Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/231

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 200 clained the subordinate powers of a minister, and assumed, with RomanuB i. the titles of Caesar and Augustus, the full independence of^;^|j%, royalty, which he held near five and twenty years. His three sons, Christopher, Stephen, and Constantine, were successively Christopher adorned with the same honours, and the lawful emperor was stepiien, ' 1,, i/>pi 1 1-11 £■ Constantino degraded from the first to the nith rank m this college oi vin. [a.d. princes. Yet, in the preservation of his life and crown, he might still applaud his own fortune and the clemency of the usurper. The examples of ancient and modern history would have excused the ambition of Romanus ; the powers and the laws of the empire were in his hand; the spurious birth of Constantine would have justified his exclusion ; and the grave or the monastery was open to receive the son of the concubine. But Lecapenus does not appear to have possessed either the virtues or the vices of a tyrant. *^ The spirit and activity of his private life dissolved away in the sunshine of the throne ; and in his licentious pleasures he forgot the safety both of the republic and of his family. Of a mild and religious character, he respected the sanctity of oaths, the innocence of the youth, the memory of his parents, and the attachment of the people. The studious temper and retirement of Constantine disarmed the jealousy of power ; his books and music, his pen and his pencil, were a constant source of amusement ; and, if he could improve a scanty allowance by the sale of his pictures, if their price was not enhanced by the name of the artist, he was endowed with a pei'sonal talent which few princes could employ in the hour of adversity. The fall of Romanus was occasioned bv his own vices and constantine •^ Vn. A.D. 94[ those of his childi'en. After the decease of Christopher, his Jan. 27 eldest son, the two surviving brothers quarrelled with each ^^ [Both Gibbon and Finlay seem to have done some injustice to Romanus in representing him as weak. He showed strength in remorselessly carrying out his policy of founding a Lecapenian dynasty ; it was frustrated through an unexpected blow. In foreign politics and war, he was on the whole successful ; and he kept down the dangerous elements, within the empire, which threatened his throne. Of great interest and significance is his law of A.D. 935, by which he attempted to put a stop to the growth of the enormous estates, which, especially in Asia Minor, were gradually absorbing the small proprietors and ruining agriculture. These latifuruJia, which increased in spite of all legislation, were an economical evil, a political danger, and even injured the army, as the provision for soldiers largely consisted in inalienable lands, and these were swallowed up by the rich landed lords. See the novel of Romanus in Zacharia von Lingenthal, Jus Grseco- Romanum, iii. p. 242 sqq. ; and cp. the further legislation of Constantine vii. {ib. p. 252 sqq.), A.D. 947, who found that notwithstanding the prohibition of Romanus " the greater part of the magnates did not abstain from bargains most ruinous to the poor with whom they dealt ". Cp. Appendix 11.] VOL. V. 14