown into confusion by the conquests of the Crusaders 

> Sc« KtlatiOH dm Vojagafaiti par In Arabn tl Ptrtm* dam Vlndt tl i la Ckint 
doM U muviimt SiitU, Tradnclion et Ed«uduements pu Reinaud ; Abu)ph4i»- 
glui. Hit. Dyn. aSf. 

p a 



031c 



2 1 1 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.IV.Ji. 

and Tartars, in the travels of Marco Polo. For several 
centuries the numerous cities of the Byzantine empire 
supplied European consumers with Indian wares, and it 
was in them alone that the necessary security of property 
existed to preserve large stores of merchandise. Constanti- 
nople was as much superior to every city in the civilized 
world, in wealth and commerce, as London now is to the 
other European capitals. And it must also be borne in 
mind, that the countries of Central Asia were not then in 
the rude and barbarous condition into which they have 
now sunk, since nomade nations have subdued them. On 
many parts of the road traversed by the caravans, the 
merchants found a numerous and wealthy population ready 
to traffic in many articles sought after both in the East and 
West ; and the single commodity of furs supplied the traders 
with the means of adding greatly to their promts. 

Several circumstances contributed to transfer trade from the 
dominions of the caliphs to Constantinople. The Mohamme- 
dan law, which prohibited all loans at interest, and the 
arbitrary nature of the administration of justice, rendered 
all property, and particularly commercial property, insecure '. 
Again, the commercial route by the way of Egypt and the 
Red Sea was suddenly rendered both difficult and expenave, 
about the year 767, by the Caliph Al Mansur, who dosed 
the canal connecting the Nile with the Red Sea. The 
harvests of Egypt, which had previously filled the coast of 
Arabia with plenty, could no longer be transported in 
quantity to the ports of the Red Sea ; living became ex- 
pensive ; the population of Arabia declined ; and the carrying 
trade was ruined by the additional expenditure required. 
The caliph by this measure impoverished and depopulated 
the rebellious cities of Medina and Mecca to such a d^ree 
as to render their military and political power less dangerous 

' The picture presented by the Otieatal historians of the omtressive rule of the 
caliphs show* how little security existed under the mosl powerful of the Abassides. 
Price has the following passage in the history of Al Mansur, and his testimoay is 
confimed by the recent excellent work of Weil, Gachiclat dir Chaiifn: 'But 
tbe sufferings of the inhabilants of Bagdad had reached that point beyond which 
there was no further endurance. A licentious banditti had re-eslablishcd its sway 
in that unhappy city; the women, the slaves, the property of the inhabitants of 
every rank and description, had once more become tbe prey of robbers and 
outlaws, who regarded neither the authority of Mausur nor of any other person,' 
Balorj rtfUu iUaAarniiMiJiui Emfin, ii, 131. 



DgIC 



BYZANTINE COMMERCE. %\\ 

Aj). 716-867.] 

to the central authority at Bagdad, but at the same time 
he mined the commerce of ^ypt with India and the eastern 
coast of Southern Africa. Since that period, this most 
important line of communication has never been restored, 
and the coarser articles of food, of which Egypt can produce 
inexhaustible stores, are deprived of their natural market in 
the arid regions of Arabia'. The hostile relations between 
the caliphs of Bagdad and Spain likewise induced a consider- 
able portion of the Mohammedan population on the shores of 
the Mediterranean to maintain close commercial relations with 
Constantinople ^ 

A remarkable proof of the great wealth of society at this 
period is to be found in the immense amount of specie in 
circulation. We have already noticed that the Byzantine 
empire furnished all the western nations of Europe with gold 
coin for several centuries ; and when the boards of the 
Mohammedan conquerors of India fell a prey to European 
invaders, it was found that the gold coins of the Byzantine 
emperors formed no small part of their treasures. The sums 
accumulated by Al Mansur and Theophilus were so great, 
that no extortion could have collected them unless the people 
had been wealthy and great activity had existed in the 
commercial transactions of the age. It is true that the 
Caliph Al Mansur was remarkable for his extreme parsimony 
during twelve years of his reign. During this period he is 
said to have accumulated a treasure amounting to six hundred 
millions of dirhems in silver {about ;iri 3,750,000), and fourteen 
millions of dinars of gold (;^6,4 17,000}, or at the rate of 
;f 1,680,000 a-year'. The Emperor Theophilus, whose lavish 
expenditure in various ways has been recorded, left a large 



' The last mentton of this canal by a European luthor is in Dicuil, who bad 
heard a monk named Fidelis relate (hat he navigated on a branch of the Nile 
ffom Babylon (old Cairo) to the Red Sea. Dicuili LSier dt Mimvra Orbis Ttrrat, 
vi. 3. 6. RKhtrctut Q^grapk. it CrUiqiia. par Letronne, 33. 

' Cordonne, HiiKirt di tAfiiqtu tl it I'Eipagni jobs la DominaHoH dts Aralti, 
i. 340. 

* The name of Abou Dowaneck (the Father of a Farthing) was given to Al 
Mansur on account of his avarice, AJmamun is said to have eipended 300,0(0 
dinars in translating the works of the Greeks (i37.5oo{.). Price, ii. 141. Weil 
(iL 38, nou I) says that, according to Cod. Golk. (f. 11), Al Mansur left 900,000,000 
dinars and 60,000,000 dirhems ; and also that the treasure left by Haroun Al 
Rasbid amounted to 900,ooo/>oo dinars, and twice as man]' dirhems; ii. 117. 
itor« 3. It is needless to say that either there must here be a Ikult of the copylK 
or gross exaggeration. 



.vGoo^lc 



214 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Cli.IV. {I. 

sum ia the imperial treasury at his death, which, when 
increased by the prudent economy of the r^ency of Theo- 
dora, amounted to one thousand and ninety nine centenaries 
of gold, three thousand centenaries of silver, t>esides plate and 
gold embroidery, that, on beii^ melted down, yielded two 
hundred centenaries of gold. The gold may be estimated as 
equal to about four millions and a half of sovereigns, and the 
weight of silver as equal to ;^930,ooo in value, the remainder 
of the treasure to 800,000 sovereigns, making the whole equal 
to a metallic coinage of 5,230,000 sovere^ns, and of course 
far exceeding that sum in its exchangeable value, from the 
comparative scarcity of the precious metals and the more 
circumscribed circulation of money. There does not appear 
to be any exaggeration in this account of the sums left in the 
Byzantine treasury at the termination of the regency of 
Theodora, for the historians who have transmitted it wrote 
under the government of the Basilian dynasty, and under 
circumstances which afforded access to official sources of 
information. The Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 
their patron, who lived in the third generation after Theo- 
dora, would not have authorized any misrepresentation on such 
a subject *. 

Some further confirmation of the general wealth of the 
countries on the shores of the Mediterranean, in which com- 
merce was allowed some degree of liberty, is found in the 
wealth of Abderrahman III., in Spain, who is said to have 
possessed an annual revenue of 5,480,000 dinars, though some 
historians have calculated the whole income of his treasury at 
12,945,000, which would be equal to £5,500,000 sterling'. 
The poverty of Europe at a later period, when the isolation 
caused by the feudal system had annihilated commerce and 
prevented the circulation of the precious metals, cannot be 
used as an argument against the probability of this wealth 
having existed at the earlier period of which we are treating '. 

In contrasting the state of commercial society in the Byzan- 
tine and Saracen empires, we must not overlook the existence 



' Contin. 107; Sjineon M^. 436. 

* Muiphy't AfoAammnJon EmfnTi in Spain, 303. 

* After the conquesls of Hcory V. in France, the revenue! of the ctown of 
England in T431 aiDoonted only to j3,oooJ. Sterling ■imusUj. Midielet, ffiir. dt 
Frcaut, iii. 65)$, edit. Brux. 



Dictzed by Google 



BYZANTINE COMMERCE. 415 

A.D. 71S-867.] 

of one social feature favourable to the Mohammedans. The 
higher classes of the Byzantine empire, imbued with the old 
Roman prejudices, looked on trade of every kind as a debasing 
pursuit, unsuitable to those who were called by birth or posi- 
tion to serve the state, while the Saracens still paid an outward 
respect to the antique maxims of Arabian wisdom, which 
inculcated industry as a source of independence even to men 
of the highest rank. In deference to this injunction, the 
Abassid caliphs were in the habit of learning some trade, and 
selling the produce of their manual labour, to be employed in 
purchasing the food they consumed '. 

Perhaps we may also hazard the conjecture, that a con- 
siderable addition had, shortly before the reign of Theophilus, 
been made to the quantity of precious metals in existence by 
the discovery of new mines. We know, indeed, that the 
Saracens in Spain worked mines of gold and silver to a con- 
siderable extent, and we may therefore infer that they did the 
same in many other portions of their vast dominions. At the 
same time, whatever was done with proht by the Saracens was 
sure to be attempted by the Christians under the Byzantine 
government The abundance of Byzantine gold coins still in 
existence leads to the conclusion that gold was obtained in 
considerable quantities from mines within the circuit of the 
Eastern Empire, 



Sect. II. — State of Society among the People of the Byzantine 
Empire in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries. 

Decline of civilization. — Influence of the Greek church. — Slavery. — Theolt^c 
spirit of the people. — State of scicDce and art. — Lileratare. 

The wealth of nations depends in a great degree on their 
commerce, but the health and strength of a people is derived 
from its agricultural industry. Commerce is cosmopolitan, 
^riculture is national. The population which is pressed into 
laige cities by commercial pursuits, or crowded into little 
space by manufacturing industr y — even the wanderers with 

' In ancient times a Roman citizen who became an artisan was expelled trout 
his tribe OfiStr) yif t{ijr 'Viiaiar d1>t« mtnjAor cCr* X'^'P'^'^X^V ^^ ^X"'- 
Dionyi. Halicar. Ix. 15. 



DgIC 



21 5 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.IT. 11. 
the caravan and the nav^ators of ships — rarely perpetuate 
their own numbers. All these hunters after riches require 
to be constantly recruited from the agricultural population 
of their respective countries. This constant change, which 
is going on in the population of cities, operates powerfully in 
altering the condition of society in each successive generation. 
Hence we find the nature of society in Constantinople strongly 
opposed to the principles of the Byzantine government. The 
imperial government, as has been already mentioned, inherited 
the conservative principles of Roman society, and, had it been 
possible, would have fettered the population to its actual 
condition and reduced the people to castes. The laws of 
Providence opposed the laws of Rome, and society dwindled 
away. The ruling classes in the Western Empire had expired 
before their place was occupied by the conquering nations of 
the north. In the Eastern Empire the change went on more 
gradually; the towns and cities were far more numerous, but 
many of them embraced within their own walls an agricultural 
population, which not only recruited the population engaged 
in trade, but also sent off continual colonies to maintain the 
great cities of the empire, and especially Constantinople. 
This great capital, recruited from distant towns, and from 
nations dissimilar in manners and language, was consequently 
always undergoing great changes, yet always preserving its 
peculiar type of a city destitute of any decided nationality, 
and of homogeneity in its society. It became in turn a 
Roman, an Asiatic, and a Greek city, as the Roman, the 
Asiatic, or the Greek aristocracy acquired the predominant 
influence in the administration. Under the Iconoclasts, it 
was decidedly more an Asiatic city than either a Greek or 
a Roman. Whether the Asiatics, the Greeks, or the Sda- 
vonians formed the greater number of the inhabitants, cannot 
be ascertained. The aristocracy was certainly Asiatic, the 
middle classes and artisans were chiefly Greeks, but the lowest 
rabble, the day labourers, the porters, and the domestic ser- 
vants, when not slaves, appear to have consisted principally of 
the Sclavonians of Thrace and Macedonia, who, like the 
Emperor Basil the Macedonian, entered the city with a wallet 
on their shoulder to seek their fortune. A similar condition 
of society exists to-day, and thousands of labourers may be 
seen weekly arriving at Constantinople in the steamers from 



DgIC 



DECLINE OF CIVILIZATION. 21? 

A.B. 716-867] 

the Asiatic coast of the Black Sea, and from the coasts between 
Smyrna, Thessalonica, and the capital. 

The decline of society throughout the Roman world has 
been already noticed, and the nature of the improvement 
which took place in the Eastern Empire during the reigns 
of Leo III. and his successors has been pointed out. It is 
now necessary to examine why the improvement of society 
so soon assumed a stationary aspect. We must not fot^et 
that the empire was still Romsn in its name, traditions, and 
prejudices. The trammels, binding the actions and even the 
thoughts of the various classes, were very slightly relaxed, and 
the permanent relaxation had been made in the interest of the 
government, not of the people. Men of every rank were 
confined within a restricted circle, and compelled to act in 
their individual spheres in one unvarying manner. Within 
the imperial palace the incessant ceremonial was r^arded as 
the highest branch of human knowledge. It was multiplied 
into a code, and treated as a science. In the church, tra- 
dition, not gospel, was the guide, and the innumerable forms 
and ceremonies and liturgies were hostile to the exercise of 
thought and the use of reason. Among the people at large, 
though the curial system of castes had been broken down, 
still the trader was fettered to his corporation, and often to 
his quarter or his street, where he exercised his calling 
amidst men of the same profession. The education of the 
child, and the tendencies of society, both prevented the indi- 
vidual from acquiring more than the confined knowledge 
requisite for his position in the empire. No learning, no 
talent, and no virtue could conduct either to distinction or 
wealth, unless exercised according to the fixed formulas that 
governed the state and the church. Hence even the mer- 
chant, who travelled over all Asia, and who supported the 
system by the immense duties he furnished to government, 
supplied no new ideas to society, and perhaps passed through 
life without acquiring many. 

This peculiar constitution of society explains the origin 
of some vices in the character of the Greeks of later times, 
which are erroneously supposed to be an inheritance of the 
days of liberty. The envy and jealousy produced by party 
contests in small republics were certainly very great, and, we 
may add, quite natural, for both passions and interests were 



DgIC 



3l8 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.IV. {1. 
sharpened by hourly personal collision, and their political 
institutions rendered law imperfect. The envy and jealousy 
of later times were baser feelings, and had their origin in 
meaner interests. Roman society crowded men of the same 
professions together, and in some measure excluded them 
from much intercourse with others. The consequence Was, 
that a violent struggle for wealth, and often for the means 
of existence, was created amongst those living in permanent 
personal contact. Every man was deeply interested in ren- 
dering his nearest neighbour in some d^ree his inferior, 
for individual advancement being almost impossible in the 
stationary condition of Roman society, the only method of 
obtaining any superiority was by the depreciation of the moral 
or professional character of rivals who were always near neigh- 
bours. Envy and calumny were the feelings of the mind 
which Roman society under the emperors tended to develop 
in every rank. The same cause produces the same effect in 
the Greek bazaar of every Turkish town of the present day, 
where tradesmen of the same profession are crowded into the 
same street. When it is impossible to depreciate the merit of 
the material and the workmanship, it is easy to calumniate 
the moral character of the workman. 

The influence of the Greek church on the political fabric of 
the empire failed to infuse a sound moral spirit into either the' 
administration or the people. Still it may be possible to 
trace some of the secondary causes which prepared the way 
for the reforms of Leo III. to the sense of justice, moral 
respect, and real rehgious faith, infused into the mass of the 
population by a comparison of the doctrines of Christianity 
with those of Mohammedanism. But the blindness of the 
age has concealed from our view many of the causes which 
impelled society to co-operate with the Iconoclast emperors in 
their career of improvement and reorganization. That the 
moral condition of the people of the Byzantine empire under 
the Iconoclast emperors was superior to that of any equal 
number of the human race in any preceding period, can hardly 
be doubted. The bulk of society occupied a higher social 
position in the time of Constantine Copronymus than of 
Pericles ; the masses had gained more by the decrease of 
slavery and the extension of free labour than the privileged 
citizens had lost. Public opinion, though occupied on meaner 



DgIC 



INFLUENCE OF THE CREEK CHURCH. aio 

AJ..7KWI67.I 

objects, had a more extended basis, and embraced a laiger 
class. Perhaps, too, the war of opinions concerning ecclesias- 
tical forms or subtleties tended to develop pure morality as 
much as the ambitious party-stru^les of the Pnyx. When 
the merits and defects of each age are fairly weighed.-both will 
be found to offer lessons of experience which the student of 
political history ought not to n^lect. 

There may be some difference of opinion concerning the 
respective merits of Hellenic, Roman, and Byzantine society, 
but there can be none (X>nceming the superiority of Byzantine 
over that which existed in the contemporary empires of the 
Saracens and the Franks. There we find all moml restraints 
weakened, and privil^ed classes or cooquering nations ruling 
an immense subject population, with very little reference to 
law, morality, or religion. Violence and injustice claimed at 
Bagdad an unbounded license, until the Turkish mercenaries 
extinguished the caliphate, and it was the Norman invaders 
who reformed the social condition of the Franks. Mohamme- 
danism legalized polygamy with all its evils in the East. In 
the West, licentiousness was unbounded, tn defiance of the 
precepts of Christianity. Charles Martel, Pepin, and Charle- 
magne are said to have had two wives at a time, and a 
numerous household of concubines. But on turning to the 
Byzantine empire, we find that the Emperor Constantine VI. 
prepared the way for his own ruin by divorcing his first wife 
and marrying a second, in what was considered an illegal 
manner. The laws of the Franks attest the frequency of 
female drunkenness ; and the whole l^islation of Western 
Europe, during the seventh and eighth centuries, indicates 
great immorality, and a degree of social anarchy, which 
explains more clearly than the political events recorded in 
history, the real cause of the fall of one government after 
another ^. The superior moral tone of society in the Byzan- 
tine empire was one of the great causes of its long duration ; 
it was its true conservative principle. 

The authority exercised by the senate, the powers possessed 
by synods and general councils of the church, and the 
importance often attached by the emperors to the ratification 



' CipefigHe, QiarUmafpi*, i. 54, 1S5. 



:v Google 



aao ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.IV.$j. 
of their laws by silcntia and popular assemblies, mark a 
change in the Byzantine empire in strong contrast with the 
earlier military empire of the Romans. The highest power in 
the state had been transferred from the army to the laws of 
the empire — no inconsiderable step in the progress of political 
civilization. The influence of those feelings of humanity 
which resulted from this change is visible in the mild 
treatment of many unsuccessful usurpers and dethroned 
emperors. During the reign of Nicephorus I., the sons of 
Constantine V., Bardanes, and Arsaber, were all living in 
monasteries, though they had all attempted to occupy the 
throne. Constantine VI. and Michael I. lived unmolested by 
their successors. 

The marked feature of ancient society was the division 
of mankind into two great classes — freemen and slaves. 
The proportion between these classes was liable to con- 
tinual variation, and every considerable variation produced 
a corresponding alteration in the laws of society, which we 
are generally unable to follow. The progress of the mass 
of the population was, however, constantly retarded until 
the extinction of slavery. But towards that boon to mankind, 
great progress was made in the Byzantine empire during the 
eighth and ninth centuries. The causes that directly tended 
to render free labour more profitable than it had been 
hitherto, when applied to the cultivation of the soil, and 
which consequently operated more immediately in extin- 
guishing predial slavery, and repressing the most extensive 
branch of the slave-trade, by supplying the cities with free 
emigrants, cannot be indicated with precision. It has 
been very generally asserted that we ought to attribute the 
change to the influence of the Christian religion. If this 
be really true, cavillers might observe that so powerful 
a cause never in any other case produced its effects so 
tardily. Unfortunately, however, though ecclesiastical in- 
fluence has exercised immense authority over the internal 
policy of European society, religious influence has always 
been comparatively small ; and though Christianity has 
laboured to abolish slavery, it was often for the interest 
of the church to perpetuate the institution. Slavery had, in 
fact, ceased to exist in most European countries, while many 
Christians still upheld its legality, and maintained that its 



DgIC 



SLAV£Ry. 221 

Aji. 716-867.] 

existence was not at variance with the doctrines of their 
religion '. 

The precise condition of slaves in the Byzantine empire at 
this period must be learned from a careful study of the 
imperial legislation of Rome, compared with later documents. 
As a proof of the improved philanthropy of enlightened men 
during the Iconoclast period, the testament of Theodore 
Studita deserves to be quoted. That bold and independent 
abbot says, ' A monk ought not to possess a slave, neither for 
his own service, nor for the service of his- monastery, nor for 
the culture of its lands ; for a slave is a man made after the 
image of God ; ' but he derogates in some degree from his 
own merits, though he gives a correct picture of the feelings of 
his time, by adding, ' and this, like marriage, is only allowable 
in those living a secular life*.' 

The foundation of numerous hospitals and other charitable 
institutions, both by emperors and private individuals, is also 
a proof that feelings of philanthropy as well as religion had 
penetrated deeply into men's minds. 

The theologic spirit which pervaded Byzantine society is to 
be attributed as much to material causes as to the intellectual 
condition of the Greek nation. Indeed, the Greeks had at 
times only a secondary share in the ecclesiastical controversies 
in the Eastern church, though the circumstance of those 
controversies having been carried on in the Greek language 
has made the nations of western Europe attribute them to a 
philosophic, speculative, and polemic spirit inherent in the 
Hellenic mind. A very slight examination of history is 
sufficient to prove, that several of the heresies which distutt»ed 
the Eastern church had their origin in the more profound 
religious ideas of the Oriental nations, and that many of 
the opinions called heretical were, in a great measure, expres- 
sions of the mental nationality of the Syrians, Armenians, 



' For the exlenl to which the slaye-trade was carried on by the Latin Chris- 
tians, see Marin, SloHa chiiU tfntUica dtl Comnurdo dt' Vmrziani, a. 51. 

' S. Theodori Studitae Epiiolat aliagvt Scripla Dogmaliea, in the fiAh Tolame 
of Sinnondi Optra Varia, p. 66. On the subject of Roman and Byianline slavery, 
Ke Blair, Aa Inquiry inin Me Smit of Slavtry amongst tit Romans; Biol, Dt FAboli- 
lion dt VEiclavagi ancim «■ Ocddtnl; Babington, Tht Injlatnct of ChriOianilj in 
Promoting iht Aboliiirm of Slawry in Eunpi: and Wallon. Hisloirt dt VEtclavagt 
dant rAaiiqtaii. This last work is a valuable addition to ooi knowledge of society 
ander the Roman empcrois. 



DgIC 



223 . ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk,I.(rt.rv.(», 

Egyptians, and Persians, and had no connection whatever 
with the Greek mind. 

Even the contest with the Iconoclasts was a dispute in 
which the ancient Oriental opinions concerning the operations 
of mind and matter were as much concerned, as the Greek 
contest between the necessity of artificial symbols of faith 
on the one hand, and the duty of developing the intellectual 
faculties by cultivating truth through the reason, not the 
imagination, on the other. The ablest writer on the Greek 
side of the question, John Damascenus, was a Syrian, and not 
a Greek. The political struggle to establish the centralization 
of ecclesiastical and political power was likewise quite as 
important an element in the contest as the religious question ; 
and as soon as it appeared firmly established, the emperors 
became inclined to yield to popular prejudices. The victory 
of the im^e-worshippers tended to exalt a party in the 
Eastern church devoted to ecclesiastical tradition, but little 
inclined to cultivate Hellenic literature or cherish Hellenic 
ideas, which it considered hostile to the legendary lore 
contained in the lives of the saints. After the victory of this 
party, accordingly, we find a more circumscribed circle of 
intellectual culture began to prevail in the Byzantine empire. 
John the Grammarian, Leo the Mathematician, and Photius, 
who acquired his vast literary attainments as a layman, were 
the last profound and enlightened Byzantine scholars : they 
left no successors, nor has any Greek of the same intellectual 
calibre since appeared in the world. 

A greater similarity of thought and action may be traced 
throughout the Christian world in the eighth century than in 
subsequent ages. The same predominance of religious feeling 
and ecclesiastical ceremonials ; the same passion for founding 
monasteries and raising discussions ; the same disposition to 
make life subservient to religion, to make all amusements 
ecclesiastical, and to embody the enjoyment of music, painting, 
and poetry in the ceremonies of the church ; the same abuse 
of the right of asylum to criminals by the ecclesiastical 
authorities, and the same antagonism between the church and 
the state, is visible in the East and the West *. 

' The inflnence of the monlts during the Iconoclast contest became so great 
that the monasteries on Otymptu, Athos, and Ida fonned themselves into small 
lepublici, and almost as[Hied at living iiidepeodent of the civil power. GeoMiut, 



AiOogIc 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 22$ 

A.D. 716-867.] 

The orthodox church was originally Greek ; the seven 
general councils whoae canons had fixed its doctrines were 
Greek ; and the popeSi when they rose into importance, could 
only adopt a scheme of theology already framed. The 
religious or theological portion of Popery, as a section of the 
Christian church, is really Greek ; and it is only the ecclesias- 
tical, political, and theocratic peculiarities of the fabric which 
can be considered as the work of the Latin church. The 
general unity of Christians was, however, prominent in good 
as well as evil; the missionary labours of Boniface amoi^ the 
Germans, at the commencement of the eighth century, reflect 
glory on the Latin church, and the conversion of the Bulgar- 
ians in the middle of the ninth, by the ministry of Methodios 
and Kyrillos, is honourable to the Byzantine. These two 
monks, natives of Thessalonica, where they lived surrounded 
by a fierce tribe of Sclavonians, devoted themselves to study 
the language of these troublesome neighbours. Under the 
regency of the Empress Theodora, they rendered their know- 
ledge of the Sclavonlan dialect the means of propc^ating 
Christianity and advancii^ the cause of civilization, by 
visiting Bulgaria in the character of missionaries. They are 
universally allowed to have conducted their mission in a 
Christian spirit, and to have merited the great success that 
attended their labours '. 

The improvement which took place in the administration of 
justice, and the legal reforms effected by Leo III. and 

39. [GencBios only says, ' These baveni of orthodoxy, guarded by the power of 
Christ, rrom that lime to the preseol lemain undistDtbed.* Ed.] The Emperor 
Theophitus, a man by no means under the direct influence of the clergy, foimed 
a new uylum for criminals at the silver tomb of his beloved daughter Maria. 
Leo Gramm. 451. 

' Mosheim, Ecdaiaitical Hidory, ii. 169; Nejmder, Batory of Ikt Ckriuian Rdi- 
gion and Chureh, iii. J07. [It is strange that the author should have dismissed 
the apostles of the Slavonians with this passing notice, jnst as be has ignored 
tJlphilas, the Arian apostle ol" the Goths, b the first volutne. Vel these two 
missions, together with the invention of the Gothic and Cyrillic alphabets, ere 
among the most important influences exercised by the Eastern Empire. The 
story of Cyril and Methodios is one of the most romaiific and the most in- 
structive in Byzantine history, combinmg as it does the East and the West, 
civiliied states and barbarians, history uid legend. In addition to the older 
anthorities nientioQed in the notes lo Mosheim, the reader is referred especially 
to the imponant works of Dobrowsky — Oyritt tmd Mtiliodias (Prag 1833), and 
Uah-iulu Ltgtadt (Prag 1816)— in the Ahkandltmgm of the Bohemian 0*seUstii^ 
dtr Witiiaiduifitii. vols. viii. and i. (mui fblgi) respectively, l^ter contribnlions 
to the subject aie Diimmler, Dii ptumomschi L*gindt vom iiil. Miihodiui ; Diimmler 
and Miklosich. i)H LsgmiU von dtm htU. CyrHiiu; and Louis Leger, And* ivr 
CyrSU tl Mitiodi U la Convtraon dti Stavtt oh CkrUkaiaam. En.] 



O'^le 



a24 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.I.Ch.tV.f J. 

Constantine V., have been already noticed. Leo V. and . 
Theophilus also gained great praise, even from their adver- 
saries, for the strict control they established over the forms 
of proceeding and the decisions of the courts of law. The 
l^al monuments of this period, however, by no means 
correspond with the extent of the administrative improvement 
which took place. The era of legislative greatness in the 
Byzantine empire was under the Basilian dynasty, but it was 
under the Iconoclast emperors that new vigour was infused 
into the system, and the improvements were made which laid 
the foundation of the stability, wealth, and power of the 
Byzantine empire. 

The scientific attainments of the educated class in the 
Byzantine empire were unquestionably very considerable. 
Many learned men were invited to the court of the Caliph 
Almamun, and contributed far more than his own subjects to 
the reputation that sovereign has deservedly gained in the 
history of science. The accurate measurement of the earth's 
orbit in his time shows that astronomical and mathematical 
knowledge had at no previous period attained a greater 
height ; and if the Byzantine authorities are to be credited, 
Leo the Mathematician, who was afterwards archbishop of 
Thessalonica, was invited to the court of the caliph, because 
he was universally recognized to be superior to all the 
scientific men at Bagdad in mathematical and mechanical 
knowledge *. A proof that learning was still cultivated in 
the distant provinces of the Byzantine empire, and that 
schools of some eminence existed in Greece, is to be found in 
the fact that Leo, when a layman, retired to a college in the 
island of Andros to pursue his studies, and there laid the 
foundation of the scientific knowledge by which he acquired 
his reputation. After he was compelled, on account of his 
opposition to image-worship, to resign the archbishopric of 

* Almunim's frstrononieis calcalaled the length of the fear al 365 days 5 hours 
46 minutes anil .?o seconds. Tbe true length it 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 
48 secoods. Niebuht has pointed out the exactitude attained by the Etruscans 
in fixing the length of the solar year. Uiil. of Ronu, i. 174. The Mexicao 
calendar in use before the discovery of America was the most perfect before 
the Gregorian. Humboldt, Fu« da CordilUrn il Mxmvmmt da PtufUs Indigent 
dt t Amiriqut, iig. For the obligations of the Arabs to the Byzantines from the 
time of MansuT. ttt Weil. ii. Si, 84. 9;). Greek physidaDs and Greek cooks are 
mentioned in the Arabian Nights. The Caliph Maosur was attended by Greek 
and Indian physicians. 



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SCIENCE AND ART. 335 

A.D. 716-867.1 

Thessalonica, the general respect felt for his learning obtained 
for him from Bardas Caesar the appointment of president of 
the new university, founded at Constantinople in the reign of 
Michael III., in which chairs of geometry and astronomy had 
been established, as well as the usual instruction in Greek 
literature \ 

It was under the direction of Leo that several of those 
remarkable works of jewellery, combined with wonderful 
mechanical contrivances, were executed for the Emperor 
Theophilus, which have been alfeady mentioned '. The 
perfection <rf the tel^raph by tire-signals, from the frontiers of 
the empire to the shores of the Bosphorus, and the machinery 
by which the signals were communicated to a dial placed in 
the imperial council-chamber, were aLw the work of Leo*. 
The fame which still attended distinguished artists and 
mechanicians at Constantinople shows us that the love of 
knowledge and art was not entirely extinct ; and the relics of 
Byzantine jewellery, often found buried in the most distant 
regions of Europe, prove that a considerable trade was carried 
on in these works. 

Even the art of statuary was not entirely neglected, for it 
has been noticed already that Constantine VI. erected a 
statue of bronze in honour of his mother Irene *. Painting, 
however, was more universally admired, and(mosaics were 
easily adapted to private dwellings. There were many dis- 
tinguished painters in the Byzantine empire at this time, and 
there is reason to think that some of their productions were 
wonderful displays of artistic skill, without giving credit to 
the miraculous powers of the works of Lazaros. The mis- 
sionary Methodios awakened the terror of the King of the 
Bulgarians by a vivid representation of the tortures of the 
damned, in a painting combining the natural portraiture of 
frightful realities mixed with horrors supplied from a fertile 

' The bislory of Leo is given at length by the Continualor. 115. He waa 
called ibe ereat philosapher, and it is said that Atnuuniui wrote to Theophilns 
requesling him to send Leo to the court of Bagdad. Leo studied giammaT and 
it Constantinople ; rhetoric, philciiophy, and the pure idences at Andjos. 



eregation, with Ihe eiceptioQ of I«o and a fen others, perished. Syneon 



poetry at Constantinople ; rfaetorrc. philciiophy, and the pure iciencei at AndJos. 

In the year 869 he was present in the Chaicb of the Virgin, called Signia C, 

when it fell in consequence of the shock of an earthquake, and all the con. 

' ' ■ ' ■' ' ■ ■ Syneon 

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>ff- •154- 

' See i> 151. 

* Contia. Ill; Srmeon Mag. 450; Const. Manassei, i< 

* Codinus, Dr Or^. CtaaiatU. 61. 
VOU II. Q 



2a6 ICONOCLAST PERIOD. 

[Bk.i.ch.iv.ii. 
imagination. The sombre character of Byzantine art was 
well adapted to the gubject, and the fame Methodios 
acquired among his contemporaries, as well as from those in 
after times who saw his paintings, may be accepted as a proof 
that they possessed some touches of nature and truth. It 
would be unfair to decide peremptorily on the effect of larger 
works of art from the illuminated Byzantine manuscripts which 
still exist. Art is subject to strange vicissitudes in very 
short periods, as may be seen by any one who compares a 
guinea of the reign of Geoi^e III. with a coin of Cromwell or 
even Queen Anne, or who turns his eye from Whitehall to the 
National Gallery". 

The literature of the ancient world was never entirely 
n^lected at Constantinople, so that the intellectual culture 
of each successive period must always be viewed in connection 
with the ages immediately preceding. The literary history of 
Constantinople consequently opens a field of inquiry too wide 
to be entered on in the limited space assigned to this political 
history. The works of the classic writers of Hellas, of the 
legists of Rome, and of the fathers of Christian theoI<^[y, 
all exercised a direct influence on Byzantine literature at 
every period of its existence, until Constantinople was con- 
quered by the Turks. It has been too much the practice of 
the literary historians of Europe to underrate the positive 
knowledge of ancient literature possessed by the learned in 
the East during the eighth and ninth centuries. What has 
been often called the dawn of civilization, even in the West, 
was nothing more than an acquaintance with the bad models 
transmitted Trom the last ages of ancient literature. It is as 
great an error as to suppose that the English of the present 
day are ignorant of sculpture, because they are occupied in 
adorning the new Houses of Parliament with deformed 
statues ; and of architecture, because they have built a 
gallery for their pictures ill suited to the desired object*. 

■ The MSS. of the works of St. Gregory of Nizianius in Ihe National Librair 
at Paris, and of the Menologium of Bisil ia the Library of Che Vatican, with 
their rich dccnrations and miniatures, belong to the ninth century. The copy 
of the Menologium was prepared for the Emperor Basil I. 

' M. Guiiot. from nol paying sul£cient attention to this fact, has mistaken the 
sophistry of the second century for the rays of a supposed dawn of civilizatioa 
in the eighth. In his eiceUent HiUoiri di la Civilisalion in Fraw (ii. 183), he 
gives specimens of a. dispuuuio between Alcuin and Pepin, the sod of Charlemngne, 
which be considers as on example of the eager curiosity with which the human 



SCIENCE AND LITERATURE. aa? 

A.!!. 7 16-867] 

The most eminent Byzantine writers of this period were 
Geoi^e Syncellus, Theophanes, the Patriarch Niccphoroa, and 
perhaps John Malalas, in history; John Damascenus (who 
perhaps may be considered as a Syrian) and Theodore 
Studita, in theology; and Fhotius, in general literature. 

During the middle ages the Greek scientific writers became 
generally known in western Europe by means of translations 
from Arabic versions, and this circumstance has induced 
many to draw the conclusion that these works were better 
known and more popular among the Arabs at Cordova, Cairo, 
and Bagdad, than amoi^ the Greeks at Constantinople. The 
Almagest of Ftolemy affords an example of this double 
translation and erroneous inference. 

mind, while young uid ignoruit, views evenr unexpected combiaation of ideas. 
Unfortuaately the work he thus characterizes is a verbal tiacsIatioD from Secnndm. 
aa AtheoiaD sophist of the time of Hadrian, or a trajiscript of patt of an aiurearm 
attributed to Hadrian and Epictelnt. Sii Orellius, Ofiatila Orateiirvm Vntrurn 
SmltaHota M Maralia, i. 318. 



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BOOK SECOND. 



Basilian Dynasty — Period of the Power and Glory 
OF THE Byzantine Empire. a.d. 867-1057. 



CHAPTER I. 

COTfSOLIDATrON OF BYZAMTINE LEGIStATION AND 

Despotism. aj>. 867-963. 
Sect. I.— Reign of Basil T. {the Macedonian), A.D. 867-886. 

Personal historjt of Basil.-^EcctesiasIiCBl administration. — Finandal Ugistation- 
— Militaiy admin istral ion. — Faulician war. — Campaigns in Asia Minor. — 
SaraocDs range Skilf and Italy. — Conrt and diaractei of Butt I. 

The history of Basil I. has been transmitted to us by 
writers who compiled their works under the eye of his grand- 
son, the Emperor Constantine VII., and by that grandson with 
his own pen. Under such auspices, history is more likely 
to conceal much of the truth, than to record nothing but 
the truth. One instance of falsification may be mentioned. 
The imperial compilations would fain persuade us that the 
Sclavonian groom was a man of noble descent \ and that he 

' The Armenian historians claim Basil as a countryman, but It seems tliej only 
echo the genealogy invented at Constantinople to Batter the emperor. Cbamich. 
Hitfary rf Annetda, ii. 8 ; Le Beau. xiii. 180, 184,479; Gibbon, vi. 95. Hamsa 
of Ispahan says be vas of Sclavonian race. Reiske. Comtrutaarii ad Cotultml. 
Purphyr. di Cmrimoaiis Aulat Bji. ii. 451. edit. Bonn, There is a confirmation 
of thii in the expression mril w^t^an, in Genesius. 51 ; according to Kopitar, 
Olagaliia, lixi. See Constant. Porphyr. Boiiliui, 138; and Ephraemius, iii. 
[M. Rambaud, in bis exhaustive work L'Emph-t gric an dixiimt Siidt (pp. 147, 148), 
comes to the conclu^on that there is more evidence for the Armenian, than for the 
Slavonic, origin of Basil. He points out (0 that numerous Armenian colonies had 
been established in Thrace, a fact which is attested (p. 319) by many inscriptions 
discovered in that country by M. Albert Dumont ; (1^ that Basil had a brother 
called Symbatios or Sempad, a name of Armenian derivation ; (3) that the Arme- 
nian historians even mention the place in Armenia from which Basil's bmily 
originally came. The second of these points has certainly considerable weight. 



DgIC 



PERSONAL HISTORY OF BASIL I. 449 

coald trace that descent either through a line of paternal or 
maternal ancestors to Constantine, to the Arsacidae, and to 
Alexander the Great, yet they allow that hts father laboured 
as a poor peasant in the neighbourhood of Adrianople, until 
Basil himseIG despising the cultivation of the paternal farm, 
sought to improve his fortune by wandering to the capital. 
We are told by other authorities that Basil was a Sclavonian, 
and we know that the whole of Thrace and Macedonia was at 
this period cultivated by Sclavonian colonists. His father's 
family had been carried away captive into Bulgaria when 
Crumn took Adrianople while Basil was still a child, a.d. 813. 
During the reign of Theophilus, some Byzantine captives 
succeeded in taking up arms and marchii^ off into the 
empire. Basil was among the number, and after serving the 
governor of Macedonia for a time, he resolved to seek his 
fortune in Constantinople*. He departed, carrying all his 
worldly wealth in a wallet on his shoulders, and reached the 
capital on a summer's evening without knowing where to find 
a night's rest. Fatigued with his journey, he sat down in the 
portico of the church of St. Diomed, near the Adrianople 
gate, and slept there all night. In a short time he obtained 
employment as a groom in the service of a courtier named 
Theophilitzes, where his talent of taming unruly horses, his 
lai^e head, tall Bgure, and great strength, rendered him remark- 
able ; while his activity, zeal, and intelligence secured him 
particular notice from his master, and rapid promotion in his 
household *. 

Theophilitzes was sent into the Peloponnesus on public 
business by the Empress Theodora, while she was regent; 
and Basil, who accompanied his master, fell sick at Patrae 
with the fever, still so prevalent in the Morea. Here he was 
fortunate enough to acquire the protection of an old lady of 
immense wealth, whose extraordinary liberality to the 
unknown youth induces us to suppose that she was herself of 
Sclavonian race^ She made Basil a member of her family. 

The royal extraction of Basil M. Ramband regards as questionable. It might 
ndier be.iaid to be in the highest degree impro^Ue, as it vas not likely thai the 
peasant ancestors of the Emperor should have preserved such a tradition, and there 
vonld be a strong temptation to invent it subsequently. Ed.] 

' Symeon Mag. 4)4. 

■ Constant- Porphyr. BasUius, 144. 

* Niketas, a Sclavonian of Peloponnetus. celebrated for hil pride, was connected 
by mamage vitb Constantine Porphyrogeoitus, the grandson of Basil. 



DgIC 



iyj BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk II.Ch.I.{i, 
by uniting him with her own son John, in those spiritual ties 
of fraternity which the Greek church sanctions by peculiar 
rites'; and she bestowed on him considerable wealth when 
he was able to return to his master. It would appear that 
Basil already occupied a position of some rank, for the widow 
Danielis furnished him with a train of thirty slaves. The 
riches Basil acquired by the generosity of his benefactress 
were employed in purchasing an estate in Macedonia, and 
in making liberal donations to his own relations. He still 
continued in the service of Theophilitzes, but his skill in 
wrestling and taming horses at last introduced him to the 
Emperor Michael, who immediately became his patron. His 
progress as boon-companion, friend, colleague, and murderer 
of this benefactor has been already recounted. 

The elevation of a man like Basil to the throne of Constan- 
tinople was a strange accident ; but the fact that he reigned 
for nineteen years seems still more singular, when we recollect 
that he could neither boast of military service nor administra- 
tive knowledge. Nothing can prove more completely the 
perfection of the governmental machine at the time of his 
accession, than the circumstance that a man without education 
could so easily be moulded into a tolerable emperor. Person- 
ally, he could have possessed no partisans either in the army 
or the administration ; nor is it likely that he had many 
among the people. We are tempted to conjecture that he was 
allowed to establish himself on the throne because less was 
known about him than about most of the other men of influ- 
ence at court, and consequently less evil was laid to his charge, 
and less personal opposition was created by his election. He 
succeeded in maintaining his position by displaying unex- 
pected talents for administration. Able and unprincipled, he 

[The process of forming fraternal friendlhips here referred to was called inmedi- 
. ral and ecclesiastical langiuf^ da«A^oirMfa or Ufkpanhfiit, and the expressicm in 
this place for the relationship of Basil and (he son of Dsnielii is ddtX^irqt 
■vnrfHTunJ. The modem Greeks use the term avtoHh^waa. According to tbl*, 
two yonng men engage to support and aid one another during Ihdr lives in all 
contingencies. The Slavonic rtame for such persons is poWadm. The same 
custom is found among the Albanians, even among those of the Mirdite tribe. 
«ho are Roman Catholics. The relationship is regarded as of the most sacred 
and inviolable character, and by some the chili^ren of those who have contracted 
■he alliance are not allowed to marrv one another. M. Hccquard mentions {La 
Haati Albani; p. 3S8) a ceiemony of initiation observed by some Albanians, in 
which the two persons, after receiving the communion together, have a small 

Suanttty of their blood miaed in a bowl of wine, which is drunk by both, when 
Kj have sworn an oath of fidelity. Ed.] 






^Aioo^^lc 



DEPOSITION OF PHOTIUS. 231 

*j).867-8S6.] 

seems to have pursued a line of conduct which prevented the 
ractions of the court, the parties in the church, the feelings of 
the army, and the prejudices of the people, from ever uniting 
in opposition to his personal authority. His knowledge of the 
sentiments of the people rendered him aware that financial 
oppression was the most dangerous grievance both to the em- 
peror and the empire ; he therefore carefully avoided increasir^ 
the public burdens, and devoted his chief attention to the 
establishment of order in every branch of the public service. 

The depravity and impiety of Michael III. had di^usted 
the people. Basil, in order to proclaim that his conduct was 
to be guided by different sentiments, seized the opportunity 
of his coronation in the Church of St. Sophia to make a public 
display of his piety. After the ceremony was concluded, he 
knelt down at the high altar and cried with a loud voice, 
' Lord, thou hast given me the crown ; I deposit it at thy 
feet, and dedicate myself to thy service.' The crimes and 
intrigues of courts are often kept so long secret in despotic 
governments, that it is possible few of those present who heard 
this declaration were aware that a few hours only had elapsed 
since the hypocritical devotee had buried his sword in the 
bosom of his sovereign and benefactor. 

For two years Sasil made no change in the government of 
the church. Photius, the actual Patriarch, was unpopular from 
his connection with the family of the late emperor, and for 
the toleration he had shown for the vices of the court, while 
Ignatius, his deposed predecessor, possessed a powerful body 
of partisans among the people -and the monks. Basil attached 
this numerous and active party to his interest by reinstating 
Ignatius in the patriarchate ; but at the same time he con- 
trived to avoid exciting any violent opposition on the part of 
Photius, by keeping up constant personal communications 
with that accomplished and able ecclesiastic. Photius was at 
the head of a party possessed of no inconsiderable weight in 
the church and the public administration. The aristocratic 
classes, and the Asiatics generally, favoured his cause ; while 
the people of Constantinople and the Greeks of Europe were 
warm supporters of Ignatius. 

The arbitrary authority of the emperor over the church is as 
strongly displayed in the treatment of Photius by Basil, as in 
the persecution of Ignatius by Bardas and Michael. Photius 



DgIC 



132 BASILiAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.Ch.L(i- 
had occupied the patriarchal chair for ten years, and though 
liis election may have been irregular, his ecclesiastical autho- 
rity was completely established ; and there appeared no 
chance that anything would occur to disturb it, when Basil, to 
gain a body of active political partisans, suddenly reinstated 
Ignatius- It is said that Pbotius reproached the emperor with 
the murder of his benefactor ; but as he was allowed to re- 
main in office for about two years, his deposition must be 
ascribed entirely to political motives. The fact is, that Basil 
wished to secure the support of the monks in the East, and of 
the Pope of Rome in the West, yet feared to quarrel with the 
party of Photius'. 

The negotiations with the Pope occupied some time, but 
when they were brought to a conclusion, a general council was 
held at Constantinople, which is called by the Latins the 
eighth general council of the church. Only one hundred and 
two bishops could be assembled on this occasion, for the 
greater part of the dignified clergy had been consecrated by 
Photius, and many adhered to his party^, Photius himself 
was compelled to attend, but his calm and dignlBed attitude 
deprived his enemies of the triumph they had expected. The 
acts of the council of 86i, by which Ignatius had been de- 
posed, were declared to be forgeries, and the consecration of 
Photius as a priest was annulled. The accusation of forgeiy 
was generally regarded as false, since it rested only on some 
slight changes which had been made in the translation of the 
Pope's letter to the emperor, and these changes had been 
sanctioned by the papal l^ates who were present in the 
council. The Latins, who expect the Greeks to tolerate them 
in lengthening the Creed, have made a violent outcry against 
the Greeks, on this occasion, for modifying the words of a 
papal letter in a Greek translation. The compliancy of Basil, 
the reintegration of Ignatius, and the subservient disposition 
of the council of 869, induced the Pope to suppose that the 
time had arrived when it would be possible to regain posses- 
sion of the estates belonging to the patrimony of St. Peter in 
the provinces of the Eastern Empire, which had been confi»- 

' Photiua baptized Stephen, the son of Basil, on Chiistnms-Hay. 868. Syoieon 
Mag' 4f4; Georg. Mnn. ^44; Leo Giamm. 471. 

> This council commenced on tile 5th Oct<.ber 869, and terminited on the 1 ilh 
Febiuaty 870. The entire acts are only preserved in the lAtin translation of 
Anastasius Bibllothecariiu. A Oreelc abridgment exiitt. 



ity Google 



GENERAL COUNCIL. 3J1 

A.D.867-8^] ^^ 

cated by Leo III., and that the supremacy of the See of Rome 
over the kingdom of Bulgaria might be firmly established. 
He even hoped to gain the power of controlling the ecclesi- 
astical affairs of the Eastern church. Such pretensions, how- 
ever, only required to be plainly revealed to insure unanimous 
opposition on the part of the emperor, the clergy, and the 
people throughout the Byzantine empire, Ignatius and Basil 
showed themselves as firm in resistii^ papal usurpation as 
Photius and Midiacl. 

In the mean time, Photius was banished to the monastery of 
Skepes ; and we possess several of his letters, written during 
the period of his di.sgrace, which give a more favourable view 
of his character than would be formed from his public life 
alone. They aRbrd convincing proof of the falsity of some 
of the charges brought against him by his opponents. The 
real fault ctf Photius was, that the statesman, and not the 
Christian, was dominant in his conduct as Patriarch ; but this 
has been a fault so general at Rome, at Constantinople, and 
at Canterbury, that he would have incurred little censure in 
the west had he not shown himself a devoted partisan of his 
national church, and a successful enemy of papal ambition. 
The majority of the Eastern bishops, in spite of his exile, re- 
mained attached to his cause, and it was soon evident to Basil 
that his restoration was the only means of restoring unity to 
the Greek church. Accordingly, when Ignatius died in the 
year 878, Photius was reinstated as Patriarch, and another 
general council was assembled at Constantinople. This coun- 
cil, which is called the eighth general council of the church by 
the Eastern Christians, was attended by three hundred and 
eighty-three bishops. The Emperor Basil, the Pope, and 
Photius, all resolved to temporize, and each played his own 
game of diplomacy and tergiversation, in the hope of ulti- 
mately succeeding. The Pope proved the greatest loser, for 
his l^ates were bribed — at least the Latins say so — to yield 
up everything that Basil and Photius desired. They are even 
accused of having allowed a covert attack on the orthodoxy 
of Rome in lengthening the Creed by the addition of the 
words 'and the Son' to pass unchallenged'. The passion 



DgIC 



234 BASIL! AN DYNASTY. 

[Bk n. Ch. 1. ( I. 
displayed by the clergy of the Greek and Latin churches, 
during the quarrels between Ignatius and Photius, makes it 
difficult to ascertain the truth. It appears, however, that 
Pope John VIII. would have restored the Nicene Creed to its 
original form, by expunging the clause which had been added, 
if he could have secured the concessions he required from the 
Eastern church and the Byzantine emperor to his political 
pretensions. Certainly this is to be implied from the letter 
addressed to Photius ; but papal writers have since defended 
the consistency and infallibility of the popes, by asserting that 
the copy of the letter annexed to the acts of the council is a 
foigery. If either of the churches committed a tithe of the 
iniquities with which they charge one another, we must allow 
that Christianity exercised very little influence on the priestly 
character during the ninth century. 

When the Emperor Leo VI. succeeded his father Basil, 
Photius was again banished, in order to make way for the 
emperor's brother Stephen to occupy the patriarchal throne. 
Photius was exiled to a monastery in the Armeniac theme, 
A.D. 886, and he died in this retirement in the year 891, 
leaving behind him the reputation of having been the most 
accomplished and learned man of his time, and one of the last 
enlightened scholars in the East. Even Leo treated him with 
respect ; and in his letter to the Pope announcing his exile, he 
spoke of it as a voluntary resignation, which may, perhaps, be 
accounted a proof that it was the result of a political nego- 
tiation. As this distinguished man was one of the most 
dangerous opponents of papal ambition prior to the time of 
Luther, his conduct has been made the object of innumerable 
misrepresentations ; and the writers of the Romish church 
even now can rarely discuss his conduct in moderate language 
and with equitable feelings*. 

One of the most interesting points of dispute to the heads 
of the Eastern and Western churches was the supremacy over 
the church of the Bulgarians. This was a momentous poli- 
tical question to the Byzantine emperors, independent of its 
ecclesiastical importance to the patriarchs of Constantinople, 
for papal influence was sure to be employed in a manner 
hostile to the Eastern Empire. Besides this, as the claim 

■ The work of Abbi Jager {Hittoirt dt Pkerius) naj be cited fts a proof. It 
ii violent in its opinioDs, ind inaccurate in its beta. 



FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 135 

4.0. B67-886.] 

of Rome to supremacy over Bulgaria rested on the ancient 
subjection of the Danubian provinces to the archbishopric 
of Thessalonica, in the times when that archbishopric was 
immediately dependent on the Papal See, the establishment 
of papal authority in Bulgjaria would have afforded good 
ground for commencing a stru^le for withdrawing Thessa- 
lonica itself from the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constan- 
tinople, and placing it under the control of the Pope of Rome. 
The conduct of the emperors of Constantinople in these 
ecclesiastical negotiations was therefore the result of sound 
policy, and it was marked with moderation and crowned with 
success. 

The financial administration of Basil was, on the whole, 
honourable to his government. At his accession, he gave 
out that he found only 300 lb. of gold, aitd a small quantity of 
silver coin, in the imperial treasury'. This served as a pretext 
for a partial resumption of some of the lavish grants of 
Michael to worthless favourites, and in this way Basil col- 
lected 30,000 lb. of gold without increasing the public burdens. 
With this supply in hand for immediate wants, he was enabled 
to talce measures for effecting the economy necessary to make 
the ordinary revenues meet the demands of the public service. 
His personal experience of the real sufferings of the lower 
orders, and the prudence imposed by his doubtful position, 
prevented him, during the whole course of his reign, from 
augmenting the taxes ; and the adoption of this policy insured 
to his government the power and popularity which constituted 
him the founder of the longest dynasty that ever occupied the 
throne of Constantinople. Though his successors were, on the 
whole, far inferior to his predecessors of the Iconoclast period 
in ability, still their moderation, in conforming to the financial 
system traced out by Basil, gave the Byzantine empire a 
degree of power it had not previously possessed. 

The government of the Eastern Empire was always sys- 
tematic and generally cautious. Reforms were slowly effected ; 
but when the necessity was admitted, great changes were 
gradually completed. Generations, however, passed away 
without men noticing how far they had quitted the customs 

' Symeoa Mag, (436) says Ihiiteen ceotenacies of gold and nine ucks of 
miliaresia, so Chat the ten may have been omitled by a copyist in the Life 
of Basil by ConsUntine PorphTrogenitus (159). 



DgIC 



23* BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk II. Ch. L 1 1, 
of their fathers, and entered on new paths leading to very 
different habits, thoughts, and institutions. The reign of no 
one emperor, if we except that of Leo the Isaurian, embraces 
a revolution in the institutions of the state, completed in a 
single generation ; hence it is that Byzantine history loses the 
interest to be derived from individual biography. It steps 
over centuries, marking rather the movement of generations of 
mankind than the acts of individual emperors and statesmen, 
and it becomes a didactic essay on political progress instead 
of a living picture of man's actions. In the days of the 
liberty of Athens, the life of each leader embraces the history 
of many revolutions, and the mind of a single individual seems 
often to guide or modify their course ; but in the years of 
Constantinopolitan servitude, emperors and people are borne 
slowly onward by a current of which we are not always 
certain that we can trace the origin or follow the direction. 
These observations receive their best development by a review 
of the legislative acts of the Basilian dynasty. It was reserved 
to Basil I. and his son Leo VI, to complete the reorganization 
of the empire commenced by Leo III. ; for the promulgation 
of a revised code of the laws of the empire, in the Greek lan- 
guage, was the accomplishment of an idea impressed on the 
Byzantine administration by the great Iconoclast reformer, 
and of which his own Ecloga or manual was the first imperfect 
expression. 

The legal reforms of the eariy Iconoclast emperors enabled 
the judges to supply the exigencies of the moment, in the 
state of anarchy, ignorance, and disorder to which the pro- 
vinces were reduced by the ravages of the Sclavonians, 
Bulgarians, and Saracens. But when the vigorous adminis- 
tration of the Isaurian dynasty had driven back these invaders, 
and re-established order and security of property, the progress 
of society called for a systematic reform in the legislation of 
the empire. Enlarged views concerning the changes which it 
was necessary to make in the compilations of Justinian were 
gradually adopted. Nicephorus I. and Leo V. (the Armenian) 
seem to have confined their attention to practical reforms in 
the dispensation of justice, by improving the forms of pro- 
cedure in the existing tribunals ; but when Bardas was charged 
with the judicial department, during the reign of Michael III., 
the necessity of a thorough revision of the laws of the empire 



BYZANTINE LEGISLATION. 337 

Aj>. 867-986.] 

was deeply felt. Bardas was probably ambitious of the glory 
of effecting this reform as the surest step to the imperial 
throne. The legal school at Constantinople, which he encou- 
rage(3, prepared the materials for the great legislative work 
that forms the marked feature in consolidating the power of 
tiie Basilian dy nasty \ 

The legislative views of Basil I., modelled in conformity to 
tile policy impressed on the Byzantine empire by Leo III,, 
were directed to vest all legislative power in the hands of 
the emperor, and to constitute the person of the sovereign 
the centre of law as much as of financial autiiority and military 
power*. The senate continued to act as a legislative council 
from time to time during the Iconoclast period, and the 
emperors often invited it to discuss important laws, in order 
to give extraordinary solemnity to their sanction. Such a 
practice suggested the question whether the senate and the 
people did not still possess a right to share in the legislation 
of the empire, which opportunity might constitute into a per- 
manent control over the imperial authority in this branch of 
government. The absolute centralization of the legislative 
authority in the person of the emperor was the only point 
which prevented the government of the Byzantine empire 
from being theoretically an absolute despotism, when Basil 
I. ascended the throne, and he completed that centralization. 
Though the senate con^sted of persons selected by the sove- 
reign, and though it acted generally as a subservient agent of 
the executive power, still, as some of the most powerful men 
in tiie empire were usually found among its members, its 
position as a legislative council invested it with a degree of 
political influence that might have checked the absolute power 
of the emperor. Basil deprived it of all participation in legis- 
lative functions, and restricted its duties solely to those of an 
administrative council^. At the same time, the privileges 
formerly possessed by the provincial proprietors, the remains 
of the Roman curiae, or of the more recently formed muni- 
cipalities that had grown up to replace them, were swept away 

' CoDtis. iiai Zonani, U. iGi. Kal tolit vi^vt tk -rain aBXiruiDii dn^^w 
utwal^t, itorrur ofirit tit nl Bumirrfpia, 4S7 m) r^i rotfrw friiafa.t <rxtti» 
f*A(A«»iitaa ■ominwu'. 'B fih' o6y rifi t^ (nor^fio* «al fioO^jiaTa rev Bifia 



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aaS BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.CIi.L{i. 
as offensive to despotic power'. But the total abolition of 
municipal institutions by imperial edict was certainly rather 
theoretical than practical. The long series of prt^ressive 
alterations in society, which had destroyed the efficacy of the 
older municipalities, had replaced them by new societies and 
corporations having confined and local objects, too far beneath 
the sphere of action of the central administration to excite 
any jealousy on the part of those deputed to exercise the 
imperial power. The bishops also tost their position of de- 
fenders of the people, for as they were chosen by the sovereign, 
the dignitaries of the Byzantine church were remarkable for 
their servility to the civil power. So that both the senate and 
the people lost all political influence in the Roman empire 
about the same time, and under the Basilian dynasty the 
government approached more nearly to a pure despotism than 
at any earlier period. 

The promulgation of the Basilika may be considered as 
marking the complete union of all l^islative, executive, 
judicial, financial, and administrative power in the person of 
the emperor. The church was already reduced to complete 
submis^on to the imperial authority. Basil, therefore, may 
claim to be the emperor who established despotism as the 
constitution of the Roman empire. The divine right of the 
sovereign to rule as God might be pleased to enlighten his 
understanding and soften his heart, was henceforth the recog- 
nised oi^anic law of the Byzantine empire. 

The compilation of the laws of Justinian is one of the 
strangest examples of the manner in which sovereigns vitiate 
the most extensive and liberal reforms by their conservative 
prejudices. Justinian reconstructed the l^islation of a Roman 
empire, in order to adapt it to the wants of the people who 
spoke Greek ; yet he restricted the benefit of his new code, 
by promulgating it in Latin, though that language had ceased 
to be in use among three quarters of his subjects. The 
conservative principles of the imperial government and the 
pride of the higher classes of Constantinople in their Roman 
origin, induced the emperor to cling to the use of the Latin 
language as marking their connection with past ages, and 
drawing a line of separation between the government and the 

' L^oiiii NovtUat, xlvi. xlvii. ; Conlin. 7<S. 

c.,iii.jt,Googlc' 



BYZANTINE LEGISLATION. 339 

A.B.B67-886.} 

mass of the people. Justinian himself pronounced the con- 
demnation of his own conduct by publishing his latest laws in 
Greek, and thus leaving his legislation dispersed in sources 
promulgated in two different languages. 

A Greek school of legists, founded long before the time of 
Justinian, but which flourished during his reign, did much to 
remedy this defect, by translating the Latin body of the law. 
■ Greek translations of the Institutions, the Pandects, the Code, 
and the Edicts, as well as Greek commentaries on these works, 
soon replaced the original Latin texts, and became the autho- 
rities that guided the courts of law throughout the Eastern 
Empire. The decline of knowledge, and the anarchy that 
prevailed during the century in which the empire was ruled 
by the Heraclian dynasty, caused the translations of the larger 
works to be neglected, and the writings of commentators, who 
had published popular abridgments, to be generally consulted. 
The evil of this state of things was felt so strongly when 
Leo III. restored some degree of order throughout the empire, 
that, as we have already mentioned, he promulgated an official 
handbook of the law, called the Ecloga. From that time the 
subject of legislative reform occupied the attention of the 
imperial government, as well as of those professionally engaged 
in the administration of justice; and it appears certain that 
Bardas had made considerable progress towards the «fecution 
of those legislative reforms which were promulgated by Basil I., 
and completed by Leo VI. Indeed, it appears probable that 
the project was conceived as early as the time of Theophilus, 
whose personal knowledge of the law was greater than was 
possessed by his successors who have gained a high place in 
history as law reformers. 

The precise share which the predecessors of Basil are 
entitled to claim in the legislative labours of the Basilian 
dynasty cannot be determined with exactitude, but that it is 
not inconsiderable, is evident from the internal evidence 
aBbrded by the works themselves. Certainly divine right to 
rule the state as emperor could never have rendered the 
Sclavonian groom, who had qualified for the throne as the 
boon-companion of Michael the Drunkard, a fit person to 
direct the progress of legislation. All that could be expected 
from him was, that he should learn to appreciate the import- 
ance of the subject, and adopt the labours of the jurisconsults 



D,,,lz....t,.CAK>t^lC 



84© BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.lI.ai.I.fi. 
who had assisted Bardas. It seems, therefore, probable that 
he envied the popularity the Caesar had gained by his atten- 
tion to legal business, and understood fully that there was no 
surer mode of acquiring the goodwill of all classes than by 
becoming himself a law reformer. Basil, however, though 
eager to obtain the glory of publishing a new code, remained 
personally incapable of guiding the work. A consequence of 
his eagerness to obtain the desired end, and of his ignorance 
of what wai necessary to the proper performance of the task, is 
apparent in the first legal work published by his authority, 
called the ProcheJron, or manual of law. The primary object 
of this publication was to supplant the £cl(^ of Leo III., in 
order to efface the memory of the reforms of the Iconoclasts '. 
The Procheiron appears to have been promulgated as early as 
the year 870, and it bears marks of having been hurried into 
premature publicity ^, The first half of the work is executed 
in a completely different manner from the latter part. In the 
earlier titles, the texts borrowed from the Institutions, Pan- 
dects, Code, and Novels of Justinian, are arranged in regular 
order, and are followed by the modem laws ; but this well- 
arranged plan is abandoned in the latter titles, apparently 
in consequence of a sudden determination having been adopted 
to hurry forward the publication. The mucb-abused Ecloga 
of Leo III. was then adopted as the most available guide- 
book, and, in conjunction with the Institutes and Novels^ 
became the principal source consulted. The Pandects and 
the Code were neglected, because they required too mucb 
time and study for their arrangement. 

This fact suggests the conclusion that a commission of 
jurisconsults had been named as revisers of the law, who had 
been sitting from the time of Bardas ; and these lawyers had 
systematically proceeded to compile a manual of the law in 
forty titles, and a new civil code or revision of the old law 
in sixty books, in which they had made considerable progress, 
when Basil suddenly hurried forward the premature publica- 
tion of the manual in the form it now bears. It is impossible 



> We must recollect that Basil was Ibe colleague or Midlael III. when the 
tomb of ConstajitiTie V., the saint, so 10 t^peak, of the ]coiiodasts, wai destroyed, 
and we must comiect this with the violent manner in which the Ecloga IE criticised 
in the Procheiron. 

* For this date, see Moitreuil, Hiilein du Draii ByzantiH, ii. ig, 30. 



n,,i iiAioogle 



THE BASILTKA. 241 

JLD.S67-S86.I 

that the same spirit can have directed the latter portion of the 
work which dictated the compilation of the earlier. The 
science of Bardas is visible in the one, the ignorance of Basil in 
the other. For many years Basil remained satisfied with his 
performance as a legislator, for he was unable to appreciate 
the l^al wants of the empire ; but the subject was again 
forced on his attention by the confusion that prevailed in the 
sources of the law, to which the tribunals were still compelled 
to refer. 

At length, in the year 884, a new code, embracing the 
whole legislation of the empire in one work, was published 
under the title of the Revision of the Old Law. The respect 
paid to the laws of Rome was so deeply implanted in the 
minds of the people, that new laws, however superior they 
might have been, could not have insured the support, which 
was claimed by a legislation regarded as the legitimate repre- 
sentative of the Roman jurisprudence, clothed in a Greek dress. 
The code of Basil was no^iing but a compilation from the 
Greek translations of Justinian's laws, and the commentaries 
on them which had received the sanction of the Byzantine 
tribunals and legal schools. But this revision of the old law 
was hurried forward to publicity on account of some special 
reason, suggested either by imperial vanity or accidental 
policy. In the Procheiron, Basil had announced that the 
revised code about to be promulgated consisted of sixty books, 
yet, when he published it, the work was divided into forty. 
This premature edition was, however, again revised by Leo VL ; 
and it is the new and more complete code published by that 
emperor in sixty books, as originally announced, which we 
now possess under the title of Basilika, or imperial laws ; but 
no perfect manuscript has been preserved '. 

The object of the Basilian legislation was too simple not to 
have been long in agitation before the precise plan on which 
it was ultimately executed was adopted. The Basilika is 
merely a reunion, in one work, of all the sources of Roman 
law in vigour at the time, without any attempt to condense 
them into clearer and more precise rules. Every law or 
maxim of jurisprudence actually in force, is arranged under 



'A new edition of the BasUika, in the imperfect state in which it b 
us, has been lately published by Heimbnch, in five quarto volunm. 
VOL, 11. R 



^Aioo^^lc 



143 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Ch.I.ti- 
its own head in a series of books and titles, distributed so as 
to facilitate their use in the courts of law and chamber of 
counsel •. Some modem commentaries have been added to 
the work as we possess it, which appear not to have formed 
part of the original text 

After the promulgation of the first edition of the Basilika, 
Basil published a second legal manual, to serve as an intro- 
duction to its study. It is called the Epanagt^e, but it 
appears never to have attained the popularity of the Ecloga 
and the Procheiron ". 

The Basilika remained the law of the Byzantine empire 
until its conquest by the Franks, and it continued tn use as 
the national law of the Greeks at Nicaea, Constantinople, and 
Trebtzond, and in the Morea, until they were conquered by 
the Ottomans. The want of a system of law growing up out 
of the social exigencies of the people, and interwoven in its 
creation with national institutions, is a serious defect in Greek 
civilization. Since the time of the Achaian league, the Greeks 
have not possessed a national government, and they have 
never possessed a national system of laws ; hence their com- 
munal institutions and municipal rights have received only 
such protection as the church could afford them ; and even 
the church was generally the subservient instrument of the 
Roman, Byzantine, and Turkish governments. 

Basil found the army in a much better state than the 
financial administration ; for, even amidst the disorders of 
Michael's reign, measures had been taken to maintain the 
discipline of the troops. Basil had, consequently, only to 
maintain the army on the footing on which he found it. 
Being personally without either military experience or scientific 
knowledge, he can only be considered responsible for the 
general direction of the military affairs of his reign ; and in 
this he does not appear to have displayed much talent. He ' 
allowed the Saracens to take Syracuse, while he kept the 
sailors of the imperial navy employed in digging the founda- 
tions of a new church, and the ships in transporting marbles 
and building materials for its construction ^ Basil, indeed, 

' Leo's edict at ib« coDimenc«iii«nt of Heimbach's edition of the BasiliLi.' 
' The bpanigoge has been publiibed with the Ecloga by Zadiaiii. (Mltetio 
Ubronm Juris Gratco-Romtau, Lipsiae, i8ja. 
f Leo Gramin. 471. 



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PAVLICIAN WAR. 343 

A.D. 867-886.] 

like all his predecessors, appeared more than once at the head 
of his armies in the East ; for this was a duty which no 
emperor of Constantinople since Leo III. had ventured to 
neglect. It is probable, however, that his presence was 
calculated rather to restrain than to excite the activity of his 
generals, who were sure to be rendered responsible for any 
want of success, and to be deprived of every merit in case of 
victory; while if they eclipsed the glory of the emperor by 
any brilliant personal exploits, they might become objects of 
jealousy. 

The principal military operation of Basil's rdgn was the 
war he carried on with the Paulicians. This sect first made 
its appearance in Armenia about the middle of the seventh 
century, in the reign of Constans II., and it was persecuted 
by that emperor. Constantine IV. (P<^onatus), Justinian II., 
and Leo III., all endeavoured to extirpate the heresy as one 
which threatened the unity of the church ; for unity in reli- 
gious opinions was then regarded as the basis of the prosperity 
of the empire, and a portion of its political constitution '. 
Constantine V., after conquering Melitene, transported num- 
bers of Asiatic colonists into Thrace, many of whom were ■ 
converts to the Paulician doctrines^. Under this emperor 
and his immediate successors they enjoyed toleration, and 
made many converts in Pontus, Cappadocia, Phrygia, and 
Pisidia '. Nicephorus allowed them all the rights of citizens, 
and they continued to be loyal subjects, until Michael I. com- 
menced persecuting them in the most barbarous manner. 
This circumstance, though it affords the orthodox historian 
Theophanes great delight, ultimately prepared the way for 
the depopulation of Asia Minor*. These cruelties continued 
under Leo V., until some of the Paulicians, rising in rebellion, 
slew the bishop of Neocaesarea, and the imperial commis- 
sioners engaged in torturing them, and withdrew into the 
province of Melitene, under the protection of the caliph. 
From this period they are often found forming the vanguard 
of the Saracen invasions into the south-eastern provinces of 

' The McmWoists, in the edict of Leo III. (Theoph. 336I, are supposed by 
Barooius to be Maaichaeans, which was then ofteo an epitbet for Paulicians. 
Nolo* in Tkt^haium, p. Gio. See p. 34 of tliis Tolome. 

' Theoph. 354 and 360. See pp. 50 and 60 of this Toltune. 

• Theoph. 413. 

* Ibid. 419, 



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244 BASIL/AN DYNASTY. 

[Btll.Ch.I. {I. 
the Byzantine empire. Under Michael II. and Theophilus 
some degree of religious toleration was restored, and the 
Paulicians within the bounds of the empire were allowed 
to hold their religious opinions in tranquillity. But their 
persecution recommenced during the regency of Theodora ; 
and the cruelty with which they were treated drove such 
numbers into rebellion, that they were enabled to foiind an 
independent republic, as has been already mentioned '. If we 
believe the friends of the Paulicians, they were strict Chris- 
tians, who reverenced the teaching of St Paul, and proposed 
him as their sole guide and legislator ; but if we credit their 
enemies, they were Manichaeans, who mei^ed Christianity 
in their heretical opinions. 

The little republic founded by the Paulicians at Tephrike, 
against which the armies of the Emperor Michael til. con- 
tended without any decided success, though it owed its 
foundation to religious opinion, soon became a place of refuge 
for all fugitives from the Byzantine empire ; and its existence 
as a state, on the frontier of a bigoted and oppressive govern- 
ment, became a serious danger to the emperors of Constan- 
tinople. Chrysochir, the son-in-law of Karbeas, succeeded 
his father in the command of the armed bands of Tephrike, 
and supported his army by plundering the Byzantine pro- 
vinces, as the Danes or Normans about the same time main- 
tained themselves by their expeditions in France and England. 
The number of prisoners taken by the Paulicians was so great 
that Basil found himself compelled to send an embassy to 
Tephrike, for the purpose of ransoming his subjects. Petrus 
Siculus, the ambassador, remained at Tephrike about nine 
months, but was unable to effect any peaceable arrangement 
with Chrysochir. He has, however, left us a valuable account 
of the Paulician commu^ity^ During his residence at Teph- 
rike, he discovered that the Paulicians had sent ambassadors 
into Bulgaria, to induce the king of that newly converted 
country to form an alliance with them, and missionaries to 
persuade the people to propagate their doctrines, which were 



' See p, 169 otthis Tolume. 

' Petri Siculi Hiuoria MunithMorum teu Paalicianonim. Gotting. 1S46. Photins' 
work, Libri iv. tontra Manieliami, in WolTt AiuidoU Onuia, contains a rernt&tioo 
of the doctrmes attributed to ihe Fauliciaas, as nell as of those profested by 



PAULICIAN WAR. 245 

A.D. S67-8860 

prevalent ia some districts of Thrace, The ravages committed 
by the Paulician troops, the bad success of the embassy of 
Peter Siculus, and the danger that Chrysochir might extend 
his power by new alliances, determined Basil at length to 
make a powerful effort for the destruction of this alarming 
enemy. It was evident that nothing short of extermination 
could put an end to their plundering expeditions. 

In 871, Basil made his first attack on the Paulicians; but, 
after destroying some of their villages, he suffered a severe 
check, and lost a considerable portion of his army, he himself 
only escaping in consequence of the valour of Theophylactus, 
the father of the future emperor, Romanus I, who by this 
exploit brought himself forward in the army". Fortunately 
for Basil, the repeated seditions of the Turkic mercenaries at 
Bagdad had weakened the power of the caliphate ; a succes- 
sion of revolutions caused the deposition and murder of several 
caliphs within the space of a few years, and some of the 
distant provinces of the immense empire of the Abassides had 
already established independent governments^. The Pauli- 
cians, therefore, could obtain no very important aid from the 
Saracens, who, as we are informed by Basil's son, the Emperor 
Leo VI., in his work on military tactics, were regarded as the 
best soldiers in the world, and far superior both to the Bulga- 
rians and Franks. Basil found little difftciilty in driving all 
the plundering bands of the Paulicians back into their own 
territory; but it was dangerous to attempt the si^e of 
Tephrike as long as the enemy could assemble an army in 
the frontier towns of the caliph's dominions with which they 
might operate on the rear of the besiegers. The empires of 
Constantinople and Bagdad were at war, though hostilities 
had for some time been languidly carried on. Basil now 
resolved to capture or destroy the fortified towns which 
afforded aid to the Paulicians. After ravaging the territory 
of Melitene, he sent his general, Christophoros, with a division 
of the army to capture Sozopetra and Samosata ; while he 
himself crossed the Euphrates, and laid waste the country as 

I Foi tile lirst cimpaign against the Paulicians. see Symeon Mag. (455). Georg. 
Mod. (S4t), and Leo Gramin. (4.71) ; and for Ihe second, comjore Constant. 
Porphyr. (Basilita, 166), and Cedrenus (570)- 

' From the year 861 to 870 the throne of Bagdad was occupied by five caliphs, 
three of whom were dethroned Efiypt "iii Cborasan rebelled during ihis penod. 
and several independent dyoaaties arofe. 



DgIC 



246 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.a.I.fi. 
far as the Asanias. On his return, the emperor fought a 
battle with the emir of Melitene, who had succeeded in col- 
lecting an army to dispute his progress. The success of this 
battle was not so decided as to induce Basil to besiege either 
Melitene or Tephrike, and he returned to Constantinople, 
leaving his general to prosecute the war. In the mean time, 
Chrysochir, unable to maintain his troops without plunder, 
invaded Cappadocia, but was overtaken by Christophoros at 
Agranes, where his movements were circumscribed by the supe- 
rior military skill of the Byzantine general. Chrysochir found 
himself compelled to retreat, with an active enemy watchii^ 
his march. Christophoros soon surprised the Paulician camp, 
and Chrysochir was slain in the battle. His head was sent to 
Constantinople, that the Emperor Basil might fulfil a vow he 
had made that he would pierce it with three arrows. Tephrike 
was taken not long after, and destroyed. The town of Cata- 
batala, to which the Pauiicians retired after the loss of Tephrike, 
was captured in the succeeding campaign, and the Paulician 
troops, unable to continue their plundering expeditions, either 
retreated into Armenia or dispersed. Many found means of 
entering the Byzantine service, and were employed in southern 
Italy against the African Saracens'. 

The war with the Saracens continued, though it was not 
prosecuted with vigour by either party. In the year 876, the 
Byzantine troops gained possession of the fortress of Lulu, 
the bulwark of Tarsus, which alarmed the Caliph Almutamid 
for the safety of his possessions in Cilicia to such a degree, 
that he entrusted their defence to his powerful vassal, Touloun, 
the viceroy of Egypt '^. In the following year the Emperor 
Basil, hoping to extend his conquests, again appeared at the 
head of the army of Asia, and established his head-quarters at 
Caesarea. His object was to drive the Saracens out of Cilicia, 
but he only succeeded in ravaging the country beyond the 
passes of Mount Taurus up to the suburbs of Germanicia, 
Adana, and Tarsus, without being able to gain possession of 
any of these cities ^. After the emperor's return to Constan- 
tinople, the commander-in-chief of the army, Andrew the 
Sclavonian, continued to ravage the Saracen territory, and 

> Constanl. Porphyr. Baiilim, 19a. 

■ Constant. Poiphyr. Basiliai, 171 ; Weil, Gisckichit dtr Chalifm, ii. 471. 

* Constant. Porphyr. Boiiliui, 173 ; Symeon Mag. 476; Cedreuus, 574. 



DgIC 



SARACEN IVAR. 247 

A.D. 867-886.] 

destroyed an army sent to oppose him on the banks of the 
river Podandos, This defeat was, however, soon avenged by 
the Mohammedans, who routed Stypiotes, the successor of 
Andrew, with great loss, as he was preparing to besiege 
Tarsus. In the thirteenth year of his reign (^lio), Basil again 
invaded the caliphate, but failed in an attempt to take 
Germanicia. The war was subsequently allowed to languish, 
though the Saracens made several plundering expeditions 
against the Christians, both by land and sea ; but the fortress 
of Lulu, and some other castles commanding the passes of 
Mount Taurus, remained in tlie possession of the Byzantine 
troops. 

The Saracens of Africa had for some time past devastated 
the shores of every Christian country bordering on the 
Mediterranean, and plundered the islands of the Ionian Sea 
and the Archipelago as regularly as the Faulicians had 
ravaged Asia Minor. Basil was hardly seated on the throne 
before an embassy from the Sclavonians of Dalmatia arrived 
at Constantinople, to solicit his aid against these corsairs 
A Saracen fleet of thirty-six ships had attacked Dalmatia, 
in which a few Roman cities still existed, maintaining a 
partial independence amoi^ the Sclavonian tribes, who 
occupied the country. Several towns were taken by tht. 
Saracens, and Ragusa, a place of considerable commercial 
importance, was closely besieged '. Basil lost no time in 
sending assistance to the inhabitants. A fleet of a hundred 
vessels, under the admiral Niketas Oryphas, was prepared for 
sea with all possible expedition : and the Saracens, hearing of 
ihis approach, hastily abandoned the siege of Ragusa, after 
they had invested it for fifteen months. The expedition of 
Oryphas re-established the imperial influence in the maritime 
districts of Dalmatia, and obtained from the Sclavonians a 
direct recognition of the emperor's sovereignty. They re- 
tained their own government, and elected their magistrates ; 
and their submission to the Byzantine empire was purchased 
by their being permitted to receive a regular tribute from 
several Roman cities, wliich, in consideration of this payment, 
retained possession of some districts on the mainland without 



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248 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.Ch.I.{i. 
the neighbouring Sclavonians exercising any jurisdiction over 
these possessions. The Roman inhabitants in the islands on 
the Dalmatian coast had preserved their allegiance to the 
Eastern emperors, and maintained themselves independent of 
the Sclavonians, who conquered and colonized the mainland 
in the reign of Heraclius. They received their governors and 
judges from Constantinople*. 

As early as the year 843, two rival princes, of Lombard 
race, who disputed the possession of the duchy of Beneven- 
tum, solicited assistance from the Saracens ; and the Infidels, 
indifferent to the claims of either, but eager for plunder, 
readily took part in the quarrel A body of Saracens from 
Sicily, which arrived for the purpose of assisting one of the 
Christian claimants, resolved to secure a firm establishment in 
Italy. To effect this they stormed the city of Ban, though 
it belonged to their own ally. At Bari they formed a camp, 
and made it their station for plundering the possessions of the 
Frank and Byzantine empires on the coast of the Adriatic. 
In 846, other bands of Sicilian Saracens landed at the 
mouth of the Tiber, and plundered the churches of St. 
Peter and St. Paul, both then without the walls of Rome. 
Indeed, the ' mistress of the world ' was only saved from 
falling into the hands of the Mohammedans by the troops of 
the Emperor Louis II. (850). Shortly after. Pope Leo IV. 
fortified the suburb of the Vatican, and thus placed the church 
of St. Peter in security in the new quarter of the town called 
the Leonine city*. From this period the ravages of the 
Saracens in Italy were incessant, and the proprietors who 
dwelt in the country were compelled to build fortified towers, 
strong enough to resist any sudden attack, and so high as to 
be beyond the reach of fire kindled at their base. The 
manners formed by this state of savage insecurity coloured 
the history of Italy with dark stains for several centuries. 
In the year 867, the Emperor Louis II. exerted himself to 
restrain the ravages of the Saracens. He laid siege to Bari, 
and sent ambassadors to Constantinople to solicit the co- 
operation of a Byzantine fleet. The fleet of Oryphas, 

' Constant. Porphyr. t>t Adm. Imp, c. 30, p. 146, edit. Bonn. The tribute paid 
by tbe Roman cities to the Sclavonians was as follows: Aspalathos (Spakto), 

S'd byiants; Tetrsnguriuni (Trau'), Opsara. Aihe, Bekla, each 
ra), no; and Ragusa, for its rural district, 71. 
'■"' " ' "' ' '"■ ■■ - " - " lai itn- Its Maun, c. 2^. 



' A.D. 859. Voltaire, j4iino/Mitoi'£m^«,A.D. 847; Essai itir Its Maun, 



SARACENS IN ITALY. 249 

Ajt. 867-886.] 

strengthened by the naval forces of the Dalmatian cities, was 
ordered to assist the operations of the Western emperor ; but 
the pride of the court of Constantinople (more sensitive than 
usual) prevented the conclusion of a treaty with a sovereign 
who claimed to be treated as emperor of the West'. In 
February, 871, Louis carried the city of Bari by assault, and 
put the garrison to the sword. The Franks and Greeks 
disputed the honour of the conquest, and each attempted to 
turn it to their own profit, so that the war was continued in a 
desultory manner, without obtaining any decided results. 
The cultivators of the soil were in turn plundered by the 
Lombard princes, the Saracen corsairs, and the German and 
Byzantine emperors. The Saracens again attacked Rome, 
and compelled Pope John VII T. to purchase their retreat by 
engaging to pay an annual tribute of 25,000 marks of silver. 
The south of Italy was a scene of political confusion. The 
Dukes of Naples, Amalfi, and Salerno joined the Saracens 
in plundering the Roman territory; but Pope John VIII., 
placing himself at the head of the Roman troops, fought 
both with Christians and Mohammedans, won battles, and cut 
off the heads of his prisoners, without the slightest reference 
to. the canons of the church. The bishop of Naples, as bold a 
warrior as the Pope, dethroned his own brother, and put out 
his eyes, on the pretext that he had allied himself with the 
Infidels; yet, when the bishop had possessed himself of his 
brother's dukedom, he also kept up communications with the 
Saracens, and aided them in plunderit^ the territory of 
Rome. This lawless state of affairs induced the Italians to 
turn for security to the Byzantine empire. The troops of 
Basil rendered themselves masters of Bari without difficulty, 
and the extent of the Byzantine province in southern Italy 
was greatly extended by a series of campaigns, in which 
Nicephorus Phokas, grandfather of the emperor of the same 
name, distinguished himself by his prudent conduct and able 
tactics ^, The Saracens were at last expelled from all their 

' The naral force of tbe Sclavonians in the Adriatic was not inconsiderable. 
The Chrovalians alone had eighty galleys (sagenasl, carrying each forty men, 
and one hundred konduraa or boats, carrying twenty, besides merchani-ships. 
Though a commercial people, they then alistained from piracy, which we know, 
from Venetian history, all Ihe Sclavonians in the Adriatic wei'e addicted to al 
a later period. Constant. Porphyr. Dt Adm. Imp. c. 30, p. 150, edit. Bonn. 

* The Emoeror Leo VL. in his wnrk on mi1it»rv tactics, cites the camoa 



25© BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.ai.I.Si. 
possessions in Calabria. The Byzantine government formed 
its possessions into a province called the Theme of Longo- 
bardia, but this province constantly varied in extent; Gaeta, 
Naples, Sorrento, and Amalfi acknowledged allegiance to the 
Emperor of Constantinople, but his authority was often 
very little respected in these cities. 

While Basil was successful in extending his power in Italy, 
the Saracens revenged themselves in Sicily by the conquest of 
Syracuse, which fell into their hands in 878, and placed them 
in possession of the whole island. The city, though besieged 
un the land side by the Saracens established in Sicily, and 
blockaded by a fleet from Africa, made a gallant defence, 
and might have been relieved had the emperor shown more 
activity, or intrusted the force prepared for its relief to a com- 
petent officer. The expedition he sent, though it was delayed 
until nothing could be effected without rapid movements, 
wasted two months in the port of Monemvasia, where it re- 
ceived the news of the fall of Syracuse. The loss of the last 
Greek city in Sicily was deeply felt by the people of the 
Byzantine empire, on account of its commercial importance; 
and it was reported that the news of so great a calamity to 
the Christian world was first made known to the inhabitants 
of Greece by an assembly of demons, who met in the forest of 
Helos, on the banks of the Eurotas, to rejoice at the event, 
where their revels were witnessed by a Laconian shepherd *. 
Satan seems to have treated the ruin of a Greek city as a 
matter of more importance than the orthodox emperor Basil 
treated it. The daring with which the Saracens carried on 
their naval expeditions over the Mediterranean at this period 
is a remarkable feature in the state of society. The attacks 
of the Danes and Normans on the coasts of England and 
France were not more constant nor more terrible. 

Some of these expeditions deserve to be noticed, in order 
to point out the great destruction of capital and the dis- 
organization of society they caused. For some years they 
threatened the maritime districts of the Eastern Empire with 
as great a degree of insecurity as that from which they had 
been delivered by Leo III. In the year 881, the emir of 

Inirihilions Militairis dt I'Emperivr Lion It Pkihiophe, Indmtea pai M. Joly de 
Maiieroy, ii. rs- 
' Coaslant. Porphyr. Baalius, 191 ; Cedrenus, ii. gSj. 



3 Google 



SARACEN RAVAGES. 251 

AS. 8*7-886.] 

Tarsus, with a fleet of thirty large ships, laid si^e to Chalcis, 
on the Euripus ; but Oiniates, the general of the theme of Hel- 
las, assembled the troops in his province, the emir was killed 
in an attempt to storm the place, and the Saracen expedition 
was completely defeated'. Shortly after this, the Saracens of 
Crete ravaged the islands of the Archipelago with a Beet of 
twenty-seven large ships and a number of smaller vessels^.- 
Entering the Hellespont, they plundered the island of Procon- 
nesus ; but they were overtaken and defeated by the imperial 
fleet under Oryphas. Undismayed by their losses, they Btted 
out a new fleet, and recommenced their ravages, hoping to 
avoid the Byzantine admiral by doubling Cape Taenarus, and 
plundering the western shores of Greece. Niketas Oryphas, 
on visiting the port of Kenchreae, found that the corsairs were 
already cruising off the entrance of the Adriatic. He promptly 
transported his galleys over the isthmus of Corinth by the 
ancient tram-road, which had been often used for the same 
purpose in earlier times, and which was still kept in such a 
state of repair that all his vessels were conveyed from sea to 
sea in a single njght*. The Saracens, surprised by the sudden 
arrival of a fleet from a quarter where they supposed there 
was no naval force, fought with less courage than usual, and 
lost all their ships. The cruelty with which the captives, 
especially the renegades, were treated, was to the last degree 
inhuman, and affords sad proof of the widespread misery and 
deep exasperation their previous atrocities had produced, as 
well as of the barbarity of the age. No torture was spared by 
the Byzantine authorities*. Shortly after this an African 
fleet of sixty vessels, of extraordinary size, laid waste Zante 
and Cephallenia. Nasar, the Byzantine admiral, who suc- 
ceeded Niketas Oryphas, while in pursuit of this fleet, touched 
at Methone to re-victual ; but at that port all his rowers 
deserted, and his ships were detained until the general of the 
Peloponnesian theme replaced them by a levy of Mardaltes 



' Constant. Porphyi. Basiliui, 184 ; Cedrenus, ii. 580. 

' Conatanl. Porphyr. Basilius, 185. 

' The breadth of the isthmus is aboul four geographical miles— 5950 metres. 
Zonaru <ii. 171) calls the vessels triremes, but they were certainly with only two 
backs of oars, and were probably the kmd of galley called dromones. [This 
roadway was called in classical times the AtoXxoi, and the expression used for 
transporting vessels across was linffupipfai rif laBfiiv. Thuc viii. 7. Ed.] 

• Constant. Potphyt. Baiibai, 1B6. 



n,,;,! .,:.A,<OOgIe 



253 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Cli.1. (I. 
and other inhabitants of the peninsula'. The Byzantine naval 
force, even after this contrariety, was again victorious over the 
Saracens ; and the war of pillage was transferred into Sicily, 
where the Greeks laid waste the neighbourhood of Palermo, 
and captured a number of valuable merchant -ships, with such 
an abundant supply of oil that it was sold at Constantinople 
for an obolos the litra. 

During these wars Basil recovered possession of the island 
of Cyprus, but was only able to retain possession of it for 
seven years, when the Saracens again reconquered it*. 

Much of Basil's reputation as a wise sovereign is due to his 
judicious adoption of administrative reforms, called for by the 
disorders introduced into the government by the neglect of 
Michael III. His endeavours to lighten the burden of tax- 
ation, without decreasing the public revenues, was then a rare 
merit But the eulc^ies which his grandson and other flat- 
terers have heaped on his private virtues deserve but little 
credit. The court certainly maintained more outward decency 
than in the time of his predecessor, but there are many proofs 
that the reformation was merely external. Thekla, the sister 
of the Emperor Michael III., who had received the imperial 
crown from her father Theophilus, had been the concubine of 
Basil, with the consent of her brother. After Basil assas- 
sinated the brother, he n^lected and probably feared the 
sister, but she consoled herself with other lovers. It happened 
that on some occasion a person employed in the household of 

' Mardaites are menlioned by Constant. Porphyr. {Basilius, 187), but whether 
tbey were so called because they were deacendanis of a Syiian colony is not 
certain. Trobably the Msinates are meant, [The idea of identifying the Mardalles 
and Mainates originated with Fallmerayer {Gevhkhlt der Ilalbimcl Maria, i. inS), 
and has very little to be said id its favour. Hopf remarks (Brockhaus' Gri«JEfii- 
land, vol. vi. p. 130) thst we hear of a town of Maina before a tribe of Mainates 
is mentioned, and that the tribe probably derived its name from the town. What 
we know of the Mardailes is as follows. In the time of Conslantine Pc^oontus 
this tribe occupied the passes of the Lebanon, and became subjects of'the Byzantine 
Empire [Cedrenus, i. 76.";, edit. Bonn). Justinian 11., as a condition of peace 
with the caliphs, removed a large part of this colony, thereby deatroying an 
important bulwark of the eastern frontier, and planti^ a nuinber of them in 
Armenia {ibid. ^^\\ We subsequently hear of others — apparently some of those 
removed at this time — in the Kibyrraiote theme in the south of Asia Min< 



. Porphyr. Di Adm. Imp. p. iiq, edit. Bonn\ and in the Enropeao 

r Peloponnesus, Nicopolis, and Cephallenia {Dt Catrtmon, p. 66fi, edit. 

Bonn). See Kambaud (L'Empin grit mi £xirmt Sifcli, pp. aij, 314). who ■< 



disposed to identify them with the Maronites of the Lebuion, and the tribe of 
Mirdites in northern Albania. I do not discover that there is much to rapport 
this last identification beyond the similarity of name. En.] 
' Constant, Porphyr. Dt ThtmnHbrn, i. % 15. 



ityGoogIc 



THE WIDOW DANIEUS. ^53 

LD. 867-886.1 

Thekia waited on the emperor, who, with the rude facetious- 
ness he inherited from the stable-yard, asked the domestic, 
'Who lives with your mistress at present?' The individual 
(Neatokomites) was immediately named, for shame was out 
of the question in such society. But the jealousy of Basil was 
roused by this open installation of a successor in the favours 
of one who had once occupied a place on the throne he had 
usurped, and he ordered Neatokomites to be seized, scourged, 
and immured for life En a monastery. It is said that he 
was base enough to order Thekia to be ill-treated, and to 
confiscate great part of her private fortune^. The Empress 
Eudocia Ingerina avenged Thekia, by conducting herself 
on the throne in a manner more pardonable in the mistress 
of Michael the Drunkard than in the wife of Basil. When 
her amours were discovered, the emperor prudently avoided 
scandal, by compelling her lover to retire privately into a 
monastery. 

The most interesting episode in the private history of 
Basil is the friendship of Danielis, the Greek lady of Patrae. 
As she had laid the foundation of his wealth while he was 
only a servant of Theophilitzes, we may believe that she was 
eager to see him when she heard that he was seated on the 
imperial throne. But though she might boast of having been 
the first to perceive his merits, she must have doubted 
whether she would be r^arded as a welcome visitor at 
court Basil, however, was not ungrateful to those who had 
assisted him in his poverty, and he sent for the son of his 
benefactor, and raised him to the rank of protospatharios. 
The widow also received an invitation to visit Constantinople, 



' This same Joannes Neatoltomiles had of old been a rival of Basil, for he had 
ttltempted to put the Caesar Bardas on his guard against the conspiracy by which 
he lost bis life. Leo Gramm. 465. Theltla has been usually called the sister 
of Basil and the concubine of Michael III. Gibbon ha» adopted this view, for 
he says. "Basil was raised and supported by a diseraceful marriage with a royal 
concubine (Eudocia), and the dishonour of his sister (Thekia), who sncceeded 
to her place:' vol. vi. p. 97. Le Beau (xiii. 184) is more decided and more 
detailed. Georg. Mon. (545), in recounting the anecdote, certainly calls Theltla 
the sister of the emperor, and from this it is inferred she must have been the 
sister of the reigning emperor Basil ; but a comparison of Leo Gramm. (464 and 
471). — the Latin translation calls her the sister of Michael, without this being 
said in the Greek text, — and especially Symeon Mag. {446) and Georg Mon. 
(Sj"). prove that she was the sister of Michael III. She had been compelled 
to adopt the monastic dress, to deprive her of the title of Empress, which she had 
received from her father Theophilus. Both gold and silver coius of Thekia exist. 
Sattlqr, Esaoi, 19) ; Sabatier, DaerifrioH giniralt lUi monnain byiaalintt, ii. loo. 



DgIC 



254 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.ai.I. ST. 
and see her adopted son seated on the throne — which, it was 
said, she had long believed he was destined by heaven to fill ; 
for it had been reported that, when Basil first entered the 
cathedral of St. Andrew at Patrae, a monk was seized with a 
prophetic vision, and proclaimed that he was destined to 
become emperor. This prophecy Danielis had heard and " 
believed. The invitation must have afforded her the highest 
gratification, as a proof of her own discernment in selecting 
one who passessed affection and gratitude, as well as great 
talents and divine favour. The old lady was the possessor of 
a princely fortune, and her wealth indicates that the state 
of society in the Peloponnesus was not very dissimilar in the 
ninth century from what it had been in the first centuries of 
our era, under the Roman government, when Caius Antoniua 
and Eurykles were proprietors . of whole provinces, and 
Herodes Atticus possessed riches that an emperor might 
have envied '. 

The lady Danielis set off from Patrae in a litter or covered 
couch, carried on the shoulders of ten slaves ; and the train 
which followed her, destined to relieve these litter-bearers, 
amounted to three hundred persons. When she reached 
Constantinople, she was lodged in the palace of Magnaura 
appropriated for the reception of princely guests. The rich 
presents she had prepared for the emperor astonished the 
inhabitants of the capital, for no foreign monarch had ever 
offered gifts of equal value to a Byzantine sovereign. The 
slaves that bore the gifts were themselves a part of the 
present, and were all distinguished for their youth, beauty, 
and accomplishments. Four hundred young men, one hun- 
dred eunuchs, and one hundred maidens, formed the living 
portion of this magnificent offering. A hundred pieces of the 
richest coloured drapery, one hundred pieces of soft woollen 
cloth, two hundred pieces of linen, and one hundred of 
cambric, so fine that each piece could be enclosed in the 
joint of a reed. To all this a service of cups, dishes, and 
plates of gold and silver was added ^. Danielis found that 



' Compure vol. i., Gntct unJir lit Romans, p. 66. 

' The Emperor Constanline Porphyrogenitus, who knew something about the 
matter, says thut the old lady knew that eunuchs are collected about tbe court 
like blue-bollle flies round a aheepfold; p. 195. A curious dissertation mii^t 
be wrilteD as a commentary on the preunts. 



DgIC 



WEALTH OF DANIELIS. 355 

A,D. 867-886.] 

the emperor had constructed a magnificent church as an 
expiation for the murder of his benefactor, Michael III. 
She sent orders to the Peloponnesus to mnnufacture carpets 
of unusual size, in order to cover the whole floor, and protect 
the rich mosaic pavement, in which a peacock with outspread 
tail surpassed every similar work of art by the extreme 
brilliancy of its colouring. Before the widow quitted Con- 
stantinople, she settled a considerable portion of her estates in 
Greece on her son, the protospatharios, and on her adopted 
child the emperor, in joint property. 

After Basil's death, she again visited Constantinople ; her 
own son was also dead, so she constituted the Emperor 
Leo VI. her sole heir. On quittii^ the capital for the last 
time, she desired that the protospathar Zenobios might be 
despatched to the Peloponnesus, for the purpose of preparing 
a register of her extensive estates and immense property. 
She died shortly after her return ; and even the imperial 
officers were amazed at the amount of her wealth. The 
quantity of gold coin, gold and silver plate, works of art in 
bronze, furniture, rich stuffs in linen, cotton, wool, and silk, 
cattle and slaves, palaces and farms, formed an inheritance 
that astonished even an emperor of Constantinople. The 
slaves, of which the Emperor Leo became the proprietor, 
were so numerous that he ordered three thousand to be 
enfranchised and sent to the theme of Longobardia, as Apulia 
was then called, where they were put in possession of land, 
which they cultivated as serfs. After the payment of many 
legacies, and the division of a part of the landed property, 
according to the dispositions of the testament, the emperor 
remained possessor of eighty farms or villages. The notice 
of this inheritance furnishes a curious glimpse into the condi- 
tion of society in Greece during the latter period of the ninth 
century, which is the period when the Greek race b^jan to 
recover a numerical superiority and prepare for the con- 
solidation of its political ascendancy over the Sclavonian 
colonists in the Peloponnesus. Unfortunately, history sup- 
plies us with no contemporary facts that point out the 
precise causes of the diminution of the relative numbers of the 
Sclavonians and the rapid increase in the absolute numbers 
of the Greek agricultural population. We are left to seek for 
explanations of these facts in the general laws which regulate 



2^6 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.Ch.I.Si. 
the progress of population and produce vicissitudes in the 
state of society. 

The steps by which Basil mounted the throne were never 
forgotten by political and military adventurers, who con- 
sidered the empire a fit prize for a successful conspirator. 
John Kurkuas, a patrician of great wealth, who commanded 
the Ikaftates, expected to seize the crown as a lawful prize, 
and engaged sixty-six of the leading men tn the public 
administration to participate in his design. The plot was 
revealed to Basil by some of the conspirators, who perceived 
they could gain more by a second treachery than by persist- 
ing in their first treason. Kurkuas was seized, and his eyes 
were put out : the other conspirators were scouiged in the 
hippodrome ; their heads were shaved, their beards burned off, 
and after being paraded through the capital they were exiled, 
and their estates confiscated. The clemency of Basil in 
inflrcting these paternal punishments, instead of exacting the 
penalties imposed by the law of treason, is lauded by his 
interested historians. The fate of Kurkuas, however, only 
claims our notice, because he was the father of John Kurkuas, 
a general whom the Byzantine writers consider as a hero 
worthy to be compared with Trajan and Belisarius. Kurkuas 
was also the great-grandfather of the Emperor John Zimiskes, 
one of the ablest soldiers who ever occupied the throne of 
Constantinople '. 

Though Basil founded the longest dynasty that ruled the 
Byzantine empire, the race proceeded from a corrupt source. 
Constantine, the son of Basil's first wife, Maria, was regarded 
with much affection by his father, and received the imperial 
crown in the year 868, but died about the year 879. The 
loss was severely felt by the emperor, who expressed an eager 
desire to be assured that his favourite child enjoyed eternal 
felicity.- The abbot Theodores Santabaren took advantage 
of this paternal solicitude to impose on the emperor's super- 
stition and credulity. A phantom, which bore the likeness of 
Constantine, met the emperor white he was hunting, and 
galloped towards him, until it approached so near that Basil 
could perceive the happy expression of his son's face. It then 
faded from his sight ; but the radiant aspect of the vision 

' Coustaat. Fotpbyr. SsaiUia, 171 ; Stdicod Mag. 460. 

n,.i,i ...A'OOgle 



ACCUSATION AGAINST LEO. 257 

K3). 867-B86.] 

satisfied the father that his deceased son was received to 
grace. 

Leo, the eldest child of Eudocia^ was generally believed to 
be the son of Michael the Drunkard ; and though Basil had 
conferred on him the imperial crown in his infancy (a.d. 870), 
he seems never to have regarded him with feelings of affection. 
It would seem he entertained the common opinion con- 
cerning the parentage of Leo. The latter years of Basil were 
clouded with suspicion of his heir, who he feared might avenge 
the murder of Michael, even at the risk of becoming a parri- 
cide. Whether truly or not, young Leo was accused of 
plotting against Basil's life before he was sixteen years of 
age*. The accusation was founded on the discovery of a 
dagger concealed in the boot of the young prince, while he 
was in attendance on his father at a hunting-party, when 
Byzantine etiquette demanded that he should be unarmed. 
The historians who wrote under the eye of Leo's son, Con- 
stantine Porphyrogenitus, pretend that the abbot Theodores 
Santabaren persuaded Leo to conceal the weapon for his own 
defence, and then informed Basil that his son was armed to 
attempt his assassination. The charge underwent a full 
examination, during which the young emperor was deprived 
of the insignia of the imperial rank ; but the result of the 
investigation must have proved his innocence, for, in spite of 
the suspicions rooted in Basil's mind, he was restored to his 
rank as heir-apparent ^ 

The cruelty displayed by Basil in his latter days loosens 
the tongues of his servile historians, and indicates that he 
never entirely laid aside the vices of his earlier years. While 
engaged in hunting, to which he was passionately devoted, 
3 stag that had been brought to bay rushed at him, and, 
striking its antlers into his girdle, dragged him from his horse. 
One of the attendants drew the hunting-knife, and, cutting the 

' GeorE. Mon, (541), Leo Gramm. (468), and ZoDSras (ii. l6fi), indicate that 
Leo was considered Ihe son of Michael III. Symeon Mag. 455. Georg. Moo. 
(544) and Leo Gramm. (471) sjeak of Alexander as the legilimate child of Basil 
in opposition to Leo. Leo was crowned 6tb Jaaoary 870. Knig, 39, 

' I'he people of Tbessalonica still show a tower, in which they say Leo was 
conlined during the time he was deprived of the imperial title. I could not 
succeed in obtaining permission lo visit it. Perhaps some Byzantine inscription 
in the walls has caused the tradition. A private English travellei', who ha* 
neither wealth nor title, does not meet with the same tacilities in literary researches 
as a foreigner. 

VOL. II. S 



O'^le 



258 BASIL! AN DYNASTY. 

[Bk II.Ch.I.{ s. 
girdle, saved the emperor's life; but the suspicious despot, 
fearing an attempt at assassination, ordered his faithful servant 
to be immediately decapitated. The shock he received from 
the stag brought on a fever, which terminated liis eventful 
life, and he ended his reign, as he had commenced it, by the 
murder of a benefactor. Though he was a judicious and able 
sovereign, he has been unduly praised, because he was one of 
the most orthodox emperors of Constantinople in the opinion 
of the Latin as well as of the Greek church '. 



Sect. \l.—Leo VI. [the Philosopker), A.D. 886-912. 

Character and court of Leo VI. — Ecclesiastical administration. — Legislation. — 
Saracen war. — Taking of Thessalonica. — Bulgarian war. 

Leo the Philosopher gave countenance to the rumour that 
he was the son of Michael III. by one of the first acts of his 
reign. He ordered the body of the murdered emperor to be 
transported from Chrysopoiis, where it had been interred by 
Theodora, and entombed it with great ceremony in the Church 
of the Holy Apostles. 

In every characteristic of a sovereign Leo differed from 
Basil, and almost every point of difference was to the dis- 
advantage of the Philosopher. The ease with which the 
throne was retained by a man such as Basil had been before 
he became sole emperor, is explained, when we see a trifling 
pedant like Leo ruling the empire without difficulty. The 
energy which had reinvigorated the Eastern Empire under 
the Iconoclasts was now dormant, and society had d^enerated 
as much as the court. When the foundations of the Byzan- 
tine government were laid by Leo III., society was as eager 
to reform its own vices as the emperor was to improve the 
administration ; but when Basil mounted the throne, the 
people were as eager to enjoy their wealth as the emperor 
to gratify his ambition. The emperors of Constantinople, as 

' Basil's determination to Iteep on good terms with the Pope, his zeal in building 
churches, and his eagerness to baptize Jews, made him powerful friends in hit 
own Bg^, whose opinions have been reflected in modem history; but Zonaiai 
represents htm as an ignorant and superstitious bigot. It is needless to say that 
he cannot have composed the advice to his hopeful son, Leo the Philosopher, 
which appears in the Byzantine Collection as his work. 



,*A'00'^lc 



CHARACTER OF LEO VI. %Kq 

Aji. BS6-9i». 

the throne was to a certain degree elective, are generally types 
of their age ; and though Leo the Philosopher succeeded as 
the son and successor of Basil, no sovereign ever represented 
the character of his age better. He typifies the idle spirit of 
conservatism as correctly as Constantine V, does the a^res- 
sive energy of progress. 

Leo VL was a man of learning and a lover of luxurious 
ease, a conceited pedant and an arbitrary but mild despot. 
Naturally of a confined intellect, he owes his title of 'the 
Philosopher,' or 'the Learned,' rather to the ignorance of the 
people, who attributed to him an acquaintance with the 
secrets of astrolt^cal science, than either to his own attain- 
ments, or to any remarkable patronage he bestowed on learned 
men ', His personal character, however, exercised even greater 
influence on the public administration of the empire than that 
of his predecessors, for the government was now so completely 
despotic that the court, rather than the cabinet, directed the 
business of the state. Hence it was that the empire met with 
di^raceful disasters at a period when its force was sufficient 
to have protected all its subjects. The last traces of the 
Roman constitution were suppressed, and the trammels of an 
inviolable court ceremonial, and the invariable routine of 
administrators and lawyers, were all that was preserved of the 
institutions of an earlier and grander period. The complete 
consolidation of Byzantine despotism is recorded in the edicts 
of Leo, suppressing the old municipal system, and abolishing 
senatus-consulta '. The language of legislation became as 

' I«o's works consist of some poetical oracles and hymns, and a treatise on 
military tactics. The oracles ate published at the end of Codinus. De Anli^ilatibui 
Oonsrantinopoliraias. and the Tactics in Lamp's edition of the works of Menrsius, 
torn, vi., and separately. Leonis Imp. Taclica, hm Dt Ri mili'ari Libtr, I. Meursius 
graece primus vulgavit et nolas ]tdjecit. Lngd. Bat. l6l3. 4to. There is a French 
translation of the Tactics by loly de Maizeroy. [The Oracles of Leo the Philo- 
sopher, which were eiccedingly enigmatical, were preserved in the library of the 
palace at Constantinople. £i the Greek ChroHi'cU of iht Morta (Prologue, vv. 
BS3-903, in, Buchon. Rrehtrchti HUloriipits, Premiere Epoqne, vol. ii. p. 34 : and 
Chroniijuts Eirangh-is, vol, i. p. 10) it is said that Leo bad prophesied that a per- 
fidious emperor should be cast from the top of a column in the forum of Tsunis, 
and that this was fuinlled when the Crusaders, after the capture of Constantinople, 
cast the Emperor Murtzuphlos from thence. Fragments of a mediaeTal popular 
version or interpretation of these oracles have been lalely published by M. Legrand 
in his Collicriott dt Monumtntt pour sirvir a Viladi A ta lattgut nio-tuiliniipn 
(Nouvelle Sirie, No. s). applying them (o the circumstances of the period of the 
occupation of Constantinople by the Latins. These iiafmenis are fuU of com- 
plaints of the misery of the lime, and of anticipation of coming disasters. See 
the prefatory notice by M. Gidel. Ei>.] 

' Lmnii Nnvdlat, Const xlvi. Iixviii. 

S 2 



:v Google 



26o £ASIUAN DYNASTY. 

i:Bk.II.Ch.LSa. 
despotic as the acts of tiie emperor were arbitrary. Two 
Patriarchs, Photius and Nikolaos, were removed from the 
government of the church by the emperor's order. Leo lived 
in open adult^ on a throne from which Constantine VI. had 
been driven for venturing on a second marriage while his 
divorced wife was living. Yet Zoe, the fourth wife of Leo VI., 
gave birth to the future emperor, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 
in the purple chamber of the imperial palace, before the 
marriage ceremony had been performed \ A Saracen renegade, 
named Samonas, was for years the prime favourite of the 
infatuated Leo, who raised him to the rank of patrician, and 
allowed him to stand god-father to his son Constantine, 
though great doubts were entertained of the orthodoxy, or 
perhaps of the Christianity, of this disreputable favourite^. 
The expenditure of the imperial household was greatly 
increased ; the revenue previously destined to the service 
of the empire was diverted to the gratification of the court, 
and corruption was introduced into every branch of the ad- 
ministration by the example of the emperor, who raised money 
by selling offices. The Emperor Basil, like his predecessors, 
had been contented to make use of a galley, with a single 
bank of oars, in his visits to the country round Constantinople; 
but Leo never condescended to move unless in a dromon of 
two banks of oars, rowed by two hundred men — and two of 
these vessels were constantly maintained as imperial yachts '. 
Constantine Porphyrt^enitus recounts an anecdote concerning 
the corruption at his father's court, which deserves particular 
notice, as proving, on the best authority, that the emperor 
encouraged the system by sharii^ in its profits. Ktenas, 
a rich man in holy orders, and the best public singer of the 
time, was extremely aflxious to possess acknowledged rank at 
the imperial court. He secured the support of Samonas, the 
Saracen grand-chamberlain, and hoped to obtain the rank of 
protospatharios, by offering to make the emperor a present of 
forty pounds' weight of gold, the pay of the office amounting 
only to a pound of gold annually. The emperor Leo refused, 
declaring, as his son tells us, that it was a transaction un- 
worthy of the imperial dignity, and that it was a thing unheard 

' Contb. Constant. Porphyr. ieu, aaS. 

' Ibid, jji ; Symeon Mag. ^68. 

' Coastiut, Pocphyr. Di Adm, Imf, c. 51. 



3 Google 



COURT AND ADMINISTRATION. 361 

A.D. 886-911,] 

of to appoint a clerk protospatharios. The old man, however, 
by the means of Samonas, increased his offers, adding to his 
first proposal a pair of earrings, worth ten pounds of gold, and 
a richly-chased table of silver gilt, also worth ten pounds of 
gold. This addition produced so great an effect on Leo's 
mind, that, according to his own declaration, he di^raced the 
imperial dignity, for he made a member of the clergy a proto- 
spatharios. Constantine then chuckles at his father's good 
fortune ; for after receiving sixty pounds' weight of gold, the 
new protospatharios only lived to draw two years' pay '. 

The strongest contrast between the administration of Leo 
and Basil was visible in the financial affairs of the empire. 
Though the direct taxes were not increased, the careless 
conduct of Leo, and his neglect to maintain the strict control 
over the tax-gatherers exercised by his father, allowed every 
species of abuse to creep into this branch of government, and 
the people were subject to the severest oppression*. Mono- 
polies were also created in favour of the creatures of the court, 
which were the cause of great complaints, and one of these 
ultimately involved the empire in a most disastrous war with 
the Bulgarians. 

The state of the church in the Byzantine empire was always 
important, as ecclesiastical affairS' afforded the only oppor- 
tunity for the expression of public opinion. A considerable 
body of the clergy was more closely connected with the 
people, by feelings and interests, than with the court. At 
this time, however, all classes enjoyed a degree of sensual 
abundance that rendered society torpid, and few were inclined 
to take part in. violent contests. The majority of the subjects 
of the Byzantine empire, perhaps, never felt greater aversion 
to the conduct of the government, both in civil and ecclesias- 
tical matters ; and we may attribute the parade Leo made of 
his divine right to govern both the state and the church, to 
the fact that he was fully aware of the popular feelii^ ; but 
no class of men saw any probability of bettering their condi- 
tion, either by revolution or change, so that a bad government 
began to be looked upoa as one of the unavoidable evils of 

' CoDstanl. Porphyr. Dt Adm. Imp. c. jo. p. JJi, edit. Bonn. 

' Constantine Poiphyrogenitus raenlions (he case of an illiterate man feeing 
appointed judge^dmiral, a lawyer being joined with him as depnly to prepare 
tbe decisions. 



DgIC 



262 BASIL! AS DVyASTV. 

[Bfc.tLCh.1. {1. 
an advanced state of civilization, and as one of the inevitable 
calamities which Heaven itself had interwoven in nun's 
existence. 

The Emperor Leo VI. deposed the Patriarch Photius with- 
out pretending any religious motive for the change The 
object was to confer the dignity on his brother Stephen, who 
was then only eighteen years of age. Photius was banished 
to a monastery in the Armeniac theme, where he survived 
his deposition about five years, more universally respected, 
and probably happier, than when he sat on the patriarchal 
throne, though he had been excommunicated by nine popes 
of Rome'. Leo was eager to punish the abbot Theodores 
Santabaren, whom he regarded as the author of his degra- 
dation and imprisonment during his father's reign. Failing 
to procure evidence to convict the abbot of any crime, he 
ordered him to be scourged and exiled to Athens. His eyes 
were subsequently put out by the emperor's orders. But 
Leo, though a tyrant, was not implacable, and some years 
later Theodoros was recalled to Constantinople, and received 
a pension. 

The predominance of ceremony in religion is shown by the 
l^islative acts of the Byzantine government, relating to the 
observance of the Sabbath. As early as the reign of Con- 
stantine the Great, A.D. 321, there is a law commanding the 
suspension of all civil business on Sunday; and this enact- 
ment is enforced by a law of Theodosius I., in 386 ^. During 
the contests concerning image-worship, society was strict in 
all religious observances, and great attention was paid to 
Sunday. In the year 960, Leo the Philosopher, who was far 
from affecting the practice of piety, even while he made a 
parade of ecclesiastical observances, revoked all the exemp- 
tions which the law had hitherto made in favour of the 
performance of useful labour on Sunday, and forbade even 
necessary agricultural work, as dishonouring the Lord's day. 
Arguing with the bigotry of the predestinarian, that the 
arbitrary will of God, and not the fixed laws which he has 
revealed to man, gives abundant harvests to the earth, the 
emperor regards the diligence of the agriculturist as of no 
avail. Fate became the refuge of the human mind when the 

' See p J34. ■ Cad. Thtod. u. 8. 18, Dt Firm. 



LEO'S FOURTH MARJifAGE. 261 

government of Rome had rendered the improvement of pagan 
society hopeless ; superstition assumed its place among the 
Christians, and the stagnation of the Byzantine empire per- 
suaded men that no prudence in the conduct of their affairs 
could better man's condition. 

Ecclesiastical affairs gave Leo very little trouble during his 
reign, but towards its end he was involved in a dispute with 
the Patriarch Nikolaos the mystic. After the death of Leo's 
third wife, without male issue, the emperor, not wishing to 
violate openly the laws of the Eastern church, enforced by his 
own legislation, which forbade fourth marriages, installed the 
beautiful Zoe Carbunopsina, a grand-niece of the historian 
Theophanes, as his coacubine in the palace '. Zoe gave birth 
to a son in the purple chamber, who was the celebrated 
emperor and author, Constantine VII. (Porphyrogenitus). 
The young prince was baptized in the Church of St. Sophia 
by the Patriarch Nikolaos, but that severe ecclesiastic only 
consented to officiate at the ceremony on receiving the em- 
peror's promise that he would not live any longer with his 
concubine. Three days after the baptism of Constantine, the 
Emperor Leo celebrated his marriage with Zoe, and conferred 
on her the imperial title, thus keeping his promise to the 
Patriarch in one sense. But Nikolaos, indignant at having 
been paltered with in a double sense, degraded the priest who 
performed the nuptial ceremony, and interdicted the entry 
of the church to Leo. The emperor only thought it neces- 
sary to pay so much respect to the interdict as to attend 
the church ceremonies by a private door ; and the people, 
caring little about the quarrel, laughed when they saw the 
imperial philosopher show so much wit, Leo, however, took 
measures to gain the Pope's good-will, and when assured of 
papal support, he deposed Nikolaos and appointed Euthymios 
the syncellus his successor. The new Patriarch, though he 
had been a monk on Mount Olympus, recognized the validity 
of the emperor's fourth marriage, on the pretext that the 
public good required the ecclesiastical laws to yield to the 
exigencies of the state. The populace, to excuse their 
Patriarch, believed a report that the emperor had threatened, 



t,CAX>^lc 



2l54 BASILIAN DVNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Cb.I.f». 
in case the Patriarch refused to recognize the validity of his 
marriage with Zoe, to publish a law allowing every man to 
marry four wives at the same time. This rumour, notwith- 
standing its absurdity, afTords strong proof of the absolute 
power of the emperor, and of the credulity with which the 
Greeks received every rumour unfavourable to their rulers '. 

The legislative labours of Leo's reign are more deserving of 
attention than his ecclesiastical skirmishes, though he only 
followed in the traces of his father, and made use of materials 
already prepared to his hand. We have already noticed that 
he published a revised edition of the Basilika, to which he 
added a considerable amount of supplementary legislation. 
Byzantine law, however, even after it had received all the 
improvements of Leo, was ill suited to serve as a practical 
guide to the population of the empire. The Basilika is an 
inspiration of imperial pride, not a work whose details follow 
the suggestions of public utility. Whole titles are filled 
with translations of imperial edicts, useless in the altered 
circumstances of the empire ; and one of the consequences 
of the ill-devised measure of adopting an old code was, that 
no perfect copy of the Basilika has been preserved. Many 
books fell into neglect, and have been entirely lost. The 
sovereigns of the Bj'zantine empire, except while it was ruled 
by the Iconoclasts, felt that their power rested on the fabric of 
the Roman administration, not on their own strength. 

The collection of the edicts or 'novels' of Leo, inserted 
in the editions of the Corpus Juris Civiiis, has rendered the 
legislation of Leo more generally known than his revised 
edition of the Byzantine code. These edicts were published 
for the purpose of modifying portions of the law, as pro- 
mulgated in the Basilika. The greater number are addressed 
to Stylianos, who is supposed to have been the father of Zoe, 
Leo's second wife, and it is thought they were published 
between the years U87 and 895, while Stylianos was master of 
the offices and logothetes *. 

The military events of Leo's reign were marked by several 
di^raceful defeats ; but the strength of the empire was not 

' Geoi^. Mon. 5S9. 

* ZachariB, DtVuuado, 50. As a proof of the mental movement throughout 
Europe, it may be observed (hat the legislation of Alfred is contemporary with 
that of Leo Vl. Christian society was moved by some impulxs which opcmled 
both in England and Constantinople. 



DgIC 



SARACEN WAR. 365 

A.D.E86-SI10 

seriously affected by the losses sustained, though the people 
often suffered the severest misery. The Asiatic frontier was 
generally defended with success. Nicephorus Phokas, who 
had distinguished himself in Italy during the reign of Basil, 
acquired additional glory by his activity as general of the 
Thrakesian theme. The Saracens, nevertheless, continued to 
make destructive inroads into the empire, as it was found 
impossible to watch every point where they could assemble 
an army. In the year 887, the town of Hysela in Charsiana 
was taken, and its inhabitants carried away into slavery^. In 
888, Samos was plundered, and the governor, with many of 
the inhabitants, made prisoner. In 893, the fortress of Koron 
in Cappadocia was taken^ In 901, reciprocal incursions were 
made by the Christians and the Mohammedans, but the 
Byzantine troops were more successful than the Saracen, 
for they penetrated as far as the district of Aleppo, and 
carried off fifteen thousand prisoners. This advantage was 
compensated by the victories of the Saracen fleet, which took 
and plundered the island of Lemnos'. The Saracen fleet 
also, in the year 902, took and destroyed the city of Demetrias 
in Thessaly, where all the inhabitants who could not be car- 
ried away, and sold with profit as slaves, were murdered *. 
During these calamities, Leo, in imitation of his father, em- 
ployed the resources of the state, which ought to have been 
devoted to putting the naval forces of the empire in an 
eflicient condition, in building a new church, and in con- 
structing a monastery for eunuchs'. Before the end of Leo's 
reign, the isolated and independent position assumed by 
several of the Saracen emirs on the frontier, enabled the 
Byzantine generals to make some permanent conquests. 
Melias, an Armenian who had distinguished himself in the 
Bulgarian war, gained possession of the country between 
Mount Amanus and the Euphrates, and this district was 
formed into a new theme called Lykandos *, The Saracens 
were also driven from the city of Theodosiopolis by Leo 



' Contin. Leo, ji8. • Symeon Mag. 46J. 

' Conlin. tif. ; Symeon Mag. 463; Weil, ii. 492. 

' Contin "4; Symecjn Mag. 463; Cameniates, Di Excblio 7'httutoalctiui, 3J9, 

* Geoig. Mod. 556; Symeon Mag. 463. 

* CoaUant. Porphyr. Di Adm. Imf. c 50. p. tiS, edit. Bonn; Di Thtmarilrui, 
p. 31, edit. Bonn. 



DgIC 



266 B AS! LI AN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Ch.1. ti. 
Katakalon, and the Araxes was constituted the boundary of 
the empire towards the Iberians '. 

The ruinous effects of the piratical system of warfare 
pursued by the Saracen fleets, and the miseries inflicted on 
thousands of Christian families in the Byzantine empire, 
deserve a record in the page of history. Fortunately we do 
not require, in describing what really happened, to indulge 
the imagination by painting what probably occurred, for time 
has spared the narrative of one of the sufferers, in which the 
author describes his own fate, and the calamities he witnessed, 
with the minute exactitude of truth and pedantry. Many 
severe blows were inflicted on the Byzantine empire by the 
daring enterprises of the Mohammedans, who took advan- 
tage of the neglected state of the imperial navy to plunder 
the richest cities of Greece. But the most terrible catastrophe 
the Christians suffered was the sack of Thessalonica, the second 
city of the empire in population and wealth. Of this event 
Joannes Cameniates, an ecclesiastic of the order of Readers, 
and a native of the place, has left us a full account. He shared 
all the dangers of the assault, and after the capture of his 
native city he was carried prisoner to Tarsus, where he was 
released from slavery by one of the exchanges of prisoners 
which took place between the Christians and Saracens from 
time to time in that city*. 

Thessalonica is situated at the head of an inner basin 
terminating the long gulf stretching up to the northward, 
between the snowy peaks and rugged mountains of Olympus 
and Ossa to the west, and the rich shores of the Chalcidice 
and the peninsula of Cassandra to the east. The bay, on 
which the city looks down, affords a safe anchorage ; and 
in the tenth century an ancient mole enclosed an inner port 
within its arms, where the lai^est vessels could land or receive 
their cargoes as in a modem dock. This port bounded the 
city on the south, and was separated from it by a wall about 
a mile in length running along the shore. Within, the houses 
rose gradually, until the upper part of the city was crowned 
with an acropolis, separated from the hills behind by a 

' Constant Porphyr. Dt Adm. Imp. c. 45. p. lOl, cdil. Bono. 

' Joaniies Cameniates held ihe office of Kubuklcaios or crozier-bearer to the 
Archbishop of Thessalonica. His narrative i« contained in the volume of the 
ByzantiiiL' historians entitled Scripiortt pou Tknpharum. 



DgIC 



TAKING OF THESSALONICA. 26y 

4.D. 886-911.] 

rugged precipice. This citadel is now called the Seven 
Towers. Two ravines, running to the sea from the rocky 
base of the acropolis, serve as ditches to the western and 
eastern walls of the city, which to this day follow the same 
line, and present nearly the same aspect as in the reign of 
Leo the Philosopher. Their angles at the sea, where they 
join the wall along the port, are strengthened by towers of 
extraordinary size. The Egnatian Way, which for many 
centuries served as the high-road for the communications 
between Rome and Constantinople, formed a great street 
passing in a straight line through the centre of the city from 
its western to its eastern wall. This relic of Roman great- 
ness, with its triumphal arches, still forms a marked feature 
in the Turkish city; but the moles of the ancient port have 
fallen to ruin, and the space between the sea-wall and the 
water is disfigured by a collection of filthy huts. Yet the 
admirable situation of Thessalonica, and the fertility of the 
surrounding country, watered by several noble rivers, still 
enables it to nourish a population of upwards of sixty thou- 
sand souls. Nature has made it the capital and seaport of 
a rich and extensive district, and under a good government 
it could not fail to become one of the largest and most 
flourishing cities on the shores of the Mediterranean '. 

Leo of Tripolis was the most active, daring, and skilful 
of the Saracen admirals. He was born of Christian parents, 
at Attalia in Pamphylia, but became a renegade, and settled 
at Tripolis in Syria after he embraced the Mohammedan 
faith. In the year 904, Leo sailed from Tarsus with a fleet 
of fifty-four ships, each carrying two hundred men, besides 
their officers and a few chosen troops. The ablest corsairs 
in the East were assembled for this expedition, and a rumour 
of the unusual care that was shown in fitting out the fleet 
reached the court of the idle philosopher at Constantinople. 
He foresaw that some daring attack on his dominions would 
be made, and would fain have placed the imperial navy in a 

' The population is said lo have varied from 50,000 to 70,000 during the 
present century. Cameniates mentions that upwards of 22,000 young men, 
women, and children, selected either because they bad wealthy relations to redeem 
them, or strength and beauty to command a good price in the slave-market, were 
carried away captive by the Saracens. Di Excidio Thessal. c. 73, p. .577. Sup- 
posing that this was a tenth of the whole population— and when the btate of 
society i5 considered, it may be doubted uhethur it formed a greater portion — 
the population of Tbe»^aloulca waji then 110,000. 



A-ooglc 



268 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk. 0.01.1.(1. 
condition to defend the islands and shores of the Aegean ; but 
though the commerce of Greece could have supplied sailors to 
man the lai^est force, the negligence and incapacity of the 
admiralty had been so great, that several years of misfortune 
were required to awaken the spirit necessary to restore the 
Byzantine fleet to the condition from which it had fallen. 
The naval force that was now sent to defend the empire did 
not venture to encounter the Saracen fleet, but retired before 
it, seeking shelter within the Hellespont, and leaving the whole 
Archipelago unprotected. In the mean time fugitives reached 
Constantinople, who reported that the enemy proposed to 
attack Thessalonica. 

The walls of Thessalonica had been originally of great 
strength, but the fortifications were in- a n^lected state, and 
the city was almost without a garrison of regular troops. The 
sea-wall was in want of repair, and parts were so low that it 
was not difficult to mount the battlements from the yards 
of the ships in the port. On the land side the floors of the 
towers that flanked the walls had in some places fallen into 
such a state of decay, that the communications of the de- 
fenders on the curtains were interrupted. The emperor, when 
informed of the defenceless state of the place, increased the 
confusion by his injudicious meddling. He sent a succession 
of oflicers from the capital with different instructions, fresh 
counsels, and new powers ; and, as usually happens in similar 
cases, each of his deputies availed himself of his authority to 
alter the plan of defence adopted by his predecessor. As 
might be expected under such circumstances, the Saracens 
arrived before the fortifications were repaired, and before the 
arrangements for defence were completed. 

The most alarming defect in the fortifications was the con- 
dition of the wall towards the port It was too low, without 
the necessary towers to aflbrd a flanking defence, and in 
several places the depth of the water admitted ships to ap- 
proach close to the quay that ran under its battlements. 
Petronas, the first officer sent by the emperor, thinking that 
there was not sufficient time to raise the wall or construct new 
towers, adopted measures for preventing the approach of the 
enemy's ships. To effect this, he transported to the port the 
sculptured sarcophagi and immense blocks of marble that 
then adorned the Hellenic tombs on both sides of the Egnatian 



DgIC 



TAKING OF THESSALONICA. 260 

*.D, 886-911.] 

Way, without the western and eastern gates of the city, and 
commenced laying them in the sea at some distance Trom 
the quay. His object was to form a mole reaching within 
a few feet of the surface of the water, against which the enemy 
might run their ships, and leave them exposed, for some time, 
to the missiles and Greek fire of the defenders of the city. 
But the inhabitants of Thessalonica showed themselves insen- 
sible of danger before it approached, and incapable of defend- 
ing themselves when it arrived. Their whole confidence was 
placed in St. Demetrius, who had never deceived them— not 
in their emperor, whose armies and fleets were every day 
defeated. They knew that Thessalpnica had often repulsed 
the attacks of the Sclavonians in the seventh and eighth cen- 
turies ; they boasted that it had never been taken by pagans 
or unbelievers ; and they believed that, whenever it had been 
besi^ed, St. Demetrius had shown himself active in its de- 
fence ; it was therefore the universal opinion, that as patron 
saint he would now defend a place in which he had a strong 
personal interest ; for in no other spot on earth was he 
worshipped by so numerous, so wealthy, and so devoted a 
community'. The fate of Thessalonica proves the wisdom 
of Leo III. in endeavouring to exterminate the worship of 
images and saints. 

Fetronas had not made much progress with his work when he 
was superseded by an officer named Leo, who was appointed 
general of the theme of Thessalonica. Leo, finding that the 
wall towards the port was not higher than the immense stern- 
galleries of the ships then in use, ordered the undertaking of 
Fetronas to be suspended, and every nerve to be strained to 
raise the wall. Reports became every day more alarming. 
At one time it was announced that the Saracen fleet had 
pursued the Byzantine admiral, Eustathios Argyros, up the 
Hellespont as far as Parium. Afterwards it became certain 
that it had quitted the Hellespont and reached Thasos. The 
people of the city would not, however, shake off their apathy 
and their confidence in St. Demetrius. They showed little 
aptitude for building or for military discipline ; the wall 
advanced slowly, and the miliUa did not seem likely to f^ht 

>. 314 ; Tafel, D* 7%4aalonUa tjui- 



:\<00^\Q 



270 BASILIAN DYXASTY. 

[Bk.n.Ch.l.Ei. 
bravely in defence of their country even should the wall be 
completed. At this conjuncture a third officer arrived from 
Constantinople, named Niketas. His arrival was of itself 
sufficient to produce some disorder ; but, unfortunately, an 
accident that happened shortly after threw everything into 
confusion. Leo and Niketas met on horseback to inspect the 
defences of the city; the horse of Leo reared, threw his rider, 
and injured his right thigh and side in such a manner that 
his life was in danger, and for several days he was unable 
to move. This accident invested Niketas with the chief 
command. 

Niketas seems to have had more military experience than 
his predecessor, and he felt that the citizens of Thessalonica, 
though they formed a numerous militia, were not to be 
depended on for defending the place. He therefore en- 
deavoured to assemble a body of troops accustomed to war, 
by calling on the general of the theme of Strymon to send 
some of the federate Sclavonians from his government ; but 
the envy or negligence of the general, and the avarice and 
ill-will of the Sclavonian leaders, prevented the arrival of any 
assistance from that quarter. Though Niketas threatened to 
report the misconduct of the general of Strymon to the 
emperor, he could obtain no addition to the garrison, except 
a few ill-equipped Sclavonian archers from the villages in the 
plains near the city. The generals did not gain the good- 
will of the inhabitants since they seemed all to place too 
much confidence in human prudence ; the people preferred 
relying on St. Demetrius and heaven. To secure the divine 
aid, a solemn procession of all the cleigy and citizens, 
accompanied by every stranger residing in Thessalonica, and 
headed by the archbishop and the civil and military authori- 
ties, visited the church of St. Demetrius. Public prayers 
were offered up day and night with great fervour; but long 
after, when Joannes Cameniates recorded that the interven- 
tion of St. Demetrius had proved unavailing, he acknowledged 
that God permitted the destruction of Thessalonica to show 
mankind that nothing renders the divine ear accessible to the 
intercession of the saints but a pious life and good deeds. 

The Saracens stopped a short tim^ at Thasos to prepare 
engines for hurling stones, and other machines used in sieges. 
At last, as the inhabitants of Thessalonica Were leaving their 



DKjiiz.v.^A'OO'^le 



TAKING OF THESSALONICA. 371 

*j). 886-911.] 

houses at daybreak, to attend morning prayer, on Sunday the 
29th of July 904, a rumour arose that the enemy was already 
in the gulf, and only concealed from view by Cape Ekbolos. 
The unwarlike city was filled with lamentations, tumult, and 
alarm ; but the citizens enrolled in the militia armed them- 
selves, amidst the tears of their wives and children, and 
hastened to the battlements. The anxious crowd had not 
long to wait before fifty-four ships were seen rounding the 
cape in succession, with all sail set. The sea-breeze bore 
them rapidly forward, and before noon they were at anchor 
close to the city. The entrance of the port between the 
moles was shut by a chain ; and to prevent this chain from 
being broken by hostile ships impelled by the strong sea- 
breezes of the summer months, several vessels had been sunk 
across the mouth. Leo of Tripolis immediately reconnoitred 
the fortifications, and examined the unfinished work of 
Petronas, in order to ascertain if it were still practicable to 
approach the wall beyond its junction with the mole. After 
this examination was completed, a desultory attack was made 
on the place to occupy the attention of the garrison, and 
induce the besieged to show all their force and means of 
defence. 

Next day the Saracens landed and attacked the gate Roma, 
which was situated in the eastern wall, and not far from the 
sea. Seven of the engines constructed at Thasos were placed 
in battery, and an attempt was made to plant scaling-ladders 
against the fortifications, under cover of a shower of stones, 
darts, and arrows ; but a vigorous sally of the Byzantine 
troops repulsed the assault and captured the ladders. In the 
afternoon the plan of attack was changed. It was resolved to 
force an entrance by burning down two of the four gates in 
the eastern wall. The gate Roma and the gate Cassandra, 
on the Egnatian Way, were selected. Wagons filled with 
dry wood, pitch, and sulphur were covered over by fishing- 
boats turned upside down, to prevent those on the wall from 
setting fire to the combustibles at a distance. Sheltered by 
these boats, the Saracen sailors pushed the waggons close to 
the gates, and when they had lighted their fires, they escaped 
to their companions with their shields over their heads, while 
the rising flames, the stones from the ballistae, and the arrows 
of the archers distracted the attention of the defenders of the 



DgIC 



272 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Blc.II. Cb. I. {1. 
wall. The iron plates on the doors were soon heated red-hot, 
and, the door-posts being consumed, the gates fell ; but when 
the fire burned low, an inner gateway was seen closed with 
masonry, and well protected by flanking towers, so that the 
Saracens gained nothing by the success of this project. But 
the real object of the besiegers in all these preliminary 
operations had only been to draw off the attention of the 
Greeks from the point where most danger was to be appre- 
hended. The second night of the siege was a sleepless one 
for both parties. The inhabitants, seriously alarmed at the 
daring courage and contempt of death displayed by the 
assailants, deemed it necessary to keep up a strict watch 
along the whole circuit of the fortifications, lest some un- 
guarded spot should be found by the besiegers during the 
darkness. On board the fleet an incessant noise of hammers, 
and of Arabs and Ethiopians shouting, with a constant moving 
of lights, proclaimed that active preparation was going on for 
again renewing the attack. 

When Leo of Tripolis reconnoitred the fortifications, he had 
ascertained that his ships could approach the wall in several 
places, and he had carefully marked the spots. The interval 
had been employed in getting everything ready for an attack 
in this quarter, and now the night was devoted to complete 
the work, in order that the besieged might remain in ignor- 
ance of the design until the moment of its execution. It was 
necessary to form stages, in which the assailants could over- 
look the defenders of the place, and from which they could 
descend on the wall. The project was executed with ability 
and promptitude in a very simple manner. Two ships were 
bound firmly together by cables and chains, and the long 
yards of the immense lateen sails then in use were reversed, so 
as to extend far beyond the bows of the double ship. These 
yards were strong enough to support a framework of wood 
capable of containing a small body of men, who were pro- 
tected by boards on the sides from missiles, while shrouds 
kept up a constant communication with the deck below. 
These cages, when swung aloft from the yards, could be 
elevated above the battlements where the sea-wall was lowest, 
and to the besieged looked like the tops of towers suddenly 
raised out of the sea. In the morning the double ships were 
rowed into their positions, and the fight commenced between 



DgIC 



TAKING OF THESSALONICA. 2T\ 

the besiegers in their hanging towers and the defenders on the 
ramparts. Stones, arrows, pots filled with flaming combusti- 
bles, and fire launched from long brazen tubes, the composi- 
tion of which had been at an earlier period a secret known 
only in the Byzantine arsenal, now came pouring down from 
above on the Greeks, who were soon driven from the battle- 
ments. The Ethiopians of the Alexandrian ships were the 
flrst to make good their footing on the wall, and as soon as 
they had cleared the whole line of the fortifications towards 
the sea from its defenders, they broke open the gates, and the 
crews of the other ships rushed into the city. The sailors em- 
ployed to collect the booty entered with their drawn swords, 
wearing only their trousers, in order that no plunder might 
be abstracted secretly. The militia fled without a thoi^ht of 
further resistance : the Sclavonians escaped from a gate in the 
citadel, which they had secured as a means of retreat. 

The Saracens divided themselves into bands, and com- 
menced slaughtering every person they found in the streets, 
though they encountered crowds of women and children, who 
had rushed out of their houses to learn the cause of the 
unusual commotion. A number of the inhabitants endea- 
voured to escape by the Golden Gate, which formed the 
entrance of the Egnatian Way into the city from the west, 
but the crowd rendered it impossible to throw open the doors- 
A party of Ethiopians came upon the people as they were 
struggling to effect their purpose. Hundreds were crushed 
to death or suifocated, and the blacks stabbed the rest, 
without sparing age or sex. John Camenlates, his father, his 
uncle, and two brothers, fled towards the wall that separates 
the town from the citadel, intending to conceal themselves in 
a tower until the first fury of the assailants was assuaged. 
They had hardly ascended the wall when a band of Ethiopians 
reached the place in pursuit of a crowd of people, whom they 
murdered before the eyes of the terrified family. The Ethio- 
pians then mounted the wall, but a tower was between them 
and Cameniates, of which the floor was in such a ruinous 
condition that it seemed dangerous to pass. As the enemy 
paused, John Cameniates deemed the moment favourable to 
implore mercy, and running quickly over a beam that 
remained unbroken, he threw himself at the feet of the black 
captain, promising that he would reveal where a treasure was 

VOL. n. T 



274 SASILIAN DYNASTY. 

(Bk.n.Ch.I.|». 

hidden, in case his own life and the lives of his relations were 
spared. His confidence won the favour of the barbarians, 
one of whom understood Greek, and the family was taken 
under their protection ; yet as they were marching through 
the streets, Cameniates received two wounds from an 
Ethiopian belonging to another band. On their way to the 
port the prisoners were carried into the convent of Akroullios, 
where they found the chief of the Ethiopians seated in the 
vestibule. After hearing the promises of old Cameniates, he 
rose and entered the church, in which about three hundred 
Christians had been collected. There, seating himself cross- 
le^ed on the altar, he made a signal to his followers, who 
immediately put all to death, leaving only the family of 
Cameniates. From this hideous spectacle they were con- 
ducted to the Saracen admiral. 

After Leo of Tripolis had heard what Cameniates had to 
say, he sent a guard to convey the treasure to the port. 
Fortunately the hoard, which contained all the wealth of many 
members of the family, was found untouched, for had it not 
satisfied the avarice of the chiefs, the whole family would 
have been murdered, as happened in many other cases. This 
treasure was received by Leo only as a ransom for the lives of 
his prisoners, who were embarked in order to be exchanged 
at Tarsus for Saracens in captivity among the Christians. 
Cameniates found Leo, the general of the theme of Thessa- 
lonica, Niketas, the third envoy of the emperor, and Rodo- 
phyles, a eunuch of the imperial household, who had stopped 
as he was conveying a hundred pounds' weight of gold to the 
Byzantine army in Italy, all among the prisoners. Rodophyles 
was brought before the Saracen admiral, who had learned from 
the captives that he was intrusted with treasure. The eunuch 
boldly replied that he had performed his duty to the emperor, 
by sending away the gold to the general of the theme of 
Strymon as soon as the enemy approached ; and when Leo of 
Tripolis found that this was true, he flew into a passion, and 
ordered Rodophyles to be beaten to death on the spot'. 



' Cameniates calls the sum intmsled to Rodcphyles two talents, by which he 
of course meina centnert ; other authoi^ Call it only one hundred pounds. Conlin. 
L«j, 2a6; Symeoa Mag. 466; Georg. Mon. ^58; Leo Gramni' 481. Conceming 
the variety of weight in acdetit talents, see Hnesey, Euaj on AiKUHi Wtirha ai^ 
Afowy. a8-4i. / / <* 



TAKING OF THESSALONICA. 275 

AII.SB6-911.] 

Several days were spent in collecting the booty in the city, 
in releasing such of the captives as had friends in the neigh- 
bourhood able to purchase their liberty by the payment of 
a second ransom, and in negotiating the exchange of two 
hundred persons, for whom an officer of the emperor named 
Simeon engaged that an equal number of Saracen captives 
should be delivered up at Tarsus. When all other business 
was settled, the Saracens threatened to bum the city, and 
succeeded in forcing the general of Strymon to deliver up the 
gold for which Rodophyles had lost his life, in order to save 
the place from destruction. The hostile fleet quitted the 
harbour of Thessalonica ten days after the capture of the city. 
Cameniates was embarked in the ship of the Egyptian admiral, 
who served under Leo of Tripolis. The crew consisted of two 
hundred men and eight hundred captives ; men, women, and 
children were crowded t<^ether on the lower deck. These 
unfortunate peo[^e, all of whom were of the higher ranks, 
suffered indescribable misery, and many died of hunger, thirst, 
and suffocation befc^e they reached the island of Crete, where, 
after a fortnight's confinement, they were allowed to land for 
the first time. The fleet had deviated from its course in order 
to avoid falling in with the Byzantine squadron, for it was im- 
possible to fight when every ship was crowded with prisoners. 
It had therefore remained six days at Patmos, and two at 
Naxos, which was then tributary to the Saracens of Crete. 

The fleet anchored at Zontarion, a port opposite the island 
of Dia, which afforded better shelter than the harbour of 
Chandax, and where it could obtain the seclusion necessary 
for dividir^ the slaves and spoil among the different parties 
composii^ the expedition, in order that each might hasten 
home before the autumnal storms commenced. The whole of 
the captives were landed, and three days were spent in en- 
deavouring to find their relations, and unite families that had 
been dispersed, many of which were again separated by the 
new division. As not only the fifty-four ships of Leo's fleet, 
but also several Byzantine meiv-of-war and merchantmen, 
taken in the port of Thessalonica, had been filled with 
prisoners, it is not surprising that the number, even after the 
loss sustained on the passage, still amounted to twenty-tw^ 
thousand souls. Of these, with the exception of the small 
number reserved for exchange at Tarsus, all consisted of 
T 2 

n,.i,|...,.A'00'^IC 



276 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Ch.l.S>. 
young men and women in the flower of their youth, or 
children remarkable for the bloom of their beauty : they had 
been saved from the slaughter of the older inhabitants, or 
selected from those seized in the houses, because they were 
sure of commanding a high price in the slave-markets of the 
East When all the booty had been landed, the spoil was 
divided by lot, and then the fleet dispersed, the ships sailing 
from Crete directly to Alexandria, or to the different ports of 
Syria to which they belonged. Many of the unfortunate 
prisoners, exposed to sale in the slave-markets of Fostat, the 
capital of Egypt, and Damascus, were transported to Ethiopia 
and Arabia, and even to the southern parts of Africa; the 
more fortunate were re-purchased from those to whose share 
they had fallen, by the Cretans, and by them re-sold to their 
friends. 

The island of Crete had become a great slave-mart, in 
consequence of the extensive piracies of its Saracen popula- 
tion ; and at this time the slave-trade was the most profitable 
branch of commerce in the Mediterranean • ! A large portion 
of the Greek inhabitants of Crete having embraced Moham- 
medanism, and established communications with the Christian 
slave- merchants in the Byzantine empire, carried on a regular 
trade in purchasing Byzantine captives of wealthy families, 
and arranging exchanges of prisoners with their relations. 
As these exchai^es were private speculations, and not, like 
those at Tarsus, under the r^ulation of an official cartel, the 
Christians were generally compelled to pay a considerable sum 
as redemption- money, in order to deliver their relatives, in 
addition to releasing a Saracen captive. After the buying 
and selling of the captives from Thessalonica had been carried 
on for several days, the Saracens embarked their prisoners for 
their ultimate destination. The wife of one of the brothers of 
Cameniates was purchased by a Cretan slave-merchant, but he 
had the misery of seeing his mother, his wife, and two of his 
children (for the third had died during the voyage) embarked 
in a ship belonging to Sidon. Cameniates, with his father, and 
the greater part of the captives set apart for the exchange at 

' The prevalence of piracy on Ihe coasl of Atlica, about the cud of the Iwelfth 
centiiij. after the Saracens had been long expelled from the Grecian seas, is 
proved by the Memorial of the Athenians to the Emperor Alexios III., « 
1103. drawn up b)| thcit archbishop, Michael Akominatos. Tafel, Tk 
p. 463, where menlion is made of r^ KtTjlmaiaii t^ eaXoTTiair Apin^. 



TAKING OF THESSALONICA. 277 

*.D.886-9I»0 

Tarsus, were put on board a Byzantine man-of-war, the upper 
deck of which was occupied by the Saracens, while the Chris- 
tians were crowded on the lower, in filth and darkness. 

On the passage from Crete to Syria, an event happened 
which shows that Leo, the Saracen admiral, was a man of 
energy and courage, well fitted for his daring occupation, and 
by no means so deaf to the calls of humanity, in the hour of 
the most terrific danger, as his ferocious conduct after the 
taking of Thessalonica might lead us to believe. A violent 
storm threatened one of the smaller galleys with destruction, 
for it broke in the middle — an accident to which ancient ships, 
from their extreme length and want of beam, were very liable. 
The Saracens on board were near the admiral's ship and that 
in which Cameniates was embarked, and they requested Leo 
to order the crew of the Byzantine man-of-war to throw all 
the captives overboard and receive them. The order was 
given, allowing the crew to quit the sinking ship, but the 
violence of the wind had driven the ship in which Cameniates 
was embarked to such a distance that the signals of the 
admiral were unnoticed or unheeded. Leo, however, ordered 
his own ship to be brought as near th« galley as possible, and 
succeeded in saving, not only the Saracen crew, but every 
Christian on board, though the crews and captives of the two 
vessels amounted to upwards of one thousand persons. The 
Byzantine generals, Leo and Niketas, who were on board 
Leo's ship, recounted the circumstances to Cameniates, and 
declared that their ship was ill-calculated to contain so great 
a crowd, and was navigated with great difficulty. After refitting 
at Cyprus, the squadron reached Tripolis on the 14th of 
September. The father of Cameniates died there, before the 
prisoners were removed to Tarsus. While waiting at Tarsus, 
in fear of death from the unhealthiness of the place, Came- 
niates wrote the account of his sufferings, from which the 
preceding narrative has been extracted ; and we must pardon 
what he calls the feebleness, but what others are more likely 
to term the inflation of his style, on account of the interesting 
matter embalmed in its verbosity. The worthy Anagnostes 
appears to have returned to his native city, and obtained the 
office of koubouklesios to the archbishop. 

The taking of Thessalonica affisrds sad proof of the in- 
efficiency of central governments, which deny the use of arms 



DgIC 



278 BASILIAN DYXASTY. 

[Bk.n.Ch.I. fi. 
to the people, to defend the wealthy and unfortified cities of 
an extensive empire. The tendency of a court to expend the 
revenues of the state on the pageantry of power, on palaces, 
churches, aa^ files in the capital, without bestowing a thought 
on the destruction of a village or the loss of a parish, reveals 
to us one of the paths by which despotic power invariably 
tends to degrade the mass of human civilization, and cause 
a decline in the population of its territory. 

The wealth the Saracens had obtained at Thessalonica 
invited them to make fresh attacks on the empire, until at 
last the public sufferings compelled the Emperor Leo, in the 
last year of his reign, to make a vigorous attempt to put an 
end to the piracies of the Cretans, a.d. 912. Himerios, who 
had gained a naval victory over the Saracens in the year 909, 
was intrusted with the command of a powerful fleet, and com- 
menced his operations by clearii^ the Archipelago of the 
Cretan pirates. His fleet consisted of forty dromons or war- 
galleys of the largest size, besides other vessels ; and it was 
manned by twelve thousand native sailors, besides seven 
hundred Russians, who are considered worthy of espedal 
enumeration. A powerful army, under the orders of Romanus 
the future emperor, was assembled at Samos for the purpose 
of besi^ng Chandax ; but after eight months of insignificant 
demonstrations, the expedition was defeated with great loss 
by the Saracens, under the command of Leo of TripoUs and 
Damian, off the coast of Samos. Himerios escaped with 
difficulty to Mitylene, but Romanus saved the remains of the 
imperial force'. 

In southern Italy, everything was in such a state of con- 
fusion that it is not worth while following the political 
changes it suffered. The Dukes of Naples, Gaeta, Salerno, 
and Amalfi were at times the willing subjects of the Byzan- 
tine emperor, and at times their personal ambition induced 
them to form alliances with the Saracens of Africa and Sicily, 



■ Constanline Forphyrogerutus gives a. curious account of the forces tbal com- 
posed this eipedition. Dt Catnmon. Aulat ByiaiU. i. 651, edit. Bonn; Contio. 
131 ; Symeon Mag. 470. The imperial fleet in the Aegean Sea amounted usually 
to sixty dromons, of which seven were furniiihed by the islands of the Archipelago, 
ten by Samos and the islands dniending on it. and ten by the contioent of Greeoe ; 
the rest were furnished from the coasts of Macedonia, Thrace, and Asia Minor. 
A dromon, complete for active service, carried two hundred and thirty rowers and 
sailors, and Mventy soldiers or marines. 



DgIC 



BYZANTINE AFFAIRS IN ITALY. 279 

or with the Pope and the Romans, to carry on war with 
the Byzantine generals of the theme of Longobardia (Apulia). 
The Italian population, as in ancient times, consisted of many 
nations living under different laws and usages, so that only 
a powerful central government, or a systemof political equality, 
could preserve order in the discordant elements. The state 
of civilization rendered the first difficult, the second impos- 
sible. The popes were always striving to increase their 
power, allying themselves alternately with the Franks and 
the Byzantines ; the native Italian population in the cities 
was struggling for municipal independence ; a powerful aris- 
tocracy, of Germanic origin, was contending for power ; the 
Byzantine authorities were toiling to secure an increase of 
revenue, and the whole peninsula was exp>osed to the plunder- 
ing incursions of the Hungarians and the Saracens. In this 
scene of confusion the Emperor Leo was suddenly compelled 
to take an active part by the loss of Bari, which was seized 
by the Duke of Beneventum. A Byzantine army regained 
possession of the city, and revenged the injury by taking 
Beneventum, which, however, only remained in possession of 
the imperial troops for four years. The Byzantine fleet in 
Italy was subsequently defeated by the Sicilian Saracens 
in the Straits of Messina. In short, the administration of 
Leo the Philosopher in Italy was marked by his usual negli- 
gence and incapacity, and the weakness of his enqmies alone 
preserved the Byzantine possessions. 

The kingdom of Bulgaria had for a considerable period 
proved a quiet neighbour and useful ally. It formed a barrier 
against the Turkic tribes, whom the ruin of the Khazar 
empire drove into Europe. Leo, however, allowed himself 
to be involved in hostilities with the Bulgarians by the 
avarice of his ministers. Stylianos, the father of his second 
wife Zoe, established a monopoly of the Bulgarian trade in 
favour of two Greek' merchants. To conceal the extortions 
to which this monopoly gave rise, the depdt of Bulgarian 
commerce was removed from Constantinople to Thessalo- 
nica'. The Bulgarians, whose interest suffered by this fraud, 

> Al this time Theophano, the first wife of Leo, was still living, and Zoe wm 
onlj' the emperor's coDcubine. Stylianos. who is supposed to be the same to 
whom the NovdUu of Leo are addressed, is called Zaoulies by the Continuator 
(«30). Hie name is connected with the Turkish Tshaous. See Tfaauuiot in 
Ducange, Olottarium mid. il. inf. Gratcilatis. 



DgIC 



a8o BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.Il.Ch.I.{a. 
applied to their King Simeon for protection ; and when the 
Emperor Leo, after repeated solicitations, took no steps to 
redress the injustice, the Bulgarian monarch declared war. 
An almost uninterrupted peace of seventy-four years had 
existed between the sovereigns of Constantinople and Bul- 
garia, for only temporary and trifling hostilities had occurred 
since the treaty between Leo V. and Mortagan in 814. 
Bogoris — called, after his baptism, Michael' — had goveroed 
his kingdom with great prudence, and not only converted 
all his subjects to Christianity, but also augmented their 
means of education and wellbeing. His own religious views 
induced him to join the Eastern church, and he sent his 
second son Simeon to Constantinople for his education. 
Bogoris retired into a monastery, and left the throne to 
his eldest son Vladimir, about the year 885. The disorderly 
conduct of Vladimir drew his father from his retreat, who 
was compelled to dethrone and put out the eyes of this un- 
worthy prince, before immurii^ him in a monastery. He 
then placed his second son Simeon on the throne (a. d. 888), 
and retiring again to his cell, died a monk, A.D. 907. 

Simeon proved an able and active monarch. His educa- 
tion at Constantinople had enlarged his mind, but inspired 
him with some contempt for the meanness and luxury of the 
Byzantine court, and for the pedantry and presumption of the 
Greek people. He was himself both a warrior and a scholar, 
but he followed the military system of the Bulgarians, and 
wrote in his native language'. The Bulgarian nation had 
now attained the position occupied some centuries before by 
the Avars. They were the most civilized and commercial 
of all the northern barbarians, and formed the medium for 
supplying the greater part of Germany and Scandinavia with 
the necessary commodities from Asia, and with Byzantine 
manufactures and gold'. This extensive and flourishing trade 
had gone on increasing ever since a treaty, fixing the amount 
of duties to be levied on the Byzantine frontier, had been 
concluded in the year 716, during the reign of Theodosius 
III. The stipulations of that treaty had always formed the 
basis on which the commercial relations between the two 

' I Ibllow Scbafaiik, StoHuci* AturllniBur (u. 135), in prererence lo Dacange, 

Fiiimliat~B<nniuiiiai. 



DgIC 



BULGARIAN WAR. a8l 

Aj). 886-91*.] 

states had been re-established, at the conclusion of every war ; 
but now two Greek merchants, Staurakios and Kosmas, bribed 
Mousikos, a eunuch in the household of Stylianos, to procure 
an imperial ordinance for transferring the whole of the Bulga- 
rian trade to Thessalonica. These Greeks having farmed the 
customs, felt that they could carry on extortions at a distance 
which could not be attempted as long as the traders brought 
their goods to Constantinople anrf were under the immediate 
protection of the central administration'. The monopoly, 
though it inflicted great losses both on the Greek and Bul- 
garian traders, was supported by the favourite minister of the 
emperor, who refused to pay any attention to the reclamations 
of the Bulgarian government in favour of its subjects. Simeon, 
who was not of a disposition to submit to contemptuous treat- 
ment, finding that he had no hope of obtaining redress by 
peaceable means, invaded the empire. The Byzantine army 
was completely defeated, and the two generals who com- 
manded it were slain in the first battle. But Simeon tarnished 
his gloiy by his cruelty; he ordered the noses of all the 
prisoners to be cut ofl", and sent the Byzantine soldiers, thus 
mutilated, to Constantinople. Leo, to revenge this barbarity, 
sent a patrician, Kiketas Skleros, to urge the Hui^rians, a 
Turkish tribe which had recently quitted the banks of the Don 
and occupied the country still possessed by their descendants, 
to attack the Bulgarians. They did so, defeated them, and 
sold their prisoners to the Emperor Leo, who was compelled, 
shortly after, to deliver them to Simeon, King of Bulgaria, 
without ransom, In order to purchase peace ; for the Magyars 
were defeated in a second battle, and retired from the contest. 
Leo, like many absolute sovereigns, had conceived too high an 
idea of his power and prerogatives to pay any respect to his 
engagements, when he thought it for his advantage to forget 
his promises. He took the earliest opportunity of seeking 
for revenge, and havii^ assembled what he supposed was an 
invincible army, he sent Leo Katakalon, his best general, to 
invade Bulgaria. This army was completely destroyed at a 
place called Bulgarophygos, and after this lesson Leo was 
glad to conclude peace, A.D. 893*. 

' Contin. Ln, llo. 

* There is som« difficulty in arranging tbe ctuonology of the Bulgiriaa nar. 
SiyftKtia Mag. 46). 



DgIC 



28a BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk, II. Ch. I. H I. 

About the same time the oppressive conduct of the imperial 
governor at Cherson caused an insurrection of the inhabitants, 
in which he was murdered. 

Leo, in spite of his title of ' the Philosopher,' was not a 
man in whose personal history mankind can feel much interest. 
Though his reign was undisturbed by rebellion or civil war, his 
life was exposed to frequent dangers. His concubine Zoe 
discovered a conspiracy against him, and another was revealed 
by the renegade Samonas, and became the origin of his great 
. favour at court. The prime conspirator was scourged and 
exiled to Athens, In 902, an attempt was made to murder 
Leo in the church of St. Mokios by a madman, who was 
armed only with a stick. The blow was broken by the 
branch of a chandelier, yet the emperor received a severe 
wound •, 

Leo died in the year 913, after a reign of twenty-five years 
and eight months. 

Sect. Wl.—AUxander—Mimrity of Constantim VII. {Por- 
pkyrogenilus) — Romanus I. {Lecapenus), A.D. 912-944. 

Reign of Alexander, a.d. 913-913. — Miaorky of Constantine VII., 913-910. — 
Sedilion of Con&tantiae Dukis. — Byzantine anny defealed by Simeon. King 
of Bulgaria. — Intiigues at Conatanlinople. — Romanus I. nakes himself em- 
peror, A.D. 910-944. — Conspiracies against bis government. — Dethroned by 
his SOD Stephen. 

Alexander, who succeeded to the throne, or rather to the 
government of the empire, on the death of his brother Leo (for 
he had long borne the title of Emperor), was as degraded in 
his tastes, and more untit for his station, than Michael the 
Drunkard. Fortunately for his subjects, he reigned only a 
year; yet he found time to inflict on the empire a serious 
wound, by rejecting the offer of Simeon, King of Bulgaria, to 
renew the treaty concluded with Leo. Alexander, like his 
predecessor, had a taste for astrolc^; and among his other 
follies he was persuaded that an ancient bronze statue of 
a boar in the Agora was his own genius. This work of art 
was consequently treated with the greatest reverence ; it was 
adorned with new tusks and other ornaments, and its reinte- 
gration in the hippodrome was celebrated as a public festival, 

* Conlia. Lm, isi, 114, iij. 



DgIC 



ALEXANDER. %%-^ 

AJ>.9i»-944.] 

not only with profane games, but even with religious cere- 
monies, to the scandal of the orthodox ^, 

Leo VI, undermined the Byzantine system of administra- 
tion. He used his absolute power to confer offices of the 
highest trust on the court favourites notoriously incapable of 
performir^ the duties intrusted to them. The systematic 
rules of promotion in the service of the government ; the 
administrative usages which were consecrated into laws ; the 
professional education which had preserved the science of 
government from degenerating with the literature and lan- 
guage of the empire, were for the first time habitually 
neglected and violated. The administration and the court 
were confounded in the same mass, and an emperor, called 
the Philosopher, is characterised in history for having reduced 
the Eastern Empire to the degraded condition of an arbitrary 
despotism. Alexander carried this abuse to a greater extent, 
by conferrir^ high commands on the companions of his 
debaucheries, and by elevating men of Sclavonian and Saracen 
origin to the highest dignities. 

The only act of Alexander's reign that it is necessary to 
particularize, is the nomination of a regency to act during the 
minority of his nephew Constantine. The Patriarch Nikolaos, 
who had been reinstated in office, was made one of its mem- 
bers ; but Zoe Carbunopsina, the young emperor's mother, 
was excluded from it. 

Constantine VII. was only seven years old when he became 
sole emperor. The regency named by Alexander consisted 
of six members exclusive of the Patriarch, two of whom, 
named Basilitzes and Gabrielopulos, were Sclavonians, who 
had attained the highest employments and accumulated great 
wealth by the favour of Alexander*. The facility with which 
foreigners obtained the highest offices at Constantinople, and 
the rare occurrence of any man of pure Hellenic race in power, 



' Conlio. 1 J4 : ZToi)[«av aJinO,— nltofii «■} Uurraa r^ xripf rpotramiaiatr, [The 
word eTaix*"-; which is here Iranataled 'genius.' originally signified 'element,' 
whI was applied by the Flatonisl$ to the sjurits which were believed to exist in 
the earth, air, fire, and water ; hence it passed into an appellation for demons 
in general. Amongst the modem Greeks the domestic genius is generally supposed 
to assume the form of a snake, like the 'gMardian serpent' in the bouses of the 
ardent Greeks and Romans. The modem Greek expression for 'bewitched' or 
•enchanted' is m-oixtia'iih'oi. Ev.) 

' Contin. 133. 



:v Google 



384 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk. n. Ch. I. S 3. 
is a feature of the Byzantine government that requires to be 
constantly bome in mind, as it is a proof of the tenacity with 
which the empire clung to Roman traditions, and repudiated 
an identihcation with Greek nationality. 

It is difficult, in the period now before us, to select facts 
that convey a correct impression of the condition, both of 
the government and the people. The calamities and crimes 
we are compelled to mention tend to create an opinion that 
the government was worse, and the condition of the inha- 
bitants of the empire more miserable, than was really the case. 
The ravages of war and the incursions of pirates wasted only 
a small portion of the Byzantine territory, and ample time was 
afforded in most districts by the long intervals of tranquillity 
to repair the depopulation and desolation caused by foreign 
enemies. The central government still retained institutions 
that enabled it to encounter many political storms that ruined 
neighbouring nations ; yet the weakness of the administration, 
the vices of the court, and the corruption of the people, durii^ 
the reigns of Constantine Porphyrogenitus and his father- 
in-law Romanus I., seemed to indicate a rapid decay in the 
strength of the empire, and they form a heterogeneous com- 
bination with the institutions which still guaranteed security 
for life and property to an extent unknown in every other 
portion of the world, whether under Christian or Moham- 
medan sway. The merits and defects of the Byzantine 
government are not found co-existent in any other portion of 
history, until we approach modern times. 

Hereditary succession was never firmly established in the 
Byzantine empire'. The system of centrahzation rendered the 
prime-minister, who carried on the administration for a minor 
or a weak sovereign, virtually master of the empire. Against 
this danger Alexander had endeavoured to protect his nephew, 
by creating a regency of six members, no one of whom could 



' [I( is to be remarked, however, thai the idea of Intimacy ii 
originated and systematiied by the Basilian emperorE. and thai this was the cause 
of the long duration of their dynasty. It was with a view to this that Basil I. 
establishtd the custom that his descendants should be born in the Porphyry 
chamber, so that the name Porphyrogenitus might become a title of legitimacy. 
The erowth of the idea was Bhonii by the way in which the people regarded Coo- 
staniine Porphyrogenitus, and still more forcibly a century later, by the loyalty 
shown towards the Empress Zoe, an aged, profligate, and incapable woman, on 
account of the legitimacy of her descent. See Rambauil, VEm^n gra au dmiem* 
Slide, pp. J4, 36. En.] 



INSURRECTION OF CONSTANTINE DVKAS. 285 
*j>.9ij-944.] 

aspire at becoming the colleague of young Constantine. But 
the arbitrary nature of the imperial power created a feelii^ of 
insecurity in the minds of officials, as long as the supreme power 
was not vested in 3 single individual. This feelii^ inspired 
every man of influence with the hope of being able to render 
himself sole regent, and with the desire of assuming the title 
of Emperor, as the only method of permanently maintaining 
the post of guardian of the young prince. The most popular 
man of the time was Constantine Dukas, who had fled to the 
Saracens with his father Andronikos, in order to escape the 
anger of Leo VI. His father had embraced Mohammedanism, 
but Dukas had thrown himself on the mercy of Leo rather 
than forsake his religion, and had been rewarded by a com- 
mand on the south-eastern frontier. For three years he served 
with distinction, and his valour and liberality rendered him 
popular among the soldiers. The death of Alexander found 
him commanding a division of the Byzantine army in Asia 
Minor, with the rank of general of the imperial guard ; and a 
party of the officers of the state, knowing his ambition, flxed their 
eyes on him as the man most likely to overthrow the regency. 
Even the Patriarch Nikolaos was privy to the schemes of 
those who urged Dukas to repair secretly to Constantinople, 
for this ambitious ecclesiastic expected to exercise more 
authority over a young man possessing absolute power, than 
over six wary statesmen experienced in every department of 
public business. 

As soon as Dukas reached the capital, he was proclaimed 
emperor by his partisans, who had already prepared the 
troops and the people for a change ; and he marched immedi- 
ately to the palace of Chaike, where the young emperor 
resided, and of which he expected to gain possession without 
difficulty. His attack was so sudden that he rendered himself 
master of the outer court ; but the alarm was soon given, and 
all the entries into the palace were instantly closed. John 
Eladas, one of the members of the regency, assumed the 
command of the guards on duty, and a furious battle was 
fought in the court. The rebels were repulsed, and the horse 
of Dukas slipping on the flags of the pavement, he was slain. 
Three thousand men are said to have fallen in this short 
tumult, in which both parties displayed the most daring 
courage. The conspirators who fell were more fortunate than 



DgIC 



2i6 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.lI.CIi.t. 13. 
those who were taken by the regency, for these latter were 
put to death with inhuman cruelty; and the Patriarch was 
justly censured for the apathy he showed when men were 
tortured, of whose plots he had been cognizant'. Several 
persons of high rank were beheaded, and some were hung on 
the Asiatic shore opposite the imperial palace. The wife of 
Constantine Dukas was compelled to take the veil, and 
banished to her property in Paphlagonia, where she founded 
a monastery. Stephen, her only surviving son, was made 
a eunuch, and every other male of the noble house of Dukas 
perished on this occasion. The family that afterwards bore 
the name, and ascended the throne of Constantinople, was of 
more modem origin '. 

The affection of the young emperor for his mother, and the 
intrigues of the different members of the regency, who expected 
to increase their influence by her favour, reinstated Zoe Car- 
bunopsina in the palace, from which she had been expelled by 
Alexander. As she had received the imperial crown, she 
shared the sovereign authority with the regents as a matter of 
right, and through the influence of John Eladas, she soon 
became the absolute mistress of the public administration. 
Zoe thought of little but luxury and amusement. Her ad- 
ministration was unfortunate, and a complete defeat of the 
Byzantine army by the Bulgarians created a general feeling 
that the direction of public affairs ought no longer to be 
intrusted to a woman of her thoughtless disposition. 

The evils inflicted on the inhabitants of Thrace by Simeon, 
king of Bulgaria, after his rupture with Alexander, equalled 
the sufferings of the empire during the earlier incursions of the 
Huns and Avars. In the year 913, shortly after Alexander's 
death, Simeon marched up to the walls of Constantinople 
almost without opposition ; but he found the city too well 
garrisoned to admit of his remaining loi^ in its vicinity: he 
retired, after an ineffectual attempt to settle the terms of 
a treaty in a conference with the Patriarch. In 914 be again 
invaded the empire, and in this campaign Adrianople was 
betrayed into his hands by its governor, an Armenian named 
Pankratakas, who, however, as soon as the Bulgarians retired, 
restored it to the Byzantine government. 



DgIC 



THE PATZINAKS. 287 

4J..91J-9M.] 

A Turkish tribCj called by the Byzantine writers Patzinaks, 
who contributed to destroy the flourishing monarchy of the 
Khazars, had driven the Magyars or Hungarians before them 
into Europe, and at this period had extended their settle- 
ments from the shores of the Sea of Azof and the falls of the 
Dnieper to the banks of the Danube, They were thus neigh- 
bours of the Russians and the Bulgarians, as well as of the 
Byzantine province of Cherson ', TTiey were nomades, and 
inferior in civilization to the nations in their vicinity, by whom 
they were dreaded as active and insatiable plunderers, always 
ready for war and eager for rapine. The r^ency of the 
Empress Zoe, in order to give the people of Thrace some 
respite from the ravages of the Bulgarians, concluded an 
alliance with the Patzinaks, who engaged, on receiving a sum 
of money, to act in co-operation with the imperial forces. 
They engaged to attack the Bulgarians in the rear, on being 
furnished with the means of crossing the Danube by the 
Byzantine government. Zoe, in the mean time, trusting to 
negotiations she was carrying on at Bagdad for securing 
tranquillity in Asia Minor, transferred the greater part of the 
Asiatic army to Europe, and prepared to carry the war into 
the heart of Bulgaria. A splendid army was reviewed at 
Constantinople, and placed under the command of Leo 
Phokas, a man possessing great influence with the aristocracy, 
and a high military reputation. Before the troops marched 
northward they received new arms and equipments ; liberal 
advances of pay were made to the soldiers, and numerous 
promotions were made among the oflicers. The second in 
command was Constantine the Libyan, one of the conspirators 
in the plot of Dukas, who had escaped the search of the 
r^ency until he obtained the pardon of Zoe's government. 
The fleet appointed to enter the mouth of the Danube, in 
order to transport the Patzinaks over the river, was placed 
under the command of Romanus the grand admiral. 

Leo Phokas pressed forward, confident of success ; but 
Romanus felt no inclination to assist the operation of one 
whom a successful campaign would render the master of the 

' The Patrinalts are called also Petchenegs. The Magyars are called Turks by 
Constantine Pofphyiogenitus. in his curious woric, Dt AJminiilranAi Impair, 
c. 4, 5. The Patzinaks. Magyars. Uies. and Kumans, who all made their Gnt 
appearance in Europe about this time, were Tarkish tribes. 



Aiooglc 



a88 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Ch.l.i3. 
empire. He is accused of throwing impediments in the way 
of the Patzinaks, and delaying to transport them over the 
Danube at the time and place most likely to derange the 
operations of the Bulgarians. The conduct of Leo was rash, 
that of Romanus treacherous. Simeon was enabled to con- 
centrate all his forces and fight a battle at a place called 
Achelous, in which the Byzantine army was defeated, with an 
immense loss both in officers and men' {aoth August 917). 
Leo escaped to Mesembria, where he attempted to rally the 
fugitives ; but Romanus, as soon as he heard of the disaster, 
sailed directly to Constantinople without attempting to make 
any diversion for the relief of his countrymen, or endeavour- 
ing to succour the defeated troops as <be passed Mesembria. 
He was accused of treason on his return, and condemned to 
lose his sight ; but he retained possession of the fleet by the 
support of the sailors ; and the empress, who began to 
perceive her unpopularity, countenanced his disobedience, as 
she expected to make use of his support. 

The partisans of Leo openly ui^ed his claims to be placed 
at the head of the administration, as the only man capable by 
his talents of preventing a revolution ; and the chamberlain 
Constantine urged Zoe to appoint him a member of the 
regency, and invest him with the conduct of public affairs. 
The empress b^an to distrust Romanus, from the pre- 
ponderating power he possessed as long as the fleet remained 
in the vicinity of the capital. The fleet was therefore ordered 
into the Black Sea ; but Romanus had already received 
secret encouragement to oppose the designs of Leo from 
Theodore, the governor of the young emperor, and he delayed 
sailii^, under the pretext that the sailors would not put to 
sea until their arrears were paid. The crisis was important ; 
so the chamberlain Constantine visited the fleet with the 
money necessary for paying the sailors, determined to hasten 

' Achelous %ttia'i to have been tbe name of both a river and fortress in Bul- 
garia.. River :—Contin, 140; Symeon Mag. 47S; Georg. Mon. 569; Leo Grainai. 
491. Fortress ;—Ce<iren US, 613; see Krug, Chranologit dir Byi. 130, lutit. The 
defeat took place near AncMalos. Leo DiacoDus, 114, edit. Bonn. The name 
Achelous seems to have misled Gibbon into a singular complication of errors. 
His words are, 'On classic ground, on the banks of the Achelous, the Greeks 
were defeated : theii horn was broken \>y the strength of the barbaric Heccules.' 
He transports the battle into Greece, calls the Asiatic troops of Leo Phcjias 
Greeks; and grows more poetical (b«n Ovid, whom he quote*. DtcUm and Fall, 
Tii. 68. 



Dictzed by Google 



INTRIGUES OF ROMANUS. 2^ 

«ji.9n-944.] 

its departure, and perhaps to arrest the grand admiral. This 
step brought matters to an issue. Romanus seized the money 
and paid the sailors himself, keeping the chamberlain under 
arrest. This daring conduct on the part of a man hitherto 
considered as deficient in ambition as well as capacity, spread 
alarm in the palace, for it revealed to the empress that there 
was another pretender to supreme power. Zoe immediately 
despatched the Patriarch Nikolaos, and some of the principal 
officers of state, to induce the sailors to return to their 
all^iance ; but the populace, eager for change, and delighted 
to see the government in a state of embarrassment, attacked 
the envoys with stones, and drove them back into the palace. 
The empress, at a loss what measures to adopt, vainly sought 
for information concerning the causes of this sudden revolu- 
tion. At last Theodore, the young emperor's governor, 
declared that the conduct of Leo Phokas and the chamber- 
lain Constantine had caused the popular dissatisfaction, for 
Leo had ruined the army and Constantine had corrupted the 
administration. He suggested that the easiest mode of 
putting an end to the existing embarrassments would be for 
the young Emperor Constantine to assume the supreme 
power into his own hands. This was done, and the young 
prince, or rather his tutor Theodore in his name, invited the 
Patriarch and one of the regents named Stephen to consult 
on the measures to be adopted, though both were known to 
be hostile to his mother's administration. This produced an 
immediate revolution at court. The principal officers of state 
attached to the party of Phokas were dismissed from their 
employments, which were conferred on men pledged to 
support the new advisers of the young emperor, Leo, not 
knowing that Romanus was secretly connected with the new 
administration, proposed a coalition, but received from that 
wary intriguer only assurances of friendship and support. 
Romanus, however, was soon informed by his friend Theodore 
that the Patriarch and Stephen had resolved to remove him 
from his command, that they might render him as harmless 
as Leo : bold measures were therefore necessary, and with- 
out hesitation the admiral ranged his fleet in hostile array 
under the walls of the palace Bukoleon. His friends 
within, under the direction of the patrician Niketas, invited 
him to enter and protect the young emperor, and at the same 
VOL. II, u 

PA:i\:j.-,\,i')0<i\Q 



39© BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.lI.Cfa.Lt3. 
time forced the Patriarch and Stephen to retire'. The 
Emperor Constantine had been already predisposed in favour 
of Romanus by his tutor, so that he received the insurgent 
admiral in a friendly manner. The young prince, accom- 
panied by the court, repaired to the chapel in Pharo, where 
Romanus took an oath of fidelity on the wood of the true 
cross, and was invested with the offices of grand master and 
grand heteriarch, or general of the foreign guards, on the 25th 
of March 919 *. 

Before a month elapsed, the fortunes of Romanus were 
further advanced by the charms of his daughter Helena. 
Constantine VII. became deeply smitten with her beauty, 
and the ambition of the father precipitated the marriage in 
order to secure the title of Basileopater, which gave him 
precedence over every other officer of state, 27th April 
919. He was now even more than prime-minister, and his 
position excited deeper envy. Leo Phokas took up arms in 
Bithynia and marched to Chrysopolis (Scutari), declaring 
that his object was to deliver the young emperor from 
restraint ; but his movement was so evidently the result of 
disappointed ambition that he found few to support him, and 
he was soon taken prisoner and deprived of sight. Another 
conspiracy, having for its object the assassination of the 
BasJleopaterj also failed. The Empress Zoe was accused of 
attempting to poison him, and immured in a monastery. 
The governor Theodore, perceiving that he no longer enjoyed 
the confidence of the friend he had contributed to elevate, 
bt^n to thwart the ambitious projects of Romanus, and was 
banished to his property in Opsikion. Romanus, finding that 
there was now nothing to prevent his indulgii^ his ambition, 
persuaded his son-in-law to confer on him the title of Caesar, 
and shortly after to elevate him to the rank of emperor. 
He was crowned as the colleague of Constantine Porphyro- 

■ This Niketas wu a ScUvonJan landed proprietor in the Peloponnesus, whose 
daughter nu married to Christophorcs the eldest son of Romanus, Hii ass-like 
Sclavoniao visage, to use an expression which amused the courtiers of Con- 
stantinople, and Has troubled modern schokrs, excited the spleen of his imperial 
relative. Compare Contin. J43, Constant. Porphyr. Dt T\mat, 35, and note at 
p. 305 of this volume. 

■ The date is given by the Contiauator (143) and Sjrmeon Mag. (478). But 
the chronology of this period is reviewed with learning and accuracy by Kng, 
KriliKhtr Vtnuck air Asflldrung dcr Byzanlvutchtn Chnmalogie, mil btttmJtnr 
^ielbUlu auf dU friiitTt oiichichlt Ruutcrndt; Petersburg 1810, p. 133. 



A'OOgIc 



ROM ANUS I. 291 

"■9"-944-l 

genitus by the Patriarch Nikolaos in the Church of St, Sophia, 
on the 17th December 919'. 

Few men ever possessed the absolute direction of public 
affairs in the Byzantine empire without assuming the 
imperial title, even though they had no intention of setting 
aside the sovereign whose throne they shared. It was well 
understood that there was no other means of securing their 
position, for as long as they remained only with the rank of 
prime-minister or Caesar, they were exposed to lose their sight, 
or be put to death by a secret order of the sovereign, obtained 
through the intrigues of an eunuch or a slave. But as soon 
as they assumed the rank of emperor of the Romans, their 
person was sacred, being protected both by the law of high 
treason and the force of public opinion, which regarded the 
emperor as the Lord's anointed. Two of the greatest 
sovereigns who ever sate on the throne of Constantinople, 
Nicephorus II. (Phokas) and John I. (Zimiskes), shared the 
throne with Basil II. and Constantine Vtll., as Romanus I. 
did with Constantine VII. 

Romanus was a man of a weak character, who was neither 
distit^ished by his birth, bis talents, nor his services ", The 
valour of his father, who saved the life of the emperor Basil 
during the Paulician war, obtained him promotion, but he 
rose to the highest rank without performing any exploit of 
which his flatterers could boast, and without gaining even a 
reputation for personal courage *. To gratify his passion for 
pageantry, and secure the place of honour in the numerous 
ceremonies of the Byzantine court, he usurped the place of 
his son-in-law, and conferred the imperial crown on his own 
wife Theodora. He also conferred the rank of emperor on 
his eldest son Christophoros, and gave him precedence of the 
young Constantine Porphyrogenitus the hereditary sovereign. 
The successful career of a plebeian family was more offensive 
to the Byzantine aristocracy than the sudden elevation of a 
Sclavonian menial like Basil I., and awakened the ambition of 
a more numerous class of pretenders to the throne. The 
reign of Romanus was consequently disturbed by a series of 



' Knig, 140. 

* His soQ-in-Uv calls bim an ilUletate person of no rank : lUrr^* ml ^tf^ 
fioTti Srepmn*. Constant, Poiph^T. Dt Aim, Imp. p. 66. 

• See p. »45. 



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202 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n. Ch.I. !3. 
conspiracies, all having for their avowed object the restoration 
of Constantine Porphyrogenitus to his Intimate rights, 
though, probably, the real object of the conspirators was 
to gain possession of the power and position occupied by 
Romanus. In the year 921, the great officers of the em- 
pire—the grand-master of the palace, the minister of forti- 
fications, and the director-general of charitable institutions 
— were discovered plotting. Shortly after, a patrician, with 
the aid of the captain of the guard of Maglabites or 
mace-bearers', undismayed by the preceding failure, again 
attempted to dethrone Romanus ; and a third conspiracy, 
planned by the treasurer and keeper of the imperial plate, one 
of the chamberlains, and the captain of the imperial galley, 
was organized. All were discovered, and the conspirators 
were punished. In 914, BoTlas, a patrician, rebelled on the 
frontiers of Armenia, but his troops were defeated by the 
celebrated general John Kurkuas, and he was confined in a 
monastery. Again, in 926, one of the ministers of state and 
the postmaster-general formed a plot, which proved equally 
abortive. 

As years advanced, the feeble character of Constantine 
Porphyrt^enitus became more apparent. His want of talent, 
and his devotion to literature and art, warned the ablest states- 
men to avoid compromising their fortunes by supporting the 
cause of one so little qualified to defend his own rights. 
Romanus, too, having assumed his three sons, Christophoros, 
Stephanos, and Constantinos, as his colleagues, and placed 
his son Theophylaktos on the patriarchal throne, considered 
his power perfectly secure. The spirit of discontent was, 
nevertheless, very prevalent ; the people in the capital and 
the provinces were as little inclined to favour the usurpii^ 
family as the nobility. An impostor, born in Macedonia, 
made his appearance in the theme Opsikion, where he an- 
nounced himself to be Constantine Dukas ; and though taken, 
and condemned to lose his hand like a common forger, he 
succeeded in raising a second rebellion after his release. He 
procured an artificial hand of brass, with which he wielded his 
sword ; the common people flocked round him, and resisted 



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ROMANUS DETHRONED. 393 

A.D.9H-944.] 

the government with so much determination that he was cap- 
tured with difficulty, and, to revenge the display he had made 
of the weakness of Romanus' power, he was burned alive in 
the Amastriaaon at Constantinople^. 

In early life Romanus had been a votary of pleasure, but 
when the possession of every wish for three-and-twenty years 
had tamed his passions, he became a votary of superstition. 
Feelings of religion began to affect his mind, and at last 
he allowed it to be discovered that he felt some remorse for 
having robbed his son-in-law of his birthright, in order to 
bestow the gift on his own children, who treated him with 
less respect than their brother-in-law the lawful emperor. 
Stephanos, impelled by ambition, and perhaps fearing lest 
his father should place the sole direction of the government 
in the hands of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who after the 
death of Christophoros had been restored to the second place 
at court, resolved to secure the possession of supreme authority 
by deposing his father ^. Romanus was seized by the agents 
of his son and carried off to the island of Prote, where he was 
compelled to embrace the monastic life. Constantinos, his 
your^er son, though he had not been privy to the plot, readily 
joined in profiting by his father's ill-treatment Such crimes, 
however, always excite indignation in the breasts of the 
people ; and in this case the inhabitants of Constantinople, 
hearing v^ue rumours of scenes of dethronement, banish- 
ment, and murder, in the imperial palace, became alarmed 
for the life of their lawful sovereign, Constantine Porphyro- 
genitus. They felt an attachment to the injured prince, whom 
they saw constantly at all the church ceremonies, degraded 
from his hereditary place ; his habits were known, many spoke 
in his praise, nobody could tell any evil of him. A mob 
rushed to the parace, and, filling the courts, insisted on seeing 
the lawful emperor. His appearance immediately tranquillized 
the populace, but hopes were awakened in the breasts of many- 
intriguers by this sudden display of his influence. A new 
vista of intrigue was laid open, and the most sagacious states* 
men saw that the degradation of the usurping family was the 
only means of maintaining order. Every man in power be- 
came a partisan of his long-neglected rights, and Constantine 

■ CoDtia. 161. * See Sauley, fisai, in, and Sabatier, ii, I10. 

r,,,,i ■..,■:, LiOO^^IC 



294 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.ai.i.i4k 
Porphyrogenitus was proclaimed sole emperor without oppo- 
sition. The Emperors Stephanos and Constantinos were 
seized by the order of Constantine VII., while they were 
sitting at a supper-party, and compelled to adopt the monastic 
habit, 37th January 945 '. 



Sect, IV. — Constantine VII. {Porphyrogenitus) — Romanus II. 
945-963. 

Character of Constantine VII., a.i>. 945-959 — Literary works. — Doth. — Ctm- 
spiradcE at conrt. — Pride of Byzantine govemmenl. — Inlemal condition of 
the empire. — Sdavonians in the Peloponnesus. — Mainates.— Saracen war. — 
Bulgarian war.— Character of Romaaus II., 959-963. — Conquest of Crete. 
— Condition of Greece. 

We are principally indebted to the writings of the Emperor 
Constantine Porphyrogenitus, or to works compiled by his 
order, for our knowledge of Byzantine history during the latter 
half of the ninth and earlier half of the tenth centuries. His 
own writings give us a picture of his mind, for he generally 
communicates his information as it occurs to himself, without 
hunting for classic and ecclesiastical phrases, and seeking for 
learned allusions and antiquated words to confuse and astonish 
his readers, as was the fashion with most of the Byzantine 
nobles who affected the literary character. Of his person we 
have a correct description in the writings of his dependants. 
He was tall and well made, with broad shoulders, a long neck 
and a long face. This last feature is represented in caricature 
on some of the coins of his reign. His skin was extremely 
fair, his complexion ruddy, his eyes soft and expressive, his 

' I nvay here correct Saulcy {Eaai dt CXanification d*i Stiiui moitetair*s bytait- 
tints, 134), and Victor Langlois, in the new edition of Ltllm du Baron MarchaHt 
sur la NamumaHqui (8q). Marchant was right in attributing the coins nsually 
ascribed to Romanus II. (o Romanus I, I possess three good examples of Con- 
stantine Vll., with his long visage struck over Romanus, and also tliree of 
Constantine and Romanus II. struck over Romanus I., which is certainly decisive. 
1 own I had entertained no doubt of the correctness of Marchant's attribution 
before meeting with these examples, from the great number of the coins I had met 
with in the Peloponnesus, and which I supposed must have been brought to pay 
the troops Romanus I. employed iheie against the Sclavontans I possess a 
Romanus I., also struck over one of the incertains of John Zimiskes as (hey are 
called, but which appear lo date from the rei^n of Basil I. The coins attributed 
by Saulcy (loil to basil I. and Constantine his son, also belong, in some cases at 
least, to Basil II. and Constantine VIJl. I possess a piece in copper, in which 
the youth of both princes leaves no doubt on the subject. 



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CHARACTER OF CONSTANTINE VII. 295 

*.». 9(5-963.] 

nose aquiline, and his carriage straight as a cypress. He was 
a lover of good cheer, and kept the best of cooks, and a cellar 
of excellent wine of the choicest kinds ; but he indulged in no 
excesses, and his morals were pure, H« was reserved and 
mild in his intercourse with his familiars, eloquent and liberal 
to his dependants, so that we must not wonder that his pane- 
gyrists forgot his defects. In a despotic sovereign, such a 
character could not fail to be popular'. 

Constantine's long seclusion from public business had been 
devoted to the cultivation of his taste in art, as well as to 
serious study. He was a proficient in mathematics, astro- 
nomy, architecture, sculpture, painting, and music. The 
works of his pencil were of course lauded as equal to the 
pictures by Apelles ; his voice was often heard in the solemn 
festivals of the church. An encyclopaedia of historical know- 
ledge — of which a part only has reached our time, but even 
this part has preserved many valuable fragments of ancient 
historians — and treatises on agriculture and the veterinary art, 
were compiled under his inspection ^ 

The historical works written by his order were a chronicle 
in continuation of the Chrooography of Theophanes, embracing 
the period from the reign of Leo V. (the Armenian) to the 
death of Michael III. The name of the writer is said to be 
Leontios. A second work on the same period, but including 
the reign of Basil I,, was also written by Genesius ; and a 
third work, by an anonymous continuator, carried Byzantine 
history down to the commencement of the reign of his son 
Romanus II ^ 

The writings ascribed to Constantine himself are peculiarly 
valuable, for several relate to subjects treated by no other 
author*. The life of his grandfather, Basil I., tells some 

' Contln. 191. 

* The fragments relating to the later portion of Romao history ere collected 
in the first volume of the edition of the Byzactine hisiorians published at Bona, 
Dadppi. Eunapii, Piiri Patrieii, Friici, Malcki, Mtnandri hiiioriarum qaat suptriual, 
I Sag, 8vo. 

' The attention of the Emperor Constanlinc was naturally directed to con- 
tinuing the work of Theophanes, as that celebrated annalist was tiis mother's 
uncle. Di Adm. Imp. c xxii. p. 76, edit. Bonn. The continuation of Theophanes. 
and the history of the successors of Basil I., are contained in the volume of 
the Byiantine historians entitled Seriploris foil Thiopkanem. Genesius was first 
printed in the Venetian edition, but a more correct text is given in the Bonn 

' [It is easy to depredate, as some writers do, the learning and art of th« 



DgIC 



29*5 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.lLCIh.I.{4. 
truths, from vanity, that an experienced flatterer would have 
concealed for fear of wounding family pride'. A short 
geographical notice of the themes or administrative divisions 
of the Byzantine empire gives us the means of connecting 
mediaeval with ancient geography*. But the emperor's most 
valuable work is a treatise on the government of the empire, 
written for the use of his son Romanus, which abounds with 
contemporary information concerning the geographical limits 
and political relations of the people on the northern frontier of 
the empire near the Black Sea, with notices of the Byzantine 
power in Italy, and of the condition of the Greeks and Scla- 
vonians in the Peloponnesus, of which we should otherwise 
know almost nothing^. Two essays on military tactics— one 
relating to naval and military operations with the regular 
troops of the empire, and the other to the usages of foreigners — 
contain also much information *. The longest work, however, 
that Constantine wrote, and that on which he prided himself 
most, was an account of the ceremonies and usages of the 
Byzantine court. It is probably now the least read of his 
writings, yet it gives us an exact description filled with curious 
details of the ceremonial by which men's minds were fettered, 
and which acted as an efficient power in governing and 
oppressing the most civilized races of mankind for several 
centuries *. 

Byzantine emperors and people, and to characteriie them as dull, pedantic, and 
conventional. But we must remember that il was the taste for ihcsc things which 
maintained the high level of cultivation that distinguished the Byzalitines from 
the people of all other contemporary states, and caused the ancient lileralure 
to be preserved. The literary pursuits of emperors like Leo the Philosopher and 
Constantine Porphyrogenitus did much towards setting the fashion, which rendered 
Studious habits popuur, M. Ramliaud well remarks (L'Empirt pic au dixirmt 
SiMt, p. 60). that in the ninth century the monastery is the centre of the intellectual 
movement, in the tenth the paUce. The same writer (pp. 65 foil.) gives a long 
list of the authors and artists of the age of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, En.] 

' The Life of Basil is contained in Scripiorts pml Theophmtm. 

• [M. Rambaud (pp 16+ foil.) adduces valid reasons for thinking that the Dt 
Thtmalibta was a very early, as it certainly is a very crude, production of Con- 
stantine VII. He was probably not more than 10 years old u^en he compiled it. 
M. Rambaud remains that the writer, while professing to give contemporary, 
really gives ancient, geography. He describes the empire as it was, not in the 
tenth, but in the sixth century. Ed.] 

■ The works Di Tktmoiibia and Di AdnumiUraado Imptrio are contained in 
Banduri's Imptriiaa Orim/ale, and in the Bonn collection. The work Di Adm. Imp. 
was terminated in the year 95 1 , Krug, 366. 

' The best edition of these treatises is contained in the sixth volume of the 
works of Meursius. 

' Part of the work Di Catmmiuu Aidat ByxanHnat has been interpolated at • 
later period, and hence some have conjectured that the whole is the compilation 



D,,,iz.....A<oot^lC 



DEATH OF CONSTANTINE VII. 2ij^ 

*.D. 945-963.] 

The government df Constantine was on the whole mild 
and equitable, and the empire during his reign was rich and 
flourishing. When he became despotic master of the East, he 
continued to think and act very much as he had done in his 
forced seclusion. He displayed the same simplicity of manner 
and goodness of heart. His weakness prevented him from 
being a good sovereign, but his humanity and love of justice 
preserved him from being a bad one, and he continued all his 
life to be popular with the mass of his subjects. His kind 
disposition induced him to allow his son, Romanus II., to 
marry Theophano, a girl of singular beauty, and of the most 
graceful and fascinating manners, but the daughter of a man 
in mean circumstances. The Byzantine historians, who are 
frequently the chroniclers of aristocratic scandal, and whose 
appetite for popular calumny swallows the greatest improba- 
bilities, have recorded that Theophano repaid the goodness of 
the emperor by inducing Romanus to poison his father'. 
They pretend that the chief butler was gained, and that Con- 
stantine partook of a bever^e, in which poison was mingled 
with medicine prescribed by his physician. Accident pre- 
vented him from swallowing enough to terminate his life, but 
the draught injured a constitution already weak. To recover 
from the languor into which he fell, he made a tour in 
Bithynia in order to enjoy the bracing air of Mount Olympus, 
and visit the principal monasteries and cells of anchorites, 
with which the mountain was covered. But his malady in- 
creased, and he returned to Constantinople to die, 9th 
November 959. 

The picture which we possess of the conduct of Constantine 
in his own family is so amiable, that we are compelled to 
reject the accusations brought against Romanus and Theo- 
phano ; — we can no more believe that they poisoned Constan- 
tine, than we can credit all the calumnies against Justinian 
recounted by Procopius. To perpetrate such a crime, Romanus 
would have been one of the worst monsters of whose acts 
history has preserved a record ; and a character so diabolical 

of the Emperor Constaoline VIII. The only complete edition of the Note* is that 
of Bonn. It is edited with care, but wants an index, which would perhaps be 
more useful (han a Latin transktioD. 

' Cedrenus (641) and Zonaraj (ii. 195) both accuse Theophano and Romanus 
of parricide. 



DgIC 



2o8 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[BLII. Ch.I. f4. 
would have revealed its inherent wickedness during the four 
years he governed the empire with absolute power. Yet he 
appears only as a gay, pleasure-loving, pleasure-hunting prince. 
His father and his sisters always regarded him with the 
tenderest affection. Agatha, the youngest, was her father's 
constant companion in his study, and acted as his favourite 
secretary. Seated by his side, she read to him all the official 
reports of the ministers ; and when his health began to fail, it 
was through her intermediation that he consented to transact 
public business. That such a proceeding created no alarming 
abuses, and produced neither serious complaints nor family 
quarrels, is more honourable to the heart of the princess than 
her successful performance of her task to her good sense and 
ability. It proves that affection, and not ambition, prompted 
her conduct. Historians and novelists may recount that 
Romanus, who lived in affectionate intercourse with such a 
father and sister, became a parricidcj but the tenor of actual 
life rejects the possibility of any man acting suddenly, and for 
once, as a monster of iniquity'. 

The necessity of a safety-valve for political dissatisfaction, 
such as is afforded by a free press or a representative assem- 
bly, to prevent sedition, is evident, when we find a popular 
prince like Constantine exposed to numerous conspiracies. 
Men will not respect laws which appear to their minds to be 
individual privileges, and not national institutions. Conspira- 
cies then form an ordinary method of gambling for improving 
a man's fortune, and though few could aspire to the imperial 
throne, every man could hope for promotion in a change. 
Hence, we find a plot concocted to place the old Romanus 
I. ^ain on the throne. Partisans were even found who 
laboured for the worthless Stephanos, who was successively 
removed to Proconnesus, Rhodes, and Mitylene. Constantinos 
also, who was transported to Tenedos and then to Samothrace, 
made several attempts to escape. In the last he killed the 
captain of his guards, and was slain by the soldiers. The 
conspirators in all these plots were treated with comparative 
mildness, for the punishment of death was rarely inflicted 
either by Romanus I. or Constantine VII. 

In spite of the wealth of the empire, and though the govem- 



■ CodUd. iSS. 



:v Google 



PRIDE OF BYZANTINE GOVERNMENT. 299 

"•■945-963] 

ment malntamed a powerful standing army and regular navy, 
there were many signs of inherent weakness in the state. The 
emperors attempted to make pride serve as a veil for all defects. 
The court assumed an inordinate d^ree of pomp in its inter- 
course with foreigners. This pretension exposed it to envy; 
and the affectation of contempt assumed by the barbarians, 
who were galled by Byzantine pride, has been reflected through 
all succeeding history, so that we find even the philosophic 
Gfbbon sharing the prejudices of Luitprand. Constantine 
Porphyrogenitus has fortunately left us an unvarnished pic- 
ture of this senseless presumption, written with the foolii^h 
simplicity of an emperor who talks of what a statesman would 
feel inclined to conceal. He tells of the diplomatic arts and 
falsehoods to be used in order to prevent foreign princes 
obtaining a dress or a crown similar to that worn by the 
emperor of Constantinople ; and he seems to consider this not 
less important than preventing them from obtaining the secret 
of Greek fire. Foreign ambassadors are to be told that such 
crowns were not manufactured on earth, but had been brought 
by an angel to the great Constantine, the first Christian em- 
peror ; that they have always been deposited in the sacristy of 
St. Sophia's, under the care of the Patriarch, and are only to 
be used on certain fixed ceremonies. The angel pronounced 
a malediction on any one who ventured to use them, except 
on the occasions fixed by immemorial usage ; and the Emperor 
Leo IV,, who had neglected this divine order, and placed one 
on his head, had quickly died of a brain fever. Similar tales 
and excuses were to be invented, in order to refuse the demands 
of princes who wished to intermarry with the imperial family. 
Any demand for Greek fire was to be eluded in the same 
way". 

The attachment of the people rendered the Patriarch at 
one time almost equal to the emperor in dignity, but the 
clergy of the capital were now more closely connected with 
the court than with the people. The power of the emperor 
to depose as well as to appoint the Patriarch was hardly 
questioned, and of course the head of the Eastern church 
occupied a very inferior position to the Pope of Rome. The 
church of Constantinople, filled with courtly priests, lost its 

' Coosuot. Porphyr. Di Adm. Imf. c. 13. 

Djizcdtv Google 



300 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.Ch.Lf4- 
political influence, and both religion and civilisation suffered 
by this increase of the imperial power. From this period we 
may date the decline of the Greek church. 

The Patriarch Nikolaos, the mystic who had been deposed 
by Leo VI, for opposing his fourth marriage (a. D. 908), was 
reinstated by Alexander, who acted in opposition to most 
of his brother's measures {a.d. 912). After Romanus I. was 
established on the throne, Nikolaos yielded so far to the 
pre-eminence of the civil power as to consent to a union 
with the party of his successor, Euthymios, and to own that 
the marriage of Leo had been sanctified by the act of the 
Patriarch tU facto. This was done to avoid what Nikolaos 
called scandal in the church ; but the political experience 
of the bigoted ecclesiastic having shown him that he must 
look for support and power to the emperor, and not to the 
people, he became at last quite as subservient to the court 
as the mild Euthymios had ever been. On the death of 
Nikolaos (925), Stephen the eunuch, archbishop of Amasia, 
was appointed his successor, who, after a patriarchate of three 
years, was succeeded by Tryphon {a.d. 928). Tryphon held 
the office provisionally until Theophylaktos, the son of the 
Emperor Romanus I., attained the full age for ordination ; 
but in order to avoid too great scandal in the church, Tryphon 
was deposed a year before Theophylaktos was appointed. 
The imperial youth was then only sixteen years of age, but 
his father obtained a papal confirmation of his election by 
means of Alberic, consul and patrician of Rome, who kept 
his own brother. Pope John XI., a prisoner at the time. Papal 
l^ates were sent to Constantinople, who installed Theophy- 
laktos in the patriarchal chair on the and February 933. The 
highest order of priests in the Church, both in the East and 
West, insulted Christianity. The crimes and debauchery of 
the papal court were, however, more offensive than the ser- 
vility and avarice of the Greek hierarchy. John XL was 
appointed Pope at the age of twenty-five, through the in- 
fluence of his mother Marosia {a.d. 931). Marosiar and her 
second husband, Guy of Tuscany, had dethroned, and it is 
supposed murdered, John X., of the family of Cenci. John XL, 
as we have mentioned, was imprisoned by his brother Alberic, 
and died in confinement, a victim to the political intrigues of 
his brother and his mother. Alberic ruled Rome for about 



DgIC 



THEOPHYLAKTOS PATRIARCH. 301 

*■">• 945-9*3-] 

thirty years, and during that time the popes were only the 
patriarchs of the Latin church. On Alberic's death, his son 
Octavian succeeded him as patrician, and became Pope at 
the age of eighteen, under the name of John XII. (A. D. 956). 
■ He is generally considered the greatest criminal that ever 
occupied the papal throne '. 

The conduct of the Patriarch Theophylaktos was not much 
worse than might have been expected from a young man 
whose father had provided him with a bishopric, merely that 
he might enjoy a suitable rank and revenue. As long as his 
father could keep persons about the young man capable of 
controlling his conduct, outward decency was preserved ; but 
age soon rendered him independent of advice, and he openly 
indulged tastes extremely unsuitable to his ecclesiastical 
dignity. He lived like a debauched young prince, and sold 
ecclesiastical preferments to raise money for his pleasures. 
He converted the celebration of divine service at St. Sophia's 
into a musical festival, adorned with rich pageantry. His 
passion for horses and for hunting exceeded that of the 
Emperor Basil I., and it caused his death, as it had done 
that of the imperial groom. The patriarchal stables are said to 
have contained two thousand horses. The magnificence of the 
building, and the manner in which his favourite steeds were 
fed, bathed, and perfumed, were at the time among the wonders 
of Constantinople. Once, as Theophylaktos was officiating 
at the high altar of St. Sophia's, a slave crept up to him and 
whispered that his favourite mare had foaled. The congre- 
gation was alarmed by the precipitation with which the 
' most holy ' pontiff finished the service. The young Patriarch 
threw aside his ecclesiastical vestments as quickly as possible, 
and ran to the stable. After satisfying himself that every- 
thing was done for the comfort of the mare and foal, he 
returned to his cathedral to occupy his place in the proces- 
sion. The people of Constantinople submitted to receive 
religious instruction from this festival and hunting- loving 
Patriarch for twenty years ; but strange must have been the 
reports that circulated through the provinces of the empire 

' Baionius, Amt. BtcUi. BeUarmine, according to Daunou, calls him almost 
the woist of the popes ; Dt Rom, Foot. ii. c, 19. Montor (ffiiroin dts Sotmraiiu 
PoHtifit Romaias, ii, 94) says, ' Quant i I'autorit* religieuse. il ful sfyire, mais, 
pape legitime, il usnit d'un droit reconnu.' Histoiians doubt whether he was 
murdered on accotim of bis craelties or his adulteries. 



DgIC 



903 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.a.Cb.1. 1^ 
concerning the impious proceedings, profane songs, indecent 
dances, and diabolical ceremonies, with which he defiled the 
Church of the Divine Wisdom, could we look into the secret 
history of some provincial Procopius. The death of Theo- 
phylaktos was in keeping with his life. One of his horses, 
as seJf-willed as the Patriarch, and as unfit for its duty, 
dashed him against a wall. The accident brought on a 
dropsy, and he died in 95^1 after having too long di^raced 
the Greek church, and made St, Sophia's an opera-house'. 
He was succeeded by Polyeuktos, an ecclesiastic whose 
parents had marked him out for an ecclesiastical life *. 

It has been said that the general condition of the inha- 
bitants of the Byzantine empire was prosperous ; but in 
a despotic government, any negligence on the part of the 
central administration is infallibly followed by cruelty and 
extortion on the part of some of its distant agents, who 
exercise a power too great to be left uncontrolled without 
the certainty of abuse. The weakness both of Romanus I. 
and Constantine VII. allowed considerable disorder to pre- 
vail at Constantinople, and the grossest acts of tyranny to 
be committed in the provinces. Chases, a man of Saracen 
extraction, was raised to high office by the companions of 
the debauchery of Alexander, and was governor of the theme 
of Hellas during the minority of Constantine. His insatiable 
avarice and infamous profligacy at last drove the inhabitants 
of Athens to despair, and as he was attending divine service 
in the great temple of the Acropolis — once dedicated to the 
Divine Wisdom of the pagans— they rose in tumult, and 
stoned their oppressor to death at the altar*. A governor 

' These expressions are not stronger than those of Cedrenus (638). who was 
scandalized by the remaios of tlie mummeries introduced into the cathedral cerrice 
by TheophyUktos, and which w«re perpetuated 10 his time. 

' The practice of making children eunuchs to insure their promotion in the 
church was common at this time in the Byzantine empire. 

* CoDtin. »40. An anecdote recorded by the Byiantbe writer? deserves notice, 
though it may be an example of individual widtedness, not ccneral demoraliza- 
tion. An Athenian named RendoJcios (who may have been ofScIavonian descoit, 
as he was a relative of the Fatrician Niketas). ruined by debauchery and debt, laid 
a plot to murder his father. The old man quitted Athens to live in tranquillity at 
Constantinople, but was taken by pirates and carried to Crete. RendAios pre- 
tended that his father was dead, took possession of the family property, sold it, 
and removed to Constantinople. His attempt to commit parricide became known, 
and he was compelled to seek an asylvn in the precincts of St. Sophia's ; but an 
order was given to arrest him. He contrived to escape, and forged lettels of 
recommendation from the Emperor Romanus to Simeon, lung of Bnl^ria, but wai 
captnred, and condemned to ioie hi* sight. Contiii. %\1. 



DgIC 



CONDITION OF THE EMPIRE. 303 

of Cherson had been murdered for oppression at the end 
of the reign of Leo the Philosopher. John Muzalon, the 
governor of Calabria, now shared the same fate. As no 
attention was paid by such officers to protecting the com- 
mercial lines of trade either by sea or land, the navigation 
of the Archipelago and the Adriatic was infested by pirates, 
and the great roads of Asia and Europe were dangerous from 
the bands of brigands who remained unmolested in their 
vicinity. Urso Participatio, the seventh doge of Venice, sent 
his son Fetro to Constantinople to announce his election, and 
concert measures to protect the commerce of the Adriatic 
against the Saracen and Sclavonian pirates. Petro was 
honoured with the title of protospatharios, and received 
many valuable presents from the emperor. But no measures 
were adopted for protecting trade ; and the son of the doge 
of Venice was seized by Michael, duke of Sclavonia, as he 
was returning home, and delivered to Simeon, king of Bul- 
garia. The Sclavonian kept the presents, and the Bulgarian 
compelled his father to pay a large ransom for his release ', 

Hugh of Provence, king of Italy, sent an embassy to 
Romanus I. The Sclavonians in the neighljourhood of Thes- 
salonica attacked the ambassadors ; but the Italians of their 
suite defeated the brigands, and captured several, whom they 
carried to Constantinople and delivered to the emperor for 
punishment *. 

Weak, however, as the Byzantine empire may appear to 
us, it presented a very different aspect to all contemporary 
governments; for in every other country the administration 
was worse, and property and life were much more insecure. 
Its alliance was consequently eagerly sought by every inde- 
pendent state, and the court of Constantinople was visited 
by ambassadors from distant parts of Europe, Africa, and 
Asia. The Greeks were then the greatest merchants and 
capitalists in the world, and their influence was felt not only 

' Muratori, jlBiurfi(f/Mlia, V. 870: Le Beau, xiii. 403, 

• The slej^ther of Lnilprand the historian, who was afterwards unbosladar 
from Otho to NicqJiorus II., was one of the enToys. Among the presents were 
two immense lK>a>hoimds. These dogs were so enraged at the appearance the 
Erapeior Romanus made in his imperial robes, for they took him for a wild 
animal, that they coald hardly be held by their keepers from attacking him on his 
throne, they were so eager lo worry him. Luilprand, D« R^itu mo Titnpwt ut 
EuTopa gtiii,a\. n j; Matatori,*. 411; Le Beau, xiii. 445- 

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904 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Cb.I. {4. 
by all the nations professing Christianity, but by the rival 
caliphs of Bagdad and Cordova, and the hostile Mohammedan 
princes of Egypt and Mauretania; it extended even to the 
Saxon monarchs of England \ 

The Sclavonians of the Peloponnesus, who had gained a 
temporary independence during the latter part of the reign 
of Theophilus, remained tranquil from the time of their 
subjection by Theodora's regency, until the careless adminis- 
tration of Romanus I. again invited them to rebel. Two 
tribes, the Melings and Ezerites, who dwelt round Mount 
Taygetus in a state of partial independence, conceived the 
hope of delivering themselves from the Byzantine yoke, and 
boldly refused to pay the usual tribute *. Krinites Arotras, 
the general of the Peloponnesian theme, was ordered to 
reduce them to obedience ; but he was unable to make them 
lay down their arms until he had laid waste their country 
from March to November, without allowing them either to 
reap or sow. On their submission, their tribute was increased, 
and each tribe was obliged to pay six hundred byzants 
annually. But disturbances occurring not long afterwards 
among the Byzantine officers, and a new tribe called the 
Sclavesians entering the peninsula, the Melings and Ezerites 
sent deputies to the Emperor Romanus to solicit a reduction 
of their tribute. The peaceable inhabitants saw their pro- 
perty threatened with plunder and devastation if the Melings 
and Ezerites should unite with the Sclavesians ; the central 
government was threatened with the loss of the revenues of 
the province; so the emperor consented to issue a golden 
bull, or imperial charter with a golden seal, fixing the tribute 
of the Melings at sixty gold byzants, and that of the Ezerites 
at three hundred, as it had been before their rebellion ^. 

The Sclavonian population of the Peloponnesus was not 
confined to the tributary districts ; nor, indeed, were these 
the only Sclavonians who retained their own local adminis- 
tration. The whole country, from the northern bank of the 
Alpheus to the sources of the Ladon and Erymanthus, was 
inhabited by Sclavonians who governed it according to their 



> Kemble. Tiu Saama in Baglaad, ii. latrod. p. x. 
* The classic name of Taygetus was already fo^otten. and the 
called, as at pieseot, Pentedahtylos. Const Porph. Di Adm. Imp. c 50. 



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SCLAVONIANS IN PELOPONNESUS. 305 

national usages until the Crusaders conquered Greece. A 
considerable body of the Sclavonians adopted Byzantine 
manners, and some of the wealthiest contended for the 
highest places in the administration of the empire. The 
patrician Niketas took an active share in the intrigues which 
placed the imperial crown on the head of Romanus. His 
pride and presumption, as well as his Sclavonian descent, are 
ridiculed by the Emperor Constantine Porphyrc^enitus, 
though the patrician had formed an alliance with the imperial 
family '. 

From this time we hear nothii^ more of the Sclavonians 
settled in the Peloponnesus, until the peninsula was invaded 
by the Crusaders, after they had taken Constantinople, and 
established the Frank empire of Romania (A.D. 1304). 

The condition of the town of Maina and the district about 
Cape Taenarus presents us with a picture of the vicissitudes 
the Greeks had suflered during the decline of the Roman 
empire. The population of this ru^ed promontory consisted 
of the poorer class of agricultural Laconians, and it kept 
possession of this arid district when the Sclavonians seized 
the rich plain of the Eurotas and drove the Greeks out of 
Sparta. The strangers occupied all the rich pastures on 
Mount Taygetus, but want of water prevented their advance 
along the promontory of Taenarus, and the fortified town of 
Maina enabled the inhabitants to defend their liberty and 
support themselves by exporting oil. This secluded country 
long remained in a state of barbarism. The rural population, 
if it had ever embraced Christianity, soon relapsed into 
idolatry, from which it was not converted until the reign of 

' The daughter of Niketas nas (he wife of the Emperor Christophoros, Ihe 
eldest son of Romanus I. The verse of a Byzantine poet, which Constauline 
mentions as applied to Niketas, has caused much leajned discussion. The words 
seem to say tliat the patrician had an ass like Sclavonian visage — 

TohfiMiE^ o^it iaBXaBinifTi. 
D* Tktmalibut, ii. 6; Kopitar, Miutllaaia GrattoUavica. p. 63. [All attempts to 
explain the first word in this line, which only occurs in this place, seem lo have 
been unavailing. The original reading is -fafioaSotitiii, which according to 
Banduri. in bit notes to the passage in Constant. Porphyr. (vol. iii. p. 106, edit. 
Bonn), seems to be used for YtpniTotiJIi^t : this explanation is adopted by Schafarik 
{Slmoischi AliirihUnur, ii. lyi). but it appears (0 be a mere conjecture. Hopf (.in 
Brockhaus* GrUchiniand, vi. 96 ; re-issue from Eisch and Grulwr) eiplainfi it as 
■cunning.' Finlay's reading. iaiapofM}t, ' ass-like.' is also pure conjecture. Tlie 
former part of this compound is yi^afoi or laOepot, (he latter of which forms ii 
the regular Modem Greek word for a donkey. The derivation is seen in the 
earlier form Atitapot (dtl, tlfv), 'the incessantly beaten;' see Ducange, i.v. 
itiiafot. El>.] 

VOL. II. X 



:..L.OO' 



.3IC 



766 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.Il.Ch.t.S4. 
Basil I. In the time of Constantine Porphyrc^enitus, the 
town of Maina was a place of some commercial importance, 
and was governed by an ofHcer appointed by the general of 
the Peloponnesian theme ; but the district continued to pay 
only four hundred pieces of gold to the imperial treasury, 
which was the amount levied on it in the days of the Roman 
empire ^. 

It was fortunate for the Byzantine empire that the caliphate 
of Bagdad had lost its former military power, for if an active 
enemy on the southern frontier had taken advantage of the 
embarrassments caused by an enterprising warrior like 
Simeon, king of Bulgaria, in the north, the empire might 
have been reduced to the deplorable condition from which it 
had been raised by the vigour of the Iconoclasts. But 
repeated rebellions had separated many of the richest pro- 
vinces from the caliphate, and the tyranny of a religious sway, 
that enforced unity of faith by persecution, had compelled 
heresy to appeal to the sword on every difference of opinion. 
This additional cause of ruin and depopulation, added to the 
administrative anarchy that was constantly on the increase 
in the caliph's dominions, had greatly weakened the Saracen 
power. The innumerable discussions which a formal ortho- 
doxy created in the Greek church were trifling in comparison 
with those which the contemplative tendencies of the Asiatic 
mind raised in the bosom of Islam. 

Several independent dynasties were already founded 
within the dominions of the caliph of Bagdad, which were 
disturbed by several sects besides the Karmathians. Yet, 
amidst all their civil wars, the Mohammedans made continual 
incursions into Asia Minor, and the Byzantine troops avenged 
the losses of the Christians by ravaging Syria and Mesopo- 
tamia. Slaves and cattle were carried off by both parties, 
whether victors or vanquished, so that the country became 
gradually depopulated ; and in succeeding generations we 
find the richest provinces between the Halys, the Euphrates, 
and the Mediterranean in a state of desolation. The suburbs 
of the towns were reduced to ashes ; valleys, once swarming 
with inhabitants, and cultivated with the spade, so that they 
could support millions, were reduced to sheep-walks. During 

' Dt Adm. Imp. c. go. p. 114, «dit. Bonn. 



SARACEN WAR. 307 

■*■»■ 945-963] 

the regency of Zoe, Damian, emir of Tyre, with a powerful 
ileet under his command, attacked Strobelos in Caria, but 
was repulsed^. In the following year the Byzantine army 
made an irruption into the territories of Germanicia and 
Samosata, and carried off fifty thousand prisoners, according 
to the accounts of the Arabian historians. The empress- 
regent would have willingly concluded peace with the Saracens 
at this time, for she was compelled to transport the greater 
part of the Asiatic army into Europe to resist Simeon, king 
of Bulgaria, and it appears that a truce and exchange of 
prisoners took place. The Byzantine arms had been so much 
more successful than the Saracen during the preceding 
campaigns, that when all the Christians had been exchanged, 
the number of Mohammedans still unredeemed was so great 
that the caliph paid a hundred and twenty thousand pieces of 
gold for their release, according to the stipulated price fixed 
by the convention *. 

Romanus I., who had obtained the throne by means of the 
support of the navy, appears to have paid more attention to 
keep it in good order than his predecessors. In the year 
926, Leo of Tripolia, who visited the Archipelago, seeking to 
repeat his exploits at Thessalonica, was encountered in the 
waters of Lemnos by the imperial squadron under John 
Radenos, and so completely defeated that it was with diffi- 
culty he saved his own ship. 

The wars of the Karmathians brought the caliphate into 
such a disturbed state that the Christians of Armenia again 
raised their banner, and, uniting their forces with the 
Byzantine generals, obtained great successes over the 
Saracens. John, the son of that Kurkuas who had been 
deprived of sight for conspiring against Basil I., was appointed 
commander-in-chief by Romanus, and commenced a career 
of conquest ably followed up a few years later by the 
Emperor Nicephorus II. and John I. (Zimiskes). The 
military skill of John Kurkuas, the high discipline of his 
army, and the tide of conquest which flowed with his presence, 

< Strobelos wu the uideDl Myndos, It i« called an island by Qte Bjtanltne 
wiitew from its peninsolar situation. Constant. Porphyr., Dt Tkun. p. ij, edit, 

i. 635. The Byzantine ambassador waa at 
X2 

n,.i,|...,.A'00'^IC 



308 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

CBk.n.Cb.L I4. 
revived aspirations of military renown long dormant at Con- 
stantinople. The learned were pleased to compare him with 
Trajan and Belisarius, the heroes of the Western and Eastern 
Empires. 

As early as the reign of Leo VI,, the Armenians under 
Melias had made considerable progress. The territory they 
delivered from the yoke of the Mohammedans was formed 
into a small theme, called Lykandos, and Melias was named 
its general, with the rank of Patrician *. From the year 930 
to 94a, John Kurkuas was almost uninterruptedly engaged 
against the Saracens. In 937 he ravaged the province of 
Melitene, and took the capital, of which, however, he only 
retained possession for a month'. Two years after, the 
Saracen emir of Melitene, finding himself unable to resist 
the Byzantine armies, engaged to pay tribute to the emperor. 
In the mean time, the Armenians, with the assistance of a 
division of Byzantine troops, had pushed their conquests to 
the lake of Van, and forced the Saracens of Aklat and Betlis 
not only to pay tribute, but to allow the cross to be elevated 
in their cities higher than the domes of their mosques. The 
long series of annual incursions recorded by the Byzantine 
and Arabian writers may be described in the words plunder, 
slavery, depopulation. In the campaign of 941, the Byzan- 
tine troops are said to have reduced fifteen thousand Saracens 
to slavery. But the exploit which raised the reputation of 
John Kurkuas to the highest pitch of glory was the acquisi- 
tion of the miraculous handkerchief, with a likeness of our 
Saviour visibly impressed on its texture ; a relic which the 
superstition of the age believed had been sent by Christ 
himself to Abgarus, prince of Edessa. In the year 942, John 
Kurkuas crossed the Euphrates, plundered Mesopotamia as 
far as the banks of the Tigris, took Nisibis, and laid siege to 
Edessa. The inhabitants of the city purchased their safety 
by surrendering the miraculous handkerchief. The victorious 
general was removed from his command shortly after, and 
the relic was transported to Constantinople by others ^ 



' ConBtant. Porphyr., D« Aim. Imp. c. 50. p. »i8. 
• Conim. 3S7 : WeU. ii. 637- 

' Georg, Mon. 590; CoQtin. a68 ; Knig, J15, In (h 
vebement desire to gnin possession of relics. Chamicb, h 



SARACEN IVAR. 309 

A.D. 945-963.] 

The parallel drawn by the people of Constantinople 
between Beltsarius and John Kurkuas seems imperfectly 
borne out by the conquests of the later general ; but the 
acquisition of a relic weighed, in those days, more than that 
of a kingdom. Yet, perhaps, even the miraculous portrait of 
Edessa would not have been compared with the conquest of 
the Vandal and Gothic monarchies, had the two-and-twenty 
years of John Kurkuas's honourable service not been repaid 
by courtly ingratitude. In the plenitude of his fame, the 
veteran was accused of aspiring at the empire, and removed 
from all his employments. Romanus I., like Justinian, when 
he examined the accusation, was convinced of its falsity, but 
he was jealous and mean-spirited '. 

During the government of Constantine VII., the war was 
continued with vigour on both sides. Seif Addawalah, the 
Hamdanite, called by the Greeks Chabdan, who was emir of 
Aleppo, invaded the , empire with powerful armies*. Bardas 
Phokas, the Byzantine general, displayed more avarice than 
energy; and even when replaced by his son Nicephorus, the 
future emperor, victory was not immediately restored to the 
imperial standards. But towards the end of Constantine's 
reign, Nicephorus, having reformed various abuses both in the 
military and civil service, arisir^ from the traffic in plunder 
and slaves captured in the annual forays of the troops, at last 
led an army Into the field calculated to prosecute the war with 
glory. The result of these preparations became visible in the 
reign of Romanus 11. 

After the conquest of Crete, the whole disposable force of 
the empire in Asia was placed under the command of Nice- 
phorus, who, according to the Arabians, opened the campaign 
of 962 at the head of one hundred thousand men'. The 
Saracens were unable to oppose this army in the field ; 
Doliche, Hierapolis, and Anazarba were captured, and Nice- 
phorus advanced to Aleppo, where Seif Addawalah had collected 

' Manuel, t. judge and protDSpathsrios, urote a vork in eight books on the 
exploits of John Kurkuas. As the holy handkerchief of Edessa was brought to 
Constantinople after his dis^ce, Ijlb August 943, bis name is not mentioned 
by the servife liistorianB of Ihe empire in connection with its capture. This fact 
shows to what extent these writers conceal the truth. Compare Contin. 165, and 

* Leo Diaconns, note, p. 415, edit. Bonn; D'Herbelot, Hanuubti tn Hamdowi; 
Weil. iii. 14. 

* Leo Diaconus, 378, ediL Boon. 



Dictzed by Google 



fllO BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.Ch.I.f4. 
an army to protect his capital. The position of the Ham- 
danite was turned by the superior tactics of the Byzantine 
general, his communications with his capital cut off, his army 
defeated, and the suburbs of Aleppo occupied. A sedition of 
the Arab troops, and a quarrel between the inhabitants and 
the garrison, enabled Nicephonis to enter the city; but the 
citadel defied his attacks. On the approach of a Saracen 
army from Damascus, Nicephonis abandoned his conquest, 
carryii^ away immense booty from the city of Aleppo, but he 
retained possession of sixty forts along the range of Mount 
Taurus as the result of his campaign. 

The disastrous defeat of the Byzantine army by the Bulga- 
rians at Achelous was the primary cause of the elevation of 
Romanus I. to the throne; and as emperor, he conducted 
the war quite as ill as he had directed the operations of the 
fleet when admiral, though he could now derive no personal 
advantage from the disasters of his country. In 921, the 
warlike monarch of the Bulgarians advanced to the walls of 
Constantinople, after defeating a Byzantine army under John 
Rector, The imperial palace of the fountains, and many 
villas about the city, were burned before Simeon retired with 
his booty. The city of Adrianople was taken in one 
campaign by treachery, lost and reconquered in another by 
famine*. In the month of September 923, Simeon again 
encamped before the walls of Constantinople, after having 
ravaged the greater part of Thrace and Macedonia with 
extreme barbarity, destroying the fruit-trees and burning the 
houses of the peasantry. He oflFered, however, to treat of 
peace, and proposed a personal interview with Romanus I., 
who was compelled to meet his proud enemy without the 
walls, in such a way that the meeting had the appearance 
of a Roman emperor suing for peace from a victorious bar- 
barian. Romanus, when he approached the ground marked 
out for the interview, saw the Bulgarian army salute Simeon 
as an emperor with loud shouts and music, while the body- 
guard of the Bulgarian king, resplendent with silver armour, 
astonished the people of Constantinople by its splendour, and 



' Th« second capture of Adrianople is placed by all (he Byiantioe nriten in the 
loth indiction, A.D. 911 ; but Knig gives reasons Tor placing it in the year 915. 
CAron. rf»r Byi. 155. 



DgIC 



AFFAIRS OF BULGARIA. 31 1 

*j.. 945-963.) 

the veteran soldiers of the empire by its steady discipline •. 
It seems that the rebellion of the Sclavonians in the Pelopon- 
nesus filled Romanus with anxiety; but he affected to solicit 
peace from motives of religion and humanity, that he might 
alleviate the sufferings of his subjects. The basis of peace 
was settled at this conference, and Simeon retired to his own 
kingdom laden with the plunder of the provinces and the gold 
of the emperor. The Byzantine writers omit to mention any 
of the stipulations of this treaty, so that there can be no 
doubt that it was far from honourable to the empire. It 
must be remarked, however, that they are always extremely 
negligent in their notice of treaties, and have not transmitted 
to us the stipulations of any of those concluded with the 
Khazars, or other nations through whose territory a great part 
of the commercial intercourse of the Byzantine empire with 
India and China was carried on, and from which the wealth of 
Constantinople was in a great measure derived. There can 
be no doubt, however, that one of the stipulations of this 
treaty was the public acknowledgment of the independence of 
the Bulgarian church, and the official recognition of the arch- 
bishop of Dorostylon as Patriarch of Bulgaria, both by the 
emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople*. 

Simeon then turned his arms against the Servians and 
Croatians. His cruelty in these hostilities is said to hav& 
surpassed anything ever witnessed. The inhabitants were 
everywhere deliberately murdered, and all Servia was so 
depopulated that its richest plains remained uncultivated for 
many years. Every inhabitant not slain was carried into 
Bulgaria to be sold as a slave; and the capital was so 

' Simeon is supposed to have fonned in alliance with the Pope, who seat him a 
royal crown lo reward his hostilities against the Byzantine empire and church. 
Schafarik. Siaunscki Alltnhunur, ii. 1S7. 

■ The fact is proved by the list of the primates of Bulgaria given by Ducftnee. 
Fam. Aug. Byz. 1 75. The patriarchal dignity in Bulgaria was abolished by John 
I. (Zimiskes), when he conijnered the country in 971. The Greek writers err, 
therefore, when they assert that the head of the Bulgarian church was never offici- 
ally recognized as a patriarch by the church of Constantinople. Le Quien. OrioH 
- ■ ■■ - ■ , of A» K- " — ■ 



. p. 44), afford no informatioo on this curious question. The Bulgarian 
'^ ■ ■-'--' -'- "— lel. whe- ■■-- '-'---'-■-- -' 



317, and ii. 387), and Neale'a Hitlory 0/ ikt Holy EaUtm'.Church 

~ ' ' ' ' ' ' "on. The Bulgarian 

the Archbishop of 

chrida and assumed 

the authority and rank of patriarch of the Bulgarian church. [This point has 
assumed considerable practical importance since 1861, when the agitation com- 
menced on the part of the Bulgarian church to free themselves from the juiisdiction 
of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Ed.] 



Dictzed by Google 



312 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Btn, Ch.l.{4. 
completely destroyed, that, seven years after the retreat of 
the invaders, only fifty men were found in its vicinity, living 
as hunters'. At last the Bulgarian army was completely 
defeated by the Croattans, whom the cruelty of Simeon had 
driven to despair. Simeon died shortly after, and Servia 
placed itself under the protection of the Byzantine govern- 
ment. 

Bulgaria was formidable at this time by the talents of 
Simeon rather than its own power. It was now threatened 
with invasion by the Magyars, who were carrying on plun- 
dering incursions into Germany, Italy, and even into France. 
Peter, who succeeded his father Simeon, was anxious to 
secure his southern frontier by forming a close union with 
the empire : he married Maria, the daughter of the Emperor 
Christophoros, and a long peace followed this alliance. But 
the ties of allegiance were not very powerful among the 
Bulgarian people, and a rebellion was headed by Michael 
the brother of Peter. The rebels maintained themselves in 
a state of independence after Michael's death ; and when 
they were at last compelled to emigrate, they entered the 
territory of the empire, and, passing through the themes of 
Strymon, ThessalonJca, and Hellas, seized on Nicopolis, and 
retained possession of that city and the surrounding country 
for some time. It seems that the incursion of Sclavesians 
into the Peloponnesus was connected with this inroad of the 
Bulgarians^. 

Thrace had not enjoyed sufficient respite from the ravages 
of the Bulgarians to recover its losses, before it was plundered 
by the Hungarians, who advanced to the walls of Constan- 
tinople in 934'. The retreat of these barbarians was pur- 
chased by a lai^e sum of money, paid in the Byzantine gold 
coinage, which was then the most esteemed currency through- 
out the known world. In 943, the Hungarians again ravaged 
Thrace, and their retreat was again purchased with gold *. 

' Servia was ravaged in 917. Constant. Porphyr. De Adm. Imp. c. Jl. We 
may compare the way in which Simeon laid waste and depopulated Servia with 
that in which William the Conqueror treated Northumberland from policy, and 
the New Forest for amusement. Hume, Uiu. ofEngtaiid, c. iv. 

' Cedrenus, 61B ; ut above, p. 304. 

' CoDtin. 361 ; SymeoD Mag. 4S8 ; Georg. Mon, 5SS ; Leo Gnunm. 506. 

' A Hungarian prince Dimed Bulograd visited Constantinople aboul asfi. and 
was baptized. He was subsequently taken prisoner while engaged plundering in 
Germany, and hung by the Emperor Otho. Ccdreans, 636 ; Kn^, 164. 



ity Google 



tVAJfS IN ITALY. 313 

Aj>.94s-5fij.] 

The last year of the reign of Constantine VII. was again 
marked by an invasion of the Hungarians, who approadied 
Constantinople ; but on this occasion they were defeated by 
the imperial troops, who attacked their camp during the 
night '. 

The Byzantine wars in Italy present a series of vicissitudes 
connected with political intrigues, based on no national object, 
and leading to no general result. The imperial governors 
at times united with the Saracens to plunder the Italians, and 
at times aided the Italians to oppose the Saracens ; some- 
times they accumulated treasures for themselves, and at others 
extended the influence of the emperor. One of the Byzantine 
governors, named Krinitas, carried his avarice so far as to 
compel the people of Calabria (Apulia) to sell their grain at 
a tow price, and then, having created a monopoly of the 
export trade in his own favour, sold it at an exorbitant profit 
to the Saracens of Africa. Constantine VII., hearing of this 
extortion, dismissed him from all employment, and confiscated 
his wealth ; but the people who were governed by deputies pos- 
sessing such powers were sure to be the victims of oppression *. 

During the r^ency of Zoe (A.D. 915), Eustathios, the 
governor of Calabria, concluded a treaty with the caliph of 
Africa, by which the Byzantine authorities in Italy were 
bound to pay a yearly tribute of 22,000 gold byzants, and 
the caliph engaged to restrain the hostilities of the Saracens 
of Sicily. This tribute was subsequently reduced to 11,000 
byzants, but the treaty remained in force until the reign of 
the Emperor Nicephorus 11.^ Even this distant province in 
the south of Italy was not safe from the plundering incursions 
of the Hungarians, who in the year 948 embarked on the 
Adriatic, and ravaged Apulia under the walls of Otranlo. 
The genera] interests of Christianity, as well as the extent 
of Byzantine commerce, induced the Byzantine government 
to aid Hugh of Provence and the Genoese in destroying the 
nest of Saracen pirates established at Fraxinet, in the Alps, 
to the eastward of Nice *. 

Romanus II. was only twenty-one years of age when he 
ascended the throne. He bore a strong resemblance to his 



.L.oo^lc 



314 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.a.I.(4. 
father in person, and possessed much of his good-nature and 
mildness of disposition, but he was of a more active and 
determined character. Unfortunately, he indulged in every 
species of pleasure with an eagerness that ruined his health 
and reputation, though his judicious selection of ministers 
prevented its injuring the empire. He was blamed for in- 
humanity, in compelling his sisters to enter a monastery; but 
as his object was a political one, in order to prevent their 
marriage, he was satisfied with their takii^ the veil, though 
they refused to wear the monastic dress ; and he allowed 
them to live as they thought fit, and dispose of their own 
private fortunes at will. His own object was obtained if he 
prevented any of the ambitious nobles from forming an 
alliance with them, which would have endangered the here- 
ditary right of his own children. His good-nature is avouched 
by the fact, that when Basilios — called the Bird, a favourite 
minister of his father — engi^ed a number of patricians in 
a conspiracy to seize the throne, he allowed none of the 
conspirators to be put to death. Though he spent too much 
of his time surrounded by actors and dancers, both the 
administration of civil and military affairs was well conducted 
during his reign. His greatest delight was in hunting, and 
he spent much of his time in the country surrounded by his 
gay companions, his horses, and his dogs. His excesses in 
pleasure and fatigue soon ruined his constitution ; but when 
he died at the age of twenty-four, the people, who remembered 
his tall well-made figure and smiling countenance, attributed 
his death to poison. His wife, whose beauty and graceful 
manner never won the public to pardon a low alliance, which 
appeared to their prejudices to di^race the majesty of the 
purple, was accused of this crime, as well as of having insti- 
gated the death of her father-in-law '. Romanus on his 
death-bed did not neglect his duty to the empire. He had 
observed that his able prime-minister, Joseph Bringas, had 
b^un to manifest too great jealousy of Nicephorus Phokas ; 
he therefore left it as his dying fnjunction that Nicephorus 
should not be removed from the command of the army em- 
ployed against the Saracens. 

Joseph Bringas, who conducted the administration during 

' L«o DUcooas, 31, edit. Boiui. 

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ROMANUS II. 315 

A.D. 945 -963.1 

the reign of Romanus II., was a man of talent and integrity. 
His worst act, in the eyes of his contemporaries, was, that he 
withdrew an eunuch, named John Cherinas, from a monastery 
into which he had been exiled by Constantine VII., and 
conferred on him the dignity of patrician, with the command 
of the foreign guards. The patriarch protested in vain against 
this act of sacrilege ; Bringas wanted a man to command the 
guard, over whom he knew the leading nobles could exercise 
no influence ; so the monk quitted his frock, put on armour, 
and became a leading man at court. Sisinios, one of the 
ablest and most upright men in the public service, was made 
prefect of Constantinople, and rendered the administration of 
justice prompt and equitable. A general scarcity tried the 
talents and firmness of Bringas, and he met the difficulty by 
great exertions, though it occurred at a time when it was 
necessary to make extraordinary preparations to provision 
the expedition against Crete. Every measure to alleviate the 
public distress was taken in a disinterested spirit. Every- 
thing required for the army was immediately paid for ; to 
prevent speculation in corn, the exportation of provisions 
from the capital was prohibited— a law which may often be 
rendered necessary as a temporary measure of police, though 
it is a direct violation of the permanent principles of sound 
commercial policy. 

The great event of the reign of Romanus II. was the 
conquest of Crete. The injury inflicted on Byzantine com- 
merce by the Saracen corsairs, fitted out in the numerous ports 
on the north side of that island, compelled the inhabitants of 
many of the islands of the Archipelago to purchase protection 
from the rulers of Crete by the payment of a regular tribute. 
The trade of Constantinople and its supplies of provisions 
were constantly interrupted, yet several expeditions against 
Crete, fitted out on the lat^est scale, had been defeated. 
The overthrow of that undertaken in the reign of Leo VI. 
has been noticed •. Romanus I. was unwilling to revive the 
memory of his share in that disaster, and left the Cretans 
undisturbed during his reign ; but Constantine VII., towards 
the end of his reign, pi<L.pared an expedition on a very grand 
scale, the command of which he intrusted to an eunuch named 

■ See p. 178. 

Diyiizcdtv Google 



3l6 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk. II. 01.1.(4. 
Gongyles. This expedition wa3 completely defeated ; the 
Byzantine camp was taken, and the greater part of the force 
destroyed. Gongyles himself escaped with difficulty ^, 

Romanus was hardly seated on the throne before he 
resolved to wipe off the disgrace the empire had suffered. 
The only mode of protecting the commerce of the capital 
and the coasts of Greece was to conquer the Island of Crete 
and expel the Saracen population. Romanus fitted out an 
expedition on a scale suitable for this undertaking, and 
entrusted its command to Nicephorus Phokas, a general 
equal to the enterprise. Bringas aided the emperor with 
zeal and energy, and gave no countenance to the endeavours 
that some courtiers made to awaken the jealousy of Romanus, 
that too much glory might accrue to Nicephorus from the 
successful termination of so great an undertaking. 

The expedition was strong in numbers and complete in its 
equipments. The fleet consisted of dromons and chelands. 
The dromon was the war-galley, which had taken the place 
of the triremes of the ancient Greeks and the quinqueremes of 
the Romans ; it had only two tiers of rowers, and the lai^est 
carried three hundred men, of whom seventy were marine 
soldiers. The chelands were smaller and lighter vessels, 
adapted for rapid movements, fitted with tubes for launching 
Greek fire, and their crews varied from 120 to 160 men. 
More than three hundred lat^e transports attended the ships 
of war, freighted with military machines and stores*. We are 
not to suppose that the dromons and chelands were all firted 
for war ; a few only were required for that purpose, and the 
rest served as transports for the army and the provisions 
necessary for a winter campaign. The land forces consisted 
of chosen troops from the legions of Asia and Europe, with 
Armenian, Sclavonian, and Russian auxiliaries. The port 
of Phygela, near Ephesus, served as the place of rendezvous 
for the ships collected from the coasts of Greece and the 
islands of the Aegean *. Everything was ready in the month 

' Leo Diaconus, 6, edit Bona; Cedreaus, 64O: Zoniras, ii. 195; Constant. 
Porphyr. Dt Coirim. Aulae Byz. ii, c 45 ; vol. i. 664, edit. Bonn ; Knig, 193. 

' Symeon Mag, [498) gives us the enuraeratioa of the vessels compoung the 
expedition. He says there were a thousand dromons, two thousand chelanditt, 
and thiee hundred and sixty tcansportB. and he is an author deserring atlenlion 
Out admiralty built at one time a cl^iss or ships called donkey fiigates ; perhaps 
Ihe Byzantine government was no better advised. 

■ Strabo calU it Pys^U, liv. p. 639 ; Contin. igl i Symeon Mag. 498. 



n,.i,i ...A'OOgle 



CONQUEST OF CRETE. 317 

ij>. 945-963.] 

of July 960, and Nicephorus disembarked his troops in Crete 
without sustaining any loss, though the Saracens attempted to 
oppose the operation. The city of Chandax was prepared to 
defend itself to the last extremity, and the Mohammedans in 
the rest of the island were active in resisting the progress of 
the Byzantine troops, and preventing their deriving any 
supplies from the interior. Chandax was too strongly forti- 
fied to be taken without a regular siege, so that the first 
operation of Nicephorus was to invest it in form. To insure 
the fall of the place even at the risk of prolonging the si^e, 
he began his operations by forming a complete circumvalla- 
tion round his camp and naval station, which he connected 
with the sea on boUi sides of the city, and thus cut off the 
besi^ed from all communication with the Saracens in the 
country. The pirates of Chandax had often been at war with 
all the-world, and they bad fortified their stronghold in such 
a way that it could be defended with a small garrison, while 
the bulk of their forces were cruising in search of plunder. 
The repeated attacks of the Byzantine emperors had also 
warned them of the dangers to which they were exposed. 
Towards the land, a high wall protected the city; it was 
composed of son-dried bricks, but the mortar of which they 
were formed had been kneaded with the hair of goats and 
swine into a mass almost as hard as stone, and it was so 
broad that two chariots could drive abreast on its summit 
A double ditch of great depth and breadth strengthened the 
work, and rendered approach difficult. 

One of the parties sent out by Nicephorus to complete the 
conquest of the island having been cut oH*, he was compelled 
to take the field in person as soon as he had completed his 
arrangements for blockading the fortress during the winter. 
The Saracens, encouraged by their success, assembled an 
army, and proposed attempting to relieve the besieged city, 
when they were attacked in their position, and routed with 
great loss. The Byzantine general, in order to intimidate the 
defenders of Chandax, ordered the heads of those slain in the 
country to be brought to the camp, stimulating the activity 
of his soldiers in this barbarous service by paying a piece of 
silver for every head. They were then ranged on spears 
along the whole line of the circumvallation towards the 
fortifications of the city ; and the number of slain was so 



DgIC 



3l8 BASIL/AN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.Il.ai.I.§4. 
great, that many more were cast into the place by means of 
catapults, in order to let the besi^ed see the full extent of 
the loss of their countrymen. 

A strict blockade was maintained during the whole winter. 
When the weather permitted, light galleys cruised before the 
port, and at all times several of the swiftest dromons and 
chelands were kept ready to pursue any vessel that might 
either attempt to enter or quit the port. But though the 
Saracens were reduced to great privations, they showed no dis- 
position to surrender, and Nicephorus pressed on the siege as 
spring advanced with mines and battering-rams. At last a 
practicable breach was effected, and the place was taken by 
storm on the 7th of May 961 '. The accumulated wealth of 
many years of successful piracy was abandoned to the troops, 
but a rich booty and numerous slaves were carried to Con- 
stantinople, and shown in triumph to the people. 

To complete the conquest of the island, it was necessary to 
exterminate the whole of the Saracen population. To effect 
this, the fortifications of Chandax were levelled with the 
ground, and a new fortress called Temenos, situated on a high 
and rugged hill, about twelve miles inland, was constructed 
and garrisoned by a body of Byzantine and Armenian troops'. 
Many Saracens, however, remained in the island, but they 
were reduced to a state approaching servitude. The greater 
part of the Greek population in some parts of the island had 
embraced Mohammedanism during the 135 years of Saracen 
domination. When the island was reconquered, an Armenian 
monk named Nikon became a missionary to these infidels, 
and he had the honour of convertii^ numbers of the Cretans 
back to Christianity *. As soon as the conquest of the island 
was completed, the greater part of the aitny was ordered to 

' Leo DUcotias, 11, edit. Boon. The name Chuiduc vras comipted into 
Candia. and eitended to the whole island, by the Venetians. [The naine of 
Candia, however, was nevei used in Crete for the island, and at the present day it 
is never heanJ at all, the city of Candia being called Megalo-Castron, or more 
femiliarly ' the Castron.' though a few persona of the upper class prefer to call it 
Heracleion, using the name of the ancient dty, which occupied the site and was 
theportofCnossus. En.] 

' [Temenos is placed by Pashley {Troiutt in CrMt, i. iia) on » sleep height 
calleil Rhoka, to the south-west of the conspicuous Mouot luktas. where wat 
' the sepulchre of Zeus.' It became celebrated in the Venetian history of the 
island, as the place of reliige of the Duke of Candia. when Marco Sanudo, the 
Duke of Naxos, rebelled against Venice, and obtained possession of the principal 
cities of Crete. En.] 

* Sarwiiai, Annal. EeeUt. A.P. 961 ; F. Conielius, CrMi Saera, i. 306; iL 140. 



DgIC 



CONDITION OF GREECE. 319 

A.I.. MS-963.] 

Asia Minor ; but Nicephorus was invited by the emperor to 
visit Constantinople, where he was allowed the honour of a 
triumph. He brought Kurup, the Saracen emir of Crete, a 
prisoner in his train *. 

We may here pause to take a cursory view of the state of 
Greece during the ninth and tenth centuries. The preceding 
pages have noticed the few facts concerning the fortunes of 
this once glorious land that are preserved in the Byzantine 
annals, but these facts are of themselves insufhcient to explain 
how a people, whose language and literature occupied a pre- 
dominant position in society, enjoyed neither political power 
nor moral pre-eminence as a nation. The literary instruction 
of every child in the empire who received any intellectual 
culture was thoroughly Greek : its first prayers were uttered 
in that language ; its feelings were refined by the perusal of 
the choicest pass^es of the Greek poets and tragedians, and 
its intellect enlai^ed by the study of the Greek historians and 
philosophers ; but here the influence ended, for the moral 
education of the citizen was purely Roman. The slightest 
glance into history proves that the educated classes in the 
Byzantine empire were generally destitute of all sympathy 
with Greece, and looked down on the Greeks as a provincial 
and alien race. The fathers of the church and the eccle- 
siastical historians, whose works were carefully studied, to 
complete the education of the Byzantine youth, and to 
prepare them for public life, quickly banished all Hellenic 
fancies as mere schoolboy dreams, and turned the attention to 
the atmosphere of practical existence in church and state. 
Byzantine society was a development of Roman civilization, 
and hence the Byzantine mind was practical and positive ; 
administration and law were to it what liberty and philosophy 
had been to the Hellenes of old. The imagination and the 
taste of Hellas had something in their natural superiority that 
was repulsive to Byzantine pedantry, while the paganism of 
classic literature excited the contempt of ecclesiastical bigots. 
A strong mental difference was therefore the cause of the 

' Leo Diaconus, iS, 410, edit. Bonn ; Kmg. 314. There ii a contempoTary 
poem in live cantos (acroases) on the conquest of Crete, by Theodosius, a deacoo, 
which gives a tolerably correct, though not a very poetical, picture of the war. 
It was published in the Crita Saera 01 Cornelius, and is reprinted in the volume 
that contains Leo Diacoans in the Bono edition of the Corfia Striplarum Sutoriai 



O'^le 



320 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

tBk.aCh.l.{4. 
aversion to Greece and the Greeks that is apparent in 
Byzantine society, and its operation is equally visible in the 
Hellenic race. The spirit of local patriotism which has 
always been powerful among the Greeks kept them aloof from 
the Byzantine service, so that they really occupy a less 
prominent figure in the history of the empire than they were 
entitled to claim. 

The great social feature of the Hellenic race, during the 
ninth and tenth centuries, is its stationary condition. The 
eighth century was unquestionably a period of great activity, 
increase, and improvement among the European Greeks, as 
among every other portion of the population of the Eastern 
Empire. But after the subjection of the Sclavonian colonists 
in the first years of the ninth century, and the re-establish- 
ment of extensive commercial relations over the whole 
Mediterranean, Greek society s^ain relapsed into a stationary 
condition. There is no doubt that the general aspect of the 
country had undergone a total change; and its condition 
in the tenth century was very difl'erent from its condition 
in the seventh. Hellenic traditions were lost; the clas^c 
names of mountains, nvers and memorable sites were for- 
gotten : ancient cities disappeared and their names were 
buried in oblivion, and new cities with names unknown in 
ancient Greece arose ', 

The legendary history of the Greek monasteries tells us 
that the country was once utterly deserted, that the ni^ed 
limestone mountains were overgrown with forests and thick 
brushwood, and that into these deserted spots holy hermits 
retired to avoid the presence of pagan Sclavonians, who occu- 
pied the rich plains and pastoral slopes of the lower hills. In 
these retreats the holy anchorites dreamed that they were 
dwelling in cells once occupied by saints of an earlier day — 
men who were supposed to have fled from imf^nary per- 
secutions of Roman emperors, who had depopulated whole 
provinces by their hatred to Christianity, instead of by admi- 
nistrative oppression ; and the hermits saw visions revealing 
where these predecessors had concealed portraits painted by 
St. Luke himself, or miraculous pictures, the work of no 

' or these, some were constmcted od ancient sites, otheis replaced nei^i- 
bouring aadent cities, like Mouemvasia, Piada, Nikli, Vetifosti, Andravida, and 

Aikodia. 



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CONDITION OF GREECE. 311 

*J>. 945-9^3] 

human hand. Such is perhaps a not unapt representation 
of a lai^e part of the rural districts of Greece during the 
seventh century. The immense extent of the private estates 
of a few rich individuals, from the time of Augustus to that of 
Leo the Philosopher, left whole provinces depopulated, and fit 
only to be used as pasture. Fiscal oppression, privileged 
landlords, serfdom, robbery, piracy and slavery, all conspired 
to degrade and depopulate Greece before the Sclavonians 
colonized her soil. 

The vigorous administration of the Iconoclasts restored 
order, subdued the Sclavonians, and revived industry and 
commerce. The state of Greece was again changed, the 
Greek population increased as if it had consisted of new 
colonists settled on a virgin soil, and from the end of the 
ninth century to the invasion of the Crusaders, Greece was 
a rich and flourishing province. The material causes of this 
wealth are as evident as the moral causes of its political 
insignificance. The great part of the commerce of the Medi- 
terranean was in the hands of the Greeks ; the wealth of the 
Byzantine empire placed ample capital at their command ; 
the silk manufacture was to Thebes and Athens what the 
cotton manufacture now is to Manchester and Gla^ow ; 
Monemvasia was then what Venice became at a later period ; 
the slave-trade, though it filled the world with misery and 
Christian society with demoralization, brought wealth to the 
shores of Greece, The mass of the agricultural population, 
too, enjoyed as much prosperity as the commercial. The 
produce of the country was abundant, and labour bore a far 
higher price than has ever been the case in western Europe. 
This was a natural result of the state of things in the vicinity 
of every town and village in Greece. The nature of all the 
most valuable produce of the land rendered the demand for 
labour at particular seasons very great; and this labour 
yielded immense profits, for it fructified olive-groves, vine- 
yards, and orchards of the choicest kinds, formed by the 
accumulated capital of ages. The labour of a few days 
created an amount of produce which bore no comparison 
with its cost, and Greece at this time possessed a monopoly 
of the finer kinds of oil, wine, and fruit. Moreover, the 
pastoral habits of the Sclavonians, who still occupied large 
provinces at a distance from the principal towns, prevented 
VOL. II. Y 



3aa BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

the cultivation of com over a great extent of country; and 
the ruin of the excellent roads, which in ancient times had 
admitted of the transport of huge blocks of marble, and the 
march of armies accompanied by elephants over the roughest 
mountains, rendered the transport of grain to any considerable 
distance impossible. All these circumstances rendered labour 
valuable. The cultivation of grain by spade husbandry was 
often a matter of necessity, so that the agricultural labourer 
could easily maintain a position of comparative ease and 
abundance. 

In this state of society, the only chance of improvement 
lay in the moral advancement of the citizen, which was only 
attainable by the union of free local institutions with a well- 
organized central administration, and a judicial system over 
which the highest political power could exert no influence. 
Unfortunately no centra! government on the continent of 
Europe, which has possessed strength sufficient to repress 
local selfishness and the undue power of privileged classes, 
has ever yet avoided fiscal oppression ; and this was the case 
in the Byzantine empire. The social condition of the Greeks 
nourished intense local selfishness ; the exigencies of the 
Byzantine government led to severe fiscal exactions. The 
result of the political and financial, as well as of the moral 
state of the country, was to produce a stationary condition of 
-society. Taxation absort)ed all the annual profits of industry; 
society offered no invitation to form new plantations, or extend 
existing manufactures, and the age afforded no openings for 
new enterprises ; each generation moved exactly in the limits 
of that which had preceded it, so that Greece, though in a 
state of material prosperity, was standing on the brink of 
decline. That decline commenced the moment the Italians 
were enabled to avail themselves of the natural resources of 
their country. Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, freed from 
the fiscal oppression of a central government, became first the 
rivals and then the superiors of the Greeks in commerce, 
industry, and wealth. 



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CHAPTER II. 



Period of Conquest and Military Glory. 
A.D. 963-1025. 

Sect. t—Reipts of Nicephorus II. {Phokas), and John I. 
(Zimiskes). A.D. 963-976. 

AdminiatnttioQ ofJosephBringas,— Chiracter of Nicephonis II., 963-969. — Public 

administration.— Samcen war, — Affaire in Sidlj, Italy, and Bulgaria. — Aisat* 
«nalioa of Nicephonis II. — Character of John I., 969-976.— CoroDation.— 
RebellioDs of tlie family of Nicephonis II. (Pliokas). — Rnssian irar. — RepabUc 
of ChersoD. — Saraceowar. — Death of John L 

The Empress Theophano was left by Romanus II. regent 
for her sons, but as she was brought to bed of a daughter 
only two days before her husband's death, the whole direction 
of public business remained in the hands of Joseph Bringas, 
whose ability was universally acknowledged, but whose 
severity and suspicious character rendered him generally 
unpopular. His jealousy soon involved him in a contest 
for power with Nicephonis Phokas, who did not venture to 
visit Constantinople until his personal safety was guaranteed 
by the Empress Theophano and the Patriarch Polyeuktes. 
Nicephorus was allowed to celebrate his victories in Syria 
by a triumph, in which he displayed to a superstitious crowd 
the relics he had obtained by his victories over the Moham- 
medans; and the piety of the age attached as much 
importance to these as his troops did to the booty and 
slaves with which they were enriched'. Bringas saw that 

- ' . ■ Cedreiiiu, 646; Zoooias, iL 198. 

Ya 



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324 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[BI[.[I.Cb.n.{i. 
the popularity of Nicephonis and the powerful influence of 
his family connections must soon gain him the title of Em- 
peror, and his jealousy appears to have precipitated the event 
he feared. He formed a plot to have the victorious general 
seized, in order that his eyes might be put out. Nicephonis 
being informed of his danger, and having secured the support 
of the Patriarch by his devout conduct, persuaded Polyeuktes 
to take prompt measures to protect him from the designs of 
Bringas. The senate was convoked, and the Patriarch pro- 
posed that Nicephorus should be intrusted with the command 
of the army in Asia, according to the last will of Romanus 
II •. Bringas did not venture to oppose this proposal of the 
Patriarch, which was eagerly adopted ; and Nicephorus, after 
taking an oath never to injure the children of Romanus, his 
lawful sovereigns, placed himself at the head of the Byzantine 
forces in Asia. 

Bringas still pursued his schemes; he wrote to John 
Zimiskes, the ablest and most popular of the generals under 
the orders of Nicephorus, offering him the supreme command 
if he would seize the general -in-chief, and send him to 
Constantinople as a prisoner, Zimiskes was the nephew 
of Nicephorus; but his subsequent conduct shows that 
conscience would not have arrested him in the execution of 
any project for his own ^grandizement. On the present 
occasion, he may have thought that the power of Bringas 
was not likely to be permanent, and he may have expected 
little gratitude for any service ; while the popularity of 
Nicephorus with the troops made fidelity to his general 
the soundest policy. Zimiskes carried the letter of the 
prime-minister to Nicephorus, and invited him to assume 
the imperial title, as the only means of securing his own 
life and protecting his frienda It is said that John Zimiskes 
and Romanus Kurkuas were compelled to draw their swords, 
and threaten to kill their uncle, before he would allow himself 
to be proclaimed emperor. The same thing had been said 
of Leo V, (the Armenian), who it was believed had been 
compelled to mount the throne by his murderer and suc- 
cessor, Michael II*. Nicephorus yielded, and marched imme- 
diately from Caesarea to ChrysopoHs, where he encamped. 



DgIC 



mCEPHORUS 11. lis 

»-lt. 963-976.] 

Bringas found little support iit the capital, Basil ios, the 
natural son of the Emperor Romanus I., armed his house- 
hold, in which he had three thousand slaves, and exciting 
a sedition of the populace, sallied into the streets of 
Constantinople, and attacked the houses of the ministers, 
most of whom were compelled to seek an asylum in the 
churches *. Nicephorus was invited to enter the capital, 
where he was crowned by the Patriarch Polycuktes, in 
St, Sophia's, on the i6th of August 963*. 

The family of Phokas was of Cappadocian origin, and had 
for three generations supplied the empire with distinguished 
generals *. Nicephorus proved an able emperor, and a 
faithful guardian of the young emperors; but his personal 
bearing was tinged with military severity, and his cold 
phlegmatic temper prevented his using the arts necessary 
to gain popularity either with the courtiers or the citizens. 
His conduct was moral, and he was sincerely religious; but 
he was too enlightened to confound the pretensions of the 
church with the truth of Christianity, and, consequently, 
in spite of his real piety, he was calumniated by the clergy 
as a hypocrite*. Indeed, it would have been exceedingly 
difficult for a strict military disciplinarian, who succeeded a 
young and gay monarch like Romanus 11., to render himself 
popular on a throne, which he ascended at the mature ^e 
of fifty-one. 



' Basilios was the »in of a SclaTonUn iromui 1 like many emineat men of hi* 
time, he was an eunnch. Leo 3>iaC(Hilis, 94. 

* Leo Diaconus, 4B. 

* LuLtpraad, 347; Cedrenus, 737. 

* Nicephorus sent a hundred pounds' weight of gold from the spoils of Crete 
to found the monastery of the great Laura on Mount Athos, to which it was said 
he proposed to retire; and St. Athanaiios, a monk whom he charged with thil 
commission, became afterwards indignant when Nicephonis put a crown on bis 
head in place of shaving it. The fanatic thought that he should have preferred 
the idle life of a cell to the active duties of a palace. Leo Diaconus. edit. Bonn, 
HoCd. 416. St. Athaaasios reot^nizcd the monastic communities of Mount Athoi 
between *.d. 959-960. Montfaucon, Palatograpkia Graaa, 453-454. [St. Atha- 
nasius was a man of noble birth in Trebisond, and was edvcatel at Constanti- 
nople; he subsequently devoted himself with great zeal to the monastic life. (le 
had predicted to (he Emperor Nicephorus that he would repulse the Saracens. 
and It was for this reason that that commander (it was before he came to the 
throne) sent him the money to assist in founding the monastery. See the passage 
from an unpublished MS., qnoted by Hase in his notes 10 Leo Diaconus, uW rt,pra. 
One prominent feature in his reoreaniiation of the monastic communities on Athos 
was the establishment of the omce of ' Fint Man.' a sort of president, intended 
to combine and regulate the scattered societies. Gass, Di Claniirii ia MohU Aiho 
alit, p. 9. Eo.] 



DgIC 



3I<S BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk. II. Cb. 11.(1. 

The coronation of Nicephorus was soon followed by his 
marriage with Theophano, a match which must have been 
dictated to the beautiful widow by ambition and policy 
rather than love; though the Byzantine writers accuse her 
of a previous intrigue with the veteran general, and record 
that ^e exerted great authority over him, by her persuasive 
manners. The marriage ceremony was performed by the 
Patriarch, but shortly after its celebration he forbade the 
emperor to enter the chancel of St. Sophia's, where the 
imperial throne was placed, declaring that even the emperor 
must submit to the penance imposed by the orthodox church 
on second marriages, which excluded the contracting party 
from the body of the church for a year. The hostile feelii^, 
on the part of Polyeuktes, that produced this act of authority 
encouraged a report that Nicephorus had acted as godfather 
to one of the children of Romanus and Theophano — a 
connection which, according to the Greek church, forms an 
impediment to marriage'. The Patriarch appears to have 
adopted this report without consideration, and threatened 
to declare the marriage he had celebrated null ; he had 
even the boldness to order the emperor to separate from 
Theophano immediately. But this difficulty was removed 
by the chaplain who had officiated at the baptism. He 
came forward, and declared on oath that Nicephorus had 
not been present, nor had he, the priest, ever said so. 
The Patriarch found himself compelled to withdraw his 
opposition, and, to cover his defeat, he allowed Nicephorus 
to enter the church without remark. This dispute left a 
feeling of irritation on the mind of the emperor, and was 
probably the cause of some of his severities to the clergy, 
while it certainly assisted in rendering him unpopular among 
his bigoted subjects. 

Nicephorus had devoted great attention to improving the 
discipline of the Byzantine army, and, as it consisted in 
great part of mercenaries, this could only be done by a 
liberal expenditure. His chief object was to obtain troops 
of the best quality, and all the measures of his civil 
administration were directed to fill the treasury. An efficient 
army was the chief support of the empire ; and it seemed, 

' ZoDuw, Dole of Ducange, ii. 87. 

n,i,zcdt, Google 



UNPOPULARITY OF NICEPHORUS. 327 

4.D. 9*3-976] 

therefore, to Nicephorus that the first duty of an emperor 
was to secure the means of maintaining a numerous and 
well-appointed military force. Perhaps the people of Con- 
stantinople would have applauded his maxims and his 
conduct, had he been more liberal in lavishing the wealth 
he extorted from the provinces on festivals and shows in 
the capital. A severe famine, at the commencement of his 
reign, increased his unpopularity. This scarcity commenced 
in the reign of Romanus II., and, among the reports cir- 
culated against Joseph Bringas, it was related that he had 
threatened to raise the price of wheat so high, that, for a 
piece of gold, a roan should only purchase as much as he 
could carry away in his pockets. It is very probable that 
the measures adopted by Nicephorus tended to increase 
the evil, though Zonaras, in saying that he allowed each 
merchant to use his own interest as a law, would lead us 
to infer that he abolished monopolies and maximums, and 
left the trade in grain freeV The fiscal measures of his 
reign, however, increased the burden of taxation. He re- 
trenched the annual lai^esses of the court, and curtailed 
the pensions granted to courtiers. The worst act of his 
reign, and one for which the Byzantine historians have justly 
branded him with merited odium, was his violation of the 
public faith, and the honour of the Eastern Empire, by 
adulterating the coin, and Issuing a debased coin, called 
the tetarteron. This debased money he employed to pay 
the debts of the state, while the taxes continued to be 
exacted in the older and purer coinage of the empire. It 
must always be borne in mind, that the legal standard of 
the mint in the Eastern Empire remained invariable until 
the taking of Constantinople by the Crusaders. The gold 
coins of Leo III. and of Isaac II. are of the same weight 
and purity ; and the few emperors who di^raced their reigns 
by tampering with the currency have been branded with 
infamy. Perhaps there is no better proof of the high state 
of political civilization in Byzantine society^. But the 

' Zonitas, ii. 10,1-106 : Ccdrenus. 660. The price of a. modius of wheal having 
risen to a nomisma (that i^ n. bushel for eleven shillings), ihc emperor sold it 
from the pnblic pranaries at half lh«t price; yet the people ^rambled, because 
it vas said Basil I. had. on some occasion, ordered wheat to be sold at the rate 
of twelve modii for a. gold nomisma. 

* Zonaras, ii. 103; Cedrenus, bgS. 



3 Google 



3a8 BASIL! AN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.lI.ai.II.fl. 
dissatisfaction against Nicephorus was ripened into personal 
animosity by an accidental tumult in the hippodrome, in 
which many persons lost their lives. It happened that, 
while the troops were going through the evolutions of a 
sham-Aght, a report arose that the emperor intended to 
punish the people, who had thrown stones at him, and in- 
sulted him as he passed through the streets. This caused a 
rush out of the enclosures, and many persons, men, women, 
and children, perished. The citizens, of course, insisted that 
the massacre was premeditated \ 

The whole reign of Nicephorus was disturbed by the ill-will 
of the clergy, and one of his wisest measures met with the 
most determined opposition. In order to render the military 
service more popular among his native subjects, and prevent 
the veterans from quitting the army under the influence of 
religious feelings distorted by superstition, he wished the 
clergy to declare that all Christians who perished in war 
against the Saracens were martyrs in the cause of religion. 
But the Patriarch, who was more of a churchman than a 
patriot, considered it greater gain to the clergy to retain 
the power of granting absolutions, than to enlist a new 
army of martyrs in the service of the church ; and he 
appealed to the canons of St Basil to prove that all war 
was contrary to Christian discipline, and that a Christian 
who killed an enemy, even in war with the Infidels, ought 
to be excluded from participating in the holy sacrament 
for three years. With a priesthood supporting such rel^ous 
opinions, the Byzantine empire had need of an admirable 
system of administration, and a series of brave and warlike 
emperors, to perpetuate its long existence*. In the first 
year of his reig^, Nicephorus endeavoured to restrain the 
passion for founding monasteries that then reigned almost 
universally. Many converted their family residences into 
monastic buildings, in order to die as monks, without changii^ 
their habits of life. The emperor prohibited the foundation 
of any new monasteries and hospitals, enacting that only 
those already in existence should be maintained ; and he 



* Zooaras, ii. aoj \ Cedrenos, 658. 



DictzedbvGoOJ^Ic 



ECCLESIASTICAL MEASURES. 329 

*j>. 963-976.] 

declared all testamentary donations of landed property in 
favour of the church void'. He also excited the anger of 
the cleigy, by forbidding any ecclesiastical election to be 
made until the candidate had received the imperial approba- 
tion. He was in the habit of leaving the wealthiest sees 
vacant and retaining their revenues, or, if the see was filled, 
of compelling the new bishop to pay a large portion of his 
receipts annually into the imperial treasury^. 

Nicephorus was so well aware of his unpopularity, that he 
converted the great palace into a citadel, which he made 
capable of defence with a small garrison. As the army was 
devoted to him, he knew that beyond the walls of Constanti- 
nople he was in no danger. In estimating the character and 
conduct of Nicephorus II., we must not foi^et that his 
enemies have drawn his portrait, and that, unfortunately 
for his reputation, modem historians have generally attached 
more credit to the splenetic account of the Byzantine court 
by Luitprand, the bishop of Cremona, than it is entitled to 
receive. Luitprand visited Constantinople as ambassador 
from the German emperor, Otho the Great, to negotiate a 
marriage between young Otho and Theophano, the step- 
daughter of Nicephorus. Otho expected that the Byzantine 
emperor would cede his possessions in southern Italy as the 
dowry of the princess ; Nicephorus expected the German 
emperor would yield up the suzerainty over Beneventum 
and Capua for the honour of the alliance. As might be 
expected, from the pride of both parties, the ambassador 
failed in his mission ; but he .revenged himself by libelling 
Nicephorus ; and his picture of the arrogance and suspicious 
policy of the Byzantine court in its intercourse with foreigners 
gives his libel some value, and serves as an apoI<^y for his 
virulence ^. 



' The Kovdlat of Nicephorus ; Leo Diaconus, 309, edit. Bonn. 

' Luitprand; Leo Diaconus. 371. 

* The value of the bishop's evidence as an airimit may be eslimated from 
his saying ihat Birdas. the father of Nicephorus, appeared to be a hundred and 
fifty years old. Luitprand had visited Constantinople in 948, as ambassador <rf 
Berenger, with a prcjient of eunuchs, which Verdun then exported. He then saw 
the singing tree, the lions of metai that roared, and the eagle that flapped its 
wings. Luitprand, Hi$l. lib. vi. cap. 1 ; Dam, HUlnn dt Viaii*. i. 9J. The 
account of Luitprand's eml>assy to Nicephorus is in Murjtori, Siript. Rir. Ttal. 
torn. ii-4;9; and in ihe volume of the Byiaotine Collection published at Bonn, 
which contains Leo Diaconus, 



^Aioo^^lc 



430 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.tl.Cb.U. it. 

The darling object of Nicephorus was to break the power of 
tbe Saracens, and extend tbe frontiers of the empire in Syria 
and Mesopotamia. In the spring of 964, he assembled an 
army against Tarsus, which was the fortress that covered the 
Syrian frontier. The river Cydnus flowed through the city, 
dividing it into two portions, which were united by three 
bridges. The place was populous, well fortified, and amply ' 
supplied with every means of defence, so that the emperor 
was compelled to raise the si^e, and lead his army against 
Adana, which he took. He then formed the siege of Mop- 
suestia, and, employing his men to run a subterraneous 
gallery under the walls, he prevented the besieged from 
observing the operation by throwing the earth taken from 
the excavation into the Pyramua during the night. When his 
mine was completed, the beams which supported the walls 
were burned, and as soon as the rampart fell, the Byzantine 
army carried the place by storm. Next year {965), Nicephorus 
again formed the si^e of Tarsus with an army of forty thou- 
sand men. The place was inadequately supplied with pro- 
visions ; and though the inhabitants were a warlike race, who 
had long carried on incursions into the Byzantine territory, 
they were compelled to abandon their native city, and retire 
into Syria, carrying with them only their personal clothing. 
A rich cross, which the Saracens had taken when they 
destroyed the Byzantine army under Stypiotes in the year 
877, was recovered, and placed in the" church of St. Sophia at 
Constantinople. The bronze gates of Tarsus and Mopsuestia, 
which were of rich workmanship, were also removed, and 
placed by Nicephorus in the new citadel he had constructed to 
defend the palace^. In the same year Cyprus was recon- 
quered by an expedition under the command of the patrician 
Niketas. 

For two years the emperor was occupied at Constantinople 
by the civil administration of the empire, by a threatened 
invasion of the Hungarians, and by disputes with the king of 
Bulgaria ; but in 968 he again resumed the command of the 
army in the East. Early in spring he marched past Antioch 
at the head of eighty thousand men, and, without stopping to 
besiege that city, he rendered himself master of the fortified 

* Lea Diacoous, fit, edit. Bann; Zoaaias, ii. mi. 

c.,iii.jt,Google 



SARACEN WAR. 331 

Aj>. 963- 976.1 

places in its neighbourhood, in order to cut it off from all relief 
from the caliph of Bagdad. He then pushed forward his con- 
quests ; Laodicea, Hierapolis, Aleppo, Area, and Emesa were 
taken, and Tripolis and Damascus paid tribute to save their 
territory from being laid waste. In this campaign many 
relics were surrendered by the Mohammedans*. In conse- 
quence of the approach of winter, the emperor led his army 
into winter-quarters, and deferred forming the siege of Antioch 
until the ensuing spring. He left the patrician Burtzes in a 
fort on the Black Mountain, with orders to watch the city, 
and prevent the inhabitants from collecting provisions and 
military stores. The remainder of the army, under the com- 
mand of Peter, was stationed in Cilicia^. As he was anxious 
to reserve to himself the glory of restoring Antioch to the 
empire, he ordered his lieutenants not to attack the city during 
his absence. But a spy informed Burtzes that it was easy to 
approach one of the towers of which he had measured the 
height, and the temptation to take the place by surprise was 
not to be resisted. Accordingly, on a dark winter night, while 
there was a heavy fall of snow, Burtzes placed himself at the 
head of three hundred chosen men, and gained possession of two 
of the towers of Antioch ^ He immediately sent off a courier 
requesting Peter to advance and take possession of the city; 
but Peter, from fear of the emperor's jealousy, delayed moving 
to his assistance for three days. During this interval, how- 
ever, Burtzes defended himself against the repeated attacks of 

' The most temaildble of these relics were an old garment and a blocdy tress 
of hair, said to hive beloni^ed to loha ibe Baptist, and the tile with the roiraculous 
portrait of our Saviour, which last was taken at Ilierapolis. Cedrenus. 656; 
Zonnras, ii. 101. This tile was probably an ancient tena-colta, with a head of 
Jupiter resembling the received t)'pe of the Saviour. The svoiA oF Mahomet 
was also lahen in tiiis campaign, for the MohammedanE were as much votaries 
of relics in this age as the Chiistiana. 

' Peter was an eunuch; he distin^ished himself in single combat with a 
Russian champion, whom he ltiU<.-d with hb lance. Leo Diaconus, 109, edit. 
Bonn. 
, ' The t( 

I , _ „. .„.. , _, _,„. 

o defend the interior side, as well as the exterior face of the wall : the 
latter is from fifty lo sixty feet high, nnd eight Or ten feet broad at top, which 
is covered with cut stones terminated in a cornice. The towers have interior 
staircases, and three loop-holed stages resting on brick arches, the uppermost 
having a small platform ; and there is a small dslem beneath. Low doors afford 
a passage along the parapet, so that these structures may be regarded as a chain 
of small castles connected by a curtain, rather than as simple toweis.' Colonel 
Chesney, Tkt Exptdilian far ikt Survy of iht rniirs Euphrata and Tigris, vol J. 
p. 4j6. 



^Aioo^^lc 



334 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.lI.Ch.II.Si. 
the whole population, though with great difficulty. The 
Byzantine army at length arrived, and Antioch was annexed 
to the empire after having remained 328 years in the power 
of the Saracens. The Emperor Nicephorus, instead of re- 
warding Burtzes for his energy, dismissed both him and Peter 
from their commands '. 

The Fatimite caliph Moez reigned at Cairowan, and was 
already contemplating the conquest of Egypt, Nicephorus 
not only refused to pay him the tribute of eleven thousand 
gold byzants, stipulated by Romanus I., but even sent an 
expedition to wrest Sicily from the Saracens. The chief 
command was intrusted to Ntketas, who had conquered 
Cyprus ; and the army, consisting chiefly of cavalry, was more 
particularly placed under the orders of Manuel Phokas, the 
emperor's cousin, a daring officer'. The troops were landed 
on the eastern coast, and Manuel rashly advanced, until he 
was surrounded by the enemy and slain. Niketas also had 
made so little preparation to defend his position, that his 
camp was stormed, and he himself taken prisoner and sent to 
Africa, Nicephorus, who had a great esteem for Niketas in 
spite of this defeat, obtained his release by sending to Moez 



' [The condilion of Ibe eastern frontier of the Byzantine empire in the tenth 
century has received an interesting iUustration of late by the vnblication of the 
Greek poem of ^lyivrii 'Aiiijiroi by MM. Sathas and Legrand, This poem is 
prinled from an unique MS. existing al Tiebizond, and is the nearest approach 
to an epic that the Byzantines have produced. M. Lcgrand believes it to ha*e 
been wriitcn in the lenlh century, to which period Ihe story certainly belongs, 
as the names of the emperors Romanus l.ecapenus and Nicephorus Phocas occur 
in it. The hero, whou Christian name is Basil, is the son of a Saracenic emir 
of Syria, who storms .-i fortress belongine (o a memtier of the family of the Ducas, 
and massacres the occupants with the eiception of one daughter, whom he carries 
off. Shortly after, her brothers present themselves before the emir and demand 
her re>titution, but are peisuad»l to allow him to marry her, when he hu re- 
nounced Mohammedanism. Basil, Ihe oiTspring of this union, is called Digenes, 
on account of the two antagonistic races whioi he represents, and Akritas, from 
the services which he subsequently rendered to Ihe empire as defendCT of Ihe 
mountain-passes [&*pai^ on the frontier. He marries a daughter of another 
member of the Ducas family. The story is pervaded throughout by a chivalroo* 
tone. Bud commemorates his heroic actions in combating wild beasts and bindi 
of outlaws, who aie called Apelates, and are brigands of the usual type that infett 
the outlying districts of a weak kingdom. There is also an elaborate description 
of the palace and gardens which he made for himself on the banks of the 
Euphrates. M. I.egrand shows that be was a historic peraonaqe, and identifies 
him with a general called Pautherios. who commanded the forces of the East 
b the course of the tenth century (Introd. p. ci. foil.). The memory of Digenei 
has been perpetuated in a variety of ways in the East, and his name is (amiliar to 
readers of the modem Greek ballads, in which his struggle with Charon or Death 
is 1 favourite subject. En.] 

■ He was the son of Leo Phokas, the rival of Romanus L 



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it^AX IN ITALY. 333 

*J>. 963-976.] 

the sword of Mahomet, which had fallen into his hands in 
Syria. Niketas consoled himself during his captivity by 
transcribing the works of St. Basil, and a MS. of his pen- 
manship still exists in the National Library at Paris *. 

The affairs of Italy were, as usual, embroiled by local causes. 
Otho, the emperor of the West, entered Apulia at the head of 
an army, and having secured the assistance of Pandulf, prince 
of Beneventum, called Iranhead, carried on the war with 
frequent vicissitudes of fortune. Ironhead was taken prisoner 
by the Byzantine general, and sent captive to Constantinople. 
But the tyrannical conduct of the Byzantine officials lost all 
that was gained by the superior discipline of the troops, and 
favoured the prt^ress of the German arms. The communities 
in southern Italy had fallen into such a state of isolation, 
that men were more eager to obtain immunity from all 
taxation than protection for industry and property, and the 
advantages of the Byzantine administration ceased to be 
appreciated. 

The European provinces of the empire were threatened 
with invasion both by the Hungarians and Bulgarians. In 
966, Nicephorus was apprised of the intention of the Hun- 
garians, and he solicited the assistance of Peter, king of 
Bulgaria, to prevent their passing the Danube. Peter refused, 
for he had been compelled to conclude a treaty of peace with 
the Hungarians, who had invaded Bulgaria a short time 
before. It is even said that Peter took advantage of the 
difficulty in which Nicephorus was placed, by the numerous 
wars that occupied his troops, to demand payment of the 
tribute Romanus I. had promised to Simeon^. Nicephorus 
could not allow this ill-timed demand to pass unpunished : he 
sent Kalokyres, the son of the governor of Cherson, as ambas- 
sador to Russia, to invite Swiatoslaf, the Varangian prince of 
Kief, to invade Bulgaria, and intrusted him with a sum of 
fifteen hundred pounds' weight of gold, to pay the expenses 
of the expedition. Kalokyres proved a traitor : he formed 



< Leo Diaconus, 67, 76, edil- Bonn. Cedrenus seems to consider the conqueror 
of Cyprus and the prisoner of Sicily different persons ; but we can hardly suppose 
there were two eunuchs of the name of Niket^ who were patricians, ana held the 
office of drungarios or admimi ; pp. 654, ()e;5. The MS. i» mentioDed by Mont- 
iancon, Fal. Qraica, 45 ; and by Hase, in his notet to Leo Diaccmus, 443. 

* Leo Diaconus, Gi, olit Bonn. 



ng.i ...A'OOgle 



534 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.ai.n. {I. 
an alliance with Swiatoslaf, proclaimed himself emperor, and 
involved the empire in a bloody war with the Russians. 

Unpopular as Nicephorus II. was in the capital, his reign 
was unusually free from rebellions of the troops or insurrec- 
tions in the provinces. His life was terminated in his own 
palace by domestic treachery. His beautiful wife Theophano, 
and his valiant nephew John Zimiskes, were his murderers. 
Theophano was said to have been induced to take part in the 
conspiracy from love fur Zimiskes, whom she expected to 
marry after he mounted the throne. Zimiskes murdered his 
friend and relation from motives of ambition *. A band of 
conspirators, selected from the personal enemies of the em- 
peror, among whom was Burtzes, accompanied John Zimiskes 
at midnight to the palace wall overlooking tlie port of Buko- 
leon, and the female attendants of the empress hoisted them 
up from their boat in baskets. Other assassins had been 
concealed in the palace during the day, and all marched to 
the apartment of the' emperor. Nicephorus was sleeping 
tranquilly on the floor — for he retained the habits of his mili- 
tary life amidst the luxury of the imperial palace. Zimiskes 
awoke him with a kick, and one of the conspirators gave him 
a desperate wound on the head, while Zimiskes insulted his 
uncle with words and blows : the others stabbed him in the 
most barbarous manner. The veteran, during his sufferings, 
only exclaimed, ' O God ! grant me thy mercy.' John I. was 
immediately proclaimed emperor by the murderers. The 
body of Nicephorus was thrown into the court, and left all 
day on the snow exposed to public view, that everybody 
might be convinced he was dead. In the evening it was 
privately interred. 

Thus perished Nicephorus Phokas on the loth December 
9159 — a brave soldier, an able general, and, with all his defects, 
one of the most virtuous men and conscientious sovereigns 
that ever occupied the throne of Constantinople. Thoi^ 
bom of one of the noblest and wealthiest families of the 
Eastern Empire, and sure of obtaining the highest offices 

' A report wu spread Ihat Nicephorus intended to make eunuchs of Basil 

and Constanline, and declare his brother Leo his successor. Zonaras. ii. 107. 
.This was probably an invention of Tlieophano, but it met with liille credit, 
and her crime was ascril>ed [o her warmth of temperament and the coldne^ 

of her husband. There wasagreat fashion of tilling ir '"- '■"■ ■" 

at this time. 



DgIC 



JOHN I. {ZIMISKES). 335 

A.D.963-97«.] 

at a proud and luxurious court, he chose a life of hardship 
in pursuit of military glory; and a contemporary historian, 
who wrote after hts family had been ruined by proscription, 
and his name had become odious, observes, that no one had 
ever seen him indulge in revelry or debauchery even in his 
youth '. 

John I. was a daring warrior and an able general '. He 
was thoughtless, generous, and addicted to the pleasures 
of the table, so that, though he was by no means a better 
emperor than Nicephorus, he was far more popular at 
Constantinople : hence we find that his base assassination 
of his sovereign and relative was easily pardoned and for- 
gotten, while the fiscal severity of his predecessor was never 
forgiven. The court of Constantinople was so utteriy corrupt, 
that it was relieved from all sense of responsibility; the 
aristocracy knew no law but fear and private interest, and 
successful ambition rendered every crime venial. The throne 
was a stake for which all courtiers held it lawful to gamble, 
who had courage enough to risk their eyes and their lives to 
gain an empire. Yet we must observe that both Nicephorus 
and John were men of nobler minds than the nobles around 
them, for both respected the rights and persons of their wards 
and legitimate princes, Basil and Constantine, and contented 
themselves with the post of prime- minister and the rank of 
emperor. 

The chamberlain Basilios had been rewarded by Nice- 
phorus, for his services in aiding him to mount the throne, 
with the rank of President of the Council, a dignity created 
on purpose. He was now intrusted by John with the com- 
plete direction of the civil administration. The partisans 
of Nicephorus were removed from all offices of trust, and 
their places filled by men devoted to Zimiskes, or hostile 
to the family of Phokas. AH political exiles were recalled, 
and a parade of placing the young emperors, Basil and 

' Leo DiacoDDi. 7'', edit. Bonn. 

' The name Tiimisltes, an Armenian word, was given to John on account of 
hig KbOTt staluie. Leo DIaconus. 9), 454; Le Beau, HUloirt du Bai-Empin, 
xir. 100. The name i; written in a (barful manner, and with vanalions not 
adapted to render it eapbonious. by Avdall in hi* translation of Chamich Huiory 
0/ Armtraa, a. 77, gl. He calls him Johannes Chimishkik in one passage, and 
in another. Chumnskik KcDijan. He was bom at Hierapolis, on the Euphrates, 
in (he present pashalik of Amida or Di^-bekr, called by Avdall Chumnsiikazak, 
and by SaJnl-Martin, TchemeschgedzcE. Mhnoira oar TArninu, 1 gj 



L.OO*^ IC 



33<S BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.ll.Ch.lLii- 
Constantine, on an equality with their senior colleague was 
made, as an insinuation that they had hitherto been retained 
in an unworthy state of inferiority. At the same time, 
measures were adopted to prevent the rabble of the capital 
from plundering the houses of the wealthy nobles who 
had been dismissed from their appointments, which was a 
usual proceeding at every great political revolution in 
Constantinople '. 

The coronation of John I. was delayed by the Patriarch 
for a few days, for Polyeuktes lost no opportunity of lowing 
his authority. He therefore refused to perform the ceremony 
until Zimiskes declared that he had not imbued his hands in 
the blood of his sovereign. The emperor pointed out his 
fellow-conspirators, Leo Valantes and Atzypotheodoros, as 
the murderers, and excused himself by throwing the whole 
blame of the murder on the Empress Theophano. The 
officers thus sacrificed were exiled, and the empress was 
removed from the imperial palace ^. John was then admitted 
to the favour of the Patriarch, on consenting to abrc^ate the 
law of Nicephorus, providing that the candidates for ecclesias- 
tical dignities should receive the emperor's approbation before 
their election, and on promising to bestow all his private 
fortune in charity. After his coronation, he accordingly 
distributed one-half of his fortune among the poor peasants 
round Constantinople, and employed the other in founding 
an hospital for lepers, in consequence of that disease having 
greatly increased about this time. He also increased his 
popularity by remitting the tribute of the Armeniac 
theme, which vv'as his native province, and by adding to 



' Theophano wM tent to the island of Frote. but escaped, and sought ■syluin 
in St. Sophia's. The chamberlab Basilios took her thence by force, and ^e wai 
exiled to a monsstery in the Anncniac theme, founded by her mucdered husband. 
Her indignation on nearing the sentence was so gital, thai she reviled Zimiskes, 
and boxetl the ears of the chambeilain, whom she called a barbarian and a Scythian. 
Leo DiaconuE. 99 ; Ccdrenus, 664. Gibbon is wrong in saying ' she assaulted with 
wotds and blows her son Basil;' and Le Beau has committed Ihe same error. 
Cedrenus says distinctly il was Che celebrated eunuch she assaulted, and he was 
^e SOD of a Scythian woman. There is not a word about her proclaiming tlie 
illegitimacy of the young Basil, nor indeed any reason to suppose ne was present, 
from the accounts of Leo Diaconus, Cedrenus, and Zonaras. On Ihe contrary, 
when Basil became the ruler of the empire, be lecalled his mother from banish- 
n^at. Cedrenus, 6S4. 



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BASIUOS APPOINTED PATRIARCH. 337 

the largesses which it was customary for the emperor to 
distribute '. 

The Patriarch Polyeuktes died about three months after 
the coronation, and Zimtskes selected Basilios, a monk of 
Mount Olympus, as his successor ; and without paying any 
respect to the canons which forbid the interference of the 
laity in the election of bishops, he ordered him to be 
installed in his dignity. The monk proved less compliant 
than the emperor expected. After occupying the patriarchal 
chair about five years, he was deposed for refusing to appear 
before the emperor to answer an accusation of treason. The 
Patriarch declared the emperor incompetent to sit as his 
judge, asserting that he could only be judged or deposed 
by a synod or general council of the church. He was 
nevertheless banished to a monastery he had built on the 
Scamander, and from which he is called Scamandrinos. 
Antonios, the abbot of Studion, was appointed Patriarch in 
his place. 

The family of Phokas had so long occupied the highest 
military commands, and disposed of the patronage of the 
empire, that it possessed a party too powerful to be imme- 
diately reduced to submission. The reign of John W(^s 
disturbed by more than one rebellion excited by its members. 
Leo, the brother of Nicephorus, had distinguished himself 
by gaining a great victory over the Saracens in the defiles 
of Kylindros, near Andrassos, while his brother was occupied 
with the conquest of Crete. During the reign of Nicephorus 
he held the office of curopalates, but had rendered himsejf 
hated on account of his rapacity. His second son, Bardas 
Phokas, held the office of governor of Koloneia and Chaldia 
when Nicephorus was murdered, and was banished to Amasia. 
Bardas was one of the best soldiers and boldest champioiis 
in the Byzantine army. In the year 970 he escaped from 
confinement, and rendered himself master of Caesarea, where 
he assumed the title of Emperor. In the mean time .his 
father, escapii^ from Leslios, and his elder brother Nice- 
phorus from Imbros, attempted to raise a rebellion in Europe. 
These two were soon captured, and John, satisfied that he had 
ruined the family when he murdered the Emperor Nicephorus, 

' I.eo Diaconus, 100. 



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338 BASIL! AN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.U.Cb.n.Si. 
Spared their lives, and allowed the sentence which condemned 
them to lose their eyes to be executed in such a way that 
they retained their eyesight Bardas, however, gave the 
emperor some trouble, and it was necessary to recall Bardas 
Skleros from the Russian war to take the command against 
him '. Phokas, when deserted by his army, escaped to a 
castle he had fortified as a place of refuge, where he defended 
himself until Skleros persuaded him to surrender, on a pro- 
mise that he should receive no personal injury. Zimiskes, 
who admired his daring courage, condemned him to reside 
in the island of Chios, and adopt the monastic robe. His 
father Leo, who escaped a second time from confinement, 
and visited Constantinople in the hope of rendering himself 
master trf the palace during the absence of the emperor, was 
discovered, and draped from St. Sophia's, in which he sought 
an asylum. His eyes were then put out, and his immense 
estates confiscated. 

John, in order to connect himself mth the Basilian dynasty, 
married Theodora, one of the daughters of Constantine VII. 
(Porphyrogenitus). Another more important marriage is passed 
unnoticed by the Byzantine writers, Zimiskes, finding that 
he could ill spare troops to defend the Byzantine possessions 
in Italy against the attacks of the Western emperor, released 
Fandulf of Beneventum, after he had remained three years a 
prisoner at Constantinople, and by his means opened ami- 
cable communications with Otho the Great. A treaty of 
marriage was concluded between young Otho and Theo- 
phano, the sister of the Emperors Basil and Constantine. 
The nuptials were celebrated at Rome on the 14th of April 
972 ; and the talents and beauty of the Byzantine princess 
enabled her to act a prominent and noble part in the history 
of her time*. 

A curious event in the history of the Eastern Empire, 
which ought not to pass unnoticed, is the transportation of 
a number of heretics, called by historians Manichaeans, from 

■ ' The (kmilr of Skleros b mentioned in the rdgn of Niceptonia I. AucUkU 
iacirti HUtoria, 439. 

1 ' Muratori. Aaia!i iTIialia, t. ^35. [This mirriaee exercised a great influtnoe 
on early German art by introducing the Byianlioe style of painting into Gemuny. 
Thii ii very apinrent in some illuminated MSS., which are preserved in the Royal 
Library at Munich. One of these is described ia Kugler'i Haiulbmk qf Paimiiig ; 
OmTKUt and Dutch SefiDoU, p. 11. En.] 



TRANSPORTATION OF HERETICS. 33y 

*j). 963-976.] 

the eastern provinces of Asia Minor, to increase the colonies 
of Paulicians and other heretics already established round 
Philippopolis. This is said to have been done by the 
Emperor J<din by advice of a hermit named TheodoroSi 
whom he elevated to the dignity of Patriarch of Antioch. 
The continual mention of numerous communities of heretics 
in Byzantine history proves that there is no greater delusion 
than to speak of the unity of the Christian church. Dissent 
appears to have been quite as prevalent, both in the Eastern 
and Western churches, before the time of Luther, as it has 
been since. Because the Greeks and Italians have been 
deficient in religious feeling, and their superior knowledge 
enabled them to affect contempt for other races, the history 
of dissent has been neglected, and religious investigation 
decried under the appellation of heresy '. 

The Russian war was the great event of the reign of John 
Zimiskes. The military fame of the Byzantine emperor, who 
was unquestionably the ablest general of his time, the great- 
ness of the Russian nation, whose power now overshadows 
Europe, the scene of the contest, destined in- our day to be 
again the battle-tield c^ Russian armies, and the political 
interest which attaches to the first attempt of a Russian 
prince to march by land to Constantinople, all combine to 
give a practical as well as a romantic interest to this war ^. 

The first Russian naval expedition against Constantinople 
in 865 would probably have been followed by a series of 
plundering excursions, like those carried on by the Danes 
and Normans on the coasts of England and France, had not 
the Turkish tribe called the Patzinaks rendered themselves 

* Cedienus, 665. It cannot be lurprising that dissent was prevalent when we 
read how the cle^ behaTcd. The Pope or anti-pope, called Boniface VII., 

assassinated Benedict VI.. and, after despoiling Ihe Vatican, fled to Constanti- 
nople. A.D. 974. In 984 he returned to Rome, dethroned the reigning Pope, 
John XIV., who perished b prison, and occopied the papsl throne himsdf. He 
died in the foltowing year. 

* Gibbon (vol. vii. p. 80. edit. Smith) observes the singnlar nndedinable Greeic 
word used to designate the RDSsiana, "Put, but does not mention that it occurs 
twice in the Septuagint, Ezek- xxxviii. ■>, 3 ; xxxix. i. Our translation makes no 
mention of the ttos or Russians, or the lost verse irould read thus: 'Therefore, 
thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, thos saith the Lord God, B«hold 
I am against thee, O Gog. chief prince of the Russians, Meshech, and Tubal.' 
The Russians appear also lo be mentioned twice in the Koran. Sale's Koran, 
chap. 15 (the Rass on which Sale has a note is supposed to mean the Russians), 
and chap. 50. See Hammer. Sur I41 Origims Rums, [See the article ' Rosh ' in 
Smith's Dictiannry af iht BibU, which supports the eiplanation here given of these 
fossages, and quotes Gesenins to that effect. Eo.] 

Z 2 



^Aioo^^lc 



340 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.ll.ai.n.i'1. 
masters of the lower course of the Dnieper, and become 
instruments in the hands of the emperors to arrest the 
activity of the bold Varangians \ The rulers of Kief were 
the same rude warriors that infested Ei^land and France, 
but the Russian people was then in a more advanced state of 
society than the mass of the population in Britain and Gaul. 
The majority of the Russians were freemen ; the majority of 
the inhabitants of Britain and Gaul were serfs. The com- 
merce of tiie Russians was already so extensive as to influence 
the conduct of their government, and to modify the military 
ardour of their Varangian masters. But this commerce, after 
the fall of the Khazar empire and the invasion of Europe by the 
Magyars and Patzinaks, was carried on under obstacles whidi 
tended to reduce its extent and diminish its profits, and 
which it required no common degree of skill and perseverance 
to overcome. The wealth revealed to the ra^facious Varan- 
gpan chiefs of Kief by the existence of this trade invited them 
to attack Constantinople, which appeared to be the centre of 
immeasurable riches. 

After the defeat in 865, the Russians induced their rulers 
to send envoys to Constantinople to renew commercial 
intercourse, and invite Christian missionaries to visit their 
country. No inconsiderable portion of the people embraced 
Christianity, though the Christian religion continued long 
after better known to the Russian mercliants than to the 
Varangian warriors*. The commercial relations of the 
Russians with Cherson and Constantinople were now carried 
on directly, and numbers of Russian traders took up their 
residence in these cities. The first commercial treaty between 
the Russians of Kief and the Byzantine empire was concluded 
in the reign of Basil I '. The intercourse increased from that 
time. In the year 902, seven hundred Russians are mentioned 
as serving on board the Byzantine fleet with high pay; in 
935. seven Russian vessels, with 415 men, formed part of a 
Byzantine expedition to Italy; and in 949, six Russian 
vessels, with 629 men, were engaged in the unsuccessful 



■ Sn abo«e, p. 18B. 

* Contin. Ill ; CtfdTmiis. 551 ; Photii BfiUoltu, 58 ; Wilken, Ottr dit VirhSll- 
Ruw dtr AtuMo mm ByianHnuelim Riieh, qq; Vianinain, NaUin dt la Ruin*, 
i. 148. 

' ZooaiB*. ii. 173. 



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RUSSIAN WARS. 341 

*ji. 963-97(1.] 

expedition of Gongyles against Crete'. In 966, a corps of 
Russians accompanied the unfortunate expedition of Niketas 
to Sicily *, There can be no doubt that these were all Varan- 
gians, familiar, like the Danes and Normans in the West, 
with the dangers of the sea, and not native Russians, whose 
services on board the fleet could have been of little value to 
the masters of Greece. 

But to return to the history of the Byzantine wars with 
the Russians. In the year 907, Oleg, who was regent of 
Kief during the minority of Igor the son of Rurik, assembled 
an army of Varangians, Sclavonians, and Croatians, and, 
collecting two thousand vessels or boats of the kind then used 
on the northern shore of the Euxine, advanced to attack 
Constantinople. The exploits of this army, which pretended 
to aspire at the conquest of Tzaragrad, or the City of the 
Caesars, were confined to plundering the country round 
Constantinople ; and it is not improbable that the expedition 
was undertaken to obtain indemmty for some commercial 
losses sustained by imperial n^ligence, monopoly, or 
oppression. The subjects of the emperor were murdered, 
and the Russians amused themselves with torturing their 
captives in the most barbarous manner. At length Leo 
purchased their retreat by the payment of a large sum of 
money. Such is the account transmitted to us by the 
Russian monk Nestor, for no Byzantine writer notices the 
expedition, which was doubtless nothing more than a plunder- 
ing incursion, in which the city of Constantinople was not 
exposed to any danger *. These hostilities were terminated 
by a commercial treaty in 91a, and its conditions are recorded 
in detail by Nestor *. 

In the year 941, Igor made an attack on Constantinople, 
impelled either by the spirit of adventure, which was the 
charm of existence among all the tribes of Northmen, or 
else roused to revenge by some violation of the treaty of 
912. The Russian flotilla, consisting of innumerable small 

■ CoDStant. Porphyi. Sf Clurtmotais Aulat Byz, i. 659, 660, ^(14, edit. BoDD. 
' The Antbian histomn NoTairi, quoted by KaramEio. 

• The Russians are said on this occasion lo haie transported thai fleet over 
Eome neck of land, in imitation of the exploit of Niketas Oiyphas at the isthmus, 
of Ctitinth. but it cannot hare been near Coostantioople. £j Chnuaqut di Stttvr, 
tradvili at Franfois par loui'i Parit, \. 36. 

* NcstoT, i. 39; Kiug, loS. 



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»4» BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

■" [Bk.lLCb.n.(r. 

vessels, made its appearance in the Bosphonis while the 
Byzantine fleet was absent in the Archipelago '. Igor landed 
at difl^erent places on the coast of Thrace and Bithynia, 
ravaging and plundering the country; the inhabitants were 
treated with incredible cruelty; some were crucified, others 
were bumed alive, the Greek priests were killed by driving 
nails into their heads, and the churches were destroyed. 
Only fifteen ships remained at Constantinople, but these 
were soon fitted up with additional tubes for shooting Greek 
fire. This force, trifling as it was in number, gave the Byzan- 
tines an immediate superiority at sea, and the patrician Theo- 
phanes sailed out of the port to attack the Russians. Igor, 
seeing the small number of the enemy's ships, surrounded 
them on all sides, and endeavoured to cany them by board- 
ing ; but the Greek fire became only so much more available 
against boats and men crowded together, and the attack was 
repulsed with fearful loss. In the mean time, some of the 
Russians who landed in Bithynia were defeated by Bardas 
Fhokas and John Kurkuas, and those who escaped from the 
naval defeat were pursued and slaughtered without mercy 
on the coast of Thrace. The Emperor Romanus ordered all 
the prisoners brought to Constantinople to be beheaded, 
Theophanes overtook the fugitive ships in the month of 
September, and the relics of the expedition were destroyed, 
Igor effecting his escape with only a few boats *. The Rus- 
sian Chronicle of Nestor says that, in the year 944, Igor, 
assisted by other Varangians, and by the Fatzinaks, prepared 
a second expedition, but that the inhabitants of Cherson so 
alarmed the Emperor Romanus by their reports of its mag- 
nitude, that he sent ambassadors, who met Igor at the mouth 
of the Danube, and sued for peace on terms to which Igor 
and his boyards consented. This is probably merely a salve 
applied to the vanity of the people of Kief by their chronicler; 
but it is certain that a treaty of peace was concluded between 
the emperors of Constantinople and the princes of Kief in 
the year 945*. The stipulations of this treaty prove the 

' The Byzantine writers and Nestor speak of tea thousand boats, but Luitprand, 
whose stepfather was then at Constantinople as ambassador from Hugh, king - 
of Italy, sayi only that there were more than a thousand. Luitprandi Hiii. v. 6. 

' Contin. 163; Leo Gnunm. 506; Symeon Mag. 490; Mestor, i. 54; King, 

ise. 

> The French translation of Nestor gives 945 as the date of the tftaty, but 

n,.i,i..,.A'00'^IC 



RUSSIAN WARS. 343. 

*.D. 963-976.] 

importance attached to the commerce carried on by the 
Russians with Cherson and Constantinople. The two Russo- 
Byzantine treaties preserved by Nestor are documents of 
great importance in tracing the history of civilization in the 
east of Europe. The attention paid to the commercial in- 
terests of the Russian traders visiting Cherson and Constan- 
tinople, and the prominence given to questions of practical 
utility instead of to points of dynastic ambition, may serve 
as a contrast to many modem treaties in the west of Europe^ 
The trading classes would not have been powerful enough 
to command this attention to their interests on the part of 
the warlike Varangians, had a numerous body of free citizens 
not been closely connected with the commercial prosperity 
of Russia. Unfortunately for the people, the municipal in- 
dependence of their cities, which had enabled each separate 
community to acquire wealth and civilization, was not joined 
to any central institutions that insured order and a strict 
administration of justice, consequently each city fell separately 
a prey to the superior military force of the comparatively 
barbarian Varangians of Scandinavia. The Varangian con- 
quest of Russia had very mutii the same effect as the Danish 
and Norman conquests in the West. Politically, the nation 
appeared more powerful, but the condition of all ranks of the 
people socially was much deteriorated. It was, however, 
the Tartar invasion which separates the modem and the 
mediaeval history of Russia, and plunged the country into 
the state of barbarism and slavery from which Peter the 
Great Arst raised it. 

The cruelty of the Varangian prince Igor, after his return 
to Russia, caused him to be murdered by his rebellious 
subjects*. Olga, his widow, became regent for their son 

Romanus, Constanlbie. and Stephen are the emperor? named in the te»t. Ro- 
manus I. was deposed in December 944 ; Constantine and Stephen, his sons, on 
the 17th JanDary 945; and Komanus 11,, son of Constantine VII. (Porphyro- 
Eenitus), was crowned as his father's colleague on the 6th April 945, Krug (Iio> 
considers the tresly as concluded by Constantine VII. and Romanus 11., and 
it must have been ratified in the interval before Igoi's death, wbicb happened 
before the end of 945. 

> Commerce, as a means of increasing power and population, was beginoiog 
to excite the attention of the barbarians in western Europe. Athelstan, 915-941, 
enacted a law to confer the privileges of a thane on any English merchant wno 
had made three voyages to a foreign country on his own account. WiUcins, Ltga 



3 Google 



»44 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Ch.n.Si. 
Swiatoslaf. She embraced the Christian religion, and visited 
Constantinople in 957, where she was baptized. The Em- 
peror Constantine Porphyr<^enitU3 has left us an account 
of the ceremony of her reception at the Byzantine court ^. 
A Russian monk has preserved the commercial treaties of 
the empire ; a Byzantine emperor records the pageantry that 
amused a Russian princess. The high position occupied by 
tiie court of Kief in the tenth century is attested by the style 
with which it was addressed by the court of Constantinople. 
The golden bulls of the Roman emperor of the East, ad- 
dressed to the prince of Russia, were ornamented with a 
pendent seal equal in size to a double solidus, like those 
addressed to the kings of France'. 

We have seen that the Emperor Nicephorus 11. sent the 
patrician Kalokyres to excite Swiatoslaf to invade Bulgaria, 
and that the Byzantine ambassador proved a traitor and 
assumed the purple*. Swiatoslaf invaded Bulgaria at the 
head of a powerful army, which the gold brought by Kalo- 
kyres assisted him to equip, and defeated the Bulgarian army 
in a great battle, a.d. 968. Peter, king of Bulgaria, died 
shortly after, and the country was involved in civil broils; 
taking advantage of the confusion that ensued, Swiatoslaf 
took Presthlava the capital, and rendered himself master of 
the whole kingdom. Nicephorus formed an alliance with 
the Bulgarians, and wa? preparing to defend them against 
fhe Russians, when Swiatoslaf was compelled to return home, 
in order to defend his capital against the Patzinaks. Nice- 
phorus assisted Boris and Romanus, the sons of Peter, to 
recover Bulgaria, and concluded an offensive and defensive 
alliance with Boris, who occupied the throne. After the 
assassination of Nicephorus, Swiatoslaf returned to Bulgaria 
with an army of 60,000 men, and his enterprise assumed the 
character of one of those great invasions which had torn 
whole provinces from the Western Empire, His army was 
increased by a treaty with the Patzinaks and an alliance with 
the Hungarians, so that he b^an to dream of the conquest 
of Constantinople, and hoped to transfer the empire of the 

■ Cedrenns, 636; Const. Porphyr. i>> Con-. j4b/. £yz. i. 594, edit. Bonn; Knig, 



:v Google 



RUSSIAN WARS. 345 

East from the Romans of Byzantium to the Russians. It 
was fortunate for the Byzantine empire that it was ruled by 
a soldier who knew how to profit by the superior discipline 
and tactics of his army. The Russian was not ignorant of 
strategy, and after completii^ the conquest of Bulgaria and 
securing his flank by his alliance with the Hungarians, he 
entered Thrace by the western passes of Mount Haemus, 
then the most frequented road between Germany and Con- 
stantinople, and that by which the Hungarians were in the 
habit of making their plundering incursions into the empire. 

John Zimiskes was occupied in the East when Swiatosdaf 
completed the conquest of Bulgaria and passed Mount Haemus, 
expecting to subdue Thrace during the emperor's absence 
with equal ease, A.D. 970. The empire was still suffering 
from famine ', Swiatoslaf took Philippopolis, and murdered 
twenty thousand of the inhabitants. An embassy sent by 
Zimiskes was dismissed with a demand of tribute, and the 
Russian army advanced to Arcadiopolis, where one division 
was defeated by Bardas Skleros, and the remainder retired 
again behind Mount Haemus '. 

In the following spring, 971, the Emperor John took the 
field at the head of an army of fifteen thousand infantry 
and thirteen thousand cavalry, besides a body-^ard of 
chosen troops called the Immortals, and a powerful battery 
of field and siege engines ^. A fleet of three hundred galleys, 
attended by many smaller vessels, was despatched to enter 
the Danube and cut olT the communications of the Russians 
with their own country*. 

Military operations for the defence and attack of Constanti- 
nople are dependent on some marked physical features of the 
country between the Danube and Mount Haemus. The 
Danube, with its broad and rapid stream, and line of fortresses 
on its southern bank, would be an impregnable barrier to a 

' L«o Diaconus, 103, edit Bodd. 

■ Leo Diaconus, 105 ; see a note >t p. 47J, by Hase. on the chronolog7 of thU 
period. I follow that erneraUy received on the authority of Nestor. 

' "^ ' c given by Leo Diaconui, Ijo. CedrenuE (671) gives five 



thousand infantry and lour thousand cavalry; Zonaras (ii. in) the same number. 

"~ * " ' ■ ■ ■ * to the conatitulioQ of Byzantine armies at 

valry served as the model for European' 



a affords >ome insight into the constitu 
ty. "nie c 



* Leo Diaconus (119) calls (he lai^r vessels triremes, though Chej certainly 
nad not more than two tiers of oars. Of the smaller he says, wriiia \iii6n» *M 



t,C'. (logic 



U6 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.Cli.n.{i. 
military power possessing an active ally in Hungary and 
Servia ; for it is easy to descend the river and concentrate 
the largest force on any desired point of attack, to cut off 
the communications or disturb the flanks of the invaders. 
Even after the line of the Danube is lost, that of Mount 
Haemus covers Thrace ; and it formed a rampart to Con- 
stantinople in many periods of danger under the Byzantine 
emperors. It was then traversed by three great military 
roads passable for chariots. The first, which has a double 
gorge, led from Philippopolis to Sardica by the pass called 
the Gates of Trajan (now Kapou Dervend), throwing out 
three branches from the principal trunk to Naissos (Nisch) 
and Belgrade '. This road also affords an easy line of 
communication between the Danube at Belgrade and the 
Mediterranean at Thessalonica, by ascending the upper course 
of the Morava to Skupi, and descending the course of the 
Vardar*. Two secondary passes communicate with this road 
to the north-east, affording passage for an army — that of 
Kezanlik, and that of Isladi ; and these form the shortest 
lines of communication between Philippopolis and the . 
Danube about Nicopolis, through Bulgaria. The second 
great pass is towards the centre of the range of Haemus, 
and has preserved among the Turks its Byzantine name 
of the Iron Gate^. It is situated on the direct line of 
communication between Adrianople and Roustchouk. Through 
this pass a good road might easily be constructed. The third 
great pass is that to the east, forming the line of communica- 
tion between Adrianople and the Lower Danube near Silistria 
(Dorystolon). It is called by the Turks Nadir Dervend. 
The range of Haemus has several other passes independent 

' Amm. Marcel, xid. lo; Sozomen, Wat. Eccln. ii. ii; Nicephorus Gn^ras, i. 
331. Sardica is Triaditsa, near Sophia. 

■ Afl'u von Bilgrad nack Sabimh, von J. G. von Hahn, Wien, 1861. 4to. Consul 
TOO Hahn performed the whole jouiney in a carriage. [The olyecl of Von Hahn's 
joumej' was to discuvei whether Ilie country was practicable for a line of railway, 
and he reported unhesitatingly tu its favour. He rode part of the way, and at one 
point ' die Wigen wiirden mehr getragen als geiogen, but with the eiceptioa of 
some deliles the difHicultLes did not appear to be great. Hie Morava rises in the 
plain of Kossova, the scene of the great defeat of the Servians by the Turks in 
13S9, and from the same plain flows a tributary of the Vaidar (Alius), which joins 
that river near Skopia (Skupi). In a subsequent work, Rtiu dureh du GtbitU tin 
Drin und Wardar (Wien, IH67), he Bupplements his fortner book by giving as 
accotmt of the lower course of the latter river, which be did not visit on his 
previous journey. A railway now runs from Salonica to Skopia. En.] 

' Cedteous, 7S4, Siii r^i Ktyoiikfp &9ijpai. The Turks call it Demir kapon. 



DgIC 



RUSSIAN WARS. 347 

Aj). 963-975.] 

of these, and its parallel ridges present numerous defiles. 
The celebrated Turkish position at Shoumla is adapted to 
cover several of these passes, converging on the great eastern 
road to Adrianople. 

The Emperor John marched from Adrianople just before 
Easter, when it was not expected that a Byzantine emperor 
would take the field. He knew that the passes on the great 
eastern road had been left unguarded by the Russians, and 
he led his army through all the defiles without encountering 
any difficulty. The Russian troops stationed at Presthlava, 
who ought to have guarded the passes, marched out to meet 
the emperor when they heard he had entered Bulgaria. 
Their whole army consisted of infantry; but the soldiers were 
covered with chain armour, and accustomed to resist the light 
cavalry of the Patzinaks and other Turkish tribes ^. They 
proved no match for the heavy-armed lancers of the imperial 
army; and, after a vigorous resistance, were completely 
routed by John Zimiskes, leaving eight thousand five hundred 
men on the field of battle. On the following day Presthlava 
was taken by escalade, and a body of seven thousand Rus- 
sians and Bulgarians, who attempted to defend the royal 
palace, which was fortified as a citadel, were put to the sword 
after a gallant defence. Sphengelos, who commanded this 
division of the Russian force, and the traitor Kalokyres, 
succeeded in escaping to Dorystolon, where Swiatoslaf con- 
centrated the rest of the army; but Boris, king of Bul- 
garia, with all his family, was taken prisoner in his 
capital. 

The emperor, after celebrating Easter in Presthlava, ad- 
vanced by Pliscova and Dinea to Dorystolon, where Swiatoslaf 
still hoped for victory, though his position was becoming 
daily more dangerous. The Byzantine fleet entered the 
Danube and took up its station opposite the city, cutting 
off the communications of the Russians by water, at the 
same time that the emperor encamped before the walls and 
blockaded them by land. Zimiskes, knowing he had to 
deal with a desperate enemy, fortified his camp with a 
ditch and rampart according to the old Roman model, 



DgIC 



348 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

\Vk.\\.Ca.l\.Sx. 
which was traditionally preserved by the Byzantine engineers. 
The Russians enclosed within the walls of Dorystolon were 
more numerous than their besiegers, and Swiatoslaf endea- 
voured to open communications with the surrounding country, 
by bringing on a genemi engagement in the plain before all 
the defences of the enemy's camp were completed. He 
expected to defeat the attacks of the Byzantine cavalry 
by forming his men in squares, and, as the Russian soldiers 
were covered by long shields that reached to their feet, he 
expected to be able, by advancing his squares like moving 
towers, to clear the plain of the enemy. But while the 
Byzantine legions met the Russians in front, the heavy-armed 
cavalry assailed them with their long spears in flank, and the 
archers and slithers under cover watched coolly to transfix 
every man where an opening allowed their missiles to pene- 
trate The battle nevertheless lasted all day, but in the 
evening the Russians were compelled, in spite of their 
desperate valour, to retire into Dorystolon without having 
efTected anything. The infantiy <^ the north now b^an to 
feel its inferiority to the veteran cavaliy of Asia sheathed in 
plate armour, and disciplined by long campaigns against 
the Saracens. Swiatoslaf, however, continued to defend 
himself by a series of battles rather than sorties, in which 
he made desperate efforts to break through the ranks of 
the besiegers in vain, until at length it became evident that 
he must either conclude peace, die on the field of battle, 
or be starved to death in Dorystolon. Before resigning 
himself to his fate, he made a last effort to cut his way 
through the Byzantine army; and on this occasion tlie 
Russians fought with such desperation, that contemporariea 
ascribed the victory of the Byzantine troops, not to the 
superior tactics of the emperor, nor to the discipline of 
a veteran army, but to the personal assistance of St. 
Theodore, who found it necessary to lead the charge of 
the Roman lancers, and shiver a spear with the Russians 
himself, before their phalanx could be broken. The victory 
was complete, and Swiatoslaf sent ambassadors to the enq>eror 
to Sue for peace. 

The si^e of Dorystolon had now lasted more than two 
months, and the Russian army, though reduced by repeated 
losses, still amounted to twenty-two thousand men. The 



DgIC 



RUSSIAN WARS. 349 

4J>. 963-976.] 

valour and contempt of death which the Varangians had 
displayed in the contest, convinced the emperor that it 
would cause the loss of many brave veterans to insist on 
their layit^ down their arms ; he was therefore willing 
to come to terms, and peace was concluded on condition 
that Swiatoslaf should yield up Dorystolon, with all the 
plunder, Slaves, and prisoners in possession of the Russians, 
engage to swear perpetual amity with the empire, and 
promise never to invade either the territory of Cherson or 
the kingdom of Bulgaria ; while, on the other hand, the 
Emperor John engaged to allow the Russians to descend 
the Danube in theirboats, to supply them with two medimni 
of wheat for each surviving soldier, to enable them to return 
home without dispersing to plunder for their subsistence, and 
to renew the old commercial treaties between Kief and Con- 
stentinople' ; July 971. 

After the treaty was concluded, Swiatoslaf desired to have 
a personal interview with his conqueror. John rode down 
to tiie bank of the Danube clad in splendid armour, and 
accompanied by a brilliant suite of guards on horseback. 
The short figure of the emperor was seen to no disadvantage 
on horseback. He was distii^ished by the beauty of his 
charger and the splendour of his arms, while his fair counten- 
ance, light hair, and piercing blue eyes fixed the attention of 
all on his bold and good-humoured face, which contrasted 
well with the dark and sombre visages of his attendants. 
Swiatoslaf arrived by water in a boat, which he steered 
himself with an oar. His dress was white, differing in no 
way from that of those under him, except in being cleaner. 
Sitting in the stern of his boat, he conversed for a short 
time with the emperor, who remained on horseback close 
to the beach. The appearance of the bold Varangian excited 
much curiosity, and is thus described by a historian who 
was intimate with many of those who were present at the 
interview : — The Russian was of the middle stature, well 
formed, with strong neck and broad chest. His eyes were 
blue, his eyebrows thick, his nose flat, and his beard shaved, 
but his upper lip was shaded with long and thick mustaches. 

' hto Diiconui, 155, edit. Boon. I presume the medtmnus means here the 
conmion BjiaQtme measure, nhich wss nearly a bushel, without any reference to 
-Attic measnrea. A pan of the treaty is pren, with the date, by Nestor, i. lao. ■ 



:\<oo<i\i: 



350 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.lI.Ch,II.fi. 
The hair of his head was cropped close, except two long 
locks which hung down on each side of his face, and 
were thus worn as a mark of his Scandinavian race. In 
his ears he wore golden earrings ornamented with a ruby 
between two pearls, and his expression was stem and 
fierce •. 

Swiatoslaf immediately quitted Dorystolon, but he was 
obliged to winter on the shores of the Euxine, and famine 
thinned his ranks. In spring he attempted to force his way 
through the territory of the Patzinaks with his diminished 
army. He was defeated, and perished near the cataracts 
of the Dnieper. Kour, prince of the Patzinaks, became 
the possessor of his skull, which he shaped into a drinking- 
cup, and adorned with the moral maxim, doubtless not less 
suitable to his own skull, had it fallen into the hands of 
others, ' He who covets the property of others, oft loses his 
own.' We have already had occasion to record that the 
skull of the Bj'zantine emperor, Nicephorus I., had orna- 
mented the festivals of a Bulgarian king; that of a 
Russian sovereign now figured in the tents of a Turkish 
tribe. 

The results of the campaign were as advantageous to the 
Byzantine empire as they were glorious to the Emperor John. 
Bulgaria was conquered, and a strong garrison established in 
Dorystolon, but Boris was stitl titular king of Bulgaria. He 
was now compelled to resign his crown, accept the title of 
magister, and reside at Constantinople as a pensioner of the 
Byzantine government The frontier of the eastern empire 
was thus once more extended to the Danube '. The peace 
with the Russians was uninterrupted until about the year 
988, when, from some unknown cause of quarrel, Vladimir 
the son of Swiatoslaf attacked and gained possession of 
Cherson by cutting off the water. 

The Greek city of Cherson, situated on the extreme vei^ 
of ancient civilization, escaped for ages from the impoverish- 
ment and demoralization into which the Hellenic race was 
precipitated by the Roman system of concentrating all power 
in the capital of the empire*. Cherson was governed for 

' Leo Diiconns, |(|6. * CedreoDi, 694. 

* Cherson replaced the andent ChersonetCiS, and Selmstopol now standi near it* 
rainB. Chersoneio) wot rec<^piised as a free city by Augustus. Pliny {fiitU Naft 



DgIC 



CHERSON. 351 

centuries by its own elective magistrates, and it was not until 
towards the middle of the ninth century that the Emperor 
Theophilus destroyed its independence. The people, how- 
ever, still retained in their own hands some control over their 
local administration, though the Byzantine government lost 
no time in undermining the moral foundation of the free 
institutions which had defended a single city against many 
barbarous nations that had made the Roman emperors trem- 
ble'. The inhabitants of Cherson long looked with indiflTerence 
on the favour of the Byzantine emperor, cherished the institu- 
tions of Hetlas, and boasted of their self-government '. A 
thousand years after the rest of the Greek nation was sunk in 
irremediable slavery, Cherson remained free. Such a phe- 
nomenon as the existence of manly feeling in one city, when 
mankind everywhere else slept contented in a state of political 
d^radation, deserves attentive consideration. Indeed, we may 
be better able to appreciate correctly the political causes that 
corrupted the Greeks in the Eastern Empire, if we can ascer- 
tain those which enabled Cherson, though surrounded by 
powerful enemies and barbarous nations, to preserve 

' A Homer's languaiee mnnnuring in her streets. 
And in her hnven many a mast from Tjre.' 

The history of mankind in every age shows us that the 
material improvement of the peoplcj the first great public 
works of utility, and the extension of commerce and trade, 
are effected by the impulsion of local institutions. Such pro- 
gress is the expression of the popular feeling that excites 
every man to better his own condition, and causes him, in 
so doing, to better the condition of the society in which he 
lives. Order, unfortunately, too often expresses only the 
feelings of the class possessing wealth. Its necessity may 
be felt by all, but the problem of connecting it with equity, 
and making it dependent on justice, is not easily solved, and 
hence the pretext of its maintenance serves for the creation of 

Iv. S5) mentioos its importance, uid its altachmenl to Greek manners and customs. 
Strabo,Tii. p. 30S; Scylax, 39. 

' Constantice Poiphyragetiltiu Is vi 
be adopted in case 01 iDsnirectioiis in 1 
a numerous coromerdal aavy, though it imported wheat, wine, and other aecea- 
saries. Di Aim. Imp. 53. 

' There Is a very fate testimony to these facts in a fragment published by Hase, 
in his notes [o Leo Diaconus, p. 503. edit. Bonn — ah-oriiiair S) iii^ivra tfynr 



DgIC 



353 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bfc.II.Ch;IL(i. 
irresponsible power. The goveroment in which the family and 
the parish occupy the most important part will ever be the 
best, for it will secure to honesty and truth that deference 
which a more extended circle attempts to transfer to the con- 
ventional virtues of honour and politeness. It is ia the family 
and the parish that the foundation of all virtue is laid, long 
before the citizen enters the camp, the senate, or the court. 
The twelve nomes of Egypt doubled the extent and wealth of 
the country by dig^ng the canal of Joseph, and forming the 
lake Moeris, before the Pharaohs became conquerors and 
builders of pyramids. The energy of municipal institutioos 
filled the Mediterranean and the Euxine with Greek colonies. 
Rome rose to greatness as a municipality; centralization 
arrested her progress and depopulated the world. Great Bri- 
tain, with her colonies and Indian empire, affords an instance 
of the superiority of the individual patriotism and self-respect 
generated by local institutions over the strict obedience and 
scientific power conferred by the centralization of authority. 
But the respective merits of self-government and of central 
government are in the course of receiving their fullest de- 
velopment under the two mighty empires of the United States 
of America and of Russia. Both these governments have dis- 
played consummate ability in the conduct of their respective 
political systems, and the practical decision of the problem, 
whether local or central government is the basis of the political 
institutions best adapted to the improvement of man, as a 
moral and social being, seems by Providence to have beea 
intrusted to the cabinet of the emperor of Russia and to the 
people of the United States of America. 

In the reign of Diocletian, while Themistos was president of 
Cherson', Sauromatos the Bosporian', passing along the 
eastern shores of the Euxine, invaded the Roman empire. 

* ConitaDtiae Porphyrt^^itus calls this chief Sauromitos the Bosporian Ihe 
ton of Kriskon-Ocoa, which, it has been coajectmed, ought lo be read Kridcon 
the son of Oros, h Sannatian of Bosporos. Sauromatcs is a Dune comman to 
tereial kings of Bospoios; but Siuiomatos, whidi ConEtantbe PorpbyroEenitns 
""-^ '" the thiee chiels he mentiouB, is not foiind elsewhere, and he never calls 



tiem Ifiniga. The coins of Bosporos give the names of other kinga about this 
period. The text of Conslantine is so inexact, both from bis own errors in history, 
and from the inaccuracv of tnmscribers, that I prefer giviog the names as they 
staod, and leaving the impenal writer to answer for himself. I have changed 
Constaos Co Constantius Chlorus. See Koehne, Btitrdgi tur Ottchichit and drch»- 
elc^if (KM Cktmntm in Tauritn, leo. 



DgIC 



CHERSON. 353 

*j>. 963-976.] 

He overran Lazia and Pontus without difficulty, but on the 
banks of the Halys he found the Roman army assembled 
under the command of Constantius Chlorus. On hearing of 
this invasion, Diocletian sent ambassadors to invite the people 
of Cherson to attack Bosporos, in order to compel Sauromatos 
to return home. Cherson, holding the rank of an allied city, 
could not avoid conceding that degree of supremacy to the 
Roman emperor which a small state is compelled to yield to 
a powerful protector, and the invitation was received as a 
command. Chrestos succeeded Themistos in the presidency; 
he sent an army against Bosporos, and took the city. But 
the Chersonites, though brave warriors, sought peace, not con- 
quest, and they treated all the inhabitants of the places that 
had fallen into their hands, in a way to conciliate the goodwill 
of their enemies. Their successes forced Sauromatos to con- 
clude peace and evacuate the Roman territory, in order to 
regain possession of his capital and family. As a reward for 
their services, Diocletjgfi granted the Chersonites additional 
security for their trade, and extensive commercial privileges 
throughout the Roman empire ^ 

During the reign of Constantine the Great, the Goths and 
Sarmatians invaded the Roman empire. The emperor called 
on the inhabitants of Cherson, who were tiien presided over 
by Diogenes, to take up arms. They sent a force well fur- 
nished with field-machines to attack the Goths, who had 
already crossed the Danube, and defeated the barbarians with 
great slaughter. Constantine, to reward their promptitude in 
the service of the empire, sent them a golden statue of himself 
in imperial robes, to be placed in the hall of the senate, 
accompanied with a charter ratifying every privil^e and com- 
mercial immunity granted to their city by preceding emperors. 
He bestowed on them also an annual supply of the materials 
necessary for constructing the warlike machines of which they 
had made such good use, and allowances for a thousand men 
to work these engines*. This subsidy continued to be paid in 



, , le of AuRUBlus, and Ihe 

second from the time of Hadrian, when it ceased to form part of the Roman empire, 
' Constant. Porphyr. D* Adm. Imp. c. 53, tom. iii. p. 151, edit. Bonn. The 
emperor also sent rings with his portrait engraved, to be used in certain oflicial 
commmiicalions. The statue was not of solid gold, perhaps only gilt. Stritter 
(Mtmoriiu popukrmn, iv. 537) places this expedition a,d, 3*7 ; Koetae {La Cktf 
tonist TasTHiut, loo), l.D. JlS. 

VOL. II. A a 

n,.i,i..,.A'00'^IC 



354 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.aLn. ti- 
the middle of the tenth centuiy, in the time of Constantiae 

Porphyrogaiitus. 

Years passed on, and Sauromatos, the grandson of him who 
invaded the empire in the time of Diocletian, determining to 
efface the memory of his grandfather's di^[race, declared war 
with Cherson. He was defeated by Vyskos, the president of 
Cherson, at Kapha, and compelled to conclude a treaty of 
peace, by which Kapha was declared the frontier of the terri- 
tory of Cherson. Another Sauromatos, having succeeded to 
the throne of Bosporos, determined to regain possession of 
Kapha, when Phamakos was president of Cherson. This 
Sauromatos was a man of great stature and of a powerful 
frame ; Phamakos was a little man, active and skilful in fight 
He offered to terminate the dispute by a single combat. The 
challenge was accepted and the gigantic king was slain by the 
patriotic president The death of Sauromatos terminated the 
war and ended his dynasty. Bosporos became a free dty, 
formed an alliance with Cherson, and raised a statue to 
Phamakos as a testimony of his philanthropy in exposing bis 
own life to prevent the slaughter of thousands. 

Again, after an interval of years, Lamachos was president 
of Cherson, but the people of Bosporos, corrupted by the 
memory of a court, and loving pageantry better than liberty, 
elected a king named Asandros. The Bosporians proposed 
that the son of Asandros should many the only daughter of 
Lamachos, in order to draw closer the alliance between the two 
states ; and to this the Chersonites consentedj but only on 
condition that the young Asander should take up his residence 
in Cherson, and engage never to return to Bosporos — not even 
to pay the shortest visit to the king his father, nor To any of 
his relations— under pain of death. The marriage was cele- 
brated, and Asander dwelt with the youi^ Gycia in the palace 
of Lamachos, which was a building of regal splendour, cover- 
ing four of the quadrangles marked out by the intersection 
of the streets in the quarter of Cherson called Sousa, and 
having its own private gate in the city walls. Two years after 
the celebration of this marriage, Lamachos died ; his daughter 
inherited the whole of his princely fortune, and Zetho was 
elected president of Cherson. At the end of a year, Gycia 
went out to decorate her father's tomb, and wishii^ to honour 
his memory with the greatest solemnity, she received permis- 



ityGoo^lc 



CHERSON. 355 

AA 963-976.] 

sion from the president and senate to entertain the whole 
body of the citizens of Cherson, with their wives and children, 
at a funeral banquet on the anniversary of her father's death 
as long as she lived. The celebration of this festival suggested 
to her husband a plan of rendering himself tyrant of Cherson, 
and for two years he collected men and warlike stores secretly 
from Bosporos, by means of the ships employed in his com- 
mercial affairs. These he concealed in the immense ware- 
houses enclosed within the walls of his wife's palace. Three of 
his own followers from Bosporos were alone intrusted with the 
secret of his plot. After a lapse of two years, Asander had col- 
lected two hundred Bosporians, with their armour, in the palace 
of Gycia, and was waiting for the approaching anniversary of 
the death of Lamachos to destroy the liberty of Cherson. 

It happened at this time that a favourite m^d of Gycia, 
offending her mistress, was banished from her presence, and 
confined in a room over the warehouse in which the Bosporians 
were concealed. As the girl was sitting alone, singing and 
spinning, her spindle dropped, and rolled along the floor till 
it fell into a hole near the wall, from which she could only 
recover it by raising up one of the tiles of the pavement 
Leaning down, she saw through the ceiling a crowd of men in 
the warehouse below, whom she knew by their dress to be 
Bosporians, and soldiers. She immediately called a servant, 
and sent him to her mistress, conjuring her to come to see her 
in her prison. Gycia, curious to see the effect of the punish- 
ment on her favourite, visited her immediately, and was shown 
the strange spectacle of a crowd of foreign soldiers and a 
magazine of arms concealed in her own palace. The truth 
flashed on her mind ; she saw her husband was plotting to 
become the tyrant of her native city, and every feeling of her 
heart was wounded. 

She assembled her relations, and by their means com- 
municated secretly with the senate, revealing the plot to a 
chosen committee, on obtaining a solemn promise that when 
she died she should be buried within the walls of the city, 
though such a thing was at variance with the Hellenic usages 
of Cherson. Whether from the danger of attacking two hun- 
dred heavy-armed men, or to avoid war with Bosporos, the 
president and senate of Cherson determined to destroy the con- 
spiracy by burning the enemy in their place of concealment, 
A a z 



:A>00' 



'cS'^' 



355 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.lI.Ch.n.|r. 

and Gycia willingly gave her ancestral palace to the flames 
to save her country. 

When the day of the anniversary of her father's funeral 
arrived, Gycia ordered the preparations for the annual feast 
to be made with more than ordinary liberality, and Asander 
was lavish in his distribution of wine ; but due precautions 
had been taken that the gates of the city should be closed at 
the usual hour, and all the citizens in their dwellii^. At 
the banquet in her own palace Gycia drank water out of a 
purple goblet, while the servant who waited on Asander 
served him with the richest wines. To the deUght of her 
husband, Gycia proposed that all should retire to rest at an 
early hour, and she took a last melancholy leave of her 
husband, who hastened to give his three confidants their 
instructions, and then lay down to rest until midnight should 
enable him to complete his treachery. The gates, doors, and 
windows of the palace were shut up, and the keys, as usual, 
laid beside Gycia. Her maids had packed up all her jewels, 
and when Asander was plunged in a sound sleep from the 
wine he had drank, Gycia rose, locked every door of the 
palace as she passed, and hastened out, accompanied by her 
slaves. Order was immediately given to set fire to the 
building on every side, and thus the liberty of Cherson was 
saved by the patriotism of Gycia. 

The spot where the palace had stood remained a vacant 
square in the time of the Emperor Constantine Porphyro- 
genitus, and Gycia during her lifetime would never allow even 
the ruins to be cleared away. Her countrymen erected two 
statues of bronze to honour her patriotism — one in the 
public agora, showing her in the flower of youth, dressed in 
her native costume, as when she saved her country; the 
other clad as a heroine armed to defend the city. On both 
inscriptions were placed, commemorating her services ; and 
no better deed could be done at Cherson than to keep the 
bases of these statues bright and the inscriptions I^ible, in 
order that the memory of the treachery of the king's son, 
and the gratitude due to the patriotism of Gycia, might be 
ever fresh in the hearts of the citizens. 

Some years after this, when Stratophilos was president, 
Gycia, suspecting that the gratitude of her countrymen was 
so weakened that they would no longer be inclined to fulfil 



DgIC 



CHERSON. 357 

*j>. 963-976.] 

their promise of burying her within the walls, pretended to be 
dead. The event was as she feared ; but when the procession 
had passed the gates, she rose up from the bier and exclaimed, 
* Is this the way the people of Cherson keep their promise to 
the preserver of their liberty ? ' Shame proved more powerful 
than gratitude. The Chersonites now swore again to bury 
her in the city, if she would pardon their falsehood. A tomb 
was accordingly built during her lifetime, and a gilded 
statue of bronze was erected over it, as an assurance that 
the faith of Cherson should not be again violated. In that 
tomb Gycia was buried, and it stood uninjured in the tenth 
century, when an emperor of Constantinople, impressed with 
adn^iration of her patriotism, so unlike anything he had seen 
among the Greek inhabitants of his own wide-extended 
empire, transmitted a record of her deeds to posterity '. 

Cherson retained its position as an independent state until 
the reign of Theophilus, who compelled it to receive a 
governor from Constantinople ; but, even under the Byzan- 
tine government, it continued to defend its municipal institu- 
tions, and, instead of slavishly soliciting the imperial favour 
and adopting Byzantine manners, it boasted of its constitution 
and self-government ^. But it gradually lost its former wealth 
and extensive trade ; and when Vladimir, the sovereign of 
Russia, attacked it in 988, it was betrayed into his hands by a 
priest, who informed him how to cut off the water. The 
great object of ambition of all the princes of the East, from 
the time of Heraclius to that of the last Comnenos of Tre- 
bizond, was to form matrimonial alliances with the imperial 
family. Vladimir obtained the hand of Anne, the sister of 
the Emperors Basil II. and Constantine VIII., and was 
baptized and married in the church of the Fanaghia at 
Cherson. To soothe the vanity of the empire, he pretended 
to retain possession of his conquest as the dowry of his wife. 
Many of the priests who converted the Russians to Chris- 
tianity, and many of the artists who adorned the earliest 
Russian churches with paintings and mosaics, were natives of 
Cherson. The church raised Vladimir to the rank of a 
saint ; the Russians conferred on him the title of the Great *. 

' Constant. Porphyr. De Adm. Imp. c. 53. 

' 8tt the fragment in Hase's Doles to Leo Diaconus, edit. Bonn, p. 503. 

' Neslor, L 137. 



.L.oo^lc 



958 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Ch.IL{i. 

The Saracen war had been carried on vigorously on the 
frontiers of Syria, while the £mperor John was occupied with 
the Russian campaign. The continued successes of the 
Byzan ine arms so alarmed the Mohammedan princes, that 
an extensive confederacy was formed to recover Antioch, and 
the command of the army was entrusted to Zoher, the Ueu- 
tenant of the Fatimite caliph of Egypt. The imperial army 
was led by the patrician Nikolaos, a man of great military 
skill, who had been an eunuch in the household of John 
Zimiskes : he defeated the Saracens tn a pitched battle, and 
saved Antioch for a time '. But in the following year (973) 
the conquest of Nisibis filled the city of Bagdad with such 
consternation, that a levy of all Mussulmans was ordered to 
march against the Christians. The Byzantine troops in 
Mesopotamia were commanded by an Armenian named 
Temelek Melchi, who was completely routed near Amida, 
was taken prisoner, and died after a year's confinement ^. 

With all his talents as a general, John does not appear to 
have possessed the same control over the genera) administra- 
tion as Nicephorus ; and many of the cities conquered by his 
predecessor, in which the majority of the inhabitanj^ were 
Mohammedans, succeeded in throwing off the Byzantine 
yoke*. Even Antioch declared itself independent. A great 
effort became necessary to regain the ground that had been 
lost ; and, to make this, John Zimiskes took the command of 
the Byzantine army in person in the year 974. He marched 
in one campaign from Mount Taurus to the banks of the Tigris, 
and from the banks of the Tigris back into Syria, as far as Mount 
Lebanon, carrying his victorious arms, according to the vaunting 
inaccuracy of the Byzantine geographical nomenclature, into 
Palestine. His last campaign, in the following year, was the 
most brilliant of his exploits. In Mesopotamia he r^ained 
possession of Amida and Martyropolis ; but these cities 
contained so few Christian inhabitants that he was obliged to 
leave the administration in the hands of Saracen emirs, who 
were charged with the collection of the tribute and taxes. 
Nisibis he found deserted, and from it he marched by Edessa 
to Hierapolis or Membig, where be captured many valuable 

' Cedrenus, 666. 

■ Le Beau, xiv. 134; Leo DUcodos, fSS and .1891 AbnUedae vim. Miitlmt. ii. 
513, edil. Reislt. " Zonaras, ii. aij ; Glycai, 309. 



.L.oo^lc 



SARACEN WAR. 359 

«*■ 9*3-976-1 

relics, among which the shoes of our Saviour, and the hair of 
John the Baptist, are especially enumerated. From Hiera- 
polis John marched to Apamea, Emesa, and Baalbec, without 
meeting any serious opposition. The emir of Damascus sent 
valuable presents, and agreed to pay an annual tribute to 
escape a visit. The emperor then crossed Mount Lebanon, 
storming the fortress of Borzo, which commanded the pass, 
and, descending to the sea-coast, laid siege to Berytus, which 
soon surrendered, and in which he found an image of the 
crucifixion that he deemed worthy of being sent to Constan- 
tinople. From Berytus he marched northward to Tripolis, 
which he besieged in vain for forty days. The valour of the 
garrison and the strength of the fortifications compelled him 
to raise the si^e ; but his retreat was ascribed to fear of a 
comet, which illuminated the sky with a strange brilliancy '. 
As it was now September, he wished to place his worn-out 
troops in winter-quarters in Antioch ; but the inhabitants 
shut the gates against him. To punish them for their revolt 
he had the folly to ravage their territory, and cut down their 
fruit-trees ; foi^etting, in his barbarous and impolitic revenge, 
that he was ruining his own empire. Burtzes was left to 
reconquer Antioch for the second time ; which, however, he 
did not effect until after the death of the Emperor John. 

The army was then placed in winter-quarters on the 
frontiers of Cilicia, and the emperor took the road to Con- 
stantinople. On the journey, as he passed the fertile plains 
of Longias and Dryze, in the vicinity of Anazarba and Po- 
dandusj he saw them covered with flocks and herds, with 
well-fortified farmyards, but no smiling villages. He inquired 
with wonder to whom the country belonged, in which pas- 
turage was conducted on so grand a scale ; and he learned 
that the greater part of the province had been acquired by the 
president Basilios in donations from himself and his predecessor 
Nicephorus. Amazed at the enormous accumulation of pro- 
perty in the hands of one individual, he exclaimed, ' Alas t the 
wealth of the empire is wasted, the strength of the armies is 
exhausted, and the Roman emperors toil like mercenaries, to 
add to the riches of an insatialile eunuch t ' This speech was 
reported to the president. He considered that he had raised 

* Leo DiacoDos, 169, edit. Bonn. 

Djizcdtv Google 



360 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Blt.lI.Ch.n.Sj. 
both Nicephorus and John to the throne ; his interest now 
required that it should return to its rightful master, and that 
the young Basil should enjoy his heritage. The emperor 
John stopped on his way to Constantinople at the palace of 
Romanes, a grandson of Romanus I, ; and it is said he there 
drank of a poisoned cup presented to him by a servant gained 
by the president. Certain it is that John Zimiskes reached 
the capital in a dying state, and expired on the 10th of 
January 976, at the age of fifty-one. 

Sect. II. — Reign of Basil II. {Bulgaroktonosy, A.D, 976-1025. 

Character of Ba^l 11.— Rebellions of Bardos Skleros and of Bardas Phoku.— 
Wealth of private individuals.^ Bulgarian war. — Defeat of Basil II. — Suniiel, 
king of Bulgaiia, founds the kingdom of Achrida. — Defeats of Samuel. — Basil 
puts out the eyes oT his prisoners, — Conquest of the kingdom of Achrida. — 
Basil vi^ts Athens, — Conquests in Anneaia.^Death of Basil II. 

Basil II. was only twenty years of age when he assumed 
the direction of public affairs, and for some time he continued 
to indulge in the pursuit of pleasure, allowing the president 
Basilios to exercise the imperial power to its fullest extent. 
Indeed, there can be no doubt that the prime-minister 
would have attempted to occupy the place of Nicephorus and 
Zimiskes, had his condition not effectually excluded him from 
the throne. For some time, however, he ventured to exclude 
Basil from any active share in the details of administration, 
and endeavoured to occupy his attention with the pomp and 
pageantry of the imperial court, and facilitated the indulgence 
of those passions, to which it was thought the young man was 
naturally inclined. This conduct probably awakened sus- 
picions in the mind of Basil, who possessed a firm and ener- 
getic character, and induced him to watch the proceedings of 
his powerful minister. Constantine VIII., who was seventeen 
when John Zimiskes died, shared the imperial throne as his 
brother's colleague, but was allowed no share in the public 
administration, and appeared well satisfied to be relieved 

' Gibbon says he enjoyed the title of Augustus sixty-sji fears, and the reign 
of the tvo brothels (Basil and Constantine) is the longest and most obscure of 
the Byzantine history. T3cclint and Fall, c. 48. vol. vi. 108, edit. Smith. We 
possess no contemporaiy historian, eircept Leo Diaconus. who only supplies a few 
notices (169). Cedrenus, however, gives some interesting details concerning the 
Bulgarian war ((184% The other Byzantine soarces are Zt^aras, iL atj; ManasseSi 
IJO; Glycas, 309; Joel, iSi : Ephraemius, 116. 



DgIC 



CHARACTER OF BASIL 11. 361 

*j). 976-1055.] 

from the duties of his station, as he was allowed to enjoy all 
its luxuries. Basil soon gave up idle amusements, and 
devoted his whole time and energy to military studies and 
exercises, and to public business. Indefatigable, brave, and 
stem, his courage degenerated into ferocity, and his severity 
into cruelty. Yet, as he reigned the absolute master of an 
unprincipled court and of a people careless of honour and 
truth, and as the greater part of his life was spent in war with 
barbarous enemies, we may attribute many of his faults as 
much to the state of society in his age as to his own individual 
character. He believed that he was prudent, just, and devout ; 
others considered him severe, rapacious, cruel, and bigoted. 
For Greek learning he cared little, and he was a type of the 
higher Byzantine moral character, which retained far more of 
its Roman than its Greek origin, both in its vices and its virtues. 
In activity, courage, and military skill he had few equals '. 

Several of the great nobles of the empire considered that 
their power entitled them to occupy the place left vacant by 
the death of Zimiskes ; and as the great qualities of Basil II. 
were still unknown, they envied the influence of the president 
Basilios. Among the leading members of the aristocracy, 
Bardas Skleros, who commanded the army in Asia, gave the 
president most umbrage, from his military reputation and 
great popularity. Skleros was accordingly removed from 
the command of the army, and appointed duke or governor 
of Mesopotamia. This step precipitated his rebellion. The 
two ablest generals in the empire were Bardas Skleros and 
Bardas Phokas: both were men of illustrious families, and 
both had filled high offices in the state. As early as the 
reign of Michael I., a Skleros had been governor of the Pelo- 
ponnesus*; and for four generations the family of Phokas 
had supplied the empire with a succession of military leaders. 
Skleros and Phokas had already been opponents in the reign 



' Zonanis, ii. 115. Cedrcnus (718) mentions that Basil ordered one of his 
chamberlains, convicted of a plot to assassinate him, to be thrown to (he lions. 
Several acts of the basest treachery were at least sanctioned by him. Cedrenua, 
7'4> 7'7> 7'8. Though Basil is accused of rapacity, he left the public taxes two 
years in arrear at the time of his death r now, though this fact may be a 



n of the accusations brought against him. it seems more probably a proof 
that the policy which is visible m hts laws for the protection of the poor was 
also the guide of his financial administration ; and though he was severe with the 
rich, he may have been milder with the poor. Cedrenus, 711 j Gtycas, 311. 
' A ueiorii inctrii Hhioria, at the end o( Tbeophanes, 416, 



n,,;,! .,:.A,<OOgIe 



aSa BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.ch.n.sj. 
of John I, These two men may be taken as types of the 
military nobles of the Byzantine empire in the tenth century; 
and no tale of daring deeds or romantic vicissitudes among 
the chivalrous adventurers of the West, who had no patrimony 
but their swords, was more strange than many an episode in 
the lives of these two nobles, nursed in silken raiment, whose 
youth wag passed in marble palaces on the soft shores of the 
Bosphorus, who were educated by pedantic grammarians, and 
trained by Greek theologians, who deemed the shedding even 
of Saracen blood a sin. Yet these nobles valued themselves 
as much on their personal skill in arms and headlong daring 
as any Danish adventurer or Norman knight'. 

Bardas Skleros no sooner reached Mesopotamia than he 
assumed the title of Emperor, and invaded Asia Minor. He 
had made no preparations for his rebellion ; he trusted to 
his military reputation for collecting a small army, and to his 
own skill to make the best use of the troops that joined his 
standard : nor was he wanting to his fame. Some pecuniary 
assistance from the emirs of Amida and Martyropolis re- 
cruited his finances, and a body of three hundred well-armed 
Saracen horse was considered a valuable addition to his little 
army. Undismayed by partial defeats and immense diffi- 
culties, he at last gained a complete victory over the Byzantine 
army at Lapara, on the frontiers of Armenia *, and a second at 
Rageas, over a generalissimo of the empire, who had been sent 
to repair the preceding disaster, Skleros then marched to 
Abydos, took Nicaea, and sent his son Romanos into Thrace 
to make preparations for the si^e of Constantinople. 

The rebellion of Bardas Fhokas, and his exile to Chios, 
have been already mentioned. He was now called from his 
retreat, and laid aside the monastic dress, which he had worn 
for six years, to resume his armour. The old rivals again 
met in arms, and at first fortune continued to favour Skleros, 
who was a better tactician than Phokas. The imperial army 

' There can be no doubt that for sevend ans the Byzantmc nobles were as 
regularly instructed in militaiy discipline dunng their youth as our boys are 
in their Latin grammar. Byianline education seems to have been excellent 
before entering on public life, and ver? bad afterwards ; outs is belter after 
than before. 

' The patridan Petros, who commanded the imperial army, had been an 
euDucb of the hooseliold of the Emperor Nicephorus Phokas. and had dinin- 

Sished himself by his penooal taIoui in the Russian war. Cedrenoi, 63j ; Leo 
acornis, 81. 



DgIC 



DEFEAT OF SKLEROS. ^6^ 

iji. 976-1015.] 

was defeated at Amorium, but the personal valour of Phokas 
covered the retreat of his soldiers, and preserved their con- 
fidence ; for when Constantine Gabras pressed too closely on 
the rear, Phokas, who was watchii^ his movements, suddenly 
turned his horse, and, gallopii^ up to the gallant chief, struck 
him lifeless with his mace-at-arms, and rejoined his own rear- 
guard unhurt. A second battle was fought near Basilika 
Therma, in the theme Qiarsiana, and Skleros was again 
victorious. Phokas retired into Geoi^a (Iberia), where he 
received assistance from David, the king of that country, 
which enabled him to assemble a third army on the banks 
of the Halys. He found Skleros encamped in the plain of 
Pankalia. An engagement took place, in which the superior 
generalship of the rebel emperor was again evident, and 
Phokas, reduced to despair, sought to terminate the contest 
by a personal encounter with his rival. They soon met, and 
their companions suspended the conflict in their immediate 
vicinity to view the combat between two champions, both 
equally celebrated for their personal prowess. Skleros was 
armed with the sword, Phokas with the mace-at-arms ; the 
sword glanced from the welt-tempered armour, the mace 
crushed the helmet, and Skleros fell senseless on his horse's 
neck. The guards rushing to the rescue, Phokas gained an 
eminence, from which he could already see a portion of his 
army in full retreat. But the fortune of the day was changed 
by an accident. As the officers of Skleros were carrying 
their wounded leader to a neighbouring fountain, his horse 
escaped and galloped through the ranks of the army, showing 
the troops the imperial trappings stained with blood. The 
cry arose that Skleros was slain. The tie that united the 
rebels was broken, and the soldiers fled in every direction 
or laid down their arms. On recovering, Skleros found that 
nothing was left for him but to escape with his personal 
attendants into the Saracen territory, where he was thrown 
into prison by order of the caliph. Several of his partisans 
prolonged their resistance through the winter ^ 

* Skleros was defeated in tbe summer of Q79. as the rebellion was suppressed 
in the 81I1 indiction, in the fourth year of its dnrstioit. Leo Diacouus, 169; 
Cedrenus. 694. The Sth indictiou commenced on the 1st September 979, and 
the rebellion continued for some time after the flight of Skleros. [On the indiclion, 
s«e vol. i. pp. 40, 107. This node of reckoning is well explained by Dr. Smith, 
following Savigny, in his note to Gibbon, vol. ii. p. 333: 'From Sept. I, aj>. 311, 



DgIC 



3^4 BAStUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.ii.ch.n.s». 

Bardas Phokas continued to command the imperial army 
in Asia for eight years, carrying on war with the Saracens, 
and compelling the emir of Aleppo to pay tribute to Con- 
stantinople. But as the Emperor Basil II. advanced in years, 
his firm character began to excite general dissatisfaction 
among the Byzantine nobles, who saw that their personal 
influence, and power of enriching themselves at the public 
expense, were likely to be greatly curtailed. The attention 
the emperor paid to public business, and his strict control 
over the conduct of all officials, alarmed the president Basilios; 
while his determination to command the army in person, and 
to regulate promotions, excited the dissatisfaction of Phokas, 
who made his government the refuge of every discontented 
courtier. The only campaign in which the emperor had yet 
commanded was one against Samuel, king of Bulgaria, which 
had proved signally disastrous, so that his interference in 
military matters did not appear to be authorised by his ex- 
perience in tactics and strategy. It seems probable that the 
president excited Phokas to take up arms, as a means of 
rendering the emperor dependent on administrative influence 
and the support of the aristocracy; but Phokas doubtless 
required very little prompting to make an attempt to seize 
the throne. Assemblii^ the leading men in his government, 
and the principal officers of the army under his command, 
at the palace of Eustathios Malelnos, in the theme Charsiana, 
he was proclaimed emperor on the 15th of August 987. 

Nearly about the same time, Bardas Skleros succeeded in 
escaping from the Saracens and entering the empire. He 
had been released from his prison at Bagdad, and intrusted 
with the command of a legion of Christian refugees, with 
which he had distinguished himself in the civil wars of the 
Mohammedans. His adventures in this service were not 

successive periods of fifleeo years were reckoned. When an indiction is mentioned, 
it is quile uncerlaia which of these periods of fifleen j'ears is meant, and it is only 
Ihe number of a particular year occurring in the period that is expressed. This 
separate year, and nol th« period of fifteen years, is called an indiction. Thus, 
when the seventh indiction occurs in a document, this document belongs to th« 
seventhyear of one of those periods of fifteen years, but to which of them is uncer- 
tain. This continued to be the usage of the word till the twelfth century, when it 
became the practice to call the period of fifteen years the indiction, and to reckon 
from the birth of Christ the number ofindiclions, that is, periods of fifteen years. 
An event was then said to lake place in a particular year of a particular indiction ; 
for example, Indicttonis Uxix, anno v.' ■ Sometimes the year of the Cooslantino- 
politan aera is added. This aeia places the birth of Christ in Ihe year 5509, and 
commences on the ist of September. En.^ 



REBELUON OF PHOKAS. 365 

ju>. 976-1025.]' 

unlike those recorded of Manuel in the reign of Theophilus •. 
His sudden appearance in the empire, and his resumption 
of his claim to the imperial throne, brought the two ancient 
rivals again into the field, both as rebel emperors, and it was 
necessary to decide by a new war which was to march as 
victor against Basil at Constantinople, Phokas gained the 
advantage by treachery. He concluded a treaty with his 
rival, by which a division of Asia Minor was agreed on ; but 
when Skleros visited his camp to determine their ulterior 
operations, Phokas detained him a prisoner^. Phokas then 
devoted all his energy to dethrone his sovereign ; and during 
the summer of 988 he subdued the greater part of Asia 
Minor ; but at the commencement of the following year, 
a division of his army which he sent to the Bosphorus was 
defeated by the Emperor Basil, who had just obtained an 
auxiliary corps of Varangians from his brotJier-in-Iaw Vladi- 
mir, the sovereign of Kief*. Phokas was at this time be- 
sieging Abydos, which defended itself with obstinacy, expect- 
ing speedy relief from an imperial army commanded by the 
Emperors Basil and Constantine. The imperial troops arrived 
by sea, and, debarking near Abydos, formed their camp in 
the plain. Phokas, leaving part of his force to continue the 
siege, drew out his army to give battle to the emperors. 
While the two armies were taking up their ground, Phokas 
rode along the field, seeking for an opportunity to decide 
the fate of the war by one of those feats of arms in which 
his personal prowess was so distinguished. His eye caught 
a sight of the Emperor Basil engaged in ordering the move- 
ments of his army, and, dashing forward with his mace-at- 
armSjhe prepared to close in single combat with his sovereign. 
At the very moment when the object of his sudden movement 
flashed on the minds of all, Phokas wheeled round his horse, 
galloped to a little eminence, where he dismounted in sight 
of both armies and lay down on the ground. A long interval 
of suspense occurred. Then a rumour ran along the ranks of 
the rebels that their leader was dead, and the troops dispersed 

' Cedrenus, 697. 

' SkUros was confined at Tyropoion, a place Fhokas had fortiGed 1$ a refuge 
when he rebelltd against John I. Skleros had secured his pe[5<»ial safety on 
forcing him to surrender it, Leo Diaconua, i]6. 

' l^e emperoi ordered the general of the rebels to be impaled. Cedreava. 



DgIC 



366 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.ClLlLf I. 
without striking a blow. Fhokas had drank a glass of cold 
water as he mounted his horse, according to his usual custom, 
and whether he perished by poison or by a stroke of apoplexy 
was naturally a question not easily settled hy the suspicious 
and vicious Constantinopolitans. Thus ended the career of 
Bardas Fhokas, by a death as strange as any event in his 
romantic life. He died in the month of April 989. 

Bardas Skleros regained his liberty on the death of his 
rival, but resigned his preten^ons to the imperial dignity 
on receiving the pardon of Basil. The meeting of the 
emperor and the veteran warrior was remarkable. The 
eyesight of Skleros had b^un to fail, and he had grown 
extremely corpulent. He had laid aside the imperial 
costume, but continued to wear purple boots, which were 
part of the insignia of an emperor. As he advanced to 
the tent of Basil, leaning on two of his equerries, Basil, 
surprised at his infirmity, exclaimed to his attendants, ' Is 
this the man we all trembled at yesterday?' But as soon 
as he perceived the purple boots, he refused to receive the 
infirm old general until they were changed. Skleros had then 
a gracious audience, and was requested to sit down. He did 
not long survive ^ 

The attention to public business on the part of the emperor 
which caused the rebellion of Phokas, produced the ffin of 
the president Basilios, whom Basil deprived of all his offices 
about the same time. His estates were confiscated, his acts 
annulled, the populace of Constantinople were allowed to 
plunder his palace, the sacred offerings and dedications he 
had made were destroyed, and even the monastery he had 
founded was dissolved. The celebrated minister died in 
exile, after having attained a degree of wealth and power 
which marks an unhealthy condition of the body politic 
in the Byzantine empire. No such accumulation of fortune 
as Basilios is reported to have possessed, could ever have 
been obtained by a public servant without the exertion of 
the grossest oppression, either on the part of the individual 
or the government. The riches of Basilios must almost 
have rivalled the wealth of Crassus ; at least, he came under 
the definition of a rich man, according to the standard of 



* Cedrenus, 701. 



:v Google 



WEALTH OF PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS. 367 

AJI. 976-1035.] 

that wealthy Roman, for he was able to maintain an army. 
At an early part of his political career, he armed a household 
of three thousand slaves to aid in placing the imperial crown 
on the head of Nicephorus II, The aristocracy of Constanti* 
nople at this period bore some resemblance, in its social 
position, to that of Rome at the fall of the Republic, both 
in wealth and political corruption. The estates of Eustathios 
Malelnos, in whose house Fhokas raised the standard of 
revolt, were not less extensive than those of the ambitious 
president. Malelnos was fortunate enough to escape punish- 
ment for his share in the rebellion, but some years after, aa 
Basil was retumii^ from a campaign in Syria (a.d. 995), he 
stopped at the palace of Malemos in Cappadocia, and was 
amazed at the strength of the building, and the wealth, 
power, and splendour of the household. The emperor saw 
that a man of courage, in possession of so much influence, 
and commanding such a number of armed servants, could 
at any moment commence a reijellion as dangerous as that 
of Skleros or Phokas. Malelnos received an invitation to 
accompany the court to the capital, and was never again 
allowed to visit his estates in Cappadocia. At his death, 
his immense fortune was confiscated, and most writers 
ascribed the legislative measures of Basil, to protect the 
landed property of small proprietors from the encroachments 
of the wealthy, to the impression produced on his mind by 
witnessing the power of Malelnos in Cappadocia ; but we 
must bear in mind that, from the time of Romanus I., the 
Byzantine emperors had been vainly endeavouring to stem 
the torrent of aristocratic predominance in the provinces j 
and both Constantine VII. (Porphyrogenitus) and Nice- 
phorus II., though in general extremely dissimilar in character 
and policy, agreed in passing laws to protect the poor against 
the rich ^ Basil II. fully appreciated all the evils which 
resulted from the tendency of society to accumulate wealth 
in the hands of a few individuals, and he endeavoured to 
aid the middle classes in defending their possessions ; but 

' Cedrarufi, 70). See the laws of Romanus 1., NaiiAlia, i, 1, 3; Constantine 
VII., Novtllat, i. 1 : Nicephorus II . NawUat, 3, 5 j and Basil H., tfovttiu, 1. 3, 5. 
Freheii 3'b> Grano-Ramaaam. torn. ii. p. 139, &c. Mortreuil. Hittoiri du Droit 
Byvmiin, where references to the texts will be found. The laws of Nicephorus II. 
are Nos. 4 and 6 iq the Collection annexed to Leo Diaconus> pp. 310, 311. AUl. 



DgIC 



368 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Cli.n.{i. 
all the power he could exert was unable to prevent the 
constant diminution that was going on in the number of 
the smaller landed proprietors, the middle classes in the 
towns, and generally of the civilized races of mankind 
throughout the greater part of his empire. The task was 
beyond the power of legislation, and required an improvement 
in the moral as well as in the political constitution of society. 
The attempts of the emperor to arrest the prepress of the 
evil may have been ineffectual, but they could not be 
disadvantageous to the people. It is therefore strange to 
find the Patriarch, the higher clergy, and the monks opposed 
to these measures, and engaged in endeavouring to turn him 
from his purpose, particularly when he wished to render the 
rich responsible for the taxes of the ruined poor of their 
district The Greek church has, however, generally been 
a servile instrument either of the sovereign power or of 
the aristocracy, and has contributed little either to enforce 
equity or civil liberty, when the mass of the lower orders 
was alone concerned '. The evil of increasing wealth in the 
hands of a few individuals, and of a gradual diminution of 
the intelligent population in the Byzantine empire, went on 
augmenting from the time of Basil II. Asia and Europe 
both lost their civilized races ; the immense landed estates 
of a few aristocrats were cultivated by Mohammedan slaves, 
or Sclavonian, Albanian, and Vallachian serfs ; manufactures 
and trade declined with the population, the towns dwindled 
into villages, and no class of native inhabitants possessed 
strength and patriotism to fight for thfeir homes when a new 
race of invaders poured into the empire. 

The reign of Basil II. is the culminating point of Byzantine 
greatness. The eagles of Constantinople flew during his life, 
in a long career of victory, from the banks of the Danube to 
those of the Euphrates, and from the mountains of Armenia 
to the shores of Italy. Basil's indomitable courage, terrific 
cruelty, indiflFerence to art and literature, and religious 
superstition, all combine to render him a true type of his 
empire and age. The great object of his policy was to 
consolidate the unity of the administration in Europe by 
the complete subjection of the Bulgarians and Sclavonians, 

' Cedremia, 706. 

Djizcdtv Google 



BULGARIAN WAR. 369 

AJ». 976-1015.] 

whom similarity of language had almost blended into one 
nation, and united in hostility to the imperial govern- 
ment. 

Four sons of a Bulgarian noble of the highest rank had 
commenced a revolutionary movement in Bu^aria against 
the royal family, after the death of Peter and the first victories 
of the Russians. In order to put an end to these troubles, 
Ntcephorus II. on the retreat of Swiatoslaf replaced Boris, 
the son of Peter, on the throne of Bulgaria ; and when the 
Russians returned, Boris submitted to their domination >. 
Shortly after the death of John I. (Zimiskes), the Bu^arian 
leaders again roused the people to a struggle for independ- 
ence. Boris, who had been compelled to reside at Constanti- 
nople by Zimiskes, escaped, and in attempting to recover 
his paternal throne, was accidentally slain, and the four 
brothers again became the chiefs of the nation. In a short 
time three perished, and Samuel, who alone remained, 
assumed the titie of King. The forces of the empire being 
occupied with the rebellion of Skleros, Samuel succeeded 
both in expelling the Byzantine authorities from Bu^ana, 
and in rousing the Sclavonians of Macedonia to throw off 
the Byzantine yoke. He then invaded Thessaly, and ex- 
tended his plundering excursions over those parts of Greece 
and the Peloponnesus still inhabited by the Hellenic race. 
Frespa was selected to be the capital of this new Bulgarian 
kingdom, and to people his new residence Samuel carried 
off the inhabitants of Larissa and settled them in Prespa. 
Intelligent artisans and industrious manufacturers were at- 
tracted to this favoured city by many privil^es, and the 
superstition of the Thessalians was gratified by the removal 
of the body of St. Achilles to a new shrine at Prespa from 
Larissa of which he had been the protecting martyr. Yet 
whether this St. Achilles had been a Roman soldier or a 
Greek archbishop, was a question on which there was a 
difference of opinion among his superstitious votaries*. 
Samuel showed himself, both in ability and course, a rival 
worthy of Basil ; and the empire of the East seemed for some 



' Cedrenus, €46, 6<t6. 61)4; Leo Diaconns, 61, 136. 

' Achilles the >n:h bishop' of Larissa, thougli a laint, vas not a martyr. He 
wal one of the bishops al the (icst general cooncil of Nicaea. M^iolagiiim 
Oratenrum Jmai SasiUi iraptraurii idiaim, Uibim 1717, iii. 99. 
VOL. IL B b 



ii'^le 



370 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.C)>.II.Si. 
time in danger of being transferred from the Byzantine 
Romans to the Sclavonian Bulgarians. 

In the year 981, the Emperor Basil made his first campaign 
:^inst the new Bulgarian monarchy is person. His plan 
of operations was to secure the great western passes through 
Mount Haemus, on the road from Fhilippopolis to Sardica, 
and by the conquest of the latter city he hoped to cut off the 
communication between the Bulgarians north of Mount 
Haemus and the Sclavonians in Macedonia. But his military 
inexperience, and the relaxed discipline of the army, caused 
this well-conceived plan to fail. Sardica was besieged in 
vain for twenty days. The negligence of the officers and 
the disobedience of the soldiers caused several foragii^ 
parties to be cut off; the besi^ed burned the engines of 
the besiegers in a victorious sortie, and the emperor was 
forced to retreat. As his army was passing the defiles of 
Haemus, it was assailed by the troops Samuel had collected 
to watch his operations, and completely routed. The ba^age 
and military chest, the emperor's plate and tents, all fell into 
the bands of the Bulgarian king, and Basil himself escaped 
with some difficulty to Fhilippopolis, where he collected the 
fugitives. Leo Diaconus, who accompanied the expedition as 
one of the clei^ of the imperial chapel, and was fortunate 
enough to escape the pursuit, has left us a short but authentic 
notice of this first disastrous campaign of Basil, the slayer of 
the Bulgarians '. 

The reoiganization of his army, the regulation of the 
internal administration of the empire, the rebellion of Phokas, 
and the wars in Italy and on tlie Asiatic frontier, prevented 
Basil from attacking Samuel in person for many years. Still 
a part of the imperial forces carried on this war, and Samuel 
perceived that he was unable to resist the Byzantine generals 
in the plains of Bulgaria, where the heavy cavalry, military 
engines, and superior discipline of the imperial armies could 
be employed to advantage. He resolved, therefore, to 
transfer the seat of the Bulgarian government to a more 
inaccessible position. He first proposed to make Prespa 
his capital, but he subsequently abandoned that intention, 
and established the central administration of his dominions 

' Leo Diaconui, 1 71, edit. Bonn. 

Djizcdtv Google 



KINGDOM OF ACHRIDA. 371 

AJ). 97(1.1035.] 

at Achrida. The site was well adapted for rapid communica- 
tions with his Sclavonian subjects in Macedonia, who furnished 
his armies with their best recruits. To Achrida he also 
transferred the seat of the Bulgarian patriarchate, and to this 
day the archbishop of that city, in virtue of the position he 
received from Samuel, still holds an ecclesiastical jurisdiction 
over several suffragans independent of the Patriarch of 
Constantinople. As a military position, Achrida had many 
advantages; it commanded an important point in the Via 
Egnatia, the great commercial road connecting the Adriatic 
with Bulgaria, as well as with Thessalonica and Constanti- 
nople, and afforded many facilities for enabling Samuel to 
choose his points of attack on the Byzantine themes of 
Macedonia, Hellas, Dyrrachium, and Nicopolis. Here, there- 
fore, Samuel finally established the capital of the Bulgaror 
Sclavonian kingdom he founded '. 

The dominions of Samuel soon became as extensive as the 
European portion of the dominions of Basil, The possessions 
of the two monarchs ran into one another in a very irregular 
form, and both were inhabited by a variety of races, in different 
states of civilization, bound together hy few sympathies, and 
no common attachment to national institutions. Samuel was 
master of almost the whole of ancient Bulgaria, the emperor 
retaining possession of little more than the fortress of Dory- 
stolon, the forts at the mouth of the Danube, and the passes 
of Mount Haemus. But the strength of the Bulgarian king 
lay in his possessions in the upper part of Macedonia, in 
£pini3, and the southern part of lUyria, in the chain of 
Pindus, and in mountains that overlook the northern and 



> [Achrida, or as it is now called, Ocbrida, stands al the northern end of the 
lake of the same name, the lai^t piece of water in the Greek p«niasula; the 
citadel is on a conical hill, which rises from the shore. It occupies debaleabte 

§ round between Macedonia and Albania, being separated from the fonner country 
y the lofty range of Scatdus, ibc northern continuation of Pindus, which forms 
the backbone of the peninsula. Its strength lies in the remoteness of its position, 
tnd in its commanding the pass by which the Egnatian way led over Scardus from 
Heraclea (Monastir). Between those two cities the mountain-chiin is divided 
into two brandies, and in the intervening valley lies the small lake of Prcspa 
(Presba), with the town which Samuel first intended for his capital. The road 
which is referred to in the teil, by which it communicated with Bulgaria, is that 
from Heraclea to Slobi, a( the conflneoce of the Alius and Erigon, whidi place 
was the great meeting-point of the Roman roads in Macedonia. Achrida probably 
occupied the sile of the ancient Lychnidus, while the lake was the Lacus Lych- 
nitis. The name is derived from the Slavonic aXar, 'a court/ since il was tiie 
residence of the Bulgarian monarchs. En.] 
Bb 2 



A'OO'^IC 



372 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.Ch.n.{). 
western slopes of the great plains of Thessalonica and Thessaly. 
In all these provinces the greater part of the rural population 
consisted of Sclavonians who were hostile to the Byzantine 
government and to the Greek race ; and though an Albanian 
and Vallachian population was scattered over some parts of 
the territory, they readily united with Samuel in throwing off 
the Byzantine yoke, and only opposed his government when 
he attempted to augment his monarchical power at the expense 
of their habits of local independence. From the nature of his 
dominions, his only hope of consolidating a regular system of 
dvil government was by holding out allurements to the local 
chieftains to submit voluntarily to his authority. It was only 
by continual plundering expeditions into the Byzantine terri- 
tory, and especially into Greece, that this object could be 
attained. He was, therefore, indefatigable in forming a lai^e 
military force, and employed it constantly in ravaging the 
plain of Thessaly and attacking the Greek cities. 

In the year 990, Basil visited Thessalonica, to take measures 
for arresting the progress of Samuel, and left Gr^ory the 
Taronite with a strong garrison to resist the Bulgarians, until 
he himself should be able to turn the whole force of the 
empire against them*. For several years Gr^ory checked the 
incursions of Samuel, but at last he was slain in a skirmish, and 
his son Ashot was taken prisoner. This success secured Samuel 
from all danger on the side of the garrison of Thessalonica, 
and he resolved to avail himself of the opportunity to attempt 
the conquest of Greece, or at least to plunder the inhabitants, 
should he meet with opposition. He marched rapidly through 
Thessaly, Boeotia, and Attica, into the Peloponnesus j but the 
towns everywhere shut their gates and prepared for a defence, 
so that he could effect nothing beyond plundering and layii^ 
waste the open country. In the mean time, the emperor, 
hearing of the death of Gr^ory and the invasion of Greece, 
sent Nicephorus Ouranos with considerable reinforcements to 
take the command of the garrison of Thessalonica, and march 
with all the force he should be able to collect in pursuit of 
Samuel. Ouranos entered Thessaly, and, leaving the heavy 
baggie of his army at Larissa, pushed rapidly southward to 



* dwcended from the Aimoiiui priocei of Taion, long settled In 



DEFEAT OF SAMVEL. 373 

the banks of the Spercheus, where he found Samuel encamped 
on the other side, hastenii^ home with the plunder of Greece. 
Heavy rains on Mounts Oeta and Korax had rendered the 
Spercheus — which at the end of summer is only a brook — 
an impassable torrent at the time Samuel reached its banks, 
and Ouranos encamped for the night in the vicinity of the 
Bu^rian army, without his arrival causing any alarm ', But 
the people of the country had observed that the river was 
banning to fall, and as they were anxious that both armies 
should quit their territory as fast as possible, they were eager 
to bring on a battle. In the night they showed Ouranos 
a ford, by which he passed the river and surprised the Bulga- 
rians in their camp. Samuel and his son Gabriel escaped 
with the greatest difficulty to the counter-forts of Oeta, from 
whence they gained Tymphrestos and the range of Pindus. 
The Bulgarian army was completely annihilated, and all the 
plunder and slaves made during the expedition fell into the 
hands of Ouranos, a.d. 991$. 

This great defeat paralyzed the military operations of 
Samuel for some time, and it was followed by a domestic 
misfortune which also weakened his resources. He had been 
induced to allow his dai^hter to marry Ashot the Taronite, 
whom he had taken prisoner at Thessalonica, and in order to 
attach that brave and able young officer to his service, he had 
intrusted him with the government of Dyrrachium. But 
Ashot was dissatisfied with his position, and succeeded in 
persuading the Bulgarian princess to fly with him to Con- 
stantinople. Before quitting Dyrrachium, however, he formed 
a plot with the principal men of the place, by which that 
valuable fortress was subsequently delivered up to the em- 
peror. This was a serious political, as well as a grievous 
domestic wound to Samuel; for the loss of Dyrrachium 
interrupted the commercial relations of his subjects with 
Italy, and deprived them of the support they might have 
derived from the enemies of the Byzantine empire beyond the 
Adriatic. 

' I was once witneis of the extraorduury effects of an antnmnal storm in these 
mountains. The waters of the Vistritu and the streams from Oeta poared down 
with sud violence as to render that river and the Spercheus impassable for several 
hours. One ofthe torrents near H}^ate(PatTadjik) rolled down such a mass of rocka 
and mud that its bed presented the appearance of an advancing Cyclopian wall " 
the waters drove the accumalated mattN before it tbrongfa a gorge in the '~ 



o^^le 



374 BASILIAN D VNASTY. ' 

[Bk. II. Ch.ll.f I.- 
Basil at length arranged the external relations of the 
empire in such a way that he was able to conduct a lai^e 
army in person against the kingdom of Achrida. The Scla- 
vonians formed the most numerous part of the population 
of the country between the Danube, the Aegean, and the 
Adriatic, and they were in possession of the line of mountains 
that runs from Dyrrachium, in a variety of chains, to the 
vicinity of Constantinople'. Basil saw many signs that the 
whole Sclavonic race in these countries was united in opposi- 
tion to the Byzantine government, so that the existence of his 
empire demanded the conquest of the Bulgaro-Sclavonian 
kingdom which Samuel had founded. To this arduous task 
he devoted himself with his usual energy. In the year looo, 
his generals were ordered to enter Bulgaria by the eastern' 
passes of Mount Haemus; and in this campaign they took the 
cities of greater and lesser Prestblava and Pliscova, the ancient 
capitals of Bulgaria. In the following year, the emperor took 
upon himself the direction of the army destined to act against 
Samuel. Fixing his head-quarters at Thessalonica, he re- 
covered possession of the fortresses of Vodena, Berrhoea, and 
Servia. By these conquests he became master of the passes 
leading out of the plain of Thessalonica into the plains of 
Pelagonia, and over the Cambuntan mountains into Thessaly, 
thus opening the way for an attack on the flank and rear of the 
forces of the kingdom of Achrida. Vodena or Edessa, the 
ancient capital of the Macedonian princes, had become, like all 
the cities of this mountainous district, Sclavonian. Its situation 
on a rock overhanging the river Lydias, the sublimity of the 
scenery around, the abundance of water, the command of the 
fertile valleys below, the salubrity of the spot, and the strength 
of the position closing up the direct road between Thessalonica 
and Achrida — all rendered the possession of Vodena an im- 
portant step to the further operations of the Byzantine arms '. 

In the following campaign (1002), the emperor changed the 
field of operations, and, marching from Philippopolis through 
the western passes of Mount Haemus, occupied the whole line 
of road as far as the Danube, and cut Samuel ofl" from all 

> Tz«tzei, ChiliaJti, x. lai. 

* [The name Vodeoa is SlSTonic. and means the 'dty of waters' (iiofta, SUv. for 
'water'). The river, which is a tributary of the Lydias, flows through the town 
in numerou channels, and falls in cascade! to the tevel ground below. En.] 



DgIC 



DEFEAT OF SAMUEL. 375 

u. 976-I015.] 

coaimunication with the plains of Bulgaria ^. He then foiined 
the siege of Vidin, which he kept closely invested during the 
spring and summer, until at last he took that important 
fortress. Samuel formed a bold enterprise, which he hoped 
would compel Basil to raise the siege of Vidin, or, at all 
events, enable him to inflict a deep wound on the empire. 
Assembling an army at Skopia *, on the upper course of the 
Vardar, he marched into the valley of the Hebrus, and by the 
celerity of his movements surprised the inhabitants of Adrian- 
ople at a great fair which they held annually on the 15th of 
August, when the Greek church commemorates the death of 
ttie Vii^n Mary. By this long march into the heart of the 
empire, Samuel rendered himself master of great booty. His 
success prevented his returning as rapidly as he had advanced, 
but he succeeded in passing the garrison of Philippopolis and 
crossing the Strymon and the Vardar in safety, when Basil 
suddenly overtook him at the head of the Byzantine army. 
Samuel was encamped under the walls of Skopia ; Basil 
crossed the river, stormed the Bulgarian camp, captured the 
military chest and stores, and recovered the plunder of Adrian- 
Dple. He had thus the satisfaction of avenging the defeat 
he had suffered from Samuel, one-and-twenty years before, in 
the passes of Mount Haemus. The city of Skopia surren- 
dered after the victory, and its commander Romanus, the 
younger brother of Boris, the last king of Bulgaria of the 
ancient line, whose misfortune prevented his becoming a rival 
to Samuel, was honourably treated by the emperor^. Basil 
then laid siege to Pemikon, a fortress of great strength, from 
which he was repulsed by the valour of the Bulgarian governor 
Krakras. He then withdrew to Philippopolis. 

The conquest of Vidin having enabled Basil to deprive Bul- 
garia of relief from Samuel, the Byzantine generals easily 
completed the subjection of the whole of the rich country 
between Mount Haemus and the Danube. The king of 
Achrida finding himself unable to encounter the troops of 
Basil in the field, and seeing his territory constantly circum- 
scribed by the capture of his fortresses, determined to fortify 



' Cedrenui. 705. Tfae filleenth indiction extends to 1st Septeoibec tool. 
* [The ancient Scupi, colled by Ihe Turks Uskiub. Ed.] 

■ Romanus bad been made ui enouch by order of Joseph Biiogu. Cedreous, 
694- 



O3IC 



97fi BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

{BLII. Ch.ILf J. 

all the passes in the mountains that lead into Upper Mace- 
donia. By stationii^ strong bodies of troops, and forming 
magazines behind these intrenchments, he hoped to present 
to his assailants the difficulties of a siege in situations where 
their supplies would require to be drawn from a great dis- 
tance, and be exposed to be captured or destroyed on the way 
by the Bulgarian light troops and the Sclavonian inhabitants 
of the mountains. For several years a bloody and indecisive 
war was carried on, which gradually weakened the resources 
of the kingdom of Achrida, without affecting the power of the 
Byzantine empire. 

In the year 1014, Basil considered everything ready for a 
final effort to complete the subjection of the Sclavonian popu- 
lation of the mountainous districts round the upper valley of 
the Strymon. On reaching the pass of Demirhissar, or the 
Kleisura, then called Kimbalongo, or Klddion, he found it 
strongly fortified. Samuel placed himself at the head of the 
Bulgarian army, prepared to oppose his progress, and the 
emperor found the pass too strong to be forced ; sitting down, 
therefore, before it, he sent Nicephorus Xiphias, the governor 
of Philippopolis, with a strong detachment, to make the cir- 
cuit of a high mountain called Valathista, which lay to the 
south, and gain the rear of the Bulgarian position. This 
manoeuvre was completely successful. On the 29th of July, 
Nicephorus attacked the enemy's rear, while Basil assailed 
their front, and the Bulgarians, in spite of all the exertions 
of Samuel, gave way on every side. It was only in conse- 
quence of the gallant resistance of his son Gabriel that the 
king of Achrida was saved from being taken prisoner, and 
enabled to gain Prilapos in safety. The emperor is said to 
have taken fifteen thousand prisoners, and to revenge the 
sufferings of his subjects from the ravages of the Bulgarians 
and Sclavonians, he gratified his own cruelty by an act of 
vengeance, which has justly entailed in£amy on his name. 
His frightful inhumanity has forced history to turn with dis- 
gust from his conduct, and almost buried the records of hi» 
military achievements in oblivion. He ordered the eyes of all 
his prisoners to be put out, leaving a single eye to the leader 
of every hundred, and in this condition he sent the wretched 
captives forth to seek their king or perish on the way. When 
they approached Achrida, a rumour that the prisoners had 



DEATH OF SAMUEL. 377 

jbii.()7«-tois.] 

been released induced Samuel to go out to meet them. On 
learning the full extent of the emperor's barbarity, he fell 
senseless to the ground, overpowered with rage and grief, wid 
died two days after. He is said to have murdered his own 
brother to secure possession of his throne, so that his heart 
was broken by the first touch of humanity it ever felt '. 

After his victory, Basil occupied the fort of Matzoukion, 
and advanced on Strumpitza, where he ordered Theophylaktos 
Botaniates, the governor of Thessalonica, who had defeated 
a lai^e body of Bulgarians, to join him by marchii^ north- 
ward, and clearing away the intrenchments constructed by 
Samuel on the road leading from Thessalonica directly to 
Strumpitza. In this operation Theophylaktos was surrounded 
by the Bulgarians and slain, with the greater part of his 
troops, in the defiles. This check compelled the emperor 
to retire by the Zagorian mountains to Mosynopolis, having 
succeeded in gaining possession of the strong fortress of 
Melenik by negotiation. At Mosynopolis, on the a4th October, 
1014, he heard of the death of Samuel, and immediately 
determined to take advantage of an event likely to prove 
so favourable to the Byzantine arms. Marching with a strong 
body of troops through Thessalonica and Vodena, he advanced 
into Pelagonia, carefully protectii^ that fertile district from 
ravage, and destroying nothing but a palace of the Bulgarian 
kings at Boutelion. From thence he sent a division of the 
army to occupy Frilapos and Stobi, and. crossing the river 
Tzema (Erigon) with the main body, he returned by Vodena 
to Thessalonica, which he reached on the 9th of January, 
1015'. 

The cruelty of Basil awakened an enei^etic resistance on 
the part of the Sclavonians and Bulgarians, and Gabriel 



* Cruelty ^milar to that of Baail was perpetrated on a smaller scale by Richard 
C<mr4e-Lion. though of conisc it i* not necessary lo place strict reliance on the 
numben reported by the Byzantine historians. Richard, to revenge the loss of 
a body of men, ordered three hundred French knights to be thrown into the Seine, 
and put oot the eyes of fifteen, who were sent home blind, led by one whose tight 
eye had been spared. Philip Augustus, nothing loath, revenged himself by treat- 
ing fifteen English knights in the aame way. Capetigiie. Philifipt Aaguste, li. 101 ; 
Vaublanc, La Frana av Tttnpt dn Cmitadn, ii. 4. Putting out men's eyes wai, 
for several centuries, a common practice all over Europe, and not regarded with 
much horror. As Ule as the reign of Henty IV., a.d. 1403, an Act orParliamait 
was passed, making it felony for EngliEhmen to cnt out one aiiother'i tongaes or 
put out Ihcit neignboni's eyes. 

* Cedrenui, 709. 



DjIz.ctyGOOgIC 



378 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Ch.n.{ j: 
Radomir, the brave son of Samuel, was enabled to offer 
unexpected obstacles to the progress of the Byzantine 
armies. Vodena revolted, and expelled the imperial garrison, 
so that Basil was compelled to open the campaign of 1015 
with the siege of that place, which he reduced. The inhabit- 
ants were transported to Beleros, to make way for Greek 
colonists ; and two forts, Kardia and St. Elias, were built 
to command the pass to the westward. After receiving an 
embassy from Gabriel, with proposals which he did not 
consider deserving of attention, Basil joined a division of 
his army engaged in besieging Moglena under the immediate 
command of Nicephcrus Xiphias and Constantine Di<^enes, 
who had succeeded Theophylaktos as governor of Thessalonica. 
By turning the course of the river, the besiegers were enabled 
to run a mine under the wall, which they supported on wooden 
props. When the mine was completed, it was filled with 
combustibles, which reduced the props to ashes, and as soon 
as the wall fell and opened a breach, Moglena was taken 
by assault. The whole of the Sclavonian population capable 
of bearing arms was by the emperor's order transported to' 
Vasparoukan in Armenia. The fort of Notia in the vicinity' 
was also taken and destroyed. 

Gabriel, the king of Achrida, though brave, alienated the 
favour of his subjects by his imprudence, and his cousin, 
John Ladislas, whose life he had saved in youth, was base 
enough to become his murderer, in order to gain possession 
of the throne. Ladislas, to gain time, both for strengthening 
himself on the throne and resisting the Byzantine invasion, 
sent ambassadors to Basil with favourable offers of peace; 
but the emperor, satisfied that the stn^gle between the 
Sclavonians and Greeks could only be terminated by conquest, 
rejected all terms but absolute submission, and pushed on 
his operations with his usual vigour, laying waste the country 
about Ostrovos and Soskos, and marching unopposed through 
the fertile plains of Pelagonia^ The defeat of a [Mrtion 
of the Byzantine army by Ibatzes, one of the Bu^rian 
generals, compelled the emperor to march against him in 
person ; and when Ibatzes retreated into the mountains, 



DgIC 



LADISLAS KING OF ACHRIDA. 379 

*j>.9)6-iojj.] 

Basil returned to Thessalonica, and shortly after established 
himself at Moaynopolis. The conquest of eastern Macedonia 
was not yet completed : one division of the Byzantine troops 
was placed under the command of David the Arianite, which 
besi^ed and took the fortress of Thermitza on Mount 
Strumpitza : another, under Nicepborus Xiphias, cros^ng 
Mount Haemus from PhiUppopolis, took Boion, near Sardica. 

The Emperor Basil returned to Constantinople in the month' 
of January 1016, in order to send an expedition to Khazaria, 
the operations of which had been concerted >vith Vladimir 
of Russia, his brother-in-law. He also availed himself of 
the opportunity to arrange some difficulties relating to the 
cession of Vasparoukan. When that part of Armenia was 
annexed to the empire, and the conquest of Khazaria ter- 
minated, he ^ain joined the army at Sardica and laid siege 
to Pemikon, which repulsed his attacks, as it had done fourteen 
years before. After lo^ng eighty-eight days before the place, 
he was compelled to retire to Mosynopolis. 

In the spring of 1017, Basil again turned his arms gainst 
Pelagonia. Kastoria, a town situated on a rocky peninsula 
in a small lake, resisted his attacks, but the booty collected 
in the open country was considerable; and this he divided 
into three parts— one he bestowed on the Russian auxiliaries 
who served in his army, another he divided among the native 
Byzantine l^ions, and the third he reserved for the imperial 
treasury'. The operations of Basil in the west were for 
a time arrested by news he received from the governor of 
Dorystolon, which threatened to render his presence necessary 
in Bulgaria. Ladislas was concertii^ measures with the 
Patzinaks to induce them to invade the empire ; but after 
a slight delay, Basil was informed the alliance had failed, and 
he resumed his activity. After laying waste all the country 
round Ostrovos and Moliskos that was peopled by Sclavonians, 
and preparii^ the fortifications of Berrhoea which had fallen 
to decay, he captured Setaina, where Samuel had formed 
great magazines of wheat. These magazines were kept well 
filled by Ladislas, so that Basil became master of so great 
a store that he divided it among his troops. At last the 
King of Achrida approached the emperor at the head of a 

' Cedrenus, 711, 

r,.i,i ...A'OOglc 



SSo BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Sk.lLa.n.f>. 
considerable army, and a part of the imperial troops was 
drawn into an ambuscade. The emperor happened to be 
himself with the advanced division of the anny. He instantly- 
mounted his horse and led the troops about him to the scene 
of action, sending orders for all the other divisions to hasten 
forward to support him. His sudden advance was seen by 
the enemy's out-posts, who fled in confusioD and spread terror 
among thdr own troops by shoutii^, ' Fly t the emperor is 
upon us *.' The fortune of the day was changed and the whole 
Bulgarian army fled. After this victory, Basil, flnding the 
season too far advanced to follow up his success, returned to 
Constantinople, where he arrived in the month of January 
loiS. 

Ladislas, whose aflairs were becoming desperate, made an 
attempt to restore his credit by la3riag siege to DyTTachium, 
which he hoped to take before Basil could relieve it. Its 
possession would have enabled him to open communications 
with the enemies of Basil in Italy, and even with the Saracens 
of Sicily and Africa, but he was slain soon after the com- 
mencement of the siege. He reigned two years and five 
months. As soon as the emperor heard of his death, he 
visited Adrianople to make preparations for a campaign, which 
he hoped would end in the complete subjugation of the 
Bulgarian and Sclavonian population of the kingdom of 
Achrida. The Bulgarian leaders gave up all hope of resistance. 
Krakras, the brave chief of Pemikon, who had twice foiled 
the emperor, surrendered that impregnable fortress and thirty- 
five castles in the surrounding district Dragomoutzes delivered 
up the fortress of Strumpitza, and both he and Krakras 
were rewarded with the patrician chair. Basil marched by 
Mosynopolis and Serres to Strumpitza, where he received 
deputations from most of the cities in Pelagonia, laying 
their keys at his feet. Even David, the Patriarch of Bulgaria, 
arrived, bringing letters from the widow of Ladislas, offering 
to surrender the capital. The emperor continued to advance 
by Skopia, Stypeia, and Prosakon, and on reaching Achrida 
he was received rather as the lawful soverdgn than as a 

' Btfrirt 4 tHof are the irordi as given by SkylitiM. Cedroiiu, 7i», Xyhnder 
uyi thit ii/ugiu a Caaar. [According to Hilrerding {Ouelucku dtr Str6tH utd 
SulgariH, ii, 92) iheM words are Balgarian; be s»y» they were addreised to 
LadisUs, and mean ' Fly, O king I ' Ed. J 



ADMINISTRATION OF BULGARIA. 381 

XD.97&-J035.] 

foreign conqueror. He immediately took possession of all 
Hie treasures Samuel had amassed ; the gold alone amounted 
to a hundred centners ^ and with this he paid all the arrears 
due to his troops, and rewarded them with a donative for 
their long and gallant service in this arduous war. Almost 
the whole of tiie royal family of Achrida submitted, and 
received the most generous treatment. Three sons of Ladislas, 
who escaped to Mount Tmonis, and attempted to prolong 
the contest, were soon captured. The noble Bulgarians 
hastened to make their submission, and many were honoured 
with h^h rank at the imperial court. Nothing, indeed, proves 
more decidedly the absence of all Greek nationality in the 
Byzantine administration at this period, than the facility with 
which all foreigners obtained favour at the court of Con- 
stantinople : nor can anything be more conclusive of the fact 
that the centralization of power in the person of the emperor, 
as completed by the Basilian dynasty, had now destroyed 
the administrative centralization of the old Roman imperial 
^stem, for we have proofs that a considerable Greek popula- 
tion still occupied the cities of Thrace and Macedonia, though 
Greek feelings had little influence on the govenmient \ 

The arrangement of the dvil and flnancial administration 
of the conquered territory, which had for so many years 
been separated from the Byzantine empire, occupied the 
emperor's attention durii^ the remainder of the year. He 
also ordered two fortresses to be constructed to command 
the mountain passes leading to Achrida, one in the lake 
of Prespa, and the other on the road leading to Vodcna 
and Thessalonica. He then visited DiavoUs, in order to 
inspect the passage over the Macedonian mountains that 
afforded the easiest communication with Northern Epirus'. 
Nicephorus Xiphias was sent at the same time to destroy 
all the mountain forts still in the possession of SclavonifUt 
chieftains about Servia and Soskos*. The taxation of the 

* This mm is not quite equal to 480,000 soTCTtigns. 

' EusUthios, tKe Bynuitine govantor of Achrida, addresses the Bulgarian soldiers 
d (he guiison of Pionista thus, "ttaimot V I7A, m) 'Pviiaioi ot ruf M Bp4ittl$ ml 
Hiwf&wiat tlntrram d\A' !< t^ Hu^at 'Aaiat. Cedrenus, 715, Roman at thit 
period meant Greek in the month of a B]ruuitiiw official. 

' The modem pass of Tjangon or DeroL Leake, 7hi««tf im Nortlunt Ontct, 
i- 33S' 339- 

* For (be dtr of Servia at present, «ee Leake, TravU in ItorHum Orttt, 



38a BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Cb.ILl>. 
Sclavonian cultivators of the soil was arrai^ed on the same 
footing on which it had been placed by Samuel. Each pair 
of oxen for the plough paid annually a measure of wheat, 
and one of millet, barley, or maize, and each strema of vine- 
yard paid a jar or barrel of wine to the fisc \ 

Basil now resolved to re-establish the Byzantine influence 
on the coast of Dalmatia. A division of the army was sent 
northward to complete the subjection of the mountainous 
districts of the theme of Dyrrachium as far as the Dalmatian 
and Servian frontiers ; and an imperial fleet entered the 
Adriatic to act in co-operation with the troops on shore. 
The princes of Servia agreed to acknowledge the supremacy 
of the emperor, and Constantine Diogenes, the imperial 
general on the Danube, gained possession of the city of 
Sirmium by an act of the basest treachery. He invited the 
governor to a conference, gave the Servian the most sacred 
promises to act with good faith, and when they met, each 
attended by three servants, the Byzantine general assas^n- 
ated the Servian governor and the imperial troops surprised 
Sirmium *. 

After pas^ng the winter in his new conquests, Basil made 
a prt^ress through Greece. At Zeitounion' he visited the 
field of battle where the power of Samuel had been first 
broken by the victory of Nicephorus Ouranos, and found 
the ground still strewed with the bones of the slain. The 
wall that defended the pass of Thermopylae retained its 
antique name, Skeios; and its masonry, which dated from 
Hellenic days, excited the emperor's admiration. Basil was 
the only emperor who for several ages honoured Athens 
with a visit. Many magnificent structures in the town, 
and the temples in the Acropolis, had then hardly suffered 
any rude touches from the hand of time. If the original 
fplendour of the external painting and gilding which once 

' Iilodios is the word used. Cedrenus. 747 ; Joannis Curopalatoe Hia. (Skj- 
litzes), S50. The Dlod[os and medimnos of Byiantine writers seem (o be the same 
ineasure. Suidas says the medinuios was toS lilras, which shows it had nothing 
to do with the old Attic medimnos. The aacienl medimaos contained 1 1 gallons 
7-1456 English piotB ; the uident modios l gallon 7'Si|76 pints. Smith's Diciiimary 
of Grtti and Roman Aniiquiiia. The Byzantine modios contained 40 lilias at 
good wheat. Ducange, Olouaritnn Mid. ti Jnf. Graicilalis, v. Hi<Si)i, 

■ Lucius, Dt Rtgno Dalmaliai, 197 ; Cedienus, 717. 

■ [The andent Lamia, on the opposite side of the Maliac Gulf to Themo- 
pylae. Ei>.] ' ■ 



DgIC 



POPULATION OF THE EMPIRE IN EUROPE. 383 
Aj>. 976^10*5.] 

adorned the Parthenon of Pericles had faded, the mural 
paintings of saints, martyrs, emperors, and empresses, that 
covered the interior of the cella, gave a new interest to 
the Church of the Vii^n, into which it had been transformed. 
The mind of Basil, though insensible to Hellenic literature, 
was deeply sensible of religious impressions, and the glorious 
combination of beauty in art and nature that he saw in the 
Acropolis touched his stem soul. He testified his feelings by 
splendid gifts to the city, and rich dedications at the shrine of 
the Virgin in the Parthenon '. 

From Greece the emperor returned to Constantinople, 
where he indulged himself in the pomp of a triumph, making 
his entry into his capital by the Golden Gate, and listening 
with satisfaction to the cries of the populace, who applauded 
his cruelty by saluting him with the title of ' The Slayer of 
the Bu^arians^' 

I have entered into the history of the destruction of the 
Bulgarian monarchy of Achrida in some detail, because the 
stru^le was national as well as political ; and the persevering 
resistance oflTered by the Sclavonian population of Macedonia 
to a warlike sovereign like Basil, proves the density and 
flourishing condition of that people, and the complete anni- 
hilation of all Hellenic influence in extensive provinces, 
where for ages the civilization and the langui^e of Greece 
had been predominant. Against this national enei^ on 
the part of the united Bulgarians and Sclavonians, the 
government at Constantinople had nothing to oppose but 
a well-disciplined army and a well-organized administration. 
The Byzantine empire had never less of a national character 
than at the present period, when its military glory reached 
the highest pitch. Its Roman traditions were a mere name, 
and it had not yet assumed the mediaeval Greek character- 
istics it adopted at a later period when it was ruled by the 
family of Comnenos. No national population followed in the 
rear of Basil's victories, to colonize the lands he systemati- 
cally depopulated by his ravages and cruelty; and hence it 
appears that extensive districts, instead of being repeopled 
by Greek settlers, remained in a deserted condition until 

* Cedrenos, 717 ; Zonaras, ii. 917. 

■ *0 iovK-faftanlita*. But this barbarous title is not mtnUo&ed b; the writers 
iteaiesl hii owd iime. 



:v Google 



384 BASIUAN DYSASTY. 

[Bk-acL-ILfi. 

a nomadic Vallacbian population intruded themselves. These 
new colonists soon multiplied so lapidly that about a century 
later they were found occupying the mountains round the 
great plain of* Thessaly'. The changes which have taken 
place in the numbers and places of habitatiiMi of the different 
races of mankind, are really as important a branch of 
historical inquiry as the geographical limits of political 
governments ; and the social laws that regulate the increase 
and decrease of the various families of the human race, at 
the same period and under the same government, are as 
deserving of study as the actions of princes and the legis- 
lation of parliaments, for they exert no inconsiderable 
influence on the rise and fall of states ; but hitherto bisto- 
rians have done little to enlighten their readers on these 
subjects. 

After the conclusion of the Bulgarian war, the attention 
of Basil was directed to the affairs of Armenia. Great 
political changes were taking place in Asia, caused by the 
decline of the empire of the caliphs of Bagdad ; but these 
revolutions lie beyond the sphere of Byzantine politics at 
this time, though they began already to exert an influence 
on the sovereigns of Armenia. Before Basil took the com- 
mand of his armies in the Bulgarian war, he had made a 
campaign in Armenia (a.d. 991), and gained possession of 
a considerable portion of Iberia or Georgia. The whole 
kingdom had been left to him by the will of David, its 
last sovereign; but Geoi^e, the brother of the deceased 
monarch, advancii^ his claim to the succession, Basil, in 
order to avoid a war, agreed to leave Geoige in possession 
of the northern part. It is not necessary to enter into any 
details concerning the relations of the empire with the 
different dynasties that then reigned in each of the princi- 
palities into which Armenia was divided. Basil, in order 
to keep some check on the population of Iberia and Armenia, 
transported colonies of Bulgarians and Sclavonians into the 
East, while at the same time he removed numbers of Ar- 
menians into Bulgaria. 

In the year 995, Basil visited the East, in order to re- 



AFFAIRS OF ARMENIA. 385 

*:ti. 976-1035.] 

establish the Byzantine influence in Syria, where it had fallen 
into discredit in consequence of the defeat of the imperial 
army on the banks of the Orontes, in the preceding year\ 
The emperor succeeded in re-establishing his authority. He 
took Aleppo, Hems, and Sheizar, and laid siege to TripoHs; 
but that city resisted his attacks, as it had done those of 
John Zimiskes ; and after his return to Constantinople, the 
lieutenants of the Fatimite caliphs of Egypt recovered posses- 
sion of Aleppo. 

In the year 1021, the emperor was compelled to take the 
field in person, to make head against a powerful combination 
of enemies on the Armenian frontier. Senekarim, the prince 
of Vasparoukan, had been so alarmed by the threatening 
aspect of the Mohammedan population on his frontiers that 
he had ceded his dominions to Basil, and received in exchange 
the city of Sebaste and the adjacent countty as far as the 
Euphrates, where he established himself with many Armenian 
families who quitted their native seats. Basil undertook to 
defend Vasparoukan against the Turkish tribes that began to 
attack it, and Senekarim engaged to govern Sebaste as a 
Byzantine viceroy*. After this cession, George, the sovereign 
of the northern part of Iberia and Abasgia, in conjunction 
with Joannes Sembat, the King of Ani, attacked the Byzan- 
tine territory, and their operations rendered the presence of 
the emperor necessary. They had formed secret relations 
with Nicephorus Xiphias, who, while governor of Philip- 
popolis, had distinguished himself in the Bulgarian war, 
and with Nicephorus, the son of Bardas Phokas. These two 
generals broke out into open rebellion in Cappadocia, and 
endeavoured to incite all the Armenians to take up arms, and 
Basil was obliged to suppress their rebellion before he 
engaged a foreign enemy. He availed himself of the spirit 
of treachery inherent among men in power in most absolute 
governments to effect his purpose. He sent letters secretly 
to each of the rebel chiefs, offering pardon to him who would 
assassinate his colleague. Phokas, who was bold and daring 

' Nicephonu Ouranos, who defeated Samuel OD the banks of the Sperchcut 
in 996, appears to have been taken prisoner by the Saracens in this battle. 
Cedrenus, 70J. For the date <rf Basil's campaign in Syria, compare Cedienus, 
701, and Weil, Ouehuhxt dtr ChaUfat, iii. 43, Dole. 

' Saint-Martin, Mimoira nir FAmini; i. 368; Chanich, il. ill, 
VOL. II. C C 



:v Google 



aSfi BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.Ch.lL{s. 
like his father, immediately communicated the emperor's 
letter to Xiphias, who, concealing that he had received one 
of similar import, availed himself of his friend's confidence 
to assassinate him' at a private interview. The rebel army 
then melted away, and Basil was able to turn all his forces 
against the sovereigpi of Iberia. In the first battle the victory 
remained doubtful, but in a second the Iberian and Abasgian 
troops were completely defeated (nth September, 1032). 
Liparit, the general of the Aba^ians, was slain, and the kings 
of Iberia and An! were obliged to sue for peace. A treaty 
was concluded on the banks of the lake Balagatsis, by which 
Joannes King of Armenia, who began to be alarmed at the 
progress of the Turks, ceded his capital, Ani, to Basil after 
his death, on condition of retaining the government in his 
own hands as long as he lived*. Durii^ this campaign, 
Basil displayed his usual foresight and energy : he took 
measures for putting the fortresses on the eastern frontier 
of the empire in a state to resist the Turks, who threatened 
to invade the west of Asia ; and some of the military engines 
he ordered to be constructed were of such power and solidity, 
that when the Seljouk Turks invaded the Byzantine territory 
in the reign of Constantine IX. (Monomachus), they found 
them still well suited for service. 

The next object of Basil's ambition was to expel the 
Saracens from Sicily; and he was engaged in making great 
preparations for reconquering that island, when he was seized 
with an illness, which quickly proved fatal. He expired in 
December 1025, at the age of sixty-e^ht, after having 
governed the empire with absolute power for fifty years. 
He extended the limits of the Byzantine territory on every 
side by his conquests, and at the end of his reign the 
Byzantine empire attained its greatest extent and highest 
power. 

We know very little of the manner in which Basil II. 
conducted the civil administration of the empire. His legis- 
lation proves that he endeavoured to protect the poor 
cultivators from becoming serfs on the lands of the rich. 
The measures he adopted do not always appear to have 
been those best adapted to ensure the desired end, but it 

* CedrcDUE, 761 ; ChMnicb, ii. 1 1 j ; Suot-M»rtin, i. 6i. 



DEATH OF BASIL. 387 

AJI.975-I015-] 

would be rash to form a decided opinion without possessing 
a more accurate knowledge of the relations between the 
cultivators and proprietors of land in the Byzantine empire 
at that time than we possess. He enacted that the rich 
were responsible for the land of the district when the poor 
were unable to pay their proportion. This obligation, called 
AlkUngyon, tended to impoverish the rich landlords and 
to make the poor cultivators idle, and it must have prevented 
capital from being employed in the cultivation of land ^. He 
also enforced the collection of all the public revenues with 
rigour, and this in fiscal matters generally implies a stricter 
attention to law than to equity, and he enacted that the 
claims of the treasury were not liable to prescription*. Yet 
he allowed some portion of the taxes to be two years in 
arrear at the time of his death, and he is expressly praised 
for sparing the poor by one of the Byzantine historians, though 
another reproadies him with avarice and declares that he left 
300,000 talents in the imperial treasury'. His commercial 
l^slation was more liberal than that of his predecessors, and 
judged by his laws he appears as a prudent and en%htened 
sovereign *. 

Basil in the prime of manhood determined to expiate the 
sins of his youth by severe penance. He made a vow of 
continence and assumed the sackcloth garb of a monk, which 
he wore beneath the imperial robes in the palace and beneath 
his armour in the held. 

His body was interred in the Church of the Evangelist, 
in the Hebdomon. Two centuries and a half had nearly 
passed away. The Byzantine empire had been destroyed by 
the Crusaders, the Asiatic Greeks were endeavourigg to expel 
the Franks from their conquest, and Michael Palaeologos 
their emperor was besi^ing Constantinople, when some 
Greek officers, wanderii^ through the ruins of the church and 
monastery of the Evangelists, admired the remains of its 
ancient magnificence, and lamented to see that so splendid a 

' Cedrcnul. 706; Zon«r«s, ii. 114; lee abov^ pp. 367, 368. 

* Michuiis PuUi Synopiii tAgtim, v. i jifj. 

' Compare Cedretins. 711, and ZonuraE, it. 115. If Zonaras jataia poundi hy the 
pedant woid laUntt, the sam exceeds nine millions of pounds stertiog. 

* He reduced the duty on Venetian trade. Vrkundia zur aittm Handth- vnd 
SltuatgtsekicliU dtr Rtpuilik Vtnidit mil bt'^oadtrir Baithun^ anf Bjnaia uad dit 
Levaai. Herausgegebeo vod Dr. Tafel und Dr. Thomas, Wien, iS$6, i. 37. 



DgIC 



388 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.Cb.lI.Sa. 
monument of Byzantine piety had been converted into a stable 
under the ruinous administration of the Frank Caesars. In a 
comer of the bui]ding,a remarkable tomb that had been recently 
broken open arrested their attention. A well-embalmed body 
of an old man lay in the sarcophagus, and in his hand some 
idle herdsman had placed a shepherd's pipe. An inscription 
on the wall showed that the sarcoph^us contained the mortal 
remains of Basil the Slayer of the Bulgarians. The Emperor 
Michael VIII. visited the spot, and when he found it necessary 
to retire from before Constantinople for a time, he ordered 
the body to be removed to Selymbria, and interred in the 
monastery of our Saviour^; A.D. lafio. 

' Ccdrenus, 7191 Fachymeies, i. 80. 



Dictzed by Google 



CHAPTER in. 



Period of Conservatism on the Eve of Decline, 
A.D. 1025-1057. 

Sect. I. — Constantine VIII., a.d. 1025-1028. 

Condition of the empire. — Character of Constantioe VIIL — Gorenuneiit adminic- 
tered b; bis eunucbs. — Oppressive tinaacial administratioii. — Mirriage of Zoe 
with Romanus kxgpot. — Death of ConstMiliiie VIH. 

The conquest of the Sclavonians in the Thracian, Mace- 
donian, and Illyrian mountains, gave a degree of security 
to the Eastern Empire which it had not enjoyed since the 
time of Justinian I. If at this period the government 
had known how to adopt measures for developing the 
resources of the country, or if the Greek people had possessed 
national institutions and moral energy, .they might have 
taught the court to respect their rights as men and citizens. 
They might then have increased in number and the whole of 
the provinces lying to the south of Mount Haemus might 
have become thickly peopled by the natural increase of the 
Greek race. Land of the best quality was everywhere ready 
to receive a better cultivation from new colonists ; but im- 
provement was checked on the part of the government, by 
exactions similar to those which arrest the progress of society 
in all arbitrary governments ; and the Greeks were now 
destitute of the sentiment of national patriotism ; — they were 
as selfish as their government was rapacious. Exorbitant 
taxes, severe fiscal restrictions, and obstructive social trammels 
bore heavily on the agricultural classes, and left to successive 
generations as the fruits of their labour, little more than was 
sufficient for perpetuating their race, and supplying a due 
succession of peasants to labour the lands on which their 



D,,,iz.....A<oot^[c 



loo BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[;Bk.n.cb.nL$t. 
fathers toiled. Great part of the extensive provinces, depopu- 
lated by the destructive system of hostilities pursued by 
Basil and Samuel, remained long uncultivated, and . were 
gradually invaded by nomadic tribes, who were allowed to 
pasture their flocks and herds over the richest plains on 
paying tribute to the Byzantine authorities. 

The position of the empire on the death of Basil required 
a judicious and economical sovereign to oi^nize the civil 
administration on such a scale, as not to absorb too lar^e a 
portion of the funds required for the maintenance of the 
large army with which it was necessary to guard the extensive 
frontiers, and yet on a footing that would insure an equitable 
and prompt administration of justice to the subjugated Scla- 
vonians. Unfortunately, Constantine VIII., though he was 
averse to war and military parade, had no taste for order, 
and no cara for justice. In his personal appearance he bore a 
strong resemblance to his brother, but any similarity of dis- 
position that ever shoved itself was only in defects. His tall 
robust figure proclaimed the same strength of body and health 
of constitution, but he was destitute of the activity, fortitude, 
and courage of Basil. After he assumed the government, he 
continued to live as he had done white his brother kept him 
secluded from public business. In the interior of the palace 
he was surrounded by musicians, singers, dancir^-girls, and 
parasites, and he rarely quitted it except to indulge in the 
chase, or to celebrate public spectacles in the hippodrome for 
his own amusement and that of the idle populace of the 
capital. He left all public business to be transacted by his 
domestic servants, and he shunned the military pageants in 
which the emperors usually took an active part. Indeed, he 
appeared to dread the array of troops as su^esting the idea 
of internal revolutions rather than of foreign wars. His fears 
rendered him a suspicious and cruel tyrant ; and his distrust 
of all men of talent and influence induced him to confer the 
principal offices of the state on the eunuchs of his household. 
Men bred up amidst scenes of dissipation, gambling, and 
hunting, and utterly destitute of all experience in public 
business, were suddenly charged with the most important 
duties in the empire ^ 



' Zonaial, ii. 118. 



:v Google 



ADMINISTRATION BY EUNUCHS. 391 

Aj>. io»s-ioj8,] 

Six eunuchs of the imperial household were invested with 
the highest offices of the state. Three received the title of 
presidents of the senate, and of these one held the charge 
of chamberlain united with the superintendence of the local 
militia, another was keeper of the wardrobe, and the third 
was commander of the watch ^ The command of the foreign 
mercenaries was conferred on a fourth. The Byzantine em- 
perors, like other despots, preferred intrusting strangers with the 
guardianship of their persons ^. A fifth, named Spondyles, was 
appointed duke of Antioch, and intrusted with the command 
of the troops chained to resist the ambitious projects of the 
Fatimite caliphs in Syria. The object of the nomination was 
to furnish the army with a leader incapable of pretending to 
the throne, not to supply it with an able general The sixth 
of this domestic band, named Niketas, became duke of Iberia. 
The Emperor Basil II. must have humbled the pride of the 
aristocracy during the latter part of his reign, and effected a 
great change in its position in the time of Basilios the 
chamberlain and before the rebellions of Skleros and Phokas, 
or the direction of the government would not have been 
allowed to remain long in the hands of six eunuchs. The 
spirit of conservatism already pervaded society to such a 
degree as to form a firm support of despotism. The patience 
with which Constantine's measures were endured gives us 
some insight into the social as well as the administrative 
changes completed in the long reign of his brother. We see 
that his policy had proved quite as successful in breaking the 
power of the great families, and in diminishing the influence 
of the generals of themes, as in destroying the Bulgarian 
kingdom and subjugating the Sclavonian people. All the 
power the emperor had taken from others was accumulated 
in his own person ; nothing was done to confer any rights on 
the people, nor to secure them against injustice on the part of 
the imperial agents. The emperor was absolute in practice as in 

' Cedrenus, 719. 
oxo^v* or minisler-sl 
■nft BSyKai, 

' The litle of (he commander of the foreign guard was Kiyai tTiupti6px\]t, 
The Varangian corps of the imperial body-guard was fonned about this time, 
and consisted Urst of Scandinavians and Russians, afterwards of Danes and Eng- 
lish. Cedrenus mentions Varangians at page 735, and their commandant Ako- 
louthos at page 787. For the German guard of Augiistus, see Suetonius, Aug, 49 ; 
Taciti Ann. i. 24; wid Emesti's nole to Aaii. xiii. IS. 



DgIC 



393 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.ii.ch.ni.il. 

theory, and thus the worthless creatures of Constantine VIII. 
were enabled to commit acts of greater oppression than the aris- 
tocratic officials whose power Basil had curtailed. Conservatism 
was now a principle of Byzantine policy, and as often happens 
it lulled the people into a contented state of slavery by allyii^ 
itself with their natural devotion to order and justice. 

The accusations of avarice which had been brought against 
Basil II., if they were not chiefly caused, were certainly 
greatly increased, by the extreme parsimony he displayed in 
providing popular pageants and exhibiting shows in the 
hippodrome for the amusement of the inhabitants of Con- 
stantinople. The proceedings of Constantine form a contrast 
to those of his brother. On the one hand, he exacted the 
arrears of the public taxes with the greatest severity, while 
on the other, he lavished the money thus extorted from the 
provinces in wasteful expenditure in the capital. During his 
reign of three years he collected and expended the revenue of 
five. His palace, like that of a Saracen caliph, was filled 
with foreign slaves and eunuchs, whose strange appearance and 
barbarous language astonished the natives of the empire*. 

Though no dangerous insurrection broke out, the general 
discontent excited the fears of Constantine and his creatures. 
Many eminent men, representatives of families renowned in 
the annals of the empire, were seized, and condemned to 
lose their sight, because the services of their ancestors in past 
generations appeared to give them too much influence on 
public opinion. It is difficult to determine in each case, 
whether this was a measure of precaution, or a punishment for 
political imprudence or actual conspiracy. The names of 
some of the sufferers deserve a record, because they indicate 
the position of several distinguished families at the time. 
Nicephorus Comnenos, the governor of Media or Aspourakan, 
had bravely defended his province against the incursions of 
the Saracens ; but his troops having given him some signs of 
indiscipline and timidity, he had invited them to take an oath 
that they would never desert him on the field of battle. This 
excited the jealousy of the emperor, who recalled Comnenos 
to Constantinople, where he was condemned to lose his sight 
for administering unlawful oaths to the army*. Constantine, 



n,,;,! .,:,C<oogIe 



PUNISHMENT OF NOBLES. 393 

JLO. to 15-10 JS.] 

the son of Michael Burtzes, who took Antioch, was also 
deprived of sight ; but in his case it was* notorious that 
the punishment was an act of revenge, as this patrician had 
informed Basil of some unseemly practices of his brother, in 
order that they might be restrained. The grandsons of the 
rivals, Bardas Skleros and Bardas Phokas, were united in 
misfortune. These two patricians lost their sight on some 
vague accusations brought against them by the eunuchs of the 
imperial palace. Basilios Skleros had quarrelled with Prusian 
the son of Ladislas, the last king of Achrida. Prusian, who 
held the rank of magister, and was governor of the theme 
Boukellarion, fought a duel with Skleros ; for the pride of the 
Byzantine military aristocracy displayed itself with as much 
courage, if not with as much gallantry, as was ever shown by 
the chivalry of western Europe '. The two duellists were 
exiled to different islands of the Princes' group ; but Skleros 
was soon deprived of his sight, on pretext that he was plotting 
to escape. Romanos Kurkuas, member of a distinguished 
Armenian family, which had supplied the empire with many 
able generals, and of which the Emperor John Zimiskes was a 
scion, also lost his sight, as well as several individuals who 
bear names not unknown in Byzantine history, and others 
whose barbarous appellations prove that the Bulgarian and 
Sclavonian aristocracy divided with the Greeks and Arme- 
nians a competent share of political influence at the court of 
Constantinople ^ 

The disorder caused in the provinces by the creatures sent 
to govern them by Constantine, is attested by the notice we 
possess of some occurrences at Naupactos. The government 
of that province was intrusted to an officer called, from his 
violence. Mad George, who, by his tyrannical conduct, drove 
the people to despair ; and in an insurrection which ensued. 
Mad George was .ilain, and his palace plundered by the 
populace ^ This insurrection was soon quelled ; but Constan- 
tine took severe vengeance on the inhabitants of Naupactos. 

' Cedrcnus, 7)1. Le Bean (liv, ^34) remarks, thai this Is the first dael recorded 
in Byzantine history. Prudanos lost his eyes in the reign of Romanus HI., on 
B suspicion that he was plotting with Theodora, the daughter of Constantine VIII., 
to moDnt the throne. Cedreous. 71J; Zonaias, ii. 230. 

* Cedrenvs, 711. Bcsdan, Gl^bas, and Goudelis. Zacharins, who lost his 
tongue, was a relation of a personage called Veslas PbevdHtog. [The last name 
is in reality Theudatos, and occurs agnin below, p. 399. £d.] 

* Waf<riti>frpo%. CedrenuE, 711. 



:v Google 



a04 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.I!.Ch.!II.5i. 

Even the archbishop was deprived of his sight, for attempting 
to protect the people against the exactions of their tyrant. 

Foreign nations soon heard how Constantine conducted the 
government, and hastened to profit by the disorderly state of 
public affairs. In 1037 the Patzinaks made an irruption into 
Bulgaria, where they laid waste everything on their line of 
march. A Saracen fleet cruised among the Cyclades, visiting 
the islands one after another, and collecting booty from all. 
But the spirit infused by Basil into the army and navy was 
not extinct, though their direction had fallen into unworthy 
hands. Diogenes, the governor of Sirmium, being appointed 
duke of Bulgaria, defeated the Patzinaks, and drove them 
back beyond the Danube. The governors of Samos and 
Chios assembled a naval force, with which they attacked 
the Saracen fleet] and captured twelve ships with all the 
crews. 

Constantine VIII. was suddenly attacked by a disease 
which was evidently mortal. When he was near his end, 
he fixed his eyes on Constantine Dalassenos as his successor. 
The choice was judicious; and an eunuch of the palace was 
about to summon Dalassenos from his residence in the Arme- 
niac theme, when Simeon, the commander of the watch, 
expecting to find a weaker and more docile sovereign in 
Romanus Argyros, who was connected with the imperial 
family, prevailed on the emperor to recall his first order, 
and transfer the empire to Romanus. The destined sove- 
reign, on reaching the palace, wa^ informed by Constantine 
that he was selected to mount the throne, but that he must 
divorce his wife, and marry one of the imperial princesses. 
Romanus hesitated to become emperor on this condition ; but 
Constantine, to quicken his decision, informed him that he 
must either ascend the throne or lose his eyesight, and gave 
him a few hours to reflect on the choice. The wife of 
Romanus, learning the alternative, immediately ordered her 
head to be shaved, and entered a monastery ; thus generously 
relieving her husband from the odium of sacrificing his honour 
to his timidity or ambition. Constantine had destined Theo- 
dora, the youngest of his three daughters, to be the wife of 
Romanus ; but she refused to mount the throne by marrying 
the husband of another woman. The emperor was compelled, 
therefore, to make his second daughter Zoe empress, for the 

n,.i,i..,.A'00'^[C 



DEATH OF CONSTANTINE VIII. 395 

AJ). 1018-1054.] 

eldest had retired into a monastery '. The daughters of Con- 
stantine were already of mature age. Their education had 
been shamefully neglected by their fath^; and Zoe had 
taken advantage of the want of all moral restraint in which 
she lived. She had attained the age of forty-eight when she 
became a bride ; but the posterity of Romanus II, and Theo- 
phano were all remarkable for health, vigour, and longevity '. 
Her marriage with Romanus III. and their coronation was 
celebrated on the 19th November 1038. On the 2ist of the 
month Constantine VIII. expired. 



Sect, II. — The Reigns of the Husbands of Zoe, 
A,D. 1028-1054. 

Pereonol conduct of Romanus III., 1028-1034,—Conspirades.— Saracen war, — 
Defeat of Romanus. — Exploits of Moniakes. — Autograph of Chri^I.^Acquisi- 
tion of Perkrin.— Naval operations. — Death of Romanus III. — Character of 
Michael IV. (the Paphlagonian), a.d. 1034-1041. — John the Oqiliaiiotroph, — 

Financial oppression. — Conspiracies Saracen war. — Attempt Co surprise 

Edessa.— War in Sicily.— Loss of Servi a. —Rebellion of Bulgarians and Scla- 
yonians. — Energetic conduct of Michael IV. — Death of Michael IV. — Reign 
of Michael V. (Kalaphates, or the Caulker), a-d. 104a, — Reign of Zoe and 
Theodora, 1 04 a. —Character of Constantine IX. (Monomachus), 1041-1054. 
— Skieraina, the concubine of Constantine IX., created empress. — Lavish 
expenditure. — Cruelly of Theodora.— Sedition in Cyprus. - Rebellion of 
Maniahes — Conspiracy of the eunuch Stephen. — Rebellion of Leo Tomikios. 
—Court plots — Serbian war.— Russian war.— Patiinak war.— War in Italy. 
— Conquest of Armenia. — Invasion of the Byzantine empire by the Seljouk 
Turks. — Separation of Greek and L^tin churches.— Deaths of Zoe and Con- 
stantine IX. 

For twenty-nine years the empire was ruled by a succession 
of princes who owed their position on the throne to the 
daughters of Constantine VIII. Under such circumstances, 
it is natural that the affairs of the court of Constantinople 
attract more than usual attention in a review of Byzantine 
history. Every class of society in the empire appears during 
this period to have slumbered in prosperity, consuming its 

' A malady, which may tutve been the unall-pox, had disfigured her. Zonaras, 
ii. ]i8. 

' Zonaras <,ii. 933, a6o) says Zoe was trDy in the reign of Romanus III., and 
more (hao seventy at her death. The Chronicle of Lupas, in the Bibliothtea 
Hiil. Rtgni Sitiliat, edited by Canisins (p. 39), says she was seventy at her death, 
in 1050, 



o^^le 



396 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Blun.Cb.IU.{j. 
revenues in a firm conviction that no external power could 
disturb the internal security of the state. In no other portion 
of the civilized world did the inhabitants enjoy an equal 
degree of security for life and property; and the military 
power and financial resources of every neighbouring govern- 
ment appeared far inferior to those of the Byzantine empire. 
Conservative lethargy was natural under such circumstances. 

Romanus III. was sixty years old when accident made him 
an emperor. He was allied to several of the oldest and most 
illustrious of the aristocracy, and is a type of the kind of 
sovereign a respectable Byzantine noble of conservative ten- 
dencies made, durii^ a time when the political horizon was 
peculiarly tranquil in the East. He enjoyed the reputation of 
possessing both accomplishments and learning ; but his vanity 
somewhat obscured the lustre of his talents. Feeling that his 
sudden elevation would excite the ambition of many of the 
nobility, he adopted measures to conciliate the favour of every 
class of his subjects. The Church was propitiated by bestow- 
ing on the clergy of St. Sophia's an annual revenue of eighty 
pounds' weight of gold, secured as a permanent charge on the 
imperial treasury. To gain the nobility and the higher eccle- 
siastical dignitaries, he abolished the Allelengyon, or mutual 
responsibility of the rich for the taxes due by the poor in 
their district. It appears that this law, as established by Basil 
II., had been executed with such severity that several bishops 
had been reduced to poverty'. He also granted a full pardon 
to all persons who had been persecuted by the jealousy of 
Constantine VIII. He purchased popularity among the 
people by releasing all who were confined in the public prisons 
for debt ; and in order to combine justice with clwrity, he paid 
their debts to private individuals when he remitted those to 
the fisc. He redeemed the captives taken by the Patzinaks in 
their recent invasion of the empire ; and, in short, he endea- 
voured in many ways to render himself generally popular in 
order to deter any rival from aspiring at the throne. These 
measures for securing popularity were of themselves well 
chosen, but their favourable effect was greatly increased by 
a coincidence beyond the emperor's control. The year of 
his accession proved one of sit^ular fertility — every species 

' ZoDsrai, ii. 13a 



ROMANUS III. 397 

A.D. IOIS-IO54.] 

of grain was abundant in the capital, and a rich harvest of 
olives supplied the people of the provinces both with oil and 
money. 

The piety of Romanus displayed itself in the usual supersti- 
tion of his age. Considering the failure of his Syrian campaign 
as a punishment for his sins, and not a consequence of his 
^norance of military affairs, he sought to propitiate Heaven 
by a lavish expenditure on ecclesiastical objects. He founded 
a new monastery of the Virgin called Semneion, on the church 
of which he laid out money with profusion. He endowed the 
monastery with such enormous revenues that even Byzantine 
ecclesiastics, in recording his liberality, blame the incongruity 
of placing monks in the position of luxurious nobles, and 
complain of the emperor seeking to acquire merit with God 
by exactions that ruined his subjects '. Romanus also covered 
the capitals of the columns in the churches of St Sophia and 
Blachern with gilding, and enriched the buildings with expen- 
sive ornaments. He is said likewise to have obtained permis- 
sion from the Fatimite caliph Daher to rebuild the church of 
the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, which had been destroyed 
by Caliph Hakem in the year loio. Subsequent disputes 
with the Egyptian government appear to have delayed the 
commencement of the work until the reign of Michael IV., 
and it was not completed until that of Constantine IX. (Mono- 
machus), in the year 1048 *. 

Whenever early education has failed to implant moral feel- 
ings in the hearts of men, laws prove ineffectual to supply the 
want, whether in the case of individuals or nations. The 
people of the Byzantine empire were now beginning to have 
the same hankering after hereditary succession which has lately 
been manifested by the continental nations of Europe for 
representative government ; but in both cases there appears to 
have been a want of those firm convictions which are required 



* Zonaras, ii. ijl. 

' The Rnthoritiei reUtine to the destruction and re-ediflcation of (he Church of 
the Holy Sepulchre at this period are as follows:— The Saracens set fire to the 
church and burnt the Patriarch of Jerusalem alive, after the victories of Niee- 
[dioniE II. in 96S. Cedreuns, 661. The Caliph Hakem, called by Byzantine 
writers Aiii, raied the church and demolished the sepulchre in loio. Cedrenns, 
706; William of Tyre, i. <, in B-'Ugars, Qtita Dti pir Francos. 6^1 . Roroinus 111. 
obtained permission to rebuild the church. Cedrenus, 731 ; William of Tyre, i. 6, 
'1 Boagars, 633. The new building was completed by Constantine IX. (Mono- 
' ' William of Tyre, i. 6, in Bongars, 631. 



DgIC 



^o8 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.Il.ai.HI.(a. 
for attaining any desired end. As usually happens in political 
matters, the fault lay with the higher and educated classes of 
society, who allowed themselves to quit the line of duty to 
pursue any lure held out to their prejudices or passions. 
Hence we find conspiracies and rebellions continuing to occur 
in rapid succession in the Byzantine empire, where they were 
r^farded as an unavoidable evil in the lot of man. Conserva- 
tive tendencies were the most powerful political feeling at 
Constantinople, but we must not forget that the Byzantine 
empire was a government without a nation. 

The Empress Zoe never foi^ave her sister Theodora that 
superiority of character which had induced their father to 
offer her the empire, if she would accept the husband of his 
choice ; and Romanus III, disliked her for refusing his hand, 
and feared her on account of her talents. He set a spy over her 
conduct by drawing from his retreat John, one of the ministers 
of Basil II., who had deemed it prudent to retire into a 
monastery on the accession of Constantine VIII. John was 
now appointed syncellus, and intrusted with the superintend- 
ence of Theodora's household. Prusian, the Bulgarian prince 
who had fought a duel with Romanus Skleros, the brother-in- 
law of the Emperor Romanus III., was accused of plotting 
with Theodora to seize the imperial crown. Whether true or 
false, the jealousy of Zoe and the aversion of Romanus were 
sure to obtain for this accusation a favourable reception. The 
emperor had already restored his brother-in-law to his former 
rank as magistros; he now revenged him by condemning 
Prusian to lose his sight, and by banishing his mother, the 
late queen of Bulgaria, to the monastery of Mantineion in the 
Boukellarian theme. Subsequently, when the court was 
alarmed at the prospect of a Bulgarian and Sclavonian rebellion 
under the direction of Constantine Dic^enes, it was feared that 
Prusian might be proclaimed emperor, and he was compelled 
to embrace the monastic life. It seems strange that the pro- 
ject of transferring the sovereignty of the Byzantine empire to 
a Bulgarian should be recorded by the Byzantine writers with- 
out the smallest notice that such an event was likely to wound 
either the Roman pride of the aristocracy of Constantinople, 
or the national vanity of the Greek race ; but we must recol- 
lect that the founder of the Basilian dynasty was known to 
have been a Sclavonian groom. 



:v Google 



CONSPIRACIES. 399 

*j>. 1018-1054.] 

The conspiracy of Constantine Dic^enes was more dan- 
gerous than the plots of Pnisian. Constantine Dic^enes, 
governor of Strmium and duke of Bulgaria, had married a 
niece of the Emperor Romanus III., and had been appointed 
governor of Thessalonica '. While there, it was discovered 
that he was engaged in frequent communications with the 
leaders of the Bulgarian and Sclavonian population of the 
empire, and it was deemed necessary to transfer him to the 
government of the Thrakesian tlieme before arresting him. 
He was found guilty of conspiracy against the emperor, and 
condemned to be incarcerated as a monk in the monastery of 
Studion. John the syncellus, who seems to have been gained 
over by Theodora, whom he had been appointed to watch, 
Eustathios Daphnomeles, the governor of Achrida, two grand- 
children of Michael Burtzes, the conqueror of Antioch, and 
Geoige and Varasvatzes, nephews of the patrician Theudatos, 
were all condemned for participating in this conspiracy *. 
They were publicly scourged and then banished. Theodora, 
who was accused of being privy to their plots, was driven from 
her palace, and imprisoned in the monastery of Petrion^. 
Some time after, the Empress Zoe visited her sister, and 
compelled her to assume the monastic habit. Constantine 
Diogenes was also accused by the archbishop of Thessalonica 
of plotting to escape into Illyria, in order to assume the title 
of emperor. To avoid the loss of his eyesight, and the dis- 
grace of being scourged through the streets of the capital, he 
threw himself from a window and was killed on the spot. He 
was buried in the place appropriated to those who committed 
suicide, A.D. 1032 *. 

The negligence of Constantine VIII. had weakened the 
military force of the empire. Spondyles, the eunuch intrusted 
with the govemmertt of Antioch, finding that the Saracen 
emirs who had been rendered tributary by Nicephorus II. and 
John Zimiskes refused to pay tribute, undertook to re-establish 



' C«drenus (73.1), Zonaras {ii, J30), and Dncange (Fam. Byz. 153, and in hii 
oote< to Zonaras, p. go, edit. Venet ) di&agree conceming the relationship. 

' Varasvatzes founded the monaslery of the IberiaDS, on Mount Athol. Ce- 
drenus, 714. The account of Monot Alhos, by Comnenos, in MontbDcon'i 
Palatographia Oratca, omits this fact. 

' It was situated without the walls, at the head of the port. Ducange, Noliu 
)■ Zonarai Ann, p. 90, edit. Venet. 

• Cedrenus, 729, 



Dictzed by Google 



400 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.tI.Ch.ni.51. 
the imperial authority. His rashness and incapacity led to 
the complete defeat of the Byzantine army on the 3tst of 
October 1029, by which all the imperial possessions in Syria 
were exposed without defence to the attacks of the emirs of 
Aleppo and Tripolis, who pushed their incursions up to the 
walls of Antioch, and rendered themselves masters of the fort 
of Menik, which had been recently constructed in its immediate 
vicinity. 

Romanus III. resolved to redeem the honour of the empire 
at the head of his armies. His brother-in-law, Constantine 
Karantenos, was sent forward to supersede Spondyles. When 
the emperor reached Philomilion in Pisidia, he was met by an 
embassy from the emir of Aleppo, who offered to recognize 
the supremacy of the empire, and to pay the same tribute he 
had paid to Basil II. The wisest counsellors of Romanus 
recommended him to accept these terms, for the season was 
ill suited for invading Syria, where the heat and want of 
water rendered great part of the country better adapted for 
the operations of the light-armed cavalry of the Arabs, than 
for the military tactics of the Byzantine troops, covered with 
heavy armour ^. The emperor was so destitute of military 
experience, that he believed it would be a matter of little 
difficulty to rival the exploits of Nicephorus, Zimiskes, and 
Basil, and he marched forward to take possession of Aleppo. 
He arrived at a strong fortress called Azaz, about two days' 
march from that city, when his outposts were attacked and 
driven in by the Arabs, who prevented his cavalry from 
collecting forage, and his troops from approaching the water 
in the neighbourhood^. The position of the Byzantine camp 
was ill chosen ; an attempt to repulse the Arabs led to an 
unpremeditated engagement, in which a considerable body of 
troops was defeated, and the fugitives, rusbii^ into the camp, 



' Cedienns, 716. 

* A^az is about ttrenty-^ miles north b; west of Aleppo. Tbe moood on 
which it stands is nearly circular, and partly or limestone, with a drcumfcreDce 
of about two hundred and hhy yards at the base, and ninety yaids at the top 
of the coat, which is about a hundred and twenty feet high \ its natural kernel 
havine been increased to this extent, in order that the work might be inore 
defensible. Colonel Chesney, Tki Expidiiim for iki Sumy of llu rivert Eupinutt 
and Tigris, t. 411. This qnotation from Colonel Chesoey is necessary to prove 
that Cedrenus is a better authority in the present instance than the Arabian 
gec^rapher Aboulfeda, though a native of Damascus, who, according to Weil 
tiii. 71, rmu), places Aiat only a mile from Aleppo. 



:v Google 



SARACEN WAR. 401 

ju>. 1018-1054.] 

spread disorder far and wide. No measures were adopted for 
restoring order, and the victorious Arabs advanced up to the 
intrenchments, and kept the imperial army closely blockaded. 
The emperor was utterly helpless, and under such a com- 
mander there was no choice but to fall back on Antioch, 
This operation was conducted in the most di^raceful manner. 
At daylight Romanus abandoned the camp, leaving his own 
tents and baggage, and the warlike machines, tents, and 
baggage of the army, a prey to the enemy; and this booty 
fortunately detained the Arabs so long that a great part of 
the flying army gained Antioch in safety; August J03o', 

Romanus, cured of his passion for military fame, hastened 
back to Constantinople. The generals he left in command of 
the army proved as incapable as their sovereign, and Menik, 
the fort in the vicinity of Antioch, remained in the hands of 
the Saracens. The emperor, however, at last sent Theoktistos, 
the commander of the foreign mercenaries, with a considerable 
reinforcement of native and foreign troops. This officer formed 
an alliance with the emir of TripoUs, who was alarmed at the 
progress of the Egyptian power in Syria, and succeeded in 
taking the fort of Menik. Alach, the son of the emir of 
Tripolis, visited the court of Romanus, and so lax were the 
political and religious ideas of the Byzantines, in spite of their 
ecclesiastical bigotry, that he was honoured with the rank of 
a Roman patrician ^. 

Shortly after the defeat of the Emperor Romanus at Azaz, 
an incident occurred which deserves to be recorded, principally 
because it brought into notice an officer who soon took a 
prominent part in the military affairs of the empire, both in 
Asia and Europe. Geoi^e Maniakes was governor of the 
small province called Telouch *. After the flight of the army 
to Antioch, a body of eight hundred Arabs appeared before 
the walls of the fortress In which he was residing, announcing 
the death of the emperor and the overthrow of the Byzantine 
power in Syria. They ordered Maniakes to evacuate the 
place, or they threatened to storm it next day and put every 

* Cedrenus, 716; Zonaras, ii. 331, 

' Cedrenus. 738. I believe the Grand Mogol was once honoured with th« tank 
of Chri&tlaD kiiigfathood by an English sovereign, remarkable for his strong Pro- 
testant prejudices whenever there was a question of Catholic cmancipalion. 

' For the family of Maniakes, compare Cedretuu. 717, 731 ; Geore. Man. 533 ; 
Leo Grftmn). 461. 

VOL. II. D d 



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40a BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.[LCh.ni. t a. 

person within its walls to the sword, Maniakes considered 
that the nature of their summons indicated either their weak- 
ness or their determination to fall on his troops by treachery; 
he therefore asked to be allowed to remain the night in the 
fortress, to make preparations for his retreat. The Arab camp 
was supplied with food and refreshments in abundance, and at 
midnight Maniakes led out the garrison to attack the enemy, 
who were found plunged in sleep without a guard. The 
greater part were slain, and two hundred and eighty camels, 
laden with the spoil of Romanus' camp, were recaptured. 
This prize was sent as a present to the emperor, accompanied 
with the noses and ears of the vanquished. 

To reward the valour of Maniakes, he was appointed 
governor of Lower Media, of which Samosata was the capital'. 
The following year the Saracens invaded Mesopotamia, and 
plundered the country as far as Melitene; but in 1032, 
Maniakes contrived to bribe the governor of Edessa, who was 
subject to the emir of Miarfekin (Martyropolis), to deliver up 
the town. The Byzantine troops had only gained possession 
of three towers in the outer wall, when they were attacked by 
the Saracen inhabitants and soon after by Apomerman the 
emir of Miarfekin, who hastened to save the place. The 
Saracens, however, found themselves unable to regain pos- 
session of the towers occupied by the Christians, and learning 
that fresh troops were marching to the assistance of Maniakes, 
abandoned Edessa ; but before quitting it they burned most 
of the houses and destroyed the great church. Though the 
Saracens had time to carry off the greater part of the wealth 
of the city, they left behind them what was infinitely more 
valuable in the eyes of the Christians of that age than the 
whole wealth of the caliphate. The people of Edessa had 
long boasted that they possessed a letter written by our 
Saviour to Al^arus, king of Edessa ; this precious relic was 
now brought to Maniakes, and by him transmitted to Constan- 
tinople'. It is not known at what period this precious 
document was fabricated. From the city and territory of 
Edessa a tribute of 5° lb. of gold was annually remitted to 
the Byzantine treasury. 



A-ooglc 



SARACEN WAR. 403 

*.». 101S-10J4.] 

The disorganized state of the caliphate of Bagdad, and the 
power acquired by the Turkish mercenaries, induced several 
Saracen emirs to solicit the protection of Romanus. The 
emir of Aleppo, in spite of his victory, became tributary to 
the empire. Aleim, the emir of Perkrin — 3 fortress of great 
importance, on account of its position — delivered up that place 
to the emperor ; and a body of six thousand Byzantine troops, 
under a Bulgarian patrician, was stationed to defend this 
advanced post. Aleim was, however, dissatisfied with the 
reward he received, and opened communications with the 
Persians, whom he contrived to introduce into Perkrin. The 
Byzantine garrison was surprised and put to the sword ; but 
a powerful body of native troops and Russian mercenaries 
soon regained possession of the place, which was taken by 
assault, and Aleim was put to death *. 

The Saracens of Africa and Sicily were still in the habit of 
sending out lai^e fleets to plunder the coasts of the empire. 
In the year 1031, these pirates laid waste Illyria and the 
island of Corfu, but they were defeated first by the people of 
Ragusa and afterwards by the governor of Nauplia, who 
destroyed the greater part of their fleet. Next year they 
returned with a large force, and, if we believe the accounts of 
the Byzantine writers, their fleet consisted of a thousand 
vessels, and transported ten thousand troops. Two divisions 
of this great armament were defeated by Nicephorus Karan- 
tenos, the governor of Nauplia, and upwards of a thousand 
prisoners were sent to Constantinojde. In 1033, the imperial 
fleet, under the command of the protospatharios Tekneas, made 
a descent on the coast of Egypt, and after collecting consider- 
able booty, and carrying off many prisoners, the expedition 
returned to Constantinople. Every government at this time 
found it much easier to plunder the territories of its enemies 
than to defend its own, for most sovereigns adopted the policy 
of disarming the great body of their subjects, fearing that, if 
they possessed arms, they would successfully resist the fiscal 
exactions of their rulers. 

During the reign of Romanus III., Asia Minor suffered very 

■ Cedrenas (73*) a.ji Perkrin wis near Bagdad, but Uiis mnst be a misUke ; 
he evideady alludes to the city or Percri. mentioned by Conslant. Poi^yr. (Cv 
Adm. Imp. c 44) m aa important fortress in Anneoia. Snint'Maitin, Mimoira 
tm- FArmiait, i. 137. 

Dd a 



:A'00' 



.3IC 



404 BASILIAN DYSASTY. 

[Bk.ll.Ch.UI.{T. 
severely from earthquakes, locusts, famine, and pestilence ; 
and in a stationary condition of society these calamities oftea 
destroy an amount of capital which is never replaced, and 
become, therefore, an immediate cause of a rapid depopulation '. 
For two years before his death the emperor was afflicted 
by a disease irfiich gradually wasted his frame and caused 
his hair and beard to fall off. Many ascribed the disorder to 
the use of aphrodisiacs, which he took to an immoderate 
extent, in the hope of leaving an heir to the empire ; but 
others believed that the disease originated in a slow poison 
administered either by the Empress Zoe or by John the 
orphanotrophos, who expected to raise his brother Michael to 
the throne. This John was an eunuch and a monk, who had 
entered the household of Romanus while he was yet in a 
private station, but who, after his patron became emperor, 
received the rank of orphanotrophos, or minister of charitable 
institutions, an office which proves the existence of a high 
degree of civilization in the Byzantine administration. John 
had several brothers, one of whom, named Michael, com- 
menced life as a goldsmith and money-changer, but while still 
young, received a place in the imperial household*. The face 
of Michael had the beauty of a perfect statue ; his figure was 
full of grace, and his manners were attractive and dignified, 
but the young man was liable to sudden and violent attacks 
of epilepsy. Zoe, though upwards of fifty, is said to have 
fallen in love with her handsome servant, and to have carried 
on an intrigue with him by the assistance of his brother John. 
Romanus, though informed of his wife's conduct, paid no 
attention to the accusations, which the epilepsy of Michael 
seemed to render improbable'. In the mean time, the health 
of the emperor rapidly declined, and on the nth of April 
1034 he was taken from the bath in a dying state. While life 
yet remained, he was visited by Zoe and some of the officers 

' Maa; of the inhabitanls of AsU Minor were reduced to tuch distress as to 
Ecll their children as slaves, to save the lives of both parties. Cedrenus, 731. 

' John had two brothers. ConsUnline and Geoi^, who bad been educated 
ai doctors, and were, Uke himself^ eunuchs ; another Niketas. and a sister named 
Maria, married to Stephen, who was probably a ^pbuilder, though called a 
caulker. Cedrenus, 733. 

■ Zonares (ii. 333) says that the Emperor Romanus oflen called Michael to 
nib his ieet when be was in bed with Zoe; and adds, Who can refrain frtim 
supposing that the hands of the young valet-dechambre did not find an oppM- 
tuiuty of touching also the feet of the empress 1 



DEATH OF ROM ANUS III. 405 

A.^ 1098-1054.] 

of the court, but he was already speechless, and the empress 
quitted his side to take measures with the orphanotrophos for 
placing her epileptic paramour on the throne. 

The moment that life was extinct in the body of Romanus 
III., Zoe assembled the officers of state in the palace, and 
invested Michael IV. with the imperial robes. He was imme- 
diately proclaimed Emperor of the Romans, and seated himself 
on the vacant throne beside Zoe. The promptitude with 
which this singular step of raisii^ a domestic to the throne 
was conceived and executed prevented its encountering the 
slightest opposition. The Patriarch Alexios was summoned 
to the palace, where he learned the death of Romanus, and 
was, to his great astonishment, ordered to crown Michael the 
Paphlagonian, and celebrate his marriage with the widowed 
empress. The Patriarch would willingly have' delayed au- 
thorising this open display of contempt for decency, but he 
saw Michael seated on the throne, and he was aware of the 
power and ability of his brother the orphanotrophos ; so, 
admitting that reasons of state might overrule the dictates 
of virtue, he celebrated the marriage to avoid greater scandal. 
Thus a single night saw the aged Zoe the wife of two em- 
perors, a widow and a bride, and Michael a menial and a 
sovereign. In order to render the sudden elevation of a 
menial of the palace less strange in the distant provinces, 
John, who became his brother's prime-minister, despatched 
letters to all the governors, announcing that Michael had been 
selected by the deceased emperor for his successor, and crowned 
before his death. 

The new emperor, though he ascended the throne in the 
most di^raceful manner, possessed some good qualities ; and 
his natural good disposition appears neither to have been cor- 
rupted by his education as a money-changer, though calumny 
accused him of having been a fabricatorof false coin; nor by his 
menial service at a corrupt and vicious court, of which he was 
a depraved member. After he mounted the throne, he soon 
lost the gaiety of disposition and tranquillity of mind which 
had increased the beauty of his figure and the grace of his 
manner. In spite of his constitutional infirmity, he was not 
destitute of considerable strength of character, and with his 
vices he united a strong sense of justice. The conduct of 
Zoe awakened in his mind feelit^ of distrust for his own 



406 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.Ch.in.li. 
safety, and he had spirit enough to dismiss from her service 
many of the eunuchs of her father's household, who seemed fit 
agents for new plots. His conscience was troubled liy his 
treachery to his benefactor, and during his whole reign he 
suffered the pangs of remorse. He sought pardon from 
heaven by praying at the shrines of different saints, and he 
wasted the revenues of the empire in building monasteries and 
chapels, and in making lavish donations to priests and monks'. 
But as he continued to enjoy every advantage he had pur- 
chased by his crimes, the historians of his reign justly observe 
that he seemed to trust in the blindness of God for the for- 
giveness of his sins, as if divine justice could r^ard good 
deeds done at the expense of his subjects to be a fit atonement, 
for his private sins, or any proof of sincere repentance on the 
part of the imperial sinner*. It must be owned that there is 
more truth in this observation than is agreeable either to the 
Papal or the Greek church. The anxiety produced by the 
cares of his situation increased the emperor's malady to such a 
degree that he became extremely liable to sudden attacks ; 
and even at public ceremonies, when he was seated on the 
throne, it was necessary to have the canopy of state hung 
round with curtains, which the chamberlains could let fall to 
hide him from the assembly as soon as his countenance in- 
dicated the approach of the terrible convulsions to which 
he was liable. When his malady seized him, his features were 
distorted into hideous expressions, his eyes rolled in wild 
agony, and he often struck his head against the wall until 
he fell exhausted on the floor. Though his malady was 
known to be of old date, the people persisted in regarding 
it as a judgment for his conduct to his benefactor Romanus, 
and appealed to it as a visible interposition of divine power, 
which abandoned him from time to time to be tormented by 
demons as a punishment for his treachery^. 

Under these circumstances, it appears strange that Michael 
retained the throne with so little difficulty, and met with 
no dangerous rival. It is true, he possessed an able prime- 



'HCM ... „ 

provinces and isUnds of the empire, ana b 
resis at the baptism of eveiy infant. Cedreniu, 741. 

" Cedrenag, 738 ; Glycaa, 315. 

' Zonaras, ii 139. 



Dictzed by Google 



JOHN THE ORPHANOTROPHOS. 407 

A-P, 10 j8- 103 4.] 

minister in his brother, the orphanotrophos, whose interests 
were completely identified with his own, and who was a 
statesman competent to relieve him from all the details of 
administrative labour. Michael could entertain no distrust of 
his brother John, who could neither supplant him on the throne 
nor covet it for his posterity. But though the orphanotroph 
was a faithful brother and an able minister, he was rapacious 
and tyrannical, and his administration, though serviceable to 
Michael, was injurious to the wealth and resources of the 
empire. He is said to have commenced life as a travelling 
doctor. While Romanus III, was in a private station, he 
intrusted John with the direction of his household ; but after 
he became emperor, his intendant, with the modest title of 
Orphanotrophos, and in the humble garb of a monk, directed 
the whole business in the imperial cabinet. When his brother 
Michael ascended the throne, he openly assumed the duties of 
president of the imperial council, and though suffering under 
the loathsome disease of a cancer in the mouth, the energetic 
eunuch humbled the aristocracy and ruled the people with a 
rod of iron ^ 

The administration of John the orphanotrophos deserves 
attention, not only from forming a principal feature in the 
reign of Michael IV., but also from marking the era of a 
mischievous change in the financial system of the Byzantine 
government. The taxes were everywhere augmented, and 
collected in a more arbitrary manner. An additional chatge 
of from four to twenty byzants was imposed on every landed 
estate, according to its extent^. John's avidity compelled the 
collectors of the revenue in the provinces to increase their 
exactions, for when they were r^ular in their remittances to 
the treasury, and liberal in their presents to the orphanotro- 
phos, their oppressive conduct to the provincials was easily 
overlooked. This system of extortion caused several serious 
insurrections during the reign of Michael IV, At its com- 
mencement the people of Antioch murdered the collector of 
taxes in that city, and, alarmed at the vengeance John was 
likely to take for such an offence, shut their gates against his 
brother Niketas, whom he sent to be their duke'. Niketas 



ng.i ...A'OOglc 



4o8 BASILIAN DYSASTY. 

[Bk.li.ai.llLf a. 
succeeded in entering the city, where his first act was to put 
to death a hundred of the inhabitants, and confiscate the 
wealth of eleven of the richest families. The people of Aleppo 
also expelled the imperial commissioner sent to reside among 
them for fiscal purposes, and their position secured them frenn 
the vengeance of the Byzantine minister. When Maria, the 
emperor's sister, and mother of the future emperor, Michael 
v., visited the city of Ephesus on a pilgrimage to the shrine 
of St. John the Evangelist, she was struck with compassion at 
the sight of the excessive misery she beheld in all the country 
on her road. When she returned to Constantinople, she urged 
her brother, the orphanotrophos, by every feeling of humanity 
and religion, to moderate the exactions which were rapidly 
depopulating the empire. The orphanotrophos replied with 
a smile — ' You reason like a woman, ignorant of the necessities 
of the imperial treasury.' His conduct, however, proved in 
the end unprofitable as a financial operation, for it caused a 
general insurrection of the Bulgarian and Sclavonian popula- 
tion, which cost more to suppress than could ever be wrung 
from them. Even the Greeks found their sufferings so great 
that they seemed disposed to join the Sclavonians in an 
attempt to throw ofT the Byzantine yoke. The collector of 
the revenues of the theme of Nicopolis was torn in pieces by 
the people, and the western parts of Greece welcomed the 
Bulgarian troops ^ 

A government so unpopular as that of Constantinople at 
this time required not only great talents to direct the central 
administration, but also a numerous body of firm supporters, 
dispersed through all the provinces, interested to ddTend the 
system with all its abuses. This was effected by filling every 
office with men dependent on the family of Michael IV„ and 
crowding the senate with creatures of the orphanotrophos. 
On the death of Niketas, Constantine, who was almost as able 
and active as his brother John, was appointed duke of Antioch, 
and became afterwards grand domestikos. George was ap- 
pointed protovestiarios, their brother-in-law Stephen was 
intrusted with the command of the fleet, and subsequently 
named commander-in-chief in Sicily; while his son Michael, 
called, from his father's early profession, Kalaphates, or the 

' CedrcDu^ J 47. 

Djizcdtv Google 



ANECDOTES. 409 

AJI. 10 iS. 1054.] 

caulker, received the rank of Caesaf from his uncle, which was 
almost tantamount to proclaiming him heir-apparent to the 
Byzantine empire. 

John carried his ambition so far as to make an attempt to 
place himself at the head of the church as well as the state. 
Having gained over a party among the bishops to object 
to the appointment of the Patriarch Alexios as uncanonical, 
on the ground that he had been intruded on the church by 
the nomination of Basil II., John proposed to depose Alexios. 
The Patriarch, however, encountered the attack with courage. 
He openly discussed the question, and asked what measures 
were to be taken if all the ordinations which he had made, 
during the twelve years he had governed the church, were 
now unexpectedly declared void ; and he boldly reminded 
John, that even the coronation and marriage of the reigning 
emperor would thus be pronounced null. This boldness 
alarmed the emperor ; and John was compelled to lay aside 
the hope of becoming Patriarch during the life of Alexios. 

Avarice was always a pervading fault of Byzantine society; 
and the rapacity of the clergy at this period often rivalled 
the extortions of the fiscal agents of the imperial admi- 
nistration. Two anecdotes, that contrast the moral feelings 
of a Greek bishop with those of a troop of Varangian soldiers, 
deserve notice. 

Theophanes, the metropolitan of Thessalonica, carried his 
avarice so far that he held back the payment of the salaries 
due to the clergy of his chapter ; and during a year of famine 
refused to pay them their arrears. The Emperor Michael 
happened to visit Thessalonica, and the starving priests 
complamed to him of the conduct of their bishop ; but even 
the reproof of the emperor failed to obtain justice to the 
claims of the clei^. Michael then determined to punish 
the bishop ; but, in order to expose his avarice and meanness 
in a public manner, he sent one of his household to borrow 
a hundred pounds' weight of gold, promising to repay the 
money immediately on his arrival at Constantinople. The 
bishop excused himself on the score of poverty, declaring, 
with the most solemn oaths, that he had only thirty pounds' 
we^ht of gold in his palace. The emperor immediately 
sent a commission to search the. palace, and the sum of three 
thousand three hundred pounds' weight of gold was found. 



DgIC 



410 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

tBk.lI.Cb.in. S*. 
Theophanes was banished to a country farm, and Prometheos 
named his successor'. 

The Varangian guard was dispersed in winter-quarters in 
the Thrakesian theme, where, one of the soldiers attempting 
to use violence on the person of a country-woman, she drew 
his sword and stabbed him. The man died on the spot ; 
but as soon as the foreign troops heard the true history of 
the affair, instead of insisting on revenge, they applauded 
the woman's conduct, put her in possession of all the property 
her assailant had left in his quarters, and exposed his body, 
without burial, as if be had committed suicide'. 

The only noble whose great wealth and high character 
excited the fears of Michael IV., and the jealousy of the 
orphanotrophos, was Constantine Dalassenos, who had been 
first selected as the husband of Zoe. Dalassenos was residing 
on his immense estates in the Armeniac theme when he 
heard of the election and marriage of Michael, and the con- 
temptuous words he was said to have uttered sank deep in 
the mind of the new emperor : Dalassenos soon received an 
invitation from the orphanotrophos to visit Constantinople. 
He, however, declined trusting his person in the capital until 
he received a solemn assurance of his safety from the emperor. 
The guarantees he ventured to demand, and which Michael 
consented to give, afford a curious picture of the proud 
position of the great nobles, and a sad evidence of the 
prevalence of falsehood and treachery in the highest ranks 
of society. A member of the emperor's household, in high 
office, was sent to Dalassenos with a piece of the holy cross, 
with the napkin on which the figure of Christ was miracu- 
lously imprinted, with the autograph letter of Christ, and 
with the portrait of the Virgin Mary, painted by the hand 
of St. Luke ; and on these sacred relics this officer swore 
that he had witnessed the Emperor Michael IV. take an 
oath that Constantine Dalassenos should suffer no injury 
if he visited the capital. On this assurance Dalassenos repaired 
to Constantinople, where he was well received by the emperor, 
and received the title of Proconsul. But shortly after Niketas, 
the emperor's brother, who was duke of Antloch, accused 

' A.D. 1038. Cedrcnua, 740. The unonnt is incredible. TVt* Ainifr«d would 
be equal to i3,95o'> 
* Ccdrenus, 735. 



:v Google 



SARACEN WAR. 41I 

A.D. IO1S-I054O 

him of being privy to the insurrection in which the imperial 
tax-gatherers had been slain ; and on this improbable charge 
Dalassenos was confined in the island of Platy. His son-in-law 
Dukas was thrown into prison, and three nobles of great 
wealth had their estates confiscated, for complaining that 
this proceeding was a violation of the emperor's oath. 

During the Bulgarian rebellion in 1040, a conspiracy was 
formed to dethrone Michael. Many of the chief men in 
Constantinople were accused of being privy to the plot ; and 
though they escaped with their lives, the fortunes of the 
wealthy were confiscated. Among the conspirators was 
Michael Keroularios, whose guilt compelled him to protect 
his person by becoming a monk. He afterwards attained 
the dignity of Patriarch, and displayed the same unquiet 
intriguing spirit at the head of the church as he had done 
in a private station. 

Some seditious proceedings in the Asiatic army were 
suppressed by the emperor's brother, Constantine, who put 
out the eyes of several officers ; and not venturing to punish 
their chief, Gr^ory the Taronite, who was a patrician, by 
a local tribunal, sent that dignitary to Constantinople, sewed 
up in the hide of a newly-slatn ox, with only holes cut in 
it for his eyes, and for breathing*. 

The military power of the empire was not tarnished by 
the conduct of Michael IV., though he was sneered at by 
the aristocracy as a Paphlagonian money-changer. The 
Saracens vainly endeavoured to recover the possessions which 
had been conquered by the Christians in Syria and Meso- 
potamia. The emperor's brother, Constantine, while governor 
of Antioch, displayed some military talents. He relieved 
Edessa when attacked by a Saracen army. The possession 
of Edessa by the Byzantine emperors was a source of con- 
tinual annoyance to the Mohammedans, and their endeavours 
to regain it were incessant. In the year 1038, two years 
after it had been relieved by Constantine, they made use 
of a stratagem which has obtained immortality as an Eastern 
tale, though, as a fact, it remains buried in the dulness of 
Byzantine history. Varasvatzes, a Georgian, commanded in 
Edessa when twelve Arabians of rank presented themselves 

' Cedreniu, 747. 

Diyiizcdtv Google 



413 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.Ch.m. t3. 
before the gates, attended by an escort of five hundred 
horse, and followed by a train of five hundred camels, declaring 
that they were going on an embassy to the emperor with 
rich presents from the caliph '. The wary Georgian, however, 
distrusted their numerous escort ; and though he gave the 
chiefs a hospitable reception, and prepared for them a 
sumptuous entertainment in his palace, he ordered the escort 
and the train of camels to be encamped without the walls, 
and sharply watched. While the banquet was proceeding 
in the city, a poor Armenian well versed in the Arabic 
lai^uage offered his services to the travellers, and was per- 
mitted to wander about the encampment. While standing 
near the wicker baskets with which the camels had been 
laden, he overheard a man conversing with another, and 
perceived that the camels which were said to be laden with 
presents for the emperor in reality carried hampers filled with 
armed men for the purpose of surprising Edessa. Hastening 
to the palace of the governor, he succeeded in revealing 
the secret to the watchful Geoi^ian, who found an excuse 
for quitting his guests. A body of the garrison was sent 
to overpower the cavalry, while Varasvatzes, proceeding in 
person to the encampment, ordered the wicker baskets with 
the presents for the emperor to be opened, and slew the 
concealed soldiers. He then returned to his palace, where 
he informed his guests of the issue of their treachery. Eleven 
were put to death, and the chief, mutilated by the loss of 
his hands, ears, and nose, was sent to announce the result 
of the adventure to the court of Bagdad *. 

The ravages of the Saracen fleets from Africa and Sicily 
were more destructive than the incursions of their armies 
in Asia. Myra in Lycia, and many towns in the Cyclades, 
were plundered in 1034 ; but in the following year, when 
two separate fleets returned to renew these devastations, 
they were both defeated by the governors of the Thrakesian 



' This Varaavalzcs, being an Iberian or Georgian, may have been a reUtioa 
as wetl as a namesake of the fouitder of tbe monastery 00 Mount Athos ; >ee 
p. 3M. ™(». 

* Compare the sloiy of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, in the Arabian Nights, 
with Cedrenus. 741, and Zonaras, ii. i%i. There is a somewhat similar «ory of 
anned men introduced into a place, concealed in skins, by a lady, who, in this 
way, suc<xeded in avenging the murder of her husband. Histmrt da Grand Qtn- 
ghizean, by Petis de la Ctoix, ig. 



IVAJt IN SICILY. 413 

*j>. iojS-1054.1 

and Kibyrraiot themes, who treated their prisoners as pirates 
and impaled them along the Asiatic coast, from Adramyttium 
to Strobiles. 

To prevent the recurrence of these plundering expeditions, 
it was resolved to carry the war into Sicily with the greatest 
vigour. Maniakes, who had distinguished himself as governor 
of Vaspourakan, was charged with the task of expelling the 
Saracens from the island. Abulaphar, the emir of Sicily, 
had formed an alliance with the empire, and received the 
title of Magistros ; but his authority was contested by his 
brother Abucab, and Sicily was involved in a civil war. 
In the mean time, the independence of the Sicilian chiefs 
was so great, that many continued their piratical expeditions 
against the Christians, in spite of the friendly relations estab- 
lished with the emir. The civil war, however, enabled the 
Byzantine troops to enter Sicily as allies of Abulaphar, and 
they met with such success that the two brothers became 
alarmed, and, foi^etting their differences, united to get rid 
of allies who promised soon to become masters. The mo- 
ment appeared favourable for expelling the Saracens from 
the island ; Maniakes, who commanded the Byzantine forces 
in Italy, was ordered to cross the straits of Messina, and 
the emperor sent a powerful fleet, under his brother-in-law 
Stephen, to assist the operations of this army. Among the 
troops that Maniakes had assembled in Calabria were three 
hundred Norman mercenaries, whose skill in arms had 
already obtained for them the highest military reputation ; 
A.D. 1038'. 

Messina was taken by storm, and though a large army 
of Saracens arrived from Africa to support their countrymen, 
the Sicilians were completely defeated by Maniakes at a 
place called Remata. This victory enabled the Byzantine 
general to subdue the greater part of the island, and he 
employed the winter in constructing citadels in the towns 
he had conquered, in order to keep the inhabitants in check ; 
for the number of Saracen proprietors settled in the island, 
and their spirit of local independence, combined with the 
financial exigencies of the Byzantine administration, threatened 



DgIC 



414 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.Ch.lU.Si. 
the Byzantine government with a violent opposition. The 
importance of the exploits of Maniakes, and the solidity of 
his buildings, are attested by the renown of his name and 
the relics of hts works. The thick walls and massive round 
towers of the citadel he constructed at Syracuse still bear 
the name of the Castle of Maniakes, and show us how much 
of the strength and stability of Roman architecture survived 
in the Byzantine system of fortification in the eleventh 
century ^ The site of another of his works retains his name, 
situated on the roots of Mount Etna ; but all remains of 
the building have disappeared, the materials having been 
carried away and used in constructing the modem town of 
Bronte '. 

In the spring of 1040, another African army arrived in 
Sicily, to support the Mohammedan domination. Maniakes 
made his dispositions for a battle with his usual talent, and, 
confident of success, ordered Stephen, the admiral of the 
fleet, to cut ofl" the retreat of the Africans, The Byzantine 
army was worthy of its general, and the invaders were 
completely routed at a place called Draginas ; but the inca- 
pacity and misconduct of Stephen allowed the beaten troops 
to escape on board their fleet and put to sea, Maniakes 
was indignant at this proof of negligence or cowardice. On 
meeting Stephen, he lost all command over his temper, and 
reproached the emperor's brother-in-law with his unfitness 
for his station ; and when the admiral ventured to reply in 
an insolent manner, the proud Maniakes, recollecting his 
alliance with the caulker, and forgetting his connection with 
the emperor, struck him on the head with the seiromast in 
his hand *, This outbreak of passion caused the loss of Sicily. 
Stephen complained to the orphanotroph of the aristocratic 
insolence of Maniakes, and accused him of a design to rebel ; 
which appeared no improbable accusation, when brought 

* Two fine antique bronze rams, of the natural Ant, which adorned the entrance 
of the castle of Maniakes, are BliU preserved in the Falauo Reale at Palenno. 
' Bronte is inhabited by an All^ian colony. Gaily Knight, Normaia m Sidly, 

' The seiromast, aceonling to the classic meaning, was n kind of javelin. But 
the three weapons which hung at the saddle-bow of every Byzantine ofBcer, al 
this period, were a battle-axe, a mace-at-arms, and a hooked instrument of steel 
for catching the enemy's bridle. Such instruments formed the perfect equipment 
pf a Mameluke to the end of the last century, and may still be seen at times 
exposed for sale at Cairo and Damascus. 



MANIAKES. 415 

AJ>. 1018-1054] 

against a man who dared to strike the emperor's brother-in-law 
in the presence of many officers of the army*. Maniakes 
was arrested, and sent prisoner to Constantinople. Stephen 
\va3 appointed his successor in the goremment of Sicily. 
Under a leader so incompetent, the affairs of the Christians 
soon fell into confusion. Fresh bands of Saracens arrived 
from Africa ; the Byzantine authorities were driven from 
the towns conquered by Maniakes ; the army under the 
command of Stephen was everywhere worsted ; and in a short 
time Messina alone retained its allegiance to the government 
at Constantinople, being preserved by the valour of its 
governor Katakalon. 

The Patzinaks renewed their invasions of the European 
provinces in the year 1034, when they extended their ravages 
almost to the walls of Thessalonica. Two years after, they 
again invaded the empire and wasted Thrace with unusual 
barbarity, carrying' off five imperial officers of high rank as 
prisoners. 

In the year 1040, Servia, whidi had submitted to the 
Emperor Basil II., became so discontented with the fiscal 
measures of the orphanotrophos, that the people rose in 
rebellion and shook off the Byzantine yoke. Stephen B<^i5kiv 
placed himself at the head of his countrymen and expelled 
the imperial authorities. The success of his rebellion was 
promoted by the seizure of a vessel, with a thousand pounds' 
weight of gold belonging to the imperial treasury, which was 
driven on the coast of Illyria. The emperor demanded the 
restitution of this sum, and when it was refused, sent Geoi^e 
Provatas with a laige army to reduce Stephen to obedience. 
The Byzantine troops were defeated through the incapacity of 
their general, and the independence of Servia firmly estab- 
lished and tacitly recognized '. 

The fiscal exactions of John the orphanotrophos produced 
another rebellion, which threatened to deprive the empire of 
the fruits of the long campaigns of Basil II. The land-tax or 
tribute of the Sclavonian population had been left, by their 



is Ui« reiea of Michael III. ; 

_ _ ^._ _ _ Sicily i» uown by the rindijr 

that eiisied between him and Romanoi SkleroG in Asia Minor. Geoig. Mou. jjji 



Leo Gramm. 461 i Cedtenos, 717, 731. 

* Cedrenui, 745. Piovatai, like many gencialt in the tenth and eleventh cen- 
turies, was an eunuch. 



DgIC 



4l6 BASIUAN DVN-ASTY. 

[Bk.II. Ch.m. S». 
conqueror, on the footing on which it had been established by 
Samuel when he founded the kingdom of Achrida, and con- 
sisted of a moderate annual payment in kind for each yoke of 
oxen and each strema of vineyard'. Michael IV,, by the 
advice of his brother, ordered a tax to be levied in money in 
lieu of the established payments, and the discontent caused 
by the measure prepared the population for revolt. While 
everythir^ proclaimed an approaching rebellion, a Bulgarian 
slave, named Peter Deleanos, fled from his master at Con- 
stantinople, and, on reaching Belgrade on the Danube, 
announced himself to be the grandson of Samuel, king of 
Achrida, He was soon joined by numbers of discontented 
Bulgarians, and was proclaimed king. His hopes of beii^ 
able to resist the power of the Byzantine government lay in 
the Sclavonian population of Macedonia and Epinis, not in 
the Bulgarians of the plains between the Danube and Mount 
Haemus. He succeeded in making himself master of many 
strong places in the theme of Dyrrachium, and he commenced 
the revolution by murdering all the Greeks who fell into his 
hands. Basil Synnadenos, the governor of Dyrrachium, 
advanced against him, hoping to extinguish the revolt in its 
birth ; but some intrigues at Constantinople caused him to 
lose bis place, and one of his officers, who was named his 
successor, proved incapable of executing the plan of opera- 
tions already traced out. The new governor threw every- 
thing into confusion ; and a lai^e body of troops in the 
province consisting of Sclavonians cast off their allegiance to 
the emperor, and proclaimed one of their own officers, 
Teichomeros, king of Bulgaria. Deleanos and Teichomeros 
agreed to act as allies, and divide the territory from which 
they might be able to expel the Byzantine officers ; but when 
the two Sclavonian armies formed a junction, Deleanos 
succeeded in persuading the soldiers to put Teichomeros to 
death in order to preserve the unity of the kingdom. 

The rebels then advanced to besiege Thessalonica, where 
the Emperor Michael had fixed his residence in order to pray 
at the shrine of St. Demetrius for deliverance from his 

' See above, p. 3S1. Cedrenns, 747. The anmbet of yokes of oxeo WW ■ 
common basis of taxalioo, and was adopted by the Anhs in Sicily and tb* 
Nonnans in Italy. Robert Guiscard engaged to My twelve deniere od Favim to 
the Pope Toi each yoke <A oxen in his slatei. Buoniiu, Xm. £mI., a.d, lofg. 



^dbvGooglc 



REBELLION OF THE SCLAVONIANS. 417 

Aj>. 101S.1054.] 

terrible sufierings during his epileptic fits. Alarmed at the 
threatening aspect of the revolution, and the unprepared 
state of the central authorities in Macedonia and Greece, he 
hastened to Constantinople to expedite warlike preparations, 
leaving a Bulgarian named Ibatzes in chaige of his baggage, 
with orders to follow him to the capital. Ibatzes fled to 
Deleanos, and delivered all the treasure intrusted to his care 
to the new monarch. In the mean time, Alusianos, the 
younger brother of Ladislas, the last king of Achrida, 
witnessing the rapid progress of the rebellion, and disgusted 
with the avarice and injustice of the orphanotrophos, quitted 
Theodosiopolis, of which he was governor, and joined 
Deleanos in his camp at Ostrovos. He was intrusted with 
the command of a division of the Bulgarian army, and 
ordered to undertake the siege of Thessalonica, where he 
conducted his military operations so ill, that he was very soon 
defeated by the imperial troops, and lost about 15,000 
men. The splendour of the victory was of course attributed 
to St. Demetrius, who was reported to have taken the 
command of the Greeks in person. The failure before 
Thessalonica was in some degree compensated by the capture 
of Dyrrachium, which fell into the hands of Kaukanos, one of 
the Bulgarian generals. 

While these operations were going on in the north, a 
Sclavonian army under Anthimos invaded Greece, proposing 
to enter the Peloponnesus, where they expected to find their 
countrymen ready to take up arms. The inhabitants of 
Thebes, which was then a wealthy and populous manufacturing 
city, boldly took the field to defend the cause of the Greek 
population, but were defeated with great loss '. The oppres- 
sive conduct of the Byzantine fiscal agents had been so 
general, that the Greeks were in some places more inclined to 
favour the Bulgarian revolution than to support the central 
government of Constantinople. The people in the theme of 
Nicopolis murdered Koutzomytes, the tax-collector of the 
province, and invited the Bulgarians to their assistance, who 

* CedrenuB, 747. The great weilth, commeidil eoEerprise, and high state or 
cnltare it Thebes, during this floon&hing period of the Byzantine empire, may 
be estimated from the description Benjamin of Tudela gives us of the city mb- 
sequent!)', in a dedinicg period. It bad even then 3000 Jewish inhabitants, who 
were eminent manufacturers of silk and paiple cloth : and scholars, whose eqaol 
was only to be found at Constantinople : \. 47, ediL Astm. 
VOL. II. E e 



:v Google 



41 8 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk. 11. Ch.III.il. 
easily rendered tbemselves masters of all western Greece. 
The city of Naupaktos (Lepanto) was alone preserved in its 
allegiance by the presence of its garrison '. 

It was fortunate for the Byzantine empire that the political 
government of the rebels was directed by men destitute of 
talent and honesty, for the minds of the Greek population 
were in general so alienated, and the amount of the imperial 
forces in Greece was so triflir^, that it would not have been 
a difficult matter to have subdued the whole country. But 
in place of attending to the public cause, Deleanos and 
Alusianos turned all their attention to intrigue. The first 
felt that, if he could not destroy his rival, he should lose his 
throne ; and the other feared that his royal blood and bis 
recent defeat would cost him his life. At last Alusianos found 
an opportunity of seizing the king by treachery, at a banquet 
in the city of Mosynopolis. He assumed the crown and 
ordered the eyes of Deleanos to be put out, but caring little 
for Sclavonian independence, he soon regretted the luxuries of 
Byzantine civilization, and preferred enduring the insolence 
of the orphan otroph OS to encountering the hardships of a 
revolutionary war. He deserted his countrymen, resigned the 
title of kii^. and made his peace with the court of Constan- 
tinople. 

The Emperor Michael IV. was now suffering under a 
severe attack of dropsy, in addition to repeated paroxysms 
of his old malady ; but he displayed the greatest energy from 
the moment that the Bulgarian rebellion broke out. He was 
aware that he could not survive for any length of time, but 
his mind seemed to gain vigour from his anxiety to transmit 
the sceptre he held without d^radation to his successor. 
He assembled an army at Thessalonica, and accompanied its 
movements, though his disease had made such progress that 
he was lifted from his horse every evening utterly exhausted. 
The Bulgarian army, left without a leader by the treachery of 

' {Fiom some such cause as U suggested here tbe people of AthoiE seem to 
have lisen acaiDst tlie imperial govemmeot at this time. The evideoce of this 
is fonnd in me nmic inscriptJoDs on the indent lion, which now gnuds the gate 
of the arsenal al Venice, and formerly, stood near the entrance of the Pii&eu*. 
which received from it the name of Porto Leone. These inscriptions commemonile 
the capture of ihe PiracBS at this period by the VarangianB umler the command of 
Harold Hardrada, and exactions of money on their part in consequence of a 
Tel>ellion of the Gicek<i. Hopf, OtiehUhU Oritchalmdi, io Brockhaus' Grinica- 
laiid, vol. vi. p. 147. Ed.] 



Dictzed by Google 



DEATH OF MICHAEL IV. 419 

A.11. 1018-1054.] 

Alusianos, was defeated and destroyed. The blind Deleanos 
and the deserter Ibatzes were both taken prisoners, and in 
one campaign the dying emperor reduced all the Bulgarians 
and Sclavonians who had taken arms to submission, and 
restored tranquillity in Macedonia, Epirus, and Greece. This 
vigorous and noble conduct closed the reign of Michael. He 
returned to Constantinople to die. 

The people, who looked on his original malady as a divine 
judgment, were confirmed in this superstition by the prodigies 
they witnessed during his reign. Hailstones fell which killed 
men at their work ; earthquakes followed one another with 
fearful rapidity; meteors blazed in the sky so bright, that the 
stars were rendered invisible at midnight; a column of fire 
was visible in the eastern sky at mid-day ; and a pestilence 
visited various parts of the empire with such terrible mortality 
that the living found it difficult to bury the dead ^. Taxation 
also b^an to press with increasing severity on a stationary 
society, so that, in spite of Michael's charitable works — his 
building churches, monasteries, and hospitals — his death was 
awaited with impatience by his subjects, in the hope that it 
would deliver the empire from the effects of divine wrath. 
Michael himself participated in the superstition of the people, 
and when he felt his end approaching, he retired from the 
imperial palace to the monastery of St. Anai^ros, where he 
assumed the habit of a monk. He died a few days after, on 
the loth of December 1041, having reigned seven years and 
eight months ^. 

The Empress Zoe assumed the direction of the administra- 
tion as lawful heiress of the empire, as well as in virtue of the 
will of her deceased husband, and she attempted to carry on 
the government with the assistance of the eunuchs of her 
household. But a few days' experience of the toils which 
were imposed on the sovereign by the Byzantine system 
of administration soon showed her both the inconveniences 
and dangers of her position. Though the Athenian Irene 



' Cedrenns, 735. W»l»h (RtUdaui ai CoiuiimtifiofU, u. 3ja) describe* a eimitor 
luil'StonD Id modem limei. The hail itones perforated the tiles of the roof, and 
were solid lumps of ice about five inches in circumference. 

• Cedrenus, 749. Il was during the reign of Michael IV. that Robert the Devil, 
duke of Normandf. visiled Conitantinople on his pilgrinu^ to Jerusalem, and 
rebuked the pride and iasolence of the Byzantine court. The anecdote a given 
by Ducange, Olot$. nod, tl ii^. La6»itata, v. ' Banciu.' 

Ee a 



ng.i ...A'OO^IC 



430 BASIL! AN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Ch.in. f s. 

had ruled the empire as absolute mistress for some years, 
and several female regents had presided over the government 
at different times, still the traditional aversion of the Roman 
state to female sway was not entirely extinct'. Zoe per- 
ceived the necessity of giving the empire a male sovereign, 
and she took only three days to choose between adopting 
a son or marrying a husband. Michael the son of Stephen, 
the unlucky governor of Sicily, had been raised to the rank of 
Caesar by his uncle Michael IV., and had the reputation 
of being a man of capacity and enei^; but his uncle, 
who seems to have formed a more correct judgment of his 
disposition than the world at lai^e, had seen so much to 
distrust in his character that he had excluded him from all 
share of public business, and given him no hope of mounting 
the throne as his successor. Zoe, too, displayed more con- 
fidence in his talents than in his principles ; for before placing 
the crown on his head, she required him to swear in the most 
solemn manner that he would ever r^ard her as his bene- 
factress, and treat her as his mother. She also required him 
to banish the orphanotrophos, Constantine the domestikos, 
and George the protovestiarios. Michael promised everything 
and obtained the crown. 

But as scK>n as he felt himself firmly established in power, 
he revealed his meanness of soul, and treated his benefactress 
with insolence as well as ingratitude. He recalled the 
orphanotrophos to his counsels, and conferred on him the 
high dignity of despot ; but soon neglected his advice, and 
placed all his confidence in Constantine, whom he honoured 
with the rank of nobilissimus ^, He then determined to 
remove the Patriarch Alexios from office. After receiving 
him with honour and bestowing on him a donation of four 
pounds of gold, he invited him to a meeting and banished 
him to the monastery of Stenon on the Bosphoros, but he 
was unable to obtain the election of a new patriarch. At 
last he carried his presumption so far as to send the Empress 
Zoe to Prince's Island, and compel her to adopt the monastic 
habit. When the people heard of this last instance of his 
ingratitude, which he had the insolence to announce in a 

' The aversion to female succesiian is ntentioaed in (he fifth century, on th« 
death of Tbeodosius U. Frisciu, i ji, edit. Bohd. 
' Zonans, ii. 143. 



Dictzed by Google 



ZOE AND THEODORA. 4Zi 

JUB. tOl 3-1054.] 

public proclamation, their fury burst through every restraint. 
They assailed the imperial heralds and paraded the city, 
exclaiming that 'the caulker' had ceased to reign, and that 
they would scatter his bones abroad like dust. An assembly 
was held in the church of St. Sophia, to which Theodora 
was brought from the monastery of Petrion, and proclaimed 
empress with her sister. The emperor, alarmed at the rapid 
progress of the sedition, brought Zoe back to the palace, 
and attempted to pacify the people by persuading her to 
appear at a balcony overlooking the hippodrome. The sight 
of Michael, however, who endeavoured to address the as- 
sembly, revived the popular fury, and preparations were 
made to storm the palace. The emperor now showed 
himself a coward as well as a tyrant, and wished to fly 
to the monastery of Studion. His uncle Constantine, how- 
ever, made him understand that his only hope of life was 
in preserving the throne, and roused him to take measures for 
defending the palace. 

The attack was made on the following day, and after a 
long defence the people, who assaulted it in three divisions 
from the hippodrome, the court of guard, and the tchukanis- 
terion, stormed the palace ^. Katakalon, who saved Messina, 
had just returned from Sicily, and happening to be at the 
palace, directed the defensive arrangements, while Constantine 
the nobilissimus, assembling all his household in arms, added 
to the strength of the guards". The fury of the people 
overcame all resistance ; but it is said that three thousand 
were slain before they forced their entrance into the interior 
of the building ^. Everything was then plundered, and the 
public registers were destroyed. In this destruction of the 
public registers many records of the Byzantine indictions 



' The tzukan was the favourite game of Byzantine gentlemen. Every city had 
its tchukanisleriou. Dacange, GioaariMm mid. tl inf. Grattilali: [It was a kind 
of goff. The word is of Peisian origin. En.] 

' CedrenuB, 751. The wealth accumulated by Constanlinc in the public service, 
which could enable him to arm a DuinerDus household, shows us how much of 
the Roman ariatocratical organiiation of society still enisled in the Byznntine 

• It may be remarked that the Byiantine historians, after evenr great sedition, 
genemlly report ' that it is said three thousand persons perilled.' The number 
alludes to the three thousand Israelites slain by the Levites, who rushed through 
the camp with drawn sword* to avenge the idolatry of the golden calf. Exodus, 
ixxii. iS. The Stp/uagini and the Iliad were the priiicipal sources of literary 
inspiration at Constantinople for some ceatories. 



DgIC 



421 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk-ILCh.IlI. |3. 
and perhaps even of the Roman census perished. The 
abolition of the ancient systematic administration was facili- 
tated, and a great obstacle to the complete transfonnation 
of the Byzantine empire into an arbitrary despotism was 
removed, when taxation ceased to be regulated by ancient 
usages and recorded traditions. Temporary edicts placed 
laws in abeyance, and popular insurrections became the only- 
national check on imperial power. Michael V. and his uncle 
Constantine succeeded in escaping to the monastery of 
Studion during the confusion. Zoe immediately assumed 
the ensigns of the imperial power, and endeavoured to force 
her sister Theodora l»ck into retirement, but the senate and 
people insisted that the two sisters should reign conjointly. 
Though Zoe was eager to tyrannize over her sister, she 
showed a disposition to spare her own tyrant Michael. She 
was, however, compelled by Theodora and the senate to join 
in his condemnation, for the populace shouted incessantly, 
' Let him be impaled, let him be crucified, let his eyes be put 
out ! ' Officers were therefore sent to drag him from his 
asylum and put out his eyes. When placed beside his 
uncle in the Sigma to suffer his sentence, he meanly entreated 
the executioners to put out the eyes of Constantine first ; 
and that daring eunuch submitted to the punishment with the 
greatest firmness, while the dethroned emperor excited the 
contempt of the people by his cries and moans. They were 
then sent to pass the remainder of their lives as monks in the 
monastery of Elegmos. Michael the Caulker sate on the 
imperial throne four months and five days \ 

The joint government of Zoe and Theodora lasted less 
than two months. We need not wonder, therefore, that it 
is praised by all historians, for the salutary effects of a 
violent display of popular indignation were sure to extend 
over the whole period, Byzantine officials moderated their 
exactions in alarm, and the two empresses were reminded 
by the empty chambers of their palace that public opinion 
was not always to be despised with impunity. In order 
to secure the support of the imperial council of state, and 
of the municipality of Constantinople — or of the Roman 
senate and people, as these bodies proudly styled them- 

' Ccdrenus, 751 ; Zooaras, il 146. 



ZOE AND CONSTANTINE DALASSENOS. 4*3 

AJi. 1018-1054.] 

selves — numerous promotions were made and large dona- 
tions lavished. An ordinance was published prohibiting 
the sale of official situations, for this species of traffic had 
become an .ordinary source of revenue to the eunuchs of 
the imperial household, who possessed most of the highest 
offices of the state. At the same time strict orders were 
issued to enforce the administration of justice with imparti- 
ality, and to restrain oppressive conduct on the part of the 
fiscal agents of government. 

The unprincipled manner in which the adventurers and 
eunuchs, who had been introduced into the public service 
since the death of Basil 11^ appropriated the funds in the 
imperial treasury to their own use, deserves particular notice. 
Great deficiencies were detected in the accounts of the short 
financial administration of the nobilissimus Constantine ; and 
the ministers of Zoe and Theodora found it necessary to 
examine him personally, in order to discover how the 
money had been employed. The blind monk, knowing 
that he had no chance of ever quitting the monastery in 
which he was confined, candidly informed the new ministers 
that he had abstracted the sum of 5300 lb. of gold from 
the treasury for his own use, and deposited it in a vaulted 
cistern attaiched to his palace, near the Church of the Holy 
Apostles J. 

The two sisters appeared always together at the meet- 
ii^s of the senate, and when they held courts of justice, or 
gave public audiences ; but it was evident their union would 
not prove of long duration. Zoe was jealous of her sister, 
and though she was eager to be relieved of the burden of 
public business, she was determined not to allow Theodora 
to conduct it alone — probably the more so, because Theo- 
dora showed great aptitude in state affairs, and took great 
pleasure in performing her administrative duties. Zoe, there- 
fore, bethought herself of looking out for a third husband, to 
whom she might resign the , throne, and thus deprive her 
sister of the influence she was rapidly acquiring. Zoe was 
now sixty-two years old, and the age of passion having 
passed away, her memory reverted to the merits of Con- 
stantine Dalassenos, who had been destined by her father 

' CedrenuE, 753; equal to 143,800 sovereigns. 

Djizcdtv Google 



424 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.lI.CtLin. (3. 
to be her first husband. She invited that proud noble to 
an interview in the imperial palace, in order to judge of 
his character before revealing her purpose. But in place 
of the splendid and gallant nobleman of her imagination, 
she met a stem old man, who expressed strongly his dis- 
approbation of the whole system of the imperial administra- 
tion since the death of Basil II. ; who openly blamed the vices 
of the court, and hardly concealed his contempt for her own 
conduct. Such a husband might have infused new vigour into 
the lethaigic system of government, but Zoe was not inclined 
to submit her actions to the control of so severe a master '. 

She turned, therefore, to one of her former lovers, Constan- 
tine Artoklinas ; but when his wife heard of the honour to 
which he was destined, she displayed none of the meekness 
of the wife of Romanus III. Artoklinas suddenly sickened 
and died, and his wife was supposed to have poisoned him, 
either from jealousy or from her aversion to be immured 
in a convent. Zoe was easily consoled. She again selected 
an old admirer, Constantine Monomachos, who had been 
banished to Mitylene by the jealousy of Michael IV., but 
recalled on the accession of Zoe and Theodora, and named 
Judge of Greece^. A swift-rowing galley was despatched to 
convey him to the capital, where, on his arrival, he was 
invested with the imperial robes. His marriage with Zoe 
was celebrated by one of the clei^, for the Patriarch Alexios 
declined officiating at a third marriage of the empress, which 
was doubly uncanonical, since both the bridegroom and the 
bride had been twice married. Nevertheless, on the day after 
the marriage ceremony, the Patriarch crowned the emperor 
with the usual solemnities. 

The reign of Constantine IX. demands more attention 
from the historian of the Byzantine empire than the worthless 
character of the man or the feeble policy of his cabinet 
appears at first glance to deserve. It typifies the moral 
degradation into which Byzantine society had fallen, for his 

' Zouaraa, iL 146. 

* Ducange, Nrt«u in C4dmvm, ji, edit. Venel.; Codinus, IH Off. 51. Gibbon 
says. "The epithet of Monomadius (the single combatant) must have been ei- 
presBive of bis valour and victory in some public or private quarrel ;' bat it was 
merely a hereditary surname, and had no more relation to the qualities of the indi- 
vidual than the surnames of Skleros, Kekaiunenos, and many others of the same 
period, or than Champion or Boxer in the present day. 



SKLERAINA. 425 

vices were tolerated, if not approved of, by a lai^e portion 
of his subjects. His open profligacy expresses the im- 
morality of the age ; his profusion indicated the general 
manner of living among all classes of his subjects. While he 
destroyed the civil organization of the government, and 
undermined the discipline of the Roman armies, he wasted 
the national capital and diminished the resources of the 
empire. 

The domestic profligacy of Zoe had been concealed from 
the public by the household of eunuchs that surrounded her, 
and by whom the inhabitants of the palace were kept com- 
pletely separated from the world without its walls. But her 
third husband, Constantine Monomachos, was so indifferent to 
all feelit^s of self-respect as to make an open parade of his 
vices at the public ceremonies of the court. After he had 
buried two wives, he obtained the favour of a beautiful young 
widow belonging to the powerful and wealthy family of 
Skleros. She was the granddaughter of that celebrated 
Bardas, who had disputed the empire with Basil II., and the 
daughter of Romanos Skleros, the brother-in-law of the 
Emperor Romanus III. The eminence of her family eclipsed 
the name of her husband, and she was called Skleraina. 
Infatuated by love for Constantine Monomachos, she openly 
assumed the position of his mistress, and shared his banish- 
ment at Mitylene. It is, however, only justice to the character 
of the fair Skleraina to observe that, in the opinion of the 
bigoted members of the Greek church, her position of mistress, 
as being less uncanonical, was more respectable than it would 
have been had she become the third wife of her lover. When 
Zoe raised Constantine to the throne, he bargained to retain 
his mistress, and the people of Constantinople were treated to 
the singular spectacle of an emperor of the Romans making 
his public appearance with two female companions dignified 
with the title of empress, one as his wife and the other as his 
mistress. Skleraina was regularly saluted with the title of 
Augusta, and installed in apartments in the palace, with a 
separate court as empress, and a rank equal to that held by 
Theodora. Zoe and she lived together on the best terms, 
and the want of jealousy of the aged wife is less surprising 
than her want of self-respect. The disposition of the beautiful 
Skleraina was extremely amiable, and she was respected to 



DgIC 



43lS BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.ILCh.m. {3. 
a certain degree for the constancy of her attachment to her 
lover in his misfortunes, which contrasted with the behaviour 
of Zoe, who had never allowed any passion, however violent 
to retain permanent hold of her heart. Skleraina possessed 
an ample fortune when Constantine was an impoverished 
exile, and her wealth had been consumed to gratify her lover's 
luxurious habits. The good-natured sensualist now strove to 
repay her, and his unbounded liberality soon caused her to lose 
all the popularity she had acquired. Her apartments were more 
splendid than any Constantinople had yet seen ; her elegant 
manners created round her a graceful court, which seemed 
more brilliant from its contrast with the dull ceremony that 
reigned in the apartments of Zoe and Theodora. As the 
populace can rarely be so completely corrupted in their moral 
feelings as their superiors, the extravagant expenditure of the 
emperor on his concubine roused public indignation. Fiscal 
oppression was doubly grievous when the people saw their 
money employed to insult their feelings, and they began to 
fancy that the lives of Zoe and Theodora might be in danger 
in a palace where vice was honoured, and where secret murder 
was supposed to be an ordinary occurrence. 

Constantine IX. had pursued his career of voluptuous 
extravagance for two years, without a thought of his duties 
either to God or to his subjects, when he was suddenly 
awakened to a sense of the danger of his situation by a 
furious sedition. On the feast of the Forty Martyrs it was 
usual for the emperor to walk in solemn procession to the 
Church of our Saviour in Chaike, from whence he pro- 
ceeded on horseback to the Church of the Martyrs. As the 
procession was about to move from the palace, a cry was 
raised, ' Down with Skleraina ; we will not have her for 
empress! Zoe and Theodora are our mothers — we will not 
allow them to be murdered I ' The fury of the populace was 
ungovernable, and they made an attempt to lay hands on the 
emperor to tear him to pieces. Many persons were trodden 
to death in the tumult, and Constantine was in imminent 
danger of his life, when the sudden appearance of Zoe and 
Theodora at a balcony drew off the attention of the crowd, 
and allowed the emperor to escape. The sisters assured the 
people that they were not in the smallest danger, and as no 
leaders stepped forward to direct the populace, tranquillity 



DgIC 



LAVISH EXPENDITURE. 427 

A.O. IOJ8-I054.] 

was restored ; but the emperor did not accompany the proces- 
sion to the Church of the Forty Martyrs in the year 1044', 

There are some articles in the expenditure of Constan- 
tine IX. which indicate that he lived in an enlightened age, 
and reigned over a civilized people. To solace his conscience, 
he constructed houses of refuge for the aged and hospitals for 
the pcwr, as well as monasteries and churches for the clergy. 
He also raised the most distinguished literary men of his time 
to high otEces^. He completed the rebuilding the Church 
of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and augmented the 
endowments of the clei^ of St Sophia's, in order that service 
might be performed with due pomp every day*. 

In order to fill the treasury, when he had drained it by his 
lavish expenditure, he adopted a measure which proved ruinous 
to the empire, and was an immediate cause of the success of 
the Seljouk Turks in Asia Minor, The frontier provinces of 
the East had been exempted from the payment of direct taxes 
to the central government, and the dependent states in alli- 
ance with the empire in that quarter had been relieved from 
tribute, on the condition of maintaining bodies of r^ular 
militia constantly under arms, to defend their territories. 
Constantine IX. consented to relieve them from the obligation 
of maintaining their military contingents, on their paying a 
sum of money into his exhausted treasury. By this impolitic 
proceeding, an army of hfty thousand men on the Iberian and 
Armenian frontiers was disbanded, and the Asiatic provinces 
left open to the invasion of the Seljouk Turks, whose power 
was rapidly increasing. The money remitted to Constanti- 
nople was quickly wasted in luxury and vice *. 

' Cedrenus, ?6i. 9th March. 

* Michael Constantine Psellos, vho for his macli sciibbling wss colled roKv- 
IfoifirTaTot, and who was really the last mnn of superior learning Conslsniinople 
pioduced, was raised to office by CODsCantine IX. and tooli a considenble part 
in public affairs until the death of Michael VTT. Schoell, GudiUhtf der Griich. 
LUitralar, transl. by Finder, iii. i6g, 410, ['Scribbling' is perhaps rather a hard 
term to apply to the works of a man of ' superior learning.' M, Sathas — who has 
written a hfe of Fsellus in the uitrodaction to that writer's history of the period 
from A.B. g76 to 1077 1,'eiiaTomiTTipli BiifiiTu^ larofiat), now published for 
the lirst time in vol. iv. of his Bibtioiktca Oratta tiudii oivi — expresses a fsTourable 
opinion of Fsellus' historical insight, and says that his history was copied in 
a superficial manner by succeeding historians, such as ScyliUes. Anna Comnena, 
and others (p. xiii.>. His name was originally Constantine or Conslans (p. xxx.), 
and he took that of Michael on becoming a monk in 1054 {f. liri.), En.j 

* The friendly relations that existed between Conslantme IX. and Uke court 
of the Fatimile caliph is noticed by Cedreous, 7S9. 

< Cedreao*, 790; Zooaros, ii. 160. 



:v Google 



428 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Ch.in.fl. 

The death of the Patriarch Alexios, who died in the year 
1043, after having ruled the Byzantine church upwards of 
seventeen years with some reputation, afforded a sad confirma- 
tion of the depraved state of society, and the frightful extent 
to which avarice had corrupted the Eastern cler^. The 
emperor, who knew that the Patriarch had heaped up con- 
siderable sums of money in a monastery he had constructed, 
sent and seized this treasure, which was found to amount to 
the sura of 2500 lb. of gold •. Michael Keroularios, who had 
been compelled to enter a monastery on account of the part 
he had taken in a conspiracy against Michael IV., was 
appointed Patriarch, and distinguished himself by hts violent 
proceedings in the disagreement between the sees of Rome 
and Constantinople. 

Theodora, though by her sister's marriage she was deprived 
of all direct influence over the administration, still possessed 
the power of violating the law with impunity, John the 
orphanotrophos was seized by her order while livii^ tranquilly 
in banishment at Marykatos, and deprived of sight. It 
was said by some that this cruel deed was executed without 
the emperor's permission, but others attributed it to revenge 
on the part of Constantine, who ascribed his long exile at 
Mitylene to the malice of the orphanotrophos. We must 
recollect, however, that Theodora was of a sterner and more 
unforgiving temper than her brother-in-law, and that she had 
probably good reason for complaining of the conduct of the 
orphanotrophos, even when he was minister of Romanus III. 
In any case, it is a sufficient proof of the disorganization of the 
administration that the act is ascribed to Theodora by Zonaras, 
who was himself a minister, and that it was inflicted without 
even the formality of a legal sentence ^. 

A weak and lavish court, surrounded by a proud and 
wealthy aristocracy, under the government of an absolute 
sovereign, is the hotbed of rebellion. Constantine IX. was 
placed on the throne, without any merit of his own, by the 
shameless preference of a worthless old woman. It is not 
surprising, therefore, that many nobles attempted to wrench the 

' Cedrenus, 758 1 Zonaras. ii. 150. It ii> important to notice these large eoius 
accumuUled in private hands in tbe Byzantine empire, at a time when the predons 
metals were extremely rare in Western Europe. 

' Zooaras, ii. 151 ; Cedrenus, 758. 



J, Google 



SEDITION IN CYPRUS. 439 

kjt. toiS-1054.] 

sceptre from his hand ; but it is a strong proof of the original 
excellence of the organization of the Byzantine system of 
administration that all these attempts proved unsuccessful. 
The conservative tendencies of society, which had grown out 
of the system of government, presented a passive resistance to 
all revolutionary endeavours to disturb the established order 
of things. A sedition in Cyprus, however, occurred even 
before Constanttne IX. mounted the throne. No sooner was 
it known throughout the empire that Michael V. had been 
dethroned by a popular insurrection, and that the government 
of Zoe and Theodora was not likely to prove of long duration, 
than Theophilos Erotikos, the governor of Cyprus, formed the 
project of gaining possession of that rich island for himself 
during the threatened confusion. Theophilos was a turbulent 
and presumptuous man, of ability far inferior to his ambition. 
Two years previous to his rebellion in Cyprus he had been 
driven from Servia, which he then governed, by Stephen 
Bogislav ; he now incited the people to attack Theophylaktos, 
the intendant of finance, on the ground that this officer col- 
lected the taxes with undue rigour. Theophylaktos was slain, 
and the governor expected that, in removing a check on his 
plot, he had succeeded in compromising the Inhabitants so far 
as to secure their support to his ambitious project. Constan- 
tinc IX., however, immediately on assuming the government, 
despatched a force to suppress the revolt, and as the Cypriots 
had no idea of waging war against the central government at 
Constantinople, or of aiding Theophilos to assume the imperial 
crown, they offered no resistance. The governor was arrested 
and sent a prisoner to the capital, where the insurrection was 
considered so contemptible that Theophilos was exhibited to 
the people at the public games in a female dress, and escaped 
with the confiscation of his estates. 

The rebellion of Maniakes, which occurred in the first year 
of the reign of Constantine IX., would in all probability have 
deprived him of the throne, had it not been suddenly termi- 
nated by one of those strokes of fortune by which Heaven 
deranges the wisest plans and destroys the most powerful 
expeditions. Maniakes was released from confinement at the 
death of Michael IV., and reappointed to the command of 
the Byzantine possessions in Italy. He found the Italians 
everywhere in rebellion, and the chief military power in the 



430 BASILIAN DYNASTY.. 

[Bk.II.Ch.m. {>. 
hands of the Norman mercenaries, who had formed themselves 
into an independent community : the cities of Ban, Brindtsi, 
Otranto, and Tarento were alone occupied by Byzantine 
garrisons. The moment Mantakes landed, he commenced his 
military operations with the vigour and skill for which he was 
so remarkable. He defeated the Normans in a well-contested 
battle between Monopoli and Matera ; and as these two towns 
had shown a hostile disposition, he allowed them to be 
plundered by his troops, and even ordered two hundred of the 
principal inhabitants of the latter to be decapitated for favour- 
ing the Normans. The animosity between the Greeks and 
Italians was now so violent that the success of the Normans 
and the separation of the two churches were produced rather 
by the hatred of the parties than by the superior valour of the 
Normans, or by any religious arguments of the clergy. Though 
the Italians were destitute of the virtue and endurance neces- 
sary to gain their independence, they possessed at this time 
an able and active leader, Ai^yros, the son of Mel, and it was 
in moral far more than in military qualities that they were 
inferior to the northern mercenaries. 

The prc^ess of Maniakes was suddenly arrested by the 
news that Constantine Monomachos, the lover of Skleraina, 
was named emperor, for Maniakes was engaged in violent 
contests with her brother, Romanos Skleros, concerning the 
limits of their hereditary estates in Asia Minor. Romanos, 
who had the courage to contend personally with the fiery 
Maniakes, as his father had contended with Prusianos, the 
Bulgarian prince, now avenged himself for some insults by 
seducing his enemy's wife and seizing the disputed property. 
Maniakes knew that there was no hope of obtaining justice 
from the emperor, over whom Skleraina exercised unbounded 
influence; he resolved, therefore, to administer justice in his 
own cause. He immediately recruited his army with all the 
Norman and other mercenaries he was able to collect in Italy, 
and proclaimed himself emperor. Constantine IX. the moment 
he heard of the rebellion, sent an officer with a body of troops 
to arrest Maniakes, expecting that it would be as easy to do 
so on this occasion as it had proved in Sicily. But Maniakes 
fell on the Byzantine troops at the moment of their arrival, 
routed them, and, gaining possession of the treasure they had 
brought, embarked his own army at Otranto, and landed at 



REBELLION OF MANIAKES. 431 

A.P. IO1S-IO54O 

Dyrrachium, in the month of February 1043. The emperor 
sent an army, under the command of one of Zoe's eunuchs, 
named Stephen, to arrest the progress of the rebel. Mani- 
akes, despising the unwarlike character . of his opponent, 
attacked the imperial army near Ostrovos. His charge bore 
down everything, and victory seemed assured to his standard, 
when an arrow from an unknown hand pierced him to the 
heart. His death left his followers without a cause, as well as 
without a leader, and they instantly retired from the field 
of battle. The Norman, Frank, and Italian mercenaries in 
the rebel army entered the Byzantine service, and continued 
for many years to make a prominent figure in the wars of the 
empire \ The victorious eunuch made his public entry into 
Constantinople mounted on a white charger, with the head of 
Maniakes borne before him on a lance. 

Stephen's accidental success awakened his ambition, and 
when he found, on his return to the capital, that the emperor 
did not estimate his services as highly as he considered was 
their due, he began to plot against him. He selected Leo, 
the governor of Melitene, as the future emperor, but his 
intrigues were discovered. Leo and his son Lampros were 
deprived of sight, but Stephen was only immured in a monas- 
tery after his estates were confiscated. 

In the year 1047, Constantine IX. was again in danger 
of losing his throne by the rebellion of his own relation, Leo 
Tomikios, The character of Leo rendered him extremely 
popular at Adrianople, where he resided. To remove him 
from the seat of his influence, the emperor named him gover- 
nor of Iberia, where he was soon accused of aspiring at the 
throne. Constantine IX., jealous of his talents and popularity, 
ordered him to resign his governorship and adopt the monastic 
life ; but the friends of Tomikios put him on his guard in time 
to enable him to escape to Adrianople, where he was imme- 
diately proclaimed emperor. At the head of the garrison of 
that city, and such motley forces as he could assemble on the 
spur of the occasion, he marched to Constantinople. He 
hoped to render himself master of the capital by the favour of 

' These mercenaries fonned at first a corps called MaDiakatoi, Joaiuiis Cdto- 
palatae HUiorin, at the end of Cedienus, 854. Their nunibeR were cor.atderal la 
in the army of Nicephorus Briennius, defeated by Ihe Emperor Alexius, during the 
reign of Nicephorus IlL (Botaneiates) m the year 1078, Auia Comnen*, i». 



DgIC 



432 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.U.Ch.m.{a. 
the citizens, counting more on their aversion to the emperor's 
conduct than on the military force under his own orders. But 
Constantinople was guarded by foreign mercenaries, and the 
inhabitants feared a military revolution far more than they 
hated their sovereign. Constantine also, on receivii^ the first 
information of the revolt, despatched orders to a Saracen 
eunuch, who commanded a corps of Byzantine troops in 
Iberia, to march rapidly to the capital, with all the forces 
he could concentrate on the way. 

Tomikios encamped before the walls in the month of Sep- 
tember, and being unable to invest the line of the fortifications 
from the port to the Sea of Marmora, established himself 
before the gate of Blachem. The emperor, who, in spite of 
his warlike surname, was utterly ignorant of military affairs, 
ordered a party of a thousand men to intrench themselves 
outside this gate. The operation was undertaken against the 
advice of his military counsellors ; but, to see the result of his 
own tactics, the emperor placed himself in a balcony over- 
hanging the walls, in full view of the position of his advanced 
guard. Tornikios immediately took advantage of the im- 
perial folly; he stormed the intrenchment, and the rebel 
archers, sending a flight of arrows at the balcony, compelled 
the emperor and his court to abandon their position with 
ludicrous celerity, amidst the derisive cheers of the citizens 
as well as of the enemy. But Tomikios, proud of the day's 
exploit, and trusting always to the delusive hope that the 
inhabitants would open the gates, delayed pressing the assault. 
Next day, when he found the people would hold no commu- 
nication with him, he ordered a general assault. The garrison 
had employed the whole night in making preparations to meet 
it ; and as the defence was intrusted to experienced officers, 
and the citizens supported the regular troops, to save their 
property from the danger to which it would be exposed if a 
victorious enemy entered the city, Tomikios was defeated with 
considerable loss. He then found it necessary to raise the 
siege and retire to Arcadiopolis. Shortly after, he attacked 
the city of Rhedestos, and, the bishop keeping the inhabitants 
firm in their allegiance, he was again defeated. His cause 
now became desperate ; for the news reachii^ his camp that 
the Asiatic troops had arrived at Constantinople, his followers 
quitted his standard, and he was forced to seek refuge in a 



COURT PLOTS. 433 

*j). 101S-1054.] 

church, from which he was taken by force, and sent to the 
emperor in chains. On Christmas eve he was deprived of his 
sight. 

In the year 1050, several nobles of distinction were accused 
of conspiring to dethrone the emperor. The accusation may 
have been nothii^ more than a court intrigue, for only one 
was punished by the confiscation of his estates >. 

Another plot shows the contemptible condition to which 
the imperial power had fallen in the estimation of the cour- 
tiers. Bellas, a man of low birth, had gained the favour of 
Constantine IX. by his talents for bufToonery and his capacity 
for business. He amused the emperor by his wit, and rdieved 
him from much embarrassment by his application. Bollas 
being utterly destitute of all principle, and possessing little 
judgment with a daring character, conceived the preposterous 
idea of making himself emperor. He knew that he was fitter 
to fill the throne than the reigning emperor, and in a court so 
worthless he thought it easy to succeed in his design. He 
applied to several persons in high office, and found intriguers 
who were willing to make him an instrument, while he be- 
lieved he was usii^ them as the servants of his own ambition. 
The conspiracy was revealed on the very night it had been 
resolved to assassinate Constantine ; but tt seems the emperor 
was never persuaded that his favourite was really guilty, for 
he soon restored him to his office, in order to enjoy his 
buffoonery*. 

The reign of Basil II. marks the summit of the military 
power of the Byzantine empire. In the reign of Constantine 
IX. the first traces of decay are visible in the military system, 
which, for three centuries and a half, had upheld a standii^ 
army equal to the Saracen forces in the East, and superior to 
any troops the nations of Europe had been able to maintain 
permanently in the field. The alliance of the Servians and 
Armenians, who had loi^ furnished the Byzantine armies with 
many of their best soldiers, was now lost The Normans were 
allowed to acquire an independent existence in Italy; and 
though the Russians and Patzinaks were defeated, the Seljouk 



* CedtentK, 786. 

* A patridan muned BoUu attempted to mount the throne in t 
Romann* I. See p. 391. 

VOL, 11. F f 



o^^le 



434 BASILIAN DYNASTY, 

[Bk.n.Ch.ni.{a. 
Turks began to undermine the whole fabric of the Byzantine 
power in Asia. 

The disorders which attended the dethronement of Michael 
V, induced Stephen Bogistav, the sovereign of Servia, to in- 
vade Illyria and Macedonia, from which he carried off immense 
booty, ravaging the country like a wild beast rather than a 
man'. Constantine IX., in order to prevent future depre- 
dations, ordered the governor of Dyrrachium to march into 
Servia with a large body of troops drawn from the garrisons 
of the neighbouring themes ; and it was pretended that the 
army consisted of sixty thousand men '. The general, igno- 
rant of military science, trusted entirely to his numbers, which 
the Servians were unable to resist in the open field. He 
pushed carelessly forward into the heart of the country, 
ravaging everything around, and collecting booty, untH he 
involved himself in a mountainous district, full of narrow 
defiles and rugged roads. As no enemy was to be found, 
he gave the order to return to Dyrrachium ; but no sooner was 
the retreat commenced than the Servians resumed their 
activity, and Stephen suddenly beset the passes with his 
army. The head and rear of the Byzantine columns were 
assailed at the same time, the march was delayed, and the 
booty lost. The Byzantine general, incapable of combining 
the movements of his diflerent divisions for their mutual sup- 
port, and his lieutenants, ignorant of one another's movements, 
were thrown into inextricable confusion. A general attack of 
the Servians in one of the mountain passes completed the 
root of the army, and, if we believe the Byzantine writers, 
seven generals and forty thousand men perished in this 
e}cpeditioa^ 

We have ■ already seen that the social condition of the 
inhabitants of .Russia in the preceding century was consider- 
ably more advanced than that of the people in western 
Europe. Their commerce with the Byzantine empire, which 
had been one of the causes of their pn^ress in wealth and 
civilization, was greatly extended during the tenth and eleventh 
centuries ; and after the conquest of Cherson, and the decay 

* Zonaras, iL 348. * Cedrenus. 757. 

* The SeiriaDS are sometimes called Triballi, and Eometiines mealioaed in cmi> 
janction with ihe Triballi. that nam* being affiled to the Sdavoaiass geoenUy. 
Cedrenui, 754 ; Zonaras, ii 348 ; Laon. Cbalcocoodylas, 1 7. 



DgIC 



RUSSIAN iVAJl. 435 

*J». 1018-1054.] 

of that flourishing city, a considerable number of Russian 
merchants established themselves at Constantinople. The 
influence of these traders soon became very great, for, besides 
the regular trade they carried on between the north and south, 
they also acted as bankers for the Varangian and Rus^an 
mercenaries in the Byzantine service, and as agents for many 
Bulgarian and Sclavonian landed proprietors, whose produce 
they purchased. About the commencement of the year 1043, 
it happened that a Russian of rank was sl^n in a tumult at 
Constantinople, and the sovereign of Kief, Yaroslaf, deemed 
it a favourable occasion for making conquests in the Byzantine 
territory, as the Normans had done in France, and the Danes 
in England. The Emperor Constantine in vain oflered all 
reasonable satisfaction ; the Northmen and the Russians were 
determined to try the fortune of war, for they wanted some- 
thing very difierent from indemnity for the consequences of a 
tumult in the streets of Constantinople. An expedition, com- 
posed of Varangians and Russians, under the command of 
Vladimir, son of Yaroslaf, who had been elected prince of 
Novgorod by his father's influence, with Viuchata, as his coun- 
sellor and lieutenant-general, crossed the Black Sea. The 
commerce of Russia was a matter of so much importance to 
the capital, the Varangians and Russian mercenaries formed 
so valuable a part of the imperial land-forces, and the indolent 
Constantine was so averse to war, that he made a sacrifice of 
the punctilio of Byzantine diplomacy, and again demanded 
peace when the hostile armament appeared off the entrance of 
the Bosphorus. But the Russians, bent on plunder and con- 
quest, rejected all terms of peace, unless the emperor would 
engage to pay three pounds' weight of gold to each soldier in 
the expedition. 

Constantine made active preparations for repulsing the 
attack on his capital. He arrested all the Russian merchants 
and soldiers in the empire, and sent them into distant themes, 
to be guarded as prisoners until the war should be terminated. 
The greater part of the Byzantine fleet was either absent in 
the Archipelago or employed on the coast of Italy; but the 
ships in the port of Constantinople were prepared for sea; 
and thdr size, as well as the use of Greek fire, gave them 
such a superiority over the boats of the Russians that the 
sailors were eager for a battle. The first naval engagement 
Ff a 



A'OO' 



'cS'^' 



435 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.Cti.ULSi. 
proved indecisive, and the Russians contrived to destroy a 
part of the Greek fleet which separated from the maia 
squadron ; but in another action the Russians suffered great 
loss, and a storm shortly after completed the ruin of di«r 
enterprise. In landing to plunder, their troops were also 
defeated. On their retreat, a second storm overtook them 
in passing Varna, and their losses were so great that, accord- 
ing to the accounts of their own historians, fifteen thousand 
men perished. Three years elapsed before peace was re- 
established, but a treaty was then concluded, and the trade 
at Constantinople placed on the old footing'. From this 
period the alliance of the Russians with the Byzantine empire 
was long uninterrupted; and as the Greeks became more 
deeply imbued with ecclesiastical prejudices, and more 
hostile to the Latin nations, the Eastern Church became, in 
their eyes, the symbol of their nationality, and the bigoted 
attachment of the Russians to the same religious formalities 
obtained for them from the Byzantine Greeks much sym- 
pathy and the appellation of the most Christian nation *. 

The Fatzinaks, who still occupied the whole country from 
the Dnieper to the Danube, had not repeated the ravages 
they committed in the year 1036. They were occupied 
by wars with the Russians and with the Uzes, a nomadic 
nation of Turkish race like themselves, but who proved 
their irreconcilable enemies ^. Tyrach was at this time king 
of the Fatzinaks, and Keghenes, a man whose merits as a 
soldier had raised him to rank, commanded the army. The 
fame of the general excited the envy of the king, and 
Keghenes was forced to seek shelter in the Byzantine empire, 
to which he retired ' with a numerous body of followers *. 
From an island in the Danube, near Doiystolon, in which 
he had intrenched himself, the Fatzinak general solicited 
permission to enter the empire, and Constantine IX., well 
pleased to g^n the services of so distinguished a warrior, 
gave orders that he should be honourably received. Keg- 

* CedreDQS, 75S; Zoobtm, u. 153; Nestor, Ckniti^it, par Puis, i. 178. 
' NiceUs, 337. 

* The Uus, Uni, or Uii, seem to be s cognate nation of the Kumam. Little 
U known of the i«ce and langiu^ of the Patiinalu. Cedrenui calli them [o^al 
Scvthiani, and says they were divided into thirteen tribes: 775. 

Cedreons, 77%. Twenty thousand mta are reported to have aoconpaiiied 



Dictzed by Google 



PATZINAK WAR, 437 

A.D. 1018-1054.) 

henes embraced the Christian religion, and received the 
title of a Roman patrician. His foUowers were established 
in forts on the banks of the Danube, irfiere they employed 
themselves in plundering the country they had quitted. 
Tyrach called on the emperOT to restrain these forays, but, 
finding his reclamations neglected, took advantage of the 
severe winter of 1048 to cross the Danube on the ice, and 
invade the empire with a numerous army'. Bulgaria was 
ravaged, but the sudden changes from plenty to privation 
which the invaders suffered during the campaign spread 
disease through their ranks. The followers of Keghenes 
and the Byzantine troops concentrated round them ; their 
numbers were thinned by disease, famine, and incessant 
attacks, until Tyrach at last and his whole surviving army 
were compelled to surrender at discretion. K^henes ui^ed 
the Byzantine generals to put all their prisoners to death, 
observii^ that it was wise to kill the viper when he was 
benumbed, lest the returning warmth of the sun should enable 
him to escape and use his venom ; but the Byzantine empire 
was too civilized for such an act of wholesale inhumanity, 
and the captive soldiers were established as agricultural 
colonists on waste lands near Sardica and Naissos. It had 
always been one of the problems in the Roman empire 
how to find the means of restoring the numbers of the 
native population which time was constantly destroying 
with unsparing activity. The king and many of the 
Patzinak nobles were sent to Constantinople, where they 
embraced Christianity, and were well treated by the em- 
peror. 

In the mean time fifteen thousand of the ablest soldiers 
were selected from among the prisoners, enrolled in the 
Byzantine army, and sent to join the troops on the Arme- 
nian frontier, where an army was preparing to encounter a 
threatened attack of the Seljouk Turks under Togrulbeg. 
This body of Patzinaks was placed under the command 

' Cedrenus sa^s there was a Bj'umtine fleet of ■ hundred triremes, as he 
pedantically terms the ri*er-<:ntrt. stationed on the Danube, to preroit the paauee 
of the barbanaos : p. 777. Keehencs had derived his great^t profit! from the 
sale oF the young women and children he captured during his incursions beyond 
the Danube in the lUve-markets oF the Byzantine empire. This shows the great 
extent of the slave trade at this period ; and it is not improbable that nearly all 
domeftic servants b large cities were slaves. 



DgIC 



438. BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Ch.IIt.f 9. 
of the patrician Constantine Artovalan, but was formed 
into four divisions under native officers. On reachii^ Da- 
matrys, Kataleim, one of the Patzinak generals, persuaded 
his countrymen to attempt forcing their way home. , A 
rapid march enabled them to reach the Bosphonis, but 
when they arrived at the monastery of St. Tarasios, on the 
narrowest part of the straits, they found no boats to cross 
into Europe. Kataleim immediately arranged a body of 
cavalry in order, and plunging into the stream at their 
head, swam across. A sufficiency of boats was easily secured 
on the European side, and the whole army was transported 
over. Without delay they pushed on to Sardica and Naissos, 
where they were joined by their countrymen, who had been 
established in that country as agricultural colonists, and 
then, hastening to the banks of the Danube, they occupied 
a strong position near the mouth of the river Osmos. They 
also formed a second camp at a place called the Hundred 
Hills, and from these stations plundered the districts in their 
vicinity. 

On hearing of this daring movement, the emperor sum- 
moned Kegheses and his followers to Constantinople. As 
these troops lay encamped without the walls waiting for 
orders, three Patzinaks attempted to assassinate K^henes, 
but were secured after inflicting on him some severe wounds. 
When brought before the emperor, they accused K^henes 
of treasonable correspondence with the fugitives, and Con- 
stantine, with suspicious timidity, gave credit to their 
improbable story, and ordered Keghenes to be put under 
arrest. The immediate consequence of this false step was, 
that the followers of the arrested general fled and joined 
their countrymen, who advanced to the neighbourhood of 
Adrianople. The emperor in his alarm released Tyrach, 
the Patzinak king, on receiving his oath to reduce his 
countrymen to obedience ; but that monarch, on r^aintng 
his lih»erty, laid aside his Christianity, repudiated his pro- 
mises, and placed himself at the head of a powerful army, 
eager to avenge his former defeat. Two divisions of the 
Byzantine army were routed with great slaughter. 

Great exertions were used to assemble an army in order 
to repress the ravages of the Patzinaks, who were devastating 
all the country between the Danube and Adrianople. Nice- 



DgIC 



AFFAIRS IN ITALY. 439 

JLD. 1018-1054.3 

phorus Biyennios took the command at the head of the 
Frank and Varangian mercenaries, and the Asiatic cavalry 
from Telouch, Cilicia, and Mesopotamia. Keghenes was 
restored to favour, and sent to negotiate terms of peace 
with his countrymen. The military operations circumscribed 
the forays of the enemy, and the Byzantine army surprised 
and destroyed a number of the Patzinaks at Chariopolis ; 
but Keghenes, trusting himself among his countrymen, was 
treacherously murdered. After many vicissitudes, the Patzinaks 
were forced to retreat, and concluded a truce for thirty 
years '. 

In Italy the affairs of the empire went to ruin after the 
departure of Maniakes. Constantine IX. favoured Argyros 
because he had opposed Maniakes, and that chief rendered 
himself virtually independent, and assumed the title of 
Prince of Ban and Duke of Apulia. The Normans, takii^ 
advantage of the intrigues and dissensions that prevailed, 
quitted their profession of mercenaries for that of feudal 
chieftains, and by consulting their own interests in the wars 
between Argyros and Guaimar, prince of Salerno, succeeded 
in forming a confederation of territorial chieftains, under a 
leader, who became Count of Apulia. Their progress excited 
the alarm of the emperor of Constantinople, the emperor 
of Germany, and the Pope ; but their services were so often 
in requisition by powerful rivals, and their conduct was so 
prudent, that they prevented any coalition of their enemies 
which might have crushed them in their early career. The 
Byzantine troops were defeated, the intrigues of the emperor 
of Germany were baffled, Pope Leo IX., who ventured to 
appeal to arms, was beaten and taken prisoner ; while the 
victors, as pious as politic, purchased the support of the 
See of Rome from their captive by offering to hold all their 
conquests as a fief of St. Peter's chair. The schism of the 
Greek and Latin churches, which broke out with great ani- 
mosity about this time, increased the aversion of the Italians 
to Byzantine domination, and tended quite as much as the 
military superiority of the Norman troops to give stability to 
their government. 

The capture of Otranto by the Normans under Robert 

* CedreDos, 790, 

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440 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Ch.ni.f 3. 

Guiscard, in the year i055> may be considered as the ter- 
mination of the Greek power in Italy. 

While the Byzantine empire was exhibiting symptoms 
of decline in the West, Constantine IX. added to its terri- 
tories in the East by destroying the Annenian kingdom of 
tile Bagratians, which had long acted a brilliant part in the 
military history of Asia V No conquest could have been 
more unnecessaty or imprudent, for by the annexation of 
the city of Ani, the whole of the Byrao6ne frontier was 
thus thrown open to die inva^n of the Seljouk Turks, and 
when the Christian mountaineers lost their independence 
they ceased to combat the Mussulmans with their former 
enei^. It has been mentioned that the Emperor Basil II., 
during his campaign against the Iberians in 1022, com- 
pelled Joannes Sembat to sign a treaty ceding, at his 
death, Ani and his whole kingdom to the emperor', Con- 
stantine IX. considered the moment favourable for callii^ 
on Gagik, the nephew of Joannes, to fulfil the obligations of 
this treaty; and when the Armenian objected, he formed an 
alliance with Aboulsewar, the Saracen emir of Tibium (Tovin), 
and sent a Byzantine army to attack Ani, The treachery of 
the Armenian nobles aided the pr{^es3 of the Byzantine and 
Saracen arms, Gagik, a prince of some ability, finding it 
useless to struggle with so powerful a combination, consulted 
the interests of his subjects by submitting to the Christians. 
On receiving a safe-conduct for his person, he repaired to 
plead his cause before the emperor at Constantinople, and 
the city of Ani surrendered to the Byzantine troops, 
A.D. 1045. Gagik, finding there was no hope of preserving 
his ancestral kingdom, accepted the rank of magistros, and 
received extensive estates in Cappadocia. Thus the oldest 
Christian kingdom was erased from the list of independent 
states by a Christian emperor. The only Armenian district 
which continued to preserve its independence between the 
Byzantines and Saracens was Kars, where Gagik Abas, a 
member of the family of the Bagratians, ruled as prince. 
■The Byzantine government carried its jealousy of the Arme- 
nians so far as to compel their Patriarch, Peter, to quit the city 

' * At this time Aimenian princes governed Sebaste, Kami, the Gnrgan, Iberia, 
and Abasgia. 
' See page 386. 



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INVASION OF THE SELJOUK TURKS. 44' 

kX. 1 018- 1 054.] 

of Ani and take up his residence at Arzen, from whence they 
subsequently transferred him to Constantinople^. 

In the year 1048 the Seljouk Turks attacked the empire. 
They were one of the hordes which formed itself out of the 
fragments of that great Turkish empire, whose commercial 
connection with Constantinople occupied the attention of 
Roman statesmen in the time of Justinian*. Togrulbeg, 
called by the Byzantine historians Tangrolipix, was its chief. 
The Turkish tribes of central Asia were now acting the part, 
in the empire of the caliphs of Bagdad, which the Goths 
formerly acted in the Roman empire. Under Mahmoud the 
Gaznevid, the Turkish hordes which furnished mercenaries to 
the caliphs founded an empire, but the son of the Gaznevid 
was defeated by new hordes, who elected Togrulbeg as their 
chief. This new sovereign, after destroying the dynasty of 
the Bowides, became sultan of Persia, and the limits of his 
dominions touched the frontiers of the Byzantine conquests tn 
Armenia. Togrulbeg visited Bagdad, assumed the title of 
Defender of the Faith and Protector of the Caliph ; and when 
he had rendered himself completely master of the temporal 
power at Bagdad, he compelled the haughty caliph to receive 
him as a son-in-law. But on receiving some slight provoca- 
tion he was such a savage that he starved the representative 
of the prophet on his sacred throne 

Eight years before Tc^rulbeg succeeded in establishing 
himself as a sovereign in Bagdad, he sent his cousin Koutoul- 
mish to attack the emir of Diarbekir^. Koutoulmish was 
defeated, and compelled to retreat to the Armenian frontier 
of Vasparoukan, where he solicited permission to pass through 
the Byzantine territory, promi^ng to maintain the strictest 

< Gagik, the last king of Annenia, was iniuTler«d at Cybeslra in 107^. Tfae 
Patriarcb at last obtained permissloD to reude at Sebaale, where he died m 1060. 
Chamich, Hiilory 0/ Arnwiia, by Avdall, ii. iGl ; Saint-Martin, Idimoires sur 
FArtrUnit, i. 411. 

' Sti vol. i. p. 16S. 

' The Byzantine hislorians, Cedrenns (y6g) and Zonaras (ii. 1^6), erroneously 
place the taking uf Bagdad bj Tognilbei; before the inrasion of the empire, but 
It happened eieht years hiter, in lOfo. Weil. Oachitkit der Chalifin. iii. &j, 94. 
Nassir ed Dulati, son of Merwan, was prince of Diarbekir, and though a Moham- 
medan, was a tributary of Che empire, Saint-Martin, ii. 116. Koutonlmish was 
the grandson of Seljouk. and the ancestor of the Seljouk sultans of Roum or 
Iconinm. He and his eldest son perished in attempts to render themselves inde- 
|>endenl. Souleiman, his second son, was appointed by Maleksllah to a command 
m Asia Minor, with aulhotily to found a ieudatory principality, in 1074. Nice* 
phorus Bryeuolus, 14. 



DgIC 



442 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.Ch.m. Si. 
discipline in his march. The governor of Vasparoukan refused 
the request of the defeated general, and prepared to oppose 
the Turks, should they venture to pass the frontier. Koutoul- 
mish, who saw that only prompt and vigorous measures could 
save him from being surrounded, attacked the Byzantine 
governor, routed his army, and, carrying hira away as a 
prisoner, sold him as a slave in Tabreez. On his return, he 
vaunted so loudly the fertility of Vasparoukan, and spoke 
with such contempt of the Byzantine troops, that Tt^piilbeg 
determined to invade the empire. Hassan the Deaf was 
intrusted with the vanguard, amounting to twenty thousand 
men, but was completely defeated near the river Stragna by 
Aaron son of Ladislas, the last king of Bulgaria, who was 
governor of Vasparoukan, and Katakalon the governor of Ani. 
But the main body of the Turkish army, composed of Turks, 
Kaberoi and Limnites, under Ibrahim Inal, the nephew of 
T<^rulbeg, avenged the defeat *. Katakalon, an experienced 
general, wished to meet this army in the field, as it was 
composed chiefly of infantry, or cavalry whose horses were 
unshod ; but his Bulgarian colleague appealed to the emperor's 
instructions, which ordered his army to await the arrival of 
Liparites the prince of Abasia. The Turkish general, 
finding the greater part of the wealth of the country secured 
in strong fortresses, advanced to attack the populous city of 
Arzen, which was unfortified. The inhabitants, trusting to 
their numbers and valour, had neglected to convey their 
valuable effects into the impregnable fortress of Theodosio- 
polis, in their neighbourhood. Arzen was at this time one of 
the principal centres of Asiatic commerce, and was filled with 
warehouses belonging to Syrian and Armenian merchants. 
The inhabitants defended themselves against the Turks with 
courage for six days, by barricading the streets and assailing 
the enemy from the roofs of the houses. Katakalon in vain 
uiged his colleague to march to their relief. Ibrahim, how- 
ever, felt the danger of an attack on his rear, and abandoning 
the hope of securing booty, thought only of destroying the 
resources which this rich and flourishing city furnished to the 
Byzantine government. He set fire to the portion of which 



INVASION OF THE SELJOUK TURKS. 44^ 

A.D. 1018-1054.] 

he had gained possession, and succeeded in reducing the whole 
of this great commercial city to ashes. Never was so great a 
conflagration witnessed before, and it has only since been 
rivalled by the burning of Moscow. One hundred and forty 
thousand persons are said to have perished by fire and sword, 
yet the Turks captured so many prisoners that the slave- 
markets of Asia were filled with ladies and children from 
Arzen. The Armenian historians dwell with deep feeling on 
this terrible calamity, for it commenced a long series of woes 
which gradually destroyed all the capital accumulated by 
ages of industry in the mountains of Armenia, and reduced 
one of the richest and most populous countries in the East to 
a poor and desolate region. The ruin of Arzen was the first 
step to the dispersion of the Armenian Christians and the 
desolation of Asia Minor ^. 

After Liparites joined the Byzantine army with the Iberian 
and Abasgian troops a battle was fought on the i8th of 
September 1048 ^ The loss on both sides was great and the 
result indecisive, but Liparites was taken prisoner, and the 
Byzantine troops retired. Ibrahim, however, found himself 
unable to continue the campaign, and returned to Rey. 
Togrulbeg released Liparites without ransom, or rather he 
bestowed the ransom sent by the Byzantine emperor on 
the Abasgian prince, recommendii^ him to be always a 
friend to the Turks. It is satd by Arabian historians that 
Constantine IX., in order to equal the generosity of Togrul, 
repaired the Mohammedan mosque at Constantinople ^ 

Negotiations were commenced between Constantine and 
Togrul, but they led to no result, and Togrul invaded the 
Byzantine empire in person. His first attack was directed 
against the independent principality of Kars, and the Arme- 
nians were defeated in battle, and their general, Thatoul, 
taken prisoner, Thatoul was said to have wounded Arsouran, 
the son of the favourite minister of Togrul, and when the 
captive general was led before his conqueror, the sultan told 
him that if the young man died he should be put to death. 



' Saint-Martin, ii loi. Chunich (ii. 13S) %Vj% Arzen contained three hundred 
tboDgand inhabitants, and eight hundred churches. 

■ Saint-Mailin places the battle in 1049, but the second indiction commenced 
on the ist Septemoei 1048. Cedreniu, 773. 

' Saint-Martin, ii. 117. 



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444 BASIUAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.a.in.|a. 
To this Thatoul calmly replied, ' Sultan, if the wound was 
inflicted by my hand, your warrior will certainly die' This 
proved true, and Togrul had the barbarity to execute the 
brave Armenian, and send his head to the minister whose son 
was slain *. 

Togrul then directed his forces against the city of Manzi- 
kert, employing in the siege an immense ballista taken in the 
town of Bitlis, which had been constructed by the Emperor 
Basil II. This immense engine required four hundred men 
to drag it along, yet it proved of little use to the Turks, for a 
Gaul in the Byzantine service destroyed it by breaking over 
it three bottles of an inflammable mixture, while he was 
approaching the camp of the besiegers as the bearer of a 
letter to the sultan. The loss of this engine did not abate 
the courage of the troops, and Alkan, the general of the 
Khorasmians, promised the sultan to carry the place by 
assault. The governor of Manzikert made preparations for 
giving the storming party a desperate reception. The walls 
were garnished with engines, and the artillery was well 
supplied with ponderous stones, gigantic arrows, and beams 
shod wi^ iron, to launch on the assailants. The defenders 
were ordered to remain carefully concealed behind the battle- 
ments, and Alkan, after commencing the attack with volleys 
of missiles, advanced to the foot of the wall, satisfied that he 
had silenced the enemy. But when his men b^an to plant 
their ladders, a tempest of stones, arrows, beams, boiling pitch, 
and smoke-balls overwhelmed the bravest, and the rest 
shrunk back. Their hesitation was the signal for a furious 
sally, in which Alkan was taken prisoner, and immediately 
beheaded on the city walls, in sight of the sultan. Tc^rul, 
baffled in his attack on Manzikert, gave up all hope of break- 
ing through the barrier of fortresses that defended the frontier 
of the empire, and retired into Persia, A.D. 1050. 

He again invaded the empire in 1052, but the Byzantine 
army having received a strong reinforcement of Frank and 
Varangian mercenaries, showed itself so superior to that of 
the Seljouk sultan in military discipline, that T<^^ thought it 
prudent to retire without hazarding a battle'. The military 

' Chamich, Hiuory nf ArnwUa, ii. 143. 

' Cedrenu», ^80, 7SB; Chamidi, ii. 141. The chroaoloe; of the Bjriaiitiiic 
historian is entitled 10 more credit thao the Armeniaii. For this period, indeed, 
Cedrenus is a valuable authority. 



SEPARATION OF GREEK AND LATIN CHURCHES. 44^ 

A.D. l0»8-lOS4.] 

system established by Leo III. and Constantine V., and 
perfected by Nicephorus II., John I., and Basil II., still 
upheld the gioty of the Byzantine arms. 

In looking back from modem times at the history of the 
Byzantine empire, the separation of the Greek and Latin 
churches appears the most important event in the reign of 
Constantine IX. ; but its prominency is owing, on the one 
hand, to the circumstance that a closer connection began 
shortly after to exist between the Eastern and Western 
nations ; and, on the other, to decline in the power of the 
Byzantine empire, which gave ecclesiastical affairs greater 
importance than they would otherwise have merited. Had 
the successors of Constantine IX. continued to possess the 
power and resources of the successors of Leo III. or Basil I., 
the schism would never have acquired the political importance 
it subsequently attained ; for as it related to points of opinion 
on secondary questions and details of ecclesiastical practice, 
the people would have abandoned the subject to the clergy 
and the church, as one not affecting the welfare of Christians 
and the interest of Christianity. The Emperor Basil II., who 
was bigoted as well as pious, had still good sense to view 
the question as a political rather than a religious one. He 
knew that it would be impossible to reunite the two churches ; 
he saw the disposition of the Greek clergy to commence 
a quarrel, to avoid which he endeavoured to negotiate 
the amicable separation of the Byzantine ecclesiastical 
establishment from the papal supremacy. He proposed that 
the Pope should be honoured as the first Christian bishop 
in rank, but that he should receive a pecuniary indemnity, 
and admit the right of the Eastern church to govern its 
own affairs according to its own constitution and local usages, 
and acknowledge the Patriarch of Constantioople as its head. 
This plan, reasonable as it might appear to statesmen, had 
little chance of success. The claim of the Bishop of Rome 
to be the agent of the theocracy which ruled the Christian 
church, was too generally admitted to allow any limits to 
be put to his authority. The propositions of Basil II. were 
rejected, but the open rupture with Rome did not take place 
until 1053, when it was caused by the violent and unjust 
conduct of the Greek patriarch, Michael Keroularios. He 
ordered all the Latin diurches in the Byzantine empire, in 



DgIC 



44S BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Ch.m. Si. 
which mas3 was celebrated according to the rites of the 
Western church, to be closed ; and, in conjunction with Leo, 
bishop of Achrida, the Patriarch of Bulgaria, addressed a 
controversial letter to the bishop of Trani, which revived all 
the old disputes with the papal church, and added to the 
previous causes of dissension the question about the use of 
unleavened bread in the holy communion. The people on 
both sides, who understood little of the points contested by 
the cleigy, adopted the simple rule, that it was their duty 
to hate the members of the other church ; and the Greeks, 
having their nationality condensed in their ecclesiastical estab- 
lishment, far exceeded the Western nations in ecclesiastical 
bigotry, for the people in the western nations of Europe 
were often not very friendly to papal pretensions. The 
extreme bigotry of the Greeks soon tended to make the 
people of the Byzantine empire averse to all intercourse 
with the Latins, and they assumed a superiority over the 
Western nations who were rapidly advancii^ in activity, 
wealth, power, and intelligence, merely because they deemed 
them heretics. The separation of the two churches proved, 
consequently, more injurious to the Greeks, in their stationary 
condition of society, than to the Western Christians, who were 
eagerly pressii^ forward in many paths of social improve- 
ment. 

The Empress Zoe died in the year 1050, at the age of 
seventy'. Constantine IX, survived to the year 1054*. 
When the emperor felt his end approaching, he ordered 
himself, according to the superstitious fashion of the time, 
to be transported to the monastery of Mangana, which he 
had constructed. His ministers, and especially his prime- 
minister, John the logothetes, and president of the senate ^, 
uiged him to name Nicephonis Bryennios, who commanded 
the Macedonian troops, his successor. The forms of the 
imperial constitution rendered it necessary that the sovereign 
should be crowned in Constantinople, and a courier was 
despatched to summon Bryennios to the capital. But as 
soon as Theodora heard of this attempt of her brother-in-law 



t,C Clonic 



THEODORA. 447 

W». 1054-1057.] 

to deprive her of the throne she had been compelled to cede 
to him, she hastened to the imperial palac^ convoked the 
senate, ordered the guards to be drawn out, and, presenting 
herself as the lawful empress, was proclaimed sovereign of 
the empire with universal acclamations. The news of this 
event embittered the last moments of tfie dying voluptuary, 
who hated Theodora for her virtues, and envied her for the 
respect which her conduct inspired. 



S^CT.lll.— Reigns of Theodora and Michael VI. {Siratioiikos, 
or the Warlike,) A.D. 1054-1057, 

CbAmcter and admimstratioD of Theodora, loj^-iosG. — Incapadtj of Michael 
VI., 1056-1057, — Administration o( the empire transferred to the eunucha 
of the imperial household. — Conspiracy of the great nobles in Asia Minor. — 
Michael VI. dethrwied. 

Theodora, with a good deal of masculine vigour of charac- 
ter, possessed the confined views and acrimonious disposition 
of a recluse. Her first act was to revenge on Bryennios 
the attempt which her brother-in-law had made to deprive 
her of the throne. He and his partisans were banished, and 
his estates confiscated. Her personal attention to the duties 
of a sovereign, and the strictness with which she overlooked 
the general administration, proved tjiat, unlike her predecessor, 
she acted according to the dictates of her own conscience 
in public affairs, and not as the passive instrument of those 
who were willing, for their own ends, to relieve her from 
exertion. Yet she followed the system by which the members 
of her family, in establishing their despotic power, had under- 
mined the fabric of the Byzantine administration. Instead 
of selecting the ablest native senators to act as ministers 
and judges, she intrusted the direction of every department 
of government to eunuchs of her household, and her prime- 
minister was Leo Strabospondyles, an ecclesiastic, synkellos 
of the Patriarch of Constantinople, She even sent one of 
her eunuchs to supersede Isaac Comnenos as commander- 
in-chief of the army stationed on the eastern frontier to watch 
the movements of the Turks ^ Isaac beloi^ed to one of 



' Ceilrenus, 791. 

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448 BASIL! AN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.ai.ni.{3. 
those great aristocratic families in Asia Minor whose wealth 
and power had lot^ excited the jealousy of the emperors ; 
and Theodora now displayed much too openly the distrust 
with which they were regarded by the central administration. 
To preserve all power as much as possible in her own hands, 
she presided in person in the cabinet and in the senate, and 
even heard appeals as supreme judge in civil cases. The 
performance of this last duty, though little in harmony with 
the executive power, was in her time looked upon by her 
subjects as a most laudable act. 

Fortune favoured Theodora in the circumstances of her 
short reign, and her popularity was in a great measure derived 
from events over which she exercised no control. She was 
the la.st scion of a family which had upheld with glory 
the institutions of the empire for nearly two centuries, which 
had secured to its subjects a degree of internal tranquillity 
and commercial prosperity far greater than had been enjoyed 
during the same period by any equal portion of the human 
race, and the memory of which in succeeding years excited 
deep regret in the breasts of the Greeks themselves, though 
the Greeks were the body of their subjects treated with 
greatest neglect by the Basilian dynasty. During her reign, 
the empire was disturbed by no civil war, nor desolated by 
any foreign invasion. The seasons were temperate, the 
fertility of the earth enabled the people to enjoy the blessings 
of peace, and a pestilence which had previously ravaged the 
principal cities of the empire suddenly ceased. 

At the advanced age of seventy-six, Theodora felt herself 
so robust that she looked forward to a loi^ life ; and the 
monks who swarmed in her palace, observing her infatuated 
confidence in the vigour of her frame, flattered her with 
prophecies that she was destined to re^ for many years. 
The superstitious feelings of the time, as well as the personal 
vanity of Theodora, caused her to place implicit confidence 
in these ecclesiastical soothsayers ; but in the midst of her 
projects she was suddenly attacked by an intestine disorder 
that brought her to the grave. To prevent the government 
falling into the hands of the territorial aristocracy, she, with 
her dying breath, named Michael Stratiotikos her successor*. 

^ Straliotikoa is really an epithet, and not, like Monomachos. a sarname. Had 
Michael VI, IcTt posieniy, his chitdRQ might have converted it into a rarDame. 



DgIC 



MICHAEL VI. 449 

AJ>. 1054-1057.] 

He had been a general of some reputation, and an efficient 
member of the official establishment ; but advanced age had 
converted him into a decrepid general and doting senator. 
The prime-minister and the eunuchs of Theodora had sug- 
gested his nomination, because it promised to place on the 
throne one who could not avoid being an instrument in their 
hands. Theodora, hoping to recover her health, compelled 
the new emperor to swear with the most tremendous impre- 
cations that he would always remain obedient to her orders, 
but she survived his nomination only a few hours ; and with 
her expired the race of Basil the Sclavonian groom, and the 
administrative glory of the Byzantine empire, on the 30th 
of August 1057'. 

The accession of Michael VI. was no sooner known than 
the president of the senate, Theodosios Monooiacbos, nephew 
of Constantine IX., attempted to mount the throne, pretending 
a hereditary claim to the imperial succession. To enforce 
his ridiculous pretension, he armed his household slaves, who 
formed a numerous body, collected assistance from his friends, 
assembled a mob, and, proceeding through the streets of 
Constantinople at the head of this band, broke open the public 
prisons and talked of revolution. His plan was to storm the 
palace ; but the moment his movements were made known 
to the officers of the native and Varangian guards on duty, 
they marched against him, and he was immediately abandoned 
by all his followers. When he sought an asylum in St. 
Sophia's, he found the doors of the church closed against 
him, and was taken with his son sitting on the steps. This 
sedition was so contemptible that the people ridiculed the 
affair in a lampoon, and the emperor only banished its leader 
to Pei^amus*. 

Michael VI. was a man of a limited capacity, and his 
faculties were dulled by age ; yet accident intrusted him with 
the direction of the government at a delicate crisis. He was 
called upon to maintain the integrity of the Roman adminis- 
trative system against the assaults of a territorial aristocracy, 
on whom the manners of the age and the altered relations 
of society had conferred powers at variance with the ancient 



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4TO BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.Ch.m.i3. 
centralization of the imperial administration. Yet the inca- 
pacity of Michael must be regarded as having only accelerated 
a change which it would have required the genius and energy 
of a great administrative reformer like Leo III. to avert, 
and which could only have been averted by remodelling the 
constitution of Byzantine society. 

The administrative vigour of the government was diminished ; 
its legal supremacy had vanished ; the connection between 
the provinces and the capital was weakened ; the people at 
a distance no longer respected the emperor as the centre of 
social order and the fountain of impartial justice ; ruined roads 
had broken up the administrative unity of empire ; great 
nobles governed immense estates as sovereign princes ; and 
frontier communities, being often compelled to defend them- 
selves against foreign invaders by their own resources, b^aa 
to consider how far those resources could be rendered available 
to lessen the fiscal extortions of the central government. The 
territorial aristocracy of the Byzantine empire was at this 
time essentially warlike, like the barons of the feudal states, 
and as they joined learning to their military qualities, they 
were able to perform the duties of judges and magistrates on 
their estates. Jealousy of their power induced the emperors 
to intrust not only the direction of the civil administration, 
but even the highest military commands, to eunuchs of the 
imperial household, and a gradual hostility arose between the 
officials of the court and the territorial aristocracy. This 
employment of slaves and domestics as generals and statesmen 
seems strange to those who judge of the past by the present 
condition of society; but no feature in Eastern manners has 
been more permanent than the high social position acquired 
by slaves in their masters' families. Their education was as 
carefully attended to, their character and abilities more im- 
partially estimated, and their faults more Judiciously punished 
than those of the children of the house. The oldest records 
of society show us the slave as superior to the hired servant ; 
and the administration of the Ottoman empire, even in modem 
times, has been of easier access to the slave than to the 
citizen'. Despotism is also compelled to seek rather for 



TERRITORIAL ARISTOCRACY. 451 

kx, 1054-1057.] 

personal devotion than systematic service, and no stronger 
proof can be adduced of the progress which the Byzantine 
government had made towards pure despotism, than the power 
the emperors had acquired of ruling their subjects by the 
members of their household. 

Michael VI. was not blind to the hostile feelings of a 
powerful class of his subjects, but he relied on the permanence 
of the established order of things. The support of the senate, 
the obedience of the municipality of Constantinople, the 
conservative feelings of the clubs of the hippodrome, and of 
the corporations of the traders, seemed a guarantee against 
the success of any revolution ; and the emperor treated all 
these classes with liberality'. He felt, likewise, so confident 
in the attachment of the soldiers to their military organiza- 
tion, that he imprudently wounded the pride and self-interest 
of the principal officers of the army and the official nobility, 
by holding back from them the promotions and donatives 
they, were accustomed to receive at Easter. Other measures, 
equally ill-judged, were adopted about the same time. Kata- 
kalon, the most popular general in the empire, was deprived 
of the command at Antioch on a chaise of fraudulently enrich- 
ing himself by diminishing the number of soldiers in his 
government) and extorting money from the inhabitants. But 
as he was replaced by Michael Ouranos, a nejAew of the 
emperor, the act was attributed to private partiality and not 
public justice ^ Michael VI. likewise, on re-establishii^ 
Nicephorus Bryennios in the rank of which he had been 
deprived by Theodora, refused to restore his private fortune, 
which had been unjustly sequestrated ; and when Bryennios 
urged his claim in person, the old emperor cut short his solici- 
tations by saying, ' Finished work alone merits wages.' He 
appointed the restored general to the command of a division 
of three thousand men to reinforce the army in Cappadocia, 
and Bryennios now left the capital inflamed with anger. 



if the priest buy any soal with his money, he shall eat of it, and he that i9 born in 
his house : they shall eat o( his meat.' 

' He was accused, however, after his (all, of promoting clerks from the public 
offices, instead of senators, to be collectors of the revenue in the provinces. 
Cedrenns, 793. 

' This Michael assumed the name of Onrsnos, and did not belong to the di^ 
tinguished family of that Ouranos who defeated Samuel, king of Achrida, on the 
baoks of the Spercheus. Cedienns, 793 ; Zonans, ii. i6j. 

Gga 



45a BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.II.Ch.in.S3. 
Several of the most powerful nobles of Asia Minor had already 
formed a plot to overthrow the existing government, and they 
availed themselves of the offence given to Katakalon and 
Bryennios to establish secret communications with these 
officers and engage them in the conspiracy. Isaac Comnenus, 
Romanos Skleros, Michael Burtzes, and Nicephorus Bota- 
neiates, who resided at Constantinople in princely state, di- 
rected the plot and arranged the plan of rebellion*. 

The attention of government was diverted from these con- 
spirators by the conduct of an officer with whom they had no 
connection, Herv^, a Norman general, who had distinguished 
himself under Maniakes, had subsequently served the empire 
with zeal and fidelity. On soliciting the rank of magistros, 
his claim was treated by the emperor in a way which irritated 
the pride of the Norman to such a degree that he quitted 
Constantinople, and hastened to an estate he posseted at 
Dabarme in Armenia. Collecting three hundred of his 
countrymen from the garrisons in the neighbourhood, he 
deserted to the Turks. He found, however, that the Infidels 
were less inclined to tolerate the proud spirit of independence 
that characterized the Normans than the Byzantines, and, 
separating from Samouch, the Seljouk leader, with whom he 
quarrelled, he led his little band to the city of Aklat, where 
he was surprised and made prisoner by the emir Aponasar*. 

The rashness of Bryennios was even greater than that of 
Herv^ ; and as he was one of the conspirators, his cooduct 
might have ruined their enterprise. The chiefs at Constanti- 
nople, having settled their plans, decided that Isaac Comnenus 
was to be the future emperor ; and after plighting their mutual 
faith, with all the religious ceremonies and horrid imprecations 
which were then considered necessary to bind the conscience, 
retired to their estates to collect troops. Bryennios in the 
mean time reached Cappadocia, where he ordered the pay- 
master of the army to make an advance of pay to the soldiers 
under his command. This was refused, as being at variance 
with the emperor's orders, John Opsaras, who held the office 

' Manasses, Ciron. 1*9. 

' The adventures of Hervi are recorded by Cedrenns {794). The importance 
of the Norman race is a curious instance of moral superiority, without uij 
superiority of dvilization. In ihe Byzaniine empire, and in Scotland, where they 
were not conquerors, they attained nearly as high a position as in Rutsia, Fiance. 
England, and Naples, which they subdued with the sword. 



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TREASON OF HERVt AND SRYENNIOS. 453 

A.D. 1054-1057.] 

of paymaster, was a patrician ; yet, when he visited Bryennios 
in his tent, that officer so completely lost all command over 
his temper, that he struck him on the face, pulled his beard, 
threw him on the ground, and then ordered him to be dragged 
to prison. Another patrician, Lykanthos, who commanded 
the troops of Pisidia and Lycaonia in a separate camp, con- 
vinced that the conduct of Bryennios announced an intention 
to rebel, hastened with his guards to the spot, delivered 
Opsaras from confinement, and arrested Bryennios, whose eyes 
Opsaras ordered to be put out, and then sent him a prisoner 
to Constantinople. 

The principal conspirators, fearing that their plot was 
discovered, repaired to Kastamona in Paphlagonia, where 
Isaac Comnenus was waiting, at his family seat, until the 
preparations for the rebellion were completed. The assembly 
of the conspirators having put an end to concealment, Isaac 
Comnenus was conducted by his partisans to the plain of 
Gounavia, and proclaimed emperor, on the 8th June 1057. 
Katakalon, finding some difficulty in joining his companions, 
forged an imperial order, giving him the command of five 
l^ions, which he concentrated in the plain of Nicopolis, 
pretending that he was to lead them against Samouch, 3 
Turkish chief who had invaded the empire'. By promises 
and threats, he succeeded in en^ging the officers of this force 
to join the rebellion ; and, effecting a junction with the troops 
Isaac had already assembled, the rebels crossed the Sangarius, 
and gained possession of Nicaea ^. 

The Emperor Michael placed the imperial army under the 
command of Theodore, an eunuch, and the Bulgarian prince, 
Aaron, who, though the brother-in-law of Isaac, was his per- 
sonal enemy. The imperial generals broke down the bridges 
over the Sangarius, in order to cut off the communications of 
the rebels with the provinces in which their family influence 
lay, and then approached Nicaea. Isaac Comnenus was 
encamped about twelve stades to the north of the city, and 
the foragers of the two armies were soon in constant commu- 
nication ; the leaders on both sides overlooking the intercourse, 

' Two of these legions were composed of western Europeans, one of Rossians, 
besides the nalire legions of Koloneia and Chaldia. Cedrenus, 799, 

* Isaac placed his treasures aod liis wife in the castle of Pemolissa, on the 
banks of the Halys. Cedreous, 799. 



DgIC 



454 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bli.II.Ch.m.S3. 
in the expectation of gaining deserters. The imperialists 
ui^ed their opponents not to sacrifice their lives for an ambi- 
tious rebel, who sought only his own profit ; while the rebels 
laughed at the idea of serving an old dotard, who intrusted 
the command of his armies to eunuchs. Isaac, seeing that 
nothing was to be gained by these conversations, gave strict 
orders to break off all communication ; and Theodore, attri- 
buting this measure to fear, advanced to Petroa, only fifteen 
stades from the rebel camp. 

A battle was thus inevitable. Isaac Comnenus drew out 
his army, which was composed of veteran troops, at a place 
called Hades. Katakalon commanded the left wing, and was 
opposed to Basil Tarchaniotes, the general of the European 
troops, the ablest and most distinguished of the Macedonian 
nobility. Romanes Skleros, at the head of the right wing, 
was opposed to Aaron, who had under his orders the patrician 
Lykanthos and the Norman Randolph. Isaac and Theodore 
directed their respective centres. The battle was not severely 
contested. Aaron routed the right wing of the rebels, but his 
success led to no result ; for Katakalon, having defeated the 
Macedonian troops, stormed the imperial camp, while Isaac 
overthrew their centre. The aristocratic constitution of society 
displays itself in the incidents of this battle. The superior 
temper of the arms of the chiefs gave their exploits as much 
importance as in the Homeric battles. When the victorious 
troops of Isaac and Katakalon assailed the troops of Aaron, 
Randolph found himself borne away among a crowd of 
fugitives. Disengaging himself, he perceived Nicephorus 
Botaneiates leading the pursuers. Shouting his war-cry, the 
Norman knight met the Asiatic noble ; but his sword was 
broken on the well-tempered helmet of his enemy, and he was 
led a prisoner to the rebel camp '. Several officers of rank 
were slain in the imperial army, and many made prisoners. 
The victors lost only one man of rank. 

Isaac Comnenus advanced to Nicomcdia, where he was met 
by envoys from the Emperor Michael, who offered him the 
title of Caesar, and a general amnesty for his partisans, if they 
would lay aside their arms. Isaac knew that he had no safety 
but as emperor, and Katakalon boldly opposed all terms of 



' CedreauE, 601. 



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MICHAEL VI. DETHRONED. 455 

A.r. 1054-1057.] 

arrangement Michael Psellos, called the Prince of Philo- 
sophere, was one of the envoys, and seeing how matters were 
likely to end, he deserted the cause of his old master with 
more promptitude than might have been expected from a 
learned pedant*. The emperor, finding he had nothing to 
expect from negotiation, attempted to fortify himself in Con- 
stantinople. He compelled the senators to take an oath, and 
subscribe a declaration, that they would never acknowledge 
Isaac Comnenus as emperor ; and he lavished money, places, 
promotions, and privileges, on the people and the municipality. 
Yet the moment the victors reached the palace of Damatrys, 
the senators rushed to St. Sophia's, and begged the Patriarch 
to absolve them from the oath they had just taken. The 
stem Patriarch, Michael Keroularios, affected to resist, but 
consented to be himself the medium of communication with 
the new emperor. The cause of Michael VI. was now hope- 
less; Isaac was proclaimed emperor, and his predecessor was 
ordered to quit the imperial palace, that it might be prepared 
for the reception of the new sovereign. It is said the old man, 
before departing, sent to ask the Patriarch what he would give 
him for his resignation ; the intriguing pontiff replied, with 
sarcastic humility, 'The kingdom of heaven.' Gn the 31st of 
August, Michael VI. returned as a private individual to his 
own house, where he survived undisturbed for two years. On 
the ad of September, Isaac I, received the imperial crown in 
the Church of St. Sophia. 

To contemporaries, this revolution presented nothing to 
distinguish it from the changes of sovereign, which had been 
an ordinary event in the Byzantine empire, and which were 
ascribed by the wisest statesmen of the time to the decree 

* [M, S&thas, in his life of Fsctlus already referred to (see above, p. 437), 
defends the conduct of the philosopher in this matter, and gives the following 
account of the transaction. When Psellus was sent with others as ambassador 
to Isaac Comnenus. to propose that he should be recognized by Michael VI. al 
joint emperor with the title of Caesar, those who were present exclaimed against 
these terms, but Isaac accepted them at a private interview. When they returned 
to Michael, that emperor lalilied the agreement, and sent them back to Isaac 
with further promises. In the meanwhile, however, Michael summoned the 
senate, and made them swear never to acknowledge Isaac as emperor. But 
independently of Comnenus and his force, the Patriardi Michael Kerolarius armed 
the mob, possessed himself of the person of the emperor, and summoned Isaac 
to occupy the throne. When the tidings of tliis reached the army, Psellus and 
the other ambassadors were in great fear for their lives, but Isaac instead ol 
■bowing a revengcfid spirit took Psellus into his counseli (pp. Izxvii.-boxv.), 
Ed.] 



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4'i6 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.n.Ch.HI.S3. 

of Heaven, and not to the workii^ of political and moral 
causes, which the will of God allows the intelligence of 
man to employ for cffectii^ the improvement or decline 
of human aflairs. Yet it would be an error to ascribe the 
success of this rebellion either to the weakness of the reigning 
emperor, and the defects of his administration, or to the 
ability of bold and rapacious conspirators, without taking 
into account the apathy of the inhabitants of the empire to 
a revolution which had no object but to change the person 
of their emperor. Perhaps no man then living perceived 
that this event was destined to revolutionize the whole 
system of government, destroy the fabric of the central 
administration, deliver up the provinces of Asia. an easy 
conquest to the Seljouk Turks, and Constantinople itself a 
prey to a band of crusaders. 

We have now traced the progress of the Eastern Roman 
Empire through an eventful period of three centuries and 
a half. We have contemplated the rare spectacle of a 
great empire reviving from a state of political anarchy and 
social disorganization ; we have seen it reinvigorated by the 
establishment of a high degree of order and security for 
life and property; and we have recorded its prt^ess to the 
attainment of great military power. We have endeavoured 
to trace the causes that led to this change, as well as to 
record the events which accompanied it. It would now be 
an instructive task to compare the condition of the population 
living under this reformed Roman Empire with that of the 
inhabitants of the countries which once constituted the 
Empire of the West ; but scholars have not yet performed 
the preliminary work necessary for such an inquiry, so that 
even a superficial examination of the subject would run into 
discussions on vague details. Each student of history, there- 
fore, who may happen to turn over the pages of this volume, 
must institute the comparison for himself in that branch rf 
historical or antiquarian research with which he is most 
familiar. Unfortunately the records of the Eastern Empire 
are deprived of one great source of historical interest — they 
tell us very -little concerning the condition of the mass of 
the population ; and while they enable us to study Ae 
actions and the policy of the emperors, and even to observe 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 457 

A.D. 1054-1057O 

the political consequences of their respective administrations, 
they leave us in ignorance concerning many important 
questions relating to the composition of society; they supply 
few facts for discriminating its separate elements, or for 
forming a classification of its social ranks. We know that 
freemen, serfs, and slaves were mingled together in every city 
and province ; and over the whole surface of the Byzantine 
dominions heterogeneous races of mankind were compressed 
into apparent unity by the powerful government that ruled 
at Constantinople. But we are without the means of assign* 
ing to each class of society, and to each discordant nation- 
ality, its exact share and influence in the mass that composed 
the empire. We perceive that there was no real unity among 
the people, and yet the unity created by the government was 
so imposing, that both contemporary and modem historians 
have treated the history of the Byzantine empire as if it 
represented the feelings and interests of a Byzantine nation, 
and almost overlooked the indelible distinctions of the Greek, 
Armenian, and Sclavonian races, which, while forced into 
simultaneous action by the great administrative power that 
ruled them, constantly retained their own national peculiar* 
ities. 

Two grand social distinctions illuminate the obscurities of 
Byzantine history during the period comprised in this volume 
— an organized judicial system, and the existence of a middle 
class. 

The regular administration of justice secured a high degree 
of security for life and property, and bound the various 
nations within the limits of the Eastern Empire in willing 
submission to the central power. 

Through all the darkness of the Byzantine annals, we 
perceive that a middle class exerted some influence on society, 
and that it formed an element of the population, independent 
of the heterogeneous national races from which it was com- 
posed. The nature of its composition explains sufficiently 
why its political influence proved extremely insignificant 
when compared with its numbers, wealth, and social import- 
ance. Local institutions were reduced to such a state of 
subordination by the central authority, that they possessed 
no power to train the different nations of which the middle 
class was composed to political union. All attempts of the 

VOL. 11. H h 



:,L.OO'^[C 



458 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

[Bk.Il.a).in.Sj. 
people to reform their own conditioa proved fruitless, and 
demands for redress of public grievances could only prove 
successful by a revolution. Perhaps this evil may t>e inherent 
in the nature of all governments which carry centralization 
so far as to suppress the expression of public opinion in 
municipal bodies. In such governments, whether monarchical 
or republican, the central authority becomes so powerful, that 
public opinion is rendered inefficacious to effect reform, and 
the people soon learn to regard revolutions as offering the 
only chance of improvement. 

The middle class in the Byzantine empire was a remnant 
of ancient society — an element that had survived from the 
days of municipal liberty and national independence. Many 
free citizens still continued to till their lands — many were 
occupied in manufactures and commerce. It was the exist- 
ence of this class which filled the treasury of the emperors 
—(taxation yields comparatively little in a state peopled 
by great nobles and impoverished serfs) ; — and it was the 
wealth of the Byzantine government which gave it a decided 
superiority over all its contemporaries for several centuries. 
Military excellence was at that time as much the effect 
of individual strength and activity in the soldier, as of 
discipline in the army or talent in the general. The wealth 
of the Byzantine emperors enabled them to fill their armies 
with the best soldiers in Europe ; in their mercenary l^ions, 
knights and nobles fought in the ranks, and the captains of 
their guards were kings and princes'. Nor were the native 
troops inferior to the foreign mercenaries. The lance of 
the Byzantine officer was famous in personal encounters long 
before the aristocracy of western Europe sought military 
renown by imitating an exercise in which sleight-of-hand 
rather than valour secured the victory*. 

It is not difficult to point out generally the causes which 
supplied the Byzantine treasury with large revenues, at a 
period when the precious metals were extremely rare in the 
west of Europe. A curious comparison might be made 
between the riches and luxury of the court of Constantinople 

' For the enploils of Harold Hardrads, king of Norway, who was slain at 
Stamford Bridge, see Mallet's Norlfum Anliquiliis, i6S, 194, b Bohn's Antiquarian 

■ See the accoant uf the death of a Russian chief by the lance of Peter the 
Eunuch. 1^0 DiacoQus, 107, edit, Bonn. 



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GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 45Q 

KJD. 1054-1057.] 

during the reign of Theophilus, and the poverty and rudeness 
that prevailed at the court of Winchester under his con- 
temporary, Egbert The difference of the value of the 
precious metals is peculiarly striking. Theophilus gave two 
pounds' weight of gold, or a hundred and forty-four byzants, 
for a tine horse, of which the market value appears to have 
been a hundred byzants ; yet, among the Saxons, about the 
same time, the price of a common horse was two-thirds of 
a pound weight of silver*. It is difficult to explain the 
rarity of the precious metals in the West, when we remember 
that the tin of Egbert's dominions found its way to Constan- 
tinople, and that the byzants of the Eastern emperors were 
the current gold coin throughout England. The subjects of 
the Byzantine empire supplied the greater part of western 
and the whole of northern Europe with Indian produce, 
spices, precious stones, silk, fine woollen cloth, carpets, cotton, 
what we now call morocco leather*, dye-stuffs, gums, oil, 
wine, and fruits ; besides most manufactured articles, and 
all luxuries. Yet, from the poverty of the Western nations, 
their consumption must have been comparatively small. The 
profits of the trade, however exorbitant they might have been 
on particular transactions, would not have formed an import- 
ant article of national wealth, unless a constant profit had 
been realized by the difference of value of the precious metals 
in the various countries with which dealings were carried on. 
Few of the Western nations worked any mines, and yet they 
were constantly consuming a considerable amount of gold and 
silver ; the Byzantine empire possessed considerable mines of 
silver, and we know that gold was always abundant in the 
treasury^. Gold and silver coin and slaves were consequently 
commodities on which a sure profit was always realized. But 
in the eleventh century a gieat change took place in society 



' Leo Gramm. 454. Heniy, in his EUtory of Sngland, quoting WiUcins' l-tga 
Saxonieae, gives the »alne of a horse at only 1/. 151. id. in modem money. There 
is a curious law of Isaac I., reviving older regulations concerning fees to be paid 
to bishops, which gives some idea, of the value of money in the Byzajitine empire 
under the Basilian dynasty, Bcnefidius, Jia Orimtalc, 36; Leunclavius and Freher, 
"Jui Gratciy-Ri>maiaim.\. lao. 

' Among the presents Alaric received to raise the siege of Rome, were three 
thousand sSins of red leather. Zosimus, v. c. 41. p. 306. edit. Bonn. 

* Byzantine gold coins are still common. We learn from many passages that 
silver was abundant in the Byzantine treasury; and several silver mines are still 
worked in Ttutey, though at present lo little purpose. 
H h 2 



A>oo' 



'cS'^' 



460 BASILIAN DYNASTY. 

in western Europe, coincident with the stationary condition of 
the Byzantine empire. In the West, the spirit of social pro- 
gress infused a sentiment of justice into the counsels of kings ; 
ia the East, a spirit of conservation withered the enei^es of 
society. 



END OF VOL. II. 



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