305 



they be mighty men; and they be chafed in their minds, as a bear 

 robbed of her whelps. Therefore I counsel thee that all Israel be 

 gathered unto thee, from Dan even unto Beersheba, as the sand 

 that is by the sea for multitude: and we will light upon him as 

 the dew falleth upon the ground. Moreover, if he be gotten into 

 a city, then shall all Israel bring ropes into that city; and we 

 will draw it into the river, until there be not one stone found 

 there." 



Such adulation has always been practised in Asia; and was 

 carried to the most arrogant height by the Roman emperors of 

 the East, even after their conversion to Christianity. Gibbon 

 says, " the most lofty titles, and the most humble postures which 

 devotion has applied to the Supreme Being, have been prostituted 

 by flattery and fear to creatures of the same nature with ourselves. 

 The mode of adoration, of falling prostrate on the ground, and 

 kissing the feet of the emperor, was borrowed from Persian servi- 

 tude; but it was continued and aggravated till the last age of the 

 Greek monarchy. This humiliating reverence was exacted from 

 all who entered the royal presence, from the princes invested with 

 the diadem and purple, and from the ambassadors who repre- 

 sented their independent sovereigns, the caliphs of Asia, Egypt, 

 or Spain, the kings of France and Italy, and the Latin emperors 

 of ancient Rome. Liutprand, ambassador from Otho, thus de- 

 scribes his own introduction. " When he approached the throne, 

 the birds of the golden tree began to warble their notes, which 

 were accompanied by the roarings of two lions of gold; with his 

 two companions, Liutprand was compelled to bow and to fall 

 prostrate; and thrice he touched the ground with his forehead. 



VOL. III. 2 R 



