ROME. 



For the Roman fenate, their magiftracy, confuls, fol- 

 diery, tribes, courts, names, weights, meafures, coins, and 

 other matters relating to the antiquities of that people, 

 their policy, religion, law, cuftoms, &c. fee the relpeftive 

 articles in this work. 



Of the Eajlcrn Empire. — The emperors who reigned in 

 the Eaft, previously to the ruin of the Weftern empire, 

 were Arcadius, Theodoiius II., of whom we have fpoken, 

 Marcian, who married Pulcheria, the filter of Theodofius, 

 and Leo the Thracian, who reigned 1 7 years, and died in 

 474. He was fucceeded by his grandfon, Leo, the boy 

 who died in his cradle. His father, Zeno, followed, who, 

 in 475, was driven from the throne by Bafilifcus, an 

 ufurper ; but in the following year lie recovered it. 



The period in which the emperors reigned fingly, after 

 the deftruftion of the Weftern empire, includes almoit a 

 thoufand years, extending from 476 to the year 1453 ; in 

 which year Conftantinople was taken by Mohammed II. 

 We (hall only notice fome of the moll celebrated, beginning 

 with Zeno, who, as we have juit obfi-rved, had been, after 

 a fhort rebellion, reftored to the throne. 



Augultulus, at the command of Odoacer, fignified his 

 refignation to the Mill exifting ailembly of the Weftern em- 

 pire ; and that aflembly, in their laft aft of obedience to 

 the Roman prince, ftill affefted the fpirit of freedom, and 

 the forms of the conititution. An epiltle was addrelfed to 

 Zeno, in which they folemnly difclaim the neceffity, or even 

 wifh, of continuing any longer the imperial fucceffion of 

 Italy; fince, they fay, that it is their opinion, the majefty 

 of a fole monarch is fufficient to pervade and proteft the 

 Eaft and the Weft. They, therefore, in their own name, 

 and in the name of the people, confent that the feat of uni- 

 verfal empire (hall be transferred from Rome to Conftan- 

 tinople : they renounce the right of choofing their mailer, 

 the only veftige that yet remained of the authority which 

 had given laws to the world ; and they add, that the re- 

 public might fafely be confided in the civil and military 

 virtues of Odoacer, and humbly requell that the emperor 

 Zeno would inveft him with the title of patrician, and the 

 adminiftration of the diocefe of Italy. The deputies of the 

 fenate were received at Conftantinople with fome marks of 

 difpleafure and indignation ; and when they were admitted 

 to the audience of Zeno, he at firft reproached them with 

 the ill ufage of fome of their emperors, particularly of An- 

 themius and Nepos. The firft, faid he, you have mur- 

 dered, and the fecond you have expelled ; but while he lives, 

 he is your lawful fovereign. Zeno, notwithftanding his 

 harangue, very foon abandoned the caufe of his abdicated 

 colleague. His vanity was gratified by the title of fole 

 emperor, and by the ftatues erefted to his honour in the 

 feveral quarters of Rome. He entertained a friendly cor- 

 refpondence with Odoacer ; and he gratefully accepted the 

 imperial enfigns, the facred ornaments of the throne and 

 palace, which the barbarian monarch was not unwilling to 

 remove from the fight of the people. Zeno died in the 

 year 495, and was faid to have been entombed while he was 

 in one of his drunken fits, and before he was dead. He 

 was fucceeded by 



Anaftafius I. who married Adriadne, Zeno's widow, and 

 by her influence was raifed to the throne. See Anastasius. 

 Juftin, of whom we have, in the alphabetical order, given 

 a full account, followed Anaftafius, and after a reign of 

 nine years he died, leaving his power to Justinian, fee his 

 article, who deftroyed the kingdom of the Vandals in 

 Africa by means of his general Belifarius, and that of the 

 Oftrogoths by Narfes. He is particularly famous in having 



built the church of St. Sophia, and in having abolifhed the 

 confulfhip, long fince only a name without power. He 

 died A.D. 565, and was fucceeded by Juftin II., who 

 eftablilhed the exarchate of Italy, and who died mad in the 

 year 578. He was followed by Tiberius, one of the cap- 

 tains in Judm's guards, who died in about four years, having 

 firft appointed his own great captain Mauritius as a fuc- 

 ceftor. Mauritius, and all his family, were murdered by 

 Phocas, who exercifed the fame cruelty in his government, 

 as he had in his way to it. He was dethroned by Hera- 

 clius in 611, who fucceeded him. During the reign of 

 Hcraclius, the Perfians made very deftruftive ravages in the 

 empire ; this was the period, alfo, in which Mohammed, 

 prince of the Arabians, founded the Mohammedan religion 

 and power. This new power quickly weakened the empire, 

 by depriving it of almoft all its provinces in Afia and 

 Africa. Heraclius died of a dropfy, after a reign of about 

 30 years. In the courfe of a few months, Conftantine, He- 

 racleonas, and Conftans, all afcended the throne ; the two 

 firft were cut off in a few months. The latter attempted 

 to fix the feat of empire at Rome, but changing his plans, 

 he went to Sicily, where he was killed, leaving three fons 

 to fucceed him, who held the government during the 

 remainder of the feventh century. In the eighth, we have 

 Leo Ifaurieus, or lconomachus, fo called from the perfe- 

 ctions which he inltituted againft the worrtiippers of images ; 

 alfo the emprels Irene, who reftored image worfhip, and 

 who cruelly put out the eyes of her own fon Conftantine, 

 for prefuming to take the government into his own hands 

 when he was of age. 



In the ninth century, the chief among the- Eaflern em- 

 perors were Nicephorus, who dethroned Irene, and who ac- 

 knowledged Charles the Great, king of France, to be the 

 emperor of the Weft. Alfo, Leo VI., furnamed Philo- 

 fophus, the author of the conftitutions that bear his name. 



In the tenth century flourifhed, among many other em- 

 perors, Conftantine IX., fon of Leo VI.,' who took pof- 

 feffion of the kingdom of Naples, after driving out the 

 Saracens ; and Romanus, the fon of Conftantine IX., who 

 was likewife fuccefsful againft the Saracens, but he died of 

 debauchery. Nicephorus Phocas, a general of Romanus, 

 married his widow, and aflumed the government in prejudice 

 to the fons of his late mailer. Nicephorus conquered the 

 Saracens, and took Antioch ; but he loft Apulia and Ca- 

 labria, which were taken by Otho the Great, the emperor 

 of Germany. Nicephorus was at length affaffinated by his 

 fucceflor, John Zimifces, who aflociated with himfelf on the 

 throne Bafilius and Conftantine, the two fons of Romanus. 

 Zimifces was poifoned by his chamberlain ; Bafilius and 

 Conftantine recovered Apulia and Calabria, and they reigned 

 together fifty years. 



In the 1 2th century, Apulia was lofl by Romanus Ar- 

 gyropulus, and in the fame period we have Alexius Comne- 

 nus, underwhom the Crufades took their rife; and John Com- 

 nenus, the fon of Alexius, whofe excellent difpofition obtained 

 for him the name of Colojoannes. In his wars with the 

 Turks he was mortally wounded, and was fucceeded by his 

 fecond fon, Manuel Comnenus, who has been characterized 

 for his great perfidy. He has been charged with poifoning 

 the provifions which he had engaged to furnifh for the army 

 of the emperor Conrad, and at the fame time betrayed his 

 defigns to the Turks, againft whom he was marching. , He 

 was fucceeded by Alexius II., his fon, whofe eves were 

 torn out, and himfelf depofed and murdered by his couJin 

 Andronicus, who had previoufly to this aflaffinated the em- 

 prefs mother. Andronicus ordered a general mafiacre of all 



the 



