Moesia

“ Slavs occupied Moesia and a large part of Macedonia, even close to Thessalonica, which they besieged; they penetrated southward into Greece and made large settlements in the Peloponnesus (see Greece, History, “Roman period,” ad fin.) . They occupied the north-western provinces, which became Croatia and Servia, as well as Dalmatia (except some of the coast towns) . In the northern part of the peninsula the Slavonic element remained dominant, but in Greece it was assimilated to the Greek (after the 9th century) and has left little record of itself except in place names. ”

“ The sending of Trebellenus called forth in the year 21 a rising, in which not merely did the most noted Thracian tribes take part, but which threatened to assume greater proportions; messengers of the insurgents went over the Haemus to enkindle the national war in Moesia, and perhaps still further. Meanwhile the Moesian legions appeared in right time to relieve Philippopolis, which the insurgents besieged, and to suppress the movement. But, when some years later (25) the Roman government ordered levies in Thrace, the men refused to serve beyond the bounds of their own country. ”

“ We may suppose that the saint’s relics were transferred for safety to Ancona at some time in the troubled centuries which followed his martyrdom, when Moesia was occupied and ravaged by successive hordes of barbarian invaders. At all events it appears certain from the independent and mutually confirmatory evidence of the martyrology and the monuments that Dasius was no mythical saint, but a real man, who suffered death for his faith at Durostorum in one of the early centuries of the Christian era. ”

“ As well northern Italy as the Illyrian and Pontic commercial towns, and still more the civilised provinces of Macedonia and Thrace, were constantly exposed to the predatory expeditions of the rude and restless neighbouring tribes. When Augustus died there were substituted for the one province of Illyricum, which had barely attained to independent administration, five great Roman administrative districts, Raetia, Noricum, Lower Illyria or Pannonia, Upper Illyria or Dalmatia, and Moesia ”

“ How matters went on in the last years of Nero on either side of the mouths of the Danube is approximately shown by the accidentally preserved report of the governor of Moesia at that time, Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Aelianus. The latter “brought upwards of 100,000 men dwelling beyond the Danube, with their wives and children, and their princes or kings over the river, so that they became liable to pay tribute. He suppressed a movement of the Sarmatae before it came to an outbreak, although he had given away a great part of his troops for the carrying on of war in Armenia (to Corbulo) . ”

“ In the year 56, that is, in the exemplary beginning of Nero’s government, Tyra was annexed to the province of Moesia.Olbia.Of the more remote Olbia we possess a description from the age of Trajan;210311 the town was still bleeding from its old wounds; the wretched walls enclosed equally wretched houses, and the quarter then inhabited filled but a small portion of the old considerable city–circuit, of which individual towers that were left stood far off in the desolate plain; in the temples there was no statue of the gods which did not bear traces of the hands of the barbarians ”

“ A Roman, not colonial, municipal constitution was obtained already in the first period of the empire by Stobi, the already mentioned most northerly frontier–town of Macedonia towards Moesia, at the confluence of the Erigon with the Axius, in a commercial as in a military point of view an important position, and which, it may be conjectured, had already in the Macedonian time attained to Greek polity.
Economy. Roads and levy.In an economic point of view little was done on the part of the state for Macedonia under the emperors ”

“ Planud. iv. 75) , the same poet who celebrated also the conqueror of the Thracians, Piso (p. 24) , and a Latin epistle in verse addressed to Cotys by Ovid (ex Ponto, ii. 9) .
123 It is one of the most seriously felt blanks of the Roman imperial history that the standing quarters of the two legions, which formed under the Julio–Claudian emperors the garrison of Moesia, the 4th Scythica and the 5th Macedonica (at least these were stationed there in the year 33; C. I. L. iii. 1698) cannot hitherto be pointed out with certainty. ”

“ There is manifold and sure attestation that the tribes of the territory, which in consequence208 of the Roman provincial division has ultimately retained the name Thracian, as well as the Moesians between the Balkan and the Danube, and not less the Getae or Daci on the other bank of the Danube, all spoke one and the same language. ”

“ It is remarkable that the acme of this development is reached—by the side of the southern province—in the district of the Moselle and the Maas. This region, not placed so completely under Roman influence as Lyons and the headquarter–towns on the Rhine, and more wealthy and civilised than the districts on the Loire and the Seine, seems to have in some measure produced of itself this exercise of art. ”

“ Lying, as she does, within a district absolutely overrun with summer-tourists, it is altogether inexplicable that a river presenting scenery unsurpassed in Europe should be so neglected by those who in thousands pass the mouth of her stream. When the Roman Poet Ausonius visited Germany, it was not the Rhine, but the Moselle which most pleased him; and although glorious Italy was his home, yet he could spare time to explore the Moselle, and extol the loveliness of her waters in a most eloquent poem. ”

“ Moses reigned in Ethiopia in justice and righteousness. But the dowager Queen of Ethiopia, Adonith, who was a wife to Moses in name only, said to the people: “Why should this stranger continue to rule over you? Would it not be more just to place the son of Kikanus upon his father’s throne, for he is one of you?” The people, however, would not vex Moses, whom they loved, by such a proposition; but Moses voluntarily resigned the power which they had given him, and departed from their land. And the people of Ethiopia made him many rich presents, and dismissed him with great honours. ”

“ Moez, the last of the African princes of the house of Obeidollah, who seems to have depended for his dominion more on his prowess than on his supposed descent from Mohammed, [3] transferred his court to Grand Cairo, a city which he had built in Egypt after his conquest of that country. Africa was to be held as a fief of this new empire. Large tracts of Syria and the whole of Palestine acknowledged the {240} supremacy of his descendants, commonly known as Fatimites, from their supposed relationship to Ali, and to Fatima, the Prophet's daughter. ”

“ The capital of the land, Caesarea, hitherto a Greek urban community, obtained as “first Flavian colony” Roman organisation and Latin as the language of business. These were essays towards the Occidental municipalising of the Jewish land. Nevertheless Judaea proper, though depopulated and impoverished, remained still Jewish as before; the light in which the government looked upon the land is shown by the thoroughly anomalous permanent military occupation, which, as Judaea was not situated on the frontier of the empire, can only have been destined to keep down the inhabitants. ”

“ Take the valley from Lanzo to Viù. It is of incredible beauty in the mornings and afternoons of brilliant days, and all day long upon a gray day; but in the middle hours of a bright summer’s day it is hardly beautiful at all, except locally in the shade under chestnuts. Buildings and towns are the only things that show well in a glare. We perhaps, therefore, thought the valley of the Moesa to be of such singular beauty on account of the day on which we saw it, but doubt whether it must not be absolutely among the most beautiful of the subalpine valleys upon the Italian side. ”

“ Beyond the Meuse, the Moselle, and the Rhine, feudalism flourished. Lofty fortresses, surrounded with a triple moat, everywhere cast their shadows athwart the land, though the towns enjoyed a full share of municipal liberty, and were not unfrequently the disinterested spectators of the terrible struggles that the feudal nobility carried on between themselves. ”

“ If we acknowledge that the story of Moses has an historical foundation we must suppose that Moses fled from Egypt somewhere about the beginning of the fifteenth century before Christ. At that time the whole of Palestine and a large part of Syria belonged to Egypt. Egyptian garrisons guarded the important transport routes on the peninsula of Sinai, and the chiefs of all tribes encamped upon this peninsula had to obey the Egyptian commanders and officials if they wished to barter, sell, or buy anything in Egypt or in southern Palestine. ”

“ Past little islands, and through rich fields filled with garden produce, we glide on, following the serpentine course of our river. The wood-embosomed villages peep at us as we go by, each group of houses has its church rising in the midst: gradually the banks grow steeper, hills swell up inland, and here and there come down to look on the Moselle. These reconnoiterers retire, and having told their chiefs of the approach of the glorious stream, at Trittenheim we find the right bank covered with mountain-giants, come to do homage to the spirit of the waters. ”

“ The Egyptians entered the province of Muggrib, by the town of Zenata. Four years after they seized Tripoli. Mûnis, governor of the province of Cairoan, passed over to the enemy. Moaz lost a pitched battle, and took shelter in Mehedié. The Egyptians seized his capital Cairoan, stopped the springs, turned the course of the river, and destroyed the magnificent palaces and delicious gardens of the monarchs of Africa. Moaz, overwhelmed with his misfortunes, sunk into the grave, and closed a long and fortunate reign in the utmost misery. ”

“ Moosa (Moses) , "to whose spirit be peace!" was on earth, there lived near him a poor yet remarkably religious man, who had for many years supported himself and his wife by the daily occupation of cutting wood for his richer neighbours; four small copper coins (equivalent to our halfpence) proved the reward of his toil, which at best afforded the poor couple but a scanty meal after his day's exertions.
'The prophet Moosa passed the Woodcutter one morning, who accosted him with "O Moosa! Prophet of the Most High; behold I labour each day for my coarse and scanty meal ”

“ It was the purpose of Mo ́ses to lead the people at once from Ka ́desh up to Ca ́naan. But their fear of the Ca ́naan-ite and Am ́or-ite inhabitants made them weak; they were defeated and driven back into the Desert of Pa ́ran, where they wandered thirty-eight years, until the generation of slavish souls should die off, and a new Is ́ra-el, the young people, trained in the spirit of Mo ́ses and Josh ́u-a and fitted for conquest, should arise in their places. ”

“ It is so much the more a question, whether the notion of frontier admits of application to Africa in the usual sense. The states of Massinissa, of Bocchus, of Bogud, as also the Carthaginian, proceeded from the northern verge, and all the civilisation of North Africa is based pre-eminently on this coast; but, so far as we can discern, they all regarded the tribes settled or roving in the south as subjects, and, if they withdrew themselves from subjection, as insurgents, so far as the distance and the desert did not by doing away with contact do away with control. ”

“ The vale of the Moselle is deep and green, formed by vine-clad steeps, among which the eye, from the heights where we stood, espies many a pleasant village. That of the Rhine is more varied and splendid—with towns that, from their size, the irregularity of their buildings, and the numerous towers and spires, give dignity to the proud river itself, and to the prodigally scattered hills. ”

“ Of the history of the colony for nearly four hundred years we know next to nothing. It is summed up in the few following words: "And at the time that Mosiah discovered them, they had become exceedingly numerous. Nevertheless, they had had many wars and serious contentions, and had fallen by the sword from time to time; and their language had become corrupted; and they had brought no records with them; and they denied the being of their Creator; and Mosiah, nor the people of Mosiah, could understand them." ”

“ These dignitaries, as if dissatisfied with things in Egypt, or offended at the pharaoh and the priesthood, had come to Libya from the seashore; they took no part in conversations, they avoided meetings with disbanded warriors, and explained to Musawasa, as the greatest secret, and with proofs in hand, that that was just his time to fall on Egypt.
"Thou wilt find there endless wealth," said they, "and granaries for thyself, thy people, and the grandsons of thy grandsons." ”

“ As soon, therefore, as Moses was come to the land which was the breeder of these serpents, he let loose the ibes, and by their means repelled the serpentine kind, and used them for his assistants before the army came upon that ground. When he had therefore proceeded thus on his journey, he came upon the Ethiopians before they expected him; and, joining battle with them, he beat them, and deprived them of the hopes they had of success against the Egyptians, and went on in overthrowing their cities, and indeed made a great slaughter of these Ethiopians. ”

“ Prince Mossa of the Buddhists, otherwise Moses of the Jews, was not, as is popularly supposed, a foundling of the Jews, or a protege of the Egyptian princess, but a full fledged prince, son of Pharaoh the mighty. This abrupt over-throw of the tradition of ages is like all disillusions, distasteful, but even the most superficial study of Egyptian customs and laws of that time will serve to impress us with the verity of this opinion. ”

“ From Sierck to Wasserbillig it forms the frontier between the Rhine Province and Luxemburg, then, turning N.E., it follows a sinuous course and reaches the Rhine at Coblenz. The principal towns on the banks of the Mosel are, in France: Remiremont, Épinal, Toul and Pont-à-Mousson ”