Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/111

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 91 exercise the task of the public oppression. In some fatal moment, the most absolute monarch may dread the reason or the caprice of a nation of slaves ; and experience has proved that whatever is gained in the extent, is lost in the safety and solidity, of regal power. Whatever titles a despot may assume, whatever claims he may Military assert, it is on the sword that he must ultimately depend to Greeks, the guard him against his foreign and domestic enemies. From the the'rranki'"* age of Charlemagne to that of the Crusades, the world (for I overlook the remote monarchy of China) was occupied and dis- puted by the three great empires or nations of the Greeks, the Saracens, and the Franks. Their military strength may be ascertained by a comparison of their courage, their arts and riches, and their obedience to a supreme head, who might call into action all the energies of the state. The Greeks, far inferior to their rivals in the first, were superior to the Franks, and at least equal to the Saracens, in the second and third of these warlike qualifications. The wealth of the Greeks enabled them to purchase the Navy of the service of the poorer nations, and to maintain a naval power for the protection of their coasts and the annoyance of their enemies."^ A commerce of mutual benefit exchanged the gold of Constantinople for the blood of the Sclavonians and Turks, the Bulgarians and Russians : their valour contributed to the victories of Nicephorus and Zimisces ; and, if an hostile people pressed too closely on the frontier, they were recalled to the defence of their country and the desire of peace by the well- managed attack of a more distant tribe."'' The command of the Mediterranean, from the mouth of the Tanais to the columns of Hercules, was always claimed, and often possessed, by the successors of Constantine. Their capital was filled with naval stores and dexterous artificers ; the situation of Greece and Asia, the long coasts, deep gulfs, and numerous islands "^ If we listen to the threats of Nicephorus to the ambassador of Otho : Nee est in mari domino tuo classium numerus. Navigantium fortitiido mihi soli incst, qui euni classihus aggrediar, bello niaritimas ejus civitates demoliar ; et quns fluminibus sunt vicina redigam in favillani (Liutprand in Legal, ad Niceplioruin Phocam, in Muratori, Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, torn. ii. pars i. p. 481 Ic. 11]). He observes in another place [c. 45], qui creteris praestant Venetici sunt et Anial- phitani. ''•'Nee ipsa capiet eum (the emperor Otho) in qua ortus est pauper et [gunnata, id est] pellicea Saxonia ; pecunia qua pollenius omnes nationes super eum [ipsunij invitabimus ; et quasi Keramicum confringemus (Liutprand in Legal, p. 487 [c. 53]). The two books, De administrando Iniperio, perpetually inculcate the same policy.