of Maurice were kindly interred. His fate alone was remembered; and at the end of twenty years, in the recital of the history of Theopliylact, the mournful tale was interrupted by the tears of the audience.[1]
Phocas emperor. A.D, 602, Nov. 23 Such tears must have flowed in secret, and such compassion would have been criminal, under the reign of Phocas, who was peaceably acknowledged in the provinces of the East and West. A.D. 610, October 4 The images of the emperor and his wife Leontia were exposed in the Lateran to the veneration of the clergy and senate of Rome, and afterwards deposited in the palace of the Caesars, between those of Constantine and Theodosius. As a subject and a Christian, it was the duty of (Gregory to acquiesce in the established government, but the joyful applause with which he salutes the fortune of the assassin has sullied with indelible dis-grace the character of the saint. The successor of the apostles might have inculcated with decent firmness the guilt of blood, and the necessity of repentance : he is content to celebrate the deliverance of the people and the fall of the oppressor; to rejoice that the piety and benignity of Phocas have been raised by Providence to the Imperial throne; to pray that his hands may be strengthened against all his enemies; and to express a wish, perhaps a prophecy, that, after a long and triumphant reign, he may be transferred from a temporal to an everlasting kingdom.[2] I have already traced the steps of a revolution so pleasing, in Gregory s opinion, both to heaven and earth; and Phocas does not appear less hateful in the exercise than in the acquisition of power. The pencil of an impartial historian has delineated the portrait of a monster:[3] his His character diminutive and deformed person, the closeness of his shaggy eye-brows,
- ↑ The revolt of Phocas and death of Maurice are told by Theopliylact Simocatta (1. viii. c. 7-12), the Paschal Chronicle (p. 379, 380), Theophanes (Chronograph, p. 238-244 [ad A.M. 6094]), Zonaras (torn. ii. 1. .xiv. p. 77-80 [c. 13, 14]), and Cedrenus (p. 399-404 [p. 700 sqq., ed. Bonn]).
- ↑ Gregor. 1. xi. epist. 38, indict, vi. Benignitatem vestræ pietatis ad Imperiale fastigium pervenisse gaudemus. Lætentur cæli et exultet terra, et de vestris benignis actibus universæ reipublicæ; populus nunc usque vehementer afllictus hilarescat, occ. This base flattery, the topic of Protestant invective, is justly censured by the philosopher Bayle (Dictionnaire Critique, Grégoire I. Not. H. tom. ii. p. 597, 598). Cardinal Baronius justifies the pope at the expense of the fallen emperor.
- ↑ The images of Phocas were destroyed; but even the malice of his enemies would suffer one copy of such a portrait or caricature (Cedrenus, p. 404 [i. 708, ed. Bonn]) to escape the flames. [A statue to Phocas, erected by the exarch Smaragdus, adorned the Roman Forum. The colunm was dug up in A.D. 1813 and is one of the most conspicuous objects in the Forum. For the dedication on the base, see C. I. L., 6, 1200.]
