Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/230

 208 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D B12] [A.D 920] Alexander, Oonatantlne Vn. Porphy- rogenltoB. A.D. 911, May 11 [Death of Alexander. June 6, A.D. 913] nor the danger of failure or doubt in the succession to the empire, could bend the spirit of the inflexible monk. After the death of Leo, he was recalled from exile to the civil and ec- clesiastical administration ; and the edict of union which was promulgated in the name of Constantine condemned the future scandal of fourth marriages and left a tacit imputation on his own birth. In the Greek l&nguage purple and porphi/ri/ are the same word ; and, as the colours of nature are invariable, we may learn that a dark deep red was the Tyrian dye which stained the purple of the ancients. An apartment of the Byzantine palace was lined with porphyry ; it was reserved for the use of the pregnant empresses ; and the royal birth of their children was expressed by the appellation of porphip-ogcniie, or born in the purple. Several of the Roman princes had been blessed with an heir ; l)ut this peculiar surname was first applied to Constantine the Seventh. His life and titular reign were of equal duration ; but of fifty-four years six had elapsed before his father's death ; and the son of Leo was ever the voluntary or reluctant subject of those who oppressed his weakness or abused his confidence. His uncle Alexander, who had long been invested with the title of Augustus, was the first colleague and governor of the young prince ; but, in a rapid career of vice and folly, the brother of Leo already emulated the reputation of Michael ; and, when he was extinguished by a timely death, he entertained the project of castrating his nephew and leaving the empire to a worthless favourite. The succeeding years of the minority of Constantine were occupied by his mother Zoe, and a succession or council of seven regents,*^ who pursued their interests, gratified their passions, abandoned the republic, supplanted each other, and finally vanished in the presence of a soldier. From an obscure origin, Romanus Lecapenus had raised himself to the command of the naval armies ; and in the anarchy of the times liad deserved, or at least had obtained, the national esteem. With a victorious and affectionate fleet, he sailed from the mouth of the Danube into the harbour of Constantinople, and was hailed as the deliverer of the people and the gu^irdian of the prince. His supreme office was at first defined by the new appellation of father of the emperor,^'^ but Romanus soon dis- ■" [The most important and capable of the regents was John Eladas. ] •*5 [Romanus was made great Hstaeriairh (captain of the foreign guards) on March 25 ; liasileopator, April 27 ; Caesar, Sept. 24 ; Augustits, Dec. 17 (Theoph. Contin., p. 393-7, ed. Bonn).]