The Dark Ages. David Hume

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СКАЧАТЬ of all peoples and all provinces. Dated 15 February at Constantinople (438).84 The code of Theodosius was superseded at the end of a hundred years by the Code of Justinian, and to the jurist it is less indispensable than to the historian. The historian must always remember with gratitude the name of Theodosius and that of Antiochus, if we may credit this minister with having originated the idea of the work. For the full record of legislation which it preserves furnishes clear and authentic information on the social conditions of the Empire, without which our other historical sources would present many insoluble problems.85

      The last ten years of the reign were unfortunate. The Illyrian provinces suffered terribly from the depredations of the Huns, and the payments which a weak government made to buy off the invaders depleted the treasury.86 The eunuch Chrysaphius, having succeeded in removing from the Palace the rival influences of the Emperor’s wife and sister, completely swayed the mind of his sovran and seems to have controlled the policy of the government. It is said, and we can easily believe it, that Theodosius at this time was in the habit of signing state papers without reading them.87

      The power of Chrysaphius remained unshaken88 until a few months before the Emperor’s death, when he fell out of favour and the influence of Pulcheria again re-asserted itself.89 Theodosius died on July 28, A.D. 450, of a spinal injury caused by a fall from his horse.90

      § 6. The Reign of Marcian (A.D. 450-457)

      As Theodosius had no male issue and had not co-opted a colleague, the government of the eastern half of the Empire ought automatically to have devolved upon his cousin and western colleague Valentinian III. But this devolution would not have pleased Theodosius himself, and would not have been tolerated by his subjects. And we are told that on his death-bed Theodosius indicated a successor. Among the senators who were present on that occasion were Aspar, Master of Soldiers, and Marcian, a distinguished officer who had served as Aspar’s aide-de-camp in more than one campaign. The Emperor said to Marcian, “It has been revealed to me that you will reign after me.”91 We may conjecture that this choice had been arranged beforehand by Pulcheria and her brother. For Pulcheria agreed to become the nominal wife of Marcian, and thus the Theodosian dynasty was formally preserved.92

      Marcian was crowned in the Hebdomon by the Empress (August 25),93 and it is possible that on this occasion the Patriarch Anatolius took part in the coronation ceremony.94 The first act of the new reign was the execution of Chrysaphius,95 and it is worthy of notice that Chrysaphius had favoured the Green faction of the Circus, and that Marcian patronised the Blues. His reign was a period of calm, all the more striking when it is contrasted with the storms which accompanied the dismemberment of the Empire in the west. In later times it was looked back to as a golden age.96 The domestic policy of Marcian was marked by financial economy, which was the more necessary, as during the last years of his predecessor the treasury was emptied by the large sums which were paid to the Huns.

      Marcian refused to pay this tribute any longer, and at his death he left a well-filled treasury.97 He accomplished this, not by imposing new burdens on the people, but by wisely regulating his expenditure. He alleviated the pressure of taxes so far as Roman fiscal principles would permit. He assisted his subjects from the exchequer when any unwonted calamity befell them. One of his first acts was a remission of arrears of taxation.98 He confined the burdensome office of the praetorship to senators resident in the capital.99 He decreed that the consuls instead of distributing money to the populace should contribute to keeping the city aqueduct in repair.100 He attempted to put an end to the system of selling administrative offices.101 Perhaps the act which gave most satisfaction to the higher classes was the abolition of the follis, the tax of seven pounds on the property of senators.102

      One of his enactments may perhaps be regarded as characteristic. Constantine the Great, in order to preserve the purity of the senatorial class, had declared illegal the marriage of a senator with a slave, a freed woman, an actress, or a woman of no social status (humilis). Marcian ruled that this law should not bar marriage with a respectable free woman, however poor, or however lowly her birth might be, and professed to believe that Constantine himself would have approved of this interpretation.103 The Emperor’s most confidential minister was Euphemius, the Master of Offices, whose advice he constantly followed.104 While Marcian was not engaged in hostilities with any great power, there were slight troubles in Syria with the Saracens of the desert, and there was warfare on the southern frontier of Egypt. Since the reign of Diocletian Upper Egypt had been exposed to incursions of the Blemyes and the Nobadae. For the purposes of strengthening the defences of the frontier Theodosius II divided the province of Thebais into two (upper and lower), and united the civil and the military administration of the upper province in the same hands.105 At the beginning of Marcian’s reign Florus held this post and distinguished himself by driving the barbarians who were again annoying the province back into the desert.106 The Blemyes expressed a desire to conclude a definite treaty with the Empire and for this purpose they sent ambassadors to Maximin, who seems to have been Master of Soldiers in the East. Terms were arranged, and it was conceded to the Blemyes that they might at stated times visit Philae in order to worship in the temple of Isis, in which the policy of the Emperors still suffered the celebration of old pagan rites. But we are told that when Maximin soon afterwards died the predatory tribes renewed their raids.

      The act for which the reign of Marcian is best remembered by posterity is the assembling of the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon. The decisions of this council gave deep satisfaction to the Emperor and Empress; they could not foresee the political troubles to which it was to lead. Pulcheria died in A.D. 453.107 By a life spent in pious and charitable works she had earned the eulogies of the Church, and she left all her possessions to the poor. Among the churches which claimed her as foundress may be mentioned three dedicated to the Mother of God. One was known as the church of Theotokos in Chalkoprateia,108 so called from its situation in the quarter of the bronze merchants, not far from St. Sophia. The church of Theotokos Hodegetria,109 Our Lady who leads to victory, which she built on the eastern shore of the city under the first hill, was sanctified by an icon of the Virgin which her sister-in-law sent her from Jerusalem. More famous than either of these was the church which she founded shortly before her death at Blachernae. This sanctuary was deemed worthy to possess a robe of the Virgin, brought from Jerusalem in the reign of Marcian’s successor, who built a special chapel to receive it.110 In later days the people of Constantinople put their trust in this precious relic as a sort of palladium to protect their city.

      Marcian died in the first month of A.D. 457,111 and with him the Theodosian dynasty, to which through his marriage he belonged, ceased to reign at New Rome.

CHAPTER VIII: THE DISMEMBERMENT OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST

      § 1. Regency of the Empress Placidia. The Defence of Gaul (A.D. 425-430)

      DURING the first twelve years of the reign of Valentinian, the Empress Placidia ruled the West, and her authority was not threatened or contested. Unbroken concord with her nephew Theodosius, who considered himself responsible for the throne of his young relative, was a decisive fact in the political situation and undoubtedly contributed to her security. The internal difficulties of her administration were caused by the rivalries of candidates not for the purple but for the Mastership of Both Services, the post which gave its holder, if he knew how to take advantage of it, the real political power.

      The man whom Placidia chose to fill the supreme military command was Felix, of whose character and capacities we know nothing. He remained in power for about four years (A.D. 425-429),1 and, so far as we know, did not leave Italy. He did not attempt to play the active and prominent СКАЧАТЬ