of Basil; and in the imperfect narrative of his ex- c H A P. ploits, we can only discern the courage, patience, XLVIII. and ferociousness of a soldier. A vicious education, which could not subdue his spirit, had clouded his mind; he was ignorant of every science; and the remembrance of his learned and feeble grandsire might encourage a real or affected contempt of laws and lawyers, of artists and arts. Of such a character, in such an age, superstition took a firm and lasting possession; after the first licence of his youth, Basil the second devoted his life, in the palace and the camp, to the penance of an hermit, wore the monastic habit under his robes and armour, observed a vow of continence, and imposed on his appetites a perpetual abstinence from wine and flesh. In the sixty-eighth year of his age, his martial spirit urged him to embark in person for a holy war against the Saracens of Sicily; he was prevented by death, and Basil, surnamed the Slayer of the Bulgarians, was dismissed from the world, with the blessings of the clergy and the curses of the people. After his decease, his bro- Constanther Constantine enjoyed, about three years, the tine IX. power, or rather the pleasures, of royalty; and his 1025. Deonly care was the settlement of the succession. cember. He had enjoyed, sixty-six years, the title of Augustus; and the reign of the two brothers is the longest, and most obscure of the Byzantine history.

A. D.

gyrus,

1028.

A lineal succession of five emperors, in a period Romanus of one hundred and sixty years, had attached the III. Arloyalty of the Greeks to the Macedonian dynasty, A. D. which had been thrice respected by the usurpers Nov. 12, of their power. After the death of Constantine F 3

IX.

CHA P. IX. the last male of the royal race, a new and XLVIII. broken scene presents itself, and the accumulated

years of twelve emperors do not equal the space of his single reign. His elder brother had preferred his private chastity to the public interest, and Constantine himself had only three daughters; Eudocia, who took the veil, and Zoe and Theodora, who were preserved till a mature age in a state of ignorance and virginity. When their marriage was discussed in council of their dying father, the cold or pious Theodora refused to give an heir to the empire, but her sister Zoe presented herself a willing victim at the altar. Romanus Argyrus, a patrician of a graceful person and fair reputation, was chosen for her husband, and, on his declining that honour, was informed, that blindness or death was the second alternative. The motive of his reluctance was conjugal affection, but his faithful wife sacrificed her own happiness to his safety and greatness; and her entrance into a monastery removed the only bar to the Imperial nuptials. After the decease of Constantine, the sceptre devolved to Romanus the third; but his labours at home and abroad were equally feeble and fruitless; and the mature age, the forty-eight years of Zoe, were less favourable to the hopes of pregnancy than to the indulgence of pleasure. Her favourite chamberlain was an handsome Paphlagonian of the name of Michael, whose first trade had been that of a money-changer; and Romanus, either from gratitude or equity, connived at their criminal intercourse, or accepted a slight assurance of their innocence. But Zoe soon justified the Roman

IV. the

A. D.

Roman maxim, that every adultress is capable of c h a p. poisoning her husband; and the death of Roma- XLVIII. nus was instantly followed by the scandalous marriage and elevation of Michael the fourth. The Michael expectations of Zoe were however disappointed: PaphlagoInstead of a vigorous and grateful lover, she had nian, placed in her bed, a miserable wretch, whose health 1034. and reason were impaired by epileptic fits, and April 11. whose conscience was tormented by despair and remorse. The most skilful physicians of the mind and body were summoned to his aid; and his hopes were amused by frequent pilgrimages to the baths, and to the tombs of the most popular saints; the monks applauded his penance, and, except restitution, (but to whom should he have restored?) Michael sought every method of expiating his guilt. While he groaned and prayed in sackcloth and ashes, his brother, the eunuch John, smiled at his remorse, and enjoyed the harvest of a crime of which himself was the secret and most guilty author. His administration was only the art of satiating his avarice, and Zoe became a captive in the palace of her fathers and in the hands of her slaves. When he perceived the irretrievable decline of his brother's health, he introduced his nephew, another Michael, who derived his surname of Calaphates from his father's occupation in the careening of vessels: At the command of the eunuch, Zoe adopted for her son, the son of a mechanic; and this fictitious heir was invested with the title and purple of the Cæsars, in the presence of the senate and clergy. So feeble was the character of Zoe, that she was oppressed

F 4

Michael

phates,

A. D. 1041,

Dec. 14.

CHA P. pressed by the liberty and power which she recoverXLVIII. ed by the death of the Paphlagonian; and at the end of four days, she placed the crown on the head of Michael the fifth, who had protested, with tears V. Cla- and oaths, that he should ever reign the first and most obedient of her subjects. The only act of his short reign was his base ingratitude to his benefactors, the eunuch and the empress. The disgrace of the former was pleasing to the public; but the murmurs, and at length the clamours, of Constantinople, deplored the exile of Zoe, the daughter of so many emperors; her vices were forgotten, and Michael was taught, that there is a period in which the patience of the tamest slaves rises into fury and revenge. The citizens of every degree assembled in a formidable tumult, which lasted three days; they besieged the palace, forced the gates, recalled their mothers, Zoe from her The dora, prison, Theodora from her monastery, and condemned the son of Calaphates to the loss of his eyes or of his life. For the first time, the Greeks beheld with surprise the two royal sisters seated on the same throne, presiding in the senate, and giving audience to the ambassadors of the nations. But this singular union subsisted no more than two months; the two sovereigns, their tempers, interests, and adherents, were secretly hostile to each other; and as Theodora was still adverse to marriage, the indefatigable Zoe, at the age of sixty, consented, for the public good to sustain the embraces of a third husband, and the censures of the Greek church. His name and numMonoma- ber were Constantine the tenth, and the epithet

Zoe and

A. D. 1042, April 21.

Constantine and

chus.

of

A. D.

of Monomachus, the single combatant, must have c H A P. been expressive of his valour and victory in some XLVIII. public or private quarrel. But his health was bro ken by the tortures of the gout, and his dissolute 1042, reign was spent in the alternative of sickness and June 11. pleasure. A fair and noble widow had accompanied Constantine in his exile to the isle of Lesbos, and Sclerena gloried in the appellation of his mistress. After his marriage and elevation, she was invested with the title and pomp of Augusta, and occupied a contiguous apartment in the palace. The lawful consort (such was the delicacy or corruption of Zoe) consented to this strange and scandalous partition; and the emperor appeared in public between his wife and his concubine. He survived them both; but the last measures of Constantine to change the order of succession were prevented by the more vigilant friends of Theodora; and af- Theodora, ter his decease, she resumed, with the general con- 1054, sent, the possession of her inheritance. In her name, Nov. 30, and by the influence of four eunuchs, the Eastern world was peaceably governed about nineteen months; and as they wished to prolong their dominion, they persuaded the aged princess to nominate for her successor Michael the sixth. The surname of Stratioticus declares his military pro- Michael fession; but the crazy and decrepit veteran could VI. Straonly see with the eyes, and execute with the hands, A. D. of his ministers. Whilst he ascended the throne, 1056, Theodora sunk into the grave; the last of the Macedonian or Basilian dynasty. I have hastily reviewed, and gladly dismiss this shameful and destructive period of twenty-eight years, in which

A. D.

tioticus,

Aug. 22.

the