Page:1909historyofdec04gibbuoft.djvu/558

492 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xliv advocates and the experience of magistrates; and the whole Tribonian. undertaking was animated by the spirit of Tribonian. 73 This extraordinary man, the object of so much praise and censure, was a native of Side in Pamphylia; and his genius, like that of Bacon, embraced, as his own, all the business and knowledge of the age. Tribonian composed, both in prose and verse, on a strange diversity of curious and abstruse subjects : u a double panegyric of Justinian and the life of the philosopher Theo- dotus ; the nature of happiness and the duties of government ; Homer's catalogue and the four-and-twenty sorts of metre ; the astronomical canon of Ptolemy ; the changes of the months ; the houses of the planets ; and the harmonic system of the world. To the literature of Greece he added the use of the Latin tongue ; the Eoman civilians were deposited in his library and in his mind; and he most assiduously cultivated those arts which opened the road of wealth and preferment. From the bar of the praetorian praefects, he raised himself to the honours of quaestor, of consul, and of master of the offices; the council of Justinian listened to his eloquence and wisdom; and envy was mitigated by the gentleness and affability of his manners. The reproaches of impiety and avarice have stained the virtues or the reputation of Tribonian. In a bigoted and persecuting court, the principal minister was accused of a secret aversion to the Christian faith, and was supposed to entertain the senti- ments of an Atheist and a Pagan, which have been imputed, inconsistently enough, to the last philosophers of Greece. His avarice was more clearly proved and more sensibly felt. If he were swayed by gifts in the administration of justice, the example of Bacon will again occur; nor can the merit of Tribonian atone for his baseness, if he degraded the sanctity of his profession, and, if laws were every day enacted, modified, or repealed, for the base consideration of his private emolu- ment. In the sedition of Constantinople, his removal was granted to the clamours, perhaps to the just indignation, of 73 For the charaoter of Tribonian, see the testimonies of Procopius (Persic. 1. i. c. 23, 24. Anecdot. c. 13, 20) and Suidas (torn. iii. p. 501, edit. Kuster). Ludewig (in Vit. Justinian, p. 175-209) works hard, very hard, to white-wash — the blaok-a- moor. 74 I apply the two passages of Suidas to the same man ; every oircumstanoe so exaotly tallies. Yet the lawyers appear ignorant, and Fabricius is inclined to separate the two characters (Bibliot. Grrac. torn. i. p. 341, ii. p. 518, iii. p. 418, xii. p. 346, 353, 474).