Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/83

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 61 the inhumanity or avai'ict; ""- of a priiic^i who, by the trifling [a.d.60o] ransom of six thousand pieces of gold, might have prevented the massacre of twelve thousand prisoners in the hands of the chagan. In the just fervour of indignation, an order was signi-and rebellion fied to the army of the Daimbe that they should spare the niagazines of the province and establish their winter quarters in [a.d. 6012] the hostile country of the Avars. The measure of their griev- ances was full : they pronounced Maurice unworthy to reign, expelled or slaughtered his faithful adherents, and under the command of Phocas, a simple centurion, returned by hasty marches to the neiffhbourhood of Constantinople. After a lonar Election of 10 Phocas A D series of legal succession, the military disorders of the third 602, October ' century were again revived ; yet such was the novelty of the enterprise that the insurgents were awed by their own rashness. They hesitated to invest their favourite with the vacant purjile,'-^ and, while they rejected all treaty with Maurice himself, they held a friendly correspondence with his son Theodosius and with Germanus the father-in-law of the royal youth. So obscure had been the former condition of Phocas that the emperor was ignorant of the name and character of his rival ; but, as soon as he learned that the centurion, though bold in sedition, was timid in the face of danger, "Alas!" cried the despondi)ig prince, "if he is a coward, he will surely be a murderer ". Yet, if Constantinople had been firm and faithful the murderer Revolt of might have spent his fury against the walls ; and the rebel nopie army would have been gradually consumed or reconciled by the prudence of the emperor. In the games of the circus, which he repeated with unusual pomp, Maurice disguised with smiles of confidence the anxiety of liis heart, condescended to solicit the applause of the faclioii.s-, and flattered their pride by accepting from their respective tribunes a list of nine hundred blue.'! and ^'^ Theophylact and Theophanes seem ignorant of the conspiracy and avarice of Maurice. (The refusal to ransom the captives is mentioned by Theophanes, p. 280, 1. 5-11 (ed. de Boor) ; and also the conspiracy, p. 279, 1. 32. See also John of Antioch, fr. 218 b, in F. H. G. v. p. 35.] These charges, so unfavourable to the memory of that emperor, are first mentioned by the author of the Paschal Chron- icle (p. 379, 380 Tp. 694, ed. Bonn]) ; from whence Zonaras (tom. ii. 1. xiv. p. 77, 7S [c. 13]) has transcribed them. Cedrenus (p. 399 [i. p. 700, ed. Bonn]) has followed another computation of the ransom. [Kinlay thinks that many of the prisoners were deserters.] '■' [It seems quite clear that originally there was no idea of elevating Phocas (e.xcept in his own mind) ; he was cliosen simply as leader. The idea of the army was to supersede Maurice by Germanus or Theodosius. The conduct of Germanus is .somewhat ambiguous throughout. The narrative is given in greater detail in Bury, Later Roman Empire, ii. 86-92.]