XL. CHAP. city of the empire obtained the solid advantages of bridges, hospitals, and aqueducts; but the severe liberality of the monarch disdained to indulge his subjects in the popular luxury of baths and theatres. While Justinian laboured for the public service, he was not unmindful of his own dignity and ease. The Byzantine palace, which had been damaged by the conflagration, was restored with new magnificence; and some notion may be conceived of the whole edifice, by the vestibule or hall, which, from the doors perhaps, or the roof, was surnamed chalce, or the brazen. The dome of a spacious quadrangle was supported by massy pillars; the pavement and walls were encrusted with many coloured marbles the emerald green of Laconia, the fiery red, and the white Phrygian stone intersected with veins of a sea-green hue: the mosaic paintings of the dome and sides represented the glories of the African and Italian triumphs. On the Asiatic shore of the Propontis, at a small distance to the east of Chalcedon, the costly palace and gardens of Heræum✶ were prepared for the summer residence of Justinian, and more especially of Theodora. The poets of the age have celebrated the rare alliance of nature and art, the harmony of the nymphs of the groves, the fountains, and the waves; yet the crowd of attendants who followed the court complained of their inconvenient lodgings †, and the nymphs, were *For the Heræum, the palace of Theodora, see Gyllius (de Bosphoro Thracio, 1. iii. c. xi.), Aleman. (Not. ad Anecdot. p. 80, 81. who quotes several epigrams of the Anthology), and Ducange (C. P. Christ. 1. iv. c. 13. p. 175, 176.). + Compare, in the Edifices (l. i. c. 11.) and in the Anecdotes (c. 8. 15.), the different styles of adulation and malevolence: stript of the paint, or cleansed from the dirt, the object appears to be the same. XL. were too often alarmed by the famous Porphyrio, a CHA P. whale of ten cubits in breadth, and thirty in length, who was stranded at the mouth of the river Sangaris, after he had infested more than half a century the seas of Constantinople *. tions of The fortifications of Europe and Asia were mul- Fortifica tiplied by Justinian; but the repetition of those Europe. timid and fruitless precautions exposes to a philosophic eye the debility of the empire +. From Belgrade to the Euxine, from the conflux of the Save to the mouth of the Danube, a chain of above fourscore fortified places was extended along the banks of the great river. Single watch-towers were changed into spacious citadels; vacant walls, which the engineers contracted or enlarged according to the nature of the ground, were filled with colonies or garrisons; a strong fortress defended the ruins of Trajan's bridge ‡, and several military stations affected to spread beyond the Da nube Procopius, 1. viii. 29. ; most probably a stranger and wanderer, as the Mediterranean does not breed whales. Balænæ quoque in nostra maria penetrant (Plin. Hist. Natur. ix. 2.). between the polar circle and the tropic, the cetaceous animals of the ocean grow to the length of 50, 80, or 100 feet (Hist. des Voyages, tom. xv. p. 289. Pennant's British Zoology vol iii. p. 35.). + Montesquieu observes (tom. iii. p. 503. Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Decadence des Romains, c. xx.) that Justinian's empire was like France in the time of the Norman inroads never so weak as when every village was fortified. ‡ Procopiu's affirms (1. iv. c. 6.) that the Danube was stopped by the ruins of the bridge. Had Apollodorus the Architect, left a description of his own work, the fabulous wonders of Dion Cassius (I. lxviii. p. 1129.) would have been corrected by the genuine picture. Trajan's bridge consisted of twenty or twenty-two stone piles with wooden arches; the river is shallow, the current gentle, and the whole interval no more than 443 (Reimar ad Dion. from Marsigli) or 515 toises (d'Anvil Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 305.). XL. CHAP, nube the pride of the Roman name. But that name was divested of its terrors, the Barbarians, in their annual inroads, passed, and contemptuously repassed, before these useless bulwarks; and the inhabitants of the frontier, instead of reposing un. der the shadow of the general defence, were compelled to guard, with incessant vigilance, their separate habitations. The solitude of ancient cities was replenished; the new foundations of Justinian acquired, perhaps too hastily, the epithets of impregnable and populous ; and the auspicious place of his own nativity attracted the grateful reverence of the vainest of princes. Under the name of Justiniana prima, the obscure village of Tauresiam became the seat of an archbishop and a præfect, whose jurisdiction extended over seven warlike provinces of Illyricum *; and the corrupt appellalation of Giustendüstill indicates, about twenty miles to the south of Sophia, the residence of a Turkish sanjak t. For the use of the emperor's countrymen, a cathedral, a palace, and an aqueduct, were speedily constructed; the public and private edifices were adapted to the greatness of a royal city; and the strength of the walls resisted, during the life-time of Justinian, the unskilful assaults of the Huns * Of the two Dacias, Mediterraned and Ripensis, Dardania, Prævalitana, the second Mæsia, and the second Macedonia. See Justinian (Novell. xi.), who speaks of his castles beyond the Danube, and of homines semper bellicis sudoribus inharentes. + See d'Anville (Memoires de l'Academie, &c. tom. xxxi. p. 289, 290.), Rycaut (Present state of the Turkish Empire, p. 97. 316.), Marsigli Stato Militare del imperio Ottomano, p. 130.). The sanjak of Giustendil is one of the twenty under the beglerbeg of Rumelia, and his district maintains 48 xaims and 588 limariots. XL. Huns and Sclavonians. Their progress was some- c H A P. times retarded, and their hopes of rapine were disappointed, by the innumerable castles, which, in the provinces of Dacia, Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace, appeared to cover the whole face of the country. Six hundred of these forts were built or repaired by the emperor; but it seems reasonable to believe, that the far greater part consisted only of a stone or brick tower, in the midst of a square, or circular area, which was surrounded by a wall and ditch, and afforded in a moment of danger some protection to the peasants and cattle of the neighbouring villages *. Yet these military works, which exhausted the public treasure, could not remove the just apprehensions of Justinian and his European subjects. The warm baths of Anchialus in Thrace were rendered as safe as they were salutary; but the rich pastures of Thessalonica were foraged by the Scythian cavalry; the delicious vale of Tempe, three hundred miles from the Danube, was continually alarmed by the sound of wart; and no unfortified spot, however distant or solitary, could securely enjoy the blessings of peace. The streights of Thermopyla, which seemed to protect, but which had so often betrayed, the safety of Greece, were diligently strengthened These fortifications may be compared to the castles in Mingrelia (Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tom. i. p. 60. 131a natural picture. The valley of Tempe is situate along the river Peneus, between the hills of Ossa and Olympus; it is only five miles long, and in some places no more than 120 feet in breadth. Its verdant beauties are elegantly described by Pliny (Hist. Natur, 1. iv. 15.), and more diffusely by Ælian (Hist. Var. l. iii. c. 1.)、 CH A P. strengthened by the labours of Justinian. From the edge of the sea-shore, through the forests and vallies, and as far as the summit of the Thessalian mountains, a strong wall was continued, which occupied every practicable entrance. Instead of an hasty crowd of peasants, a garrison of two thousand soldiers was stationed along the rampart; granaries of corn, and reservoirs of water, were provided for their use"; and by a precaution that inspired the cowardice which it foresaw, convenient fortresses were erected for their retreat. The walls of Corinth, overthrown by an earthquake, and the moul. dering bulwarks of Athens and Platæa, were carefully restored ; the. Barbarians were discouraged by the prospect of successive and painful sieges; and the naked cities of Peloponnesus were covered by the fortifications of the isthmus of Corinth. At the extremity of Europe, another peninsula, the Thracian Cersonesus, runs three days journey into the sea, to form, with the adjacent shores of Asia, the streights of the Hellespont. The initervals between eleven populous towns were filled by lofty woods, fair pastures, and arable lands; and the isthmus, or thirty-seven stadia or furlongs, had been fortified by 'a Spartan general nine hundred years before the reign of Justinian *. In an age of freedom and valour, the slightest rampart may prevent a surprise; and Procopius appears insensible of the superiority of ancient times, while he praises 1 Xenophon Hélènic. 1. iii. t. 2. After a long and tedious conversation with the Byzantine declaimers, how refreshing is the truth, the simplicity, the elegance of an Attic writer! |