Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/265

 OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE 243 grave is ever beside the throne ; the success of a criminal is almost instantly followed by the loss of his prize ; and our im- mortal reason survives and disdains the sixty phantoms of kings, who have passed before our eyes and faintly dwell on our re- membrance. The observation that, in every age and climate, ambition has prevailed with the same commanding energy may abate the surprise of a philosopher ; but, while he condemns the vanity, he may search the motive, of this universal desire to obtain and hold the sceptre of dominion. To the greater part of the Byzantine series we cannot reasonably ascribe the love of fame and of mankind. The virtue alone of John Comnenus was beneficent and pure ; the most illustrious of the princes who precede or follow that respectable name have trod with some dexterity and vigour the crooked and bloody paths of a selfish policy ; in scrutinising the imperfect characters of Leo the Isaurian, Basil the First, and Alexius Comnenus, of Theophilus, the second Basil, and Manuel Comnenus, our esteem and censure are almost equally balanced ; and the remainder of the Imperial crowd could only desire and expect to be forgotten by posterity. Was personal happiness the aim and object of their ambition .'' I shall not descant on the vulgar topics of the misery of kings ; but I may surely observe that their condition, of all others, is the most pregnant with fear and the least sus- ceptible of hope. For these opposite passions, a larger scope was allowed in the revolutions of antiquity than in the smooth and solid temper of the modern world, which cannot easily re- peat either the triumph of Alexander or the fall of Darius. But the peculiar infelicity of the Byzantine princes exposed them to domestic perils, without affording any lively promise of foreign conquest. From the pinnacle of greatness, Andronicus was precipitated by a death more cruel and shameful than that of the vilest malefactor ; but the most glorious of his prede- cessors had much more to dread from their subjects than to hope from their enemies. The army was licentious without spirit, the nation turbulent without freedom ; the barbarians of the East and West pressed on the monarchy, and the loss of the provinces was terminated by the final servitude of the capital. The entire series of Roman emperors, from the first of the Caesars to the last of the Constantines, extends above fifteen hundred years ; and the term of dominion unbroken by foreign conquest surpasses the measure of the ancient monarchies : the Assyrians or Medes, the successors of Cyrus, or those of Alex- ander.