The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (13 inch ebook reader .txt) 📕

stole me away, and, sending me through the clear ether, she settled me in this land of the Tauri, where barbarian Thoas rules the land.”

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Dante, Convito, I 11:⁠—

“These shouldhe called sheep, and not men; for if one sheep should throw itself down a precipice of a thousand feet, all the others would follow, and if one sheep, in passing along the road, leaps from any cause, all the others leap, though seeing no cause for it. And I once saw several leap into a well, on account of one that had leaped in, thinking perhaps it was leaping over a wall; notwithstanding that the shepherd, weeping and wailing, opposed them with arms and breast.”

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Lucretius, Nature of Things, II 324, Good’s Tr.:⁠—

“The fleecy flocks, o’er yonder hill that browse,
From glebe to glebe, where’er, impearled with dew,
The jocund clover call them, and the lambs
That round them gambol, saturate with milk,
Proving their frontlets in the mimic fray.”

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Towards the Sun, where the heaven is brightest. ↩

The Heaven of Mercury. ↩

Brunetto Latini, Tresor, I, Ch. 3, says, the planet Mercury “is easily moved according to the goodness or malice of the planets to which it is joined.” Dante here represents himself as being of a peculiarly mercurial temperament. ↩

The joy of spirits in Paradise is shown by greater brightness. ↩

The spirit of Justinian. ↩

Mercury is the planet nearest the Sun, and being thus “veiled with alien rays,” is only visible to the naked eye at the time of its greatest elongation, and then but for a few minutes.

Dante, Convito, II 14, says, that Mercury “is more veiled by the rays of the Sun than any other star.” And yet it will be observed that in his planetary system he places Venus between Mercury and the Sun. ↩

Milton, Paradise Lost, III 380:⁠—

“Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear,
Yet dazzle heaven.”

And again, V 598:⁠—

“A flaming mount, whose top
Brightness had made invisible.”

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The Heaven of Mercury continued.

In the year 330, Constantine, after his conversion and baptism by Sylvester (Note 409), removed the seat of empire from Rome to Byzantium, which received from him its more modern name of Constantinople. He called it also New Rome; and, having promised to the Senators and their families that they should soon tread again on Roman soil, he had the streets of Constantinople strewn with earth which he had brought from Rome in ships.

The transfer of the empire from west to east was turning the imperial eagle against the course of heaven, which it had followed in coming from Troy to Italy with Aeneas, who married Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus, and was the founder of the Roman Empire. ↩

From 324, when the seat of empire was transferred to Constantinople by Constantine, to 527, when the reign of Justinian began. ↩

The mountains of Asia, between Constantinople and the site of Troy. ↩

Caesar, or Kaiser, the general title of all the Roman Emperors.

The character of Justinian is thus sketched by Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Ch. XLIII:⁠—

“The Emperor was easy of access, patient of hearing, courteous and affa ble in discourse, and a master of the angry passions, which rage with such destructive violence in the breast of a despot. Procopius praises his temper to reproach him with calm and deliberate cruelty; but in the conspiracies which attacked his authority and person, a more candid judge will approve the justice or admire the clemency of Justinian. He excelled in the private virtues of chastity and temperance; but the impartial love of beauty would have been less mischievous than his conjugal tenderness for Theodora; and his abstemious diet was regulated, not by the prudence of a philosopher, but the superstition of a monk. His repasts were short and frugal; on solemn fasts he contented himself with water and vegetables; and such was his strength as well as fervor, that he frequently passed two days, and as many nights, without tasting any food. The measure of his sleep was not less rigorous; after the repose of a single hour the body was awakened by the soul, and, to the astonishment of his chamberlain, Justinian walked or studied till the morning light. Such restless application prolonged his time for the acquisition of knowledge and the despatch of business; and he might seriously deserve the reproach of confounding, by minute and preposterous diligence, the general order of his administration. The Emperor professed himself a musician and architect, a poet and philosopher, a lawyer and theologian; and if he failed in the enterprise of reconciling the Christian sects, the review of the Roman jurisprudence is a noble monument of his spirit and industry. In the government of the empire he was less wise or less successful: the age was unfortunate; the people was oppressed and discontented; Theodora abused her power; a succession of bad ministers disgraced his judgment; and Justinian was neither beloved in his life, nor regretted at his death. The love of fame was deeply implanted in his breast, but he condescended to the poor ambition of titles, honors, and contemporary praise; and while he labored to fix the admiration, he forfeited the esteem and affection of the Romans.”

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Of the reform of the Roman Laws, by which they were reduced from two thousand volumes to fifty, Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Ch. XLIV, says:⁠—

“The vain titles of the victories of Justinian are crumbled into dust; but the name of the legislator is inscribed on a fair and everlasting monument. Under his reign, and by his care, the civil jurisprudence was digested in the immortal works of the Code, the Pandect, and the Institutes;