Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/41

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 19 was impatient to remit the arrears of the past, or the demands of future taxes ; he sternly rejected the servile offerings of his ministers, which were compensated by tenfold oppression ; and the wise and equitable laws of Tiberius excited the praise and regret of succeeding times. Constantinople believed that the emperor had discovered a treasure ; but his genuine treasure consisted in the practice of liberal economy and the contempt of all vain and superfluous expense. "^^ The Romans of the East would have been happy, if the best gift of heaven, a patriot king, had been confirmed as a proper and permanent blessing. But in less than four years after the death of Justin, his worthy successor sunk into a mortal disease, which left him only sufficient time to restore the diadem, according to the tenure by which he held it, to the most deserving of his feilow-citi/ens. He selected Maurice from the crowd, a judgment more precious than the purple itself ; the })atriarch and senate were summoned to the bed of the dying prince ; he bestowed his daughter and the empire ; and his last advice was solemnly delivered by the voice of the quaestor. Tiberius expressed his hope that the virtues of his son and successor would erect the noblest mau- soleum to his memory. His memory was embalmed by the public affliction ; but the most sincere grief evaporates in the tumult of a new reign, and the eyes and acclamations of man- kind were speedily directed to the rising sun. The emperor Maurice derived his origin from ancient Home ; '^* The reign or but his immediate parents were settled at Arabissus in Cappa- 582. Aug. 13- docia, and their singular felicity pi'eserved them alive to behold 27 ' ' and partake the fortune of their aiigusl son. The youth of Maurice was spent in the profession of arms ; Tiberius promoted him to the command of a new and favourite legion of twelve thousand confederates ; ^ his valour and conduct were signalised in the Persian war ; and he returned to Constantinople to ac- cept, as his just reward, the inheritance of the empire. Maurice '•^ [This praise is not deserved. On the contrary, the capital fault of Tiberius as an administrator was his reckless expenditure ; for which his successor, Maurice, suffered.] ■"'It is therefore singular enough that Paul (1. iii. c. 15) should distinguish him as the first Greek emperor — primus ex Graecorum genere in Imperio constitutus [/i?f., confirmatus est]. His inmiediate predecessors had indeed been born in the Latin provinces of Europe; and a arious reading, in Grrpcorum Imperio, wotild apply tlio expression to the em]iiri- rather than the prince. "[^Fifhrii i/iousand, Theophanes, ..M. 6074 (Zonaras says 12,000). It was a corps of foreign slaves (avopao-ai o-iu/iaT.i eOvLKujv). Finlay compares it to the Janissaries. Maurice held the post of Count of the Fojderati, when Tiberius committed to him the conmiand of the new corps.]