XLVI.

..........

A. D. 602,

A. D. 610,

such compassion would have been criminal, CHAP. under the reign of Phocas, who was peaceably acknowledged in the provinces of the East and Phocas West. The images of the emperor and his wife emperor, Leontea were exposed in the Lateran to the ve- Nov. 23. neration of the clergy and senate of Rome, and October 4 afterwards deposited in the palace of the Cӕsars, between those of Constantine and Theodosius. As a subject and a Christian, it was the duty of Gregory to acquiesce in the established government, but the joyful applause with which he salutes the fortune of the assassin, has sullied with indelible disgrace the character of the saint. The successor of the apostles might have inculcated with decent firmness the guilt of blood, and the necessity of repentance: he is content to celebrate the deliverance of the people and the fall of the oppressor; to rejoice that the piety and benignity of Phocas have been raised by Providence to the imperial throne; to pray that his hands may be strengthened against all his enemies; and to express a wish, perhaps a prophecy, that, after a long and triumphant reign, he may be transferred from a temporal to an everlasting kingdom." I have already traced the steps of a revolution so pleasing, in Gregory's opinion, both to heaven and earth; and Phocas does not appear less

Gregor. l. xi, epist. 38, indict. vi. Benignitatem vestræ pietatis ad imperiale fastigium pervenisse gaudemus. Lætentar cæli et exultet terra, et de vestris benignis actibus universæ reipublicæ populus nunc usque vehementer afflictus hilarescat, &c. This base flattery, the topic of protestant invective, is justly censured by the philosopher Bayle, (Dictionaire Critique, Gregoire I, Not. H. tom. ii, p. 597, 598) Cardinal Baronius justifies the pope at the expence of the fallen emperor.

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CHAP hateful in the exercise than in the acquisition of ..........power. The pencil of an impartial historian has

XLVI.

His cha

delineated the portrait of a monster; his dimiracter, nutive and deformed person, the closeness of his shaggy eye-brows, his red hair, his beardless chin, and his check disfigured and discoloured by a formidable scar. Ignorant of letters, of laws, and even of arms, he indulged in the supreme rank a more ample privilege of lust and drunkenness, and his brutal pleasures were either injurious to his subjects or disgraceful to himself. Without assuming the office of a prince, he renounced the profession of a soldier; and the reign of Phocas afflicted Europe with ignominious peace, and Asia with desolating war. His savage temper was inflamed by passion, hardened by fear, exasperated by resistance or reproach. The flight of Theodosius to the Persian court had been intercepted by a rapid pursuit, or a deceitful message: he was beheaded at Nice, and the last hours of the young prince were soothed by the comforts of religion and the consciousness of innocence. Yet his phantom disturbed the repose of the usurper: a whisper was circulated through the East, that the son of Maurice was still alive: the people expected their avenger, and the widow and daughters of the late emperor would have adopted as their son and brother the vilest of mankind. In the massacre of the imperial

The images of Phocas were destroyed; but even the malice of his enemies would suffer one copy of such a portrait or caricature (Cedre mus, p. 404) to escape the flames.

family, the mercy, or rather the discretion, of CHAP Phocas, had spared these unhappy females, and XLVI. they were decently confined to a private house. But the spirit of the empress Constantina, still mindful of her father, her husband, and her sons, aspired to freedom and revenge. At the dead of night, she escaped to the sanctuary of St. Sophia; but her tears, and the gold of her associate Germanus, were insufficient to provoke an insurrection. Her life was forfeited to revenge, and even to justice: but the patriarch obtained and pledged an oath for her safety; a monastery was allotted for her prison, and the widow of Maurice accepted and abused the lenity of his assassin. The discovery or the uspicion of a second conspiracy, dissolved the engagements and rekindled the fury of Phocas. A matron who commanded the respect and pity of mankind, the daughter, wife, and mother of emperors, was tortured like the vilest malefactor, to force a confession of her designs and associates; and the empress Constantina, with her three innocent daughters, was beheaded at Chalcedon, on the same ground which had been stained with the blood of her husband and and ty five sons. After such an example, it would be ranny superfluous to enumerate the names and sufferings of meaner victims. Their condemnation was seldom preceded by the forms of trial, and their punishment was embittered by the refine

CHAP. ments of cruelty: their eyes were pierced, their XLVI. tongues were torn from the root, the hands and

..........

feet were amputated; some expired under the lash, others in the flames, others again were transfixed with arrows; and a simple speedy death was mercy which they could rarely obtain. The hippodrome, the sacred asylum of the pleasures and the liberty of the Romans, was polluted with heads and limbs and mangled bodies; and the companions of Phocas were the most sensible, that neither his favour, nor their services, could protect them from a tyrant, the worthy rival of the Caligulas and Domitians of the first age of the empire.

A daughter of Phocas, his only child, was given and death, in marriage to the patrician Crispus, and the October 4 royal images of the bride and bridegroom were indiscreetly placed in the circus, by the side of the emperor. The father must desire that his posterity should inherit the fruit of his crimes, but the monarch was offended by this premature and popular association: the tribunes of the green faction, who accused the officious error of their sculptors, were condemned to instant death: their lives were granted to the prayers of the people; but Crispus might reasonably doubt whether a jealous usurper could forget and par

..........

don his involuntary competition. The green CHAP.
faction was alienated by the ingratitude of XLVI.
Phocas and the loss of their privileges; every
province of the empire was ripe for rebellion;
and Heraclius, exarch of Africa, persisted above
two years in refusing all tribute and obedience
to the centurion who disgraced the throne of
Constantinople. By the secret emissaries of
Crispus and the senate, the independent exarch
was solicited to save and to govern his country:
but his ambition was chilled by age, and he re-
signed the dangerous enterprise to his son He-
raclius, and to Nicetas, the son of Gregory his
friend and lieutenant. The powers of Africa
were armed by the two adventurous youths;
they agreed that the one should navigate the fleet
from Carthage to Constantinople, that the other
should lead an army through Egypt and Asia,
and that the imperial purple should be the re-
ward of diligence and success. A faint rumour
of their undertaking was conveyed to the ears of
Phocas, and the wife and mother of the younger
Heraclius were secured as the hostages of his
faith: but the treacherous art of Crispus exte-
nuated the distant peril, the means of defence
were neglected or delayed, and the tyrant su-
pinely slept till the African navy cast anchor in
the Hellespont. Their standard was joined at
Abidus by the fugitives and exiles who thirsted
for revenge; the ships of Heraclius, whose lofty
masts were adorned with the holy symbols of
religion, steered their triumphant course through

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