Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/196

174 THE DECLINE AND FALL The emperor Heraclius had punished a tyrant and ascended his throne ; and the memory of his reign is perpetuated by the transient conquest, and irreparable loss, of the Eastern provinces. After the death of Eudocia, his first wife, he disobeyed the patriarch, and violated the laws, by his second marriage with his niece Martina ; and the superstition of the Greeks beheld the judgment of heaven in the diseases of the father and the deformity of his offspring.^ But the opinion of an illegitimate birth is sufficient to distract the choice, and loosen the obedi- ence, of the people ; the ambition of Martina was quickened by maternal love, and perhaps by the envy of a step-mother ; and the aged husband was too feeble to withstand the arts of conjugal allurements. Constantine, his eldest son, enjoyed in a mature age the title of Augustus ; but the weakness of his constitution required a colleague and a guardian, and he yielded with secret reluctance to the partition of the empire. The senate was summoned to the palace to ratify or attest the as- sociation of Heracleonas, the son of Martina ; ^ the imposition of the diadem was consecrated by the prayer and blessing of the patriarch ; the senators and patricians adored the majesty of the great emperor and the partners of his reign ; and, as soon as the doors were thrown open, they were hailed by the tumultuary but important voice of the soldiers. After an interval of five months, the pompous ceremonies which formed the essence of the Byzantine state were celebrated in the cathedral and hippodrome ; the concord of the royal brothers was affectedly displayed by the younger leaning on the arm of the elder ; and the name of Martina was mingled in the reluctant or venal acclamations of the people. Heraclius sur- vived this association about two years ; his last testimony de- clared his two sons the equal heirs of the Eastern empire, and commanded them to honour his widow Martina as their mother and their sovereign. When Martina first appeared on the throne with the name and attributes of royalty, she was checked by a firm, though respectful, opposition ; and the dying embers of freedom were kindled by the breath of superstitious prejudice. " We reve- 1 [The children of Heraclius were : (i) by Eudocia : Epiphania (called Eudocia by Nicephorus), born a.d. 6ii ; Constantine (or Heraclius the Small, see Theoph. sub A.M. 6103), A.D. 612-641 ; (2) by Martina : Heraclonas (or Heraclius) ; Augus- tina, Anastasia, David, Marinus or Martinus. Some other children by Martina, including her first-born Constantine, died young.] - [See Constantine Porphyrogennetus, De Cer., ii. 27, p. 627-8, ed. Bonn.]