n hundred cities from the
Lake Maeotis to the Red Sea: [2] but the fortune of Rome flew before
his eagles; the nations were oppressed by their own fears, and the
invincible legions which he commanded, had been formed by the habits
of conquest and the discipline of ages. In this view, the character
of Belisarius may be deservedly placed above the heroes of the ancient
republics. His imperfections flowed from the contagion of the times; his
virtues were his own, the free gift of nature or reflection; he raised
himself without a master or a rival; and so inadequate were the arms
committed to his hand, that his sole advantage was derived from the
pride and presumption of his adversaries. Under his command, the
subjects of Justinian often deserved to be called Romans: but the
unwarlike appellation of Greeks was imposed as a term of reproach by the
haughty Goths; who affected to blush, that they must dispute the kingdom
of Italy with a nation of tragedians pantomimes, and pirates. [3] The
climate of Asia has indeed been found less congenial than that of Europe
to military spirit: those populous countries were enervated by luxury,
despotism, and superstition; and the monks were more expensive and more
numerous than the soldiers of the East. The regular force of the empire
had once amounted to six hundred and forty-five thousand men: it was
reduced, in the time of Justinian, to one hundred and fifty thousand;
and this number, large as it may seem, was thinly scattered over the sea
and land; in Spain and Italy, in Africa and Egypt, on the banks of
the Danube, the coast of the Euxine, and the frontiers of Persia. The
citizen was exhausted, yet the soldier was unpaid; his poverty was
mischievously soothed by the privilege of rapine and indolence; and
the tardy payments were detained and intercepted by the fraud of those
agents who usurp, without courage or danger, the emoluments of war.
Public and private distress recruited the armies of the state; but in
the field, and still more in the presence of the enemy, their numbers
were always defective. The want of national spirit was supplied by the
precarious faith and disorderly service of Barbarian mercenaries.

Even military honor, which has often survived the loss of virtue and
freedom, was almost totally extinct. The generals, who were multiplied
beyond the example of former times, labored only to prevent the success,
or to sully the reputation of their colleagues; and they had bee