Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/267

 *









reign of Justinian was equally distinguished by his conquests and by his laws, to the maritime portion of which we have already referred. In his reign, the empire of the Vandals in Africa was overthrown, and the kingdom of the Ostro-Goths, in Italy, destroyed by Belisarius and Narses; while Rome was restored to the Romans, and the chief power placed in the hands of the descendants of its original population. In their hands it remained, generally, in a state of peace till, nearly two hundred years afterwards, it became independent under the rule of the Popes. But the expenses of the many public buildings Justinian erected—among which must be mentioned the great church (now the Mosque) of S^{ta.} Sophia—together with those incurred in his many wars, obliged him to impose several new and vexatious imposts on his people. Beyond a supply of corn, free of cost, for the use of the army and capital, he levied heavy customs' dues on all vessels and merchandise passing the Bosphorus and Hellespont, which had hitherto been open to the freedom of trade.
 * ported by eminent lawyers, the thirty-eight years'

Happily for the people, the empire of the East possessed vast natural advantages, which, in some measure, counteracted the injurious effects of heavy taxation. Blessed by nature with superior soil, situation, and climate, her people could bear burdens which would have ruined the inhabitants of countries less favourably situated. Embracing the nations Rome had conquered, from the Adriatic to the frontiers of Æthiopia and Persia, the capital of the East had the means within herself, in spite of tariffs, apparently ruinous, of creating and maintaining an extensive