Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/155

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 135 their restoi'ation could discover no more than fifty vagrants, without women or children, who extorted a precarious subsist- ence from the chase. On classic ground, on the banks of the Achelous, the Greeks were defeated ; their horn was broken by [a.d. 917, the strength of the barbaric Hercules.^'-' He formed the siege of Constantinople ; and, in a personal conference with the em- peror, Simeon imposed the conditions of peace. They met with the most jealous precautions ; the royal galley was drawn close to an artificial and well-fortified platform ; and the majesty of the purple was emulated by the pomp of the Bulgarian. " Are you a Christian ? " said the humble Romanus. " It is your duty to abstain from the blood of your fellow-Christians. Has the thirst of riches seduced you from the blessings of peace ? Sheathe your sword, open your hand, and I will satiate the utmost mea- sure of your desires." The reconciliation was sealed by a domestic alliance ; ^° the freedom of trade was granted or restored ; the first honours of the court were secured to the friends of Bulgaria, above the ambassadors of enemies or strangers ; -^ and her princes 1^ — — Rigidum fera dextera cornu Dum tenet, infregit truncaque a fronte revellit. Ovid (Metamorph. ix. i-ioo) has boldly painted the combat of the river-god and the hero ; the native and the stranger. [The battle was fought near Anchialos in Bulgaria (Leo Diac. p. 124). There was a river named Achelous in the neighbour- hood (Theoph. Contin. p. 389; cp. Pseudo-Sym. Mag. p. 724), and the name misled Gibbon. Cp. Finlay, ii. p. 288 note.] -"[The peace was concluded after Simeon's death in A.D. 927. Th. Uspenski has published (in the Lietopis ist. phil. obschestva, of the Odessa University. Viz. Otd. ii. , 1894, p. 48 sqq. ) a curious jubilant sermon preached at Constantinople on the occasion of the conclusion of the peace. It presents great difficulties, owing to the allusiveness of its style, which has been ingeniously discussed by Uspenski, who isaempted to identify the anonymous author with Nicolaus Mysticus, the Patriarch, a correspondent of the Tsar Simeon. But chronology seems to exclude this supposition ; for Nicolaus died in 925 ; and, though the preliminaries to the peace may have occupied a considerable time, the sermon must have been composed after the death of Simeon in 927 (as M. Uspenski seems to forget in his concluding remarks, p. 123).] -1 The ambassador of Otho was provoked by the Greek excesses, cum Christo- phori filiam Petrus Bulgarorum Vasileus conjugem duceret, Symphona, id est consonantia, scripto [«/. consonantia scripta] , juramento firmata sunt, ut omnium gentium Aposfolis, id est nunciis, penes nos Bulgarorum Apostoli prasponantur^ honorentur, diligantur (Liutprand in Legatione, p. 482 [c. 19]). See the Cere- moniale of Constantine of Porphyrogenitus, torn. i. p. 82 [c. 24, p. 139, ed. Bonn], tom. ii. p. 429, 430, 434, 435, 443, 444, 446, 447 [c. 52, p. 740, 742, 743, 749, 751, 767, 771, 772, 773], with the annotations of Reiske. [Bulgarian rulers before Simeon were content with the title Kn^z. Simeon first assumed the title tsar (from /scsar, /i'j(7r/=Caesar). It may have been remembered that Terbel had been made a Caesar by Justinian II. (Nicephorus, p. 42, ed. de Boor). The Archbishopric of Bulgaria was raised to the dignity of a Patriarchate. Simeon's residence was fireat Peristhlava: .see below, p. i6o, note 90.}