Phocas

“ The work of recognition thus far advanced by Justinian was perfected by the edict of the Emperor Phocas, who began to reign in 603. He also wrote to the Roman Bishop in 604, and acknowledged his spiritual supremacy. He was very liberal to the churches, and allowed the Pantheon, a temple dedicated to all the gods by his fathers, to be turned into a church, or "most strong hold," to all the saints. Phocas was a monster in crime, and therefore the better qualified for a patron of the Roman Bishop, who hailed him as the pious avenger of the church. ”

“ We have already traced the steps of a revolution so pleasing, in Gregory’s opinion, both to heaven and earth; and Phocas does not appear less hateful in the exercise than in the acquisition of power. The pencil of an impartial historian has delineated the portrait of a monster—his diminutive and deformed person, the closeness of his shaggy eyebrows, his red hair, his beardless chin, and his cheek disfigured and discoloured by a formidable scar. ”

“ Phocas remained general in the East till 987, when he rebelled and was proclaimed emperor by his troops. It seems that the minister Basileios was privy to this act, and the cause was dissatisfaction at the energy which was displayed by the emperor, who showed that he was determined to take the administration into his own hands and personally to control the army. Phocas advanced to the Hellespont and besieged Abydos. Basil obtained timely aid, in the shape of Varangian mercenaries, from his brother-in-law Vladimir, the Russian prince of Kiev, and marched to Abydos. ”

“ Stripped of the diadem and purple, clothed in a vile habit, and loaded with chains, he was transported in a small boat to the Imperial galley of Heraclius, who reproached him with the crimes of his abominable reign. “Wilt thou govern better?” were the last words of the despair of Phocas. ”

“ In the reign of the Greek Emperor Justinian, and again in the reign of Phocas, the Bishop of Rome obtained some dominion over the Greek Churches, but of no long continuance. His standing dominion was only over the nations of the Western Empire, represented by Daniel's fourth Beast. ”

“ On the third day, amidst the acclamations of a thoughtless people, Phocas made his public entry in a chariot drawn by four white horses; the revolt of the troops was rewarded by a lavish donative, and the new sovereign, after visiting the palace, beheld from his throne the games of the Hippodrome. In a dispute of precedency between the two factions, his partial judgment [153] inclined in favour of the greens. “Remember that Maurice is still alive,” resounded from the opposite side; and the indiscreet clamour of the blues admonished and stimulated the cruelty of the tyrant. ”

“ They hesitated to invest their favourite with the vacant purple; and while they rejected all treaty with Maurice himself, they held a friendly correspondence with his son Theodosius, and with Germanus, the father-in-law of the royal youth. So obscure had been the former condition of Phocas that the emperor was ignorant of the name and character of his rival; but as soon as he learned that the centurion, though bold in sedition, was timid in the face of danger, “Alas!” cried the desponding prince, “if he is a coward, he will surely be a murderer.” ”

“ The moment that Phocas had mounted the throne, Chosroës of Persia declared war on him, using the hypocritical pretext that he wished to revenge Maurice, for whom he professed a warm personal friendship. This war was far different from the indecisive contests in the reigns of Justinian and Justin II. In two successive years the Persians burst into North Syria and ravaged it as far as the sea; but in the third they turned north and swept over the hitherto untouched provinces of Asia Minor. In 608 their main army penetrated across Cappadocia and Galatia right up to the gates of Chalcedon. ”

“ Phocas led his army to the capital, where he found a strong body of discontents ready to receive him. Maurice, deserted by all his followers, fled with his children. He was captured, and after witnessing the execution of his boys, was himself beheaded. It is related of him that when the child of a nurse was substituted for his own he revealed the deceit, choosing rather that his own son should die than that an innocent person, or rather a child innocent of being his offspring, should suffer. ”

“ After this the stoutest Protestant may regard the invocation of the Virgin and saints, and even the worship offered to them, as intelligent in comparison with such childish superstition. A new mythology sprang up, and legends of the saints took the place of pagan myths. Thus the martyr Phocas, a gardener at Sinope in Pontus, superseded Castor and Pollux as the sailors' guardian. On board ship he had his portion set for him at table and then sold, the proceeds being given to the poor as a thankoffering for a prosperous voyage. ”

“ Several modern German authors, copying one another, say that he is represented walking on serpents and nailed to the cross. Either, says Father Cahier, I greatly mistake, or the martyr of Laodicea, who was torn on a stake (Menolog. græc., t. I., p. 29,) is confounded with the hermit of the same name who used to walk amongst the most dangerous reptiles (scorpions, horned vipers, etc.) , without ever being injured by them. (Rosweyde, Vitæ PP., p. 479.)
Saint Phocas of Antioch, in Syria, martyr; 5th March, time disputed. He is famed in the East as a signal protector against the bite of reptiles. ”

“ I have not seen the great seal sportive. A phoca has just come up with something white in its mouth, which it is eating—a fish, no doubt. This, too, it does in a playful manner, flinging open its jaws, and seeming to disport with it, in them. Full of the enjoyment of life they are; and the way up, through evolution, is to leave all this, and to acquire a multitude of cares, with gluttony, diseases, vices, cant—with a pat on the back from a poet, or so, now and again, making us out to be gods, and telling us to go to war. ”

“ Beginning with the North Atlantic, we find several species of Phoca inhabiting various parts of this area, and the Grey Seal, Halichœrus, and the Bladder Seal, Cystophora, exclusively confined to it. In the North Pacific all the four true Seals belong to the genus Phoca, and three of them are identical with the North Atlantic species, but when we descend as far south as the Gulf of California on the American coast we meet with a species of Sea-elephant, Macrorhinus, which, like Otaria, has no doubt penetrated up here thus far from its ancestral abode in the Antarctic Ocean. ”

“ Aristotle could not have had any knowledge of the great seal of the Frozen Sea, since in the time he lived all the north of Europe and of Asia was unknown, The Romans considered Gaul and Germany as their north, and the Greeks knew still less of the animals belonging to this part of the world; it is, therefore, very probable, that when Aristotle speaks of the phoca as a very common animal, he only means the Mediterranean seal.
These three species have many properties in common with each other; the females bring forth in winter, and place their young upon some sand-bank, rock, or small island. ”

“ The early history of Phocis remains quite obscure. From the scanty notices of Greek legend it may be gathered that an influx of tribes from the north contributed largely to its population, which was reckoned as Aeolic. It is probable that the country was originally of greater extent, for there was a tradition that the Phocians once owned a strip of land round Daphnus on the sea opposite Euboea, and carried their frontier to Thermopylae; in addition, in early days they controlled the great sanctuary of Delphi. ”

“ He must be more than twice the weight, I think, of the very largest phoca—phoca Antiquarius, as I would call the latter: lovers of Scott will take me. It is the great barrel of the body that is so immense. The build and general appearance is much more that of a walrus than of an ordinary seal. ”

“ The eloquent and ingenious Buffon was of opinion that the Phocæ approached to fish by a still more decisive criterion. “They are the only animals,” says he, “which have the foramen ovale open, and which can therefore live without respiring, and to whom water is as proper and suitable an element as air.” Theoretic views appear to have here led this excellent writer into an error, as it is now well known that the Phocæ cannot remain long in the water without coming to the surface to breathe. ”

“ A third species, from the American coast of the North Pacific, has been described under the name of Phocaena vomerina, and another from the mouth of the Rio de la Plata as P. spinipennis. Nearly allied is Neophocaena phocaenoides, a small species from the Indian Ocean and Japan, with teeth of the same form as those of the porpoise, but fewer in number (eighteen to twenty on each side) , of larger size, and more distinctly notched or lobed on the free edge. It is distinguished from the common porpoise externally by its black hue and the absence of a dorsal fin. ”

“ Phoca here forms part of the parson’s flock. They are tame as porpoises. The cows are never killed, and the young are spared; when a battue of men-seals with gun and club takes place, it is during summer. ”

“ Once, when an Ionian lady was displaying a coronet and necklace of gold and precious stones to her, she said, "My only ornament is that this is the twentieth year that Phokion has been elected general by the Athenians."
XX. As his son Phokus wished to contend in the games at the Panathenaic Festival, he entered him for the horse race, [633] not because he cared about his winning the prize, but because he thought that the youth, who was addicted to wine and of licentious life, would be benefited by the strict training and exercise which he would have to undergo. ”

“ And near the Hall of Æacus is the tomb of Phocus, a mound of earth with a base in the shape of a circle, and on it is a rough stone: and when Telamon and Peleus invited Phocus to the contest of the pentathlum, and it was Peleus’ turn to throw the stone, which served them for a quoit, he purposely threw it at Phocus and hit him. And in this they gratified their mother, for they were the sons of Endeis the daughter of Sciron, and Phocus was the son of her sister Thetis, if the Greeks speak the truth. ”

“ Many, if not all, of the species are polygamous, and the males frequently contend with desperate courage for the possession of a favourite female.
There is not much difference in the habits of the different genera or species of the Phocidæ; but while the great Arctic seal dives like the walrus, making a kind of semi-revolution as it goes down, the common seal (Phoca vitulina) , called by the hunters the stein-cobbe, from its custom of basking on the rocks, dives by suddenly dropping under water, its nose being the last part of its body which disappears, instead of its tail. ”

“ The Phooka is said to be a half-wicked, half-mischievous spirit, who takes the form of many strange animals, but oftenest assumes that of a wild horse. His great object then, is to get a rider, and when he has persuaded a poor fellow to mount him, he never lets him off till he has treated him to a ride long and hard enough to last him his lifetime. ”

“ The teeth show that it is young.
The figure and description of the Petit Phoque of Buffon have had the following names given to them:—
Little Seal, by Pennant and Shaw. Phoca pusilla, Schreber, Säugeth. 314 (Peters) . Phoca parva, Bodd. Elench. 78. Otaria pusilla, Desm. N. Dict. Otaria Peronii, Desm. Mamm.
Fischer, in his ‘Synopsis,’ under Phoca pusilla, p. 252, gives the Cape of Good Hope and Rotteness Island, on the coast of Australia, as the habitat of the species.
The description of Cuvier much more nearly fits that of the young Arctocephalus nigrescens from the Falkland Islands. ”

“ The truth connected [Pg 190] with the life of the fur-seal, as it herds in countless myriads on the Pribylov Islands of Alaska, is far stranger than fiction. Perhaps the existing ignorance has been caused by confounding the hair-seal, Phoca vitulina, and its kind, with the creature now under discussion. Two animals, more dissimilar in their individuality and method of living, can, however, hardly be imagined, although they belong to the same group, and live apparently upon the same food. ”

“ Indeed when he was in the country or on a campaign he always went barefooted and wore only his tunic, unless the cold was excessively severe; so that the soldiers used to say in jest that it was a sign of wintry weather to see Phokion wearing his cloak.
V. Though one of the kindest and most affable of men, he was of a forbidding and severe countenance, so that men who did not know him well feared to address him when alone. Once when Chares in a speech mentioned Phokion's gloomy brow, the Athenians began to laugh. ”

“ Yet why should not the solemn visaged, double-chinned phoca partake of one of the most universal habits of animal life—the love of frolic?—a desire which is equally as diffused throughout the living creation as the inclination for fighting. ”

“ We held on for dear life and the air whished past us like mad. Behind us the city of kangaroos sprang to life as they saw their assorted prisoners escaping and very soon I saw over my shoulder that a line of gigantic steam-powered pogos were bounding along after us, each manned by several armed creatures.
The flea was fast but the pogos, powered by terrific steam-boilers, were equally so. And thus we raced across the clay creviced terrain, two humans on the back of a flea-colossus followed by a single-file line of puffing steel pogos, their plumes of smoke leaving a trail behind them. ”