[484] As late as the tenth century, according to Luitprand, Antapodosis, vi, 8. In the Vienna Genesis (c. 400) a miniature shows banqueters reclining at a table of this sort. I will not attempt to enlarge on the courses at table and the multifarious viands that were consumed, as there are but few hints on this subject. We may opine, however, that gastronomics indulged themselves very similarly to what is represented in the pages of Petronius and Athenaeus, etc., cf. Ammianus, xvi, 5; xxviii, 4.
[485] Chrysostom, In Psalm xlviii, 8 (in Migne, v, 510). Most of the eunuchs were of the nation of the Abasgi, who dwelt between the Caspian and Euxine; Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iv, 3.
[486] Chrysostom, In Epist. ad Corinth. Hom. xl, 5 (in Migne, x, 353); In Matth. Hom. lxiii, 4 (in Migne, vii, 608).
[487] See below.
[488] Constantine enacted that families—husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters—should not be separated; Cod. Theod., II, xxv, 1; cf. XVI, v, 40, etc. But there was little practical philanthropy in the world until the Middle Ages had long been left behind. Thus by the Assize of Jerusalem, promulgated by Crusaders in the twelfth century, a war-horse was valued at three slaves! Tolerance, the toning-down of fanaticism, doubt as to whether religious beliefs are really of any validity, appears to be the foster-mother of humane sentiment. A slave could be trained to any trade, art, or profession, and their price varied accordingly. Thus common slaves were worth about £12, eunuchs £30; before ten years of age, half-price. Physicians sold for £35, and skilled artificers for £40; Cod., VII, vii. The modern reader will smile at the naïveté of Aristotle when he states that some nations are intended by Nature for slavery, but, as they do not see it, war must be made to reduce them to their proper level; Politics, i, 8.
[489] The following directions of a mother to her daughter how to shine as a society hetaira emanate from a Greek of the second century: “Dress yourself with taste, carry yourself stylishly, and be courteous to every one. Never break into a guffaw, as you often do, but smile sweetly and seductively. Do not throw yourself at a man’s head, but behave with tact, cultivate sincerity, and maintain an amiable reserve. If you are asked to dinner be careful not to drink too much; do not grab the viands that are offered to you, but help yourself gracefully with the tips of your fingers. Masticate your food noiselessly, and avoid grinding your jaws loudly whilst eating. Sip your wine delicately, and do not gulp down anything you drink. Above all things do not talk too much, addressing the whole company, but pay attention chiefly to your own friends. By acting in this way you will be most likely to excite love and admiration”; adapted from Lucian, Dial. Meretr., vi.
[490] Chrysostom, In Matth. Hom. xxx, 5 (in Migne, vii, 368); In I: Tim., i, 3 (in Migne, xi, 524); In Epist. ad Hebr., xxix, 3 (in Migne, xii, 206). “A country wench,” says he, “is stronger than our city men.”
[491] Chrysostom, De non Iterat. Conj., 4 (in Migne, i, 618). At all times there were ladies of such lubricity as to court the opportunity of bathing before men in the public baths; prohibited by Marcus (Hist. Aug., 23), this commerce of the sexes was encouraged by Elagabalus, and again forbidden by Alexander (Hist. Aug., 24, 34). Hadrian, however, seems to have been the first to declare against this promiscuous bathing (Hist. Aug., 18): “Olim viri foeminaeque mixtim lavabant, nullo pudore nuditatis,” says Casaubon, commenting on the passage; cf. Aulus Gell., x, 3; Cod. Theod., IX, iii, 3; Cod., V, xvii, 11; Novel, xxii, 16, etc. Clement Alex. (c. 200) complains that ladies were to be seen in the baths at Alexandria like slaves exposed for sale; Paedag., iii, 5. Far different was the conduct of the Byzantine matrons a thousand years later; they then fell into the ways of Oriental exclusiveness as seen amongst the dominant Turks; see Filelfo, Epistolae, ix, Sphortiae Sec., 1451. A native of Ancona, who lived at CP. for several years in the half century preceding the capture of the city.
[492] Chrysostom, In Epist. ad Ephes., iv, Hom. xv, 3 (in Migne, xi, 109). The cries of the girl, often tied to a bedpost, might even be heard in the street, and if she stripped herself in a public bath the weals on her back were sometimes the subject of public remark. Whilst counselling mercy he considers that the whipping is generally deserved.
[493] Chrysostom, Quales duc. sint Uxores, 7 (in Migne, iii, 236); In Epist. I ad Corinth., Hom. xii, 5 (in Migne, x, 103).
[494] Fifteen for males and thirteen for females were the marriageable ages as legally recognized; Leo, Novel., lxxiv.
[495] Chrysostom, Quales duc. sint Uxores, 5 (in Migne, iii, 233); γραΐδια μυθεύοντα, κ. τ. λ.
[496] Even Arcadius had to be content with a portrait and a verbal description of the charms of Eudoxia, the daughter of a subject and a townsman; Zosimus, v, 3.
[497] The early Christians gradually inclined to the custom of asking a formal benediction from the clergy as an essential part of the marriage ceremony, but about the time of Chrysostom the practice began to be disregarded. With the disuse also of pagan rites it began to be doubted whether nuptials could be legal unless accompanied at least by an orgiastic festival. To dispel this misgiving Theodosius II in 428 decreed that no sort of formal contract was required, but merely fair evidence that the parties had agreed to enter the connubial state; Cod. Theod., III, vii, 3. The Christian rite was not made compulsory till the end of the ninth century; Leo Sap. Novel., lxxxix.
[498] Chrysostom, In Matth. Hom. xxxvii, 5 (in Migne, vii, 425); In Act. Apost., xlii, 3 (in Migne, ix, 300); In Epist. I ad Corinth, Hom. xii, 5 (in Migne, x, 102), etc. His favourite theme for objurgation. He complains especially: “And worse, virgins are present at these orgies, having laid aside all shame; to do honour to the bride? rather disgrace,” etc. These must be ancillae, or girls of a lower class, as it is evident from the above account that young ladies of any family could not be seen even at church by intending suitors; possibly they were kept closely veiled. On this point see further Puech’s Chrysostom, Paris, 1891, p. 133. An introduction of this kind had always been considered necessary, as is shown by the equitation of the phallus (Mutinus) imposed on Roman brides the first night. These old customs were a constant mark for gibe among the early Christian Fathers; Lactantius, Div. Inst., l, 20; Augustine, De Civ. Dei, iv, 11; Arnobius, iv, et passim, etc.
[499] Chrysostom, In Joann. Hom. xxxii, 3 (in Migne, vii, 186).
[500] Ibid., In Epist. ad Corinth. Hom. xii, 7 (in Migne, x, 105).
[501] Chrysostom, In Epist. ad Corinth. Hom. xii, 7 (in Migne, x, 105).
[502] Ibid., In Matth. Hom. lxxii, 2 (in Migne, vii, 669); Ad Pop. Antioch., xix, 4 (in Migne, ii, 196).
[503] Ibid., Ad Illum. Catech., ii, 5 (in Migne, ii, 240).
[504] Ibid., In Epist. I ad Corinth., xii, 7 (in Migne, x, 105).
[505] Ibid., De Consol. Mort. 6 (in Migne, vi, 303).
[506] Ibid., Expos. in Psalm cxi, 4 (in Migne, v, 297), etc. He often protests against this form of luxury. At Rome especially, when the ownership of these costly piles had passed into oblivion, it was the habit of builders to pillage them in order to use their architectural adornments and materials for new erections; Cod. Theod., IX, xvii. Apparently the sepulchres were sometimes violated for the supply of false relics.
[507] Chrysostom. Habentes autem eumdem, etc. Hom. ii, 9 (in Migne, iii, 284).
[508] See Plato’s Phaedrus, Symposium, etc.; Plutarch, Pelopidas, 19. A modern Democritus might smile at the conclusion of Lucian that, whilst the commerce of the sexes is necessary for the propagation of the race, paederasty is the ideal sphere for the love of philosophers; Amores. According to Aristotle, Minos introduced the practice into Crete as an antidote against over-population; Politics, ii, 10; vii, 16. In this respect the Greeks, perhaps, corrupted on the one hand and on the other Romans and Persians alike; Herodotus, i, 135. It was indigenous, however, among the Etruscans; Athenaeus, xii, 14, etc.
[509] The shadowy Scantinian law was enacted against it, but remained a dead letter; Cicero, Ad Famil., viii, 12, 14, etc.; cf. Plutarch, Marcellus, 2.
[510] I have not, however, fallen in with any account of the dedication of a temple to Amor Virilis. Such a shrine would have been quite worthy of Nero or Elagabalus, indeed of Hadrian.
[511] Suetonius, Nero, 28; Hist. Aug. Hadrian, 14; Heliogabalus, 6, 15, etc.; Statius, Silvae, iii, 4, etc. The adulation of this vice pervaded even the golden age of Latin poetry:
For the estimation in which paederasty was held in Crete see Strabo, X, iv, 21; Athenaeus, xi, 20. Old men even wore a robe of “honour” to indicate that in youth they had been chosen to act the part of a pathic. The epigram on Julius Caesar is well known—“omnium mulierum vir, omnium virorum mulier”; Suetonius, in Vit. 52. Anastasius, who seems to have been somewhat of a purist for his time, abolished a theatrical spectacle addressed particularly to the paederasts, against which Chrysostom had vainly launched his declamations; In Psalm xli, 2 (in Migne, v, 157). “Boys, assuming the dress and manners of women, with a mincing gait and erotic gestures, ravished the senses of the observers so that men raged against each other in their impassioned fury. This stain on our manners you obliterated,” etc.; Procopius, Gaz. Panegyr., 16. The saint is much warmer and more analytical in his invective.
[512] Hist. Aug. Alexander, 24.
[513] Tertullian, De Monogam., 12; Lactantius, Divin. Instit., v, 9; Salvian, De Gubern. Dei, vii, 17, etc.
[514] Cod. Theod., IX, vii, with Godefroy’s duplex commentary. The peculiar wording of the law of Constantius almost suggests that it was enacted in a spirit of mocking complacency; ibid., Cod., IX, ix, 31.
[515] Chrysostom, Adv. Op. Vit. Mon., 8 (in Migne, i, 361). There was probably a stronger tincture of Greek manners at Antioch, of Roman at Constantinople, but the difference does not seem to have been material. We here take leave of Chrysostom. The saint fumes so much that we must generally suspect him of exaggeration, but doubtless this was the style which drew large crowds of auditors and won him popularity.
[516] Procopius, Anecdot., 9, 11; Novel., lxxvii, etc. The first glimpse of Byzantine sociology is due to Montfaucon, who, at the end of his edition of Chrysostom brought together a selection of the most striking passages he had met with. These excerpts were the germ and foundation of a larger and more systematized work by P. Mueller, Bishop of Zealand; De Luxu, Moribus, etc., Aevi Theod., 1794. An article in the Quarterly Review, vol. lxxviii, deals briefly with the same materials. I have derived assistance from all three, but, as a rule, my instances are taken directly from the text of Chrysostom.
[517] Twelve ounces, rather less than the English ounce. The difficulty in obtaining a just equivalent for ancient money in modern values is almost insuperable. After various researches I have decided, as the safest approximation, to reckon the solidus at 11s. 2d. and the lb. Byz. of gold at £40.
[518] This appears to have been merely a “coin of account,” but there were at one time large silver coins, value, perhaps, about six shillings, also pieces of alloyed silver. For some reason all these were called in and made obsolete at the beginning of the fifth century; Cod. Theod., IX, xxi, xxii, xxiii. No silver coins larger than a shilling seem to have been preserved to our time.
[519] As the price of copper was fixed at 25 lb. for a solidus, these coins might have been very bulky; “dumps,” as such are called by English sailors abroad, above an ounce in weight, but nothing near so heavy has come down to us; Cod. Theod., XI, xxi.
[520] Other emperors, however, struck single nummia, and these may have remained in use. They are known to collectors and weigh 5 grs. and upwards.
[521] See the specimens figured by Ducange, CP. Christ., or in other works on numismatics.
[522] The Macedonian kings in the fifth century B.C. were the first princes to put their names and portraits on their coinage, but the practice did not become common till after Alexander the Great; cf. Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iii, 33. Very large gold medals were minted by most of the Roman emperors, weighing even one or two lb. Hist. Aug., Alexander, 39. This imposing coinage appears to have been used for paying subsidies or tribute to barbarian nations. They were carried slung over the backs of horses in those leathern bags, which we see in the Notitia among the insignia of the Counts of the Treasury; Cod., XII, li, 12; Paulus Diac., De Gest. Langob., iii, 13.
[523] The value of money in relation to the necessaries of life, always a shifting quantity, was not very different in these ages to what it is at present. To give a few examples: bread was about the same price, common shoes cost 1s. 6d. to 5s. a pair; a workman, according to skill, earned 1s. 6d. to 4s. a day; see Dureau de la Malle, Econ. polit. des Romains, Paris, 1840; also Waddington’s Edict of Diocletian; an ordinary horse fetched £10 or £12; Cod. Theod., XI, i, 29, etc. On the Byzantine coinage see Sabatier, Monnaies Byzant., etc., Paris, 1862, i, p. 25, et seq. An imperfect, but so far the only comprehensive work; cf. Finlay, Hist. Greece, i, p. 432, et seq. Mommsen’s work also gives some space to the subject. False coining and money-clipping were of course prevalent in this age and punishable capitally, but there was also a class of magnates who arrogated to themselves the right of coining, a privilege conceded in earlier times, and who maintained private mints for the purpose. In spite of legal enactments some of them persisted in the practice, and their penalty was to be aggregated with all their apparatus and operatives to the Imperial mints, there to exert their skill indefinitely for the government; Cod. Theod., IX, xxi, xxii. Their lot suggests the Miltonic fate of Mulciber:
[524] In 1885, a “guess” census taken by the Turkish authorities put it at 873,565, but the modern city is much shrunk within the ancient walls; Grosvenor, op. cit., p. 8.
[525] The Avars, during an incursion made in 616, carried off 270,000 captives of both sexes from the vicinity of the city; Nicephorus CP., p. 16.
[526] The largest reservoir, now called the “Bendt of Belgrade,” about ten miles N.W. of CP. is more than a mile long. The water is conveyed, as a rule, through subterranean pipes, and there is no visible aqueduct within six miles of the city. The so-called “Long Aqueduct” is about three-quarters of a mile in length.
[527] Evagrius, iii, 38; Procopius, De Aedific., iv, 9; Chron. Paschal., an. 512, etc.
[528] In modern Hindostan somewhat of a parallel might be traced, but very imperfectly. After the third century Gothic must also have become a familiar language at CP.
[529] The partial survival of the Latin language in the East during these centuries is proved, not merely by the body of law, inscriptions, numismatics, etc., but by the fact that some authors who must have expected to be read generally at Constantinople, chose to write in that tongue, especially Ammianus (“Graecus et miles,” his own words), Marcellinus Comes, and Corippus.
[530] This vulgar dialect has probably never been committed to writing. Specimens crop up occasionally, particularly in Jn. Malala, also in Theophanes, i, p. 283 (De Boor). See Krumbacher, op. cit., p. 770, et seq. The cultured Greeks, however, even to the end of the Empire, always held fast to the language of literary Hellas in her prime; see Filelfo, loc. cit.
[531] It is worthy of remark that assumption of the aspirate was in the period of best Latinity a vulgar fault decried by Romans of refined speech:
[532] Jn. Lydus, De Magistr., iii, 27, 68.
[533] In the absence of full contemporary evidence for a complete picture of Byzantine life at the point of time dealt with, it has often been necessary to have recourse to writers both of earlier and later date; an exigency, however, almost confined to Chrysostom and Constantine Porphyrogennetos. In taking this liberty I have exercised great caution so as to avoid anachronisms; and if such exist I may fairly hope them to be of a kind which will not easily be detected. I have always tried to obtain some presumptive proof in previous or subsequent periods that the scene as represented may be shifted backwards and forwards through the centuries without marring its truth as a picture of the times. In these unprogressive ages, wherever civilization was maintained, it often had practically the same aspect even for thousands of years.
[534] It is generally conceded that iconoclastic zeal in respect of primitive Roman history, under the impulse given by Lewis and Niebuhr, has been carried too far. Even now archaeological researches with the spade on the site of the Forum, etc., are producing confirmation of some traditional beliefs already proclaimed as mythical by too astute critics; see Lanciani, The Athenaeum, 1899. In any case the legends and hearsay as to their origin, current among various races, have a psychological interest, and may afford valuable indications as to national proclivities, which must rescue them from the neglect of every judicious historian.
[535] Livy, iv, 52, etc.
[536] The favourite title of Augustus was Princeps or “First citizen,” but the more martial emperors, such as Galba and Trajan, preferred the military Imperator, which after their time became distinctive of the monarch. By the end of the third century, under the administration of Aurelian and Diocletian, the emperor became an undisguised despot, and henceforward was regarded as the Dominus, a term which originally expressed the relation between a master and his slaves; see Jn. Lydus, De Magistr., i, 5; the series of coins in Cohen’s Numismatics of the Empire, etc.
[537] Strabo says it was full of Tarsians and Alexandrians; xiv, 5. Athenaeus calls it “an epitome of the world”; i, 17; cf. Tacitus, Ann., xv, 44; “The city which attracts and applauds all things villainous and shameful.”
[538] Tiberius made an end of the comitia or popular elections, and after his time the offices of state were conferred in the Senate, a body which in its elements was constituted at the fiat of the emperor; Tacitus, Ann., i, 15, etc.
[539] Under Diocletian (c. 300) the legislative individualism of the emperor attained maturity; see Muirhead, Private Law of Rome, Edin., 1899, P. 353.
[540] The choice of Galba by the soldiers in Spain (68 A.D.) first “revealed the political secret that emperors could be created elsewhere than at Rome”; Tacitus, Hist., i, 4. Trajan, if actually a Spaniard, was the first emperor of foreign extraction.
[541] In the quadripartite allotment by Diocletian, he himself fixed his residence at Nicomedia, his associate Augustus chose Milan, whilst the scarcely subordinated Caesars, Galerius and Constantius, made Sirmium and Treves their respective stations; Aurelius Vict., Diocletian.
[542] Arcadius, as the elder, reigned in the East, a proof that it was esteemed to be the most brilliant position. The Notitia also, a contemporary work, places the East first as the superior dominion. No doubt the new tyrants found themselves in an uncongenial atmosphere at Rome, and the sterner stuff of the Western nations would not tolerate their sublime affectations. They could stand the follies of Nero, but not the vain-glory of Constantine, who soon fled from the covert sneers of the capital and merely paid it a couple of perfunctory visits afterwards. It is significant that the forms of adoration are omitted from the Notitia of the West; cf., however, Cassiodorus, Var. Ep., xii, 18, 20.
[543] About a year, but sometimes prolonged; he could be indicted afterwards for misconduct, unless like Sulla, Caesar, etc., and the aspirants to the purple later, he found himself strong enough to seize on the supremacy.
[544] See Mommsen, Das röm. Militärwesen, etc. Hermes, xxiv, 1889.
[545] Aurelius Vict., Diocletian, etc. After Elagabalus Aurelian was the pioneer in this departure, but in their case it seems to have been not a policy so much as a love of pompous display. It is worth noting that these emperors were men of low origin; Aurelian was a peasant, Diocletian the son of a slave. Yet Aurelian would not let his wife wear silk; Hist. Aug. Aurelian, 45.
[546] The brood of eunuchs (bed-keepers) flows to us from prehistoric times. Ammianus (xiv, 6) attributes the invention to Semiramis, whose date, if any, is about 2000 B.C. They appear to be engendered naturally by polygamy. Isidore of Seville characterizes them as follows: “Horum quidam coeunt, sed tamen virtus in semine nulla est. Liquorem enim habent, et emittunt, sed ad gignendum inanem et invalidum”; Etymolog., x, sb. voc. Hence the demand for such an enactment as that of Leo, Novel., xcviii, against their marrying, which, however, would be unnecessary in the case of the καρξιμάδες.
[547] The names of Eusebius, Eutropius, Chrysaphius, etc., are well known as despots of the Court and Empire. “Apud quem [si vere dici debeat] Constantius multum potuit,” is the sarcasm of Ammianus on the masterful favourite Eutropius; xviii, 4. Ultimately members of the royal family were castrated to allow of their being intrusted with the office of Chamberlain, practically the premiership, whilst unfitting them to usurp the throne; see Schlumberger, L’épopée byzant. au dix. siècle, 1896, p. 6.
[548] See Const. Porph., passim. The emperor cannot even uncover his head without the castrates closing round him to intercept the gaze of rude mankind; Reiske, ii, p. 259.
[549] The use of numerical affixes to the names of monarchs did not exist among the ancients, and hence many cruxes arise for antiquarians to distinguish those of the same name. Popularly they were often differentiated by nicknames. Thus we read of Artaxerxes the Longhanded, Ptolemy the Bloated, the Flute-player; Charles the Bald, the Fat; Philip the Fair, Frederic Barbarossa, etc. The grandson of the last, Frederic II, seems to have been the first who assumed a number as part of his regal title; see Ludewig, Vita Justin., VIII, viii, 53.
[550] CP. fell to Mahomet II in 1453, and the kingdom of Trebizond, a fragment which still existed under a Comnenian dynasty, in 1461. Bosnia, Herzegovina, Roumania, Armenia proper, Georgia, and the lower part of Mesopotamia did not, however, belong to the Eastern Empire, but there was suzerainty over most of the adjacent territory except Persia.
[551] The town itself was in the hands of the Bulgarians till 504, when it was won by Theodoric for Italy; Cassiodorus, Chron.
[552] This frontier was delimited by Diocletian, c. 295; Eutropius, ix; Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 19.
[553] At this time Western Armenia, about one-third of the whole, was called Roman, the rest Persian. It was divided at the end of the fourth century, but no taxes were collected there by the Byzantines; see below.
[554] Neither the north-eastern nor the north-western boundaries can now be precisely defined. According to Theodoret, the north-eastern verge of the Empire was Pityus, about seventy miles farther north; Hist. Eccles., v, 34. After the reign of Trajan the Euxine was virtually a Roman lake, and a garrisoned fort was kept at Sebastopol, considerably north of the Phasis, Bosphorus (Crimea) under its Greek kings being still allowed a nominal autonomy; Arrian, Periplus Pont. Euxin. After 250, however, under Gallienus, etc., these regions were overrun by the Goths. In 275 Trajan’s great province of Dacia was abandoned by Aurelian, but he preserved the remembrance of it by forming a small province with the same name south of the Danube; Hist. Aug., Aurelian, 39, etc.
[555] This geographical sketch is based chiefly on the Notitia, the Synecdemus of Hierocles, and Spruner’s maps.
[556] Less than the present population of England, which has barely a tenth of the area of the Empire.
[557] To take a few instances: Thessalonica and Hadrianople, former population not less than 300,000 each, now about 70,000 each; Antioch, formerly 500,000 (Chrysostom mentions 200,000, doubtless only freemen), now 7,500; Alexandria, formerly 750,000, now again growing into prosperity, 230,000; on the other hand, Ephesus, Palmyra, Baalbec, etc., once great cities, have entirely disappeared. Nor have any modern towns sprung up to replace those mentioned; Cairo alone, with its 371,000, is an apparent exception, but it is almost on the site of Memphis, still a busy town in the sixth century. For these and many similar examples the modern gazetteers, etc., are a sufficient reference. Taking all things into consideration, to give a hundred millions to the countries forming the Eastern Empire, in their palmy days, might not be an overestimate; and even then the density of population would be only about one-third of what it is in England at the present day.
[558] Institut. Just., Prooem., etc.
[559] Here, however, seems to have been the tract first known to the Greeks as Asia, but the name was extended to the whole continent fully ten centuries before this time.
[560] Hierocles, op. cit. By the Notitia the civil and military government of Isauria and Arabia are in each case vested in the same person.
[561] Now the Dobrudscha.
[563] Including the small province of that name.
[564] On the roll of precedence the Vicars and Proconsuls were Spectabiles, the ordinary governors Clarissimi. The intendant of the Long Walls was also called a Vicar; Novel., viii.
[565] See the Notitia.
[566] The independence of proconsular Asia has already been mentioned.
[567] “Yielding only to the sceptre”; Jn. Lydus, De Magistr., ii, 5. On the roll of precedence, however, he came after consuls and patricians, but he was usually an ex-consul and patrician as well; see Godefroy ad Cod. Theod., VI, vi.
[568] The most noted of these roads, the Via Appia, ran from Rome to Brindisi. It was about fifteen feet wide, with raised footpaths proportionately narrow. The only road in the Eastern Empire with a special name was the Via Egnatia, leading from the coast of the Adriatic through Thessalonica to Cypsela (Ipsala, about forty miles north of Gallipoli). The Antonine Itinerary shows the distance between most of the towns and ports in the Empire (c. 300). The Tabula Peutingeriana is a sort of panoramic chart on which towns, roads, mountains, forests, etc., are marked without any approach to delineating the outline of the countries, except in the vicinity of the Bosphorus and CP. (third century, but brought up to a later date; about 15 feet × 1). There is a photographic reproduction, Vienna, 1888. Strabo (IV, iii, 8) notes how careless the Greeks were, as compared with the Romans, in the matter of public works of ordinary utility.
[569] Cod. Theod., XV, iii. By the absence of this title from the Code and from Procopius (De Bel. Goth., i, 14; De Aedific., iv, 8; v, 5) we can discern that the roads in the East were generally in bad condition. No rubbish or filth or obstructive matter of any kind was allowed to be discharged into the roads or rivers. All roads or canals, that is, by-paths, were to be maintained in their primary condition, whether paved or unpaved; Pand., XLIII, x-xv. Soldiers were enjoined not to shock the public decency by bathing shamelessly in the rivers; Cod. Theod., VII, i; 13.
[570] The modern caravanserai, a great square building with open central court and chambers on two floors (see Texier and Pullan, op. cit., p. 142, for a description and plans of one attributed to the times of the Empire), is supposed to represent not only these mansions, but even the pattern of the original Persian angari of the classic period. Travellers could stop at them gratuitously and obtain provender, etc. Cicero, Atticus, v, 16, etc.
[571] About forty animals were kept at each station; Procopius, Anecd., 30.
[572] Cod. Theod., VIII, v, 28, etc. 22½ lb. avd. seems absurdly little for a horse to carry; a parhippus, an extra-strong horse, was kept, and might take 100 lb. (75 avd.), but even that is only half the weight of an average man; Cassiodorous, Var. Epist., iv, 47; v, 5. C. remarks, however, that it is absurd to load an animal who has to travel at a high speed. I think, therefore, that the load is in addition to a rider (hippocomus).
[573] Cod. Theod., VIII, v, 2.
[574] The Jerusalem Itinerary (c. 350) shows the mansions and mutations from Bordeaux to J., etc. The former seem to have been in or near large towns, the latter by the wayside.
[575] Cod. Theod., VIII, v, with Godefroy’s paratitlon.
[576] Cod. Theod., VI, xxvii; called Agentes in rebus.
[577] They appear to have originated in the Frumentarii (corn-collectors), who were sent into the provinces to purvey for the wants of the capital. Encouraged on their return to tattle about what they had seen, signs of disaffection, etc., their secondary vocation became paramount; and under Diocletian they were reconstituted with a more consonant title, whilst their license was restrained; Aurelius Vict., Diocletian; Hist. Aug. Commodus, 4, etc.