cation of the infant, the boy, and the man, had prepared, and almost
insured, this memorable sacrifice; and each Spartan would approve,
rather than admire, an act of duty, of which himself and eight thousand
of his fellow-citizens were equally capable. The great Pompey might
inscribe on his trophies, that he had defeated in battle two millions of
enemies, and reduced fifteen hundred cities from the Lake Maeotis to the
Red Sea: 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. 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
spir