The Dark Ages Collection. David Hume
who had not adhered to his cause. This harsh and stupid policy, however, was not carried out, for the bishop Epiphanius persuaded the king to revoke it and to promise that there would be no executions.132
Two more services would be rendered to his country by Epiphanius before his death. The war had a disastrous effect on Italian agriculture.133 Liguria had been devastated by the Burgundians; King Gundobad had carried thousands into captivity, and no husbandmen were left to till the soil and tend the vineyards. Theoderic was prepared to ransom the captives, and he charged Epiphanius with the office of persuading the Burgundian king to release them. The bishop, notwithstanding his infirm age, undertook the cold and difficult journey over the Alps in March (A.D. 494), and was received by Gundobad at Lyons. To the arguments and prayers of the envoy, Gundobad, who was an excellent speaker, replied with the frank and cynical assertion that war permits and justifies everything which is unlawful in peace. “War ignores the bridle of moderation which you, as a Christian luminary, teach. It is a fixed principle with belligerents that whatever is not lawful is lawful when they are fighting. The object of war is to cut up your opponent’s strength at the roots.” He went on to say that a peace had now been concluded — it had been sealed by the betrothal of a daughter of Theoderic to Gundobad’s son Sigismund,— and that if the bishop and his companions would return to their homes he would consider what it were best to do in the interests of his soul and his kingdom. Epiphanius had gained his cause. Gundobad set free all prisoners who were in his own hands, without charge, and those who were the slaves of private persons were ransomed. More than six thousand were restored to Italy.134
The last public act of Epiphanius was to induce Theoderic to grant a reduction of the taxation of Liguria. “The wealth,” he urged, “ of a landed proprietor is the wealth of a good ruler.”135 Theoderic remitted two-thirds of the taxes for A.D. 497. Epiphanius caught a chill in the cold marsh air of Ravenna and died on his return home.136 He had played a considerable and beneficent part in Italian politics for nearly thirty years.
CHAPTER XIII: THE REIGN OF ANASTASIUS I AND THE VICEROYALTY OF THEODERIC
§ 1. The Elevation of Anastasius (A.D. 491) and the Isaurian War
ON the evening of the day after Zeno’s death, the Senate, the ministers, and Euphemius the Patriarch assembled in the palace, and a crowd of citizens and soldiers gathered in the Hippodrome (December 10, 491).1 Ariadne,2 wearing the Imperial cloak, and accompanied by the Grand Chamberlain Urbicius, the Master of Offices, the Castrensis, the Quaestor, and others, but not by the Patriarch, then entered the Kathisma of the Hippodrome to address the people. She was warmly acclaimed. “Long live the Augusta! Give the world an orthodox Emperor.” Her speech was delivered by the Magister a libellis, who stood on the steps in front of the Kathisma. “Anticipating your request, we have commanded the illustrious ministers, the sacred Senate, with the approval of the brave armies, to select a Christian and Roman Emperor, endowed with every royal virtue, who is not the slave of money, and who is, so far as a man may be, free from every human vice.” People: “Ariadne Augusta, thou conquerest! O heavenly king, give the world a Basileus who is not avaricious!” Ariadne: “In order that the choice may be pure and pleasing to God, we have commanded the ministers and the Senate, the vote of the army concurring, to make the election, in the presence of the Gospels, and in the presence of the Patriarch, so that no one may be influenced by friendship or enmity, or kinship, or any other private motive, but may vote with his conscience clear. Therefore, as the matter is weighty and concerns the welfare of the world, you must acquiesce in a short delay, till the obsequies of Zeno, of pious memory, have been duly performed, so that the election may not be precipitate.” People: “Long live the Augusta! Cast out the thieving Prefect of the City! May all be well in thy time, Augusta, if no foreigner is imposed on the Romans!”3 Ariadne: “We have already anticipated your wishes. Before we came in, we appointed the illustrious Julian to the office of Prefect.” People: “A good appointment! Long live the Augusta.” After a few more words, Ariadne withdrew to the palace,4 and the ministers held a council in front of the Delphax to consult about the election. Urbicius proposed that the choice should be left to Ariadne, and the Patriarch, who was present, was sent to summon her. She chose Anastasius, a silentiary, and the Master of Offices sent the Counts of the Domestics and Protectors to fetch Anastasius from his house. He was kept that night in the Consistorium; notices were issued for a silentium5 to be held on the morrow; and the funeral of Zeno was performed.
Anastasius was a remarkable and well-known figure in Constantinople. He held unorthodox opinions, partly due, perhaps, to an Arian mother and a Manichaean uncle,6 and he was possessed by religious enthusiasm, which led him to attempt to convert others to his own opinions. He did this in a curiously public manner. Having placed a chair in the church of St. Sophia, he used to attend the services with unfailing regularity and give private heterodox instruction to a select audience from his cathedra. By this conduct he offended the Patriarch Euphemius, who by Zeno’s permission expelled him from the church and removed his chair of instruction;7 but he was well thought of by the general public on account of his piety and liberality. It even appears that he may have at one time dreamt of an ecclesiastical career, for he was proposed for the vacant see of Antioch.8 The Patriarch was highly displeased at the Empress’s choice of Anastasius, whom he stigmatised as unworthy to reign over Christians. His objections were overruled by the Senate and the Empress, but before he consented to take part in the coronation ceremony he insisted that the new Emperor should be required to sign a written declaration of orthodoxy. This was agreed to.
The officials dressed in white gathered in the Consistorium9 on the following day (April 11), and were received ceremonially by Anastasius. The Patriarch was present, and now, if not before, he must have obtained the Emperor’s signature to the declaration, which was lodged in the archives of St. Sophia under the care of the treasurer. Anastasius then left the Consistorium and ascended the steps of the portico10 of the triklinos of the Nineteen Akkubita. Here at the request of the senators he took a public oath that he would distress no person against whom he had a grudge, and that he would govern conscientiously. Then he proceeded to the triklinos of the Hippodrome, put on the Imperial tunic, girdle, leggings, and red boots,11 and entered the Kathisma, in front of which stood the troops, the standards lying on the ground. When he had been raised on a shield, and the torc placed on his head, the standards were raised, and he was acclaimed. Then he returned to the triklinos, when the Patriarch covered him with the Imperial cloak and crowned him. Reappearing in the Kathisma, he addressed the people, promising a donation of 5 nomismata and a pound of silver to each soldier — the same amount which had been given by Leo I. Among the enthusiastic acclamations with which he was greeted we may notice, “Reign as thou hast lived! Thou hast lived piously! reign piously! Restore the army! Reign like Marcian!” and “Cast out the informers!”
A few weeks later Anastasius married Ariadne (May 20). His accession was undoubtedly a welcome change to Byzantium. He was a man of tall stature and remarkable for his fine eyes, which differed in hue.12 He is described as intelligent, well-educated, gentle, and yet energetic, able to command his temper, and generous in bestowing gifts.13 A bishop of Rome wrote to him, “I know that in private life you always strove after piety.”14
The first task imposed upon the new Emperor was to put an end to the unpopular predominance of the Isaurians, which had lasted for over twenty years. The choice of Anastasius had disappointed and alarmed the Isaurians, who had looked forward to the succession of Longinus. A riot in the Hippodrome soon gave Anastasius a pretext for driving them out of the city. During a spectacle at which the Emperor was present, the people clamoured against Julian, the Prefect of the City, who had done something which public opinion disapproved. Anastasius ordered his guards to intimidate the rioters, who then set fire to the Hippodrome, and pulled down and insulted the bronze statues of the Emperors. Not a few were slain in the tumult.15 The Emperor found it politic to replace Julian by his own brother-in-law Secundinus, but he attributed the disturbance to the machinations of the Isaurians. He expelled them all from