ession of
Evagrius) a perfect aristocracy of reason and virtue. Some suspicion
will degrade the testimony of a subject, though he protests that his
secret praise should never reach the ear of his sovereign, [31] and some
failings seem to place the character of Maurice below the purer merit
of his predecessor. His cold and reserved demeanor might be imputed
to arrogance; his justice was not always exempt from cruelty, nor his
clemency from weakness; and his rigid economy too often exposed him to
the reproach of avarice. But the rational wishes of an absolute monarch
must tend to the happiness of his people. Maurice was endowed with
sense and courage to promote that happiness, and his administration was
directed by the principles and example of Tiberius. The pusillanimity of
the Greeks had introduced so complete a separation between the offices
of king and of general, that a private soldier, who had deserved and
obtained the purple, seldom or never appeared at the head of his armies.
Yet the emperor Maurice enjoyed the glory of restoring the Persian
monarch to his throne; his lieutenants waged a doubtful war against the
Avars of the Danube; and he cast an eye of pity, of ineffectual pity, on
the abject and distressful state of his Italian provinces.

[Footnote 29: It is therefore singular enough that Paul (l. iii. c. 15)
should distinguish him as the first Greek emperor--primus ex Graecorum
genere in Imperio constitutus. His immediate predecessors had in deed
been born in the Latin provinces of Europe: and a various reading, in
Graecorum Imperio, would apply the expression to the empire rather than
the prince.]

[Footnote 30: Consult, for the character and reign of Maurice, the fifth
and sixth books of Evagrius, particularly l. vi. c. l; the eight books
of his prolix and florid history by Theophylact Simocatta; Theophanes,
p. 213, &c.; Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiv. p. 73; Cedrenus, p. 394.]

[Footnote 31: Evagrius composed his history in the twelfth year of
Maurice; and he had been so wisely indiscreet that the emperor know and
rewarded his favorable opinion, (l. vi. c. 24.)]

From Italy the emperors were incessantly tormented by tales of misery
and demands of succor, which extorted the humiliating confession of
their own weakness. The expiring dignity of Rome was only marked by the
freedom and energy of her complaints: "If you are incapable," she said,
"of delivering us from the sword of the Lombards, save us at least fro