The truth in regard to the Byzantine Empire seems to lie between the disdain3 of older historians like Gibbon and Finlay and the exaggerated claims made for it by some recent writers. I speak of character only, not of art or industry or military success. In some respects—in regard to unnatural4 vice5, for instance—it is superior to the older Empire of the West; in ordinary licentiousness7 it has no superiority whatever, and the ascetic8 code it so pompously9 boasts only makes its guilt10 the greater; while there are persistent11 strains of coarseness in its character which tempt12 one to characterize it as barbaric. Castration and the excision13 of eyes continue for many centuries, under almost every Emperor and Empress, ordinary punishments of political offence; and the constant violation14 of the most terrible oaths that the clergy137 can devise, the abominable16 device of filling the priesthood and the monastic world with reputed criminals, the unceasing intrigues18 of eunuchs and officers, the sanguinary coercion19 of heretics, the persistent financial and administrative20 corruption21, and the lamentable22 casuistry of priests and religious women, betray a new and general type of character which no amount of appreciation23 of Byzantine art can restore to honour. The four hundred years of Byzantine history that we have traversed, compared with the four hundred years which preceded them in Roman history, show no elevation24 of the type of womanhood, nor will the four centuries that remain compel us to alter this conclusion.
The young Empress Helena, daughter of Romanus, whom we introduced at the close of the last chapter is imperfectly, but not favourably25, known to us. Beautiful and intelligent, she found no occasion to assert herself as long as her father lived. That unscrupulous commander had very quickly found a way to gratify his personal ambition without violating the letter of his solemn oaths. He had in March sworn on the wood of the true cross to be loyal to Constantine; in September of the same year he received, or obtained, the dignity of C?sar, and three months later he was co-Emperor. In the following January he made his wife Theodora Empress, and in May he conferred imperial rank on his son Christopher and his wife Sophia. Later he gave the purple to his two remaining sons, and destined27 his fourth son, Theophylactus, for the patriarchate. Further, “in order to prevent plots,” which were frequent, he put his own name before that of Constantine, and arrogated28 the whole work of administration. He lived in the largest, latest and most superb palace of the imperial town—the golden-roofed Chrysotriclinon—and, plebeian29 as he was by birth, carried the pageantry and ceremonial of the Court to its highest point. His wife Theodora did not long survive her elevation, and Helena seems to have taken the chief place as Empress in the glittering crowd,138 but she escapes our scrutiny30 altogether until the close of the twenty-five years’ reign31 of her father.
Romanus seems in his later years to have shown symptoms of remorse32 and made edifying33 preparations for death. His philanthropy and religious fervour alarmed his sons, who concluded, apparently34, that if his repentance35 were carried too far they might lose their purple robes. The eldest36 son, Christopher, had died, and the youngest, Theophylactus, was quite happy in possession of the patriarchate; he had, it seemed to the pious37, turned the cathedral into a theatre and the bishop38’s house into a place of debauch39, and his religious duties were so far postponed40 to the cares of his stable of two thousand horses that he would cut a ceremony short when a groom41 came to the altar to whisper that a favourite mare42 had foaled. There remained Stephen and Constantine, whose royal position seemed to be threatened. Stephen, with the consent of his brother, deposed43 his father at the end of 944, and sent him into a monastery44 on the Princes’ Islands.
Helena was the chief inspirer of the next intrigue17. Constantine Porphyrogenitus had sought consolation45 in art and letters for the imperial power of which he had been defrauded46. He was now a tall, straight, well-made man of thirty-nine, with mild blue eyes and fresh, ruddy countenance47, but he had little faculty48 or disposition49 for politics, and was more interested in the pleasures of the table and the library. His attainments50 in art and science would have been respectable in any other than a king. Helena, however, supplied the resolution he lacked, and watched the procedure of her brothers. She concluded that they intended to displace or ignore her husband, and she stimulated51 him to action, or, more probably, acted herself with the aid of her head chamberlain Basil, an illegitimate son of Romanus. On the evening of 27th January the royal brothers were invited to sup with their mild-mannered and long-suffering colleague, and they found themselves dragged from their purple couches139 by his servants, bound, and put aboard a waiting vessel53 at the palace quay54. Some of the authorities improbably state that they asked permission to visit their father, Romanus, in his monastery, so that Gibbon’s genial55 picture of the father cynically56 greeting his sons at the shore is not without foundation. The story is unlikely, however, and they were soon despatched to remote parts.
THE EMPRESS HELENA
FROM DU CANGE’S ‘HISTORIA BYZANTINA’
During the fifteen years’ reign of her husband Helena is known to us only for the unscrupulousness with which, in collusion with the head chamberlain Basil, she sold offices of state to the highest bidders57. The interest passes to the new and singular types of Empresses who now enter the chronicles. The first is the most pathetic and remarkable58 figure in the whole strange gallery of the Byzantine Empresses. Helena and Constantine had a son named Romanus, and the elder Romanus, who was most assiduous at making royal matches for his descendants, had decided60 to marry the boy in good time. It seems not unlikely that, in his last year of life, he realized the unscrupulousness of his sons, and entertained a tardy61 concern about his oath. At that time the kingdom of Italy was ruled by Hugh, a violent and half-barbaric monarch62, whose conjugal63 arrangements were calculated to furnish a rich supply of royal alliances. Romanus sent an envoy64 to ask the hand of one of his natural daughters, and the little Bertha, a beautiful child of tender years, was conducted to Constantinople by the Bishop of Parma and married to the boy Emperor. Romanus was five years old, and it is not likely that Bertha, or Eudocia, as she was now named, was older than he. What type of woman the little princess, offspring of a wild Teuton and his concubine, would have made, we shall never know, for she died five years afterwards. The chroniclers are careful to add that she died a virgin65.
The young prince was allowed to grow, and develop his vices66, for a few years, before contracting a second marriage. It seems to have been in his eighteenth year140 that he took a second wife, and his choice illustrates67 at once the supineness of his father, the selfishness of his mother, and the unrestrained passion of the son. He married Anastaso, the daughter of a tavern68-keeper named Crateros. We have seen so many types of Empresses ascend69 the throne that it might cause us little surprise to find a woman passing from the counter of a wine-shop to the palace, but there is grave suspicion that Theophano—the name substituted for Anastaso—was base in more than the genealogical sense of the word. She is accused of poisoning her father-in-law and her first husband, and she certainly led the assassins to the chamber52 of her second husband. Whatever allowance we make for the prejudice against her humble70 birth, authentic71 facts in her story show that she was licentious6 and criminal.
We do not know how the son of a highly cultivated Emperor made the acquaintance of a tavern-girl. It is clear that she was a young woman of singular beauty—“a kind of miracle of nature,” Zonaras says—and most graceful72 figure, and I would conjecture73 that some courtier among the disreputable followers74 of the young prince brought her to his notice. There may have been a “beauty show,” and the publican may have boldly pressed the merits of his daughter, but some attention was generally paid to birth in these matrimonial contests. A tavern-woman was still held to be equivalent to a prostitute or an actress. It is useless to speculate. Constantine idly acquiesced75, and the beautiful Theophano passed from the sordid76 scenes of a little wine-shop to the wonderful splendours of the palace. Courtly writers afterwards discovered that there was royal blood in her veins77. The only serious clue we have to her origin is that she came from Laconia, and we may regard her as a common type of Greek.
It is calculated that the marriage took place about the end of the year 956. For three years no events occur that enable us to penetrate78 the secluded79 life of the palace,141 though the subsequent events suggest that Helena and her daughters were disdainful of the vulgar beauty and were met with a virulent80 hatred81. At the end of three years (August or September 959) Constantine died, and the ampler chronicles tell a circumstantial story of his being poisoned by his son Romanus and Theophano. A poison was, it is said, put in his physic. Either by accident or from suspicion he spilled most of the contents of the cup and escaped death. But his health was gravely impaired82; he went to visit the monasteries83 of Mount Olympus, fell dangerously ill there—the chronicler says that perhaps more poison was administered—and was brought back to the palace to die.
We must regard this charge of poisoning as probably a construction put on his illness by the officials or people of Constantinople. It may or may not be true. We have no right to conclude at once that it is an historical fact, but it seems to me that some recent historians have just as little right to reject it as “improbable.” Romanus was a licentious and unscrupulous man, carrying his father’s amiable84 weakness for wine to the pitch of debauch and ruining his constitution by vice. Theophano, we shall see, was capable of murder, and her ambition would most certainly lead her to wish the older imperial family out of the way. On the other hand, there would be a prejudice against her in Constantinople, and in the mind of later writers, and we must leave this first charge against her what it is in the chronicles—a suspicion.
Her next step was to get rid of the sisters of Romanus. Helena and her five daughters still lived in the palace, or in one out of the great cluster of palaces. There were now at least eight palaces, connected by superb colonnades85 or separated by choice gardens and terraces, in the vast imperial domain86 between the Hippodrome and the Sea of Marmora; there were, in addition, several palaces on the Asiatic coast; and the palace at Blachern?, in the cool, hilly district to the north, had in turn become142 a vast cluster of palaces, chapels88, colonnades and terraced gardens. The mother and sisters of Romanus could therefore find ample hospitality without being compelled to witness the daily dissipation of the Emperor, his drunken banquets and his troops of lascivious89 actors and women, but they frowned on the kind of Court over which Theophano presided, and she persuaded her husband to remove them. He bade his five sisters adopt the monastic life. Theophano now had two sons and a daughter, and would feel safer if their royal aunts were prevented from making aristocratic marriages. The young women were, however, not at all disposed to embrace a religious life and there were furious scenes in the palace. They were removed to the monastery into which the palace of Theodora’s minister, Theoclistus, had been converted, near the Hippodrome, but they seem still to have intrigued90, and were separated and transferred to other monasteries.21
Romanus was not cruel or malignant91. His temper was to live and let live, provided that no check was placed on his imperial pleasures. He merely smiled, therefore, when he heard that, in their convents, his sisters refused to exchange their silks for the hated black robe, or abstain92 from the delicate meats to which they had been accustomed. We shall later find one of them coming out, in spite of her vows93, to marry an Emperor, to the intense mortification94 of Theophano, who had murdered her husband to marry him herself. Helena was the chief sufferer. She sank into melancholy95 and illness after the departure of her daughters, and died in September 961.
The Emperor continued for two years to enjoy his pleasures and hasten his death, leaving the care of the143 Empire to his very capable ministers and officers. Amongst these officers was a very singular commander named Nicephorus Phocas, whose romantic career still puzzles historians. Whether he was a profound hypocrite, or a deeply religious man fascinated and seduced96 by Theophano, it is difficult to determine. “God only knows,” says Leo the Deacon, a chronicler of the time to whom we owe most of our knowledge. Nicephorus was a very able general of about fifty years: a dark, robust98 little man, with black hair and small dark eyes under thick eyebrows99, a very stern look, and the chest and arms of a Hercules. He was not at all handsome, but he was one of the greatest soldiers of his time. The singular feature about his life was that, in consequence of a tragic100 accident of earlier years, he had adopted a very religious and ascetic life. He wore a hair shirt under his armour101 and linen102, abstained103 from flesh and women as rigidly104 as a monk105, and was understood to have vowed106 chastity.
It appears that, as her husband sickened, Theophano set out to seduce97 this remarkable soldier-monk and succeeded. The other great power in the State was Joseph Bringas, the leading civilian107 and statesman; but Joseph was a eunuch, and of no use to Theophano. She would marry Nicephorus. Leo the Deacon says that she admitted, or drew, the ascetic to her arms before the death of her husband, and it is not impossible, as the chief biographer of Nicephorus admits.22 However that may be, Romanus died in 963, after a giddy reign of four years, at the age of twenty-four. Once more Theophano is charged with poisoning, and once more we must refrain from pressing the charge. The nearest authority, Leo the Deacon, leaves it an open question whether Romanus died of poison or had closed his own life prematurely108 by debauch; and we may do the same. Historians are too apt to conclude that because Romanus144 did wear himself out by his excesses, we may dismiss the charge against Theophano. Disease, on the contrary, would furnish a cloak to an artful poisoner, and Theophano certainly wished to get rid of the despotic eunuch Bringas, whom Nicephorus would quickly displace. The chief reason why we must hesitate is because Theophano was prostrate109 at the time and unable to master the new situation. She had given birth to a second daughter two days before the death of Romanus, and there is reason to think that Bringas and others were anxious to remove her from power. The circumstance is not decisive, as her servants might carry out a plan made at an earlier date.
As soon as Theophano recovered she entered upon the struggle with Bringas. It seems, from the movements of Nicephorus, that the Empress was in communication with him before the death of Romanus, and that at least she sent him a secret and flattering message when Romanus died. Nicephorus had disbanded the army with which he had conducted two brilliant campaigns against the Saracens, and was little equipped to contest the power of Bringas, but he went at once to the city in order to be near Theophano. Bringas had made desperate efforts to keep him away, even going so far as to propose in the council that the general’s eyes should be put out for his treasonable ambition. His great victory over the Saracens and his repute for sanctity had, however, won a large body of admirers for Nicephorus, and when he entered the city in triumph, driving before his car groups of Saracen prisoners, and exhibiting the holy relics110 he had rescued from the hands of the heathen, citizens and soldiers and priests united in acclaiming111 him. A private conversation with the new patriarch Polyeuctes, a fanatical monk and eunuch, secured the favour of that prelate and his clergy15, and it is even said that he ventured into the house of Bringas and revealed to that cautious statesman the hair shirt which he wore below his fine robes and the monastic heart that beat145 beneath it. But for his intense devotion to the young princes, he said, he would at once retire into a monastery.
If we can believe this last statement, the situation was not without humour, because Bringas presently discovered that his pious rival was being surreptitiously admitted to the Empress’s apartments. Whether it is true or no that Nicephorus had previously112 been intimate with her, it is certain that he now became infatuated with Theophano, and received an assurance that she would marry him, if not more intimate pledges of her love. We may be confident that Theophano did not love him; he was not physically113 attractive to her sensual taste, and his incongruous mixture of piety114 and passion and deceit must have excited her disdain. He was merely the best instrument at hand for the achievement of her ambition. Then, as I said, Bringas discovered the secret meetings and renewed his attack. He invited Nicephorus to the palace. The gallant115, but prudent116, soldier preferred to fly to the altar of St Sophia and secure the protection of the patriarch. The Senate was convoked117, the prelate warmly espoused118 the cause of Nicephorus, and he departed in honour to take supreme119 command of the army in Asia and await the orders of Theophano.
The next move of Bringas was a blunder and the beginning of his downfall. One of Nicephorus’s chief officers was his nephew, John Zimiskes, the later Emperor. When we find Zimiskes murdering his uncle with the aid of Theophano, and then callously120 repudiating121 her, we shall not suppose him to be a man of tender conscience, and Bringas, no doubt, regarded him as venal122. He sent a secret messenger to offer Zimiskes the supreme command if he would send his uncle in bonds to Constantinople. Zimiskes calculated that he would have the command, in any case, if his uncle became Emperor, and he showed the letter to Nicephorus, and urged him to assume the purple. They were in C?sarea at the time, and from that city Bringas soon learned that Nicephorus146 had accepted the title of Emperor and would march on Constantinople.
The spirited events which followed must here be told briefly123. On Sunday morning, 9th August, the advance-guard of Nicephorus’s army appeared on the Asiatic shore in sight of the city, at the point where Scutari now is, and the people began to make their choice in the usual sanguinary way. The services in the great church were desecrated124 with riot, the battle against the guards who were faithful to Bringas was conducted in the streets, and by midnight the houses of his supporters were in flames. Theophano remained with her children behind the barrier of palace guards, listening, not unwillingly125, to the increasing cries for Nicephorus. We may very well assume that she had had her share in the riot. One of the most formidable leaders of those who called for Nicephorus was the bold and ambitious Basil, the natural son of the elder Romanus. Castrated by his father, that he might never aspire126 to the purple, yet promoted to wealth and high office, he seems to have come to an agreement with Theophano. As soon as the battle began he led three thousand of his servants and followers, armed, into the Augusteum, and they continued all Sunday and throughout the night to hunt the soldiers of Bringas and loot the mansions128 of his friends.
Nicephorus had meantime reached the Hieria palace on the Asiatic side, and on the following Sunday he made his triumphant129 entry by the Golden Gate, and along the Mese, to St Sophia, the citizens draping their houses with the scarlet130 of rejoicing and adorning131 the way with laurel and myrtle. The patriarch Polyeuctes met him at the cathedral, and Theophano would be present on her golden throne, in her violet mourning robes, when the crown was put on his head.
His next step must have caused a sensation in the city and entirely132 deceived the clergy. He sent a monk to conduct Theophano from the palace to the fortress133, or higher prison, of Petrion on the Golden Horn, and147 maintained for a few weeks his austere134 aversion from wine and women. We hardly need the assurance of the chroniclers that this was done by arrangement between the two, and we may regard it as a device of Theophano. Nicephorus was now aflame like a youth. In the middle of September he “threw off the mask,” in the words of the ecclesiastical chronicler, and announced that he was to marry Theophano on 20th September. His monastic advisers135, he explained, had concluded that his new position demanded that he should marry. The marriage service was performed by the patriarch himself in a chapel87 in the grounds of the palace, and, while the Emperor went to kiss the altars at St Sophia, Theophano retired136 to her familiar apartments, to congratulate herself on the fortunate issue of her difficult man?uvres.
And presently the Emperor returned in terrible rage to tell her that a formidable obstacle had revealed itself. When he had reached the door of the sanctuary137, the patriarch Polyeuctes had barred his way and said that he would be excluded from the church for a year for contracting a second marriage. His angry protest had availed nothing; before a vast crowd of his subjects he had had to submit to the austere priest, and he was to remain in the ignominious138 position of a penitent139 for a year. Concealing140 their anger, they concluded the day, as usual, with a banquet to the leading officers and nobles in the gold-roofed triclinon, now restored and magnificently decorated by Constantine, and retired to discuss Polyeuctes.
The patriarch was undoubtedly142 a stern and conscientious143 priest, insisting upon a plain law of his Church. We may, however, assume that another feeling mingled144 with his sense of discipline. Nicephorus had, in the literal meaning, tasted blood at his matrimonial banquet, and he passionately145 refused to forgo146 the embraces of Theophano. His pious practices were wholly discarded in a day, and the clergy must have been bitterly disappointed to see him passing from their allegiance to148 that of the beautiful adventuress. So Polyeuctes had made a bold bid for power; and he had made a serious mistake. From that moment Nicephorus conceived, not merely a personal hatred of the patriarch, but an anti-clerical spirit, and began to restrict the wealth and power of the priests and monks147. He clung to his enchanting148 young bride and sternly faced the clergy. In the discussion that at once filled the palace and the city some careless noble, named Stylianus, had recalled the fact that Nicephorus was godfather to one of the Empress’s children, and the patriarch learned this. He at once pronounced that the marriage was invalid149, as the Church regarded this spiritual relationship as an insuperable impediment to marriage, and bade the Emperor dismiss Theophano.
The feelings of Theophano during these days of disappointment and anxiety are left to our imagination. It is enough that her charms held Nicephorus to her in spite of the terrible threats of the patriarch, and it may be that it was she who approached the unfortunate Stylianus and persuaded him to commit perjury150. Nicephorus gathered a council of pliant151 bishops152 and Senators, and they decided that, as the law invoked153 by the patriarch had been passed by the heretic Constantine Copronymus, it was not binding154. Polyeuctes scorned their decision. Then Stylianus came forward to swear that Nicephorus had not been godfather to any child of Theophano, and the Emperor’s father, Bardas, came forward to swear that he was the godfather. The patriarch knew that they were lying, but his clergy were anxious to escape a formidable struggle and he was forced to yield. To Theophano it was, no doubt, immaterial whether or no she was married to Nicephorus; she had a strong and devoted155 soldier to protect her and her children. How the pious Nicephorus reconciled himself to the situation is one of the things that “God only knows.” All that we know is that the possession of Theophano dissipated his asceticism156 as the summer sun disperses157 the mists, and he eagerly embraced149 a woman to whom, under the creed158 of his Church, he was not married.
During the six years’ reign of Nicephorus the Empress had little occasion to assert her wayward personality, but it is significant that the one statement made of her is an accusation159 of crime. One of the sons of the older Romanus still languished160 in captivity161, and it seemed possible, in view of the growing discontent at Constantinople, that an intrigue would be formed to put him on the throne. “Theophano,” we are curtly163 informed, “made an end of him.” There is no reason to doubt that messengers were sent to his distant prison with an order that he should be put to death, and it is more probable that the order came from Theophano than from Nicephorus. For the first year or two, however, Nicephorus prudently164 removed his fiery165 young bride from the seditious and immoral166 atmosphere of Constantinople, and she passed her days in unwonted innocence167 amid the lonely mountains of Cilicia.
The Emperor had spent a few months in an effort, by lavish168 entertainment, to dispel169 the suspicion of parsimony170 and meanness under which he had ascended171 the throne. The Hippodrome rang daily with the applause and contests of the citizens, and the winter was enlivened with great gaiety. Meantime Nicephorus was gathering172 an immense army for the more substantial work of driving back the Saracens, and when, in the early spring, the cosmopolitan173 regiments174 were assembled along the Asiatic shore, he announced that the Empress would accompany him to the field. He knew Theophano too well to leave her in that world of intriguing175 eunuchs and ambitious courtiers. A little pot-bellied man, with dark skin and little dark eyes, with short greyish beard betraying his age, and with disproportionately long arms and short legs to his stumpy figure, he felt that he was not likely to grow fonder to the heart of the fascinating Theophano during two or three years’ absence. On the other hand, one must not imagine the sensual young Empress as being inconvenienced by the rough ways of150 a camp. The rulers of Constantinople carried their luxury even into the camp, on the occasions on which they condescended176 to take the field in person. Eighty horses were needed for the transport of the kitchen equipment and table silver alone, and thirty were required to convey the imperial wardrobe from town to town; while the whole countryside was laid under contribution to supply delicacies177 for the table. No doubt these normal glories of an imperial march would be at least doubled in view of the presence of Theophano.
They sailed from the Bucoleon port in the great gold and purple galley178 of the imperial family, and joined the army at C?sarea. From that city Theophano accompanied her husband across the hills and plains of Asia Minor179 until they came to the beginning of the Taurus range. Here the Emperor left Theophano and her sons, in safe charge, while he led his troops into the more dangerous country beyond. At the entrance of the narrow defile180 which the ancients knew as the “Cilician Gates” was the massive fortress of Drizibion, a solitary181 and rugged182 castle in a wild mountainous district. It was in this quiet and cool home, removed from communication with the metropolis183, that Theophano and her children spent the summer of the year 964. She would, of course, have an ample retinue184 of eunuchs and women, and every provision would be made for her comfort, but, whether it was the jealousy185 or the amorousness186 of Nicephorus that detained her in this healthy solitude187, she would be sure to resent it. At the beginning of the winter he returned to her, with modest laurels188, and may have conducted her to C?sarea, or some other city of the plains, for the enjoyment189 of the winter. But the early spring called him once more to the field, and it seems that Theophano had to spend another summer in the wilds of Cilicia. It was only in the autumn of 965 that she re-entered Constantinople, to witness the splendid triumph of her husband.
In the following year Nicephorus made another campaign,151 and from the time of his return in the autumn of 966 the shadow of tragedy began to creep over his life. His vast armies and laborious190 victories had laid a heavy burden of taxation191 on the Empire, and, passionately as Constantinople loved to see a herd192 of captives driven before the royal chariot in the hour of triumph, it was little disposed to pay for remote victories. The clergy also were embittered193. Nicephorus, soured by the action of the patriarch, and thus made sensible of the revolting spread of luxurious194 idleness under the name of monasticism, curtailed195 the revenues of the clergy, forbade the further conversion196 of mansions and palaces into monasteries, and claimed the right to appoint bishops. The people became sullen197 and hostile. When, on Easter Sunday, 967, Nicephorus crossed the Augusteum to go to church, they pelted198 him with mud and stones so violently that a group of the more sober citizens had to rescue him. It was expected that he would inflict199 some punishment, and when, a few weeks later, he ordered his guards to descend59 to the arena200 in the Hippodrome and begin their military evolutions, either to impress or to entertain the spectators, there was a frantic201 rush for the gates and many were trodden underfoot.
By the summer of 969 life in the sacred palace had become very sombre and unpleasant, and Theophano began to seek a new companion. The ardour of her husband’s passion had been chilled by the terrors which now surrounded him, and, in preparation for the death which was foretold202 to him, he returned zealously203 to his monastic habits. Even the soldiers were now hostile to him, except his immediate204 corps205 of foreign mercenaries. Nicephorus relied on their formidable axes, converted the old and decaying Bucoleon palace into a massive fortress, girt the whole enclosure with a lofty castellated wall, and retired within this heavily guarded circle to spend his days and nights in prayer and penitence206.
It is one of the most curious features of the story that, while he moodily207 punished his bravest officers for their152 very victories, the lithe208 and insidious209 Theophano retained his confidence. She had no longer the comparative solace210 of his sensual fire, and she must have looked on with deep disdain when he refused to share the imperial bed at night and, after long hours of prayer and psalm-reading, flung himself for a brief and feverish211 sleep on a panther-skin spread upon the ground in the corner of his chamber. But Theophano was not excluded from the Bucoleon palace, and she laid her plans to defeat his desperate entrenchments. The new partner whom she chose to encourage was the general Zimiskes, the Emperor’s nephew, whom we have seen on an earlier page revealing the perfidy212 of Bringas to his uncle. He had been dismissed from office by Nicephorus “on account of certain suspicions”; and we have little trouble in inferring that he was suspected of liaison213 with Theophano and eagerness for the throne. He was, like his uncle, a very little and robust man, but much more handsome than Nicephorus; his broad chest and great brawny214 arms were redeemed215 by a fair countenance, a pair of keen and friendly blue eyes and a crown of almost golden hair. I must be pardoned for inserting such portraits of the Emperors as we have, while seeming to omit the more desirable portraits of their consorts216. The Byzantine chroniclers rarely give us more than the very vaguest assurances that Empresses were “very beautiful,” and so on, and the few surviving representations of them in ivory or bronze or mosaic217 are not portraits on which one would dare to found a physiognomical study.
In the autumn of 969 Zimiskes was living impatiently on his private estate in Armenia, when he received an assurance that Theophano had persuaded his uncle to allow him to return to Court. Whether or no it is true that he had previously enjoyed the favours of Theophano, he now certainly became her ally and accomplice218. She seems to have deluded219 Nicephorus with diabolical220 duplicity. A rumour221, which most historians plausibly222 ascribe to her, was circulated in Constantinople, to the153 effect that Nicephorus intended to castrate her sons and leave the crown to his brother Leo, who, on account of his extortions, was no less hated than he. On the other hand, Theophano persuaded Nicephorus that the interest of herself and her children would be best consulted if Zimiskes were recalled to the capital and compelled to marry some noble lady of the city. Nicephorus assented223, and his nephew came to Constantinople. Then it seems to have been betrayed to the Emperor, probably by his brother, that Zimiskes was being secretly admitted to the Empress’s apartments, and he placed restrictions224 on him. Zimiskes retired to his mansion127 at Chalcedon, on the Asiatic side, and continued to communicate with Theophano.
The culmination225 of the plot is a thrilling, if sordid, page of romance. On the night of 10th December Theophano visited her husband and persuaded him to leave his chamber door unfastened, as she would see him later. He still failed to suspect her, although some watchful226 priest had warned him of the plot. Some time before a group of tall, veiled women had presented themselves at the palace door and been admitted; and, when they had reached the secret chambers227 assigned to them by Theophano, it was a group of bronzed soldiers who emerged from the mantles228 and veils. Someone betrayed them, and Nicephorus sent an officer to explore the palace, but he, probably being in the pay of Theophano, reported that all was well, and Nicephorus turned to his long psalms229. Theophano and her servants were in the upper part of the palace looking out anxiously over the Sea of Marmora. It was a dark wintry night, and the snow was falling heavily. At length a faint whistle from below told them that a boat had arrived from Chalcedon and lay under the walls. A basket (some say a ladder) was tied to a rope and lowered into the depths, and presently Zimiskes and several companions were within the palace. An Arab historian would have us believe that Theophano herself led them, with drawn230 swords, to154 her husband’s room; it is more probable that, as the Greek writers say, she left this to one of her eunuchs.
For a moment the conspirators231 started back in alarm; the imperial bed was empty, and they fancied that the plot was known, and Nicephorus would fall on them. But the eunuch showed them the sleeping form of the Emperor on his panther-rug, and, with a cry for help to the Virgin, the strange soldier-monk passed out of the imperial world he had invaded. Basil, the astute232 head chamberlain, had an opportune233 illness at the moment, and only recovered in time to do reverence234 to his new sovereign. The guards alone rushed from their quarters and attacked the conspirators, but the sight of the grisly head of the late Emperor, which was exhibited at the window, induced them to sheathe235 their swords and accept a new paymaster. So Zimiskes proceeded gaily236 to the golden palace (Chrysotriclinon) to put on the purple slippers237, and Theophano retired to her room to reflect on the next phase of her career: perhaps to glance now and again at the ghastly trunk of her late husband, which lay, all night and all the following day, in the snow without. This, surely, was the last crime she need commit. She was still young, and might look forward to many years of power with the robust soldier she had invited to share her throne.
Six days later Zimiskes went in state to St Sophia to receive his diadem238, and found the stern patriarch Polyeuctes again boldly barring the way. He refused to crown Zimiskes except on three conditions: he must undo141 the anti-clerical work of his predecessor239, he must deliver to justice the actual murderer of Nicephorus, and he must drive the guilty Theophano from the palace. Theophano now discovered the full brutality240 of her accomplice. He bowed at once to the commands of the patriarch, and the beautiful young Empress—she must still have been in her twenties, unless she was much older than her husband at the time of her first marriage—was dragged from her apartments to the Bucoleon quay and155 shipped to one of the dreary241 island prisons in the Sea of Marmora. She was furious with rage and disappointment. After a time she escaped and contrived242 to reach the altar in St Sophia; but even the mob of Constantinople shrank from the murderess, and her former confederate, Basil, was allowed to tear her from the altar. In her frenzy243 she beat the grand chamberlain with her own white hands and, reverting244 to the language of the tavern, poured her invectives on the “Scythian bastard245.”23 Her career had been so darkened with suspicion, and had so plainly ended in murder, that her appeals fell on a cold, if not jeering246, audience, and she was conveyed to distant Armenia and confined in a monastery.
The rest of the story of Theophano, as far as it is known to us, is told in the curt162 statement that she was recalled to Court in the reign of her eldest son, Basil, and again enjoyed the imperial position for half-a-century. John Zimiskes retained only for a few years the power for which he had paid so base a price. The marriage which he presently contracted was not much less sordid than the marriage he had intended to contract; if, indeed, he ever had a serious desire to make so dangerous a woman as Theophano the partner of his throne. He took a nun247 from her monastery, bade the patriarch—whose scruples248 had their limits—relieve her of her vows, and married her. The Empress Theodora is not clearly outlined in the chronicles, but she is not without interest. She was one of those daughters of Constantine whom her brother Romanus had forced to take the veil. Zimiskes had felt that an alliance with the late dynasty would strengthen his position, and it may be remembered that the daughters of Constantine were not at all scrupulous26. They had refused to wear the black robe or eat the bread and beans of the monastery.156 Constantinople is said to have indulged in the most boisterous249 rejoicing over the marriage, and even the heavens seemed to express their satisfaction, when one of the Senators discovered in his orchard250 an ancient stone on which was miraculously251 inscribed252: “Long Life to John and Theodora.” There were, however, sceptics in the city, as it was recalled that a similar “discovery” had been made in the interest of Irene and her son, yet the blessing253 had proved illusory. The Senator was richly rewarded, but he may have lived to see the futility254 of his miracle. After a few years (976) the handsome chamberlain Basil bribed255 John’s cook to put less innocent things than condiments256 in his dishes, and he went the beaten way of Byzantine Emperors. Theodora disappears after his death, though we can hardly suppose that she returned to her monastery.
Theophano’s sons, Basil and Constantine, now became joint257 Emperors, and they recalled their mother from Armenia to the palace. One would be inclined to suspect that the poisoning did not come to her as a surprise, but the chroniclers do not impeach258 her, and we need not strive to lengthen259 the list of her misdeeds. She makes no further mark, for good or evil, in the chronicles. Possibly the terrible experiences of her early womanhood and seven years of sober reflection in her monastic prison had destroyed her passion for intrigue. In any case, the very vigorous administration of her elder son left her little room to interfere260, and she seems to have been content with the quiet enjoyment of the position of a dowager Empress. According to George the Monk (or his continuer) she lived for fifty years after the death of her first husband—that is to say, after 963—and so she must have passed her seventieth year at the time of her death. There seems to have been no rival Empress during that time. We may trust that the character of Theophano sobered and matured, and that the forty years’ silence means that she led a regular and unambitious life. However that may be, the157 personality she shows when she is under the full limelight on the imperial stage is one of unrestrained passion and greed. She was a tavern-keeper’s daughter in the purple, an appalling261 instance of the lowest type of Greek beauty.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
astonishment
|
|
| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
precisely
|
|
| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
disdain
|
|
| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
unnatural
|
|
| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
vice
|
|
| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
licentious
|
|
| adj.放纵的，淫乱的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
licentiousness
|
|
| n.放肆，无法无天 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
ascetic
|
|
| adj.禁欲的；严肃的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
pompously
|
|
| adv.傲慢地，盛大壮观地；大模大样 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
guilt
|
|
| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
persistent
|
|
| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
tempt
|
|
| vt.引诱，勾引，吸引，引起…的兴趣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
excision
|
|
| n.删掉；除去 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
violation
|
|
| n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
clergy
|
|
| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
abominable
|
|
| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
intrigue
|
|
| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
intrigues
|
|
| n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 )；神秘气氛；引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 )；激起…的好奇心 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
coercion
|
|
| n.强制，高压统治 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
administrative
|
|
| adj.行政的，管理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
corruption
|
|
| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
lamentable
|
|
| adj.令人惋惜的，悔恨的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
appreciation
|
|
| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
elevation
|
|
| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
favourably
|
|
| adv. 善意地，赞成地 =favorably | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
scrupulous
|
|
| adj.审慎的，小心翼翼的，完全的，纯粹的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
destined
|
|
| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
arrogated
|
|
| v.冒称，妄取( arrogate的过去式和过去分词 )；没来由地把…归属（于） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
plebeian
|
|
| adj.粗俗的；平民的；n.平民；庶民 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
scrutiny
|
|
| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
reign
|
|
| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
remorse
|
|
| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
edifying
|
|
| adj.有教训意味的，教训性的，有益的v.开导，启发( edify的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
repentance
|
|
| n.懊悔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
eldest
|
|
| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
pious
|
|
| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
bishop
|
|
| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
debauch
|
|
| v.使堕落，放纵 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
postponed
|
|
| vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
groom
|
|
| vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
mare
|
|
| n.母马，母驴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
deposed
|
|
| v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 )；（在法庭上）宣誓作证 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
monastery
|
|
| n.修道院，僧院，寺院 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
consolation
|
|
| n.安慰，慰问 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
defrauded
|
|
| v.诈取，骗取( defraud的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
countenance
|
|
| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
faculty
|
|
| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
disposition
|
|
| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
attainments
|
|
| 成就，造诣； 获得( attainment的名词复数 )； 达到； 造诣； 成就 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
stimulated
|
|
| a.刺激的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
chamber
|
|
| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
vessel
|
|
| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
quay
|
|
| n.码头，靠岸处 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
genial
|
|
| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
cynically
|
|
| adv.爱嘲笑地，冷笑地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
bidders
|
|
| n.出价者，投标人( bidder的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
remarkable
|
|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
descend
|
|
| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
tardy
|
|
| adj.缓慢的，迟缓的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
monarch
|
|
| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
conjugal
|
|
| adj.婚姻的，婚姻性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
envoy
|
|
| n.使节，使者，代表，公使 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
virgin
|
|
| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
vices
|
|
| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
illustrates
|
|
| 给…加插图( illustrate的第三人称单数 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
tavern
|
|
| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
ascend
|
|
| vi.渐渐上升，升高；vt.攀登，登上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
humble
|
|
| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
authentic
|
|
| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
graceful
|
|
| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
conjecture
|
|
| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
followers
|
|
| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
acquiesced
|
|
| v.默认，默许( acquiesce的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
sordid
|
|
| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
veins
|
|
| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
penetrate
|
|
| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
secluded
|
|
| adj.与世隔绝的；隐退的；偏僻的v.使隔开，使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
virulent
|
|
| adj.有毒的，有恶意的，充满敌意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
hatred
|
|
| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
impaired
|
|
| adj.受损的；出毛病的；有（身体或智力）缺陷的v.损害，削弱( impair的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
monasteries
|
|
| 修道院( monastery的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
amiable
|
|
| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
colonnades
|
|
| n.石柱廊( colonnade的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
86
domain
|
|
| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
chapel
|
|
| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
chapels
|
|
| n.小教堂， （医院、监狱等的）附属礼拜堂( chapel的名词复数 )；（在小教堂和附属礼拜堂举行的）礼拜仪式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
lascivious
|
|
| adj.淫荡的，好色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
intrigued
|
|
| adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
malignant
|
|
| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
abstain
|
|
| v.自制，戒绝，弃权，避免 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
vows
|
|
| 誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
mortification
|
|
| n.耻辱，屈辱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
95
melancholy
|
|
| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
96
seduced
|
|
| 诱奸( seduce的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾引； 诱使堕落； 使入迷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
97
seduce
|
|
| vt.勾引，诱奸，诱惑，引诱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
98
robust
|
|
| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
99
eyebrows
|
|
| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
100
tragic
|
|
| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
101
armour
|
|
| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
102
linen
|
|
| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
103
abstained
|
|
| v.戒（尤指酒），戒除( abstain的过去式和过去分词 )；弃权（不投票） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
104
rigidly
|
|
| adv.刻板地，僵化地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
105
monk
|
|
| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
106
vowed
|
|
| 起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
107
civilian
|
|
| adj.平民的，民用的，民众的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
108
prematurely
|
|
| adv.过早地，贸然地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
109
prostrate
|
|
| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
110
relics
|
|
| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
111
acclaiming
|
|
| 向…欢呼( acclaim的现在分词 )； 向…喝彩； 称赞…； 欢呼或拥戴（某人）为… | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
112
previously
|
|
| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
113
physically
|
|
| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
114
piety
|
|
| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
115
gallant
|
|
| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
116
prudent
|
|
| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
117
convoked
|
|
| v.召集，召开（会议）( convoke的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
118
espoused
|
|
| v.（决定）支持，拥护（目标、主张等）( espouse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
119
supreme
|
|
| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
120
callously
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
121
repudiating
|
|
| v.（正式地）否认( repudiate的现在分词 )；拒绝接受；拒绝与…往来；拒不履行（法律义务） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
122
venal
|
|
| adj.唯利是图的，贪脏枉法的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
123
briefly
|
|
| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
124
desecrated
|
|
| 毁坏或亵渎( desecrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
125
unwillingly
|
|
| adv.不情愿地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
126
aspire
|
|
| vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
127
mansion
|
|
| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
128
mansions
|
|
| n.宅第，公馆，大厦( mansion的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
129
triumphant
|
|
| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
130
scarlet
|
|
| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
131
adorning
|
|
| 修饰，装饰物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
132
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
133
fortress
|
|
| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
134
austere
|
|
| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
135
advisers
|
|
| 顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
136
retired
|
|
| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
137
sanctuary
|
|
| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
138
ignominious
|
|
| adj.可鄙的，不光彩的，耻辱的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
139
penitent
|
|
| adj.后悔的；n.后悔者；忏悔者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
140
concealing
|
|
| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
141
undo
|
|
| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
142
undoubtedly
|
|
| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
143
conscientious
|
|
| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
144
mingled
|
|
| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
145
passionately
|
|
| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
146
forgo
|
|
| v.放弃，抛弃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
147
monks
|
|
| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
148
enchanting
|
|
| a.讨人喜欢的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
149
invalid
|
|
| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
150
perjury
|
|
| n.伪证；伪证罪 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
151
pliant
|
|
| adj.顺从的；可弯曲的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
152
bishops
|
|
| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
153
invoked
|
|
| v.援引( invoke的过去式和过去分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
154
binding
|
|
| 有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
155
devoted
|
|
| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
156
asceticism
|
|
| n.禁欲主义 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
157
disperses
|
|
| v.（使）分散( disperse的第三人称单数 )；疏散；驱散；散布 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
158
creed
|
|
| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
159
accusation
|
|
| n.控告，指责，谴责 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
160
languished
|
|
| 长期受苦( languish的过去式和过去分词 )； 受折磨； 变得（越来越）衰弱； 因渴望而变得憔悴或闷闷不乐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
161
captivity
|
|
| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
162
curt
|
|
| adj.简短的，草率的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
163
curtly
|
|
| adv.简短地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
164
prudently
|
|
| adv. 谨慎地，慎重地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
165
fiery
|
|
| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
166
immoral
|
|
| adj.不道德的，淫荡的，荒淫的，有伤风化的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
167
innocence
|
|
| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
168
lavish
|
|
| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
169
dispel
|
|
| vt.驱走，驱散，消除 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
170
parsimony
|
|
| n.过度节俭，吝啬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
171
ascended
|
|
| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
172
gathering
|
|
| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
173
cosmopolitan
|
|
| adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
174
regiments
|
|
| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
175
intriguing
|
|
| adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
176
condescended
|
|
| 屈尊，俯就( condescend的过去式和过去分词 )； 故意表示和蔼可亲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
177
delicacies
|
|
| n.棘手( delicacy的名词复数 )；精致；精美的食物；周到 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
178
galley
|
|
| n.（飞机或船上的）厨房单层甲板大帆船；军舰舰长用的大划艇； | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
179
minor
|
|
| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
180
defile
|
|
| v.弄污，弄脏；n.(山间)小道 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
181
solitary
|
|
| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
182
rugged
|
|
| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
183
metropolis
|
|
| n.首府；大城市 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
184
retinue
|
|
| n.侍从；随员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
185
jealousy
|
|
| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
186
amorousness
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
187
solitude
|
|
| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
188
laurels
|
|
| n.桂冠，荣誉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
189
enjoyment
|
|
| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
190
laborious
|
|
| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
191
taxation
|
|
| n.征税，税收，税金 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
192
herd
|
|
| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
193
embittered
|
|
| v.使怨恨，激怒( embitter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
194
luxurious
|
|
| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
195
curtailed
|
|
| v.截断，缩短( curtail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
196
conversion
|
|
| n.转化，转换，转变 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
197
sullen
|
|
| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
198
pelted
|
|
| （连续地）投掷( pelt的过去式和过去分词 )； 连续抨击； 攻击； 剥去…的皮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
199
inflict
|
|
| vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
200
arena
|
|
| n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
201
frantic
|
|
| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
202
foretold
|
|
| v.预言，预示( foretell的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
203
zealously
|
|
| adv.热心地；热情地；积极地；狂热地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
204
immediate
|
|
| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
205
corps
|
|
| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
206
penitence
|
|
| n.忏悔，赎罪；悔过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
207
moodily
|
|
| adv.喜怒无常地；情绪多变地；心情不稳地；易生气地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
208
lithe
|
|
| adj.(指人、身体)柔软的，易弯的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
209
insidious
|
|
| adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
210
solace
|
|
| n.安慰；v.使快乐；vt.安慰(物)，缓和 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
211
feverish
|
|
| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
212
perfidy
|
|
| n.背信弃义，不忠贞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
213
liaison
|
|
| n.联系，（未婚男女间的）暖昧关系，私通 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
214
brawny
|
|
| adj.强壮的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
215
redeemed
|
|
| adj. 可赎回的，可救赎的 动词redeem的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
216
consorts
|
|
| n.配偶( consort的名词复数 )；（演奏古典音乐的）一组乐师；一组古典乐器；一起v.结伴( consort的第三人称单数 )；交往；相称；调和 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
217
mosaic
|
|
| n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
218
accomplice
|
|
| n.从犯，帮凶，同谋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
219
deluded
|
|
| v.欺骗，哄骗( delude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
220
diabolical
|
|
| adj.恶魔似的，凶暴的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
221
rumour
|
|
| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
222
plausibly
|
|
| 似真地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
223
assented
|
|
| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
224
restrictions
|
|
| 约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
225
culmination
|
|
| n.顶点；最高潮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
226
watchful
|
|
| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
227
chambers
|
|
| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
228
mantles
|
|
| vt.&vi.覆盖（mantle的第三人称单数形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
229
psalms
|
|
| n.赞美诗( psalm的名词复数 )；圣诗；圣歌；(中的) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
230
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
231
conspirators
|
|
| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
232
astute
|
|
| adj.机敏的，精明的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
233
opportune
|
|
| adj.合适的，适当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
234
reverence
|
|
| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
235
sheathe
|
|
| v.（将刀剑）插入鞘；包，覆盖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
236
gaily
|
|
| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
237
slippers
|
|
| n. 拖鞋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
238
diadem
|
|
| n.王冠，冕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
239
predecessor
|
|
| n.前辈，前任 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
240
brutality
|
|
| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
241
dreary
|
|
| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
242
contrived
|
|
| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
243
frenzy
|
|
| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
244
reverting
|
|
| 恢复( revert的现在分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
245
bastard
|
|
| n.坏蛋，混蛋；私生子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
246
jeering
|
|
| adj.嘲弄的，揶揄的v.嘲笑( jeer的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
247
nun
|
|
| n.修女，尼姑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
248
scruples
|
|
| n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 )；顾虑，顾忌v.感到于心不安，有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
249
boisterous
|
|
| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
250
orchard
|
|
| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
251
miraculously
|
|
| ad.奇迹般地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
252
inscribed
|
|
| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
253
blessing
|
|
| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
254
futility
|
|
| n.无用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
255
bribed
|
|
| v.贿赂( bribe的过去式和过去分词 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
256
condiments
|
|
| n.调味品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
257
joint
|
|
| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
258
impeach
|
|
| v.弹劾；检举 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
259
lengthen
|
|
| vt.使伸长，延长 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
260
interfere
|
|
| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
261
appalling
|
|
| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |