Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1882-11-03
PrOccpius and Gihhon.

Procopius and Gihhon.
from the British Quarterly Revew.l
Among all the great scenes of history,
earlier and later, the memory of which gath
ers round the wall of Aurelian, none stands
out with stronger charm and a deeper in.
terest than the long tale of the sieges. the
captures, and the deliverances Of Rome in
the wars of the sixth century. Rome de-
Tended by Belisarius against Witigis, won
back again by Totilas from Bessas, condemn
ed to destruction by the hero who had won
her, and saved by the pleadings of the here
who had failed to relieve her-Rome left
without inhabitants to be again won back by
Belisarius, to be again betrayed to Totilas-
Rome beholding the games of her circus
celebrated for the last time under the eye of
the Gothic King, and presently, when Totil
as had fallen, beholding the entry and the
pious triumph of the eunuch conqueror-all
this done in a single reign, within time of
16 yea. s, forms in itself of the most
stirring tales that the ohronicler even of
Rome has to tell. 1t forms, too, in the view
Of general history, an important part in one
of the most instructive chains of events that
the world ever saw. And it need hardly be
added that the tale is of the highest local
interest, that it brings out many features of
the local Rome, as it stood in that day, with
special iveliness This last attraction Is OK
course, largely owing to the good luck of
this particular period, moro lucky than times
just before and times just after, in having
found contemporary historian who knew
how history should be written. We might
also add that it has been told afresh in later
times by modern writer who knew how to
use his materials, who knew how to tell his
tale, and who grasped both the oecumenical
and the local side of the tale which he was
telling. Procopius and Gibbon are alike
exceptional men in their several ages; the
earlier historian is little like the ordinary
run of writers of the sixth century as the
latter is like the ordinary run of writer's of
the eighteenth. Each scars above the men
of his own time, though each in different
way. Procopius reads like writer of old
Greece who has lived on into the days of
emperors and patriarchs; Gibbon reads like
| a writer of later, more careful, and more
critical age, who was somehow born before
| his time. And the charm of both narratives
| naturally grows when they are read among
the scenes which they describe. The older
| and the newer writer alike we'll knew the
| ground they were working Gibbon knew it
as it had been changed by the revolutions OF
| the 1 200 years which had passed since the
| days of which he was writing. But in Pro.
Gopius too the antiquarian and Typographical
| spirit shows itself in a way in which it hard
ly could be shown in writer's much earlier
| In speaking of Rome, Procoplus has ever
the past before him he is ever comparing
the Rome of his own day with the Rome OF
| an earlier day. We constantly struck by
the references. references not made without
certain telling of awe, "To the men o.
old, " ''the Romans of Old" In the latter
phrase, indeed, there is no doubt an uncon
scious feeling of wonder at the changed uss
of the word Roman" in his own day, FL
himself uses it in two senses. In genera
military or political narrative it means an.
| subject or soldier of the Roman Empire
whatever might be his descent or birthplace
| In a local sense it means strictly the inhabi
, | tants of the elder Rome. But the Roman
| of old" stand forth in the imagination of Pro
copius something different from either
They were the makers of mighty works
some of which were already disused or eve
ruined in his day. And few men with s
. keen eye as his both for the present an
the past had so good an opportunity of lool
3 ing on Rome in it's wonderful transitions
period. Procopius beheld Rome when til
later day had begun, but when the older da
had not wholly passed away. He saw tn
| city when the Church of st. Peter withor
q the walls was still in the glory of its Garlic
Q building, but when the Temple of Jupiter Q
q the capitol still stood whole. though de
/, | poiled and forsaken. He studied the mint
Of men in day when the mass of the Roma
Q people trusted to the Prince of the Apostl
g as the surest guardian of their broken wal
g but when there were still few who shove
Il their secret clinging to the elder creed
striving to turn the rusty hinges of the ga
of Janus