CHA P. Attila. The example of her warlike youth was XLVI. propagated to succeeding generations; and they obtained, from the first or the second Justin, an honourable privilege, that their valour should be always reserved for the defence of their native country. The brother of Maurice attempted to violate this privilege, and to mingle a patriot band with the mercenaries of his camp; they retired to the church, he was not awed by the sanctity of the place; the people rose in their cause, the gates were shut, the ramparts were manned; and the cowardice of Peter was found equal to his arrogance and injustice. The military fame of Commentiolus is the object of satire or comedy rather than of serious history, since he was even deficient in the vile and vulgar qualification of personal courage. His solemn councils, strange evolutions, and secret orders, always supplied an apology for flight or delay. If he marched against the enemy, the pleasant vallies of mount Hæmus opposed an insuperable barrier; but in his retreat, he explored, with fearless curiosity, the most difficult and obsolete paths, which had almost escaped the memory of the oldest native. The only blood which he lost was drawn, in a real or affected malady, by the lancet of a surgeon; and his health, which felt with exquisite sensibility the approach of the Barbarians, was uniformly restored by the repose and safety of the winter season. A prince who could promote and support this unworthy favourite must derive See the shameful conduct of Commentiolus, in Theophy fact, 1. ii. c. 10-15. l. vii. c. 13, 14. l. viii. c. 2. 4. derive no glory from the accidental merit of his CHA P. colleague Priscus *. In five successive battles, XLVI. which seem to have been conducted with skill and resolution, seventeen thousand two hundred Barbarians were made prisoners: near sixty thousand, with four sons of the chagan, were slain the Roman general surprised a peaceful district of the Gepidæ, who slept under the protection of the Avars; and his last trophies were erected on the banks of the Danube and the Tey ss. Since the death of Trajan, the arms of the empire had not penetrated so deeply into the old Dacia: yet the success of Priscus was transient and barren; and he was soon recalled by the apprehension, that Baian, with dauntless spirit and recruited forces, was preparing to avenge his defeat under the walls of Constantinople t. State of armies. The theory of war was not more familiar to the camps of Cæsar and Trajan, than to those of Justi- the Roman nian and Maurice ‡. The iron of Tuscany or Pontus still received the keenest temper from the skill of the Byzantine workmen. The magazines were See the exploits of Priscus, 1. viii. c. 2, 3. The general detail of the war against the Avars, may be traced in the first, second, sixth, seventh, and eighth books of the History of the emperor Maurice, by Theophylact SimoAs he wrote in the reign of Heraclius, he had no temptation to flatter; but his want of judgment renders him diffuse in trifles and concise in the most interesting facts. catta. Maurice himself composed xii bocks on the military art, which are still extant, and have been published (Upsal, 1664) by John Scheffer at the end of the Tactics of Arrian (Fabricius Bibliot. Græca, 1. iv. c. 8. tom. iii. p. 278.), who promises to speak more fully of his work in its proper place. CHA P. were plentifully stored with every species of offensive XLVI. and defensive arms. In the construction and use of ships, engines, and fortifications, the Barbarians admired the superior ingenuity of a people whom they so often vanquished in the field. The science of tactics, the order, evolutions, and stratagems of antiquity, was transcribed and studied in the books of the Greeks and Romans. But the solitude or degeneracy of the provinces could on longer supply a race of men to handle those weapons, to guard those walls, to navigate those ships, and to reduce the theory of war into bold and successful practice. The genius of Belisarius and Narses had been formed without a master, and expired without a disciple. Neither honour, nor patriotism, nor generous superstition, could animate the lifeless bodies of slaves and strangers, who had succeeded to the honours of the legions: it was in the camp alone that the emperor should have exercised a despotic command; it was only in the camps that his authority was disobeyed and insulted; he appeased and inflamed with gold the licentiousness of the troops; but their vices were inherent, their victories were accidental, and their costly maintenance exhausted the substance of a state which they were unable to defend. After a long and pernicious indulgence, the cure of this inveterate evil was undertaken by Maurice; but the rash attempt, which drew destruction on his own head, tended only to aggravate the disease. A reformer should be exempt from the suspicion of interest, and he must possess the confidence and esteem of those whom he proposes to reclaim. The troops Their dis troops of Maurice might listen to the voice of a CHA P. victorious leader; they disdained the admonitions XLVI. of statesmen and sophists, and when they received an edict which deducted from their pay the price of content. their arms and clothing, they execrated the avarice of a prince insensible of the dangers and fatigues from which he had escaped. The camps both of Asia and Europe were agitated with frequent and furious seditions *; the enraged soldiers of Edessa pursued, with reproaches, with threats, with wounds, their trembling generals: they overturned the statues of the emperor, cast stones against the miraculous image of Christ, and either rejected the yoke of all civil and military laws, or instituted a dangerous model of voluntary subordination. The monarch, always distant and often deceived, was incapable of yielding or persisting according to the exigence of the moment. But the fear of a general revolt induced him too readily to accept any act of valour, or any expression of loyalty, as an atonement for the popular offence; the new reform was abolished as hastily as it had been announced, and the troops, instead of punishment and restraint, were agreeably surprised by a gracious proclamation of immunities and rewards. But the soldiers accepted without gratitude the tardy and reluctant gifts of the emperor; their insolence was elated by the discovery of his weakness and their own strength; and their mutual hatred was inflamed beyond the desire of forgiveness or the hope * See the mutinies under the reign of Maurice, in Theophyfact, l. iii. c. 1-4. 1. vi. c. 7, 8. 10. 1. vii. c. 1. 1. viii. c. 6, &c. And rebeltion. CHA P. hope of reconciliation. The historians of the times XLVI. adopt the vulgar suspicion, that Maurice conspired. to destroy the troops whom he had laboured to reform; the misconduct and favour of Commentiolus are imputed to this malevolent design; and every age must condemn the inhumanity or avarice of a prince, who, by the trifling ransom of six thousand pieces of gold, might have prevented the massacre of twelve thousand prisoners in the hands of the chagan. In the just fervour of indignation, an order was signified to the army of the Danube, that they should spare the magazines of the province, and establish their winter-quarters in the hostile country of the Avars. The measure of their grievances was full; they pronounced Maurice unworthy to reign, expelled or slaughtered his faithful adherents, and under the command of Phocas, a simple centurion, returned by hasty marches to the neighbourhood of Constantinople. Election of After a long series of legal succession, the military disorders of the third century were again revived; yet such was the novelty of the enterprise, that the insurgents were awed by their own rashness. They hesitated to invest their favourite with the vacant purple, and while they rejected all treaty with Maurice himself, they held a friendly correspondence with his son Theodosius, and with Germanus Phocas, A. D. 602, the Theophylact and Theophanes seem ignorant of the conspiracy and avarice of Maurice. These charges, so unfavour able to the memory of that emperor, are first mentioned by the author of the Paschal Chronicle (p. 379, 380.); from whence Zonaras tom. ii. 1. xiv. p. 77, 78.) has transcribed them. Cedrenus (p. 399). has followed another computation of the ransom |