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of thirty books in the Syriac tongue, containing the whole practice of physic called the Pandects, chiefly collected from the Greek writings, and supposed to be written before 620. They were translated into Arabic by a Syrian Jew physician about 683. He is the first author that mentions, and that has clearly described, the small-pox and measles, which probably first appeared at Alexandria in Egypt, A. D. 640, and was brought there by the Arabians when they took that city.

ÆGINETA PAULUS, a native of the island of Ægina, now called Eugia. He flourished in the seventh century, and travelled in various countries to improve himself in medical knowledge. At Alexandria he copied part of the works of Trallian, and on his return home, made an abridgement of those of Galen. Paulus was an able surgeon, and his works are deservedly famous. Fabricius ab Aquapendente has transcribed him in a variety of places. He is the first writer who takes notice of the cathartic quality of rhubarb; and, according to Dr. Milward, is the first, in antiquity, who deserves the title of a man mid-wife.

GARIOPONTUS, a physician of the Salernian school, who lived in this century, according to the testimony of Peter Damien, who died in 1072. He is called by various names by different writers; as Warimpotus, Raimpotus, Guaripotus, Garimpotus, &c. All that is known of him is, that he was author of a work chiefly compiled from the observations of his predecessors, and especially of Theodore Priscian, but the style is extremely obscure, in consequence of the intermixture of Greek, Arabic, and Latin words.

PERIOD XXIII.

FROM CONSTANTINE V. TO THEOPHILUS.

[CENT. VIII.]

REMARKABLE FACTS, EVENTS, AND DISCOVERIES.

A.D.

700 Cracow built, and the first prince of Poland elected. 704 The first province given to the pope.

713 The Saracens conquer Spain.

714 France governed by Charles Martel.

718 The kingdom of Asturias in Spain founded by Pelagio.

719 Christianity promulgated in Germany.

727 Tax of Peter's pence begun by Ina king of Wessex. 732 Charles Martel defeats the Saracens near Tours.

735 The office of pope's nuncio instituted.

748 The Christian era used in history.

749 The race of Abbas become caliphs of the Saracens, and encourage learning. The empire of the Saracens divided into three.

752 The exarchate of Ravenna abolished by Astolphus king of the Lombards.

755 Commencement of the pope's temporal dominion.

762 Bagdad made the capital of the caliphs of the house of Abbas. 792 An academy founded at Paris.

794 The Huns extirpated by Charlemagne.

THE bishops of Rome had hitherto been subject to the emperors of Constantinople; but on the decline of that empire they found means to get themselves exempted from this subjection. The principal authority in the city of Rome was then engrossed by the bishop, though of right it belonged to the Duke appointed by the exarch of Ravenna. But now that they had little to fear from the eastern emperors, they were in great danger from the ambition of the Lombards, who aimed at the conquest of all Italy. This aspiring people the bishops of Rome determined to check; and, therefore, in 726, when Luitprand king of the Lombards had taken Ravenna and expelled the exarch, the pope undertook to restore him. For this purpose he applied to the Venetians, who are now first mentioned in history as a state of any consequence; and by their means the exarch was restored. Some time

before, a quarrel had happened between pope Gregory II., and Leo III., emperor of the east, about the worship of images. Leo, who in the midst of so much barbarism, had still preserved some share of common sense, reprobated the worship of images in the strongest terms, and commanded them to be destroyed throughout his dominions. The pope, whose cause was favoured by the most absurd superstitions, and by these only, refused to obey the emperor's commands. The exarch of Ravenna, as a subject of the emperor, was ordered to force the pope to a compliance, or assassinate him in case of a refusal. This excited the pious zeal of Luitprand to assist the pope, whom he had formerly designed to subdue; the exarch was first excommunicated, and then torn in pieces by the enraged multitude; the duke of Naples shared the same fate; and a vast number of the Iconoclasts, or image-breakers, as they were called, were slaughtered without mercy; and to complete all, the subjects of the exarch, at the instigation of the pope, renounced their allegiance to the emperor. Leo was no sooner informed of this revolt, than he ordered a powerful army to be raised, to reduce the rebels, and take vengeance on the pope. Alarmed at these warlike preparations, Gregory looked round for some power on which he might depend for protection. The Lombards were possessed of sufficient force, but they were too near and too dangerous neighbours to be trusted; the Venetians, though zealous Catholics, were as yet unable to withstand the force of the empire; Spain was over-run by the Saracens; the French seemed, therefore, the only people to whom it was advisable to apply for aid; as they were able to oppose the emperor, and were likewise enemies to his edict. Charles Martel, who then governed France as mayor of the palace, was therefore applied to; but before a treaty could be concluded, all the parties concerned were dead. Constantine Copronymus, who succeeded Leo at Constantinople, not only persisted in the opposition to image-worship, begun by his predecessor, but prohibited also the invocation of saints. Zachary, who succeeded Gregory III. in the pontificate, proved as zealous an adversary as his predecessors. Pepin, who succeeded Charles Martel in the sovereignty of France, proved as powerful a friend to the pope, as his father had been. The people of Rome had nothing to fear from Constantinople; and, therefore, drove out all the emperor's officers. The Lombards awed by the power of France, for sometime allowed the pope to govern in peace the dominions of the exarchate; but in 752, Aistulph, king of Lombardy, not only reduced the greatest part of the pope's territories, but threatened the city of Rome itself. Upon this an application was made to Pepin, who obliged Aistulph to restore the places he had taken, and gave them to the pope; or, as he said, to St. Peter. The Greek emperor, to whom they of right belonged, remonstrated to no purpose. The pope from that time became possessed of considerable territories in Italy; which, from the manner of their donation, go under the name of Peter's patrimony. It was not, however, before the year 774, that the pope was fully secured in these new dominions. This was accomplished when the kingdom of the Lombards was totally destroyed by Charlemagne, who was thereupon crowned king of Italy. Soon after, this monarch made himself master of all the Low Countries, Germany and

part of Hungary; and in the year 800, was solemnly crowned emperor of the West by the pope.

GOVERNMENT.

ROME.

CONSTANTINE V., surnamed COPRONYMUS, emperor of the east, and son of the emperor Leo the Isaurian, was born in 719, and crowned in his infancy. He succeeded his father in 752; he was an enemy to the Catholic church, which regards his memory with the utmost detestation. His name of Copronymus was an opprobrious appellation given him from defiling the font at his baptism; and the bigoted Greek historians of the time have exhausted their invention in absurd calumnies respecting his person and character. It appears, however, that he undoubtedly exercised much cruelty towards the party which resisted his attempts for the abolition of image worship, and several ecclesiastics were put to death, and others mutilated under his persecutions. Soon after his succession, he engaged in a war with the Saracens, who had invaded Asia. During his absence, Artavasdes, his brother-in-law, placing himself at the head of the orthodox faction, usurped the throne, and caused Constantine to be deposed. A civil war ensued, in which Constantine, with the help of the Isaurians, defeated the usurper, and at length besieged him in Constantinople. The capital was compelled by famine to surrender, and Ârtavasdes and his son Nicephorus were deprived of sight by the conqueror, who severely punished all the principal promoters of the rebellion. He again marched against the Saracens, entered Syria, recovered several places from them, and entirely destroyed their fleet in Cyprus. These advantages, however, were interrupted by earthquakes, a pestilence, and other intestine calamities. From a successful expedition which he afterwards made into Armenia, he was recalled by an irruption of Bulgarians, who destroyed the whole country of Thrace. The emperor advanced against them, but was totally defeated, and obliged to take refuge in his capital. On a new irruption of the Bulgarians, he totally destroyed their army without the loss of a man. At home he continued to display his religious zeal in persecuting the image worshippers, and finding the monks supported this superstition, he dissolved their communities, confiscated their property, and abolished the profession. After this it may be conceived in what terms he is mentioned by the monkish historians. As he was proceeding to a new expedition against the Bulgarians, he was seized with a fever, and died at Strongylum in 775. 2 K

VOL. II.

LEO IV., emperor of the east. He was son of Constantine Copronymus, and a daughter of the chan of the Chozars. He was born in 750, and succeeded his father in 775. Being of a weak constitution both of body and mind, his first care was to secure the succession of his son Constantine, whom he had by Irene. He declared him his partner in the empire. Leo IV. was a determined enemy to image-worship. Having found two images under the pillow of the empress Irene, he is said never afterwards to have admitted her to his bed. He was successful against the Saracens. Leo died in 780. His death was, by the superstition of the age, imputed to the eruptions of carbuncles on his head, in consequence of his having worn a crown studded with jewels, which he had sacrilegiously taken from the great church of Constantinople.

IRENE, empress of Constantinople, was an Athenian orphan, distinguished only by her accomplishments, when, at the age of seventeen, she was married, in the year 769, to Leo IV. She was banished by her husband on account of her attachment to image worship, of which the Greek church disapproved, and which was very offensive to the emperor. On the death of Leo, in 780, she returned to the government, and was associated in the empire with her son, Constantine V., he being then but ten years of age. Both artful and cruel, she deposed her son in 797, and caused his eyes to be put out; and then reigned alone. On this occasion, she entered Constantinople in a grand chariot of state, attended by a splendid retinue. She made Charlemagne, the new emperor of the west, a proposal of marriage. This proposal was made with a view to her Italian dominions, which she was informed he intended to seize; and the marriage treaty was actually concluded, when Nicephorus, the patrician, conspired against Irene, seized her in her bed, and banished her to a nunnery in the island of Lesbos. After her fall, she requested to be allowed a decent competence, but was denied by those she had raised to splendour. She was forced to earn a scanty subsistence by her distaff, and died in penury the same year, 802. During her reign, she had submitted to be tributary to the Saracens. She governed under the direction of two ambitious eunuchs, who were perpetually plotting against each other.

CONSTANTINE VI., emperor of the east, the son of Leo IV., and Irene, an Athenian, was born in 770, and his father took him as a partner in the empire at five years of age. On the death of Leo, in 780, Constantine became sole master of the empire under the guardianship of his mother. She being an able and ambitious woman, kept her son as long as possible in a state of nonage, while she directed public affairs with sovereign authority. The contests for power betweeen the mother and son are the principal events of this reign. A conspiracy

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