?
Contents
AUTHOR'S NOTE
PROEM. BY THE OAKS OF ST. THEODORE
CHAPTER I. A HUMAN CHATTEL APPROACHING NEW ROME
CHAPTER II. A WHARF BY THE GOLDEN HORN
CHAPTER III. HOW FERGAL FOUND A MISTRESS
CHAPTER IV. KASIA AND LEO
CHAPTER V. AT THE SACRED PALACE
CHAPTER VI. THE HOUSE OF PEACE
CHAPTER VII. THE PROCESSION OF THE EMPRESS
CHAPTER VIII. A DEACON OF HAGIA SOPHIA
CHAPTER IX. THE HOUSE OF PEACE IS VIOLATED
CHAPTER X. THE TRIBUNAL OF THE PATRIARCH
CHAPTER XI. THE UNMAKING OF THE EMPEROR
CHAPTER XII. THE VILLA AT THERAPIA
CHAPTER XIII. A NIGHT ON THE MARMORA
CHAPTER XIV. THE CAPTAIN GENERAL OF ANATOLIA
CHAPTER XV. THE ISLE OF CEDARS
CHAPTER XVI. THE PIETY OF NEOKLES
CHAPTER XVII. BY THE RIVERS OF DAMASCUS
CHAPTER XVIII. THE DIVAN OF THE KALIF
CHAPTER XIX. A HAREM TRAGEDY
CHAPTER XX. AT AMORIUM
CHAPTER XXI. THE DISCOVERY OF KASIA
CHAPTER XXII. "LEO, TU VINCAS!"
CHAPTER XXIII. THE GUESTS AT SOPHIA'S WEDDING
CHAPTER XXIV. A COUNCIL AT GALATA
CHAPTER XXV. KALLINIKOS MAKES AN ANNOUNCEMENT
CHAPTER XXVI. THE COMING OF THE SARACENS
CHAPTER XXVII. THE EMPEROR SPEAKS FOR THE MAN
CHAPTER XXVIII. THE MIRACLE OF FIRE
CHAPTER XXIX. THE GATE OF ST. ROMANOS
CHAPTER XXX. IN THE CAMP OF MOSLEMAH
CHAPTER XXXI. THE ROAR OF THE LION
CHAPTER XXXII. HOW CYRUS REDEEMED HIS SOUL
CHAPTER XXXIII. EVAGRIOS CHOOSES HIS ROAD
CHAPTER XXXIV. THE BATHS OF XEUXIPPOS
CHAPTER XXXV. THE DOGS BEFRIEND SALOMA
CHAPTER XXXVI. THE TRIUMPH OF THE LION
CHAPTER XXXVII. THE GREAT CHRISTMAS
CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE GOLDEN APPLE
?
PROEM.-BY THE OAKS OF ST. THEODORE
THIS is the story which the monks who wrote the annals of the Christian Empire of Constantinople desired other ages to accept as true.
In the year which later generations would reckon as 705 A.D., on a certain midsummer's day a droning peace brooded over the village of St. Theodore. The village was very small, only a few white-walled, red-tiled houses and barns clustered around the grey stuccoed dome of the little church before which opened a market-place. The latter was sprinkled with a dozen oak-trees useful for tying cattle when the Thracian farmers gathered to barter their rural products. This, however, was not a market day, and the signs of life were few except just by the church where sprawled the low buildings of a tavern and posting station. Here travellers sometimes changed horses, for St. Theodore lay on the highroad betwixt Constantinople and Adrianople, and here also diverged a way southward to Kallipolis if one wanted to cross to Asia without first going to the capital.
It was, to repeat, a sleepy moment in the early afternoon. The long-haired “pope" of the church, having intoned his last office to an empty nave, was sitting with his red-cheeked wife at one of the small tables in the shade by the tavern door, each meditating over a pot of thin country wine. Two farmers' churls were throwing dice for a stake of three coppers at the next table, while a drover, an unkempt man in a dirty sheepskin coat, leaned on his crook-topped staff and recounted his adventures to Simmias, the idling inn-keeper.
“Yes, the pigs were sold at a good price,-praised be the Panagia! The recent uproars in Constantinople have made almost a famine, though the country is still so unsettled that I feel lucky to have trudged back these fifty miles with this wallet (he slapped his thigh) without attack or adventure. When I saw the old tavern I said, "Only three miles more to the farm,' and turned in to wet my throat after the dust."
“So old Justinian Slit-nose is back in the palace?" suggested Simmias, rubbing his face with a much-spotted apron.
“He's back and his temporary supplanters are in heaven or a place more fiery. Ai!but there was a strange sight! The merchant who bought the pigs got me a seat in the Hippodrome; up high, of course, but I could see very well. You know all about the Hippodrome?"
“I saw the "Blue' chariots win there four years ago," assented the inn-keeper.
“Well, that of course was when Justinian II was in exile. St. Kosmas smite me, but I can't remember how in these queer days they change around their "Sacred Clemencies' in the palace. Tiberius Aspimar must have been reigning then. As I remember it's just ten years since Leontios deposed Justinian, slit up his nose and packed him off to exile in Scythia; then after three years Tiberius deposed Leontios, shaved off hisnose in turn and clapped him in a monastery."
The publican plucked at his own nose, as if to make sure that familiar ornament was still in normal condition.
“Then, d'you see," continued the drover, “after seven odd years, Justinian breaks away from exile, gets help from the Bulgarians and retakes Constantinople."
“Haven't we heard all that?" retorted the other.
“No doubt," condescended his customer, “but perhaps you haven't heard what lately befell in the city while I was there. After Tiberius Aspimar had been deposed they dragged his nigh-forgotten rival Leontios out of his monastery. The restored Justinian had the two usurpers haled around the streets in chains, of course with a mob hooting and throwing offal. Then as many of us as could packed into the Hippodrome, everybody roaring and applauding together. Whereupon in came Justinian, clad in purple and gold, so splendid he could be seen clear across the arena, with all his "Protectors' shining in silvered armour around him. He took his seat in the Kathisma-that's the imperial box, you know-amid greater uproar still; and next they dragged in Leontios and Tiberius Aspimar. Poor wretches! They must have been nigh dead already. With my own eyes I saw them forced to prostrate themselves on the top step of the throne, and then Justinian put his right foot on the neck of one and his left on that of the other. Whereupon all the courtiers, Protectors and the Blue and Green faction leaders around the Kathisma took up a great chant, something from the Psalter, I think: "Thou shalt tread upon the LION and the ASP, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet!' And there those two miserable creatures had to lie while the chariots raced, and while we all wagered and cheered like mad. After that I've heard they took the usurpers away and chopped their heads off, also that Justinian burned out the old Patriarch's eyes and set up a new "Holy Beatitude' on the archbishop's throne in Hagia Sophia. Ai!These have been brisk days in Constantinople."
Simmias crossed himself with deliberation. “When I pray to the saints to-night," said he, “I shall give thanks that I sell wine in a quiet village and am neither Emperor nor Patriarch. Fine titles are fine things, but a firm neck and two good eyes seem better. Hei?-but what's that moving in the road?"
As a matter of fact two of the roads which converged near the church were clouded with dust, the one from the city obviously by two or three vehicles, the one from the north apparently by the approach of a large flock of sheep. The wagons rolled in rapidly and soon were halting at the tavern while Simmias ran forward.
“What are the kyrios'commands?" he began.
This is a free sample. Please purchase full version of the book to continue.
