200 THE DECLINE AND FALL Roman prince Avho considered pleasure as the object of life and virtue as the enemy of pleasure. Whatever might have been the maternal care of Theodora in the education of Michael the Third, her unfortunate son was a king before he was a man. If the ambitious mother laboured to check the progress of reason, she could not cool the ebullition of passion ; and her selfish policy was justly repaid by the contempt and ingratitude of the headstrong youth. At the age of eighteen, he rejected her authority, without feeling his own incapacity to govern the empire and himself. With Theodora, all gravity and wisdom retired from the court ; their place was supplied by the alternate dominion of vice and folly ; and it was impossible, without for- feiting the public esteem, to acquire or preserve the favour of the emperor. The millions of gold and silver which had been accumulated for the service of the state were lavished on the vilest of men, who flattered his passions and shared his pleasures; and, in a i-eign of thirteen years, the richest of sovereigns was compelled to strip the palace and the churches of their precious furniture. Like Nero, he delighted in the amusements of the theatre, and sighed to be surpassed in the accomplishments in which he should have blushed to excel. Yet the studies of Nero in music and poetry betrayed some symptoms of a liberal taste ; the more ignoble arts of the son of Theophilus were con- fined to the chariot-race of the hippodrome. The four factions which had agitated the peace, still amused the idleness, of the capital ; for himself, the emperor assumed the blue livery ; the three rival colours were distributed to his favoui'ites, and, in the vile though eager contention, he forgot the dignity of his person and the safety of his dominions. He silenced the messenger of an invasion, who presumed to divert his attention in the most critical moment of the race ; and by his command the impor- tunate beacons were extinguished, that too frequently spread the alarm from Tarsus to Constantinople.^^ The most skilful charioteers obtained the first place in his confidence and esteem ; "■' [The line of beacons is given in Theoph. Contin., p. 197, and Const. Porphyr. De Cer. , i,, App., p. 491. The first station of the Hne was (1) the Fortress of Lulon (which the Saracens called Sakalilm, because it had a Slavonic garrison). It commanded the pass between Tyana and the Cilician gates, and Professor Ramsay would identify it with Faustinopolis = Halala (Asia Minor, p. 353). The fire of Lulon flashed the message to (2) Mt. Argaeus, which Professor Ramsay discovers in a peak of the Hassan Dagh, south of Lake Tatta. The next station was (3) Isamus (" west of the north end of the lake") ; then (4) .Aegilus (between Troknades and Dorylaeum) ; (5) Mamas (N.W. of Dorylaeum) ; (6) Cyrizus (Katerli Dagh? Ramsay, ib.' p. 187); (7) Mocilus (Samanli Dagh, N. of Lake Ascanius ; Ramsay, ib. p. 187) ; (8) Mt. Au.xentius ; (9) the Pharos in the palace of Constantinople.]
