The Eastern Empire. R O 
ance of the mild and simple Joseph; and conscious of the 
necessity of a protector, in the selection of whom she was 
no doubt led by private inclination, threw herself into the 
arms of Nicephoros Phocas, who united, in the popular 
opinion, the double merit of a hero and a saint. But, 
though in the former character his qualifications were genu¬ 
ine and splendid, and required no borrowed aids, his reli¬ 
gion was only assumed as a mask to conceal his real designs, 
and to catch the favours of the bigoted and the weak. He 
affected a desire to resign the command of the army with 
which he had been entrusted, and to retire from the world 
into the solitude of a convent; but being easily persuaded 
to abandon both designs, which he had only professed in 
order to ascertain his interest with the people, he marched 
to Constantinople, openly avowed his connection with the em¬ 
press, and without degrading her sons, or pretending to invali¬ 
date their claims, assumed the title of Augustus, with the 
pre-eminence of power. A reign of six years rendered him 
odious to his subjects, and served to develope his hypocrisy 
and avarice; yet it must be allowed that Nicephorus was more 
anxious to apply the revenue to the public use than to his 
rivate gratification: every spring he marched against the 
aracens; and the taxes seem to have been expended in se¬ 
curing the barriers of the East, or in extending their limits. 
An act of ingratitude hastened the destruction of Nice¬ 
phorus. John Zimisces, a noble Armenian, of uncommon 
stature, strength, and beauty, and possessing the soul of a 
hero, had essentially contributed to the elevation of the 
emperor; but instead of being rewarded for his services, he 
had experienced disgrace and exile. Zimisces, however, had 
the honour or infamy to be ranked among the lovers of the 
empress, and by her intercession, he was permitted to reside 
in the vicinity of the capital. This unprincipled woman, 
being as much tired of the husband as the people were of 
the emperor, entered into Zimisces’ design of revenge; and in 
person opened the chamber door of Nicephorus to the con¬ 
spirators, who massacred him without opposition. The 
death of the emperor was heard without the smallest emo¬ 
tion of pity or regret, and the Armenian was duly proclaimed 
emperor of the East; but the patriarch having enjoined him 
a public penance for the murder of his predecessor, he threw 
the whole blame on Theophano; and in order to shew his 
justice, or perhaps to be freed from such a dangerous asso¬ 
ciate, he banished her to a monastery in Armenia, and ad¬ 
mitted her two sons, Basil and Constantine, as his partners 
in the empire. 
A competition soon arose in the person of Bardas Phocas, 
a nephew of the late emperor; but his partisans deserting 
him without trying their strength by a battle, the pretender 
obtained his life from the clemency of Zimisces, and was 
only confined to the isle of Chios. 
The personal valour and activity of the new emperor were 
signalized on the Danube and the Tigris; and by his double 
triumph over the Russians and Saracens, he deserved the title 
of the conqueror of the East and the saviour of the empire. 
On his return, however, from these conquests, observing 
superb palaces and well-cultivated lands on his road, belong¬ 
ing to the eunuch Basil, who had greatly enriched himself 
during the two preceding reigns, with the blunt sincerity of 
a soldier, he exclaimed, “ What, must the Roman empire 
then be abandoned to the rapacity of an insolent eunuch ?” 
This expression cost him his life: a cup of poison was ad¬ 
ministered to him, the effects of which he speedily felt, but he 
suffered no inquiry to be made respecting the agents in this 
business, which, to the disgrace of human nature, was now 
become fashionable. Zimisces employed the short space that 
he survived the fatal draught in acts of piety and political 
regulations; and, nominating Basil and Constantine for his 
successors, died universally lamented, in the ninth year of 
his reign. 
Whether the execrable Theophano had any share in the 
death of Zimisces is unknown ; but it is certain she partook 
of the advantages resulting from it. The eunuch Basil re¬ 
called her, in hopes of reigning with her in the names of the 
two princes, the eldest of whom was now nineteen, and the 
M E. The Eastern Empire. 327 
other seventeen years of age. The premature death of 
Zimisces, who faithfully administered the empire, without 
violating the right of succession, seems to have been a loss 
rather than a benefit to the sons of Romanus. They fell 
into hands less able to protect them, without yet having 
acquired sufficient experience to protect themselves. Con¬ 
stantine continued to indulge the pleasures of youth, and to 
reject the cares of government; but his elder brother 
soon began to feel the impulse of genius, and the desire 
of honourable activity. Constantinople and the pro¬ 
vinces acknowledged the authority of Basil; but Asia 
was oppressed by two veteran generals, Phocas and 
Selerus, who set up for independence. The death 
of the first, however, in front of battle, and the sub¬ 
mission of the last at the foot of the throne, confirmed the 
sovereign power of Basil, who displayed his valour in fre¬ 
quent expeditions against the Saracens, and by the final de¬ 
struction of the kingdom of Bulgaria. On this occasion, it 
is related of him, that having taken a great number of pri¬ 
soners, he divided them into companies of an hundred each, 
caused all their eyes to be put out, and ordered them to be 
conducted to Samuel their king, by a man who had one 
eye left. This horrid spectacle so overcame the king of the 
Bulgarians, that he fainted away, and died two days afterwards. 
In short, whatever praise may be bestowed on the valour of 
Basil, he was as much detested by his subjects as he was 
feared by his enemies. In the sixty-eighth year of his age, his 
martial spirit, still unexhausted, prompted him to undertake 
a war in person against the Saracens in Sicily; but he was 
prevented by death; and he expired amidst the blessings of 
the clergy and the curses of the people. 
His'weak and dissipated brother, Constantine the Ninth, 
survived him about three years, and employed his power 
and time in settling the succession of the empire, and stu¬ 
diously overthrowing all the plans of his brother, whose 
ministers he displaced, and substituted in their room the 
companions of his own excesses. It is said that as he drew 
near his end, and began to feel some anxiety concerning the 
succession, he sent for Romanus, to whom he had left the 
empire, and made him the following alternative: “ Take 
your choice, of either repudiating your wife, marrying 
one of my daughters, and being proclaimed emperor, or of 
having your eyes put out.” His wife sacrificed herself for 
the sake of her husband, by retiring into a monastery; and 
Romanus espoused Zoe, the second daughter of Constantine, 
only three days before the death of that worthless em¬ 
peror. 
In the tenth century, which was now elapsed, the pro¬ 
vinces that still acknowledged the authority of the successors 
of Constantine, had been cast into a new mould by the in¬ 
stitution of the themes, or military governments; but of 
these twenty-nine themes, twelve in Europe and seventeen 
in Asia, the origin is obscure, and the limits were fluctuating. 
The victories of Nicephorus, John Zimisces, and Basil the 
Second, had enlarged the boundaries of the Roman name; 
but in the eleventh century the prospect was clouded by new 
enemies and new misfortunes. The relics of Italy were 
swept away by the Norman adventurers, and almost all the 
Asiatic branches were dissevered from the Roman trunk by 
the Turkish conquerors. Still the spacious provinces of 
Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece, were obedient to their 
sceptre; the possession of Cyprus, Rhodes, and Crete, with 
the fifty islands of the /Egean, or holy sea, remained to them, 
and the rest of the empire, with all its defalcations, equalled 
the largest of the modern European kingdoms. 
Romanus Argyrus, signalized his humanity by emanci¬ 
pating the poor captives, the number of whom had been ex¬ 
cessively multiplied by continual wars. After giving each 
a sufficient sum of money to support him on his journey, 
he dismissed him to his own country, and thus spread his 
fame over the most distant nations. His liberality to the mo¬ 
nasteries, which he enriched with magnificent ornaments, 
has also been greatly praised by ecclesiastical writers. In 
short, his whole conduct evinced him to be a prince of piety 
and moral goodness, but it was his misfortune to be mar¬ 
ried 
