ch they had felt. At another time, the friends of Zeno, as
they sat at table, were dazzled by the intolerable light which flashed
in their eyes from the reflecting mirrors of Anthemius; they were
astonished by the noise which he produced from the collision of certain
minute and sonorous particles; and the orator declared in tragic
style to the senate, that a mere mortal must yield to the power of
an antagonist, who shook the earth with the trident of Neptune, and
imitated the thunder and lightning of Jove himself. The genius of
Anthemius, and his colleague Isidore the Milesian, was excited and
employed by a prince, whose taste for architecture had degenerated into
a mischievous and costly passion. His favorite architects submitted
their designs and difficulties to Justinian, and discreetly confessed
how much their laborious meditations were surpassed by the intuitive
knowledge of celestial inspiration of an emperor, whose views were
always directed to the benefit of his people, the glory of his reign,
and the salvation of his soul. [102]

[Footnote 95: This conflagration is hinted by Lucian (in Hippia, c. 2)
and Galen, (l. iii. de Temperamentis, tom. i. p. 81, edit. Basil.)
in the second century. A thousand years afterwards, it is positively
affirmed by Zonaras, (l. ix. p. 424,) on the faith of Dion Cassius,
Tzetzes, (Chiliad ii. 119, &c.,) Eustathius, (ad Iliad. E. p. 338,) and
the scholiast of Lucian. See Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. l. iii. c. 22,
tom. ii. p. 551, 552,) to whom I am more or less indebted for several of
these quotations.]

[Footnote 96: Zonaras (l. xi. c. p. 55) affirms the fact, without
quoting any evidence.]

[Footnote 97: Tzetzes describes the artifice of these burning-glasses,
which he had read, perhaps, with no learned eyes, in a mathematical
treatise of Anthemius. That treatise has been lately published,
translated, and illustrated, by M. Dupuys, a scholar and a
mathematician, (Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom xlii p.
392--451.)]

[Footnote 98: In the siege of Syracuse, by the silence of Polybius,
Plutarch, Livy; in the siege of Constantinople, by that of Marcellinus
and all the contemporaries of the vith century.]

[Footnote 99: Without any previous knowledge of Tzetzes or Anthemius,
the immortal Buffon imagined and executed a set of burning-glasses, with
which he could inflame planks at the distance of 200 feet, (Supplement
a l'Hist. Naturelle, tom. i. 399--483, quarto edition