XLVI. Germanus the father-in-law of the royal youth. CHAP. So obscure had been the former condition of Phocas, that the emperor was ignorant of the name and character of his rival: but as soon as he learned, that the centurion, though bold in sedition, was timid in the face of danger, "Alas!" cried the desponding prince, "if he is a coward, he will "surely be a murderer." Constan Yet if Constantinople had been firm and faith- Revolt of ful, the murderer might have spent his fury against tinople. the walls; and the rebel army would have been gradually consumed or reconciled by the prudence of the emperor. In the games of the Circus, which he repeated with unusual pomp, Maurice disguised, with smiles of confidence, the anxiety of his heart, condescended to solicit the applause of the factions, and flattered their pride by accepting from their respective tribunes a list of nine hundred blues and fifteen hundred greens, whom he affected' to esteem as the solid pillars of his throne. Their treacherous or languid support betrayed his weakness and hastened his fall: the green faction were the secret accomplices of the rebels, and the blues recommended lenity and moderation in a contest with their Roman brethren. The rigid and parsimonious virtues of Maurice had long since alienated the hearts of his subjects: as he walked barefoot in a religious procession, he was rudely assaulted with stones, and his guards were compelled to present their iron maces in the defence of his person. A fanatic monk ran through the streets with a drawn sword, denouncing against him the wrath and the sentence of God, and a vile plebeian, who XLVI. CHAP. represented his countenance and apparel, was seated on an ass, and pursued by the imprecations of the multitude. The emperor suspected the popularity of Germanus with the soldiers and citizens; he feared, he threatened, but he delayed to strike; the patrician fled to the sanctuary of the church; the people rose in his defence, the walls were desérted by the guards, and the lawless city was abandoned to the flames and rapine of a nocturnal tumult. In a small bark, the unfortunate Maurice, with his wife and nine children, escaped to the Asiatic shore, but the violence of the wind compelled him to land at the church of St. Autonomus* near Chalcedon, from whence he dispatched Theodosius, his eldest son, to implore the gratitude and friendship of the Persian monarch. For himself, he refused to fly: his body was tortured with sciatic pains, his mind was enfeebled by super 43 In their clamours against Maurice, the people of Constanti nople branded him with the name of Marcionite or Marcionist: a heresy (says Theophylact, 1. viii. c. 9.) μετα τινος μωρας ευλαβείας, ευήθης τε και καταγέλαςος. Did they only cast out a vague réproach -or had the emperor really listened to some obscure teacher of those ancient Gnostics? 44 The church of St. Autonomus (whom I have not the honour to know) was 150 stadia from Constantinople (Theophylact, l. viii. c. 9.). The port of Eutropius, where Maurice and his children were murdered, is described by Gyllius (de Bosphoro Thracio, 1. iii. c. xi.) as one of the two harbours of Chalcedon. 45 The inhabitants of Constantinople were generally subject to the voσo apoentides; and Theophylact insinuates (1. viii. c. 9.), that if it were consistent with the rules of history, he could assign the medical cause. Yet such a digression would not have been more impertinent than his inquiry (1. vii. c. 16, 17.) into the annual inundations of the Nile, and all the opinions of the Greek philosophers on that subject. XLVI. stition; he patiently awaited the event of the CHAP. revolution, and addressed a fervent and public prayer to the Almighty, that the punishment of his sins might be inflicted in this world rather than in a future life. After the abdication of Maurice, the two factions disputed the choice of an emperor; but the favourite of the blues was rejected by the jealousy of their antagonists, and Germanus himself was hurried along by the crowds, who rushed to the palace of Hebdomon, seven miles from the city, to adore the majesty of Phocas the centurion. A modest wish of resigning the purple to the rank and merit of Germanus was opposed by his resolution, more obstinate and equally sincere: the senate and clergy obeyed his summons, and as soon as the patriarch was assured of his orthodox belief, he consecrated the successful usurper in the church of St. John the Baptist. On the third day, amidst the acclamations of a thoughtless people, Phocas made his public entry in a chariot drawn by four white horses: the revolt of the troops was rewarded by a lavish donative, and the new sovereign, after visiting the palace, beheld from his throne the games of the hippodrome. In a dispute of precedency between the two factions, his partial judgment inclined in favour of the greens. "Remember that Maurice is still alive," resounded from the opposite side; and the indiscreet clamour of the blues admonished and stimulated the cruelty of the tyrant. The ministers of death were dispatched to Chalcedon: they dragged the emperor from his sanctuary: and the five sons of Maurice were successively murdered XLVI. Maurice and his A.D. 602, Nov. 27. CHAP. before the eyes of their agonizing parent. At each stroke, which he felt in his heart, he found Death of strength to rehearse a pious ejaculation: “Thou art just, O Lord! and thy judgments are righteous." children, And such, in the last moments, was his rigid attachment to truth and justice, that he revealed to the soldiers the pious falsehood of a nurse who presented her own child in the place of a royal infant. The tragic scene was finally closed by the execution of the emperor himself, in the twentieth year of his reign, and the sixty-third of his age. The bodies of the father and his five sons were cast into the sea, their heads were exposed at Constantinople to the insults or pity of the multitude, and it was not till some signs of putrefaction had appeared, that Phocas connived at the private burial of these venerable remains. In that grave, the faults and errors of Maurice were kindly interred. His fate alone was remem bered; and at the end of twenty years, in the recital of the history of Theophylact, the mournful tale was interrupted by the tears of the audience". Phocas Such tears must have flowed in secret, and such A.D. 602. compassion would have been criminal, under the emperor, Nov. 23 46 From this generous attempt, Corneille has deduced the intricate web of his tragedy of Heraclius, which requires more than one representation to be clearly understood (Corneille de Voltaire, tom. v. p. 300.); and which, after an interval of some years, is said to have puzzled the author himself (Anecdotes Dramatiques, tom. p. 422.). i. 47 The revolt of Phocas and death of Maurice are told by Theophylact Simocatta (l. viii. c. 7—12.), the Paschal Chronicle (p.379, 380.), Theophanes (Chronograph. p. 238-244.), Zonaras (tom. ii. 1. xiv. p. 77-80.), and Cedrenus (p. 399-404.). XLVI. October 4. reign of Phocas, who was peaceably acknowledged CHAP. in the provinces of the East and West. The images of the emperor and his wife Leontia were A.D.610, exposed in the Lateran to the veneration of the clergy and senate of Rome, and afterwards deposited in the palace of the Cæsars, between those of Constantine and Theodosius. As a subject and a Christian, it was the duty of Gregory to acquiesce in the established government, but the joyful applause with which he salutes the fortune of the assassin, has sullied, with indelible disgrace, the character of the saint. The successor of the apostles might have inculcated with decent firmness the guilt of blood, and the necessity of repentance: he is content to celebrate the deliverance of the people and the fall of the oppressor; to rejoice that the piety and benignity of Phocas have been raised by Providence to the Imperial throne; to pray that his hands may be strengthened against all his enemies; and to express a wish, perhaps a prophecy, that, after a long and triumphant reign, he may be transferred from a temporal to an everlasting kingdom. I have already traced the steps of a revolution so pleasing, in Gregory's opinion, both to heaven and earth; and Phocas docs not appear less hateful in the exercise than 48 Gregor. l. xi. epist. 38. indict. vi. Benignitatem vestræ pietatis ad Imperiale fastigium pervenisse gaudemus. Lætentur cœli et exultet terra, et de vestris benignis actibus universæ reipublicæ populus nunc usque vehementer afflictus hilarescat, &c. This base flattery, the topic of protestant invective, is justly censured by the philosopher Bayle (Dictionnaire Critique, Gregoire I. Not. H. tom. ii. p. 597, 598.). Cardinal Baronius justifies the pope at the expence of the fallen emperor. |