297:) yet, in spite of the praises of Seneca, (Consol.c.

26,) they appear to have been more successful in imitating than in translating the Greek poets.

But the name of Achilles might be famous and popular even among the illiterate Barbarians.] The report of an African war was grateful only to the vain and idle populace of Constantinople, whose poverty exempted them from tribute, and whose cowardice was seldom exposed to military service.

But the wiser citizens, who judged of the future by the past, revolved in their memory the immense loss, both of men and money, which the empire had sustained in the expedition of Basiliscus.

The troops, which, after five laborious campaigns, had been recalled from the Persian frontier, dreaded the sea, the climate, and the arms of an unknown enemy.