pher." Although he yielded implicit obedience, in common with his contemporaries, to the authority of Aristotle, and principally devoted himself to the office of interpreting and illustrating his writings, he directed his attention to other more important and useful studies. His name is mentioned among the mathematicians and astronomers of his age; and his medical writings, that are still extant, proved that he sustained a very honourable rank among the Arabian physicians.

MESUE, one of the early physicians among the Arabians, was born at Nisabour, in the province of Khorasan. He is said to have died in 816, or, according to other accounts, in 865. His father was an apothecary at Nisabour. Mesue was educated in the profession of physic by Gabriel, the son of George Baktishua, and through his favour was appointed physician to the hospital of his native city. Although a Christian of the Nestorian sect, he was in great favour with several successive caliphs, being reputed the ablest scholar and physician of his age. When the caliph Haroun al Raschid appointed his son, Al Mamon, to the viceroyalty of the province of Khorasan, M.Mesue was nominated his body physician, and was placed by him at the head of a college of learned men, which he instituted there. On his accession to the throne of the caliphs, in the year 813, Al Mamon brought Mesue to Bagdad, and made him a professor of medicine there, as well as superintendant of the great hospital, which situations he occupied a great number of years. He was also employed, under the auspices of the same caliph, in transferring the science of the Greeks to his own country, by translating their works. Freind is of opinion that Mesue wrote in the Syriac tongue, which prevailed in his native province, long before and after his time; for not only he, but the Baktishuas, are reckoned Syrians by Abulpharagius and Abi Osbaia, though born at Nisabour. He was the author of some works, which are cited by Pharez and other writers, which appear to have perished: for the works which are now extant in his name, do not correspond with these citations, nor with the character of them given by Haly Abbas; not to mention, that in these works the writings of Rhazes are quoted, who lived long after his time. Abi Osbaia enumerates thirty-seven books written by Mesue, among which is one upon purging, and another respecting decoctions.

PERIOD XXIV.

FROM THEOPHILUS TO CONSTANTINE VIII.

A.D.

[CENT. IX.]

REMARKABLE FACTS, EVENTS, AND DISCOVERIES.

800 Charlemagne, king of France, begins the empire of Germany, gives the present names to the winds and months, and endeavours to restore learning to Europe, then solely engrossed in military enterprizes.

808 The first descent of the Normans on France.

826 Harold, king of Denmark, dethroned by his subjects, for being a Christian. The kingdoms of Navarre and Arragon founded.

832 Painters banished out of the eastern empire.

840 The Scots and Picts have a decisive battle, in which the former prevail, and both kingdoms are united under Kenneth II.

842 Germany separated from the empire of the Franks.

861 Ruric, the first prince of Russia, began to reign.

864 The Danes begin their ravages in England.

867 Christianity propagated in Bulgaria.

868 Egypt becomes independant of the Caliphs of Bagdad.

874 Iceland peopled by the Norwegians. Scotland invaded by the Danes. 878 Alfred the Great, after subduing the Danish invaders, against whom he fought fifty-six battles, composes his body of laws, and divides England into counties, hundreds, and tythings.

886 Alfred founds the University of Oxford. 889 The Hungarians settled near the Danube. 890 Alfred erccts county courts.

THE state of the world at this time may be thus exhibited in miniature. The empire of the Arabs, or Saracens, comprehended the greater part of Asia and Africa, extending from the river Ganges to Spain. The Eastern, or Constantinopolitan empire, was much circumscribed, consisting only of Greece, Asia Minor, and the provinces adjoining to Italy, France, Germany, and the greatest part of Italy, composed the western empire, under Charlemagne. By far the greater part of the known world was therefore divided into three great empires. Britain, however, at this period was possessed by the Saxons, and divided into seven kingdoms, called the Saxon Heptarchy, between which, though unmolested by foreign enemies, there existed perpetual animosities and wars. The Venetians also retained a small portion of independance; the Picts and Scots enjoyed an unrestrained freedom; the Scandinavians, now known under the name of Danes and Normans, were equally in a state of liberty, and preparing to infest their southern neighbours. The great empires of China and Japan, by reason of their remoteness, lived unconcerned in the continental revolutions of the West. But what is most remarkable at this period is, that the autho

rity of the popes had become supreme; Charlemagne consented to receive his crown at the hands of his holiness, and the differences of his successors were submitted to papal arbitration. In 827 the Saxon Heptarchy was dissolved, and Egbert crowned sole monarch of England.

GOVERNMENT.

ROME.

THEOPHILUS, emperor of Constantinople, was the son of Michael II. the Stammerer, and succeeded his father in 829. He began his reign with the exercise of justice in its utmost rigour, heedless not only of the claims of gratitude, but of the feelings of humanity. His father had been indebted for the crown to the murderers of his predecessor Leo V. Theophilus, under a pretence of paying the debts of his father to those who had contributed to his elevation, summoned them, among other considerable persons in the empire, to his presence; and desiring the former to withdraw into an adjoining apartment, that their claims might be examined, he ordered them, on their own confession, to be capitally punished. In another case, a poor woman threw herself at his feet, complaining of the injury she had sustained from a powerful neighbour, the emperor's brother, who had raised the wall of his palace so high, that her humble dwelling was deprived of light and air. Theophilus gave her the palace, with the ground upon which it stood, and caused the offender to be stripped and scourged in the public square of the city. The effect of his singular rigour, though altogether undefensible, was that a scrutiny of seventeen days could not discover a single crime or abuse in the court or city.

During the emperor's whole reign he was engaged in wars with the Saracens, the detail of which we shall omit. Theophilus died in 842, after a reign of more than twelve years. His zeal against the worship of images has caused his character to be treated with great severity, and his faults to be exaggerated. Although he was inexcusably rigorous in his administration he was a reformer of manners. Of his superiority to avarice, and high ideas of the dignity of the regal character, the following anecdote furnishes an instance. Seeing one day a merchant ship, which was deeply laden, entering the harbour, of Constantinople, he asked the marines to whom it belonged; they replied, "to the empress." " God has made me," he exclaimed, "a prince, and is my wife a merchant? If princes trade their subjects must starve:" he then ordered the vessel to be set on fire with all her cargo.

ICASIA, spouse of the emperor Theophilus. He having

assembled the most beautiful young women of the empire, for the purpose of chusing a wife, fixed upon Icasia, and gave orders for her coronation; but on her answering some questions he proposed to her, in a manner at once learned and acute, he changed his mind. Icasia, therefore, retired to a monastery, where she composed many works.

BARDAS, the brother of the empress Theodora, and uncle of the famous Photius, is said to have had no other good quality besides that of loving the sciences, which he established in the eastern empire; for he was treacherous, cruel, and ambitious. In A.D. 856, he assassinated Theoctistes, general of the emperor Michael's forces, and obtained his post. He caused the disgrace of the empress Theodora; and St. Ignatius, patriarch of Constantinople, reproaching him for his vices, he had him deposed in 848 to make room for Photius. He was assassinated in 866, by Basilius, afterwards emperor.

MICHAEL III., emperor of the east, grandson of Michael II., and son of Theophilus, was born in 836, and succeeded to the empire in 842, on the death of his father. He was placed under the guardianship of his mother Theodora, a woman of virtue and piety, and who was a good friend to the Catholics. Michael, as he grew up, showed himself one of the most unworthy of the Roman emperors. He at first put himself under the influence of Bardas, his uncle, who persuaded him when in his twentieth year, to take the reins of government into his own hands. Theodora quitted the court, and with her daughters entered a monastery, where she soon died of grief. He soon lavished away all the treasures which his mother had accumulated. In imitation of Nero he pursued with great ardour the sports of the circus, assuming the colours of one of the parties, and bestowing his favour and confidence on the most skilful charioteers. He was guilty of great excess when in wine. It was one of his amusements to profane with mock solemnities the most sacred ordinances of religion. He undertook an expedition to the Euphrates against the Saracens, but his army was totally defeated. Two years afterwards he was again routed by the same enemy, who had invaded the empire; but his brother Patronas retrieved the honour of the empire, by obtaining a splendid victory over the Saracens, in which the caliph was slain, and his son taken prisoner. Bardas was still the prime minister of the emperor, whom he governed with an absolute sway, and who raised him to the dignity of Cæsar. Through his influence the patriarch Ignatius was deposed and imprisoned, and Photius was placed in his chair. In 866 Bardas persuaded Michael to undertake an expedition against the Saracens of Crete, who had made a descent upon Thrace, and had ravaged the country. However, it proved fatal to the adviser, who, having excited the jealousy of the emperor, was by

his orders put to death. The discontent of the soldiers at this arbitrary deed caused Michael to return privately to Constantinople, where he soon after raised Basil the Macedonian, who had been the cause and instrument of the execution of Bardas, to a partnership with him in the throne, and devolved upon him all the business of the state. Basil endeavoured to reclaim Michael, which so irritated him, that he determined upon the ruin of Basil. Being apprized of his danger, Basil resolved to strike the first blow. With some accomplices he entered the emperor's chamber, who was intoxicated with liquor, and despatched him with many wounds, A.D. 867, aged thirty one years.

BASIL I., surnamed the Macedonian, emperor of Constantinople, was the son of a small farmer, who resided near Adrianople, but who is said to have been descended from the royal house of Armenian Arsacides. Basil when an infant was carried with his family, into captivity by the Bulgarians, by whom he was brought up a slave, but was at length restored to his own country along with a great number of other Roman captives. On the death of his father, finding himself destitute of support, he came to Constantinople with no other property than his staff and wallet, and slept for the first night on the steps of a church. He was relieved by a monk, who perceiving him to be a tall and personable youth, recommended him to a nobleman, who took him into his service, and made him master of his horse. He attracted the regard of a wealthy matron of Patras, who adopted him, and bestowed on him large presents. At length by his success in having vanquished, at a royal banquet, a barbarian in wrestling, and taming a vicious horse, he was noticed by the emperor Michael III., who gave him an honourable post in his stables. He also gave him for wife, one of his concubines, and took Basil's sister as her successor. At length he was raised to the office of great chamberlain of the palace, and the highest place in the emperor's favour. Cæsar Bardas, the emperor's uncle, becoming jealous of him, resolved to ruin him. Basil however was before-hand with him. Supported by female influence, he excited Michael's fears of Bardas, and obtained an order to put him to death, which he did by stabing him in the imperial tent. Soon after this event, Basil was raised to a share in the empire, which terminated in the death of Michael who was assassinated. Basil thus put in possession of the sovereignty, showed himself not unworthy of the high station, and may be reckoned as one of the most estimable of the emperors in that late period. He governed with so much justice and moderation, that his subjects looked upon him as a father. He improved and rendered less burthensome the administration of the finances; reformed the imperial household, and gave a new system of jurisprudence, by digesting and recomposing in the Greek language such of the voluminous body