e lavished on the vilest of men, who
flattered his passions and shared his pleasures; and in a reign of
thirteen years, the richest of sovereigns was compelled to strip the
palace and the churches of their precious furniture. Like Nero, he
delighted in the amusements of the theatre, and sighed to be surpassed
in the accomplishments in which he should have blushed to excel. Yet the
studies of Nero in music and poetry betrayed some symptoms of a liberal
taste; the more ignoble arts of the son of Theophilus were confined to
the chariot-race of the hippodrome. The four factions which had agitated
the peace, still amused the idleness, of the capital: for himself, the
emperor assumed the blue livery; the three rival colors were distributed
to his favorites, and in the vile though eager contention he forgot the
dignity of his person and the safety of his dominions. He silenced the
messenger of an invasion, who presumed to divert his attention in the
most critical moment of the race; and by his command, the importunate
beacons were extinguished, that too frequently spread the alarm from
Tarsus to Constantinople. The most skilful charioteers obtained the
first place in his confidence and esteem; their merit was profusely
rewarded the emperor feasted in their houses, and presented their
children at the baptismal font; and while he applauded his own
popularity, he affected to blame the cold and stately reserve of his
predecessors. The unnatural lusts which had degraded even the manhood
of Nero, were banished from the world; yet the strength of Michael
was consumed by the indulgence of love and intemperance. [1012] In
his midnight revels, when his passions were inflamed by wine, he was
provoked to issue the most sanguinary commands; and if any feelings of
humanity were left, he was reduced, with the return of sense, to approve
the salutary disobedience of his servants. But the most extraordinary
feature in the character of Michael, is the profane mockery of the
religion of his country. The superstition of the Greeks might indeed
excite the smile of a philosopher; but his smile would have been
rational and temperate, and he must have condemned the ignorant folly of
a youth who insulted the objects of public veneration. A buffoon of
the court was invested in the robes of the patriarch: his twelve
metropolitans, among whom the emperor was ranked, assumed their
ecclesiastical garments: they used or abused the sacred vessels of
the altar