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POLITICAL SYStem, &c.

though it confirmed the iron despotism of the court.

But those who regard this as one of the causes of the empire's decline, should remember, that for an empire fallen so low as the Roman, despotism was almost the only support that remained. Still we cannot avoid contrasting the old with the new capital. There were-new citizens, a new senate, a new and better religion, a more genial climate; but there were no memorials of fame, no epochs of splendid deeds, in a word, no glory. There was however, much in the change to gratify both the ambition and the fanaticism of the emperor. His senators were courtiers; his prelates felt that to him they owed the supremacy of their creed; his subjects were vassals who knew not the name of freedom; they could not look back upon ages of power and liberty, they could only look forward to a futurity of ignominy and servitude. We must however remember, that the empire thus founded at Byzantium, resisted for a thousand years the combined action of destructive agents, that would have singly ruined any other government of which we have either heard or read, in less than half a century. The problem to be solved in the history of most dynasties is " 'why they fell?" but the Byzantine alone perplexes us with the inquiry, "why it did not fall;" a difficulty of which it is not by any means easy to discover a satisfactory solution. "The impregnable situation of its capital," says Heeren, "which usually decides the fate of such kingdoms, joined to its despotism, established in harmonious completeness by Constantine, serves in some measure to explain a phenomenon unparalleled in the history of the world."

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CHAPTER IV.

The History of the Empire under the Flavian Family. (From A.D. 323. to A.D. 363.)

THE Flavian family was first raised to distinction by Claudius, who became emperor after the death of Gallienus (A.D. 268). Flattering genealogists traced back its origin to the royal house of Priam; but sober inquiries only shew that Claudius was born of humble parentage, in some province bordering on the Danube; that he owed his elevation to his own merits, and that he made his relatives participate in his success. Constantius Chlorus, the grandson of Chrispus, elder brother of Claudius, was the second of his family that ascended the throne; at his death he bequeathed his claims to his son Constantine the Great, who became master of the Roman world after the overthrow of his brother-in-law Licinius 1.

While Constantine was engaged in ornamenting his new capital, a war arose on the frontiers of his empire, which would probably have produced very dangerous results, but for the watchful attention which the emperor's vicinity to the field of action enabled him to maintain. The Sarmatians, a fierce race of warriors, possessed the country

* The following genealogical table of the family of Constantine will be found useful in the course of this history. The number following † tells the year in which each died; the names of emperors are printed in capitals.

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HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE

now inhabited by the Cossack, and, like them, united the manner of Tartar tribes with the complexion and figure of Europeans. Devoted to pasture, they moved their families from place to place in covered waggons; and as they lived in large hordes, their camps resembled moveable cities. They were all horsemen. Their armour was composed of animals' hoofs cut into thin slices, laid lapping over each other like fish-scales, and strongly sewed on a vestment of canvas. From want of iron they tipped their weapons with fish-bones, and used a strong poison that rendered every wound they inflicted fatal. The Vandals, driven onward by the Goths, sought refuge among the Sarmatians, and were not only hospitably received, but were even permitted to give a king to the nation. This strange event at once alarmed and exasperated the Goths. They fiercely attacked the Sarmatians, and triumphed over them in several sanguinary engagements. Constantine saw the increasing power of the Goths with just alarm. An anxiety to watch its growth, and to check the progress of the Persians, was, as we have said, one cause of his fixing the imperial residence at Byzantium. He therefore readily entered into alliance with the Sarmatians, and began to assemble an army on the northern frontiers. Alaric, the Gothic monarch, resolved to anticipate the attack of the legions. He invaded Mosia, and had the satisfaction to see the Roman army fly before an inconsiderable detachment of his barbarians. But the emperor soon retrieved this transitory disgrace; in a second engagement (April 20th, A.D. 332), the Goths were totally routed; nearly one hundred thousand fell on the field, and the remnant was only saved by supplicating peace, and giving the son of their king as a hostage. Far from being grateful for this deliverance, the Sarmatians were exasperated at not being paid for the defence of their own lands, and began to make hostile inroads into the Roman territories. Constantine therefore abandoned them to their former enemies, and the Goths in

UNDER THE FLAVIAN FAMILY.

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one decisive engagement swept away the flower of the Sarmatian youth. The vanquished resorted to the desperate expedient of arming their slaves, and they, as might have been expected, after having repulsed the Goths, claimed and seized supremacy over their former masters. Unable to bear such a disgraceful yoke, the Sarmatians quitted their country in large hordes. Some submitted to the Goths; others were permitted to unite with the Germanic tribes; but far the greater portion sought and obtained permission to colonize the waste lands in Pannonia, Thrace, and Macedon.

The internal administration of the empire during the later years of Constantine's life was entrusted to unworthy favourites, who deceived their master and tyrannized over his subjects. How far the emperor sanctioned the profligacy which notoriously prevailed in the court of Constantinople, cannot be easily ascertained; but he certainly gave in himself an example both of avarice and prodigality, very inconsistent with his former heroic career, and with the character of a Christian sovereign. The provincial governments were chiefly entrusted to members of the royal family. The emperor's three sons, Constantine, Constantius, and Constans, together with his nephew, Dalmatius, had the rank of Cæsars; while another nephew, Annibilianus, was greeted with the unusual title of king. All these princes had been educated with the most anxious care; but the herd of flatterers that surrounded the court neutralized the efforts of their instructors, and the emperor himself committed the fatal error of investing them with power at an early age, and sending them to learn the art of government at the expense of the provinces entrusted to their charge. These evils were not very severely felt while peace continued; but towards the close of the emperor's reign, the Persians, who had remained quiet during the minority of Sháh-poor, began to threaten the Asiatic pro

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HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE

vinces, deeming that their young sovereign was worthy to inherit the throne of Cyrus.

We have already mentioned the singular circumstances attending the coronation of the unborn Sháh-poor. During his minority, the Mobeds, or priests who governed the kingdom in his name, circulated many anecdotes of his precocious wisdom, which are still preserved by oriental historians. Whether true or false, they had a beneficial effect in attaching the affections of the Persians to their young monarch and preventing any attempt to set him aside during his childhood. His first campaign was against the Arabs, who had taken advantage of his minority to ravage the western provinces of Persia. Sháh-poor completely triumphed over these marauders, and exacted a terrible vengeance for the excesses they had committed. He ordered the shoulders of his captives to be pierced, and then dislocated by a strong cord passed through them; whence he is usually called, by oriental writers, Dhoolaktaff, that is, Lord of the Shoulders. Having secured the tranquillity of his dominions on the Arabian side, Sháh-poor began to make preparations for attacking the Romans; and Constantine, aware of the danger, was taking energetic measures of defence, when he was seized at Nicomedia with a disease, which his physicians pronounced to be fatal.

He

The emperor prepared to meet death with fortitude. received the sacrament of baptism from the hands of the bishop of Nicomedia, confirmed by his will the distribution of the empire between his sons and nephews, bequeathed some revenues to the cities of Rome and Constantinople, and expired (May 22, A.D. 337), in the sixty-fourth year of his reign. Few historical characters have been the subject of such fierce controversy as Constantine; extolled by many Christian writers as a saint, he is described by the advocates of paganism as the worst of tyrants. Truth in this as in most instances, lies between the opposing state