History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 4Gibbon, Edward
History
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 4
Gibbon, Edward
Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
labors, and you neglect your benefactors. Hasten your return,
inform your master that a Turk is incapable of uttering or
forgiving falsehood, and that he shall speedily meet the
punishment which he deserves. While he solicits my friendship
with flattering and hollow words, he is sunk to a confederate of
my fugitive Varchonites. If I condescend to march against those
contemptible slaves, they will tremble at the sound of our whips;
they will be trampled, like a nest of ants, under the feet of my
innumerable cavalry. I am not ignorant of the road which they
have followed to invade your empire; nor can I be deceived by the
vain pretence, that Mount Caucasus is the impregnable barrier of
the Romans. I know the course of the Niester, the Danube, and the
Hebrus; the most warlike nations have yielded to the arms of the
Turks; and from the rising to the setting sun, the earth is my
inheritance.” Notwithstanding this menace, a sense of mutual
advantage soon renewed the alliance of the Turks and Romans: but
the pride of the great khan survived his resentment; and when he
announced an important conquest to his friend the emperor
Maurice, he styled himself the master of the seven races, and the
lord of the seven climates of the world. 37
35 (return) [ Theophanes, (Chron. p. 204,) and the Hist.
Miscella, (l. xvi. p. 110,) as understood by De Guignes, (tom. i.
part ii. p. 354,) appear to speak of a Turkish embassy to
Justinian himself; but that of Maniach, in the fourth year of his
successor Justin, is positively the first that reached
Constantinople, (Menander p. 108.)]
36 (return) [ The Russians have found characters, rude
hieroglyphics, on the Irtish and Yenisei, on medals, tombs,
idols, rocks, obelisks, &c., (Strahlenberg, Hist. of Siberia, p.
324, 346, 406, 429.) Dr. Hyde (de Religione Veterum Persarum, p.
521, &c.) has given two alphabets of Thibet and of the Eygours. I
have long harbored a suspicion, that all the Scythian, and some,
perhaps much, of the Indian science, was derived from the Greeks
of Bactriana. * Note: Modern discoveries give no confirmation to
this suspicion. The character of Indian science, as well as of
their literature and mythology, indicates an original source.
Grecian art may have occasionally found its way into India. One
or two of the sculptures in Col. Tod’s account of the Jain
temples, if correct, show a finer outline, and purer sense of
beauty, than appears native to India, where the monstrous always
predominated over simple nature.—M.]
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