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This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

E >> Edward Gibbon >> The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5




[Footnote 15: Says Constantine, (Thematibus, l. ii. c. vi. p.
25,) in a style as barbarous as the idea, which he confirms, as
usual, by a foolish epigram. The epitomizer of Strabo likewise
observes, (l. vii. p. 98, edit. Hudson. edit. Casaub. 1251;) a
passage which leads Dodwell a weary dance (Geograph, Minor. tom.
ii. dissert. vi. p. 170 - 191) to enumerate the inroads of the
Sclavi, and to fix the date (A.D. 980) of this petty geographer.]

[Footnote 16: Strabon. Geograph. l. viii. p. 562. Pausanius,
Graec. Descriptio, l. c 21, p. 264, 265. Pliny, Hist. Natur. l.
iv. c. 8.]

[Footnote 17: Constantin. de Administrando Imperio, l. ii. c. 50,
51, 52.]

[Footnote 18: The rock of Leucate was the southern promontory of
his island and diocese. Had he been the exclusive guardian of
the Lover's Leap so well known to the readers of Ovid (Epist.
Sappho) and the Spectator, he might have been the richest prelate
of the Greek church.]

[Footnote 19: Leucatensis mihi juravit episcopus, quotannis
ecclesiam suam debere Nicephoro aureos centum persolvere,
similiter et ceteras plus minusve secundum vires suos, (Liutprand
in Legat. p. 489.)]

But the wealth of the province, and the trust of the
revenue, were founded on the fair and plentiful produce of trade
and manufacturers; and some symptoms of liberal policy may be
traced in a law which exempts from all personal taxes the
mariners of Peloponnesus, and the workmen in parchment and
purple. This denomination may be fairly applied or extended to
the manufacturers of linen, woollen, and more especially of silk:
the two former of which had flourished in Greece since the days
of Homer; and the last was introduced perhaps as early as the
reign of Justinian. These arts, which were exercised at Corinth,
Thebes, and Argos, afforded food and occupation to a numerous
people: the men, women, and children were distributed according
to their age and strength; and, if many of these were domestic
slaves, their masters, who directed the work and enjoyed the
profit, were of a free and honorable condition. The gifts which
a rich and generous matron of Peloponnesus presented to the
emperor Basil, her adopted son, were doubtless fabricated in the
Grecian looms. Danielis bestowed a carpet of fine wool, of a
pattern which imitated the spots of a peacock's tail, of a
magnitude to overspread the floor of a new church, erected in the
triple name of Christ, of Michael the archangel, and of the
prophet Elijah. She gave six hundred pieces of silk and linen,
of various use and denomination: the silk was painted with the
Tyrian dye, and adorned by the labors of the needle; and the
linen was so exquisitely fine, that an entire piece might be
rolled in the hollow of a cane. ^20 In his description of the
Greek manufactures, an historian of Sicily discriminates their
price, according to the weight and quality of the silk, the
closeness of the texture, the beauty of the colors, and the taste
and materials of the embroidery. A single, or even a double or
treble thread was thought sufficient for ordinary sale; but the
union of six threads composed a piece of stronger and more costly
workmanship. Among the colors, he celebrates, with affectation
of eloquence, the fiery blaze of the scarlet, and the softer
lustre of the green. The embroidery was raised either in silk or
gold: the more simple ornament of stripes or circles was
surpassed by the nicer imitation of flowers: the vestments that
were fabricated for the palace or the altar often glittered with
precious stones; and the figures were delineated in strings of
Oriental pearls. ^21 Till the twelfth century, Greece alone, of
all the countries of Christendom, was possessed of the insect who
is taught by nature, and of the workmen who are instructed by
art, to prepare this elegant luxury. But the secret had been
stolen by the dexterity and diligence of the Arabs: the caliphs
of the East and West scorned to borrow from the unbelievers their
furniture and apparel; and two cities of Spain, Almeria and
Lisbon, were famous for the manufacture, the use, and, perhaps,
the exportation, of silk. It was first introduced into Sicily by
the Normans; and this emigration of trade distinguishes the
victory of Roger from the uniform and fruitless hostilities of
every age. After the sack of Corinth, Athens, and Thebes, his
lieutenant embarked with a captive train of weavers and
artificers of both sexes, a trophy glorious to their master, and
disgraceful to the Greek emperor. ^22 The king of Sicily was not
insensible of the value of the present; and, in the restitution
of the prisoners, he excepted only the male and female
manufacturers of Thebes and Corinth, who labor, says the
Byzantine historian, under a barbarous lord, like the old
Eretrians in the service of Darius. ^23 A stately edifice, in the
palace of Palermo, was erected for the use of this industrious
colony; ^24 and the art was propagated by their children and
disciples to satisfy the increasing demand of the western world.
The decay of the looms of Sicily may be ascribed to the troubles
of the island, and the competition of the Italian cities. In the
year thirteen hundred and fourteen, Lucca alone, among her sister
republics, enjoyed the lucrative monopoly. ^25 A domestic
revolution dispersed the manufacturers to Florence, Bologna,
Venice, Milan, and even the countries beyond the Alps; and
thirteen years after this event the statutes of Modena enjoin the
planting of mulberry-trees, and regulate the duties on raw silk.
^26 The northern climates are less propitious to the education of
the silkworm; but the industry of France and England ^27 is
supplied and enriched by the productions of Italy and China.

[Footnote 20: See Constantine, (in Vit. Basil. c. 74, 75, 76, p.
195, 197, in Script. post Theophanem,) who allows himself to use
many technical or barbarous words: barbarous, says he. Ducange
labors on some: but he was not a weaver.]

[Footnote 21: The manufactures of Palermo, as they are described
by Hugo Falcandus, (Hist. Sicula in proem. in Muratori Script.
Rerum Italicarum, tom. v. p. 256,) is a copy of those of Greece.
Without transcribing his declamatory sentences, which I have
softened in the text, I shall observe, that in this passage the
strange word exarentasmata is very properly changed for
exanthemata by Carisius, the first editor Falcandus lived about
the year 1190.]

[Footnote 22: Inde ad interiora Graeciae progressi, Corinthum,
Thebas, Athenas, antiqua nobilitate celebres, expugnant; et,
maxima ibidem praeda direpta, opifices etiam, qui sericos pannos
texere solent, ob ignominiam Imperatoris illius, suique principis
gloriam, captivos deducunt. Quos Rogerius, in Palermo Siciliae,
metropoli collocans, artem texendi suos edocere praecepit; et
exhinc praedicta ars illa, prius a Graecis tantum inter
Christianos habita, Romanis patere coepit ingeniis, (Otho
Frisingen. de Gestis Frederici I. l. i. c. 33, in Muratori
Script. Ital. tom. vi. p. 668.) This exception allows the bishop
to celebrate Lisbon and Almeria in sericorum pannorum opificio
praenobilissimae, (in Chron. apud Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom.
ix. p. 415.)]

[Footnote 23: Nicetas in Manuel, l. ii. c. 8. p. 65. He
describes these Greeks as skilled.]

[Footnote 24: Hugo Falcandus styles them nobiles officinas. The
Arabs had not introduced silk, though they had planted canes and
made sugar in the plain of Palermo.]

[Footnote 25: See the Life of Castruccio Casticani, not by
Machiavel, but by his more authentic biographer Nicholas Tegrimi.

Muratori, who has inserted it in the xith volume of his
Scriptores, quotes this curious passage in his Italian
Antiquities, (tom. i. dissert. xxv. p. 378.)]

[Footnote 26: From the Ms. statutes, as they are quoted by
Muratori in his Italian Antiquities, (tom. ii. dissert. xxv. p.
46 - 48.)]

[Footnote 27: The broad silk manufacture was established in
England in the year 1620, (Anderson's Chronological Deduction,
vol. ii. p. 4: ) but it is to the revocation of the edict of
Nantes that we owe the Spitalfields colony.]



Chapter LIII: Fate Of The Eastern Empire.

Part II.

I must repeat the complaint that the vague and scanty
memorials of the times will not afford any just estimate of the
taxes, the revenue, and the resources of the Greek empire. From
every province of Europe and Asia the rivulets of gold and silver
discharged into the Imperial reservoir a copious and perennial
stream. The separation of the branches from the trunk increased
the relative magnitude of Constantinople; and the maxims of
despotism contracted the state to the capital, the capital to the
palace, and the palace to the royal person. A Jewish traveller,
who visited the East in the twelfth century, is lost in his
admiration of the Byzantine riches. "It is here," says Benjamin
of Tudela, "in the queen of cities, that the tributes of the
Greek empire are annually deposited and the lofty towers are
filled with precious magazines of silk, purple, and gold. It is
said, that Constantinople pays each day to her sovereign twenty
thousand pieces of gold; which are levied on the shops, taverns,
and markets, on the merchants of Persia and Egypt, of Russia and
Hungary, of Italy and Spain, who frequent the capital by sea and
land." ^28 In all pecuniary matters, the authority of a Jew is
doubtless respectable; but as the three hundred and sixty-five
days would produce a yearly income exceeding seven millions
sterling, I am tempted to retrench at least the numerous
festivals of the Greek calendar. The mass of treasure that was
saved by Theodora and Basil the Second will suggest a splendid,
though indefinite, idea of their supplies and resources. The
mother of Michael, before she retired to a cloister, attempted to
check or expose the prodigality of her ungrateful son, by a free
and faithful account of the wealth which he inherited; one
hundred and nine thousand pounds of gold, and three hundred
thousand of silver, the fruits of her own economy and that of her
deceased husband. ^29 The avarice of Basil is not less renowned
than his valor and fortune: his victorious armies were paid and
rewarded without breaking into the mass of two hundred thousand
pounds of gold, (about eight millions sterling,) which he had
buried in the subterraneous vaults of the palace. ^30 Such
accumulation of treasure is rejected by the theory and practice
of modern policy; and we are more apt to compute the national
riches by the use and abuse of the public credit. Yet the maxims
of antiquity are still embraced by a monarch formidable to his
enemies; by a republic respectable to her allies; and both have
attained their respective ends of military power and domestic
tranquillity.

[Footnote 28: Voyage de Benjamin de Tudele, tom. i. c. 5, p. 44 -
52. The Hebrew text has been translated into French by that
marvellous child Baratier, who has added a volume of crude
learning. The errors and fictions of the Jewish rabbi are not a
sufficient ground to deny the reality of his travels.

Note: I am inclined, with Buegnot (Les Juifs d'Occident,
part iii. p. 101 et seqq.) and Jost (Geschichte der Israeliter,
vol. vi. anhang. p. 376) to consider this work a mere
compilation, and to doubt the reality of the travels. - M.]

[Footnote 29: See the continuator of Theophanes, (l. iv. p. 107,)
Cedremis, (p. 544,) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xvi. p. 157.)]

[Footnote 30: Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xvii. p. 225,) instead of
pounds, uses the more classic appellation of talents, which, in a
literal sense and strict computation, would multiply sixty fold
the treasure of Basil.]

Whatever might be consumed for the present wants, or
reserved for the future use, of the state, the first and most
sacred demand was for the pomp and pleasure of the emperor, and
his discretion only could define the measure of his private
expense. The princes of Constantinople were far removed from the
simplicity of nature; yet, with the revolving seasons, they were
led by taste or fashion to withdraw to a purer air, from the
smoke and tumult of the capital. They enjoyed, or affected to
enjoy, the rustic festival of the vintage: their leisure was
amused by the exercise of the chase and the calmer occupation of
fishing, and in the summer heats, they were shaded from the sun,
and refreshed by the cooling breezes from the sea. The coasts
and islands of Asia and Europe were covered with their
magnificent villas; but, instead of the modest art which secretly
strives to hide itself and to decorate the scenery of nature, the
marble structure of their gardens served only to expose the
riches of the lord, and the labors of the architect. The
successive casualties of inheritance and forfeiture had rendered
the sovereign proprietor of many stately houses in the city and
suburbs, of which twelve were appropriated to the ministers of
state; but the great palace, ^31 the centre of the Imperial
residence, was fixed during eleven centuries to the same
position, between the hippodrome, the cathedral of St. Sophia,
and the gardens, which descended by many a terrace to the shores
of the Propontis. The primitive edifice of the first Constantine
was a copy, or rival, of ancient Rome; the gradual improvements
of his successors aspired to emulate the wonders of the old
world, ^32 and in the tenth century, the Byzantine palace excited
the admiration, at least of the Latins, by an unquestionable
preeminence of strength, size, and magnificence. ^33 But the toil
and treasure of so many ages had produced a vast and irregular
pile: each separate building was marked with the character of the
times and of the founder; and the want of space might excuse the
reigning monarch, who demolished, perhaps with secret
satisfaction, the works of his predecessors. The economy of the
emperor Theophilus allowed a more free and ample scope for his
domestic luxury and splendor. A favorite ambassador, who had
astonished the Abbassides themselves by his pride and liberality,
presented on his return the model of a palace, which the caliph
of Bagdad had recently constructed on the banks of the Tigris.
The model was instantly copied and surpassed: the new buildings
of Theophilus ^34 were accompanied with gardens, and with five
churches, one of which was conspicuous for size and beauty: it
was crowned with three domes, the roof of gilt brass reposed on
columns of Italian marble, and the walls were incrusted with
marbles of various colors. In the face of the church, a
semicircular portico, of the figure and name of the Greek sigma,
was supported by fifteen columns of Phrygian marble, and the
subterraneous vaults were of a similar construction. The square
before the sigma was decorated with a fountain, and the margin of
the basin was lined and encompassed with plates of silver. In
the beginning of each season, the basin, instead of water, was
replenished with the most exquisite fruits, which were abandoned
to the populace for the entertainment of the prince. He enjoyed
this tumultuous spectacle from a throne resplendent with gold and
gems, which was raised by a marble staircase to the height of a
lofty terrace. Below the throne were seated the officers of his
guards, the magistrates, the chiefs of the factions of the
circus; the inferior steps were occupied by the people, and the
place below was covered with troops of dancers, singers, and
pantomimes. The square was surrounded by the hall of justice,
the arsenal, and the various offices of business and pleasure;
and the purple chamber was named from the annual distribution of
robes of scarlet and purple by the hand of the empress herself.
The long series of the apartments was adapted to the seasons, and
decorated with marble and porphyry, with painting, sculpture, and
mosaics, with a profusion of gold, silver, and precious stones.
His fanciful magnificence employed the skill and patience of such
artists as the times could afford: but the taste of Athens would
have despised their frivolous and costly labors; a golden tree,
with its leaves and branches, which sheltered a multitude of
birds warbling their artificial notes, and two lions of massy
gold, and of natural size, who looked and roared like their
brethren of the forest. The successors of Theophilus, of the
Basilian and Comnenian dynasties, were not less ambitious of
leaving some memorial of their residence; and the portion of the
palace most splendid and august was dignified with the title of
the golden triclinium. ^35 With becoming modesty, the rich and
noble Greeks aspired to imitate their sovereign, and when they
passed through the streets on horseback, in their robes of silk
and embroidery, they were mistaken by the children for kings. ^36
A matron of Peloponnesus, ^37 who had cherished the infant
fortunes of Basil the Macedonian, was excited by tenderness or
vanity to visit the greatness of her adopted son. In a journey
of five hundred miles from Patras to Constantinople, her age or
indolence declined the fatigue of a horse or carriage: the soft
litter or bed of Danielis was transported on the shoulders of ten
robust slaves; and as they were relieved at easy distances, a
band of three hundred were selected for the performance of this
service. She was entertained in the Byzantine palace with filial
reverence, and the honors of a queen; and whatever might be the
origin of her wealth, her gifts were not unworthy of the regal
dignity. I have already described the fine and curious
manufactures of Peloponnesus, of linen, silk, and woollen; but
the most acceptable of her presents consisted in three hundred
beautiful youths, of whom one hundred were eunuchs; ^38 "for she
was not ignorant," says the historian, "that the air of the
palace is more congenial to such insects, than a shepherd's dairy
to the flies of the summer." During her lifetime, she bestowed
the greater part of her estates in Peloponnesus, and her
testament instituted Leo, the son of Basil, her universal heir.
After the payment of the legacies, fourscore villas or farms were
added to the Imperial domain; and three thousand slaves of
Danielis were enfranchised by their new lord, and transplanted as
a colony to the Italian coast. From this example of a private
matron, we may estimate the wealth and magnificence of the
emperors. Yet our enjoyments are confined by a narrow circle;
and, whatsoever may be its value, the luxury of life is possessed
with more innocence and safety by the master of his own, than by
the steward of the public, fortune.

[Footnote 31: For a copious and minute description of the
Imperial palace, see the Constantinop. Christiana (l. ii. c. 4,
p. 113 - 123) of Ducange, the Tillemont of the middle ages.
Never has laborious Germany produced two antiquarians more
laborious and accurate than these two natives of lively France.]

[Footnote 32: The Byzantine palace surpasses the Capitol, the
palace of Pergamus, the Rufinian wood, the temple of Adrian at
Cyzicus, the pyramids, the Pharus, &c., according to an epigram
(Antholog. Graec. l. iv. p. 488, 489. Brodaei, apud Wechel)
ascribed to Julian, ex-praefect of Egypt. Seventy-one of his
epigrams, some lively, are collected in Brunck, (Analect. Graec.
tom. ii. p. 493 - 510; but this is wanting.]

[Footnote 33: Constantinopolitanum Palatium non pulchritudine
solum, verum stiam fortitudine, omnibus quas unquam videram
munitionibus praestat, (Liutprand, Hist. l. v. c. 9, p. 465.)]

[Footnote 34: See the anonymous continuator of Theophanes, (p.
59, 61, 86,) whom I have followed in the neat and concise
abstract of Le Beau, (Hint. du Bas Empire, tom. xiv. p. 436,
438.)]

[Footnote 35: In aureo triclinio quae praestantior est pars
potentissimus (the usurper Romanus) degens caeteras partes
(filiis) distribuerat, (Liutprand. Hist. l. v. c. 9, p. 469.) For
this last signification of Triclinium see Ducange (Gloss. Graec.
et Observations sur Joinville, p. 240) and Reiske, (ad
Constantinum de Ceremoniis, p. 7.)]

[Footnote 36: In equis vecti (says Benjamin of Tudela) regum
filiis videntur persimiles. I prefer the Latin version of
Constantine l'Empereur (p. 46) to the French of Baratier, (tom.
i. p. 49.)]

[Footnote 37: See the account of her journey, munificence, and
testament, in the life of Basil, by his grandson Constantine, (p.
74, 75, 76, p. 195 - 197.)]

[Footnote 38: Carsamatium. Graeci vocant, amputatis virilibus et
virga, puerum eunuchum quos Verdunenses mercatores obinmensum
lucrum facere solent et in Hispaniam ducere, (Liutprand, l. vi.
c. 3, p. 470.) - The last abomination of the abominable
slave-trade! Yet I am surprised to find, in the xth century,
such active speculations of commerce in Lorraine.]

In an absolute government, which levels the distinctions of
noble and plebeian birth, the sovereign is the sole fountain of
honor; and the rank, both in the palace and the empire, depends
on the titles and offices which are bestowed and resumed by his
arbitrary will. Above a thousand years, from Vespasian to
Alexius Comnenus, ^39 the Caesar was the second person, or at
least the second degree, after the supreme title of Augustus was
more freely communicated to the sons and brothers of the reigning
monarch. To elude without violating his promise to a powerful
associate, the husband of his sister, and, without giving himself
an equal, to reward the piety of his brother Isaac, the crafty
Alexius interposed a new and supereminent dignity. The happy
flexibility of the Greek tongue allowed him to compound the names
of Augustus and Emperor (Sebastos and Autocrator,) and the union
produces the sonorous title of Sebastocrator. He was exalted
above the Caesar on the first step of the throne: the public
acclamations repeated his name; and he was only distinguished
from the sovereign by some peculiar ornaments of the head and
feet. The emperor alone could assume the purple or red buskins,
and the close diadem or tiara, which imitated the fashion of the
Persian kings. ^40 It was a high pyramidal cap of cloth or silk,
almost concealed by a profusion of pearls and jewels: the crown
was formed by a horizontal circle and two arches of gold: at the
summit, the point of their intersection, was placed a globe or
cross, and two strings or lappets of pearl depended on either
cheek. Instead of red, the buskins of the Sebastocrator and
Caesar were green; and on their open coronets or crowns, the
precious gems were more sparingly distributed. Beside and below
the Caesar the fancy of Alexius created the Panhypersebastos and
the Protosebastos, whose sound and signification will satisfy a
Grecian ear. They imply a superiority and a priority above the
simple name of Augustus; and this sacred and primitive title of
the Roman prince was degraded to the kinsmen and servants of the
Byzantine court. The daughter of Alexius applauds, with fond
complacency, this artful gradation of hopes and honors; but the
science of words is accessible to the meanest capacity; and this
vain dictionary was easily enriched by the pride of his
successors. To their favorite sons or brothers, they imparted
the more lofty appellation of Lord or Despot, which was
illustrated with new ornaments, and prerogatives, and placed
immediately after the person of the emperor himself. The five
titles of, 1. Despot; 2. Sebastocrator; 3. Caesar; 4.
Panhypersebastos; and, 5. Protosebastos; were usually confined to
the princes of his blood: they were the emanations of his
majesty; but as they exercised no regular functions, their
existence was useless, and their authority precarious.

[Footnote 39: See the Alexiad (l. iii. p. 78, 79) of Anna
Comnena, who, except in filial piety, may be compared to
Mademoiselle de Montpensier. In her awful reverence for titles
and forms, she styles her father, the inventor of this royal
art.]

[Footnote 40: See Reiske, and Ceremoniale, p. 14, 15. Ducange
has given a learned dissertation on the crowns of Constantinople,
Rome, France, &c., (sur Joinville, xxv. p. 289 - 303;) but of his
thirty-four models, none exactly tally with Anne's description.]

But in every monarchy the substantial powers of government
must be divided and exercised by the ministers of the palace and
treasury, the fleet and army. The titles alone can differ; and
in the revolution of ages, the counts and praefects, the praetor
and quaestor, insensibly descended, while their servants rose
above their heads to the first honors of the state. 1. In a
monarchy, which refers every object to the person of the prince,
the care and ceremonies of the palace form the most respectable
department. The Curopalata, ^41 so illustrious in the age of
Justinian, was supplanted by the Protovestiare, whose primitive
functions were limited to the custody of the wardrobe. From
thence his jurisdiction was extended over the numerous menials of
pomp and luxury; and he presided with his silver wand at the
public and private audience. 2. In the ancient system of
Constantine, the name of Logothete, or accountant, was applied to
the receivers of the finances: the principal officers were
distinguished as the Logothetes of the domain, of the posts, the
army, the private and public treasure; and the great Logothete,
the supreme guardian of the laws and revenues, is compared with
the chancellor of the Latin monarchies. ^42 His discerning eye
pervaded the civil administration; and he was assisted, in due
subordination, by the eparch or praefect of the city, the first
secretary, and the keepers of the privy seal, the archives, and
the red or purple ink which was reserved for the sacred signature
of the emperor alone. ^43 The introductor and interpreter of
foreign ambassadors were the great Chiauss ^44 and the Dragoman,
^45 two names of Turkish origin, and which are still familiar to
the Sublime Porte. 3. From the humble style and service of
guards, the Domestics insensibly rose to the station of generals;
the military themes of the East and West, the legions of Europe
and Asia, were often divided, till the great Domestic was finally
invested with the universal and absolute command of the land
forces. The Protostrator, in his original functions, was the
assistant of the emperor when he mounted on horseback: he
gradually became the lieutenant of the great Domestic in the
field; and his jurisdiction extended over the stables, the
cavalry, and the royal train of hunting and hawking. The
Stratopedarch was the great judge of the camp: the Protospathaire
commanded the guards; the Constable, ^46 the great Aeteriarch,
and the Acolyth, were the separate chiefs of the Franks, the
Barbarians, and the Varangi, or English, the mercenary strangers,
who, a the decay of the national spirit, formed the nerve of the
Byzantine armies. 4. The naval powers were under the command of
the great Duke; in his absence they obeyed the great Drungaire of
the fleet; and, in his place, the Emir, or Admiral, a name of
Saracen extraction, ^47 but which has been naturalized in all the
modern languages of Europe. Of these officers, and of many more
whom it would be useless to enumerate, the civil and military
hierarchy was framed. Their honors and emoluments, their dress
and titles, their mutual salutations and respective preeminence,
were balanced with more exquisite labor than would have fixed the
constitution of a free people; and the code was almost perfect
when this baseless fabric, the monument of pride and servitude,
was forever buried in the ruins of the empire. ^48

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