s and fight on foot. Unpractised in the use of pikes, or of missile
weapons, they were encumbered by the length of their swords, the weight
of their armor, the magnitude of their shields, and, if I may repeat
the satire of the meagre Greeks, by their unwieldy intemperance. Their
independent spirit disdained the yoke of subordination, and abandoned
the standard of their chief, if he attempted to keep the field beyond
the term of their stipulation or service. On all sides they were open to
the snares of an enemy less brave but more artful than themselves. They
might be bribed, for the Barbarians were venal; or surprised in the
night, for they neglected the precautions of a close encampment or
vigilant sentinels. The fatigues of a summer's campaign exhausted their
strength and patience, and they sunk in despair if their voracious
appetite was disappointed of a plentiful supply of wine and of food.
This general character of the Franks was marked with some national and
local shades, which I should ascribe to accident rather than to climate,
but which were visible both to natives and to foreigners. An ambassador
of the great Otho declared, in the palace of Constantinople, that the
Saxons could dispute with swords better than with pens, and that they
preferred inevitable death to the dishonor of turning their backs to an
enemy. It was the glory of the nobles of France, that, in their humble
dwellings, war and rapine were the only pleasure, the sole occupation,
of their lives. They affected to deride the palaces, the banquets,
the polished manner of the Italians, who in the estimate of the Greeks
themselves had degenerated from the liberty and valor of the ancient
Lombards.

By the well-known edict of Caracalla, his subjects, from Britain to
Egypt, were entitled to the name and privileges of Romans, and their
national sovereign might fix his occasional or permanent residence in
any province of their common country. In the division of the East and
West, an ideal unity was scrupulously observed, and in their titles,
laws, and statutes, the successors of Arcadius and Honorius announced
themselves as the inseparable colleagues of the same office, as the
joint sovereigns of the Roman world and city, which were bounded by the
same limits. After the fall of the Western monarchy, the majesty of the
purple resided solely in the princes of Constantinople; and of these,
Justinian was the first who, after a divorce of sixty years, regained