OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 193 successor, and cherished the idea of changing to a democracy the Roman empire. But these rash projects served only to inflame the zeal of the people, and to remove the scruples of the candidate ; Michael the First accepted the purple, and, before he sunk into the grave, the son of Nicephorus implored the clemency of his new sovereign. Had Michael in an age ofi;iiciiaeii. peace ascended an hereditary throne, he might have reigned ad. su, ' October 2 and died the father of his people ; but his mild virtues were adapted to the shade of private life, nor was he capable of controlling the ambition of his equals or of resisting the arms of the victorious Bulgarians. While his want of ability and success exposed him to the contempt of the soldiers, the masculine spirit of his wife Procopia awakened their indignation. Even the Greeks of the ninth century were provoked by the insolence of a female, who, in the front of their standards, pre- sumed to direct their discipline and animate their valour ; and their licentious clamours advised the new Semiramis to rever- ence the m.ajesty of a Roman camp. After an unsuccessful campaign, the emperor left, in their winter-quarters of Thrace, a disaffected army under the command of his enemies ; and their artful eloquence persuaded the soldiers to break the do- minion of the eunuchs, to degrade the husband of Procopia, and to assert the right of a military election. They marched towards the capital ; yet the clergy, the senate, and the people of Constantinople adhered to the cause of Michael ; and the troops and treasures of Asia might have protracted the mischiefs of civil war. But his humanity (by the ambitious, it will be termed his weakness) protested that not a drop of Christian blood should be shed in his quarrel, and his messengers pre- sented the conquerors with the keys of the city and the palace. They were disarmed by his innocence and submission ; his life and his eyes were spared ; and the Imperial monk enjoyed the comforts of solitude and religion above thirty-two years after he had been stripped of the purple and separated from his wife. A rebel, in the time of Nicephorus, the famous and unfor- Leo v. the tunate Bardanes, had once the curiosity to consult an Asiatic ad. sis, prophet, who, after prognosticating his fall, announced the ^ fortunes of his three principal officers, Leo the Armenian, Michael the Phrygian,^^ and Thomas the Cappadocian,-^' the ^^ [A native of Amorium ; hence his dynasty is called the Amorian dynasty.] 2^ [Of Slavonic descent, at least on one side ; hence known as Thomas the Slavonian.] VOL. V. 13
