Dante's Paradiso: Canto VI
Justinian. The Roman Eagle. The Empire. Romeo.
"After that Constantine the eagle turned
Against the course of heaven, which it had followed
Behind the ancient who Lavinia took,
Two hundred years and more the bird of God
In the extreme of Europe held itself, 5
Near to the mountains whence it issued first;
And under shadow of the sacred plumes
It governed there the world from hand to hand,
And, changing thus, upon mine own alighted.
Caesar I was, and am Justinian, 10
Who, by the will of primal Love I feel,
Took from the laws the useless and redundant;
And ere unto the work I was attent,
One nature to exist in Christ, not more,
Believed, and with such faith was I contented. 15
But blessed Agapetus, he who was
The supreme pastor, to the faith sincere
Pointed me out the way by words of his.
Him I believed, and what was his assertion
I now see clearly, even as thou seest 20
Each contradiction to be false and true.
As soon as with the Church I moved my feet,
God in his grace it pleased with this high task
To inspire me, and I gave me wholly to it,
And to my Belisarius I commended 25
The arms, to which was heaven's right hand so joined
It was a signal that I should repose.
Now here to the first question terminates
My answer; but the character thereof
Constrains me to continue with a sequel, 30
In order that thou see with how great reason
Men move against the standard sacrosanct,
Both who appropriate and who oppose it.
Behold how great a power has made it worthy
Of reverence, beginning from the hour 35
When Pallas died to give it sovereignty.
Thou knowest it made in Alba its abode
Three hundred years and upward, till at last
The three to three fought for it yet again.
Thou knowest what it achieved from Sabine wrong 40
Down to Lucretia's sorrow, in seven kings
O'ercoming round about the neighboring nations;
Thou knowest what it achieved, borne by the Romans
Illustrious against Brennus, against Pyrrhus,
Against the other princes and confederates. 45
Torquatus thence and Quinctius, who from locks
Unkempt was named, Decii and Fabii,
Received the fame I willingly embalm;
It struck to earth the pride of the Arabians,
Who, following Hannibal, had passed across 50
The Alpine ridges, Po, from which thou glidest;
Beneath it triumphed while they yet were young
Pompey and Scipio, and to the hill
Beneath which thou wast born it bitter seemed;
Then, near unto the time when heaven had willed 55
To bring the whole world to its mood serene,
Did Caesar by the will of Rome assume it.
What it achieved from Var unto the Rhine,
Isere beheld and Saone, beheld the Seine,
And every valley whence the Rhone is filled; 60
What it achieved when it had left Ravenna,
And leaped the Rubicon, was such a flight
That neither tongue nor pen could follow it.
Round towards Spain it wheeled its legions; then
Towards Durazzo, and Pharsalia smote 65
That to the calid Nile was felt the pain.
Antandros and the Simois, whence it started,
It saw again, and there where Hector lies,
And ill for Ptolemy then roused itself.
From thence it came like lightning upon Juba; 70
Then wheeled itself again into your West,
Where the Pompeian clarion it heard.
From what it wrought with the next standard-bearer
Brutus and Cassius howl in Hell together,
And Modena and Perugia dolent were; 75
Still doth the mournful Cleopatra weep
Because thereof, who, fleeing from before it,
Took from the adder sudden and black death.
With him it ran even to the Red Sea shore;
With him it placed the world in so great peace, 80
That unto Janus was his temple closed.
But what the standard that has made me speak
Achieved before, and after should achieve
Throughout the mortal realm that lies beneath it,
Becometh in appearance mean and dim, 85
If in the hand of the third Caesar seen
With eye unclouded and affection pure,
Because the living Justice that inspires me
Granted it, in the hand of him I speak of,
The glory of doing vengeance for its wrath. 90
Now here attend to what I answer thee;
Later it ran with Titus to do vengeance
Upon the vengeance of the ancient sin.
And when the tooth of Lombardy had bitten
The Holy Church, then underneath its wings 95
Did Charlemagne victorious succor her.
Now hast thou power to judge of such as those
Whom I accused above, and of their crimes,
Which are the cause of all your miseries.
To the public standard one the yellow lilies 100
Opposes, the other claims it for a party,
So that 'tis hard to see which sins the most.
Let, let the Ghibellines ply their handicraft
Beneath some other standard; for this ever
Ill follows he who it and justice parts. 105
And let not this new Charles e'er strike it down,
He and his Guelfs, but let him fear the talons
That from a nobler lion stripped the fell.
Already oftentimes the sons have wept
The father's crime; and let him not believe 110
That God will change His scutcheon for the lilies.
This little planet doth adorn itself
With the good spirits that have active been,
That fame and honour might come after them;
And whensoever the desires mount thither, 115
Thus deviating, must perforce the rays
Of the true love less vividly mount upward.
But in commensuration of our wages
With our desert is portion of our joy,
Because we see them neither less nor greater. 120
Herein doth living Justice sweeten so
Affection in us, that for evermore
It cannot warp to any iniquity.
Voices diverse make up sweet melodies;
So in this life of ours the seats diverse 125
Render sweet harmony among these spheres;
And in the compass of this present pearl
Shineth the sheen of Romeo, of whom
The grand and beauteous work was ill rewarded.
But the Provencals who against him wrought, 130
They have not laughed, and therefore ill goes he
Who makes his hurt of the good deeds of others.
Four daughters, and each one of them a queen,
Had Raymond Berenger, and this for him
Did Romeo, a poor man and a pilgrim; 135
And then malicious words incited him
To summon to a reckoning this just man,
Who rendered to him seven and five for ten.
Then he departed poor and stricken in years,
And if the world could know the heart he had, 140
In begging bit by bit his livelihood,
Though much it laud him, it would laud him more."
NOTES
1 - 1
The Heaven of Mercury continued.
In the year 330, Constantine, after his conversion and baptism by Sylvester (Inf. XXVII. Note 94), removed the seat of empire from Rome to Byzantium, which received from him its more modern name of Constantinople. He called it also New Rome; and, having promised to the Senators and their families that they should soon tread again on Roman soil, he had the streets of Constantinople strewn with earth which he had brought from Rome in ships.
The transfer of the empire from west to east was turning the imperial eagle against the course of heaven, which it had followed in coming from Troy to Italy with AEneas, who married Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus, and was the founder of the Roman Empire.
4 - 4
From 324, when the seat of empire was transferred to Constantinople by Constantine, to 527, when the reign of Justinian began.
5 - 5
The mountains of Asia, between Constantinople and the site of Troy.
10 - 10
Caesar, or Kaiser, the general title of all the Roman Emperors.
The character of Justinian is thus sketched by Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Ch. XLIII.: –
“The Emperor was easy of access, patient of hearing, courteous and
affable to discourse, and a master of the angry passions, which
rage with such destructive violence in the breast of a despot.
Procopius praises his temper to reproach him with calm and
deliberate cruelty; but in the conspiracies which attacked his
authority and person, a more candid judge will approve the justice
or admire the clemency of Justinian. He excelled in the private
virtues of chastity and temperance; but the impartial love of
beauty would have been less mischievous than his conjugal
tenderness for Theodora; and his abstemious diet was regulated,
not by the prudence of a philosopher, but the superstition of a
monk. His repasts were short and frugal; on solemn fasts he
contented himself with water and vegetables; and such was his
strength as well as fervor, that he frequently passed two days,
and as many nights, without tasting any food. The measure of his
sleep was not less rigorous; after the repose of a single hour the
body was awakened by the soul, and, to the astonishment of his
chamberlain, Justinian walked or studied till the morning light.
Such restless application prolonged his time for the acquisition
of knowledge and the despatch of business; and he might seriously
deserve the reproach of confounding, by minute and preposterous
diligence, the general order of his administration. The Emperor
professed himself a musician and architect, a poet and
philosopher, a lawyer and theologian; and if he failed in the
enterprise of reconciling the Christian sects, the review of the
Roman jurisprudence is a noble monument of his spirit and
industry. In the government of the empire he was less wise or
less successful: the age was unfortunate; the people was oppressed
and discontented; Theodora abused her power; a succession of bad
ministers disgraced his judgment; and Justinian was neither
beloved in his life, nor regretted at his death. The love of fame
was deeply implanted in his breast, but he condescended to the
poor ambition of titles, honors, and contemporary praise; and
while he labored to fix the admiration, he forfeited the esteem
and affection of the Romans.”12 - 12
Of the reform of the Roman Laws, by which they were reduced from two thousand volumes to fifty, Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Ch. XLIV., says: “The vain titles of the victories of Justinian are crumbled into dust; but the name of the legislator is inscribed on a fair and everlasting monument. Under his reign, and by his care, the civil jurisprudence was digested in the immortal works of the CODE, the PANDECT, and the INSTITUTES; the public reason of the Romans has been silently or studiously transfused into the domestic institutions of Europe, and the laws of Justinian still command the respect or obedience of independent nations. Wise or fortunate is the prince who connects his own reputation with the honor and interest of a perpetual order of men.”
This is what Dante alludes to, Purg. VI. 89: –
What boots it, that for thee Justinian
The bridle mend, if empty be the saddle?“14 - 14
The heresy of Eutyches, who maintained that only the Divine nature existed in Christ, not the human; and consequently that the Christ crucified was not the real Christ, but a phantom.
16 - 16
Agapetus was Pope, or Bishop of Rome, in the year 515, and was compelled by King Theodotus the Ostrogoth to go upon an embassy to the Emperor Justinian at Constantinople, where he refused to hold any communication with Anthimus, Bishop of Trebizond, who, against the canon of the Church, had been transferred from his own see to that of Constantinople. Milman, Hist. Latin Christ., I. 460, says: ”Agapetus, in a conference, condescended to satisfy the Emperor as to his own unimpeachable orthodoxy. Justinian sternly commanded him to communicate with Anthimus. 'With the Bishop of Trebizond,' replied the unawed ecclesiastic, 'when he has returned to his diocese, and accepted the Council of Chalcedon and the letters of Leo.' The Emperor in a louder voice commanded him to acknowledge the Bishop of Constantinople on pain of immediate exile. 'I came hither in my old age to see, as I supposed, a religious and a Christian Emperor; I find a new Diocletian. But I fear not kings' menaces, I am ready to lay down my life for the truth.' The feeble mind of Justinian passed at once from the height of arrogance to admiration and respect; he listened to the charges advanced by Agapetus against the orthodoxy of Anthimus. In his turn the Bishop of Constantinople was summoned to render an account of his theology before the Emperor, convicted of Eutychianism, and degraded from the see.“
25 - 25
Belisarius, the famous general, to whom Justinian gave the leadership of his armies in Africa and Italy. In his old age he was suspected of conspiring against the Emperor's life; but the accusation was not proved. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Ch. XLI., speaks of him thus: ”The Africanus of new Rome was born, and perhaps educated, among the Thracian peasants, without any of those advantages which had formed the virtues of the elder and the younger Scipio, – a noble origin, liberal studies, and the emulation of a free state. The silence of a loquacious secretary may be admitted, to prove that the youth of Belisarius could not afford any subject of praise: he served, most assuredly with valor and reputation, among the private guards of Justinian; and when his patron became Emperor, the domestic was promoted to military command.“
And of his last years as follows, Ch. XLIII.: ”Capricious pardon and arbitrary punishment embittered the irksomeness and discontent of a long reign; a conspiracy was formed in the palace, and, unless we are deceived by the names of Marcellus and Sergius, the most virtuous and the most profligate of the courtiers were associated in the same designs. They had fixed the time of the execution; their rank gave them access to the royal banquet, and their black slaves were stationed in the vestibule and porticos to announce the death of the tyrant, and to excite a sedition in the capital. But the indiscretion of an accomplice saved the poor remnant of the days of Justinian. The conspirators were detected and seized, with daggers hidden under their garments; Marcellus died by his own hand, and Sergius was dragged from the sanctuary. Pressed by remorse, or tempted by the hopes of safety, he accused two officers of the household of Belisarius; and torture forced them to declare that they had acted according to the secret instructions of their patron. Posterity will not hastily believe that an hero who, in the vigor of life, had disdained the fairest offers of ambition and revenge, should stoop to the murder of his prince, whom he could not long expect to survive. His followers were impatient to fly; but flight must have been supported by rebellion, and he had lived enough for nature and for glory. Belisarius appeared before the council with less fear than indignation; after forty years' service, the Emperor had prejudged his guilt; and injustice was sanctified by the presence and authority of the patriarch. The life of Belisarius was graciously spared; but his fortunes were sequestered, and from December to July he was guarded as a prisoner in his own palace. At length his innocence was acknowledged; his freedom and honors were restored; and death which might be hastened by resentment and grief, removed him from the world about eight months after his deliverance. The name of Belisarius can never die; but instead of the funeral, the monuments, the statues, so justly due to his memory, I only read that his treasures, the spoils of the Goths and Vandals, were immediately confiscated for the Emperor. Some decent portion was reserved, however, for the use of his widow; and as Antonina had much to repent, she devoted the last remains of her life and fortune to the foundation of a convent. Such is the simple and genuine narrative of the fall of Belisarius and the ingratitude of Justinian. That he was deprived of his eyes, and reduced by envy to beg his bread, – 'Give a penny to Belisarius the general!' – is a fiction of later times, which has obtained credit, or rather favor, as a strange example of the vicissitudes of fortune.“
36 - 36
The son of Evander, sent to assist AEneas and slain by Turnus. Virgil, AEneid, X., Davidson's Tr.: ”Turnus, long poising a javelin tipped with sharpened steel, darts it at Pallas, and thus speaks: See whether ours be not the more penetrating dart. He said; and with a quivering stroke the point pierces through the mid-shield, through so many plates of iron, so many of brass, while the bull's hide so many times encompasses it, and through the corselet's cumbrous folds transfixes his breast with a hideous gash. He in vain wrenches out the reeking weapon from the wound; at one and the same passage the blood and soul issue forth. Down on his wound he falls: over him his armor gave a clang; and in death with bloody jaws he bites the hostile ground.“
37 - 37
In Alba Longa, built by Ascanius, son of AEneas, on the borders of the Alban Lake. The period of three hundred years is traditionary, not historic.
39 - 39
The Horatii and Curatii.
40 - 40
From the rape of the Sabine women, in the days of Romulus, the first of the seven kings of Rome, down to the violence done to Lucretia by Tarquinius Superbus, the last of them.
44 - 44
Brennus was the king of the Gauls, who, entering Rome unopposed, found the city deserted, and the Senators seated in their ivory chairs in the Forum, so silent and motionless that his soldiers took them for the statues of gods. He burned the city and laid siege to the Capitol, whither the people had fled for safety, and which was preserved from surprise by the cackling of the sacred geese in the Temple of Juno. Finally Brennus and his army were routed by Camillus, and tradition says that not one escaped.
Pyrrhus was a king of Epirus, who boasted his descent from Achilles, and whom Hannibal called ”the greatest of commanders.“ He was nevertheless driven out of Italy by Curius, his army of eighty thousand being routed by thirty thousand Romans; whereupon he said that, ”if he had soldiers like the Romans, or if the Romans had him for a general, he would leave no corner of the earth unseen, and no nation unconquered.“
46 - 46
Titus Manlius, surnamed Torquatus, from the collar (torques) which he took from a fallen foe; and Quinctius, surnamed Cincinnatus, or ”the curly-haired.“
47 - 47
Three of the Decii, father, son, and grandson, sacrificed their lives in battle at different times for their country. The Fabii also rendered signal services to the state, but are chiefly known in history through one of their number, Quinctius Maximus, surnamed Cunctator, or the Delayer, from whom we have ”the Fabian policy.“
53 - 53
The hill of Fiesole, overlooking Florence, where Dante was born.
Fiesole was destroyed by the Romans for giving refuge to Cataline and his fellow conspirators.
55 - 55
The birth of Christ. Milton, Hymn on the morning of Christ's Nativity, 3, 4: –
”But he, her fears to cease,
Sent down the meek – eyed Peace:
She, crowned with olive – green, came softly sliding
Down through the turning sphere,
His ready harbinger,
With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing;
And waving wide her myrtle wand,
She strikes a universal peace through sea and land.
“No war or battle's sound
Was heard the world around:
The idle spear and shield were high up hung;
The hooked chariot stood
Unstained with hostile blood;
The trumpet spake not to the armed throng;
And kings sat still with awful eye,
As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.”65 - 65
Durazzo in Macedonia, and Pharsalia in Thessaly.
66 - 66
Gower, Conf. Amant., II.: –
“That one sleeth, and that other sterveth,
But aboven all his prise deserveth
This knightly Romain; where he rode
His dedly swerd no man abode,
Ayen the which was no defence:
Egipte fledde in his presence.”67 - 67
Antandros, a city, and Simois, a river, near Troy, whence came the Roman eagle with AEneas into Italy.
69 - 69
It was an evil hour for Ptolemy, when Caesar took from him the kingdom of Egypt, and gave it to Cleopatra.
70 - 70
Juba, king of Numidia, who protected Pompey, Cato, and Scipio after the battle of Pharsalia. Being conquered by Caesar, his realm became a Roman province, of which Sallust the historian was the first governor.
Milton, Sams. Agon., 1695: –
“But as an eagle
His cloudless thunder bolted on their heads.”71 - 71
Towards Spain, where some remnants of Pompey's army still remained under his two sons. When these were subdued the civil war was at an end.
73 - 73
Octavius Augustus, nephew of Julius Caesar. At the battle of Philippi he defeated Brutus and Cassius, and established the Empire.
75 - 75
On account of the great slaughter made by Augustus in his battles with Mark Antony and his brother Lucius, in the neighbourhood of these cities.
81 - 81
Augustus closed the gates of the temple of Janus as a sign of universal peace, in the year of Christ's birth.
86 - 86
Tiberius Caesar.
90 - 90
The crucifixion of Christ, in which the Romans took part in the person of Pontius Pilate.
92 - 92
The destruction of Jerusalem under Titus, which avenged the crucifixion.
94 - 94
When the Church was assailed by the Lombards, who were subdued by Charlemagne.
98 - 98
Referring back to line 31: –
In order that thou see with how great reason
Men move against the standard sacrosanct,
Both who appropriate and who oppose it.“100 - 100
The Golden Lily, or Fleur-de-lis of France. The Guelfs, uniting with the French, opposed the Ghibellines, who had appropriated the imperial standard to their own party purposes.
106 - 106
Charles II. of Apulia, son of Charles of Anjou.
111 - 111
Change the imperial eagle for the lilies of France.
112 - 112
Mercury is the smallest of the planets, with the exception of the Asteroids, being sixteen times smaller than the Earth.
114 - 114
Speaking of the planet Mercury, Buti says: ”We are now to consider the effects which Mercury produces upon us in the world below, for which honor and blame are given to the planet; for as Albumasar says in the introduction to his seventh treatise, ninth division, where he treats of the nature of the planets and of their properties, Mercury signifies these twenty- two things among others, namely, desire of knowledge and of seeing secret things; interpretation of the Deity, of oracles and prophecies; fore-knowledge of things future; knowledge and profundity of knowledge in profound books; study of wisdom; memory of stories and tales; eloquence with polish of language; subtilty of genius; desire of lordship; appetite of praise and fame; color and subtilty of speech; subtilty of genius in everything to which man betakes himself; desire of perfection; cunning of hand in all arts; practice of trade; selling, buying, giving, receiving, stealing, cheating; concealing thoughts in the mind; change of habits; youthfulness, lust, abundance, murmurs, lies, false testimony, and many other things as being therein contained. And therefore our author feigns, that those who have been active in the world, and have lived with political and moral virtues, show themselves in the sphere of Mercury, because Mercury exercises such influence, according to the astrologers, as been shown; but it is in man's free will to follow the good influence and avoid the bad, and hence springs the merit and demerit.“
Milton, Lycidas, 70: –
”Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise,
(That last infirmity of noble mind,)
To scorn delights, and live laborious days;
But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,
And think to burst out into sudden blaze,
Comes the blind Fury with the abhorréd shears
And slits the thin – spun life. 'But not the praise,
Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears:
Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,
Nor in the glistering foil
Set off to the world, nor in broad rumor lies;
But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes,
And perfect witness of all – judging Jove:
As he pronounces lastly on each deed,
Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed.“'121 - 121
Piccarda, Canto III. 70, says: –
Brother, our will is quieted by virtue Of charity, that makes us wish alone For what we have, nor gives us thirst for more.”
128 - 128
Villani, VI. Ch. 90, relates the story of Romeo (in Italian Roméo) as follows, though it will be observed that he uses the word romeo not as a proper, but as a common noun, in its sense of pilgrim: “There arrived at his court a pilgrim, who was returning from St. James; and hearing of the goodness of Count Raymond, he tarried in his court, and was so wise and worthy, and found such favor with the Count, that he made him master and director of all things. He was always clad in a decent and clerical habit, and in a short time, by his dexterity and wisdom, increased the income of his lord threefold, maintaining always a grand and honorable court. ....Four daughters had the Count, and no son. By the wisdom and address of the good pilgrim, he first married the eldest to the good King Louis of France by means of money, saying to the Count, 'Let me manage this, and do not be troubled at the cost; for if thou marry the first well, on account of this relationship thou wilt marry all the others better, and at less cost.' And so it came to pass; for straightway the king of England, in order to be brother-in-law of the king of France, took the second for a small sum of money; then his brother, being elected King of the Romans, took the third; and the fourth still remaining to be married, the good pilgrim said, 'With this one I want thee to have a brave son, who shall be thy heir'; and so he did. Finding Charles, Count of Anjou, brother of King Louis of France, he said, 'Give her to this man, for he will be the best man in the world'; prophesying concerning him, and so it was done. Then it came to pass through envy, which spoils every good thing, that the barons of Provence accused the good pilgrim of having badly managed the treasury of the Count, and had him called to a reckoning. The noble pilgrim said: 'Count, I have served thee a long time, and brought thee from low to high estate, and for this, through false counsel of thy folk, thou art little grateful. I came to thy court a poor pilgrim, and have lived modestly on thy bounty. Have my mule and my staff and scrip given back to me as when I came, and I ask no further wages.' The Count would not have him go; but on no account would he remain; and he departed as he had come, and never was it known whence he came, nor whither he went. Many thought that his was a sainted soul.”
142 - 142
Lord Bacon says in his Essay on Adversity: “Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction and the clearer revelation of God's favor. Yet, even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.”