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The Historians' History of the World 07 [The History of the Later Roman Empire]
- Автор: Gutenberg
- Год: 1905
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: История
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Every step was exposed to insult and danger; the threats of the strangers were less painful than the taunts of the plebeians, with whom they were now levelled; nor did the exiles breathe in safety till their mournful pilgrimage was concluded at Selymbria, above forty miles from the capital. On their way they overtook the patriarch, without attendance, and almost without apparel, riding on an ass, and reduced to a state of apostolic poverty, which, had it been voluntary, might perhaps have been meritorious. In the meanwhile, his desolate churches were profaned by the licentiousness and party zeal of the Latins. After stripping the gems and pearls, they converted the chalices into drinking cups; their tables, on which they gamed and feasted, were covered with the pictures of Christ and the saints; and they trampled under foot the most venerable objects of the Christian worship. In the cathedral of St. Sophia, the ample veil of the sanctuary was rent asunder for the sake of the golden fringe; and the altar, a monument of art and riches, was broken in pieces and shared among the captors.
Their mules and horses were laden with the wrought silver and gilt carvings which they tore down from the doors and pulpit; and if the beasts stumbled under the burden, they were stabbed by their impatient drivers, and the holy pavement streamed with their impure blood. A prostitute was seated on the throne of the patriarch; and that daughter of Belial, as she is styled, sang and danced in the church, to ridicule the hymns and processions of the Orientals. Nor were the repositories of the royal dead secure from violation; in the church of the Apostles, the tombs of the emperors were rifled; and it is said, that after six centuries the corpse of Justinian was found without any sign of decay or putrefaction. In the streets the French and Flemings clothed themselves and their horses in painted robes and flowing head-dresses of linen; and the coarse intemperance of their feasts insulted the splendid sobriety of the East. To expose the arms of a people of scribes and scholars, they affected to display a pen, an inkhorn, and a sheet of paper, without discerning that the instruments of science and valour were useless in the hands of the modern Greeks.
Their reputation and their language encouraged them, however, to despise the ignorance, and to overlook the progress of the Latins. In the love of the arts, the national difference was still more obvious and real; the Greeks preserved with reverence the works of their ancestors, which they could not imitate; and, in the destruction of the statues of Constantinople, we are provoked to join in the complaints and invectives of the Byzantine historian. The brass statues were broken and melted by the unfeeling avarice of the crusaders; the cost and labour were consumed in a moment; the soul of genius evaporated in smoke; and the remnant of base metal was coined into money for the payment of the troops. Bronze is not the most durable of monuments; from the marble forms of Phidias and Praxiteles, the Latins might turn aside with stupid contempt; but unless they were crushed by some accidental injury, those useless stones stood secure on their pedestals. The most enlightened of the strangers, above the gross and sensual pursuits of their countrymen, more piously exercised the right of conquest in the search and seizure of the relics of the saints.h
FOOTNOTES
[64] Leo Diaconusb calls his murderers Germans, meaning doubtless Northmen.
[65] These numbers are given by Leo Diaconus.b Cedrenusc gives five thousand infantry and four thousand cavalry; Zonaras,d the same number. The proportion affords some insight into the constitution of Byzantine armies at this period of military glory. The cavalry served as the model for European chivalry, but the sword of the legionary could still gain a battle.
[66] Leo Diaconusb calls the larger vessels triremes, though they certainly had not more than two tiers of oars.
[67] The Russians then wore armour similar to that worn by the Normans in western Europe at a later period, according to Leo Diaconus.b
[68] Leo Diaconus,b 171.
[69] Cruelty similar to that of Basil was perpetrated on a smaller scale by Richard Cœur-de-Lion, though of course it is not necessary to place strict reliance on the numbers reported by the Byzantine historians. Richard, to revenge the loss of a body of men, ordered three hundred French knights to be thrown into the Seine, and put out the eyes of fifteen, who were sent home blind, led by one whose right eye had been spared. Philip Augustus, nothing loath, revenged himself by treating fifteen English knights in the same way.—Putting out men’s eyes was, for several centuries, a common practice all over Europe, and not regarded with much horror. As late as the reign of Henry IV. 1403 A.D., an Act of Parliament was passed, making it felony for Englishmen to cut out one another’s tongues, or put out their neighbours’ eyes.
[70] [He was utterly defeated by the Saracens at Agaz in 1030; the fleets, however, won two victories.]
[71] [The Saracens attacked the empire on all sides, and Sicily was all but won by the general Maniaces. It was lost through the incapacity of Michael’s brother-in-law Stephen. In 1040 Servia regained her freedom, and the Slavonians and Bulgarians were driven to rebellion by the fiscal exactions of the eunuch Joannes called Orphanotrophus.]
[72] [It was merely an hereditary surname, according to Finlay.e]
[73] [Maniaces revolted, and proclaimed himself emperor. He was killed in the moment of victory by an arrow. Leo Tornicus, a relative of the emperor, besieged Constantinople but was repulsed. The imperial troops suffered defeats from the Servians, but repulsed the Russians and the Patzinaks. Armenia was conquered, 1045, and two invasions of Seljuk Turks beaten off.]
[74] “To contemporaries, this revolution presented nothing to distinguish it from the changes of sovereign, which had been an ordinary event in the Byzantine Empire, and which were ascribed by the wisest statesmen of the time to the decree of heaven, and not to the working of political and moral causes, which the will of God allows the intelligence of man to employ for effecting the improvement or decline of human affairs. Perhaps no man then living perceived that this event was destined to change the whole system of government, destroy the fabric of the central administration, deliver up the provinces of Asia an easy conquest to the Seljuk Turks, and the capital a prey to a band of crusaders.”e
[75] [In 1059 Isaac marched against the Hungarians and Patzinaks, who were ravaging the northern frontier, and the invaders were soon compelled to sue for peace. This is the only opportunity Isaac had of showing his military ability.]
[76] [Togrul Beg and Alp Arslan began their invasion from Mesopotamia in 1060; Avii was captured in 1064.]
[77] [The campaign of 1070 was conducted by Manuel Comnenus, but after Alp Arslan captured Manzicert Romanus returned to the command.]
[78] [The Turkish war was renewed in 1072 when Alp Arslan was unable to obtain payment of Romanus’ ransom. He finally conquered the Byzantine portion of Asia Minor and gave it to Suleiman to rule over. In 1076 Jerusalem fell before the Seljuks, and this event was the direct cause of the Crusades. Nor were these the only foreign troubles of the empire at this period. In 1073 the Bulgarians made a desperate attempt to regain their liberty.]