Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/177

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 157 the possession of gold, silver, silks, and all the objects of our desires ? Are we sure of victory ? Can we conclude a treaty with the sea ? We do not tread on the land ; we float on the abyss of water, and a common death hangs over our heads." **^ The memory of these Arctic fleets that seemed to descend from the Polar circle left a deep impression of terror on the Imperial city. By the vulgar of every rank, it was asserted and believed that an equestrian statue in the square of Taurus was secretly inscribed with a prophecy, how the Russians, in the last days, should become masters of Constantinople.^^ In our o%vn time, a Russian armament, instead of sailing from the Borvsthenes, has circumnavigated the continent of Europe ; and the Turkish capital has been threatened by a squadron of strong and lofty ships of war, each of which, with its naval science and thunder- ing artillery, could have sunk or scattered an hundred canoes, such as those of their ancestors. Perhaps the present genera- tion may yet behold the accomplishment of the prediction, of a rare prediction, of which the style is unambiguous and the date unquestionable. By land the Russians were less formidable than by sea; and, Eeignof as they fought for the most part on foot, their irregular legions a.d. 955-973 must often have been broken and overthrown by the cavalry of the Scythian hordes. Yet their growing towns, however slight and imperfect, presented a shelter to the subject and a barrier to the enemy : the monarchy of Kiow, till a fatal partition, as- sumed the dominion of the North : and the nations from the Volga to the Danube were subdued or repelled by the arms of Swatoslaus,^2 t^g son of Igor, the son of Oleg, the son of Rune. ^Q-^i^j^'^, given by his counsellors to Igor in A.D. 944. See Nestor, c. 27; p. 25, ed. Mik- losich.] ''1 This brazen statue, which had been brought from Antioch, and was melted down by the Latins, was supposed to represent either Joshua or Bellerophon, an odd dilemma. See Nicetas Choniates (p. 413, 414 [p. 848, ed. Bonn]), Codiniis (de Originibus [^leg. de .Signis] C. P. p. 24 [p. 43, ed. B.]), and the anonymous writer de .'X.ntiquitat. C. P. (Banduri, Imp. Orient, torn. i. p. 17, 18) who lived about the year 1 100. They witness the belief of the prophecy ; the rest is immaterial. [The prophecy is not mentioned in the passage of Nicetas ; and " Codinus " is merely a copyist of the anonymous na-pta-r^? KMi^rrai-Tn/o^roAeiu? edited by G. Banduri (see Appendix 11. Therefore ^as Smith rightly pointed out in his annotation to this note) there is only one witness.] ^The life of Swatoslaus, or Sviateslaf, or Sphendosthlabus [the form in Greek writers], is extracted from the Russian Chronicles by M. Levesque (Hist, de Russie, torn, i p. 94-107). [Nestor, c. 32-36. S atoslav was bom in a.d. 942 (cp. Nestor, c. 27); his independent reign began about A.D. 965, in which year he made an expedition against the Khazars [ib. 32).] /
 * " Nestor, apud Levesque, Hist, de Russie, torn. i. p. 87. [This advice was