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 chap, xlii] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 373 dered with impunity, the cities of Illyricum and Thrace, each of which had arms and numbers to overwhelm their contemp- tible assailants. Whatever praise the boldness of the Sclavonians may deserve, it is sullied by the wanton and deliberate cruelty which they are accused of exercising on their prisoners. With- out distinction of rank, or age, or sex, the captives were impaled, or flayed alive, or suspended between four posts and beaten with clubs till they expired, or inclosed in some spacious building and left to perish in the flames with the spoil and cattle which might impede the march of these savage victors.* 1 Perhaps a more impartial narrative would reduce the number, and qualify the nature, of these horrid acts ; and they might sometimes be excused by the cruel laws of retaliation. In the siege of Topirus, 22 whose obstinate defence had enraged the Sclavonians, they massacred fifteen thousand males ; but they spared the women and children ; the most valuable captives were always reserved for labour or ransom ; the servitude was not rigorous, and the terms of their deliverance were speedy and moderate. But the subject or the historian of Justinian exhaled his just indignation in the language of complaint and reproach ; and Procopius has confidently affirmed that in a reign of thirty-two years each annual inroad of the Barbarians consumed two hundred thousand of the inhabitants of the Roman empire. The entire population of Turkish Europe, which nearly corre- sponds with the provinces of Justinian, would perhaps be incap- able of supplying six millions of persons, the result of this incredible estimate. 23 In the midst of these obscure calamities, Europe felt theorem and shock of a revolution, which first revealed to the world theSf°the rc name and nation of the Turks. 24 Like Romulus, the founder AsL. a a!d. of that martial people was suckled by a she-wolf, who after- wards made him the father of a numerous progeny ; and the representation of that animal in the banners of the Turks pre- 21 The cruelties of the Sclavonians are related or magnified by Procopius (Goth. 1. iii. c. 29, 38). For their mild and liberal behaviour to their prisoners, we may appeal to the authority, somewhat more recent, of the emperor Maurice (Stratagem. 1. ii. c. 5). 22 Topirus was situate near Philippi in Thrace, or Macedonia, opposite to the isle of Thasos, twelve days' journey from Constantinople (Cellarius, torn. i. p. 676, 840). 23 Aocording to the malevolent testimony of the Anecdotes (c. 18), these inroads had reduced the provinces south of the Danube to the state of a Scythian wilderness. 34 [For the name and origin of the Turks, see Appendix 17.]