OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 95 the troops, whose numbers mijTht swell the appearance of the line, but of whom only a chosen band would dare to encounter the spears and swords of the barbarians. The order of l)attle must have varied according to the ground, the object, and the adversary ; but their ordinary disposition, in two lines and a reserve, presented a succession of hopes and resources most agreeable to the temperas well as the judgment of the Greeks.^'^ In case of a repulse, the first line fell back into the intervals of the second ; and the reserve, breaking into two divisions, wheeled round the flanks to improve the victory or cover the retreat. Whatever authority could enact was accomplished, at least in theory, by the camps and marches, the exercises and evolutions, the edicts and books, of the Byzantine monarch. ^'^ Whatever art could produce from the forge, the loom, or the laboratory, was abundantly supplied by the riches of the prince and the industry of his numerous workmen. But neither authority nor art could frame the most important machine, the soldier himself; and, if the ceremouie.s of Constantine always suppose the safe and triumphal return of the emperor,^" his laclirs- seldom soar above the means of escaping a defeat and procrastinating the war,^^ Notwithstanding some transient success, the Greeks were sunk in their own esteem and that of their neighbours. A cold hand and a loquacious tongue was the vulgar description of the nation ; the author of the Tactics was besieged in his capital ; and the last of the barbarians, who trembled at the name of the Saracens or Franks, could proudly exhibit the medals of gold and silver which they had extorted from the feeble sovereign of Constantinople. What spirit their government and character denied, might have been inspired in some degree by the influence of religion ; but the religion of the Greeks could only teach them to suffer and to yield. The emperor Nicephorus, who restored for a moment the discipline ^'^ Compare the passages of the Tactics, p. 669 and 721 and the xiith with the .xviiith chapter. [The strength of the army lay in the heavy cavalry.] ^ In the preface to his Tactics, Leo very freely deplores the loss of discipline and the calamities of the times, and repeats without scruple (Proem, p. 537) the re- proaches of i^Afirt, a-ra^Ca, ayvtivarria, 5ctA.r'a, Sic, nor docs it appear that the same censures were less deserved in the next generation by the disciples of Constantine. ^"See in the Ceremonial (1. ii. c. 19, p. 353) the form of the emperor's trampling on the necks of the captive Saracens, while the singers chanted, " thou hast made my enemies my footstool ! " and the people shouted forty times the kyrie eleison.
- Leo observes (Tactic, p. 668) that a fair open battle against any nation what-
soever is i-i.i7'hii'; and km.Kiv5vvnv the words are strong and the remark is true ; yet, if such had been the opinion of the old Romans, Leo had never reigned on the shores of the Thracian Bosphorus.
