Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/99

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 77 vigilance. At this distance we can only conjecture that he was endowed with more personal courage than political resolution ; that he was detained by the charms^ and perhaps the arts, of his niece Martina, with whom, after the death of Eudocia, he contracted an incestuous malriage ; ^'^ and that he yielded to the base advice of the counsellors, who urged, as a fundamental law, that the life of the emperor should never be exposed in the field.^'^ Perhaps he was awakened by the last insolent demand of the Persian conqueror ; but, at the moment when Heraclius assumed the spirit of a hero, the only hopes of the Romans were drawn from the vicissitudes of fortune, which might threaten the proud prosperity of Chosroes and must be favourable to those who had attained the lowest period of depression. ^^ To provide for the expenses of war was the first care of the emperor ; and, for the purpose of collecting the tribute, he was allowed to solicit th-e benevolence of the Eastern provinces. But the revenue no longer flowed in the usual channels ; the ci-edit of an arbitraiy prince is annihilated by his power; and the courage of Heraclius was first displayed in daring to borrow the consecrated wealth of churches under the solemn vow of restoring, with usury, whatever he had been conapelled to employ in the service of religion and of the empire. The clergy themselves appear to have sympathized with the public distress, and the discreet patriarch of Alexandria, without admitting the precedent of sacrilege, assisted his sovereign by the miraculous or seasonable revelation of a secret treasure.-'^ Of the soldiers who had con- ^'^ Nicephorus (p. lo, ii), who brands this marriage with the name of aOea-fiou and ieefjuTOP, is happy to observe that of two sons, its incestuous fruit, the elder was marked by Providence with a stiff neck, the younger with the loss of hearing. 8" George of Pisidia (Acroas. i. 112-125, p. 5), who states the opinions, acquits the pusillanimous counsellors of any sinister views. Would he have excused the proud and contemptuous admonition of Crispus? 'EnLrMda^Mi' ovk i^ov paa-tel f<f}a<rKe KaTaKifj.iro.i'^Li' |3oO"tAeta, /cat rat? Troppw ^TTiXioptd^iti' oura/xecrtr [Nic. p. 5, ed. de Boor]. 91 Et. Ta? eTr' aKpor T)p/xt'i'a? evc^t'a? 'E(r(/)aAjU.e'i'os Aeyovcrit' ovk cltti^lkotus KeiVflo) TO Aoirroj' ei' (caKois to. XlepcriSo'; 'Ai/Ticrrporlxus 5e, &C. George Pisid. Acroas. i. 51, &c. p. 4. The Orientals are not less fond of remarking this strange vicissitude ; and I remember some story of Khosrou Parviz, not very unlike the ring of Polycrates of Samos. ^^Baronius gravely relates this discovery, or rather transmutation, of barrels, not of honey, but of gold (Annal. Eccles. a.d. 620, No. 3, &c.). Yet the loan was arbitrary, since it was collected by soldiers, who were ordered to leave the patriarch of Alexandria no more than one hundred pounds of gold. Nicephorus (p. 11), two hundred years afterwards, speaks with ill-humour of this contribution.