It was during the crusades that the representatives of every state in Europe, assembling round the tomb of our Saviour, recognised each other as brethren. After the Holy Wars the greater communities began to be remodelled, as their respective sovereigns issued victorious from their contention with feudalism. Then began the rancorous struggle between France and England, the rise of the Spanish monarchies, the destruction of the imperial authority in Germany, the brief splendour and fall of the Italian republics, the revolutions of the Sclavonic and Scandinavian states, and finally, the fall of Constantinople, A. d. 1453, which, by driving the learned Greeks into the centre and west of Europe, contributed in a remarkable degree to the Reformation.

SIXTH CENTURY.

GREEK Empire.-527, Justinian.-532, Nika.-557, Earthquake in Syria.-565, Belisarius d.

PERSIA.-528, First War.-531, Nushirvan.-532, Perpetual Treaty.-540, Second War.-590, Varanes (Bahram).-591, Chosroes II.

ITALY.-493, Theodoric.-552, End of Gothic Empire.-569, Lombards.-584, Autharis.

FRANCE.-511, Clovis d.-Salic Law.-558, Clotaire I.

SPAIN.-507, Visigoths enter Spain.

BRITAIN.-542, King Arthur d.-586, Heptarchy.-596, Saxons converted. THE CHURCH.-514, Religious War in Constantinople.-519, Jewish Persecution.-578, Pelagius the infallible.-590, Gregory I.

LITERATURE.-580, Latin ceases to be spoken.-Stobæus; Agathias; Cassiodorus; Boethius; Priscian; Journandes; Gregory of Tours.

GREEK EMPIRE.

BELISARIUS.-The Eastern Roman, or, as it was afterwards called, the Greek Empire, began to recover from its lethargy, and to extend its conquests under the celebrated Justinian I., in 527. Belisarius, a Thracian peasant, the Africanus of new Rome, after passing through the various grades of military service, was appointed general of the East, where Cabades had attacked the imperial workmen employed in building a frontier fortress. The defeated Persians next menaced Armenia and Syria, when the fortune of Belisarius again prevailed. The sudden death of the Persian monarch and the succession of Chosroes, whose throne was in danger from a disinherited brother, changed the politics of the court of Ctesiphon, and the war was suspended by a treaty of perpetual amity in 532, only to break out again eight years after, with results equally indecisive. Justinian, having, formed the design of reconquering the Roman provinces which had fallen into the hands of the barbarians, turned his views first on Africa, and Belisarius was intrusted with the supreme command of the expedition. The Vandals, taken by surprise, vainly strove to make head against his vigour and activity. Carthage surrendered without a blow; and in the space of three months, the whole of Northern Africa was subdued, Gelimer, the vanquished sovereign, gracing the captor's triumph, 534. The

Gothic war of Italy was the next scene of his glory. After reducing Sicily, Belisarius landed without resistance on the southern shores of the Peninsula. Naples experienced all the horrors of war; and Rome was freed from the tyranny of sixty years without a blow, 536. The victor was in his turn shut up in the imperial city by an army of 150,000 men, under King Vitiges; who, although defeated in various bloody skirmishes, obstinately persevered in the blockade, until forced to retire before the advancing succours headed by Antonina, the warlike consort of the Byzantine general, 538. His victorious career was checked by the intrigues of the court; he was recalled, and owed his safety to the services of his wife.

His second command in Italy, 544, was not equally successful with the first. He failed in throwing troops and provisions into Rome, then closely pressed by Totila, and which suffered the horrors of war to such an extent that a parent flung himself despairing into the Tiber in the presence of his five children. Treachery at last opened the gates to him, 546, when but for the firm remonstrances of Belisarius, the savage conqueror would have changed the city into a pasturage for cattle. By a daring act of valour he recovered the capital with only 1000 horse, and thrice repulsed the Goths in their endeavours to retake it. After several Fabian campaigns he was recalled, 548; nor were his services again required till Constantinople was threatened by the Bulgarians, who, in alliance with the Southern Sclavonian tribes, had crossed the Danube on the ice, led by the ferocious Zeberkhan. Forty years of military service could not shelter Belisarius from false accusations of conspiracy against the emperor; and his patriotism and devotion were ill requited by the confiscation of his property eight months before his death. He was followed to the grave by his envious master before the close of the same year. 565.*

Consult: Lord Mahon's Life of Belisarius..

NARSES. This rival of the fame of Belisarius had been educated among the females of the palace; but his talents becoming known, he was made the colleague of that general, on whose death he was appointed to the sole command of the Gothic war. He hastened to meet Totila, and after an ineffectual conference, the two armies engaged at Taginæ, near Rome, 552. The ardour of the barbarians was overcome by the decision and calmness of Narses; they fled, leaving their general with 6000 of his soldiers on the field. The victor had the honour of again sending the keys of Rome to Constantinople, which had been five times taken and recovered in one reign. The triumphal entry of the chamberlain after the conquest of the Franks and Allemanni, was the last which the imperial city was to witness, 554. His provincial government asted fifteen years, when he was recalled by Justin II., in compliance vith the demand of the senate, to which body he had become odious on account of his cupidity, 568.

FACTIONS OF THE CIRCUS.-The peaceful competitions of the circus,

* The elegant French tale of Belisarius, aided by the well-known picture, has served to keep up the fictitious accounts of the last days of this renowned warrior. The loss of his eyes by the emperor's orders, and his being reduced to beg his daily bread, in the well-known phrase, Date obolum Belisario, are the inventions of comparatively modern writers.

an amusement and excitement to the ancient Romans, degenerated into a mere factious exhibition under the unworthy successors of Augustus; and the bloody contests in their streets were renewed with increased vigour in the Byzantine capital. In 501, the greens treacherously massacred 3000 of their blue* adversaries; and their dissensions were so violent over the whole country, as to threaten the stability of the empire. Neither churches nor private houses were free from their depredations; many victims perished nightly beneath the dagger of the assassin; and the bonds of society and virtue were universally relaxed. A sedition bearing the name of Nika, was with difficulty suppressed, after a five days' struggle that nearly involved the city in conflagration, and cost the lives of more than 30,000 individuals.

To the evils of war, which under Justinian afflicted nearly every province, were added still greater calamities. Earthquakes in 526 and 557 occasioned dreadful havoc throughout the empire, and particularly in Syria. The plague devastated Europe and Asia; Constantinople lost more than 400,000 inhabitants; entire countries were depopulated, and left without culture; while famine was added to the severe scourges of war and contagion. The human race was thus considerably diminished. The empire, exhausted of men and of wealth, could not furnish Justinian, in his latter years, with more than 140,000 soldiers instead of 640,000. A new branch of industry commenced in this reign. Silk, which was in general use throughout the civilized world, had become exorbitantly dear, when two Persian monks succeeded in conveying from China to Europe some of the eggs of the silk-worm, which they had concealed in their hollow walking sticks. These they brought to Justinian who successfully established the manufacture of this article of luxury in his southern provinces.

JUSTINIAN CODE.-Justinian affected the title of a lover of the arts, and the church of St. Sophia, with about twenty-five others, decorated in a costly manner with marble and gold, were built in his reign; but the reformation of the Roman law, carried on by his orders, and under the superintendence of the quæstor Tribonian, is his noblest monument. The Roman emperors at various periods published their edicts and their rescripts; which huge mass of conflicting decisions was first arranged by the Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes, and both united in that of the younger Theodosius, 438. Fourteen months only were occupied by Tribonian and his nine associates in reducing the many thousands of volumes gradually accumulated during ten centuries into the twelve books or tables forming the JUSTINIAN CODE, 529. The PANDECTS or DIGEST, an employment of three more years, contained the spirit of the civil law, 533. It was a compilation in fifty books of the Gregorian, Hermogenian, and Theodosian Codes, as well as of two thousand treatises on jurisprudence. The INSTITUTES, forming a short elementary treatise on Roman law, divided into four parts, were published about the same time; these, with the NOVELS, a kind of supplement, constitute the whole body of Roman legislation.

Justinian reigned thirty-eight years, and the perils of a disputed succession were avoided by the promptness with which his nephew Justir. II. assumed the purple, 565. He revived the title of consul in his own person, liquidated the debts of his predecessor, and gave signs of a benevolent administration; but the disgrace of the chamberlain Narses

*These two colours represented the two great religious parties; the Arians wore green, while the blue party were the orthodox believers, and reckoned Justinian among their number. Thus religious fanaticism served to exasperate the quarrels of the circus.

left both the Eastern and Western empires exposed to the restless barbarians. About the same period the Avars and Turks sent ambassadors to Constantinople: the alliance proposed by the first he haughtily refused, and formed a league with the Turkish khan against the Persians. By their friendship with this chief, the mighty Disabul, "sovereign of the seven climates of the earth," the Romans were enabled to trade throughout all Central Asia. The progress of Chosroes was not, however, arrested in Syria; and at the same time Africa was ravaged, while Italy was lost to the empire. Notwithstanding the purity of Justin's intentions, his reign was miserable and unfortunate, not so much from his vices as from a physical debility which confined him to the palace, and rendered him a stranger to the wishes and complaints of his people. In 574, he had the magnanimity to associate Tiberius with him in the empire, and after four years of peaceful obscurity he expired.

His successor showed himself worthy of his station, and in him Constantinople saw another Trajan. While he was engaged in repelling the Avars in Dacia, his generals gained over the Persians the victories of Melitene and Constantine. Maurice was rewarded with the hand of the daughter of Tiberius, and shortly after ascended the throne of his father-in-law, who on his death-bed had selected him as worthiest of its honours and duties, 582. MAURICE, less fortunate as emperor than as general, was unable to maintain his Persian conquests The satrap Varanes (Bahram), after having conquered the Turks, was penetrating into Asia Minor, when he was defeated by the Grecian troops. Being disgraced in consequence, he revolted against his sovereign, Chosroes II., whom he compelled to seek an asylum in the empire. The generous Maurice restored his enemy, and obtained by treaty the restitution of Varanes' conquests, 591. He next meditated the destruction of the Avars, whom Priscus defeated in five battles; the victorious army, however, revolted, and proclaimed the centurion Phocas, while a faction drove Maurice from his capital, and opened its gates to the usurper, 602.

PERSIA.

This empire had been at peace nearly a century under the Sassanian monarchs, whose domination had succeded, in 226, that of the Parthian or Arsacidan. The vicinity of the Nephthalite Huns settled on the Oxus, was a source of uneasiness to the great kings, and the necessity of checking their incursions turned most of their forces in this direction. This people had assisted Cabades in the recovery of the crown, which had been usurped by one of his brothers; and not having the means of recompensing their services according to promise, he applied to the Emperor Anastasius for pecuniary aid. The request was insultingly refused, upon which war immediately broke out, and the Persians reduced both Armenia and Colchis. The peace which followed was interrupted by the proceedings of Justin I., who had accepted the submission of the Lazi, a people tributary to Persia. Cabades was succeeded by Chosroes Nushirvan in 531. This great prince, who tranquillized his country, which had been a prey to anarchy and fanaticism, received from his subjects the name of the Just, in consequence of the manner in which he administered the laws. He encouraged agriculture, was a patron of letters, founded a school of medicine near

Susa, and directed the annals of the monarchy to be drawn up. He sent a learned physician, named Bidpai, into India, who brought back with him the fables still current as those of Pilpay, and the game of chess. Nushirvan attracted to his court several of the philosophers of the West. The news of Justinian's victories, and the discovery of a correspondence by which that prince was exciting the barbarians of the Oxus to invade Persia, induced Chosroes to take up arms, which he carried successfully to the shores of the Levant. On his return, he built a city near Ctesiphon, in which the Syrian captives beheld the very image of one of their own towns; baths, a circus, and a body of musicians and charioteers, were added to complete its resemblance to a Grecian city. Chosroes transmitted his power to his son Hormisdas (Hormuz) 579, whose violent passions soon brought the empire to the verge of ruin. After a few years' reign, the tyrant had the effrontery to boast of having tortured to death no fewer than thirteen thousand victims. His government was weakened by the revolt of several provinces, when the Turks offered their perfidious aid. But a hero appeared to save the falling monarchy. Varanes, (Bahram), having collected a body of twelve thousand men, occupied a defile in Hyrcania, where he crushed the Turks. He next marched against the Romans, who were advancing in the direction of the Araxes, but was ruined by his own confidence and generosity. Hormisdas, jealous of his first successes, seized this opportunity of humbling him, and sent a distaff with a woman's dress. The soldiers felt not less indignation at this insult than their general, and openly revolted. Bindoes, of the Sassanian family, was brought froin the dungeon in which he had been confined by the tyrant's order, and putting the monarch in chains with his own hands, surrendered him to public judgment—a mode of proceding unknown in the annals of the East. His subjects unanimously condemned him; his eyes were burnt out with a red-hot iron, and his second son, in whose favour he had offered to abdicate, was torn in pieces. Chosroes II. (Khosru Purveez), the eldest prince, was placed on the throne, 590, and endeavoured to mitigate the condition of his father. Hormisdas was removed from his prison, but only to be exposed to the merciless bowstring of the implacable Bindoes. With the aid of the Emperor Maurice, Chosroes, who had fled to him for protection, was restored to his throne, and Varanes compelled to take refuge among the Turks, when sorrow and vexation hastened his death. Public rejoicings and executions marked the reestablishment of the lawful sovereign, who punished Bindoes, the assassin of his father. The Grecian emperor, was repaid by the cession of Martyropolis, Daria, and all Persarmenia. The Christians hoped that their religion would gain by this change; but Chosroes remained faithful to the worship of the magi.

ITALY.

THEODORIC.-This monarch, who laid the foundation of the kingdom of the Ostrogoths, had been educated as a hostage at the court of Constantinople. Having formally received the government of Ita' from Zeno, he crossed the Alps with a large Gothic army, in 489, and defeated Odoacer near the ruins of Aquileia. He followed up his advantage by attacking Ravenna, to which the latter had fled with 20,000 men; and after a siege of almost three years, became King of Italy on the assassi