206 THE DECLINE AND FALL idiom ; and the Bcmlics, which were improved and completed by his son and grandson, must be referred to the original genius of the founder of their race." This glorious reign was termi- nated by an accident in the chase. A furious stag entangled his horns in the belt of Basil, and raised him fi-om his horse ; Aug. 20] he was rescued by an attendant, who cut the belt and slew the animal ; but the fall, or the fever, exhausted the strength of [Aug. 28. the aged monarch, and he expired in the palace, amidst the
- ^- ^^ tears of his family and peoplc^-J If he struck off the head of
the faithful servant, for presuming to draw his sword against his sovereign, the pride of despotism, which had lain dormant in his life, revived in the last moments of despair, when he no longer wanted or valued the opinion of mankind. Leovi, ii.e Of the four .SOUS of the cmpcror, Constantine died before his l^^ua,'"" father, whose grief and credulity were amused by a flattering [A^ri] impostor and a vain apparition. Stephen, the youngest, was content with the honours of a patriarch and a saint ; both Leo and Alexander were alike invested with the purple, but the powers of government were solely exercised by the elder brother. The name of Leo VL^^ has been dignified with the title oi philu.sopher ; and the union of the prince and the sage, of the active and speculative virtues, would indeed constitute the perfection of human nature. But the claims of Leo are far short of this ideal excellence. Did he reduce his passions and appetites under the dominion of reason . His life was spent in the pomp of the palace, in the society of his wives and concubines ; and even the clemency which he shewed, and the peace which he strove to preserve, must be imputed to the softness and indo- lence of his character. Did he subdue his prejudices, and those of his subjects? His mind was tinged with the most puerile ■^ [See Appendix ii. For affairs in Italy, see chap. Ivi.]
- > [He died on 29th August, not in March. See Muralt, Essai de Chron. byzant. ,
p. 466. Nine days elapsed between the accident and his death; Vita Euthymii, c. I, § 16.]
- ^ [Leo was a pedant. He reminds us of the Emperor Claudius and James I.
of England. For the first ten years of his reign, his chief minister and adviser was Stylianus Zautzes — like Basil, a " Macedonian of Armenian descent — to whom Basil on his deathbed committed the charge of the state (Vita Euthymii, c. i, § 18). He received the title of Basileopator (a.D. 894), died two years later. His daughter Zoe was the second wife of Leo (A.D. 894-6). For the Bulgarian Tsar Simeon, the most formidable neighbour of the empire at this time, see chap. Iv. The most strik- ing calamity of Leo's reign was the descent of the renegade I^eo of (the Syrian) Tripolis with a fleet of Mohanimadan pirates on Thessalonica ; 22,000 captives were carried off (.'.D. 904). The episode has been described in full detail by John Cameniates (ed. Bonn, Script, post Theoph. , p. 4S7 sqq.'). See Finlay, ii. , 267 sgg. The reign of Leo has been fully treated in a Russian monography by N. Popov (Imperator Lev vi Mudri, 1892).]
