OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 213 the same patriarch who had placed the crown on his head ; by his second nuptials he incurred a year of canonical penance ; a bar of spiritual affinity was opposed to their celebration ; and some evasion and perjury were required to silence the scruples of the clergy and people. The popularity of the emperor was lost in the purple ; in a reign of six years he provoked the hatred of strangers and subjects ; and the hypocrisy and avarice of the first Nicephorus were revived in his successor. Hypo- crisy I shall never justify or palliate ; but I will dai'e to observe that the odious vice of avarice is of all others most hastily arraigned and most unmercifully condemned. In a private citizen, our judgment seldom expects an accurate scrutiny into his fortune and expense ; and, in a steward of the public treasure, frugality is always a virtue, and the increase of taxes too often an indispensable duty. In the use of his patrimony, the generous temper of Nicephorus had been proved ; and the revenue was strictly applied to the service of the state : each spring the emperor marched in person against the Saracens ; and every Roman might compute the employment of his taxes in triumphs, conquests, and the security of the Eastern barrier. Among the warriors who promoted his elevation and served John zimu under his standard, a noble and valiant Armenian had deserved constontiue ' and obtained the most eminent rewards. The stature of John Dec .a Zimisces was below the ordinary standard ; but this diminutive body was endowed with strength, beauty, and the soul of an hero. By the jealousy of the emperor's brother, he was de- graded from the office of general of the East to that of director of the posts, and his murmurs were chastised with disgrace and exile. But Zimisces was ranked among the numerous lovers of the empress ; on her intercession, he was permitted to reside at Chalcedon, in the neighbourhood of the capital ; her bounty was repaid in his clandestine and amorous visits to the palace ; and Theophano consented with alacrity to the death of an ugly and penurious husband. Some bold and trusty conspirators were concealed in her most private chambers ; in the darkness of a winter night, Zimisces, with his principal companions, embarked in a small boat, ti-aversed the Bosphorus, landed at the palace stairs, and silently ascended a ladder of ropes, which was cast down by the female attendants. Neither his own suspicions, nor the warnings of his friends, nor the tardy aid of his brother Leo, nor the fortress which he had erected in the palace, could protect Nicephorus from a domestic foe, at whose voice every door was opened to the assassins. As he slept on a [cec. lo, ad.
