Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/106

 86 THE DECLINE AND FALL pous and triOing volume,''- which the vanity of succeeding times might enrich with an ample supplement. Yet the calmer re- flection of a prince would surely suggest that the same acclama- tions were applied to every character and every reign ; and, if he had risen from a private rank, he might remeinber that his own voice had been the loudest and most eager in applause, at the very moment when he envied the fortune, or conspired against the life, of his predecessor.''^ Marriage of The princcs of the North, of the nations, says Constantine, with foieign without faith or fame, were ambitious of mingling their blood with the blood of the Caesars, by their marriage with a royal virgin, or by the nuptials of their daughters with a Roman prince.''* The aged monarch, in his instructions to his son, reveals the secret maxims of policy and pride ; and suggests the most decent reasons for refusingr these insolent and unreasonable demands. Every animal, says the discreet emperor, is prompted by nature to seek a mate among the animals of his own species ; and the human species is divided into various tribes, by the dis- tinction of language, religion, and manners. A just regard to the purity of descent preserves the harmony of public and private life ; but the mixture of foreign blood is the fruitful source of disorder and discord. Such has ever been the opinion and pi'actice of the sage Romans; their jurisprudence proscribed the marriage of a citizen and a stranger ; in the days of freedom and vii'tue, a senator would have scorned to match his daughter with a king ; the glory of Mark Anthony was sullied by an Egyptian wife ; '^^ and the emperor Titus was compelled, by popular cen- sure, to dismiss with reluctance the reluctant Bernice.'^'' This ''- For all these ceremonies, see the professed work of Constnntine Porphyrogeni- tiis, with the notes, or rather dissertations, of his German editors, Leich and Reiske. For the rank of the s.'a/idifii^ courtiers, p. 80 [c. 23 ad Jin. not. 23, 62, for the adoration, except on Sundays, p. 95, 240 [c. 39 ; c. 91 (p. 414, ed. Bonn)], not. 131, the processions, p. 2 [c. i], ike, not. p. 3, &c., the acclamations, /(/w/'w, not. 25, &c., the factions and Hippodrome, p. 177-214 [c. 68 — c. 73], not. 9, 93, &c., the Gothic j^fxnies, p. 221 [c. 83], not. iii, vintage, p. 217 [c. 78], not. 109. Much more information is scattered over the work. ''•'Et privato Othoni et nuper eadem dicenti nota adulatio (Tacit. Hist. i. 85). ''■'The xiiith chapter, de Administralione Imperii, may be explained and rectified by the Familire Byzantinas of Ducange. "^Sequitnrque nefas ! /Egyptia conjimx (Virgil, .(Encid. viii. 688 [leg. 686]). Yet this Egyptian wife was the daughter of a long line of kings. Quid te mutavit (says Antony in a private letter to Augustus)? an quod reginam ineo ? Uxor mea est (.Sueton. in August, c. 69). Yet I much question (for I cannot stay to inquire) whetiier the triumvir ever dared to celebrate his marriage either with Roman or Egyptian rites. '"' Bi-renicem invitus initani diniisit (Suetonius in Tito, c. 7). Have I observed c'ls(>where that this Jewish beauty was at this time above fifty years of age? The judicious Racine has most discreetly suppressed both her age and her country.