m this scanty fund of foreign
and domestic materials, I shall investigate the form and substance of
the Byzantine empire; the provinces and wealth, the civil government and
military force, the character and literature, of the Greeks in a period
of six hundred years, from the reign of Heraclius to his successful
invasion of the Franks or Latins.

[Footnote 8: The life and writings of Simon Metaphrastes are described
by Hankius, (de Scriptoribus Byzant. p. 418-460.) This biographer
of the saints indulged himself in a loose paraphrase of the sense or
nonsense of more ancient acts. His Greek rhetoric is again paraphrased
in the Latin version of Surius, and scarcely a thread can be now visible
of the original texture.]

[Footnote 9: According to the first book of the Cyropaedia, professors
of tactics, a small part of the science of war, were already instituted
in Persia, by which Greece must be understood. A good edition of all the
Scriptores Tactici would be a task not unworthy of a scholar. His
industry might discover some new Mss., and his learning might illustrate
the military history of the ancients. But this scholar should be
likewise a soldier; and alas! Quintus Icilius is no more. * Note: M.
Guichardt, author of Memoires Militaires sur les Grecs et sur les
Romains. See Gibbon's Extraits Raisonnees de mes Lectures, Misc. Works
vol. v. p. 219.--M]

[Footnote 10: After observing that the demerit of the Cappadocians
rose in proportion to their rank and riches, he inserts a more pointed
epigram, which is ascribed to Demodocus. The sting is precisely the same
with the French epigram against Freron: Un serpent mordit Jean
Freron--Eh bien? Le serpent en mourut. But as the Paris wits are seldom
read in the Anthology, I should be curious to learn, through what
channel it was conveyed for their imitation, (Constantin. Porphyrogen.
de Themat. c. ii. Brunck Analect. Graec. tom. ii. p. 56. Brodaei
Anthologia, l. ii. p. 244.)]

[Footnote 11: The Legatio Liutprandi Episcopi Cremonensis ad Nicephorum
Phocam is inserted in Muratori, Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom. ii.
pars i.]

After the final division between the sons of Theodosius, the swarms
of Barbarians from Scythia and Germany over-spread the provinces and
extinguished the empire of ancient Rome. The weakness of Constantinople
was concealed by extent of dominion: her limits were inviolate, or at
least entire; and the kingdom of Justinian was enlarged by the splendid
acq