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History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire Volume
3
by Edward Gibbon, Esq. With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman
April, 1997 [Etext # 892]
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This is volume three of the six volumes of Edward Gibbon's
History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire. If you find
any errors please feel free to notify me of them. I want to make
this the best etext edition possible for both scholars and the
general public. Especially Dale R. Fredrickson who has hand
entered the Greek characters in the footnotes and who has
suggested retaining the conjoined ae character in the text.
Haradda@aol.com and davidr@inconnect.com are my email addresses
for now. Please feel free to send me your comments and I hope you
enjoy this.
David Reed
History Of The Decline And Fall Of The
Roman Empire
Edward Gibbon, Esq.
With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman
Vol. 3
1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)
Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of
Theodosius.
Part I.
Death Of Gratian. -- Ruin Of Arianism. -- St. Ambrose. --
First Civil War, Against Maximus. -- Character, Administration,
And Penance Of Theodosius. -- Death Of Valentinian II. -- Second
Civil War, Against Eugenius. -- Death Of Theodosius.
The fame of Gratian, before he had accomplished the twentieth
year of his age, was equal to that of the most celebrated
princes. His gentle and amiable disposition endeared him to his
private friends, the graceful affability of his manners engaged
the affection of the people: the men of letters, who enjoyed the
liberality, acknowledged the taste and eloquence, of their
sovereign; his valor and dexterity in arms were equally applauded
by the soldiers; and the clergy considered the humble piety of
Gratian as the first and most useful of his virtues. The victory
of Colmar had delivered the West from a formidable invasion; and
the grateful provinces of the East ascribed the merits of
Theodosius to the author of his greatness, and of the public
safety. Gratian survived those memorable events only four or five
years; but he survived his reputation; and, before he fell a
victim to rebellion, he had lost, in a great measure, the respect
and confidence of the Roman world.
The remarkable alteration of his character or conduct may not
be imputed to the arts of flattery, which had besieged the son of
Valentinian from his infancy; nor to the headstrong passions
which the that gentle youth appears to have escaped. A more
attentive view of the life of Gratian may perhaps suggest the
true cause of the disappointment of the public hopes. His
apparent virtues, instead of being the hardy productions of
experience and adversity, were the premature and artificial
fruits of a royal education. The anxious tenderness of his father
was continually employed to bestow on him those advantages, which
he might perhaps esteem the more highly, as he himself had been
deprived of them; and the most skilful masters of every science,
and of every art, had labored to form the mind and body of the
young prince. The knowledge which they painfully communicated was
displayed with ostentation, and celebrated with lavish praise.
His soft and tractable disposition received the fair impression
of their judicious precepts, and the absence of passion might
easily be mistaken for the strength of reason. His preceptors
gradually rose to the rank and consequence of ministers of state:
and, as they wisely dissembled their secret authority, he seemed
to act with firmness, with propriety, and with judgment, on the
most important occasions of his life and reign. But the influence
of this elaborate instruction did not penetrate beyond the
surface; and the skilful preceptors, who so accurately guided the
steps of their royal pupil, could not infuse into his feeble and
indolent character the vigorous and independent principle of
action which renders the laborious pursuit of glory essentially
necessary to the happiness, and almost to the existence, of the
hero. As soon as time and accident had removed those faithful
counsellors from the throne, the emperor of the West insensibly
descended to the level of his natural genius; abandoned the reins
of government to the ambitious hands which were stretched
forwards to grasp them; and amused his leisure with the most
frivolous gratifications. A public sale of favor and injustice
was instituted, both in the court and in the provinces, by the
worthless delegates of his power, whose merit it was made
sacrilege to question. The conscience
of the credulous prince was directed by saints and bishops; who
procured an Imperial edict to punish, as a capital offence, the
violation, the neglect, or even the ignorance, of the divine law.
Among the various arts which had exercised the youth of Gratian,
he had applied himself, with singular inclination and success, to
manage the horse, to draw the bow, and to dart the javelin; and
these qualifications, which might be useful to a soldier, were
prostituted to the viler purposes of hunting. Large parks were
enclosed for the Imperial pleasures, and plentifully stocked with
every species of wild beasts; and Gratian neglected the duties,
and even the dignity, of his rank, to consume whole days in the
vain display of his dexterity and boldness in the chase. The
pride and wish of the Roman emperor to excel in an art, in which
he might be surpassed by the meanest of his slaves, reminded the
numerous spectators of the examples of Nero and Commodus, but the
chaste and temperate Gratian was a stranger to their monstrous
vices; and his hands were stained only with the blood of animals.
The behavior of Gratian, which degraded his character in the eyes
of mankind, could not have disturbed the security of his reign,
if the army had not been provoked to resent their peculiar
injuries. As long as the young emperor was guided by the
instructions of his masters, he professed himself the friend and
pupil of the soldiers; many of his hours were spent in the
familiar conversation of the camp; and the health, the comforts,
the rewards, the honors, of his faithful troops, appeared to be
the objects of his attentive concern. But, after Gratian more
freely indulged his prevailing taste for hunting and shooting, he
naturally connected himself with the most dexterous ministers of
his favorite amusement. A body of the Alani was received into the
military and domestic service of the palace; and the admirable
skill, which they were accustomed to display in the unbounded
plains of Scythia, was exercised, on a more narrow theatre, in
the parks and enclosures of Gaul. Gratian admired the talents and
customs of these favorite guards, to whom alone he intrusted the
defence of his person; and, as if he meant to insult the public
opinion, he frequently showed himself to the soldiers and people,
with the dress and arms, the long bow, the sounding quiver, and
the fur garments of a Scythian warrior. The unworthy spectacle of
a Roman prince, who had renounced the dress and manners of his
country, filled the minds of the legions with grief and
indignation. Even the Germans, so strong and formidable in the
armies of the empire, affected to disdain the strange and horrid
appearance of the savages of the North, who, in the space of a
few years, had wandered from the banks of the Volga to those of
the Seine. A loud and licentious murmur was echoed through the
camps and garrisons of the West; and as the mild indolence of
Gratian neglected to extinguish the first symptoms of discontent,
the want of love and respect was not supplied by the influence of
fear. But the subversion of an established government is always a
work of some real, and of much apparent, difficulty; and the
throne of Gratian was protected by the sanctions of custom, law,
religion, and the nice balance of the civil and military powers,
which had been established by the policy of Constantine. It is
not very important to inquire from what cause the revolt of
Britain was produced. Accident is commonly the parent of
disorder; the seeds of rebellion happened to fall on a soil which
was supposed to be more fruitful than any other in tyrants and
usurpers; the legions of that sequestered island had been long
famous for a spirit of presumption and arrogance; and the name of
Maximus was proclaimed, by the tumultuary, but unanimous voice,
both of the soldiers and of the provincials. The emperor, or the
rebel, -- for this title was not yet ascertained by fortune, --
was a native of Spain, the countryman, the fellow-soldier, and
the rival of Theodosius whose elevation he had not seen without
some emotions of envy and resentment: the events of his life had
long since fixed him in Britain; and I should not be unwilling to
find some evidence for the marriage, which he is said to have
contracted with the daughter of a wealthy lord of
Caernarvonshire. But this provincial rank might justly be
considered as a state of exile and obscurity; and if Maximus had
obtained any civil or military office, he was not invested with
the authority either of governor or general. His abilities, and
even his integrity, are acknowledged by the partial writers of
the age; and the merit must indeed have been conspicuous that
could extort such a confession in favor of the vanquished enemy
of Theodosius. The discontent of Maximus might incline him to
censure the conduct of his sovereign, and to encourage, perhaps,
without any views of ambition, the murmurs of the troops. But in
the midst of the tumult, he artfully, or modestly, refused to
ascend the throne; and some credit appears to have been given to
his own positive declaration, that he was compelled to accept the
dangerous present of the Imperial purple.
But there was danger likewise in refusing the empire; and from
the moment that Maximus had violated his allegiance to his lawful
sovereign, he could not hope to reign, or even to live, if he
confined his moderate ambition within the narrow limits of
Britain. He boldly and wisely resolved to prevent the designs of
Gratian; the youth of the island crowded to his standard, and he
invaded Gaul with a fleet and army, which were long afterwards
remembered, as the emigration of a considerable part of the
British nation. The emperor, in his peaceful residence of Paris,
was alarmed by their hostile approach; and the darts which he
idly wasted on lions and bears, might have been employed more
honorably against the rebels. But his feeble efforts announced
his degenerate spirit and desperate situation; and deprived him
of the resources, which he still might have found, in the support
of his subjects and allies. The armies of Gaul, instead of
opposing the march of Maximus, received him with joyful and loyal
acclamations; and the shame of the desertion was transferred from
the people to the prince. The troops, whose station more
immediately attached them to the service of the palace, abandoned
the standard of Gratian the first time that it was displayed in
the neighborhood of Paris. The emperor of the West fled towards
Lyons, with a train of only three hundred horse; and, in the
cities along the road, where he hoped to find refuge, or at least
a passage, he was taught, by cruel experience, that every gate is
shut against the unfortunate. Yet he might still have reached, in
safety, the dominions of his brother; and soon have returned with
the forces of Italy and the East; if he had not suffered himself
to be fatally deceived by the perfidious governor of the Lyonnese
province. Gratian was amused by protestations of doubtful
fidelity, and the hopes of a support, which could not be
effectual; till the arrival of Andragathius, the general of the
cavalry of Maximus, put an end to his suspense. That resolute
officer executed, without remorse, the orders or the intention of
the usurper. Gratian, as he rose from supper, was delivered into
the hands of the assassin: and his body was denied to the pious
and pressing entreaties of his brother Valentinian. The death of
the emperor was followed by that of his powerful general
Mellobaudes, the king of the Franks; who maintained, to the last
moment of his life, the ambiguous reputation, which is the just
recompense of obscure and subtle policy. These executions might
be necessary to the public safety: but the successful usurper,
whose power was acknowledged by all the provinces of the West,
had the merit, and the satisfaction, of boasting, that, except
those who had perished by the chance of war, his triumph was not
stained by the blood of the Romans.
The events of this revolution had passed in such rapid
succession, that it would have been impossible for Theodosius to
march to the relief of his benefactor, before he received the
intelligence of his defeat and death. During the season of
sincere grief, or ostentatious mourning, the Eastern emperor was
interrupted by the arrival of the principal chamberlain of
Maximus; and the choice of a venerable old man, for an office
which was usually exercised by eunuchs, announced to the court of
Constantinople the gravity and temperance of the British usurper.
The ambassador condescended to justify, or excuse, the conduct of
his master; and to protest, in specious language, that the murder
of Gratian had been perpetrated, without his knowledge or
consent, by the precipitate zeal of the soldiers. But he
proceeded, in a firm and equal tone, to offer Theodosius the
alternative of peace, or war. The speech of the ambassador
concluded with a spirited declaration, that although Maximus, as
a Roman, and as the father of his people, would choose rather to
employ his forces in the common defence of the republic, he was
armed and prepared, if his friendship should be rejected, to
dispute, in a field of battle, the empire of the world. An
immediate and peremptory answer was required; but it was
extremely difficult for Theodosius to satisfy, on this important
occasion, either the feelings of his own mind, or the
expectations of the public. The imperious voice of honor and
gratitude called aloud for revenge. From the liberality of
Gratian, he had received the Imperial diadem; his patience would
encourage the odious suspicion, that he was more deeply sensible
of former injuries, than of recent obligations; and if he
accepted the friendship, he must seem to share the guilt, of the
assassin. Even the principles of justice, and the interest of
society, would receive a fatal blow from the impunity of Maximus;
and the example of successful usurpation would tend to dissolve
the artificial fabric of government, and once more to replunge
the empire in the crimes and calamities of the preceding age.
But, as the sentiments of gratitude and honor should invariably
regulate the conduct of an individual, they may be overbalanced
in the mind of a sovereign, by the sense of superior duties; and
the maxims both of justice and humanity must permit the escape of
an atrocious criminal, if an innocent people would be involved in
the consequences of his punishment. The assassin of Gratian had
usurped, but he actually possessed, the most warlike provinces of
the empire: the East was exhausted by the misfortunes, and even
by the success, of the Gothic war; and it was seriously to be
apprehended, that, after the vital strength of the republic had
been wasted in a doubtful and destructive contest, the feeble
conqueror would remain an easy prey to the Barbarians of the
North. These weighty considerations engaged Theodosius to
dissemble his resentment, and to accept the alliance of the
tyrant. But he stipulated, that Maximus should content himself
with the possession of the countries beyond the Alps. The brother
of Gratian was confirmed and secured in the sovereignty of Italy,
Africa, and the Western Illyricum; and some honorable conditions
were inserted in the treaty, to protect the memory, and the laws,
of the deceased emperor. According to the custom of the age, the
images of the three Imperial colleagues were exhibited to the
veneration of the people; nor should it be lightly supposed,
that, in the moment of a solemn reconciliation, Theodosius
secretly cherished the intention of perfidy and revenge.
The contempt of Gratian for the Roman soldiers had exposed him
to the fatal effects of their resentment. His profound veneration
for the Christian clergy was rewarded by the applause and
gratitude of a powerful order, which has claimed, in every age,
the privilege of dispensing honors, both on earth and in heaven.
The orthodox bishops bewailed his death, and their own
irreparable loss; but they were soon comforted by the discovery,
that Gratian had committed the sceptre of the East to the hands
of a prince, whose humble faith and fervent zeal, were supported
by the spirit and abilities of a more vigorous character. Among
the benefactors of the church, the fame of Constantine has been
rivalled by the glory of Theodosius. If Constantine had the
advantage of erecting the standard of the cross, the emulation of
his successor assumed the merit of subduing the Arian heresy, and
of abolishing the worship of idols in the Roman world. Theodosius
was the first of the emperors baptized in the true faith of the
Trinity. Although he was born of a Christian family, the maxims,
or at least the practice, of the age, encouraged him to delay the
ceremony of his initiation; till he was admonished of the danger
of delay, by the serious illness which threatened his life,
towards the end of the first year of his reign. Before he again
took the field against the Goths, he received the sacrament of
baptism from Acholius, the orthodox bishop of Thessalonica: and,
as the emperor ascended from the holy font, still glowing with
the warm feelings of regeneration, he dictated a solemn edict,
which proclaimed his own faith, and prescribed the religion of
his subjects. "It is our pleasure (such is the Imperial style)
that all the nations, which are governed by our clemency and
moderation, should steadfastly adhere to the religion which was
taught by St. Peter to the Romans; which faithful tradition has
preserved; and which is now professed by the pontiff Damasus, and
by Peter, bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic holiness.
According to the discipline of the apostles, and the doctrine of
the gospel, let us believe the sole deity of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost; under an equal majesty, and a pious Trinity.
We authorize the followers of this doctrine to assume the title
of Catholic Christians; and as we judge, that all others are
extravagant madmen, we brand them with the infamous name of
Heretics; and declare that their conventicles shall no longer
usurp the respectable appellation of churches. Besides the
condemnation of divine justice, they must expect to suffer the
severe penalties, which our authority, guided by heavenly wisdom,
shall think proper to inflict upon them." The faith of a soldier
is commonly the fruit of instruction, rather than of inquiry; but
as the emperor always fixed his eyes on the visible landmarks of
orthodoxy, which he had so prudently constituted, his religious
opinions were never affected by the specious texts, the subtle
arguments, and the ambiguous creeds of the Arian doctors. Once
indeed he expressed a faint inclination to converse with the
eloquent and learned Eunomius, who lived in retirement at a small
distance from Constantinople. But the dangerous interview was
prevented by the prayers of the empress Flaccilla, who trembled
for the salvation of her husband; and the mind of Theodosius was
confirmed by a theological argument, adapted to the rudest
capacity. He had lately bestowed on his eldest son, Arcadius, the
name and honors of Augustus, and the two princes were seated on a
stately throne to receive the homage of their subjects. A bishop,
Amphilochius of Iconium, approached the throne, and after
saluting, with due reverence, the person of his sovereign, he
accosted the royal youth with the same familiar tenderness which
he might have used towards a plebeian child. Provoked by this
insolent behavior, the monarch gave orders, that the rustic
priest should be instantly driven from his presence. But while
the guards were forcing him to the door, the dexterous polemic
had time to execute his design, by exclaiming, with a loud voice,
"Such is the treatment, O emperor! which the King of heaven has
prepared for those impious men, who affect to worship the Father,
but refuse to acknowledge the equal majesty of his divine Son."
Theodosius immediately embraced the bishop of Iconium, and never
forgot the important lesson, which he had received from this
dramatic parable.
Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius. --
Part II.
Constantinople was the principal seat and fortress of
Arianism; and, in a long interval of forty years, the faith of
the princes and prelates, who reigned in the capital of the East,
was rejected in the purer schools of Rome and Alexandria. The
archiepiscopal throne of Macedonius, which had been polluted with
so much Christian blood, was successively filled by Eudoxus and
Damophilus. Their diocese enjoyed a free importation of vice and
error from every province of the empire; the eager pursuit of
religious controversy afforded a new occupation to the busy
idleness of the metropolis; and we may credit the assertion of an
intelligent observer, who describes, with some pleasantry, the
effects of their loquacious zeal. "This city," says he, "is full
of mechanics and slaves, who are all of them profound
theologians; and preach in the shops, and in the streets. If you
desire a man to change a piece of silver, he informs you, wherein
the Son differs from the Father; if you ask the price of a loaf,
you are told by way of reply, that the Son is inferior to the
Father; and if you inquire, whether the bath is ready, the answer
is, that the Son was made out of nothing." The heretics, of
various denominations, subsisted in peace under the protection of
the Arians of Constantinople; who endeavored to secure the
attachment of those obscure sectaries, while they abused, with
unrelenting severity, the victory which they had obtained over
the followers of the council of Nice. During the partial reigns
of Constantius and Valens, the feeble remnant of the Homoousians
was deprived of the public and private exercise of their
religion; and it has been observed, in pathetic language, that
the scattered flock was left without a shepherd to wander on the
mountains, or to be devoured by rapacious wolves. But, as their
zeal, instead of being subdued, derived strength and vigor from
oppression, they seized the first moments of imperfect freedom,
which they had acquired by the death of Valens, to form
themselves into a regular congregation, under the conduct of an
episcopal pastor. Two natives of Cappadocia, Basil, and Gregory
Nazianzen, were distinguished above all their contemporaries, by
the rare union of profane eloquence and of orthodox piety. These
orators, who might sometimes be compared, by themselves, and by
the public, to the most celebrated of the ancient Greeks, were
united by the ties of the strictest friendship. They had
cultivated, with equal ardor, the same liberal studies in the
schools of Athens; they had retired, with equal devotion, to the
same solitude in the deserts of Pontus; and every spark of
emulation, or envy, appeared to be totally extinguished in the
holy and ingenuous breasts of Gregory and Basil. But the
exaltation of Basil, from a private life to the archiepiscopal
throne of Cæsarea, discovered to the world, and perhaps to
himself, the pride of his character; and the first favor which he
condescended to bestow on his friend, was received, and perhaps
was intended, as a cruel insult. Instead of employing the
superior talents of Gregory in some useful and conspicuous
station, the haughty prelate selected, among the fifty bishoprics
of his extensive province, the wretched village of Sasima,
without water, without verdure, without society, situate at the
junction of three highways, and frequented only by the incessant
passage of rude and clamorous wagoners. Gregory submitted with
reluctance to this humiliating exile; he was ordained bishop of
Sasima; but he solemnly protests, that he never consummated his
spiritual marriage with this disgusting bride. He afterwards
consented to undertake the government of his native church of
Nazianzus, of which his father had been bishop above
five-and-forty years. But as he was still conscious that he
deserved another audience, and another theatre, he accepted, with
no unworthy ambition, the honorable invitation, which was
addressed to him from the orthodox party of Constantinople. On
his arrival in the capital, Gregory was entertained in the house
of a pious and charitable kinsman; the most spacious room was
consecrated to the uses of religious worship; and the name of
Anastasia was chosen to express the
resurrection of the Nicene faith. This private conventicle was
afterwards converted into a magnificent church; and the credulity
of the succeeding age was prepared to believe the miracles and
visions, which attested the presence, or at least the protection,
of the Mother of God. The pulpit of the Anastasia was the scene
of the labors and triumphs of Gregory Nazianzen; and, in the
space of two years, he experienced all the spiritual adventures
which constitute the prosperous or adverse fortunes of a
missionary. The Arians, who were provoked by the boldness of his
enterprise, represented his doctrine, as if he had preached three
distinct and equal Deities; and the devout populace was excited
to suppress, by violence and tumult, the irregular assemblies of
the Athanasian heretics. From the cathedral of St. Sophia there
issued a motley crowd "of common beggars, who had forfeited their
claim to pity; of monks, who had the appearance of goats or
satyrs; and of women, more terrible than so many Jezebels." The
doors of the Anastasia were broke open; much mischief was
perpetrated, or attempted, with sticks, stones, and firebrands;
and as a man lost his life in the affray, Gregory, who was
summoned the next morning before the magistrate, had the
satisfaction of supposing, that he publicly confessed the name of
Christ. After he was delivered from the fear and danger of a
foreign enemy, his infant church was disgraced and distracted by
intestine faction. A stranger who assumed the name of Maximus,
and the cloak of a Cynic philosopher, insinuated himself into the
confidence of Gregory; deceived and abused his favorable opinion;
and forming a secret connection with some bishops of Egypt,
attempted, by a clandestine ordination, to supplant his patron in
the episcopal seat of Constantinople. These mortifications might
sometimes tempt the Cappadocian missionary to regret his obscure
solitude. But his fatigues were rewarded by the daily increase of
his fame and his congregation; and he enjoyed the pleasure of
observing, that the greater part of his numerous audience retired
from his sermons satisfied with the eloquence of the preacher, or
dissatisfied with the manifold imperfections of their faith and
practice.
The Catholics of Constantinople were animated with joyful
confidence by the baptism and edict of Theodosius; and they
impatiently waited the effects of his gracious promise. Their
hopes were speedily accomplished; and the emperor, as soon as he
had finished the operations of the campaign, made his public
entry into the capital at the head of a victorious army. The next
day after his arrival, he summoned Damophilus to his presence,
and offered that Arian prelate the hard alternative of
subscribing the Nicene creed, or of instantly resigning, to the
orthodox believers, the use and possession of the episcopal
palace, the cathedral of St. Sophia, and all the churches of
Constantinople. The zeal of Damophilus, which in a Catholic saint
would have been justly applauded, embraced, without hesitation, a
life of poverty and exile, and his removal was immediately
followed by the purification of the Imperial city. The Arians
might complain, with some appearance of justice, that an
inconsiderable congregation of sectaries should usurp the hundred
churches, which they were insufficient to fill; whilst the far
greater part of the people was cruelly excluded from every place
of religious worship. Theodosius was still inexorable; but as the
angels who protected the Catholic cause were only visible to the
eyes of faith, he prudently reënforced those heavenly
legions with the more effectual aid of temporal and carnal
weapons; and the church of St. Sophia was occupied by a large
body of the Imperial guards. If the mind of Gregory was
susceptible of pride, he must have felt a very lively
satisfaction, when the emperor conducted him through the streets
in solemn triumph; and, with his own hand, respectfully placed
him on the archiepiscopal throne of Constantinople. But the saint
(who had not subdued the imperfections of human virtue) was
deeply affected by the mortifying consideration, that his
entrance into the fold was that of a wolf, rather than of a
shepherd; that the glittering arms which surrounded his person,
were necessary for his safety; and that he alone was the object
of the imprecations of a great party, whom, as men and citizens,
it was impossible for him to despise. He beheld the innumerable
multitude of either sex, and of every age, who crowded the
streets, the windows, and the roofs of the houses; he heard the
tumultuous voice of rage, grief, astonishment, and despair; and
Gregory fairly confesses, that on the memorable day of his
installation, the capital of the East wore the appearance of a
city taken by storm, and in the hands of a Barbarian conqueror.
About six weeks afterwards, Theodosius declared his resolution of
expelling from all the churches of his dominions the bishops and
their clergy who should obstinately refuse to believe, or at
least to profess, the doctrine of the council of Nice. His
lieutenant, Sapor, was armed with the ample powers of a general
law, a special commission, and a military force; and this
ecclesiastical revolution was conducted with so much discretion
and vigor, that the religion of the emperor was established,
without tumult or bloodshed, in all the provinces of the East.
The writings of the Arians, if they had been permitted to exist,
would perhaps contain the lamentable story of the persecution,
which afflicted the church under the reign of the impious
Theodosius; and the sufferings of their
holy confessors might claim the pity of the disinterested reader.
Yet there is reason to imagine, that the violence of zeal and
revenge was, in some measure, eluded by the want of resistance;
and that, in their adversity, the Arians displayed much less
firmness than had been exerted by the orthodox party under the
reigns of Constantius and Valens. The moral character and conduct
of the hostile sects appear to have been governed by the same
common principles of nature and religion: but a very material
circumstance may be discovered, which tended to distinguish the
degrees of their theological faith. Both parties, in the schools,
as well as in the temples, acknowledged and worshipped the divine
majesty of Christ; and, as we are always prone to impute our own
sentiments and passions to the Deity, it would be deemed more
prudent and respectful to exaggerate, than to circumscribe, the
adorable perfections of the Son of God. The disciple of
Athanasius exulted in the proud confidence, that he had entitled
himself to the divine favor; while the follower of Arius must
have been tormented by the secret apprehension, that he was
guilty, perhaps, of an unpardonable offence, by the scanty
praise, and parsimonious honors, which he bestowed on the Judge
of the World. The opinions of Arianism might satisfy a cold and
speculative mind: but the doctrine of the Nicene creed, most
powerfully recommended by the merits of faith and devotion, was
much better adapted to become popular and successful in a
believing age.
The hope, that truth and wisdom would be found in the
assemblies of the orthodox clergy, induced the emperor to
convene, at Constantinople, a synod of one hundred and fifty
bishops, who proceeded, without much difficulty or delay, to
complete the theological system which had been established in the
council of Nice. The vehement disputes of the fourth century had
been chiefly employed on the nature of the Son of God; and the
various opinions which were embraced, concerning the
Second, were extended and transferred,
by a natural analogy, to the Third
person of the Trinity. Yet it was found, or it was thought,
necessary, by the victorious adversaries of Arianism, to explain
the ambiguous language of some respectable doctors; to confirm
the faith of the Catholics; and to condemn an unpopular and
inconsistent sect of Macedonians; who freely admitted that the
Son was consubstantial to the Father, while they were fearful of
seeming to acknowledge the existence of
Three Gods. A final and unanimous
sentence was pronounced to ratify the equal Deity of the Holy
Ghost: the mysterious doctrine has been received by all the
nations, and all the churches of the Christian world; and their
grateful reverence has assigned to the bishops of Theodosius the
second rank among the general councils. Their knowledge of
religious truth may have been preserved by tradition, or it may
have been communicated by inspiration; but the sober evidence of
history will not allow much weight to the personal authority of
the Fathers of Constantinople. In an age when the ecclesiastics
had scandalously degenerated from the model of apostolic purity,
the most worthless and corrupt were always the most eager to
frequent, and disturb, the episcopal assemblies. The conflict and
fermentation of so many opposite interests and tempers inflamed
the passions of the bishops: and their ruling passions were, the
love of gold, and the love of dispute. Many of the same prelates
who now applauded the orthodox piety of Theodosius, had
repeatedly changed, with prudent flexibility, their creeds and
opinions; and in the various revolutions of the church and state,
the religion of their sovereign was the rule of their obsequious
faith. When the emperor suspended his prevailing influence, the
turbulent synod was blindly impelled by the absurd or selfish
motives of pride, hatred, or resentment. The death of Meletius,
which happened at the council of Constantinople, presented the
most favorable opportunity of terminating the schism of Antioch,
by suffering his aged rival, Paulinus, peaceably to end his days
in the episcopal chair. The faith and virtues of Paulinus were
unblemished. But his cause was supported by the Western churches;
and the bishops of the synod resolved to perpetuate the mischiefs
of discord, by the hasty ordination of a perjured candidate,
rather than to betray the imagined dignity of the East, which had
been illustrated by the birth and death of the Son of God. Such
unjust and disorderly proceedings forced the gravest members of
the assembly to dissent and to secede; and the clamorous majority
which remained masters of the field of battle, could be compared
only to wasps or magpies, to a flight of cranes, or to a flock of
geese.
A suspicion may possibly arise, that so unfavorable a picture
of ecclesiastical synods has been drawn by the partial hand of
some obstinate heretic, or some malicious infidel. But the name
of the sincere historian who has conveyed this instructive lesson
to the knowledge of posterity, must silence the impotent murmurs
of superstition and bigotry. He was one of the most pious and
eloquent bishops of the age; a saint, and a doctor of the church;
the scourge of Arianism, and the pillar of the orthodox faith; a
distinguished member of the council of Constantinople, in which,
after the death of Meletius, he exercised the functions of
president; in a word -- Gregory Nazianzen himself. The harsh and
ungenerous treatment which he experienced, instead of derogating
from the truth of his evidence, affords an additional proof of
the spirit which actuated the deliberations of the synod. Their
unanimous suffrage had confirmed the pretensions which the bishop
of Constantinople derived from the choice of the people, and the
approbation of the emperor. But Gregory soon became the victim of
malice and envy. The bishops of the East, his strenuous
adherents, provoked by his moderation in the affairs of Antioch,
abandoned him, without support, to the adverse faction of the
Egyptians; who disputed the validity of his election, and
rigorously asserted the obsolete canon, that prohibited the
licentious practice of episcopal translations. The pride, or the
humility, of Gregory prompted him to decline a contest which
might have been imputed to ambition and avarice; and he publicly
offered, not without some mixture of indignation, to renounce the
government of a church which had been restored, and almost
created, by his labors. His resignation was accepted by the
synod, and by the emperor, with more readiness than he seems to
have expected. At the time when he might have hoped to enjoy the
fruits of his victory, his episcopal throne was filled by the
senator Nectarius; and the new archbishop, accidentally
recommended by his easy temper and venerable aspect, was obliged
to delay the ceremony of his consecration, till he had previously
despatched the rites of his baptism. After this remarkable
experience of the ingratitude of princes and prelates, Gregory
retired once more to his obscure solitude of Cappadocia; where he
employed the remainder of his life, about eight years, in the
exercises of poetry and devotion. The title of Saint has been
added to his name: but the tenderness of his heart, and the
elegance of his genius, reflect a more pleasing lustre on the
memory of Gregory Nazianzen.
It was not enough that Theodosius had suppressed the insolent
reign of Arianism, or that he had abundantly revenged the
injuries which the Catholics sustained from the zeal of
Constantius and Valens. The orthodox emperor considered every
heretic as a rebel against the supreme powers of heaven and of
earth; and each of those powers might exercise their peculiar
jurisdiction over the soul and body of the guilty. The decrees of
the council of Constantinople had ascertained the true standard
of the faith; and the ecclesiastics, who governed the conscience
of Theodosius, suggested the most effectual methods of
persecution. In the space of fifteen years, he promulgated at
least fifteen severe edicts against the heretics; more especially
against those who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity; and to
deprive them of every hope of escape, he sternly enacted, that if
any laws or rescripts should be alleged in their favor, the
judges should consider them as the illegal productions either of
fraud or forgery. The penal statutes were directed against the
ministers, the assemblies, and the persons of the heretics; and
the passions of the legislator were expressed in the language of
declamation and invective. I. The heretical teachers, who usurped
the sacred titles of Bishops, or Presbyters, were not only
excluded from the privileges and emoluments so liberally granted
to the orthodox clergy, but they were exposed to the heavy
penalties of exile and confiscation, if they presumed to preach
the doctrine, or to practise the rites, of their
accursed sects. A fine of ten pounds of
gold (above four hundred pounds sterling) was imposed on every
person who should dare to confer, or receive, or promote, an
heretical ordination: and it was reasonably expected, that if the
race of pastors could be extinguished, their helpless flocks
would be compelled, by ignorance and hunger, to return within the
pale of the Catholic church. II. The rigorous prohibition of
conventicles was carefully extended to every possible
circumstance, in which the heretics could assemble with the
intention of worshipping God and Christ according to the dictates
of their conscience. Their religious meetings, whether public or
secret, by day or by night, in cities or in the country, were
equally proscribed by the edicts of Theodosius; and the building,
or ground, which had been used for that illegal purpose, was
forfeited to the Imperial domain. III. It was supposed, that the
error of the heretics could proceed only from the obstinate
temper of their minds; and that such a temper was a fit object of
censure and punishment. The anathemas of the church were
fortified by a sort of civil excommunication; which separated
them from their fellow- citizens, by a peculiar brand of infamy;
and this declaration of the supreme magistrate tended to justify,
or at least to excuse, the insults of a fanatic populace. The
sectaries were gradually disqualified from the possession of
honorable or lucrative employments; and Theodosius was satisfied
with his own justice, when he decreed, that, as the Eunomians
distinguished the nature of the Son from that of the Father, they
should be incapable of making their wills or of receiving any
advantage from testamentary donations. The guilt of the
Manichæan heresy was esteemed of such magnitude, that it
could be expiated only by the death of the offender; and the same
capital punishment was inflicted on the Audians, or
Quartodecimans, who should dare to
perpetrate the atrocious crime of celebrating on an improper day
the festival of Easter. Every Roman might exercise the right of
public accusation; but the office of
Inquisitors of the Faith, a name so
deservedly abhorred, was first instituted under the reign of
Theodosius. Yet we are assured, that the execution of his penal
edicts was seldom enforced; and that the pious emperor appeared
less desirous to punish, than to reclaim, or terrify, his
refractory subjects.
The theory of persecution was established by Theodosius, whose
justice and piety have been applauded by the saints: but the
practice of it, in the fullest extent, was reserved for his rival
and colleague, Maximus, the first, among the Christian princes,
who shed the blood of his Christian subjects on account of their
religious opinions. The cause of the Priscillianists, a recent
sect of heretics, who disturbed the provinces of Spain, was
transferred, by appeal, from the synod of Bordeaux to the
Imperial consistory of Treves; and by the sentence of the
Prætorian præfect, seven persons were tortured,
condemned, and executed. The first of these was Priscillian
himself, bishop of Avila, in Spain; who adorned the advantages of
birth and fortune, by the accomplishments of eloquence and
learning. Two presbyters, and two deacons, accompanied their
beloved master in his death, which they esteemed as a glorious
martyrdom; and the number of religious victims was completed by
the execution of Latronian, a poet, who rivalled the fame of the
ancients; and of Euchrocia, a noble matron of Bordeaux, the widow
of the orator Delphidius. Two bishops who had embraced the
sentiments of Priscillian, were condemned to a distant and dreary
exile; and some indulgence was shown to the meaner criminals, who
assumed the merit of an early repentance. If any credit could be
allowed to confessions extorted by fear or pain, and to vague
reports, the offspring of malice and credulity, the heresy of the
Priscillianists would be found to include the various
abominations of magic, of impiety, and of lewdness. Priscillian,
who wandered about the world in the company of his spiritual
sisters, was accused of praying stark naked in the midst of the
congregation; and it was confidently asserted, that the effects
of his criminal intercourse with the daughter of Euchrocia had
been suppressed, by means still more odious and criminal. But an
accurate, or rather a candid, inquiry will discover, that if the
Priscillianists violated the laws of nature, it was not by the
licentiousness, but by the austerity, of their lives. They
absolutely condemned the use of the marriage-bed; and the peace
of families was often disturbed by indiscreet separations. They
enjoyed, or recommended, a total abstinence from all anima food;
and their continual prayers, fasts, and vigils, inculcated a rule
of strict and perfect devotion. The speculative tenets of the
sect, concerning the person of Christ, and the nature of the
human soul, were derived from the Gnostic and Manichæan
system; and this vain philosophy, which had been transported from
Egypt to Spain, was ill adapted to the grosser spirits of the
West. The obscure disciples of Priscillian suffered languished,
and gradually disappeared: his tenets were rejected by the clergy
and people, but his death was the subject of a long and vehement
controversy; while some arraigned, and others applauded, the
justice of his sentence. It is with pleasure that we can observe
the humane inconsistency of the most illustrious saints and
bishops, Ambrose of Milan, and Martin of Tours, who, on this
occasion, asserted the cause of toleration. They pitied the
unhappy men, who had been executed at Treves; they refused to
hold communion with their episcopal murderers; and if Martin
deviated from that generous resolution, his motives were
laudable, and his repentance was exemplary. The bishops of Tours
and Milan pronounced, without hesitation, the eternal damnation
of heretics; but they were surprised, and shocked, by the bloody
image of their temporal death, and the honest feelings of nature
resisted the artificial prejudices of theology. The humanity of
Ambrose and Martin was confirmed by the scandalous irregularity
of the proceedings against Priscillian and his adherents. The
civil and ecclesiastical ministers had transgressed the limits of
their respective provinces. The secular judge had presumed to
receive an appeal, and to pronounce a definitive sentence, in a
matter of faith, and episcopal jurisdiction. The bishops had
disgraced themselves, by exercising the functions of accusers in
a criminal prosecution. The cruelty of Ithacius, who beheld the
tortures, and solicited the death, of the heretics, provoked the
just indignation of mankind; and the vices of that profligate
bishop were admitted as a proof, that his zeal was instigated by
the sordid motives of interest. Since the death of Priscillian,
the rude attempts of persecution have been refined and methodized
in the holy office, which assigns their distinct parts to the
ecclesiastical and secular powers. The devoted victim is
regularly delivered by the priest to the magistrate, and by the
magistrate to the executioner; and the inexorable sentence of the
church, which declares the spiritual guilt of the offender, is
expressed in the mild language of pity and intercession.
Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius. --
Part III.
Among the ecclesiastics, who illustrated the reign of
Theodosius, Gregory Nazianzen was distinguished by the talents of
an eloquent preacher; the reputation of miraculous gifts added
weight and dignity to the monastic virtues of Martin of Tours;
but the palm of episcopal vigor and ability was justly claimed by
the intrepid Ambrose. He was descended from a noble family of
Romans; his father had exercised the important office of
Prætorian præfect of Gaul; and the son, after passing
through the studies of a liberal education, attained, in the
regular gradation of civil honors, the station of consular of
Liguria, a province which included the Imperial residence of
Milan. At the age of thirty-four, and before he had received the
sacrament of baptism, Ambrose, to his own surprise, and to that
of the world, was suddenly transformed from a governor to an
archbishop. Without the least mixture, as it is said, of art or
intrigue, the whole body of the people unanimously saluted him
with the episcopal title; the concord and perseverance of their
acclamations were ascribed to a præternatural impulse; and
the reluctant magistrate was compelled to undertake a spiritual
office, for which he was not prepared by the habits and
occupations of his former life. But the active force of his
genius soon qualified him to exercise, with zeal and prudence,
the duties of his ecclesiastical jurisdiction; and while he
cheerfully renounced the vain and splendid trappings of temporal
greatness, he condescended, for the good of the church, to direct
the conscience of the emperors, and to control the administration
of the empire. Gratian loved and revered him as a father; and the
elaborate treatise on the faith of the Trinity was designed for
the instruction of the young prince. After his tragic death, at a
time when the empress Justina trembled for her own safety, and
for that of her son Valentinian, the archbishop of Milan was
despatched, on two different embassies, to the court of Treves.
He exercised, with equal firmness and dexterity, the powers of
his spiritual and political characters; and perhaps contributed,
by his authority and eloquence, to check the ambition of Maximus,
and to protect the peace of Italy. Ambrose had devoted his life,
and his abilities, to the service of the church. Wealth was the
object of his contempt; he had renounced his private patrimony;
and he sold, without hesitation, the consecrated plate, for the
redemption of captives. The clergy and people of Milan were
attached to their archbishop; and he deserved the esteem, without
soliciting the favor, or apprehending the displeasure, of his
feeble sovereigns.
The government of Italy, and of the young emperor, naturally
devolved to his mother Justina, a woman of beauty and spirit, but
who, in the midst of an orthodox people, had the misfortune of
professing the Arian heresy, which she endeavored to instil into
the mind of her son. Justina was persuaded, that a Roman emperor
might claim, in his own dominions, the public exercise of his
religion; and she proposed to the archbishop, as a moderate and
reasonable concession, that he should resign the use of a single
church, either in the city or the suburbs of Milan. But the
conduct of Ambrose was governed by very different principles. The
palaces of the earth might indeed belong to Cæsar; but the
churches were the houses of God; and, within the limits of his
diocese, he himself, as the lawful successor of the apostles, was
the only minister of God. The privileges of Christianity,
temporal as well as spiritual, were confined to the true
believers; and the mind of Ambrose was satisfied, that his own
theological opinions were the standard of truth and orthodoxy.
The archbishop, who refused to hold any conference, or
negotiation, with the instruments of Satan, declared, with modest
firmness, his resolution to die a martyr, rather than to yield to
the impious sacrilege; and Justina, who resented the refusal as
an act of insolence and rebellion, hastily determined to exert
the Imperial prerogative of her son. As she desired to perform
her public devotions on the approaching festival of Easter,
Ambrose was ordered to appear before the council. He obeyed the
summons with the respect of a faithful subject, but he was
followed, without his consent, by an innumerable people they
pressed, with impetuous zeal, against the gates of the palace;
and the affrighted ministers of Valentinian, instead of
pronouncing a sentence of exile on the archbishop of Milan,
humbly requested that he would interpose his authority, to
protect the person of the emperor, and to restore the tranquility
of the capital. But the promises which Ambrose received and
communicated were soon violated by a perfidious court; and,
during six of the most solemn days, which Christian piety had set
apart for the exercise of religion, the city was agitated by the
irregular convulsions of tumult and fanaticism. The officers of
the household were directed to prepare, first, the Portian, and
afterwards, the new, Basilica, for the immediate reception of the
emperor and his mother. The splendid canopy and hangings of the
royal seat were arranged in the customary manner; but it was
found necessary to defend them. by a strong guard, from the
insults of the populace. The Arian ecclesiastics, who ventured to
show themselves in the streets, were exposed to the most imminent
danger of their lives; and Ambrose enjoyed the merit and
reputation of rescuing his personal enemies from the hands of the
enraged multitude.
But while he labored to restrain the effects of their zeal,
the pathetic vehemence of his sermons continually inflamed the
angry and seditious temper of the people of Milan. The characters
of Eve, of the wife of Job, of Jezebel, of Herodias, were
indecently applied to the mother of the emperor; and her desire
to obtain a church for the Arians was compared to the most cruel
persecutions which Christianity had endured under the reign of
Paganism. The measures of the court served only to expose the
magnitude of the evil. A fine of two hundred pounds of gold was
imposed on the corporate body of merchants and manufacturers: an
order was signified, in the name of the emperor, to all the
officers, and inferior servants, of the courts of justice, that,
during the continuance of the public disorders, they should
strictly confine themselves to their houses; and the ministers of
Valentinian imprudently confessed, that the most respectable part
of the citizens of Milan was attached to the cause of their
archbishop. He was again solicited to restore peace to his
country, by timely compliance with the will of his sovereign. The
reply of Ambrose was couched in the most humble and respectful
terms, which might, however, be interpreted as a serious
declaration of civil war. "His life and fortune were in the hands
of the emperor; but he would never betray the church of Christ,
or degrade the dignity of the episcopal character. In such a
cause he was prepared to suffer whatever the malice of the
dæmon could inflict; and he only wished to die in the
presence of his faithful flock, and at the foot of the altar; he
had not contributed to excite, but it was in the power of God
alone to appease, the rage of the people: he deprecated the
scenes of blood and confusion which were likely to ensue; and it
was his fervent prayer, that he might not survive to behold the
ruin of a flourishing city, and perhaps the desolation of all
Italy." The obstinate bigotry of Justina would have endangered
the empire of her son, if, in this contest with the church and
people of Milan, she could have depended on the active obedience
of the troops of the palace. A large body of Goths had marched to
occupy the Basilica, which was the
object of the dispute: and it might be expected from the Arian
principles, and barbarous manners, of these foreign mercenaries,
that they would not entertain any scruples in the execution of
the most sanguinary orders. They were encountered, on the sacred
threshold, by the archbishop, who, thundering against them a
sentence of excommunication, asked them, in the tone of a father
and a master, whether it was to invade the house of God, that
they had implored the hospitable protection of the republic. The
suspense of the Barbarians allowed some hours for a more
effectual negotiation; and the empress was persuaded, by the
advice of her wisest counsellors, to leave the Catholics in
possession of all the churches of Milan; and to dissemble, till a
more convenient season, her intentions of revenge. The mother of
Valentinian could never forgive the triumph of Ambrose; and the
royal youth uttered a passionate exclamation, that his own
servants were ready to betray him into the hands of an insolent
priest.
The laws of the empire, some of which were inscribed with the
name of Valentinian, still condemned the Arian heresy, and seemed
to excuse the resistance of the Catholics. By the influence of
Justina, an edict of toleration was promulgated in all the
provinces which were subject to the court of Milan; the free
exercise of their religion was granted to those who professed the
faith of Rimini; and the emperor declared, that all persons who
should infringe this sacred and salutary constitution, should be
capitally punished, as the enemies of the public peace. The
character and language of the archbishop of Milan may justify the
suspicion, that his conduct soon afforded a reasonable ground, or
at least a specious pretence, to the Arian ministers; who watched
the opportunity of surprising him in some act of disobedience to
a law which he strangely represents as a law of blood and
tyranny. A sentence of easy and honorable banishment was
pronounced, which enjoined Ambrose to depart from Milan without
delay; whilst it permitted him to choose the place of his exile,
and the number of his companions. But the authority of the
saints, who have preached and practised the maxims of passive
loyalty, appeared to Ambrose of less moment than the extreme and
pressing danger of the church. He boldly refused to obey; and his
refusal was supported by the unanimous consent of his faithful
people. They guarded by turns the person of their archbishop; the
gates of the cathedral and the episcopal palace were strongly
secured; and the Imperial troops, who had formed the blockade,
were unwilling to risk the attack, of that impregnable fortress.
The numerous poor, who had been relieved by the liberality of
Ambrose, embraced the fair occasion of signalizing their zeal and
gratitude; and as the patience of the multitude might have been
exhausted by the length and uniformity of nocturnal vigils, he
prudently introduced into the church of Milan the useful
institution of a loud and regular psalmody. While he maintained
this arduous contest, he was instructed, by a dream, to open the
earth in a place where the remains of two martyrs, Gervasius and
Protasius, had been deposited above three hundred years.
Immediately under the pavement of the church two perfect
skeletons were found, with the heads separated from their bodies,
and a plentiful effusion of blood. The holy relics were
presented, in solemn pomp, to the veneration of the people; and
every circumstance of this fortunate discovery was admirably
adapted to promote the designs of Ambrose. The bones of the
martyrs, their blood, their garments, were supposed to contain a
healing power; and the præternatural influence was
communicated to the most distant objects, without losing any part
of its original virtue. The extraordinary cure of a blind man,
and the reluctant confessions of several dæmoniacs,
appeared to justify the faith and sanctity of Ambrose; and the
truth of those miracles is attested by Ambrose himself, by his
secretary Paulinus, and by his proselyte, the celebrated
Augustin, who, at that time, professed the art of rhetoric in
Milan. The reason of the present age may possibly approve the
incredulity of Justina and her Arian court; who derided the
theatrical representations which were exhibited by the
contrivance, and at the expense, of the archbishop. Their effect,
however, on the minds of the people, was rapid and irresistible;
and the feeble sovereign of Italy found himself unable to contend
with the favorite of Heaven. The powers likewise of the earth
interposed in the defence of Ambrose: the disinterested advice of
Theodosius was the genuine result of piety and friendship; and
the mask of religious zeal concealed the hostile and ambitious
designs of the tyrant of Gaul.
The reign of Maximus might have ended in peace and prosperity,
could he have contented himself with the possession of three
ample countries, which now constitute the three most flourishing
kingdoms of modern Europe. But the aspiring usurper, whose sordid
ambition was not dignified by the love of glory and of arms,
considered his actual forces as the instruments only of his
future greatness, and his success was the immediate cause of his
destruction. The wealth which he extorted from the oppressed
provinces of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, was employed in levying
and maintaining a formidable army of Barbarians, collected, for
the most part, from the fiercest nations of Germany. The conquest
of Italy was the object of his hopes and preparations: and he
secretly meditated the ruin of an innocent youth, whose
government was abhorred and despised by his Catholic subjects.
But as Maximus wished to occupy, without resistance, the passes
of the Alps, he received, with perfidious smiles, Domninus of
Syria, the ambassador of Valentinian, and pressed him to accept
the aid of a considerable body of troops, for the service of a
Pannonian war. The penetration of Ambrose had discovered the
snares of an enemy under the professions of friendship; but the
Syrian Domninus was corrupted, or deceived, by the liberal favor
of the court of Treves; and the council of Milan obstinately
rejected the suspicion of danger, with a blind confidence, which
was the effect, not of courage, but of fear. The march of the
auxiliaries was guided by the ambassador; and they were admitted,
without distrust, into the fortresses of the Alps. But the crafty
tyrant followed, with hasty and silent footsteps, in the rear;
and, as he diligently intercepted all intelligence of his
motions, the gleam of armor, and the dust excited by the troops
of cavalry, first announced the hostile approach of a stranger to
the gates of Milan. In this extremity, Justina and her son might
accuse their own imprudence, and the perfidious arts of Maximus;
but they wanted time, and force, and resolution, to stand against
the Gauls and Germans, either in the field, or within the walls
of a large and disaffected city. Flight was their only hope,
Aquileia their only refuge; and as Maximus now displayed his
genuine character, the brother of Gratian might expect the same
fate from the hands of the same assassin. Maximus entered Milan
in triumph; and if the wise archbishop refused a dangerous and
criminal connection with the usurper, he might indirectly
contribute to the success of his arms, by inculcating, from the
pulpit, the duty of resignation, rather than that of resistance.
The unfortunate Justina reached Aquileia in safety; but she
distrusted the strength of the fortifications: she dreaded the
event of a siege; and she resolved to implore the protection of
the great Theodosius, whose power and virtue were celebrated in
all the countries of the West. A vessel was secretly provided to
transport the Imperial family; they embarked with precipitation
in one of the obscure harbors of Venetia, or Istria; traversed
the whole extent of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas; turned the
extreme promontory of Peloponnesus; and, after a long, but
successful navigation, reposed themselves in the port of
Thessalonica. All the subjects of Valentinian deserted the cause
of a prince, who, by his abdication, had absolved them from the
duty of allegiance; and if the little city of Æmona, on the
verge of Italy, had not presumed to stop the career of his
inglorious victory, Maximus would have obtained, without a
struggle, the sole possession of the Western empire.
Instead of inviting his royal guests to take the palace of
Constantinople, Theodosius had some unknown reasons to fix their
residence at Thessalonica; but these reasons did not proceed from
contempt or indifference, as he speedily made a visit to that
city, accompanied by the greatest part of his court and senate.
After the first tender expressions of friendship and sympathy,
the pious emperor of the East gently admonished Justina, that the
guilt of heresy was sometimes punished in this world, as well as
in the next; and that the public profession of the Nicene faith
would be the most efficacious step to promote the restoration of
her son, by the satisfaction which it must occasion both on earth
and in heaven. The momentous question of peace or war was
referred, by Theodosius, to the deliberation of his council; and
the arguments which might be alleged on the side of honor and
justice, had acquired, since the death of Gratian, a considerable
degree of additional weight. The persecution of the Imperial
family, to which Theodosius himself had been indebted for his
fortune, was now aggravated by recent and repeated injuries.
Neither oaths nor treaties could restrain the boundless ambition
of Maximus; and the delay of vigorous and decisive measures,
instead of prolonging the blessings of peace, would expose the
Eastern empire to the danger of a hostile invasion. The
Barbarians, who had passed the Danube, had lately assumed the
character of soldiers and subjects, but their native fierceness
was yet untamed: and the operations of a war, which would
exercise their valor, and diminish their numbers, might tend to
relieve the provinces from an intolerable oppression.
Notwithstanding these specious and solid reasons, which were
approved by a majority of the council, Theodosius still hesitated
whether he should draw the sword in a contest which could no
longer admit any terms of reconciliation; and his magnanimous
character was not disgraced by the apprehensions which he felt
for the safety of his infant sons, and the welfare of his
exhausted people. In this moment of anxious doubt, while the fate
of the Roman world depended on the resolution of a single man,
the charms of the princess Galla most powerfully pleaded the
cause of her brother Valentinian. The heart of Theodosius was
softened by the tears of beauty; his affections were insensibly
engaged by the graces of youth and innocence: the art of Justina
managed and directed the impulse of passion; and the celebration
of the royal nuptials was the assurance and signal of the civil
war. The unfeeling critics, who consider every amorous weakness
as an indelible stain on the memory of a great and orthodox
emperor, are inclined, on this occasion, to dispute the
suspicious evidence of the historian Zosimus. For my own part, I
shall frankly confess, that I am willing to find, or even to
seek, in the revolutions of the world, some traces of the mild
and tender sentiments of domestic life; and amidst the crowd of
fierce and ambitious conquerors, I can distinguish, with peculiar
complacency, a gentle hero, who may be supposed to receive his
armor from the hands of love. The alliance of the Persian king
was secured by the faith of treaties; the martial Barbarians were
persuaded to follow the standard, or to respect the frontiers, of
an active and liberal monarch; and the dominions of Theodosius,
from the Euphrates to the Adriatic, resounded with the
preparations of war both by land and sea. The skilful disposition
of the forces of the East seemed to multiply their numbers, and
distracted the attention of Maximus. He had reason to fear, that
a chosen body of troops, under the command of the intrepid
Arbogastes, would direct their march along the banks of the
Danube, and boldly penetrate through the Rhætian provinces
into the centre of Gaul. A powerful fleet was equipped in the
harbors of Greece and Epirus, with an apparent design, that, as
soon as the passage had been opened by a naval victory,
Valentinian and his mother should land in Italy, proceed, without
delay, to Rome, and occupy the majestic seat of religion and
empire. In the mean while, Theodosius himself advanced at the
head of a brave and disciplined army, to encounter his unworthy
rival, who, after the siege of Æmona, * had fixed his camp
in the neighborhood of Siscia, a city of Pannonia, strongly
fortified by the broad and rapid stream of the Save.
Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius. --
Part IV.
The veterans, who still remembered the long resistance, and
successive resources, of the tyrant Magnentius, might prepare
themselves for the labors of three bloody campaigns. But the
contest with his successor, who, like him, had usurped the throne
of the West, was easily decided in the term of two months, and
within the space of two hundred miles. The superior genius of the
emperor of the East might prevail over the feeble Maximus, who,
in this important crisis, showed himself destitute of military
skill, or personal courage; but the abilities of Theodosius were
seconded by the advantage which he possessed of a numerous and
active cavalry. The Huns, the Alani, and, after their example,
the Goths themselves, were formed into squadrons of archers; who
fought on horseback, and confounded the steady valor of the Gauls
and Germans, by the rapid motions of a Tartar war. After the
fatigue of a long march, in the heat of summer, they spurred
their foaming horses into the waters of the Save, swam the river
in the presence of the enemy, and instantly charged and routed
the troops who guarded the high ground on the opposite side.
Marcellinus, the tyrant's brother, advanced to support them with
the select cohorts, which were considered as the hope and
strength of the army. The action, which had been interrupted by
the approach of night, was renewed in the morning; and, after a
sharp conflict, the surviving remnant of the bravest soldiers of
Maximus threw down their arms at the feet of the conqueror.
Without suspending his march, to receive the loyal acclamations
of the citizens of Æmona, Theodosius pressed forwards to
terminate the war by the death or captivity of his rival, who
fled before him with the diligence of fear. From the summit of
the Julian Alps, he descended with such incredible speed into the
plain of Italy, that he reached Aquileia on the evening of the
first day; and Maximus, who found himself encompassed on all
sides, had scarcely time to shut the gates of the city. But the
gates could not long resist the effort of a victorious enemy; and
the despair, the disaffection, the indifference of the soldiers
and people, hastened the downfall of the wretched Maximus. He was
dragged from his throne, rudely stripped of the Imperial
ornaments, the robe, the diadem, and the purple slippers; and
conducted, like a malefactor, to the camp and presence of
Theodosius, at a place about three miles from Aquileia. The
behavior of the emperor was not intended to insult, and he showed
disposition to pity and forgive, the tyrant of the West, who had
never been his personal enemy, and was now become the object of
his contempt. Our sympathy is the most forcibly excited by the
misfortunes to which we are exposed; and the spectacle of a proud
competitor, now prostrate at his feet, could not fail of
producing very serious and solemn thoughts in the mind of the
victorious emperor. But the feeble emotion of involuntary pity
was checked by his regard for public justice, and the memory of
Gratian; and he abandoned the victim to the pious zeal of the
soldiers, who drew him out of the Imperial presence, and
instantly separated his head from his body. The intelligence of
his defeat and death was received with sincere or well-dissembled
joy: his son Victor, on whom he had conferred the title of
Augustus, died by the order, perhaps by the hand, of the bold
Arbogastes; and all the military plans of Theodosius were
successfully executed. When he had thus terminated the civil war,
with less difficulty and bloodshed than he might naturally
expect, he employed the winter months of his residence at Milan,
to restore the state of the afflicted provinces; and early in the
spring he made, after the example of Constantine and Constantius,
his triumphal entry into the ancient capital of the Roman
empire.
The orator, who may be silent without danger, may praise
without difficulty, and without reluctance; and posterity will
confess, that the character of Theodosius might furnish the
subject of a sincere and ample panegyric. The wisdom of his laws,
and the success of his arms, rendered his administration
respectable in the eyes both of his subjects and of his enemies.
He loved and practised the virtues of domestic life, which seldom
hold their residence in the palaces of kings. Theodosius was
chaste and temperate; he enjoyed, without excess, the sensual and
social pleasures of the table; and the warmth of his amorous
passions was never diverted from their lawful objects. The proud
titles of Imperial greatness were adorned by the tender names of
a faithful husband, an indulgent father; his uncle was raised, by
his affectionate esteem, to the rank of a second parent:
Theodosius embraced, as his own, the children of his brother and
sister; and the expressions of his regard were extended to the
most distant and obscure branches of his numerous kindred. His
familiar friends were judiciously selected from among those
persons, who, in the equal intercourse of private life, had
appeared before his eyes without a mask; the consciousness of
personal and superior merit enabled him to despise the accidental
distinction of the purple; and he proved by his conduct, that he
had forgotten all the injuries, while he most gratefully
remembered all the favors and services, which he had received
before he ascended the throne of the Roman empire. The serious or
lively tone of his conversation was adapted to the age, the rank,
or the character of his subjects, whom he admitted into his
society; and the affability of his manners displayed the image of
his mind. Theodosius respected the simplicity of the good and
virtuous: every art, every talent, of a useful, or even of an
innocent nature, was rewarded by his judicious liberality; and,
except the heretics, whom he persecuted with implacable hatred,
the diffusive circle of his benevolence was circumscribed only by
the limits of the human race. The government of a mighty empire
may assuredly suffice to occupy the time, and the abilities, of a
mortal: yet the diligent prince, without aspiring to the
unsuitable reputation of profound learning, always reserved some
moments of his leisure for the instructive amusement of reading.
History, which enlarged his experience, was his favorite study.
The annals of Rome, in the long period of eleven hundred years,
presented him with a various and splendid picture of human life:
and it has been particularly observed, that whenever he perused
the cruel acts of Cinna, of Marius, or of Sylla, he warmly
expressed his generous detestation of those enemies of humanity
and freedom. His disinterested opinion of past events was
usefully applied as the rule of his own actions; and Theodosius
has deserved the singular commendation, that his virtues always
seemed to expand with his fortune: the season of his prosperity
was that of his moderation; and his clemency appeared the most
conspicuous after the danger and success of a civil war. The
Moorish guards of the tyrant had been massacred in the first heat
of the victory, and a small number of the most obnoxious
criminals suffered the punishment of the law. But the emperor
showed himself much more attentive to relieve the innocent than
to chastise the guilty. The oppressed subjects of the West, who
would have deemed themselves happy in the restoration of their
lands, were astonished to receive a sum of money equivalent to
their losses; and the liberality of the conqueror supported the
aged mother, and educated the orphan daughters, of Maximus. A
character thus accomplished might almost excuse the extravagant
supposition of the orator Pacatus; that, if the elder Brutus
could be permitted to revisit the earth, the stern republican
would abjure, at the feet of Theodosius, his hatred of kings; and
ingenuously confess, that such a monarch was the most faithful
guardian of the happiness and dignity of the Roman people.
Yet the piercing eye of the founder of the republic must have
discerned two essential imperfections, which might, perhaps, have
abated his recent love of despotism. The virtuous mind of
Theodosius was often relaxed by indolence, and it was sometimes
inflamed by passion. In the pursuit of an important object, his
active courage was capable of the most vigorous exertions; but,
as soon as the design was accomplished, or the danger was
surmounted, the hero sunk into inglorious repose; and, forgetful
that the time of a prince is the property of his people, resigned
himself to the enjoyment of the innocent, but trifling, pleasures
of a luxurious court. The natural disposition of Theodosius was
hasty and choleric; and, in a station where none could resist,
and few would dissuade, the fatal consequence of his resentment,
the humane monarch was justly alarmed by the consciousness of his
infirmity and of his power. It was the constant study of his life
to suppress, or regulate, the intemperate sallies of passion and
the success of his efforts enhanced the merit of his clemency.
But the painful virtue which claims the merit of victory, is
exposed to the danger of defeat; and the reign of a wise and
merciful prince was polluted by an act of cruelty which would
stain the annals of Nero or Domitian. Within the space of three
years, the inconsistent historian of Theodosius must relate the
generous pardon of the citizens of Antioch, and the inhuman
massacre of the people of Thessalonica.
The lively impatience of the inhabitants of Antioch was never
satisfied with their own situation, or with the character and
conduct of their successive sovereigns. The Arian subjects of
Theodosius deplored the loss of their churches; and as three
rival bishops disputed the throne of Antioch, the sentence which
decided their pretensions excited the murmurs of the two
unsuccessful congregations. The exigencies of the Gothic war, and
the inevitable expense that accompanied the conclusion of the
peace, had constrained the emperor to aggravate the weight of the
public impositions; and the provinces of Asia, as they had not
been involved in the distress were the less inclined to
contribute to the relief, of Europe. The auspicious period now
approached of the tenth year of his reign; a festival more
grateful to the soldiers, who received a liberal donative, than
to the subjects, whose voluntary offerings had been long since
converted into an extraordinary and oppressive burden. The edicts
of taxation interrupted the repose, and pleasures, of Antioch;
and the tribunal of the magistrate was besieged by a suppliant
crowd; who, in pathetic, but, at first, in respectful language,
solicited the redress of their grievances. They were gradually
incensed by the pride of their haughty rulers, who treated their
complaints as a criminal resistance; their satirical wit
degenerated into sharp and angry invectives; and, from the
subordinate powers of government, the invectives of the people
insensibly rose to attack the sacred character of the emperor
himself. Their fury, provoked by a feeble opposition, discharged
itself on the images of the Imperial family, which were erected,
as objects of public veneration, in the most conspicuous places
of the city. The statues of Theodosius, of his father, of his
wife Flaccilla, of his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, were
insolently thrown down from their pedestals, broken in pieces, or
dragged with contempt through the streets; and the indignities
which were offered to the representations of Imperial majesty,
sufficiently declared the impious and treasonable wishes of the
populace. The tumult was almost immediately suppressed by the
arrival of a body of archers: and Antioch had leisure to reflect
on the nature and consequences of her crime. According to the
duty of his office, the governor of the province despatched a
faithful narrative of the whole transaction: while the trembling
citizens intrusted the confession of their crime, and the
assurances of their repentance, to the zeal of Flavian, their
bishop, and to the eloquence of the senator Hilarius, the friend,
and most probably the disciple, of Libanius; whose genius, on
this melancholy occasion, was not useless to his country. But the
two capitals, Antioch and Constantinople, were separated by the
distance of eight hundred miles; and, notwithstanding the
diligence of the Imperial posts, the guilty city was severely
punished by a long and dreadful interval of suspense. Every rumor
agitated the hopes and fears of the Antiochians, and they heard
with terror, that their sovereign, exasperated by the insult
which had been offered to his own statues, and more especially,
to those of his beloved wife, had resolved to level with the
ground the offending city; and to massacre, without distinction
of age or sex, the criminal inhabitants; many of whom were
actually driven, by their apprehensions, to seek a refuge in the
mountains of Syria, and the adjacent desert. At length,
twenty-four days after the sedition, the general Hellebicus and
Cæsarius, master of the offices, declared the will of the
emperor, and the sentence of Antioch. That proud capital was
degraded from the rank of a city; and the metropolis of the East,
stripped of its lands, its privileges, and its revenues, was
subjected, under the humiliating denomination of a village, to
the jurisdiction of Laodicea. The baths, the Circus, and the
theatres were shut: and, that every source of plenty and pleasure
might at the same time be intercepted, the distribution of corn
was abolished, by the severe instructions of Theodosius. His
commissioners then proceeded to inquire into the guilt of
individuals; of those who had perpetrated, and of those who had
not prevented, the destruction of the sacred statues. The
tribunal of Hellebicus and Cæsarius, encompassed with armed
soldiers, was erected in the midst of the Forum. The noblest, and
most wealthy, of the citizens of Antioch appeared before them in
chains; the examination was assisted by the use of torture, and
their sentence was pronounced or suspended, according to the
judgment of these extraordinary magistrates. The houses of the
criminals were exposed to sale, their wives and children were
suddenly reduced, from affluence and luxury, to the most abject
distress; and a bloody execution was expected to conclude the
horrors of the day, which the preacher of Antioch, the eloquent
Chrysostom, has represented as a lively image of the last and
universal judgment of the world. But the ministers of Theodosius
performed, with reluctance, the cruel task which had been
assigned them; they dropped a gentle tear over the calamities of
the people; and they listened with reverence to the pressing
solicitations of the monks and hermits, who descended in swarms
from the mountains. Hellebicus and Cæsarius were persuaded
to suspend the execution of their sentence; and it was agreed
that the former should remain at Antioch, while the latter
returned, with all possible speed, to Constantinople; and
presumed once more to consult the will of his sovereign. The
resentment of Theodosius had already subsided; the deputies of
the people, both the bishop and the orator, had obtained a
favorable audience; and the reproaches of the emperor were the
complaints of injured friendship, rather than the stern menaces
of pride and power. A free and general pardon was granted to the
city and citizens of Antioch; the prison doors were thrown open;
the senators, who despaired of their lives, recovered the
possession of their houses and estates; and the capital of the
East was restored to the enjoyment of her ancient dignity and
splendor. Theodosius condescended to praise the senate of
Constantinople, who had generously interceded for their
distressed brethren: he rewarded the eloquence of Hilarius with
the government of Palestine; and dismissed the bishop of Antioch
with the warmest expressions of his respect and gratitude. A
thousand new statues arose to the clemency of Theodosius; the
applause of his subjects was ratified by the approbation of his
own heart; and the emperor confessed, that, if the exercise of
justice is the most important duty, the indulgence of mercy is
the most exquisite pleasure, of a sovereign.
The sedition of Thessalonica is ascribed to a more shameful
cause, and was productive of much more dreadful consequences.
That great city, the metropolis of all the Illyrian provinces,
had been protected from the dangers of the Gothic war by strong
fortifications and a numerous garrison. Botheric, the general of
those troops, and, as it should seem from his name, a Barbarian,
had among his slaves a beautiful boy, who excited the impure
desires of one of the charioteers of the Circus. The insolent and
brutal lover was thrown into prison by the order of Botheric; and
he sternly rejected the importunate clamors of the multitude,
who, on the day of the public games, lamented the absence of
their favorite; and considered the skill of a charioteer as an
object of more importance than his virtue. The resentment of the
people was imbittered by some previous disputes; and, as the
strength of the garrison had been drawn away for the service of
the Italian war, the feeble remnant, whose numbers were reduced
by desertion, could not save the unhappy general from their
licentious fury. Botheric, and several of his principal officers,
were inhumanly murdered; their mangled bodies were dragged about
the streets; and the emperor, who then resided at Milan, was
surprised by the intelligence of the audacious and wanton cruelty
of the people of Thessalonica. The sentence of a dispassionate
judge would have inflicted a severe punishment on the authors of
the crime; and the merit of Botheric might contribute to
exasperate the grief and indignation of his master. The fiery and
choleric temper of Theodosius was impatient of the dilatory forms
of a judicial inquiry; and he hastily resolved, that the blood of
his lieutenant should be expiated by the blood of the guilty
people. Yet his mind still fluctuated between the counsels of
clemency and of revenge; the zeal of the bishops had almost
extorted from the reluctant emperor the promise of a general
pardon; his passion was again inflamed by the flattering
suggestions of his minister Rufinus; and, after Theodosius had
despatched the messengers of death, he attempted, when it was too
late, to prevent the execution of his orders. The punishment of a
Roman city was blindly committed to the undistinguishing sword of
the Barbarians; and the hostile preparations were concerted with
the dark and perfidious artifice of an illegal conspiracy. The
people of Thessalonica were treacherously invited, in the name of
their sovereign, to the games of the Circus; and such was their
insatiate avidity for those amusements, that every consideration
of fear, or suspicion, was disregarded by the numerous
spectators. As soon as the assembly was complete, the soldiers,
who had secretly been posted round the Circus, received the
signal, not of the races, but of a general massacre. The
promiscuous carnage continued three hours, without discrimination
of strangers or natives, of age or sex, of innocence or guilt;
the most moderate accounts state the number of the slain at seven
thousand; and it is affirmed by some writers that more than
fifteen thousand victims were sacrificed to the names of
Botheric. A foreign merchant, who had probably no concern in his
murder, offered his own life, and all his wealth, to supply the
place of one of his two sons; but, while the father hesitated
with equal tenderness, while he was doubtful to choose, and
unwilling to condemn, the soldiers determined his suspense, by
plunging their daggers at the same moment into the breasts of the
defenceless youths. The apology of the assassins, that they were
obliged to produce the prescribed number of heads, serves only to
increase, by an appearance of order and design, the horrors of
the massacre, which was executed by the commands of Theodosius.
The guilt of the emperor is aggravated by his long and frequent
residence at Thessalonica. The situation of the unfortunate city,
the aspect of the streets and buildings, the dress and faces of
the inhabitants, were familiar, and even present, to his
imagination; and Theodosius possessed a quick and lively sense of
the existence of the people whom he destroyed.
The respectful attachment of the emperor for the orthodox
clergy, had disposed him to love and admire the character of
Ambrose; who united all the episcopal virtues in the most eminent
degree. The friends and ministers of Theodosius imitated the
example of their sovereign; and he observed, with more surprise
than displeasure, that all his secret counsels were immediately
communicated to the archbishop; who acted from the laudable
persuasion, that every measure of civil government may have some
connection with the glory of God, and the interest of the true
religion. The monks and populace of Callinicum, * an obscure town
on the frontier of Persia, excited by their own fanaticism, and
by that of their bishop, had tumultuously burnt a conventicle of
the Valentinians, and a synagogue of the Jews. The seditious
prelate was condemned, by the magistrate of the province, either
to rebuild the synagogue, or to repay the damage; and this
moderate sentence was confirmed by the emperor. But it was not
confirmed by the archbishop of Milan. He dictated an epistle of
censure and reproach, more suitable, perhaps, if the emperor had
received the mark of circumcision, and renounced the faith of his
baptism. Ambrose considers the toleration of the Jewish, as the
persecution of the Christian, religion; boldly declares that he
himself, and every true believer, would eagerly dispute with the
bishop of Callinicum the merit of the deed, and the crown of
martyrdom; and laments, in the most pathetic terms, that the
execution of the sentence would be fatal to the fame and
salvation of Theodosius. As this private admonition did not
produce an immediate effect, the archbishop, from his pulpit,
publicly addressed the emperor on his throne; nor would he
consent to offer the oblation of the altar, till he had obtained
from Theodosius a solemn and positive declaration, which secured
the impunity of the bishop and monks of Callinicum. The
recantation of Theodosius was sincere; and, during the term of
his residence at Milan, his affection for Ambrose was continually
increased by the habits of pious and familiar conversation.
When Ambrose was informed of the massacre of Thessalonica, his
mind was filled with horror and anguish. He retired into the
country to indulge his grief, and to avoid the presence of
Theodosius. But as the archbishop was satisfied that a timid
silence would render him the accomplice of his guilt, he
represented, in a private letter, the enormity of the crime;
which could only be effaced by the tears of penitence. The
episcopal vigor of Ambrose was tempered by prudence; and he
contented himself with signifying an indirect sort of
excommunication, by the assurance, that he had been warned in a
vision not to offer the oblation in the name, or in the presence,
of Theodosius; and by the advice, that he would confine himself
to the use of prayer, without presuming to approach the altar of
Christ, or to receive the holy eucharist with those hands that
were still polluted with the blood of an innocent people. The
emperor was deeply affected by his own reproaches, and by those
of his spiritual father; and after he had bewailed the
mischievous and irreparable consequences of his rash fury, he
proceeded, in the accustomed manner, to perform his devotions in
the great church of Milan. He was stopped in the porch by the
archbishop; who, in the tone and language of an ambassador of
Heaven, declared to his sovereign, that private contrition was
not sufficient to atone for a public fault, or to appease the
justice of the offended Deity. Theodosius humbly represented,
that if he had contracted the guilt of homicide, David, the man
after God's own heart, had been guilty, not only of murder, but
of adultery. "You have imitated David in his crime, imitate then
his repentance," was the reply of the undaunted Ambrose. The
rigorous conditions of peace and pardon were accepted; and the
public penance of the emperor Theodosius has been recorded as one
of the most honorable events in the annals of the church.
According to the mildest rules of ecclesiastical discipline,
which were established in the fourth century, the crime of
homicide was expiated by the penitence of twenty years: and as it
was impossible, in the period of human life, to purge the
accumulated guilt of the massacre of Thessalonica, the murderer
should have been excluded from the holy communion till the hour
of his death. But the archbishop, consulting the maxims of
religious policy, granted some indulgence to the rank of his
illustrious penitent, who humbled in the dust the pride of the
diadem; and the public edification might be admitted as a weighty
reason to abridge the duration of his punishment. It was
sufficient, that the emperor of the Romans, stripped of the
ensigns of royalty, should appear in a mournful and suppliant
posture; and that, in the midst of the church of Milan, he should
humbly solicit, with sighs and tears, the pardon of his sins. In
this spiritual cure, Ambrose employed the various methods of
mildness and severity. After a delay of about eight months,
Theodosius was restored to the communion of the faithful; and the
edict which interposes a salutary interval of thirty days between
the sentence and the execution, may be accepted as the worthy
fruits of his repentance. Posterity has applauded the virtuous
firmness of the archbishop; and the example of Theodosius may
prove the beneficial influence of those principles, which could
force a monarch, exalted above the apprehension of human
punishment, to respect the laws, and ministers, of an invisible
Judge. "The prince," says Montesquieu, "who is actuated by the
hopes and fears of religion, may be compared to a lion, docile
only to the voice, and tractable to the hand, of his keeper." The
motions of the royal animal will therefore depend on the
inclination, and interest, of the man who has acquired such
dangerous authority over him; and the priest, who holds in his
hands the conscience of a king, may inflame, or moderate, his
sanguinary passions. The cause of humanity, and that of
persecution, have been asserted, by the same Ambrose, with equal
energy, and with equal success.
Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius. --
Part V.
After the defeat and death of the tyrant of Gaul, the Roman
world was in the possession of Theodosius. He derived from the
choice of Gratian his honorable title to the provinces of the
East: he had acquired the West by the right of conquest; and the
three years which he spent in Italy were usefully employed to
restore the authority of the laws, and to correct the abuses
which had prevailed with impunity under the usurpation of
Maximus, and the minority of Valentinian. The name of Valentinian
was regularly inserted in the public acts: but the tender age,
and doubtful faith, of the son of Justina, appeared to require
the prudent care of an orthodox guardian; and his specious
ambition might have excluded the unfortunate youth, without a
struggle, and almost without a murmur, from the administration,
and even from the inheritance, of the empire. If Theodosius had
consulted the rigid maxims of interest and policy, his conduct
would have been justified by his friends; but the generosity of
his behavior on this memorable occasion has extorted the applause
of his most inveterate enemies. He seated Valentinian on the
throne of Milan; and, without stipulating any present or future
advantages, restored him to the absolute dominion of all the
provinces, from which he had been driven by the arms of Maximus.
To the restitution of his ample patrimony, Theodosius added the
free and generous gift of the countries beyond the Alps, which
his successful valor had recovered from the assassin of Gratian.
Satisfied with the glory which he had acquired, by revenging the
death of his benefactor, and delivering the West from the yoke of
tyranny, the emperor returned from Milan to Constantinople; and,
in the peaceful possession of the East, insensibly relapsed into
his former habits of luxury and indolence. Theodosius discharged
his obligation to the brother, he indulged his conjugal
tenderness to the sister, of Valentinian; and posterity, which
admires the pure and singular glory of his elevation, must
applaud his unrivalled generosity in the use of victory.
The empress Justina did not long survive her return to Italy;
and, though she beheld the triumph of Theodosius, she was not
allowed to influence the government of her son. The pernicious
attachment to the Arian sect, which Valentinian had imbibed from
her example and instructions, was soon erased by the lessons of a
more orthodox education. His growing zeal for the faith of Nice,
and his filial reverence for the character and authority of
Ambrose, disposed the Catholics to entertain the most favorable
opinion of the virtues of the young emperor of the West. They
applauded his chastity and temperance, his contempt of pleasure,
his application to business, and his tender affection for his two
sisters; which could not, however, seduce his impartial equity to
pronounce an unjust sentence against the meanest of his subjects.
But this amiable youth, before he had accomplished the twentieth
year of his age, was oppressed by domestic treason; and the
empire was again involved in the horrors of a civil war.
Arbogastes, a gallant soldier of the nation of the Franks, held
the second rank in the service of Gratian. On the death of his
master he joined the standard of Theodosius; contributed, by his
valor and military conduct, to the destruction of the tyrant; and
was appointed, after the victory, master-general of the armies of
Gaul. His real merit, and apparent fidelity, had gained the
confidence both of the prince and people; his boundless
liberality corrupted the allegiance of the troops; and, whilst he
was universally esteemed as the pillar of the state, the bold and
crafty Barbarian was secretly determined either to rule, or to
ruin, the empire of the West. The important commands of the army
were distributed among the Franks; the creatures of Arbogastes
were promoted to all the honors and offices of the civil
government; the progress of the conspiracy removed every faithful
servant from the presence of Valentinian; and the emperor,
without power and without intelligence, insensibly sunk into the
precarious and dependent condition of a captive. The indignation
which he expressed, though it might arise only from the rash and
impatient temper of youth, may be candidly ascribed to the
generous spirit of a prince, who felt that he was not unworthy to
reign. He secretly invited the archbishop of Milan to undertake
the office of a mediator; as the pledge of his sincerity, and the
guardian of his safety. He contrived to apprise the emperor of
the East of his helpless situation, and he declared, that, unless
Theodosius could speedily march to his assistance, he must
attempt to escape from the palace, or rather prison, of Vienna in
Gaul, where he had imprudently fixed his residence in the midst
of the hostile faction. But the hopes of relief were distant, and
doubtful: and, as every day furnished some new provocation, the
emperor, without strength or counsel, too hastily resolved to
risk an immediate contest with his powerful general. He received
Arbogastes on the throne; and, as the count approached with some
appearance of respect, delivered to him a paper, which dismissed
him from all his employments. "My authority," replied Arbogastes,
with insulting coolness, "does not depend on the smile or the
frown of a monarch;" and he contemptuously threw the paper on the
ground. The indignant monarch snatched at the sword of one of the
guards, which he struggled to draw from its scabbard; and it was
not without some degree of violence that he was prevented from
using the deadly weapon against his enemy, or against himself. A
few days after this extraordinary quarrel, in which he had
exposed his resentment and his weakness, the unfortunate
Valentinian was found strangled in his apartment; and some pains
were employed to disguise the manifest guilt of Arbogastes, and
to persuade the world, that the death of the young emperor had
been the voluntary effect of his own despair. His body was
conducted with decent pomp to the sepulchre of Milan; and the
archbishop pronounced a funeral oration to commemorate his
virtues and his misfortunes. On this occasion the humanity of
Ambrose tempted him to make a singular breach in his theological
system; and to comfort the weeping sisters of Valentinian, by the
firm assurance, that their pious brother, though he had not
received the sacrament of baptism, was introduced, without
difficulty, into the mansions of eternal bliss.
The prudence of Arbogastes had prepared the success of his
ambitious designs: and the provincials, in whose breast every
sentiment of patriotism or loyalty was extinguished, expected,
with tame resignation, the unknown master, whom the choice of a
Frank might place on the Imperial throne. But some remains of
pride and prejudice still opposed the elevation of Arbogastes
himself; and the judicious Barbarian thought it more advisable to
reign under the name of some dependent Roman. He bestowed the
purple on the rhetorician Eugenius; whom he had already raised
from the place of his domestic secretary to the rank of master of
the offices. In the course, both of his private and public
service, the count had always approved the attachment and
abilities of Eugenius; his learning and eloquence, supported by
the gravity of his manners, recommended him to the esteem of the
people; and the reluctance with which he seemed to ascend the
throne, may inspire a favorable prejudice of his virtue and
moderation. The ambassadors of the new emperor were immediately
despatched to the court of Theodosius, to communicate, with
affected grief, the unfortunate accident of the death of
Valentinian; and, without mentioning the name of Arbogastes, to
request, that the monarch of the East would embrace, as his
lawful colleague, the respectable citizen, who had obtained the
unanimous suffrage of the armies and provinces of the West.
Theodosius was justly provoked, that the perfidy of a Barbarian,
should have destroyed, in a moment, the labors, and the fruit, of
his former victory; and he was excited by the tears of his
beloved wife, to revenge the fate of her unhappy brother, and
once more to assert by arms the violated majesty of the throne.
But as the second conquest of the West was a task of difficulty
and danger, he dismissed, with splendid presents, and an
ambiguous answer, the ambassadors of Eugenius; and almost two
years were consumed in the preparations of the civil war. Before
he formed any decisive resolution, the pious emperor was anxious
to discover the will of Heaven; and as the progress of
Christianity had silenced the oracles of Delphi and Dodona, he
consulted an Egyptian monk, who possessed, in the opinion of the
age, the gift of miracles, and the knowledge of futurity.
Eutropius, one of the favorite eunuchs of the palace of
Constantinople, embarked for Alexandria, from whence he sailed up
the Nile, as far as the city of Lycopolis, or of Wolves, in the
remote province of Thebais. In the neighborhood of that city, and
on the summit of a lofty mountain, the holy John had constructed,
with his own hands, an humble cell, in which he had dwelt above
fifty years, without opening his door, without seeing the face of
a woman, and without tasting any food that had been prepared by
fire, or any human art. Five days of the week he spent in prayer
and meditation; but on Saturdays and Sundays he regularly opened
a small window, and gave audience to the crowd of suppliants who
successively flowed from every part of the Christian world. The
eunuch of Theodosius approached the window with respectful steps,
proposed his questions concerning the event of the civil war, and
soon returned with a favorable oracle, which animated the courage
of the emperor by the assurance of a bloody, but infallible
victory. The accomplishment of the prediction was forwarded by
all the means that human prudence could supply. The industry of
the two master-generals, Stilicho and Timasius, was directed to
recruit the numbers, and to revive the discipline of the Roman
legions. The formidable troops of Barbarians marched under the
ensigns of their national chieftains. The Iberian, the Arab, and
the Goth, who gazed on each other with mutual astonishment, were
enlisted in the service of the same prince; * and the renowned
Alaric acquired, in the school of Theodosius, the knowledge of
the art of war, which he afterwards so fatally exerted for the
destruction of Rome.
The emperor of the West, or, to speak more properly, his
general Arbogastes, was instructed by the misconduct and
misfortune of Maximus, how dangerous it might prove to extend the
line of defence against a skilful antagonist, who was free to
press, or to suspend, to contract, or to multiply, his various
methods of attack. Arbogastes fixed his station on the confines
of Italy; the troops of Theodosius were permitted to occupy,
without resistance, the provinces of Pannonia, as far as the foot
of the Julian Alps; and even the passes of the mountains were
negligently, or perhaps artfully, abandoned to the bold invader.
He descended from the hills, and beheld, with some astonishment,
the formidable camp of the Gauls and Germans, that covered with
arms and tents the open country which extends to the walls of
Aquileia, and the banks of the Frigidus, or Cold River. This
narrow theatre of the war, circumscribed by the Alps and the
Adriatic, did not allow much room for the operations of military
skill; the spirit of Arbogastes would have disdained a pardon;
his guilt extinguished the hope of a negotiation; and Theodosius
was impatient to satisfy his glory and revenge, by the
chastisement of the assassins of Valentinian. Without weighing
the natural and artificial obstacles that opposed his efforts,
the emperor of the East immediately attacked the fortifications
of his rivals, assigned the post of honorable danger to the
Goths, and cherished a secret wish, that the bloody conflict
might diminish the pride and numbers of the conquerors. Ten
thousand of those auxiliaries, and Bacurius, general of the
Iberians, died bravely on the field of battle. But the victory
was not purchased by their blood; the Gauls maintained their
advantage; and the approach of night protected the disorderly
flight, or retreat, of the troops of Theodosius. The emperor
retired to the adjacent hills; where he passed a disconsolate
night, without sleep, without provisions, and without hopes;
except that strong assurance, which, under the most desperate
circumstances, the independent mind may derive from the contempt
of fortune and of life. The triumph of Eugenius was celebrated by
the insolent and dissolute joy of his camp; whilst the active and
vigilant Arbogastes secretly detached a considerable body of
troops to occupy the passes of the mountains, and to encompass
the rear of the Eastern army. The dawn of day discovered to the
eyes of Theodosius the extent and the extremity of his danger;
but his apprehensions were soon dispelled, by a friendly message
from the leaders of those troops who expressed their inclination
to desert the standard of the tyrant. The honorable and lucrative
rewards, which they stipulated as the price of their perfidy,
were granted without hesitation; and as ink and paper could not
easily be procured, the emperor subscribed, on his own tablets,
the ratification of the treaty. The spirit of his soldiers was
revived by this seasonable reenforcement; and they again marched,
with confidence, to surprise the camp of a tyrant, whose
principal officers appeared to distrust, either the justice or
the success of his arms. In the heat of the battle, a violent
tempest, such as is often felt among the Alps, suddenly arose
from the East. The army of Theodosius was sheltered by their
position from the impetuosity of the wind, which blew a cloud of
dust in the faces of the enemy, disordered their ranks, wrested
their weapons from their hands, and diverted, or repelled, their
ineffectual javelins. This accidental advantage was skilfully
improved, the violence of the storm was magnified by the
superstitious terrors of the Gauls; and they yielded without
shame to the invisible powers of heaven, who seemed to militate
on the side of the pious emperor. His victory was decisive; and
the deaths of his two rivals were distinguished only by the
difference of their characters. The rhetorician Eugenius, who had
almost acquired the dominion of the world, was reduced to implore
the mercy of the conqueror; and the unrelenting soldiers
separated his head from his body as he lay prostrate at the feet
of Theodosius. Arbogastes, after the loss of a battle, in which
he had discharged the duties of a soldier and a general, wandered
several days among the mountains. But when he was convinced that
his cause was desperate, and his escape impracticable, the
intrepid Barbarian imitated the example of the ancient Romans,
and turned his sword against his own breast. The fate of the
empire was determined in a narrow corner of Italy; and the
legitimate successor of the house of Valentinian embraced the
archbishop of Milan, and graciously received the submission of
the provinces of the West. Those provinces were involved in the
guilt of rebellion; while the inflexible courage of Ambrose alone
had resisted the claims of successful usurpation. With a manly
freedom, which might have been fatal to any other subject, the
archbishop rejected the gifts of Eugenius, * declined his
correspondence, and withdrew himself from Milan, to avoid the
odious presence of a tyrant, whose downfall he predicted in
discreet and ambiguous language. The merit of Ambrose was
applauded by the conqueror, who secured the attachment of the
people by his alliance with the church; and the clemency of
Theodosius is ascribed to the humane intercession of the
archbishop of Milan.
After the defeat of Eugenius, the merit, as well as the
authority, of Theodosius was cheerfully acknowledged by all the
inhabitants of the Roman world. The experience of his past
conduct encouraged the most pleasing expectations of his future
reign; and the age of the emperor, which did not exceed fifty
years, seemed to extend the prospect of the public felicity. His
death, only four months after his victory, was considered by the
people as an unforeseen and fatal event, which destroyed, in a
moment, the hopes of the rising generation. But the indulgence of
ease and luxury had secretly nourished the principles of disease.
The strength of Theodosius was unable to support the sudden and
violent transition from the palace to the camp; and the
increasing symptoms of a dropsy announced the speedy dissolution
of the emperor. The opinion, and perhaps the interest, of the
public had confirmed the division of the Eastern and Western
empires; and the two royal youths, Arcadius and Honorius, who had
already obtained, from the tenderness of their father, the title
of Augustus, were destined to fill the thrones of Constantinople
and of Rome. Those princes were not permitted to share the danger
and glory of the civil war; but as soon as Theodosius had
triumphed over his unworthy rivals, he called his younger son,
Honorius, to enjoy the fruits of the victory, and to receive the
sceptre of the West from the hands of his dying father. The
arrival of Honorius at Milan was welcomed by a splendid
exhibition of the games of the Circus; and the emperor, though he
was oppressed by the weight of his disorder, contributed by his
presence to the public joy. But the remains of his strength were
exhausted by the painful effort which he made to assist at the
spectacles of the morning. Honorius supplied, during the rest of
the day, the place of his father; and the great Theodosius
expired in the ensuing night. Notwithstanding the recent
animosities of a civil war, his death was universally lamented.
The Barbarians, whom he had vanquished and the churchmen, by whom
he had been subdued, celebrated, with loud and sincere applause,
the qualities of the deceased emperor, which appeared the most
valuable in their eyes. The Romans were terrified by the
impending dangers of a feeble and divided administration, and
every disgraceful moment of the unfortunate reigns of Arcadius
and Honorius revived the memory of their irreparable loss.
In the faithful picture of the virtues of Theodosius, his
imperfections have not been dissembled; the act of cruelty, and
the habits of indolence, which tarnished the glory of one of the
greatest of the Roman princes. An historian, perpetually adverse
to the fame of Theodosius, has exaggerated his vices, and their
pernicious effects; he boldly asserts, that every rank of
subjects imitated the effeminate manners of their sovereign; and
that every species of corruption polluted the course of public
and private life; and that the feeble restraints of order and
decency were insufficient to resist the progress of that
degenerate spirit, which sacrifices, without a blush, the
consideration of duty and interest to the base indulgence of
sloth and appetite. The complaints of contemporary writers, who
deplore the increase of luxury, and depravation of manners, are
commonly expressive of their peculiar temper and situation. There
are few observers, who possess a clear and comprehensive view of
the revolutions of society; and who are capable of discovering
the nice and secret springs of action, which impel, in the same
uniform direction, the blind and capricious passions of a
multitude of individuals. If it can be affirmed, with any degree
of truth, that the luxury of the Romans was more shameless and
dissolute in the reign of Theodosius than in the age of
Constantine, perhaps, or of Augustus, the alteration cannot be
ascribed to any beneficial improvements, which had gradually
increased the stock of national riches. A long period of calamity
or decay must have checked the industry, and diminished the
wealth, of the people; and their profuse luxury must have been
the result of that indolent despair, which enjoys the present
hour, and declines the thoughts of futurity. The uncertain
condition of their property discouraged the subjects of
Theodosius from engaging in those useful and laborious
undertakings which require an immediate expense, and promise a
slow and distant advantage. The frequent examples of ruin and
desolation tempted them not to spare the remains of a patrimony,
which might, every hour, become the prey of the rapacious Goth.
And the mad prodigality which prevails in the confusion of a
shipwreck, or a siege, may serve to explain the progress of
luxury amidst the misfortunes and terrors of a sinking
nation.
The effeminate luxury, which infected the manners of courts
and cities, had instilled a secret and destructive poison into
the camps of the legions; and their degeneracy has been marked by
the pen of a military writer, who had accurately studied the
genuine and ancient principles of Roman discipline. It is the
just and important observation of Vegetius, that the infantry was
invariably covered with defensive armor, from the foundation of
the city, to the reign of the emperor Gratian. The relaxation of
discipline, and the disuse of exercise, rendered the soldiers
less able, and less willing, to support the fatigues of the
service; they complained of the weight of the armor, which they
seldom wore; and they successively obtained the permission of
laying aside both their cuirasses and their helmets. The heavy
weapons of their ancestors, the short sword, and the formidable
pilum, which had subdued the world,
insensibly dropped from their feeble hands. As the use of the
shield is incompatible with that of the bow, they reluctantly
marched into the field; condemned to suffer either the pain of
wounds, or the ignominy of flight, and always disposed to prefer
the more shameful alternative. The cavalry of the Goths, the
Huns, and the Alani, had felt the benefits, and adopted the use,
of defensive armor; and, as they excelled in the management of
missile weapons, they easily overwhelmed the naked and trembling
legions, whose heads and breasts were exposed, without defence,
to the arrows of the Barbarians. The loss of armies, the
destruction of cities, and the dishonor of the Roman name,
ineffectually solicited the successors of Gratian to restore the
helmets and the cuirasses of the infantry. The enervated soldiers
abandoned their own and the public defence; and their
pusillanimous indolence may be considered as the immediate cause
of the downfall of the empire.
Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism.
Part I.
Final Destruction Of Paganism. -- Introduction Of The Worship
Of Saints, And Relics, Among The Christians.
The ruin of Paganism, in the age of Theodosius, is perhaps the
only example of the total extirpation of any ancient and popular
superstition; and may therefore deserve to be considered as a
singular event in the history of the human mind. The Christians,
more especially the clergy, had impatiently supported the prudent
delays of Constantine, and the equal toleration of the elder
Valentinian; nor could they deem their conquest perfect or
secure, as long as their adversaries were permitted to exist. The
influence which Ambrose and his brethren had acquired over the
youth of Gratian, and the piety of Theodosius, was employed to
infuse the maxims of persecution into the breasts of their
Imperial proselytes. Two specious principles of religious
jurisprudence were established, from whence they deduced a direct
and rigorous conclusion, against the subjects of the empire who
still adhered to the ceremonies of their ancestors:
that the magistrate is, in some
measure, guilty of the crimes which he neglects to prohibit, or
to punish; and, that the idolatrous
worship of fabulous deities, and real dæmons, is the most
abominable crime against the supreme majesty of the Creator. The
laws of Moses, and the examples of Jewish history, were hastily,
perhaps erroneously, applied, by the clergy, to the mild and
universal reign of Christianity. The zeal of the emperors was
excited to vindicate their own honor, and that of the Deity: and
the temples of the Roman world were subverted, about sixty years
after the conversion of Constantine.
From the age of Numa to the reign of Gratian, the Romans
preserved the regular succession of the several colleges of the
sacerdotal order. Fifteen Pontiffs exercised their supreme
jurisdiction over all things, and persons, that were consecrated
to the service of the gods; and the various questions which
perpetually arose in a loose and traditionary system, were
submitted to the judgment of their holy tribunal Fifteen grave
and learned Augurs observed the face of the heavens, and
prescribed the actions of heroes, according to the flight of
birds. Fifteen keepers of the Sibylline books (their name of
Quindecemvirs was derived from their number) occasionally
consulted the history of future, and, as it should seem, of
contingent, events. Six Vestals devoted their virginity to the
guard of the sacred fire, and of the unknown pledges of the
duration of Rome; which no mortal had been suffered to behold
with impunity. Seven Epulos prepared the table of the gods,
conducted the solemn procession, and regulated the ceremonies of
the annual festival. The three Flamens of Jupiter, of Mars, and
of Quirinus, were considered as the peculiar ministers of the
three most powerful deities, who watched over the fate of Rome
and of the universe. The King of the Sacrifices represented the
person of Numa, and of his successors, in the religious
functions, which could be performed only by royal hands. The
confraternities of the Salians, the Lupercals, &c., practised
such rites as might extort a smile of contempt from every
reasonable man, with a lively confidence of recommending
themselves to the favor of the immortal gods. The authority,
which the Roman priests had formerly obtained in the counsels of
the republic, was gradually abolished by the establishment of
monarchy, and the removal of the seat of empire. But the dignity
of their sacred character was still protected by the laws, and
manners of their country; and they still continued, more
especially the college of pontiffs, to exercise in the capital,
and sometimes in the provinces, the rights of their
ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction. Their robes of purple,
chariots of state, and sumptuous entertainments, attracted the
admiration of the people; and they received, from the consecrated
lands, and the public revenue, an ample stipend, which liberally
supported the splendor of the priesthood, and all the expenses of
the religious worship of the state. As the service of the altar
was not incompatible with the command of armies, the Romans,
after their consulships and triumphs, aspired to the place of
pontiff, or of augur; the seats of Cicero and Pompey were filled,
in the fourth century, by the most illustrious members of the
senate; and the dignity of their birth reflected additional
splendor on their sacerdotal character. The fifteen priests, who
composed the college of pontiffs, enjoyed a more distinguished
rank as the companions of their sovereign; and the Christian
emperors condescended to accept the robe and ensigns, which were
appropriated to the office of supreme pontiff. But when Gratian
ascended the throne, more scrupulous or more enlightened, he
sternly rejected those profane symbols; applied to the service of
the state, or of the church, the revenues of the priests and
vestals; abolished their honors and immunities; and dissolved the
ancient fabric of Roman superstition, which was supported by the
opinions and habits of eleven hundred years. Paganism was still
the constitutional religion of the senate. The hall, or temple,
in which they assembled, was adorned by the statue and altar of
Victory; a majestic female standing on a globe, with flowing
garments, expanded wings, and a crown of laurel in her
outstretched hand. The senators were sworn on the altar of the
goddess to observe the laws of the emperor and of the empire: and
a solemn offering of wine and incense was the ordinary prelude of
their public deliberations. The removal of this ancient monument
was the only injury which Constantius had offered to the
superstition of the Romans. The altar of Victory was again
restored by Julian, tolerated by Valentinian, and once more
banished from the senate by the zeal of Gratian. But the emperor
yet spared the statues of the gods which were exposed to the
public veneration: four hundred and twenty-four temples, or
chapels, still remained to satisfy the devotion of the people;
and in every quarter of Rome the delicacy of the Christians was
offended by the fumes of idolatrous sacrifice.
But the Christians formed the least numerous party in the
senate of Rome: and it was only by their absence, that they could
express their dissent from the legal, though profane, acts of a
Pagan majority. In that assembly, the dying embers of freedom
were, for a moment, revived and inflamed by the breath of
fanaticism. Four respectable deputations were successively voted
to the Imperial court, to represent the grievances of the
priesthood and the senate, and to solicit the restoration of the
altar of Victory. The conduct of this important business was
intrusted to the eloquent Symmachus, a wealthy and noble senator,
who united the sacred characters of pontiff and augur with the
civil dignities of proconsul of Africa and præfect of the
city. The breast of Symmachus was animated by the warmest zeal
for the cause of expiring Paganism; and his religious antagonists
lamented the abuse of his genius, and the inefficacy of his moral
virtues. The orator, whose petition is extant to the emperor
Valentinian, was conscious of the difficulty and danger of the
office which he had assumed. He cautiously avoids every topic
which might appear to reflect on the religion of his sovereign;
humbly declares, that prayers and entreaties are his only arms;
and artfully draws his arguments from the schools of rhetoric,
rather than from those of philosophy. Symmachus endeavors to
seduce the imagination of a young prince, by displaying the
attributes of the goddess of victory; he insinuates, that the
confiscation of the revenues, which were consecrated to the
service of the gods, was a measure unworthy of his liberal and
disinterested character; and he maintains, that the Roman
sacrifices would be deprived of their force and energy, if they
were no longer celebrated at the expense, as well as in the name,
of the republic. Even scepticism is made to supply an apology for
superstition. The great and incomprehensible
secret of the universe eludes the
inquiry of man. Where reason cannot instruct, custom may be
permitted to guide; and every nation seems to consult the
dictates of prudence, by a faithful attachment to those rites and
opinions, which have received the sanction of ages. If those ages
have been crowned with glory and prosperity, if the devout people
have frequently obtained the blessings which they have solicited
at the altars of the gods, it must appear still more advisable to
persist in the same salutary practice; and not to risk the
unknown perils that may attend any rash innovations. The test of
antiquity and success was applied with singular advantage to the
religion of Numa; and Rome herself, the celestial genius that
presided over the fates of the city, is introduced by the orator
to plead her own cause before the tribunal of the emperors. "Most
excellent princes," says the venerable matron, "fathers of your
country! pity and respect my age, which has hitherto flowed in an
uninterrupted course of piety. Since I do not repent, permit me
to continue in the practice of my ancient rites. Since I am born
free, allow me to enjoy my domestic institutions. This religion
has reduced the world under my laws. These rites have repelled
Hannibal from the city, and the Gauls from the Capitol. Were my
gray hairs reserved for such intolerable disgrace? I am ignorant
of the new system that I am required to adopt; but I am well
assured, that the correction of old age is always an ungrateful
and ignominious office." The fears of the people supplied what
the discretion of the orator had suppressed; and the calamities,
which afflicted, or threatened, the declining empire, were
unanimously imputed, by the Pagans, to the new religion of Christ
and of Constantine.
But the hopes of Symmachus were repeatedly baffled by the firm
and dexterous opposition of the archbishop of Milan, who
fortified the emperors against the fallacious eloquence of the
advocate of Rome. In this controversy, Ambrose condescends to
speak the language of a philosopher, and to ask, with some
contempt, why it should be thought necessary to introduce an
imaginary and invisible power, as the cause of those victories,
which were sufficiently explained by the valor and discipline of
the legions. He justly derides the absurd reverence for
antiquity, which could only tend to discourage the improvements
of art, and to replunge the human race into their original
barbarism. From thence, gradually rising to a more lofty and
theological tone, he pronounces, that Christianity alone is the
doctrine of truth and salvation; and that every mode of
Polytheism conducts its deluded votaries, through the paths of
error, to the abyss of eternal perdition. Arguments like these,
when they were suggested by a favorite bishop, had power to
prevent the restoration of the altar of Victory; but the same
arguments fell, with much more energy and effect, from the mouth
of a conqueror; and the gods of antiquity were dragged in triumph
at the chariot-wheels of Theodosius. In a full meeting of the
senate, the emperor proposed, according to the forms of the
republic, the important question, Whether the worship of Jupiter,
or that of Christ, should be the religion of the Romans. * The
liberty of suffrages, which he affected to allow, was destroyed
by the hopes and fears that his presence inspired; and the
arbitrary exile of Symmachus was a recent admonition, that it
might be dangerous to oppose the wishes of the monarch. On a
regular division of the senate, Jupiter was condemned and
degraded by the sense of a very large majority; and it is rather
surprising, that any members should be found bold enough to
declare, by their speeches and votes, that they were still
attached to the interest of an abdicated deity. The hasty
conversion of the senate must be attributed either to
supernatural or to sordid motives; and many of these reluctant
proselytes betrayed, on every favorable occasion, their secret
disposition to throw aside the mask of odious dissimulation. But
they were gradually fixed in the new religion, as the cause of
the ancient became more hopeless; they yielded to the authority
of the emperor, to the fashion of the times, and to the
entreaties of their wives and children, who were instigated and
governed by the clergy of Rome and the monks of the East. The
edifying example of the Anician family was soon imitated by the
rest of the nobility: the Bassi, the Paullini, the Gracchi,
embraced the Christian religion; and "the luminaries of the
world, the venerable assembly of Catos (such are the high-flown
expressions of Prudentius) were impatient to strip themselves of
their pontifical garment; to cast the skin of the old serpent; to
assume the snowy robes of baptismal innocence, and to humble the
pride of the consular fasces before tombs of the martyrs." The
citizens, who subsisted by their own industry, and the populace,
who were supported by the public liberality, filled the churches
of the Lateran, and Vatican, with an incessant throng of devout
proselytes. The decrees of the senate, which proscribed the
worship of idols, were ratified by the general consent of the
Romans; the splendor of the Capitol was defaced, and the solitary
temples were abandoned to ruin and contempt. Rome submitted to
the yoke of the Gospel; and the vanquished provinces had not yet
lost their reverence for the name and authority of Rome. *
Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism. -- Part
II.
The filial piety of the emperors themselves engaged them to
proceed, with some caution and tenderness, in the reformation of
the eternal city. Those absolute monarchs acted with less regard
to the prejudices of the provincials. The pious labor which had
been suspended near twenty years since the death of Constantius,
was vigorously resumed, and finally accomplished, by the zeal of
Theodosius. Whilst that warlike prince yet struggled with the
Goths, not for the glory, but for the safety, of the republic, he
ventured to offend a considerable party of his subjects, by some
acts which might perhaps secure the protection of Heaven, but
which must seem rash and unseasonable in the eye of human
prudence. The success of his first experiments against the Pagans
encouraged the pious emperor to reiterate and enforce his edicts
of proscription: the same laws which had been originally
published in the provinces of the East, were applied, after the
defeat of Maximus, to the whole extent of the Western empire; and
every victory of the orthodox Theodosius contributed to the
triumph of the Christian and Catholic faith. He attacked
superstition in her most vital part, by prohibiting the use of
sacrifices, which he declared to be criminal as well as infamous;
and if the terms of his edicts more strictly condemned the
impious curiosity which examined the entrails of the victim,
every subsequent explanation tended to involve in the same guilt
the general practice of immolation,
which essentially constituted the religion of the Pagans. As the
temples had been erected for the purpose of sacrifice, it was the
duty of a benevolent prince to remove from his subjects the
dangerous temptation of offending against the laws which he had
enacted. A special commission was granted to Cynegius, the
Prætorian præfect of the East, and afterwards to the
counts Jovius and Gaudentius, two officers of distinguished rank
in the West; by which they were directed to shut the temples, to
seize or destroy the instruments of idolatry, to abolish the
privileges of the priests, and to confiscate the consecrated
property for the benefit of the emperor, of the church, or of the
army. Here the desolation might have stopped: and the naked
edifices, which were no longer employed in the service of
idolatry, might have been protected from the destructive rage of
fanaticism. Many of those temples were the most splendid and
beautiful monuments of Grecian architecture; and the emperor
himself was interested not to deface the splendor of his own
cities, or to diminish the value of his own possessions. Those
stately edifices might be suffered to remain, as so many lasting
trophies of the victory of Christ. In the decline of the arts
they might be usefully converted into magazines, manufactures, or
places of public assembly: and perhaps, when the walls of the
temple had been sufficiently purified by holy rites, the worship
of the true Deity might be allowed to expiate the ancient guilt
of idolatry. But as long as they subsisted, the Pagans fondly
cherished the secret hope, that an auspicious revolution, a
second Julian, might again restore the altars of the gods: and
the earnestness with which they addressed their unavailing
prayers to the throne, increased the zeal of the Christian
reformers to extirpate, without mercy, the root of superstition.
The laws of the emperors exhibit some symptoms of a milder
disposition: but their cold and languid efforts were insufficient
to stem the torrent of enthusiasm and rapine, which was
conducted, or rather impelled, by the spiritual rulers of the
church. In Gaul, the holy Martin, bishop of Tours, marched at the
head of his faithful monks to destroy the idols, the temples, and
the consecrated trees of his extensive diocese; and, in the
execution of this arduous task, the prudent reader will judge
whether Martin was supported by the aid of miraculous powers, or
of carnal weapons. In Syria, the divine and excellent Marcellus,
as he is styled by Theodoret, a bishop animated with apostolic
fervor, resolved to level with the ground the stately temples
within the diocese of Apamea. His attack was resisted by the
skill and solidity with which the temple of Jupiter had been
constructed. The building was seated on an eminence: on each of
the four sides, the lofty roof was supported by fifteen massy
columns, sixteen feet in circumference; and the large stone, of
which they were composed, were firmly cemented with lead and
iron. The force of the strongest and sharpest tools had been
tried without effect. It was found necessary to undermine the
foundations of the columns, which fell down as soon as the
temporary wooden props had been consumed with fire; and the
difficulties of the enterprise are described under the allegory
of a black dæmon, who retarded, though he could not defeat,
the operations of the Christian engineers. Elated with victory,
Marcellus took the field in person against the powers of
darkness; a numerous troop of soldiers and gladiators marched
under the episcopal banner, and he successively attacked the
villages and country temples of the diocese of Apamea. Whenever
any resistance or danger was apprehended, the champion of the
faith, whose lameness would not allow him either to fight or fly,
placed himself at a convenient distance, beyond the reach of
darts. But this prudence was the occasion of his death: he was
surprised and slain by a body of exasperated rustics; and the
synod of the province pronounced, without hesitation, that the
holy Marcellus had sacrificed his life in the cause of God. In
the support of this cause, the monks, who rushed with tumultuous
fury from the desert, distinguished themselves by their zeal and
diligence. They deserved the enmity of the Pagans; and some of
them might deserve the reproaches of avarice and intemperance; of
avarice, which they gratified with holy plunder, and of
intemperance, which they indulged at the expense of the people,
who foolishly admired their tattered garments, loud psalmody, and
artificial paleness. A small number of temples was protected by
the fears, the venality, the taste, or the prudence, of the civil
and ecclesiastical governors. The temple of the Celestial Venus
at Carthage, whose sacred precincts formed a circumference of two
miles, was judiciously converted into a Christian church; and a
similar consecration has preserved inviolate the majestic dome of
the Pantheon at Rome. But in almost every province of the Roman
world, an army of fanatics, without authority, and without
discipline, invaded the peaceful inhabitants; and the ruin of the
fairest structures of antiquity still displays the ravages of
those Barbarians, who alone had time and inclination to execute
such laborious destruction.
In this wide and various prospect of devastation, the
spectator may distinguish the ruins of the temple of Serapis, at
Alexandria. Serapis does not appear to have been one of the
native gods, or monsters, who sprung from the fruitful soil of
superstitious Egypt. The first of the Ptolemies had been
commanded, by a dream, to import the mysterious stranger from the
coast of Pontus, where he had been long adored by the inhabitants
of Sinope; but his attributes and his reign were so imperfectly
understood, that it became a subject of dispute, whether he
represented the bright orb of day, or the gloomy monarch of the
subterraneous regions. The Egyptians, who were obstinately
devoted to the religion of their fathers, refused to admit this
foreign deity within the walls of their cities. But the
obsequious priests, who were seduced by the liberality of the
Ptolemies, submitted, without resistance, to the power of the god
of Pontus: an honorable and domestic genealogy was provided; and
this fortunate usurper was introduced into the throne and bed of
Osiris, the husband of Isis, and the celestial monarch of Egypt.
Alexandria, which claimed his peculiar protection, gloried in the
name of the city of Serapis. His temple, which rivalled the pride
and magnificence of the Capitol, was erected on the spacious
summit of an artificial mount, raised one hundred steps above the
level of the adjacent parts of the city; and the interior cavity
was strongly supported by arches, and distributed into vaults and
subterraneous apartments. The consecrated buildings were
surrounded by a quadrangular portico; the stately halls, and
exquisite statues, displayed the triumph of the arts; and the
treasures of ancient learning were preserved in the famous
Alexandrian library, which had arisen with new splendor from its
ashes. After the edicts of Theodosius had severely prohibited the
sacrifices of the Pagans, they were still tolerated in the city
and temple of Serapis; and this singular indulgence was
imprudently ascribed to the superstitious terrors of the
Christians themselves; as if they had feared to abolish those
ancient rites, which could alone secure the inundations of the
Nile, the harvests of Egypt, and the subsistence of
Constantinople.
At that time the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria was
filled by Theophilus, the perpetual enemy of peace and virtue; a
bold, bad man, whose hands were alternately polluted with gold
and with blood. His pious indignation was excited by the honors
of Serapis; and the insults which he offered to an ancient temple
of Bacchus, * convinced the Pagans that he meditated a more
important and dangerous enterprise. In the tumultuous capital of
Egypt, the slightest provocation was sufficient to inflame a
civil war. The votaries of Serapis, whose strength and numbers
were much inferior to those of their antagonists, rose in arms at
the instigation of the philosopher Olympius, who exhorted them to
die in the defence of the altars of the gods. These Pagan
fanatics fortified themselves in the temple, or rather fortress,
of Serapis; repelled the besiegers by daring sallies, and a
resolute defence; and, by the inhuman cruelties which they
exercised on their Christian prisoners, obtained the last
consolation of despair. The efforts of the prudent magistrate
were usefully exerted for the establishment of a truce, till the
answer of Theodosius should determine the fate of Serapis. The
two parties assembled, without arms, in the principal square; and
the Imperial rescript was publicly read. But when a sentence of
destruction against the idols of Alexandria was pronounced, the
Christians set up a shout of joy and exultation, whilst the
unfortunate Pagans, whose fury had given way to consternation,
retired with hasty and silent steps, and eluded, by their flight
or obscurity, the resentment of their enemies. Theophilus
proceeded to demolish the temple of Serapis, without any other
difficulties, than those which he found in the weight and
solidity of the materials: but these obstacles proved so
insuperable, that he was obliged to leave the foundations; and to
content himself with reducing the edifice itself to a heap of
rubbish, a part of which was soon afterwards cleared away, to
make room for a church, erected in honor of the Christian
martyrs. The valuable library of Alexandria was pillaged or
destroyed; and near twenty years afterwards, the appearance of
the empty shelves excited the regret and indignation of every
spectator, whose mind was not totally darkened by religious
prejudice. The compositions of ancient genius, so many of which
have irretrievably perished, might surely have been excepted from
the wreck of idolatry, for the amusement and instruction of
succeeding ages; and either the zeal or the avarice of the
archbishop, might have been satiated with the rich spoils, which
were the reward of his victory. While the images and vases of
gold and silver were carefully melted, and those of a less
valuable metal were contemptuously broken, and cast into the
streets, Theophilus labored to expose the frauds and vices of the
ministers of the idols; their dexterity in the management of the
loadstone; their secret methods of introducing a human actor into
a hollow statue; * and their scandalous abuse of the confidence
of devout husbands and unsuspecting females. Charges like these
may seem to deserve some degree of credit, as they are not
repugnant to the crafty and interested spirit of superstition.
But the same spirit is equally prone to the base practice of
insulting and calumniating a fallen enemy; and our belief is
naturally checked by the reflection, that it is much less
difficult to invent a fictitious story, than to support a
practical fraud. The colossal statue of Serapis was involved in
the ruin of his temple and religion. A great number of plates of
different metals, artificially joined together, composed the
majestic figure of the deity, who touched on either side the
walls of the sanctuary. The aspect of Serapis, his sitting
posture, and the sceptre, which he bore in his left hand, were
extremely similar to the ordinary representations of Jupiter. He
was distinguished from Jupiter by the basket, or bushel, which
was placed on his head; and by the emblematic monster which he
held in his right hand; the head and body of a serpent branching
into three tails, which were again terminated by the triple heads
of a dog, a lion, and a wolf. It was confidently affirmed, that
if any impious hand should dare to violate the majesty of the
god, the heavens and the earth would instantly return to their
original chaos. An intrepid soldier, animated by zeal, and armed
with a weighty battle-axe, ascended the ladder; and even the
Christian multitude expected, with some anxiety, the event of the
combat. He aimed a vigorous stroke against the cheek of Serapis;
the cheek fell to the ground; the thunder was still silent, and
both the heavens and the earth continued to preserve their
accustomed order and tranquillity. The victorious soldier
repeated his blows: the huge idol was overthrown, and broken in
pieces; and the limbs of Serapis were ignominiously dragged
through the streets of Alexandria. His mangled carcass was burnt
in the Amphitheatre, amidst the shouts of the populace; and many
persons attributed their conversion to this discovery of the
impotence of their tutelar deity. The popular modes of religion,
that propose any visible and material objects of worship, have
the advantage of adapting and familiarizing themselves to the
senses of mankind: but this advantage is counterbalanced by the
various and inevitable accidents to which the faith of the
idolater is exposed. It is scarcely possible, that, in every
disposition of mind, he should preserve his implicit reverence
for the idols, or the relics, which the naked eye, and the
profane hand, are unable to distinguish from the most common
productions of art or nature; and if, in the hour of danger,
their secret and miraculous virtue does not operate for their own
preservation, he scorns the vain apologies of his priests, and
justly derides the object, and the folly, of his superstitious
attachment. After the fall of Serapis, some hopes were still
entertained by the Pagans, that the Nile would refuse his annual
supply to the impious masters of Egypt; and the extraordinary
delay of the inundation seemed to announce the displeasure of the
river-god. But this delay was soon compensated by the rapid swell
of the waters. They suddenly rose to such an unusual height, as
to comfort the discontented party with the pleasing expectation
of a deluge; till the peaceful river again subsided to the
well-known and fertilizing level of sixteen cubits, or about
thirty English feet.
The temples of the Roman empire were deserted, or destroyed;
but the ingenious superstition of the Pagans still attempted to
elude the laws of Theodosius, by which all sacrifices had been
severely prohibited. The inhabitants of the country, whose
conduct was less opposed to the eye of malicious curiosity,
disguised their religious, under the
appearance of convivial, meetings. On
the days of solemn festivals, they assembled in great numbers
under the spreading shade of some consecrated trees; sheep and
oxen were slaughtered and roasted; and this rural entertainment
was sanctified by the use of incense, and by the hymns which were
sung in honor of the gods. But it was alleged, that, as no part
of the animal was made a burnt-offering, as no altar was provided
to receive the blood, and as the previous oblation of salt cakes,
and the concluding ceremony of libations, were carefully omitted,
these festal meetings did not involve the guests in the guilt, or
penalty, of an illegal sacrifice. Whatever might be the truth of
the facts, or the merit of the distinction, these vain pretences
were swept away by the last edict of Theodosius, which inflicted
a deadly wound on the superstition of the Pagans. * This
prohibitory law is expressed in the most absolute and
comprehensive terms. "It is our will and pleasure," says the
emperor, "that none of our subjects, whether magistrates or
private citizens, however exalted or however humble may be their
rank and condition, shall presume, in any city or in any place,
to worship an inanimate idol, by the sacrifice of a guiltless
victim." The act of sacrificing, and the practice of divination
by the entrails of the victim, are declared (without any regard
to the object of the inquiry) a crime of high treason against the
state, which can be expiated only by the death of the guilty. The
rites of Pagan superstition, which might seem less bloody and
atrocious, are abolished, as highly injurious to the truth and
honor of religion; luminaries, garlands, frankincense, and
libations of wine, are specially enumerated and condemned; and
the harmless claims of the domestic genius, of the household
gods, are included in this rigorous proscription. The use of any
of these profane and illegal ceremonies, subjects the offender to
the forfeiture of the house or estate, where they have been
performed; and if he has artfully chosen the property of another
for the scene of his impiety, he is compelled to discharge,
without delay, a heavy fine of twenty-five pounds of gold, or
more than one thousand pounds sterling. A fine, not less
considerable, is imposed on the connivance of the secret enemies
of religion, who shall neglect the duty of their respective
stations, either to reveal, or to punish, the guilt of idolatry.
Such was the persecuting spirit of the laws of Theodosius, which
were repeatedly enforced by his sons and grandsons, with the loud
and unanimous applause of the Christian world.
Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism. -- Part
III.
In the cruel reigns of Decius and Dioclesian, Christianity had
been proscribed, as a revolt from the ancient and hereditary
religion of the empire; and the unjust suspicions which were
entertained of a dark and dangerous faction, were, in some
measure, countenanced by the inseparable union and rapid
conquests of the Catholic church. But the same excuses of fear
and ignorance cannot be applied to the Christian emperors who
violated the precepts of humanity and of the Gospel. The
experience of ages had betrayed the weakness, as well as folly,
of Paganism; the light of reason and of faith had already
exposed, to the greatest part of mankind, the vanity of idols;
and the declining sect, which still adhered to their worship,
might have been permitted to enjoy, in peace and obscurity, the
religious costumes of their ancestors. Had the Pagans been
animated by the undaunted zeal which possessed the minds of the
primitive believers, the triumph of the Church must have been
stained with blood; and the martyrs of Jupiter and Apollo might
have embraced the glorious opportunity of devoting their lives
and fortunes at the foot of their altars. But such obstinate zeal
was not congenial to the loose and careless temper of Polytheism.
The violent and repeated strokes of the orthodox princes were
broken by the soft and yielding substance against which they were
directed; and the ready obedience of the Pagans protected them
from the pains and penalties of the Theodosian Code. Instead of
asserting, that the authority of the gods was superior to that of
the emperor, they desisted, with a plaintive murmur, from the use
of those sacred rites which their sovereign had condemned. If
they were sometimes tempted by a sally of passion, or by the
hopes of concealment, to indulge their favorite superstition,
their humble repentance disarmed the severity of the Christian
magistrate, and they seldom refused to atone for their rashness,
by submitting, with some secret reluctance, to the yoke of the
Gospel. The churches were filled with the increasing multitude of
these unworthy proselytes, who had conformed, from temporal
motives, to the reigning religion; and whilst they devoutly
imitated the postures, and recited the prayers, of the faithful,
they satisfied their conscience by the silent and sincere
invocation of the gods of antiquity. If the Pagans wanted
patience to suffer they wanted spirit to resist; and the
scattered myriads, who deplored the ruin of the temples, yielded,
without a contest, to the fortune of their adversaries. The
disorderly opposition of the peasants of Syria, and the populace
of Alexandria, to the rage of private fanaticism, was silenced by
the name and authority of the emperor. The Pagans of the West,
without contributing to the elevation of Eugenius, disgraced, by
their partial attachment, the cause and character of the usurper.
The clergy vehemently exclaimed, that he aggravated the crime of
rebellion by the guilt of apostasy; that, by his permission, the
altar of victory was again restored; and that the idolatrous
symbols of Jupiter and Hercules were displayed in the field,
against the invincible standard of the cross. But the vain hopes
of the Pagans were soon annihilated by the defeat of Eugenius;
and they were left exposed to the resentment of the conqueror,
who labored to deserve the favor of Heaven by the extirpation of
idolatry.
A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency
of their master, who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not
proceed to the last extremes of injustice and oppression.
Theodosius might undoubtedly have proposed to his Pagan subjects
the alternative of baptism or of death; and the eloquent Libanius
has praised the moderation of a prince, who never enacted, by any
positive law, that all his subjects should immediately embrace
and practise the religion of their sovereign. The profession of
Christianity was not made an essential qualification for the
enjoyment of the civil rights of society, nor were any peculiar
hardships imposed on the sectaries, who credulously received the
fables of Ovid, and obstinately rejected the miracles of the
Gospel. The palace, the schools, the army, and the senate, were
filled with declared and devout Pagans; they obtained, without
distinction, the civil and military honors of the empire. *
Theodosius distinguished his liberal regard for virtue and genius
by the consular dignity, which he bestowed on Symmachus; and by
the personal friendship which he expressed to Libanius; and the
two eloquent apologists of Paganism were never required either to
change or to dissemble their religious opinions. The Pagans were
indulged in the most licentious freedom of speech and writing;
the historical and philosophic remains of Eunapius, Zosimus, and
the fanatic teachers of the school of Plato, betray the most
furious animosity, and contain the sharpest invectives, against
the sentiments and conduct of their victorious adversaries. If
these audacious libels were publicly known, we must applaud the
good sense of the Christian princes, who viewed, with a smile of
contempt, the last struggles of superstition and despair. But the
Imperial laws, which prohibited the sacrifices and ceremonies of
Paganism, were rigidly executed; and every hour contributed to
destroy the influence of a religion, which was supported by
custom, rather than by argument. The devotion or the poet, or the
philosopher, may be secretly nourished by prayer, meditation, and
study; but the exercise of public worship appears to be the only
solid foundation of the religious sentiments of the people, which
derive their force from imitation and habit. The interruption of
that public exercise may consummate, in the period of a few
years, the important work of a national revolution. The memory of
theological opinions cannot long be preserved, without the
artificial helps of priests, of temples, and of books. The
ignorant vulgar, whose minds are still agitated by the blind
hopes and terrors of superstition, will be soon persuaded by
their superiors to direct their vows to the reigning deities of
the age; and will insensibly imbibe an ardent zeal for the
support and propagation of the new doctrine, which spiritual
hunger at first compelled them to accept. The generation that
arose in the world after the promulgation of the Imperial laws,
was attracted within the pale of the Catholic church: and so
rapid, yet so gentle, was the fall of Paganism, that only
twenty-eight years after the death of Theodosius, the faint and
minute vestiges were no longer visible to the eye of the
legislator.
The ruin of the Pagan religion is described by the sophists as
a dreadful and amazing prodigy, which covered the earth with
darkness, and restored the ancient dominion of chaos and of
night. They relate, in solemn and pathetic strains, that the
temples were converted into sepulchres, and that the holy places,
which had been adorned by the statues of the gods, were basely
polluted by the relics of Christian martyrs. "The monks" (a race
of filthy animals, to whom Eunapius is tempted to refuse the name
of men) "are the authors of the new worship, which, in the place
of those deities who are conceived by the understanding, has
substituted the meanest and most contemptible slaves. The heads,
salted and pickled, of those infamous malefactors, who for the
multitude of their crimes have suffered a just and ignominious
death; their bodies still marked by the impression of the lash,
and the scars of those tortures which were inflicted by the
sentence of the magistrate; such" (continues Eunapius) 'are the
gods which the earth produces in our days; such are the martyrs,
the supreme arbitrators of our prayers and petitions to the
Deity, whose tombs are now consecrated as the objects of the
veneration of the people." Without approving the malice, it is
natural enough to share the surprise of the sophist, the
spectator of a revolution, which raised those obscure victims of
the laws of Rome to the rank of celestial and invisible
protectors of the Roman empire. The grateful respect of the
Christians for the martyrs of the faith, was exalted, by time and
victory, into religious adoration; and the most illustrious of
the saints and prophets were deservedly associated to the honors
of the martyrs. One hundred and fifty years after the glorious
deaths of St. Peter and St. Paul, the Vatican and the Ostian road
were distinguished by the tombs, or rather by the trophies, of
those spiritual heroes. In the age which followed the conversion
of Constantine, the emperors, the consuls, and the generals of
armies, devoutly visited the sepulchres of a tentmaker and a
fisherman; and their venerable bones were deposited under the
altars of Christ, on which the bishops of the royal city
continually offered the unbloody sacrifice. The new capital of
the Eastern world, unable to produce any ancient and domestic
trophies, was enriched by the spoils of dependent provinces. The
bodies of St. Andrew, St. Luke, and St. Timothy, had reposed near
three hundred years in the obscure graves, from whence they were
transported, in solemn pomp, to the church of the apostles, which
the magnificence of Constantine had founded on the banks of the
Thracian Bosphorus. About fifty years afterwards, the same banks
were honored by the presence of Samuel, the judge and prophet of
the people of Israel. His ashes, deposited in a golden vase, and
covered with a silken veil, were delivered by the bishops into
each other's hands. The relics of Samuel were received by the
people with the same joy and reverence which they would have
shown to the living prophet; the highways, from Palestine to the
gates of Constantinople, were filled with an uninterrupted
procession; and the emperor Arcadius himself, at the head of the
most illustrious members of the clergy and senate, advanced to
meet his extraordinary guest, who had always deserved and claimed
the homage of kings. The example of Rome and Constantinople
confirmed the faith and discipline of the Catholic world. The
honors of the saints and martyrs, after a feeble and ineffectual
murmur of profane reason, were universally established; and in
the age of Ambrose and Jerom, something was still deemed wanting
to the sanctity of a Christian church, till it had been
consecrated by some portion of holy relics, which fixed and
inflamed the devotion of the faithful.
In the long period of twelve hundred years, which elapsed
between the reign of Constantine and the reformation of Luther,
the worship of saints and relics corrupted the pure and perfect
simplicity of the Christian model: and some symptoms of
degeneracy may be observed even in the first generations which
adopted and cherished this pernicious innovation.
I. The satisfactory experience, that the relics of saints were
more valuable than gold or precious stones, stimulated the clergy
to multiply the treasures of the church. Without much regard for
truth or probability, they invented names for skeletons, and
actions for names. The fame of the apostles, and of the holy men
who had imitated their virtues, was darkened by religious
fiction. To the invincible band of genuine and primitive martyrs,
they added myriads of imaginary heroes, who had never existed,
except in the fancy of crafty or credulous legendaries; and there
is reason to suspect, that Tours might not be the only diocese in
which the bones of a malefactor were adored, instead of those of
a saint. A superstitious practice, which tended to increase the
temptations of fraud, and credulity, insensibly extinguished the
light of history, and of reason, in the Christian world.
II. But the progress of superstition would have been much less
rapid and victorious, if the faith of the people had not been
assisted by the seasonable aid of visions and miracles, to
ascertain the authenticity and virtue of the most suspicious
relics. In the reign of the younger Theodosius, Lucian, a
presbyter of Jerusalem, and the ecclesiastical minister of the
village of Caphargamala, about twenty miles from the city,
related a very singular dream, which, to remove his doubts, had
been repeated on three successive Saturdays. A venerable figure
stood before him, in the silence of the night, with a long beard,
a white robe, and a gold rod; announced himself by the name of
Gamaliel, and revealed to the astonished presbyter, that his own
corpse, with the bodies of his son Abibas, his friend Nicodemus,
and the illustrious Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian
faith, were secretly buried in the adjacent field. He added, with
some impatience, that it was time to release himself and his
companions from their obscure prison; that their appearance would
be salutary to a distressed world; and that they had made choice
of Lucian to inform the bishop of Jerusalem of their situation
and their wishes. The doubts and difficulties which still
retarded this important discovery were successively removed by
new visions; and the ground was opened by the bishop, in the
presence of an innumerable multitude. The coffins of Gamaliel, of
his son, and of his friend, were found in regular order; but when
the fourth coffin, which contained the remains of Stephen, was
shown to the light, the earth trembled, and an odor, such as that
of paradise, was smelt, which instantly cured the various
diseases of seventy-three of the assistants. The companions of
Stephen were left in their peaceful residence of Caphargamala:
but the relics of the first martyr were transported, in solemn
procession, to a church constructed in their honor on Mount Sion;
and the minute particles of those relics, a drop of blood, or the
scrapings of a bone, were acknowledged, in almost every province
of the Roman world, to possess a divine and miraculous virtue.
The grave and learned Augustin, whose understanding scarcely
admits the excuse of credulity, has attested the innumerable
prodigies which were performed in Africa by the relics of St.
Stephen; and this marvellous narrative is inserted in the
elaborate work of the City of God, which the bishop of Hippo
designed as a solid and immortal proof of the truth of
Christianity. Augustin solemnly declares, that he has selected
those miracles only which were publicly certified by the persons
who were either the objects, or the spectators, of the power of
the martyr. Many prodigies were omitted, or forgotten; and Hippo
had been less favorably treated than the other cities of the
province. And yet the bishop enumerates above seventy miracles,
of which three were resurrections from the dead, in the space of
two years, and within the limits of his own diocese. If we
enlarge our view to all the dioceses, and all the saints, of the
Christian world, it will not be easy to calculate the fables, and
the errors, which issued from this inexhaustible source. But we
may surely be allowed to observe, that a miracle, in that age of
superstition and credulity, lost its name and its merit, since it
could scarcely be considered as a deviation from the ordinary and
established laws of nature.
III. The innumerable miracles, of which the tombs of the
martyrs were the perpetual theatre, revealed to the pious
believer the actual state and constitution of the invisible
world; and his religious speculations appeared to be founded on
the firm basis of fact and experience. Whatever might be the
condition of vulgar souls, in the long interval between the
dissolution and the resurrection of their bodies, it was evident
that the superior spirits of the saints and martyrs did not
consume that portion of their existence in silent and inglorious
sleep. It was evident (without presuming to determine the place
of their habitation, or the nature of their felicity) that they
enjoyed the lively and active consciousness of their happiness,
their virtue, and their powers; and that they had already secured
the possession of their eternal reward. The enlargement of their
intellectual faculties surpassed the measure of the human
imagination; since it was proved by experience, that they were
capable of hearing and understanding the various petitions of
their numerous votaries; who, in the same moment of time, but in
the most distant parts of the world, invoked the name and
assistance of Stephen or of Martin. The confidence of their
petitioners was founded on the persuasion, that the saints, who
reigned with Christ, cast an eye of pity upon earth; that they
were warmly interested in the prosperity of the Catholic Church;
and that the individuals, who imitated the example of their faith
and piety, were the peculiar and favorite objects of their most
tender regard. Sometimes, indeed, their friendship might be
influenced by considerations of a less exalted kind: they viewed
with partial affection the places which had been consecrated by
their birth, their residence, their death, their burial, or the
possession of their relics. The meaner passions of pride,
avarice, and revenge, may be deemed unworthy of a celestial
breast; yet the saints themselves condescended to testify their
grateful approbation of the liberality of their votaries; and the
sharpest bolts of punishment were hurled against those impious
wretches, who violated their magnificent shrines, or disbelieved
their supernatural power. Atrocious, indeed, must have been the
guilt, and strange would have been the scepticism, of those men,
if they had obstinately resisted the proofs of a divine agency,
which the elements, the whole range of the animal creation, and
even the subtle and invisible operations of the human mind, were
compelled to obey. The immediate, and almost instantaneous,
effects that were supposed to follow the prayer, or the offence,
satisfied the Christians of the ample measure of favor and
authority which the saints enjoyed in the presence of the Supreme
God; and it seemed almost superfluous to inquire whether they
were continually obliged to intercede before the throne of grace;
or whether they might not be permitted to exercise, according to
the dictates of their benevolence and justice, the delegated
powers of their subordinate ministry. The imagination, which had
been raised by a painful effort to the contemplation and worship
of the Universal Cause, eagerly embraced such inferior objects of
adoration as were more proportioned to its gross conceptions and
imperfect faculties. The sublime and simple theology of the
primitive Christians was gradually corrupted; and the Monarchy of
heaven, already clouded by metaphysical subtleties, was degraded
by the introduction of a popular mythology, which tended to
restore the reign of polytheism.
IV. As the objects of religion were gradually reduced to the
standard of the imagination, the rites and ceremonies were
introduced that seemed most powerfully to affect the senses of
the vulgar. If, in the beginning of the fifth century,
Tertullian, or Lactantius, had been suddenly raised from the
dead, to assist at the festival of some popular saint, or martyr,
they would have gazed with astonishment, and indignation, on the
profane spectacle, which had succeeded to the pure and spiritual
worship of a Christian congregation. As soon as the doors of the
church were thrown open, they must have been offended by the
smoke of incense, the perfume of flowers, and the glare of lamps
and tapers, which diffused, at noonday, a gaudy, superfluous,
and, in their opinion, a sacrilegious light. If they approached
the balustrade of the altar, they made their way through the
prostrate crowd, consisting, for the most part, of strangers and
pilgrims, who resorted to the city on the vigil of the feast; and
who already felt the strong intoxication of fanaticism, and,
perhaps, of wine. Their devout kisses were imprinted on the walls
and pavement of the sacred edifice; and their fervent prayers
were directed, whatever might be the language of their church, to
the bones, the blood, or the ashes of the saint, which were
usually concealed, by a linen or silken veil, from the eyes of
the vulgar. The Christians frequented the tombs of the martyrs,
in the hope of obtaining, from their powerful intercession, every
sort of spiritual, but more especially of temporal, blessings.
They implored the preservation of their health, or the cure of
their infirmities; the fruitfulness of their barren wives, or the
safety and happiness of their children. Whenever they undertook
any distant or dangerous journey, they requested, that the holy
martyrs would be their guides and protectors on the road; and if
they returned without having experienced any misfortune, they
again hastened to the tombs of the martyrs, to celebrate, with
grateful thanksgivings, their obligations to the memory and
relics of those heavenly patrons. The walls were hung round with
symbols of the favors which they had received; eyes, and hands,
and feet, of gold and silver: and edifying pictures, which could
not long escape the abuse of indiscreet or idolatrous devotion,
represented the image, the attributes, and the miracles of the
tutelar saint. The same uniform original spirit of superstition
might suggest, in the most distant ages and countries, the same
methods of deceiving the credulity, and of affecting the senses
of mankind: but it must ingenuously be confessed, that the
ministers of the Catholic church imitated the profane model,
which they were impatient to destroy. The most respectable
bishops had persuaded themselves that the ignorant rustics would
more cheerfully renounce the superstitions of Paganism, if they
found some resemblance, some compensation, in the bosom of
Christianity. The religion of Constantine achieved, in less than
a century, the final conquest of the Roman empire: but the
victors themselves were insensibly subdued by the arts of their
vanquished rivals. *
Chapter XXIX: Division Of Roman Empire Between Sons Of
Theodosius.
Part I.
Final Division Of The Roman Empire Between The Sons Of
Theodosius. -- Reign Of Arcadius And Honorius -- Administration
Of Rufinus And Stilicho. -- Revolt And Defeat Of Gildo In
Africa.
The genius of Rome expired with Theodosius; the last of the
successors of Augustus and Constantine, who appeared in the field
at the head of their armies, and whose authority was universally
acknowledged throughout the whole extent of the empire. The
memory of his virtues still continued, however, to protect the
feeble and inexperienced youth of his two sons. After the death
of their father, Arcadius and Honorius were saluted, by the
unanimous consent of mankind, as the lawful emperors of the East,
and of the West; and the oath of fidelity was eagerly taken by
every order of the state; the senates of old and new Rome, the
clergy, the magistrates, the soldiers, and the people. Arcadius,
who was then about eighteen years of age, was born in Spain, in
the humble habitation of a private family. But he received a
princely education in the palace of Constantinople; and his
inglorious life was spent in that peaceful and splendid seat of
royalty, from whence he appeared to reign over the provinces of
Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, from the Lower Danube to
the confines of Persia and Æthiopia. His younger brother
Honorius, assumed, in the eleventh year of his age, the nominal
government of Italy, Africa, Gaul, Spain, and Britain; and the
troops, which guarded the frontiers of his kingdom, were opposed,
on one side, to the Caledonians, and on the other, to the Moors.
The great and martial præfecture of Illyricum was divided
between the two princes: the defence and possession of the
provinces of Noricum, Pannonia, and Dalmatia still belonged to
the Western empire; but the two large dioceses of Dacia and
Macedonia, which Gratian had intrusted to the valor of
Theodosius, were forever united to the empire of the East. The
boundary in Europe was not very different from the line which now
separates the Germans and the Turks; and the respective
advantages of territory, riches, populousness, and military
strength, were fairly balanced and compensated, in this final and
permanent division of the Roman empire. The hereditary sceptre of
the sons of Theodosius appeared to be the gift of nature, and of
their father; the generals and ministers had been accustomed to
adore the majesty of the royal infants; and the army and people
were not admonished of their rights, and of their power, by the
dangerous example of a recent election. The gradual discovery of
the weakness of Arcadius and Honorius, and the repeated
calamities of their reign, were not sufficient to obliterate the
deep and early impressions of loyalty. The subjects of Rome, who
still reverenced the persons, or rather the names, of their
sovereigns, beheld, with equal abhorrence, the rebels who
opposed, and the ministers who abused, the authority of the
throne.
Theodosius had tarnished the glory of his reign by the
elevation of Rufinus; an odious favorite, who, in an age of civil
and religious faction, has deserved, from every party, the
imputation of every crime. The strong impulse of ambition and
avarice had urged Rufinus to abandon his native country, an
obscure corner of Gaul, to advance his fortune in the capital of
the East: the talent of bold and ready elocution, qualified him
to succeed in the lucrative profession of the law; and his
success in that profession was a regular step to the most
honorable and important employments of the state. He was raised,
by just degrees, to the station of master of the offices. In the
exercise of his various functions, so essentially connected with
the whole system of civil government, he acquired the confidence
of a monarch, who soon discovered his diligence and capacity in
business, and who long remained ignorant of the pride, the
malice, and the covetousness of his disposition. These vices were
concealed beneath the mask of profound dissimulation; his
passions were subservient only to the passions of his master; yet
in the horrid massacre of Thessalonica, the cruel Rufinus
inflamed the fury, without imitating the repentance, of
Theodosius. The minister, who viewed with proud indifference the
rest of mankind, never forgave the appearance of an injury; and
his personal enemies had forfeited, in his opinion, the merit of
all public services. Promotus, the master-general of the
infantry, had saved the empire from the invasion of the
Ostrogoths; but he indignantly supported the preeminence of a
rival, whose character and profession he despised; and in the
midst of a public council, the impatient soldier was provoked to
chastise with a blow the indecent pride of the favorite. This act
of violence was represented to the emperor as an insult, which it
was incumbent on his dignity to resent. The disgrace and exile of
Promotus were signified by a peremptory order, to repair, without
delay, to a military station on the banks of the Danube; and the
death of that general (though he was slain in a skirmish with the
Barbarians) was imputed to the perfidious arts of Rufinus. The
sacrifice of a hero gratified his revenge; the honors of the
consulship elated his vanity; but his power was still imperfect
and precarious, as long as the important posts of præfect
of the East, and of præfect of Constantinople, were filled
by Tatian, and his son Proculus; whose united authority balanced,
for some time, the ambition and favor of the master of the
offices. The two præfects were accused of rapine and
corruption in the administration of the laws and finances. For
the trial of these illustrious offenders, the emperor constituted
a special commission: several judges were named to share the
guilt and reproach of injustice; but the right of pronouncing
sentence was reserved to the president alone, and that president
was Rufinus himself. The father, stripped of the præfecture
of the East, was thrown into a dungeon; but the son, conscious
that few ministers can be found innocent, where an enemy is their
judge, had secretly escaped; and Rufinus must have been satisfied
with the least obnoxious victim, if despotism had not
condescended to employ the basest and most ungenerous artifice.
The prosecution was conducted with an appearance of equity and
moderation, which flattered Tatian with the hope of a favorable
event: his confidence was fortified by the solemn assurances, and
perfidious oaths, of the president, who presumed to interpose the
sacred name of Theodosius himself; and the unhappy father was at
last persuaded to recall, by a private letter, the fugitive
Proculus. He was instantly seized, examined, condemned, and
beheaded, in one of the suburbs of Constantinople, with a
precipitation which disappointed the clemency of the emperor.
Without respecting the misfortunes of a consular senator, the
cruel judges of Tatian compelled him to behold the execution of
his son: the fatal cord was fastened round his own neck; but in
the moment when he expected. and perhaps desired, the relief of a
speedy death, he was permitted to consume the miserable remnant
of his old age in poverty and exile. The punishment of the two
præfects might, perhaps, be excused by the exceptionable
parts of their own conduct; the enmity of Rufinus might be
palliated by the jealous and unsociable nature of ambition. But
he indulged a spirit of revenge equally repugnant to prudence and
to justice, when he degraded their native country of Lycia from
the rank of Roman provinces; stigmatized a guiltless people with
a mark of ignominy; and declared, that the countrymen of Tatian
and Proculus should forever remain incapable of holding any
employment of honor or advantage under the Imperial government.
The new præfect of the East (for Rufinus instantly
succeeded to the vacant honors of his adversary) was not
diverted, however, by the most criminal pursuits, from the
performance of the religious duties, which in that age were
considered as the most essential to salvation. In the suburb of
Chalcedon, surnamed the Oak, he had built a magnificent villa; to
which he devoutly added a stately church, consecrated to the
apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and continually sanctified by
the prayers and penance of a regular society of monks. A
numerous, and almost general, synod of the bishops of the Eastern
empire, was summoned to celebrate, at the same time, the
dedication of the church, and the baptism of the founder. This
double ceremony was performed with extraordinary pomp; and when
Rufinus was purified, in the holy font, from all the sins that he
had hitherto committed, a venerable hermit of Egypt rashly
proposed himself as the sponsor of a proud and ambitious
statesman.
The character of Theodosius imposed on his minister the task
of hypocrisy, which disguised, and sometimes restrained, the
abuse of power; and Rufinus was apprehensive of disturbing the
indolent slumber of a prince still capable of exerting the
abilities and the virtue, which had raised him to the throne. But
the absence, and, soon afterwards, the death, of the emperor,
confirmed the absolute authority of Rufinus over the person and
dominions of Arcadius; a feeble youth, whom the imperious
præfect considered as his pupil, rather than his sovereign.
Regardless of the public opinion, he indulged his passions
without remorse, and without resistance; and his malignant and
rapacious spirit rejected every passion that might have
contributed to his own glory, or the happiness of the people. His
avarice, which seems to have prevailed, in his corrupt mind, over
every other sentiment, attracted the wealth of the East, by the
various arts of partial and general extortion; oppressive taxes,
scandalous bribery, immoderate fines, unjust confiscations,
forced or fictitious testaments, by which the tyrant despoiled of
their lawful inheritance the children of strangers, or enemies;
and the public sale of justice, as well as of favor, which he
instituted in the palace of Constantinople. The ambitious
candidate eagerly solicited, at the expense of the fairest part
of his patrimony, the honors and emoluments of some provincial
government; the lives and fortunes of the unhappy people were
abandoned to the most liberal purchaser; and the public
discontent was sometimes appeased by the sacrifice of an
unpopular criminal, whose punishment was profitable only to the
præfect of the East, his accomplice and his judge. If
avarice were not the blindest of the human passions, the motives
of Rufinus might excite our curiosity; and we might be tempted to
inquire with what view he violated every principle of humanity
and justice, to accumulate those immense treasures, which he
could not spend without folly, nor possess without danger.
Perhaps he vainly imagined, that he labored for the interest of
an only daughter, on whom he intended to bestow his royal pupil,
and the august rank of Empress of the East. Perhaps he deceived
himself by the opinion, that his avarice was the instrument of
his ambition. He aspired to place his fortune on a secure and
independent basis, which should no longer depend on the caprice
of the young emperor; yet he neglected to conciliate the hearts
of the soldiers and people, by the liberal distribution of those
riches, which he had acquired with so much toil, and with so much
guilt. The extreme parsimony of Rufinus left him only the
reproach and envy of ill-gotten wealth; his dependants served him
without attachment; the universal hatred of mankind was repressed
only by the influence of servile fear. The fate of Lucian
proclaimed to the East, that the præfect, whose industry
was much abated in the despatch of ordinary business, was active
and indefatigable in the pursuit of revenge. Lucian, the son of
the præfect Florentius, the oppressor of Gaul, and the
enemy of Julian, had employed a considerable part of his
inheritance, the fruit of rapine and corruption, to purchase the
friendship of Rufinus, and the high office of Count of the East.
But the new magistrate imprudently departed from the maxims of
the court, and of the times; disgraced his benefactor by the
contrast of a virtuous and temperate administration; and presumed
to refuse an act of injustice, which might have tended to the
profit of the emperor's uncle. Arcadius was easily persuaded to
resent the supposed insult; and the præfect of the East
resolved to execute in person the cruel vengeance, which he
meditated against this ungrateful delegate of his power. He
performed with incessant speed the journey of seven or eight
hundred miles, from Constantinople to Antioch, entered the
capital of Syria at the dead of night, and spread universal
consternation among a people ignorant of his design, but not
ignorant of his character. The Count of the fifteen provinces of
the East was dragged, like the vilest malefactor, before the
arbitrary tribunal of Rufinus. Notwithstanding the clearest
evidence of his integrity, which was not impeached even by the
voice of an accuser, Lucian was condemned, almost with out a
trial, to suffer a cruel and ignominious punishment. The
ministers of the tyrant, by the orders, and in the presence, of
their master, beat him on the neck with leather thongs armed at
the extremities with lead; and when he fainted under the violence
of the pain, he was removed in a close litter, to conceal his
dying agonies from the eyes of the indignant city. No sooner had
Rufinus perpetrated this inhuman act, the sole object of his
expedition, than he returned, amidst the deep and silent curses
of a trembling people, from Antioch to Constantinople; and his
diligence was accelerated by the hope of accomplishing, without
delay, the nuptials of his daughter with the emperor of the
East.
But Rufinus soon experienced, that a prudent minister should
constantly secure his royal captive by the strong, though
invisible chain of habit; and that the merit, and much more
easily the favor, of the absent, are obliterated in a short time
from the mind of a weak and capricious sovereign. While the
præfect satiated his revenge at Antioch, a secret
conspiracy of the favorite eunuchs, directed by the great
chamberlain Eutropius, undermined his power in the palace of
Constantinople. They discovered that Arcadius was not inclined to
love the daughter of Rufinus, who had been chosen, without his
consent, for his bride; and they contrived to substitute in her
place the fair Eudoxia, the daughter of Bauto, a general of the
Franks in the service of Rome; and who was educated, since the
death of her father, in the family of the sons of Promotus. The
young emperor, whose chastity had been strictly guarded by the
pious care of his tutor Arsenius, eagerly listened to the artful
and flattering descriptions of the charms of Eudoxia: he gazed
with impatient ardor on her picture, and he understood the
necessity of concealing his amorous designs from the knowledge of
a minister who was so deeply interested to oppose the
consummation of his happiness. Soon after the return of Rufinus,
the approaching ceremony of the royal nuptials was announced to
the people of Constantinople, who prepared to celebrate, with
false and hollow acclamations, the fortune of his daughter. A
splendid train of eunuchs and officers issued, in hymeneal pomp,
from the gates of the palace; bearing aloft the diadem, the
robes, and the inestimable ornaments, of the future empress. The
solemn procession passed through the streets of the city, which
were adorned with garlands, and filled with spectators; but when
it reached the house of the sons of Promotus, the principal
eunuch respectfully entered the mansion, invested the fair
Eudoxia with the Imperial robes, and conducted her in triumph to
the palace and bed of Arcadius. The secrecy and success with
which this conspiracy against Rufinus had been conducted,
imprinted a mark of indelible ridicule on the character of a
minister, who had suffered himself to be deceived, in a post
where the arts of deceit and dissimulation constitute the most
distinguished merit. He considered, with a mixture of indignation
and fear, the victory of an aspiring eunuch, who had secretly
captivated the favor of his sovereign; and the disgrace of his
daughter, whose interest was inseparably connected with his own,
wounded the tenderness, or, at least, the pride of Rufinus. At
the moment when he flattered himself that he should become the
father of a line of kings, a foreign maid, who had been educated
in the house of his implacable enemies, was introduced into the
Imperial bed; and Eudoxia soon displayed a superiority of sense
and spirit, to improve the ascendant which her beauty must
acquire over the mind of a fond and youthful husband. The emperor
would soon be instructed to hate, to fear, and to destroy the
powerful subject, whom he had injured; and the consciousness of
guilt deprived Rufinus of every hope, either of safety or
comfort, in the retirement of a private life. But he still
possessed the most effectual means of defending his dignity, and
perhaps of oppressing his enemies. The præfect still
exercised an uncontrolled authority over the civil and military
government of the East; and his treasures, if he could resolve to
use them, might be employed to procure proper instruments for the
execution of the blackest designs, that pride, ambition, and
revenge could suggest to a desperate statesman. The character of
Rufinus seemed to justify the accusations that he conspired
against the person of his sovereign, to seat himself on the
vacant throne; and that he had secretly invited the Huns and the
Goths to invade the provinces of the empire, and to increase the
public confusion. The subtle præfect, whose life had been
spent in the intrigues of the palace, opposed, with equal arms,
the artful measures of the eunuch Eutropius; but the timid soul
of Rufinus was astonished by the hostile approach of a more
formidable rival, of the great Stilicho, the general, or rather
the master, of the empire of the West.
The celestial gift, which Achilles obtained, and Alexander
envied, of a poet worthy to celebrate the actions of heroes has
been enjoyed by Stilicho, in a much higher degree than might have
been expected from the declining state of genius, and of art. The
muse of Claudian, devoted to his service, was always prepared to
stigmatize his adversaries, Rufinus, or Eutropius, with eternal
infamy; or to paint, in the most splendid colors, the victories
and virtues of a powerful benefactor. In the review of a period
indifferently supplied with authentic materials, we cannot refuse
to illustrate the annals of Honorius, from the invectives, or the
panegyrics, of a contemporary writer; but as Claudian appears to
have indulged the most ample privilege of a poet and a courtier,
some criticism will be requisite to translate the language of
fiction or exaggeration, into the truth and simplicity of
historic prose. His silence concerning the family of Stilicho may
be admitted as a proof, that his patron was neither able, nor
desirous, to boast of a long series of illustrious progenitors;
and the slight mention of his father, an officer of Barbarian
cavalry in the service of Valens, seems to countenance the
assertion, that the general, who so long commanded the armies of
Rome, was descended from the savage and perfidious race of the
Vandals. If Stilicho had not possessed the external advantages of
strength and stature, the most flattering bard, in the presence
of so many thousand spectators, would have hesitated to affirm,
that he surpassed the measure of the demi-gods of antiquity; and
that whenever he moved, with lofty steps, through the streets of
the capital, the astonished crowd made room for the stranger, who
displayed, in a private condition, the awful majesty of a hero.
From his earliest youth he embraced the profession of arms; his
prudence and valor were soon distinguished in the field; the
horsemen and archers of the East admired his superior dexterity;
and in each degree of his military promotions, the public
judgment always prevented and approved the choice of the
sovereign. He was named, by Theodosius, to ratify a solemn treaty
with the monarch of Persia; he supported, during that important
embassy, the dignity of the Roman name; and after he return to
Constantinople, his merit was rewarded by an intimate and
honorable alliance with the Imperial family. Theodosius had been
prompted, by a pious motive of fraternal affection, to adopt, for
his own, the daughter of his brother Honorius; the beauty and
accomplishments of Serena were universally admired by the
obsequious court; and Stilicho obtained the preference over a
crowd of rivals, who ambitiously disputed the hand of the
princess, and the favor of her adopted father. The assurance that
the husband of Serena would be faithful to the throne, which he
was permitted to approach, engaged the emperor to exalt the
fortunes, and to employ the abilities, of the sagacious and
intrepid Stilicho. He rose, through the successive steps of
master of the horse, and count of the domestics, to the supreme
rank of master-general of all the cavalry and infantry of the
Roman, or at least of the Western, empire; and his enemies
confessed, that he invariably disdained to barter for gold the
rewards of merit, or to defraud the soldiers of the pay and
gratifications which they deserved or claimed, from the
liberality of the state. The valor and conduct which he
afterwards displayed, in the defence of Italy, against the arms
of Alaric and Radagaisus, may justify the fame of his early
achievements and in an age less attentive to the laws of honor,
or of pride, the Roman generals might yield the preeminence of
rank, to the ascendant of superior genius. He lamented, and
revenged, the murder of Promotus, his rival and his friend; and
the massacre of many thousands of the flying Bastarnæ is
represented by the poet as a bloody sacrifice, which the Roman
Achilles offered to the manes of another Patroclus. The virtues
and victories of Stilicho deserved the hatred of Rufinus: and the
arts of calumny might have been successful if the tender and
vigilant Serena had not protected her husband against his
domestic foes, whilst he vanquished in the field the enemies of
the empire. Theodosius continued to support an unworthy minister,
to whose diligence he delegated the government of the palace, and
of the East; but when he marched against the tyrant Eugenius, he
associated his faithful general to the labors and glories of the
civil war; and in the last moments of his life, the dying monarch
recommended to Stilicho the care of his sons, and of the
republic. The ambition and the abilities of Stilicho were not
unequal to the important trust; and he claimed the guardianship
of the two empires, during the minority of Arcadius and Honorius.
The first measure of his administration, or rather of his reign,
displayed to the nations the vigor and activity of a spirit
worthy to command. He passed the Alps in the depth of winter;
descended the stream of the Rhine, from the fortress of Basil to
the marshes of Batavia; reviewed the state of the garrisons;
repressed the enterprises of the Germans; and, after establishing
along the banks a firm and honorable peace, returned, with
incredible speed, to the palace of Milan. The person and court of
Honorius were subject to the master-general of the West; and the
armies and provinces of Europe obeyed, without hesitation, a
regular authority, which was exercised in the name of their young
sovereign. Two rivals only remained to dispute the claims, and to
provoke the vengeance, of Stilicho. Within the limits of Africa,
Gildo, the Moor, maintained a proud and dangerous independence;
and the minister of Constantinople asserted his equal reign over
the emperor, and the empire, of the East.
Chapter XXIX: Division Of Roman Empire Between
Sons Of Theodosius. -- Part II.
The impartiality which Stilicho affected, as the common
guardian of the royal brothers, engaged him to regulate the equal
division of the arms, the jewels, and the magnificent wardrobe
and furniture of the deceased emperor. But the most important
object of the inheritance consisted of the numerous legions,
cohorts, and squadrons, of Romans, or Barbarians, whom the event
of the civil war had united under the standard of Theodosius. The
various multitudes of Europe and Asia, exasperated by recent
animosities, were overawed by the authority of a single man; and
the rigid discipline of Stilicho protected the lands of the
citizens from the rapine of the licentious soldier. Anxious,
however, and impatient, to relieve Italy from the presence of
this formidable host, which could be useful only on the frontiers
of the empire, he listened to the just requisition of the
minister of Arcadius, declared his intention of reconducting in
person the troops of the East, and dexterously employed the rumor
of a Gothic tumult to conceal his private designs of ambition and
revenge. The guilty soul of Rufinus was alarmed by the approach
of a warrior and a rival, whose enmity he deserved; he computed,
with increasing terror, the narrow space of his life and
greatness; and, as the last hope of safety, he interposed the
authority of the emperor Arcadius. Stilicho, who appears to have
directed his march along the sea-coast of the Adriatic, was not
far distant from the city of Thessalonica, when he received a
peremptory message, to recall the troops of the East, and to
declare, that his nearer approach would be considered, by the
Byzantine court, as an act of hostility. The prompt and
unexpected obedience of the general of the West, convinced the
vulgar of his loyalty and moderation; and, as he had already
engaged the affection of the Eastern troops, he recommended to
their zeal the execution of his bloody design, which might be
accomplished in his absence, with less danger, perhaps, and with
less reproach. Stilicho left the command of the troops of the
East to Gainas, the Goth, on whose fidelity he firmly relied,
with an assurance, at least, that the hardy Barbarians would
never be diverted from his purpose by any consideration of fear
or remorse. The soldiers were easily persuaded to punish the
enemy of Stilicho and of Rome; and such was the general hatred
which Rufinus had excited, that the fatal secret, communicated to
thousands, was faithfully preserved during the long march from
Thessalonica to the gates of Constantinople. As soon as they had
resolved his death, they condescended to flatter his pride; the
ambitious præfect was seduced to believe, that those
powerful auxiliaries might be tempted to place the diadem on his
head; and the treasures which he distributed, with a tardy and
reluctant hand, were accepted by the indignant multitude as an
insult, rather than as a gift. At the distance of a mile from the
capital, in the field of Mars, before the palace of Hebdomon, the
troops halted: and the emperor, as well as his minister,
advanced, according to ancient custom, respectfully to salute the
power which supported their throne. As Rufinus passed along the
ranks, and disguised, with studied courtesy, his innate
haughtiness, the wings insensibly wheeled from the right and
left, and enclosed the devoted victim within the circle of their
arms. Before he could reflect on the danger of his situation,
Gainas gave the signal of death; a daring and forward soldier
plunged his sword into the breast of the guilty præfect,
and Rufinus fell, groaned, and expired, at the feet of the
affrighted emperor. If the agonies of a moment could expiate the
crimes of a whole life, or if the outrages inflicted on a
breathless corpse could be the object of pity, our humanity might
perhaps be affected by the horrid circumstances which accompanied
the murder of Rufinus. His mangled body was abandoned to the
brutal fury of the populace of either sex, who hastened in
crowds, from every quarter of the city, to trample on the remains
of the haughty minister, at whose frown they had so lately
trembled. His right hand was cut off, and carried through the
streets of Constantinople, in cruel mockery, to extort
contributions for the avaricious tyrant, whose head was publicly
exposed, borne aloft on the point of a long lance. According to
the savage maxims of the Greek republics, his innocent family
would have shared the punishment of his crimes. The wife and
daughter of Rufinus were indebted for their safety to the
influence of religion. Hersanctuary
protected them from the raging madness of the people; and they
were permitted to spend the remainder of their lives in the
exercise of Christian devotions, in the peaceful retirement of
Jerusalem.
The servile poet of Stilicho applauds, with ferocious joy,
this horrid deed, which, in the execution, perhaps, of justice,
violated every law of nature and society, profaned the majesty of
the prince, and renewed the dangerous examples of military
license. The contemplation of the universal order and harmony had
satisfied Claudian of the existence of the Deity; but the
prosperous impunity of vice appeared to contradict his moral
attributes; and the fate of Rufinus was the only event which
could dispel the religious doubts of the poet. Such an act might
vindicate the honor of Providence, but it did not much contribute
to the happiness of the people. In less than three months they
were informed of the maxims of the new administration, by a
singular edict, which established the exclusive right of the
treasury over the spoils of Rufinus; and silenced, under heavy
penalties, the presumptuous claims of the subjects of the Eastern
empire, who had been injured by his rapacious tyranny. Even
Stilicho did not derive from the murder of his rival the fruit
which he had proposed; and though he gratified his revenge, his
ambition was disappointed. Under the name of a favorite, the
weakness of Arcadius required a master, but he naturally
preferred the obsequious arts of the eunuch Eutropius, who had
obtained his domestic confidence: and the emperor contemplated,
with terror and aversion, the stern genius of a foreign warrior.
Till they were divided by the jealousy of power, the sword of
Gainas, and the charms of Eudoxia, supported the favor of the
great chamberlain of the palace: the perfidious Goth, who was
appointed master-general of the East, betrayed, without scruple,
the interest of his benefactor; and the same troops, who had so
lately massacred the enemy of Stilicho, were engaged to support,
against him, the independence of the throne of Constantinople.
The favorites of Arcadius fomented a secret and irreconcilable
war against a formidable hero, who aspired to govern, and to
defend, the two empires of Rome, and the two sons of Theodosius.
They incessantly labored, by dark and treacherous machinations,
to deprive him of the esteem of the prince, the respect of the
people, and the friendship of the Barbarians. The life of
Stilicho was repeatedly attempted by the dagger of hired
assassins; and a decree was obtained from the senate of
Constantinople, to declare him an enemy of the republic, and to
confiscate his ample possessions in the provinces of the East. At
a time when the only hope of delaying the ruin of the Roman name
depended on the firm union, and reciprocal aid, of all the
nations to whom it had been gradually communicated, the subjects
of Arcadius and Honorius were instructed, by their respective
masters, to view each other in a foreign, and even hostile,
light; to rejoice in their mutual calamities, and to embrace, as
their faithful allies, the Barbarians, whom they excited to
invade the territories of their countrymen. The natives of Italy
affected to despise the servile and effeminate Greeks of
Byzantium, who presumed to imitate the dress, and to usurp the
dignity, of Roman senators; and the Greeks had not yet forgot the
sentiments of hatred and contempt, which their polished ancestors
had so long entertained for the rude inhabitants of the West. The
distinction of two governments, which soon produced the
separation of two nations, will justify my design of suspending
the series of the Byzantine history, to prosecute, without
interruption, the disgraceful, but memorable, reign of
Honorius.
The prudent Stilicho, instead of persisting to force the
inclinations of a prince, and people, who rejected his
government, wisely abandoned Arcadius to his unworthy favorites;
and his reluctance to involve the two empires in a civil war
displayed the moderation of a minister, who had so often
signalized his military spirit and abilities. But if Stilicho had
any longer endured the revolt of Africa, he would have betrayed
the security of the capital, and the majesty of the Western
emperor, to the capricious insolence of a Moorish rebel. Gildo,
the brother of the tyrant Firmus, had preserved and obtained, as
the reward of his apparent fidelity, the immense patrimony which
was forfeited by treason: long and meritorious service, in the
armies of Rome, raised him to the dignity of a military count;
the narrow policy of the court of Theodosius had adopted the
mischievous expedient of supporting a legal government by the
interest of a powerful family; and the brother of Firmus was
invested with the command of Africa. His ambition soon usurped
the administration of justice, and of the finances, without
account, and without control; and he maintained, during a reign
of twelve years, the possession of an office, from which it was
impossible to remove him, without the danger of a civil war.
During those twelve years, the provinces of Africa groaned under
the dominion of a tyrant, who seemed to unite the unfeeling
temper of a stranger with the partial resentments of domestic
faction. The forms of law were often superseded by the use of
poison; and if the trembling guests, who were invited to the
table of Gildo, presumed to express fears, the insolent suspicion
served only to excite his fury, and he loudly summoned the
ministers of death. Gildo alternately indulged the passions of
avarice and lust; and if his days were
terrible to the rich, his nights were
not less dreadful to husbands and parents. The fairest of their
wives and daughters were prostituted to the embraces of the
tyrant; and afterwards abandoned to a ferocious troop of
Barbarians and assassins, the black, or swarthy, natives of the
desert; whom Gildo considered as the only of his throne. In the
civil war between Theodosius and Eugenius, the count, or rather
the sovereign, of Africa, maintained a haughty and suspicious
neutrality; refused to assist either of the contending parties
with troops or vessels, expected the declaration of fortune, and
reserved for the conqueror the vain professions of his
allegiance. Such professions would not have satisfied the master
of the Roman world; but the death of Theodosius, and the weakness
and discord of his sons, confirmed the power of the Moor; who
condescended, as a proof of his moderation, to abstain from the
use of the diadem, and to supply Rome with the customary tribute,
or rather subsidy, of corn. In every division of the empire, the
five provinces of Africa were invariably assigned to the West;
and Gildo had to govern that extensive country in the name of
Honorius, but his knowledge of the character and designs of
Stilicho soon engaged him to address his homage to a more distant
and feeble sovereign. The ministers of Arcadius embraced the
cause of a perfidious rebel; and the delusive hope of adding the
numerous cities of Africa to the empire of the East, tempted them
to assert a claim, which they were incapable of supporting,
either by reason or by arms.
When Stilicho had given a firm and decisive answer to the
pretensions of the Byzantine court, he solemnly accused the
tyrant of Africa before the tribunal, which had formerly judged
the kings and nations of the earth; and the image of the republic
was revived, after a long interval, under the reign of Honorius.
The emperor transmitted an accurate and ample detail of the
complaints of the provincials, and the crimes of Gildo, to the
Roman senate; and the members of that venerable assembly were
required to pronounce the condemnation of the rebel. Their
unanimous suffrage declared him the enemy of the republic; and
the decree of the senate added a sacred and legitimate sanction
to the Roman arms. A people, who still remembered that their
ancestors had been the masters of the world, would have
applauded, with conscious pride, the representation of ancient
freedom; if they had not since been accustomed to prefer the
solid assurance of bread to the unsubstantial visions of liberty
and greatness. The subsistence of Rome depended on the harvests
of Africa; and it was evident, that a declaration of war would be
the signal of famine. The præfect Symmachus, who presided
in the deliberations of the senate, admonished the minister of
his just apprehension, that as soon as the revengeful Moor should
prohibit the exportation of corn, the and perhaps the safety, of
the capital would be threatened by the hungry rage of a turbulent
multitude. The prudence of Stilicho conceived and executed,
without delay, the most effectual measure for the relief of the
Roman people. A large and seasonable supply of corn, collected in
the inland provinces of Gaul, was embarked on the rapid stream of
the Rhone, and transported, by an easy navigation, from the Rhone
to the Tyber. During the whole term of the African war, the
granaries of Rome were continually filled, her dignity was
vindicated from the humiliating dependence, and the minds of an
immense people were quieted by the calm confidence of peace and
plenty.
The cause of Rome, and the conduct of the African war, were
intrusted by Stilicho to a general, active and ardent to avenge
his private injuries on the head of the tyrant. The spirit of
discord which prevailed in the house of Nabal, had excited a
deadly quarrel between two of his sons, Gildo and Mascezel. The
usurper pursued, with implacable rage, the life of his younger
brother, whose courage and abilities he feared; and Mascezel,
oppressed by superior power, refuge in the court of Milan, where
he soon received the cruel intelligence that his two innocent and
helpless children had been murdered by their inhuman uncle. The
affliction of the father was suspended only by the desire of
revenge. The vigilant Stilicho already prepared to collect the
naval and military force of the Western empire; and he had
resolved, if the tyrant should be able to wage an equal and
doubtful war, to march against him in person. But as Italy
required his presence, and as it might be dangerous to weaken the
of the frontier, he judged it more advisable, that Mascezel
should attempt this arduous adventure at the head of a chosen
body of Gallic veterans, who had lately served exhorted to
convince the world that they could subvert, as well as defend the
throne of a usurper, consisted of the
Jovian, the
Herculian, and the
Augustan legions; of the
Nervian auxiliaries; of the soldiers
who displayed in their banners the symbol of a
lion, and of the troops which were
distinguished by the auspicious names of
Fortunate, and
Invincible. Yet such was the smallness
of their establishments, or the difficulty of recruiting, that
these sevenbands, of high dignity and
reputation in the service of Rome, amounted to no more than five
thousand effective men. The fleet of galleys and transports
sailed in tempestuous weather from the port of Pisa, in Tuscany,
and steered their course to the little island of Capraria; which
had borrowed that name from the wild goats, its original
inhabitants, whose place was occupied by a new colony of a
strange and savage appearance. "The whole island (says an
ingenious traveller of those times) is filled, or rather defiled,
by men who fly from the light. They call themselves
Monks, or solitaries, because they
choose to live alone, without any witnesses of their actions.
They fear the gifts of fortune, from the apprehension of losing
them; and, lest they should be miserable, they embrace a life of
voluntary wretchedness. How absurd is their choice! how perverse
their understanding! to dread the evils, without being able to
support the blessings, of the human condition. Either this
melancholy madness is the effect of disease, or exercise on their
own bodies the tortures which are inflicted on fugitive slaves by
the hand of justice." Such was the contempt of a profane
magistrate for the monks as the chosen servants of God. Some of
them were persuaded, by his entreaties, to embark on board the
fleet; and it is observed, to the praise of the Roman general,
that his days and nights were employed in prayer, fasting, and
the occupation of singing psalms. The devout leader, who, with
such a reenforcement, appeared confident of victory, avoided the
dangerous rocks of Corsica, coasted along the eastern side of
Sardinia, and secured his ships against the violence of the south
wind, by casting anchor in the and capacious harbor of Cagliari,
at the distance of one hundred and forty miles from the African
shores.
Gildo was prepared to resist the invasion with all the forces
of Africa. By the liberality of his gifts and promises, he
endeavored to secure the doubtful allegiance of the Roman
soldiers, whilst he attracted to his standard the distant tribes
of Gætulia and Æthiopia. He proudly reviewed an army
of seventy thousand men, and boasted, with the rash presumption
which is the forerunner of disgrace, that his numerous cavalry
would trample under their horses' feet the troops of Mascezel,
and involve, in a cloud of burning sand, the natives of the cold
regions of Gaul and Germany. But the Moor, who commanded the
legions of Honorius, was too well acquainted with the manners of
his countrymen, to entertain any serious apprehension of a naked
and disorderly host of Barbarians; whose left arm, instead of a
shield, was protected only by mantle; who were totally disarmed
as soon as they had darted their javelin from their right hand;
and whose horses had never He fixed his camp of five thousand
veterans in the face of a superior enemy, and, after the delay of
three days, gave the signal of a general engagement. As Mascezel
advanced before the front with fair offers of peace and pardon,
he encountered one of the foremost standard-bearers of the
Africans, and, on his refusal to yield, struck him on the arm
with his sword. The arm, and the standard, sunk under the weight
of the blow; and the imaginary act of submission was hastily
repeated by all the standards of the line. At this the
disaffected cohorts proclaimed the name of their lawful
sovereign; the Barbarians, astonished by the defection of their
Roman allies, dispersed, according to their custom, in tumultuary
flight; and Mascezel obtained the of an easy, and almost
bloodless, victory. The tyrant escaped from the field of battle
to the sea-shore; and threw himself into a small vessel, with the
hope of reaching in safety some friendly port of the empire of
the East; but the obstinacy of the wind drove him back into the
harbor of Tabraca, which had acknowledged, with the rest of the
province, the dominion of Honorius, and the authority of his
lieutenant. The inhabitants, as a proof of their repentance and
loyalty, seized and confined the person of Gildo in a dungeon;
and his own despair saved him from the intolerable torture of
supporting the presence of an injured and victorious brother. The
captives and the spoils of Africa were laid at the feet of the
emperor; but more sincere, in the midst of prosperity, still
affected to consult the laws of the republic; and referred to the
senate and people of Rome the judgment of the most illustrious
criminals. Their trial was public and solemn; but the judges, in
the exercise of this obsolete and precarious jurisdiction, were
impatient to punish the African magistrates, who had intercepted
the subsistence of the Roman people. The rich and guilty province
was oppressed by the Imperial ministers, who had a visible
interest to multiply the number of the accomplices of Gildo; and
if an edict of Honorius seems to check the malicious industry of
informers, a subsequent edict, at the distance of ten years,
continues and renews the prosecution of the which had been
committed in the time of the general rebellion. The adherents of
the tyrant who escaped the first fury of the soldiers, and the
judges, might derive some consolation from the tragic fate of his
brother, who could never obtain his pardon for the extraordinary
services which he had performed. After he had finished an
important war in the space of a single winter, Mascezel was
received at the court of Milan with loud applause, affected
gratitude, and secret jealousy; and his death, which, perhaps,
was the effect of passage of a bridge, the Moorish prince, who
accompanied the master-general of the West, was suddenly thrown
from his horse into the river; the officious haste of the
attendants was on the countenance of Stilicho; and while they
delayed the necessary assistance, the unfortunate Mascezel was
irrecoverably drowned.
The joy of the African triumph was happily connected with the
nuptials of the emperor Honorius, and of his cousin Maria, the
daughter of Stilicho: and this equal and honorable alliance
seemed to invest the powerful minister with the authority of a
parent over his submissive pupil. The muse of Claudian was not
silent on this propitious day; he sung, in various and lively
strains, the happiness of the royal pair; and the glory of the
hero, who confirmed their union, and supported their throne. The
ancient fables of Greece, which had almost ceased to be the
object of religious faith, were saved from oblivion by the genius
of poetry. The picture of the Cyprian grove, the seat of harmony
and love; the triumphant progress of Venus over her native seas,
and the mild influence which her presence diffused in the palace
of Milan, express to every age the natural sentiments of the
heart, in the just and pleasing language of allegorical fiction.
But the amorous impatience which Claudian attributes to the young
prince, must excite the smiles of the court; and his beauteous
spouse (if she deserved the praise of beauty) had not much to
fear or to hope from the passions of her lover. Honorius was only
in the fourteenth year of his age; Serena, the mother of his
bride, deferred, by art of persuasion, the consummation of the
royal nuptials; Maria died a virgin, after she had been ten years
a wife; and the chastity of the emperor was secured by the
coldness, perhaps, the debility, of his constitution. His
subjects, who attentively studied the character of their young
sovereign, discovered that Honorius was without passions, and
consequently without talents; and that his feeble and languid
disposition was alike incapable of discharging the duties of his
rank, or of enjoying the pleasures of his age. In his early youth
he made some progress in the exercises of riding and drawing the
bow: but he soon relinquished these fatiguing occupations, and
the amusement of feeding poultry became the serious and daily
care of the monarch of the West, who resigned the reins of empire
to the firm and skilful hand of his guardian Stilicho. The
experience of history will countenance the suspicion that a
prince who was born in the purple, received a worse education
than the meanest peasant of his dominions; and that the ambitious
minister suffered him to attain the age of manhood, without
attempting to excite his courage, or to enlighten his under
standing. The predecessors of Honorius were accustomed to animate
by their example, or at least by their presence, the valor of the
legions; and the dates of their laws attest the perpetual
activity of their motions through the provinces of the Roman
world. But the son of Theodosius passed the slumber of his life,
a captive in his palace, a stranger in his country, and the
patient, almost the indifferent, spectator of the ruin of the
Western empire, which was repeatedly attacked, and finally
subverted, by the arms of the Barbarians. In the eventful history
of a reign of twenty-eight years, it will seldom be necessary to
mention the name of the emperor Honorius.
Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths.
Part I.
Revolt Of The Goths. -- They Plunder Greece. -- Two Great
Invasions Of Italy By Alaric And Radagaisus. -- They Are Repulsed
By Stilicho. -- The Germans Overrun Gaul. -- Usurpation Of
Constantine In The West. -- Disgrace And Death Of Stilicho.
If the subjects of Rome could be ignorant of their obligations
to the great Theodosius, they were too soon convinced, how
painfully the spirit and abilities of their deceased emperor had
supported the frail and mouldering edifice of the republic. He
died in the month of January; and before the end of the winter of
the same year, the Gothic nation was in arms. The Barbarian
auxiliaries erected their independent standard; and boldly avowed
the hostile designs, which they had long cherished in their
ferocious minds. Their countrymen, who had been condemned, by the
conditions of the last treaty, to a life of tranquility and
labor, deserted their farms at the first sound of the trumpet;
and eagerly resumed the weapons which they had reluctantly laid
down. The barriers of the Danube were thrown open; the savage
warriors of Scythia issued from their forests; and the uncommon
severity of the winter allowed the poet to remark, "that they
rolled their ponderous wagons over the broad and icy back of the
indignant river." The unhappy natives of the provinces to the
south of the Danube submitted to the calamities, which, in the
course of twenty years, were almost grown familiar to their
imagination; and the various troops of Barbarians, who gloried in
the Gothic name, were irregularly spread from woody shores of
Dalmatia, to the walls of Constantinople. The interruption, or at
least the diminution, of the subsidy, which the Goths had
received from the prudent liberality of Theodosius, was the
specious pretence of their revolt: the affront was imbittered by
their contempt for the unwarlike sons of Theodosius; and their
resentment was inflamed by the weakness, or treachery, of the
minister of Arcadius. The frequent visits of Rufinus to the camp
of the Barbarians whose arms and apparel he affected to imitate,
were considered as a sufficient evidence of his guilty
correspondence, and the public enemy, from a motive either of
gratitude or of policy, was attentive, amidst the general
devastation, to spare the private estates of the unpopular
præfect. The Goths, instead of being impelled by the blind
and headstrong passions of their chiefs, were now directed by the
bold and artful genius of Alaric. That renowned leader was
descended from the noble race of the Balti; which yielded only to
the royal dignity of the Amali: he had solicited the command of
the Roman armies; and the Imperial court provoked him to
demonstrate the folly of their refusal, and the importance of
their loss. Whatever hopes might be entertained of the conquest
of Constantinople, the judicious general soon abandoned an
impracticable enterprise. In the midst of a divided court and a
discontented people, the emperor Arcadius was terrified by the
aspect of the Gothic arms; but the want of wisdom and valor was
supplied by the strength of the city; and the fortifications,
both of the sea and land, might securely brave the impotent and
random darts of the Barbarians. Alaric disdained to trample any
longer on the prostrate and ruined countries of Thrace and Dacia,
and he resolved to seek a plentiful harvest of fame and riches in
a province which had hitherto escaped the ravages of war.
The character of the civil and military officers, on whom
Rufinus had devolved the government of Greece, confirmed the
public suspicion, that he had betrayed the ancient seat of
freedom and learning to the Gothic invader. The proconsul
Antiochus was the unworthy son of a respectable father; and
Gerontius, who commanded the provincial troops, was much better
qualified to execute the oppressive orders of a tyrant, than to
defend, with courage and ability, a country most remarkably
fortified by the hand of nature. Alaric had traversed, without
resistance, the plains of Macedonia and Thessaly, as far as the
foot of Mount Oeta, a steep and woody range of hills, almost
impervious to his cavalry. They stretched from east to west, to
the edge of the sea-shore; and left, between the precipice and
the Malian Gulf, an interval of three hundred feet, which, in
some places, was contracted to a road capable of admitting only a
single carriage. In this narrow pass of Thermopylæ, where
Leonidas and the three hundred Spartans had gloriously devoted
their lives, the Goths might have been stopped, or destroyed, by
a skilful general; and perhaps the view of that sacred spot might
have kindled some sparks of military ardor in the breasts of the
degenerate Greeks. The troops which had been posted to defend the
Straits of Thermopylæ, retired, as they were directed,
without attempting to disturb the secure and rapid passage of
Alaric; and the fertile fields of Phocis and Botia were instantly
covered by a deluge of Barbarians who massacred the males of an
age to bear arms, and drove away the beautiful females, with the
spoil and cattle of the flaming villages. The travellers, who
visited Greece several years afterwards, could easily discover
the deep and bloody traces of the march of the Goths; and Thebes
was less indebted for her preservation to the strength of her
seven gates, than to the eager haste of Alaric, who advanced to
occupy the city of Athens, and the important harbor of the
Piræus. The same impatience urged him to prevent the delay
and danger of a siege, by the offer of a capitulation; and as
soon as the Athenians heard the voice of the Gothic herald, they
were easily persuaded to deliver the greatest part of their
wealth, as the ransom of the city of Minerva and its inhabitants.
The treaty was ratified by solemn oaths, and observed with mutual
fidelity. The Gothic prince, with a small and select train, was
admitted within the walls; he indulged himself in the refreshment
of the bath, accepted a splendid banquet, which was provided by
the magistrate, and affected to show that he was not ignorant of
the manners of civilized nations. But the whole territory of
Attica, from the promontory of Sunium to the town of Megara, was
blasted by his baleful presence; and, if we may use the
comparison of a contemporary philosopher, Athens itself resembled
the bleeding and empty skin of a slaughtered victim. The distance
between Megara and Corinth could not much exceed thirty miles;
but the bad road, an expressive name,
which it still bears among the Greeks, was, or might easily have
been made, impassable for the march of an enemy. The thick and
gloomy woods of Mount Cithæron covered the inland country;
the Scironian rocks approached the water's edge, and hung over
the narrow and winding path, which was confined above six miles
along the sea-shore. The passage of those rocks, so infamous in
every age, was terminated by the Isthmus of Corinth; and a small
a body of firm and intrepid soldiers might have successfully
defended a temporary intrenchment of five or six miles from the
Ionian to the Ægean Sea. The confidence of the cities of
Peloponnesus in their natural rampart, had tempted them to
neglect the care of their antique walls; and the avarice of the
Roman governors had exhausted and betrayed the unhappy province.
Corinth, Argos, Sparta, yielded without resistance to the arms of
the Goths; and the most fortunate of the inhabitants were saved,
by death, from beholding the slavery of their families and the
conflagration of their cities. The vases and statues were
distributed among the Barbarians, with more regard to the value
of the materials, than to the elegance of the workmanship; the
female captives submitted to the laws of war; the enjoyment of
beauty was the reward of valor; and the Greeks could not
reasonably complain of an abuse which was justified by the
example of the heroic times. The descendants of that
extraordinary people, who had considered valor and discipline as
the walls of Sparta, no longer remembered the generous reply of
their ancestors to an invader more formidable than Alaric. "If
thou art a god, thou wilt not hurt those who have never injured
thee; if thou art a man, advance: -- and thou wilt find men equal
to thyself." From Thermopylæ to Sparta, the leader of the
Goths pursued his victorious march without encountering any
mortal antagonists: but one of the advocates of expiring Paganism
has confidently asserted, that the walls of Athens were guarded
by the goddess Minerva, with her formidable Ægis, and by
the angry phantom of Achilles; and that the conqueror was
dismayed by the presence of the hostile deities of Greece. In an
age of miracles, it would perhaps be unjust to dispute the claim
of the historian Zosimus to the common benefit: yet it cannot be
dissembled, that the mind of Alaric was ill prepared to receive,
either in sleeping or waking visions, the impressions of Greek
superstition. The songs of Homer, and the fame of Achilles, had
probably never reached the ear of the illiterate
Barbarian; and the
Christian faith, which he had devoutly
embraced, taught him to despise the imaginary deities of Rome and
Athens. The invasion of the Goths, instead of vindicating the
honor, contributed, at least accidentally, to extirpate the last
remains of Paganism: and the mysteries of Ceres, which had
subsisted eighteen hundred years, did not survive the destruction
of Eleusis, and the calamities of Greece.
The last hope of a people who could no longer depend on their
arms, their gods, or their sovereign, was placed in the powerful
assistance of the general of the West; and Stilicho, who had not
been permitted to repulse, advanced to chastise, the invaders of
Greece. A numerous fleet was equipped in the ports of Italy; and
the troops, after a short and prosperous navigation over the
Ionian Sea, were safely disembarked on the isthmus, near the
ruins of Corinth. The woody and mountainous country of Arcadia,
the fabulous residence of Pan and the Dryads, became the scene of
a long and doubtful conflict between the two generals not
unworthy of each other. The skill and perseverance of the Roman
at length prevailed; and the Goths, after sustaining a
considerable loss from disease and desertion, gradually retreated
to the lofty mountain of Pholoe, near the sources of the Peneus,
and on the frontiers of Elis; a sacred country, which had
formerly been exempted from the calamities of war. The camp of
the Barbarians was immediately besieged; the waters of the river
were diverted into another channel; and while they labored under
the intolerable pressure of thirst and hunger, a strong line of
circumvallation was formed to prevent their escape. After these
precautions, Stilicho, too confident of victory, retired to enjoy
his triumph, in the theatrical games, and lascivious dances, of
the Greeks; his soldiers, deserting their standards, spread
themselves over the country of their allies, which they stripped
of all that had been saved from the rapacious hands of the enemy.
Alaric appears to have seized the favorable moment to execute one
of those hardy enterprises, in which the abilities of a general
are displayed with more genuine lustre, than in the tumult of a
day of battle. To extricate himself from the prison of
Peloponnesus, it was necessary that he should pierce the
intrenchments which surrounded his camp; that he should perform a
difficult and dangerous march of thirty miles, as far as the Gulf
of Corinth; and that he should transport his troops, his
captives, and his spoil, over an arm of the sea, which, in the
narrow interval between Rhium and the opposite shore, is at least
half a mile in breadth. The operations of Alaric must have been
secret, prudent, and rapid; since the Roman general was
confounded by the intelligence, that the Goths, who had eluded
his efforts, were in full possession of the important province of
Epirus. This unfortunate delay allowed Alaric sufficient time to
conclude the treaty, which he secretly negotiated, with the
ministers of Constantinople. The apprehension of a civil war
compelled Stilicho to retire, at the haughty mandate of his
rivals, from the dominions of Arcadius; and he respected, in the
enemy of Rome, the honorable character of the ally and servant of
the emperor of the East.
A Grecian philosopher, who visited Constantinople soon after
the death of Theodosius, published his liberal opinions
concerning the duties of kings, and the state of the Roman
republic. Synesius observes, and deplores, the fatal abuse, which
the imprudent bounty of the late emperor had introduced into the
military service. The citizens and subjects had purchased an
exemption from the indispensable duty of defending their country;
which was supported by the arms of Barbarian mercenaries. The
fugitives of Scythia were permitted to disgrace the illustrious
dignities of the empire; their ferocious youth, who disdained the
salutary restraint of laws, were more anxious to acquire the
riches, than to imitate the arts, of a people, the object of
their contempt and hatred; and the power of the Goths was the
stone of Tantalus, perpetually suspended over the peace and
safety of the devoted state. The measures which Synesius
recommends, are the dictates of a bold and generous patriot. He
exhorts the emperor to revive the courage of his subjects, by the
example of manly virtue; to banish luxury from the court and from
the camp; to substitute, in the place of the Barbarian
mercenaries, an army of men, interested in the defence of their
laws and of their property; to force, in such a moment of public
danger, the mechanic from his shop, and the philosopher from his
school; to rouse the indolent citizen from his dream of pleasure,
and to arm, for the protection of agriculture, the hands of the
laborious husbandman. At the head of such troops, who might
deserve the name, and would display the spirit, of Romans, he
animates the son of Theodosius to encounter a race of Barbarians,
who were destitute of any real courage; and never to lay down his
arms, till he had chased them far away into the solitudes of
Scythia; or had reduced them to the state of ignominious
servitude, which the Lacedæmonians formerly imposed on the
captive Helots. The court of Arcadius indulged the zeal,
applauded the eloquence, and neglected the advice, of Synesius.
Perhaps the philosopher who addresses the emperor of the East in
the language of reason and virtue, which he might have used to a
Spartan king, had not condescended to form a practicable scheme,
consistent with the temper, and circumstances, of a degenerate
age. Perhaps the pride of the ministers, whose business was
seldom interrupted by reflection, might reject, as wild and
visionary, every proposal, which exceeded the measure of their
capacity, and deviated from the forms and precedents of office.
While the oration of Synesius, and the downfall of the
Barbarians, were the topics of popular conversation, an edict was
published at Constantinople, which declared the promotion of
Alaric to the rank of master-general of the Eastern Illyricum.
The Roman provincials, and the allies, who had respected the
faith of treaties, were justly indignant, that the ruin of Greece
and Epirus should be so liberally rewarded. The Gothic conqueror
was received as a lawful magistrate, in the cities which he had
so lately besieged. The fathers, whose sons he had massacred, the
husbands, whose wives he had violated, were subject to his
authority; and the success of his rebellion encouraged the
ambition of every leader of the foreign mercenaries. The use to
which Alaric applied his new command, distinguishes the firm and
judicious character of his policy. He issued his orders to the
four magazines and manufactures of offensive and defensive arms,
Margus, Ratiaria, Naissus, and Thessalonica, to provide his
troops with an extraordinary supply of shields, helmets, swords,
and spears; the unhappy provincials were compelled to forge the
instruments of their own destruction; and the Barbarians removed
the only defect which had sometimes disappointed the efforts of
their courage. The birth of Alaric, the glory of his past
exploits, and the confidence in his future designs, insensibly
united the body of the nation under his victorious standard; and,
with the unanimous consent of the Barbarian chieftains, the
master-general of Illyricum was elevated, according to ancient
custom, on a shield, and solemnly proclaimed king of the
Visigoths. Armed with this double power, seated on the verge of
the two empires, he alternately sold his deceitful promises to
the courts of Arcadius and Honorius; till he declared and
executed his resolution of invading the dominions of the West.
The provinces of Europe which belonged to the Eastern emperor,
were already exhausted; those of Asia were inaccessible; and the
strength of Constantinople had resisted his attack. But he was
tempted by the fame, the beauty, the wealth of Italy, which he
had twice visited; and he secretly aspired to plant the Gothic
standard on the walls of Rome, and to enrich his army with the
accumulated spoils of three hundred triumphs.
The scarcity of facts, and the uncertainty of dates, oppose
our attempts to describe the circumstances of the first invasion
of Italy by the arms of Alaric. His march, perhaps from
Thessalonica, through the warlike and hostile country of
Pannonia, as far as the foot of the Julian Alps; his passage of
those mountains, which were strongly guarded by troops and
intrenchments; the siege of Aquileia, and the conquest of the
provinces of Istria and Venetia, appear to have employed a
considerable time. Unless his operations were extremely cautious
and slow, the length of the interval would suggest a probable
suspicion, that the Gothic king retreated towards the banks of
the Danube; and reënforced his army with fresh swarms of
Barbarians, before he again attempted to penetrate into the heart
of Italy. Since the public and important events escape the
diligence of the historian, he may amuse himself with
contemplating, for a moment, the influence of the arms of Alaric
on the fortunes of two obscure individuals, a presbyter of
Aquileia and a husbandman of Verona. The learned Rufinus, who was
summoned by his enemies to appear before a Roman synod, wisely
preferred the dangers of a besieged city; and the Barbarians, who
furiously shook the walls of Aquileia, might save him from the
cruel sentence of another heretic, who, at the request of the
same bishops, was severely whipped, and condemned to perpetual
exile on a desert island. The old man,
who had passed his simple and innocent life in the neighborhood
of Verona, was a stranger to the quarrels both of kings and of
bishops; hispleasures, his desires, his
knowledge, were confined within the little circle of his paternal
farm; and a staff supported his aged steps, on the same ground
where he had sported in his infancy. Yet even this humble and
rustic felicity (which Claudian describes with so much truth and
feeling) was still exposed to the undistinguishing rage of war.
His trees, his old contemporary trees,
must blaze in the conflagration of the whole country; a
detachment of Gothic cavalry might sweep away his cottage and his
family; and the power of Alaric could destroy this happiness,
which he was not able either to taste or to bestow. "Fame," says
the poet, "encircling with terror her gloomy wings, proclaimed
the march of the Barbarian army, and filled Italy with
consternation:" the apprehensions of each individual were
increased in just proportion to the measure of his fortune: and
the most timid, who had already embarked their valuable effects,
meditated their escape to the Island of Sicily, or the African
coast. The public distress was aggravated by the fears and
reproaches of superstition. Every hour produced some horrid tale
of strange and portentous accidents; the Pagans deplored the
neglect of omens, and the interruption of sacrifices; but the
Christians still derived some comfort from the powerful
intercession of the saints and martyrs.
Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths. -- Part
II.
The emperor Honorius was distinguished, above his subjects, by
the preeminence of fear, as well as of rank. The pride and luxury
in which he was educated, had not allowed him to suspect, that
there existed on the earth any power presumptuous enough to
invade the repose of the successor of Augustus. The arts of
flattery concealed the impending danger, till Alaric approached
the palace of Milan. But when the sound of war had awakened the
young emperor, instead of flying to arms with the spirit, or even
the rashness, of his age, he eagerly listened to those timid
counsellors, who proposed to convey his sacred person, and his
faithful attendants, to some secure and distant station in the
provinces of Gaul. Stilicho alone had courage and authority to
resist his disgraceful measure, which would have abandoned Rome
and Italy to the Barbarians; but as the troops of the palace had
been lately detached to the Rhætian frontier, and as the
resource of new levies was slow and precarious, the general of
the West could only promise, that if the court of Milan would
maintain their ground during his absence, he would soon return
with an army equal to the encounter of the Gothic king. Without
losing a moment, (while each moment was so important to the
public safety,) Stilicho hastily embarked on the Larian Lake,
ascended the mountains of ice and snow, amidst the severity of an
Alpine winter, and suddenly repressed, by his unexpected
presence, the enemy, who had disturbed the tranquillity of
Rhætia. The Barbarians, perhaps some tribes of the
Alemanni, respected the firmness of a chief, who still assumed
the language of command; and the choice which he condescended to
make, of a select number of their bravest youth, was considered
as a mark of his esteem and favor. The cohorts, who were
delivered from the neighboring foe, diligently repaired to the
Imperial standard; and Stilicho issued his orders to the most
remote troops of the West, to advance, by rapid marches, to the
defence of Honorius and of Italy. The fortresses of the Rhine
were abandoned; and the safety of Gaul was protected only by the
faith of the Germans, and the ancient terror of the Roman name.
Even the legion, which had been stationed to guard the wall of
Britain against the Caledonians of the North, was hastily
recalled; and a numerous body of the cavalry of the Alani was
persuaded to engage in the service of the emperor, who anxiously
expected the return of his general. The prudence and vigor of
Stilicho were conspicuous on this occasion, which revealed, at
the same time, the weakness of the falling empire. The legions of
Rome, which had long since languished in the gradual decay of
discipline and courage, were exterminated by the Gothic and civil
wars; and it was found impossible, without exhausting and
exposing the provinces, to assemble an army for the defence of
Italy.
Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths. -- Part
III.
When Stilicho seemed to abandon his sovereign in the unguarded
palace of Milan, he had probably calculated the term of his
absence, the distance of the enemy, and the obstacles that might
retard their march. He principally depended on the rivers of
Italy, the Adige, the Mincius, the Oglio, and the Addua, which,
in the winter or spring, by the fall of rains, or by the melting
of the snows, are commonly swelled into broad and impetuous
torrents. But the season happened to be remarkably dry: and the
Goths could traverse, without impediment, the wide and stony
beds, whose centre was faintly marked by the course of a shallow
stream. The bridge and passage of the Addua were secured by a
strong detachment of the Gothic army; and as Alaric approached
the walls, or rather the suburbs, of Milan, he enjoyed the proud
satisfaction of seeing the emperor of the Romans fly before him.
Honorius, accompanied by a feeble train of statesmen and eunuchs,
hastily retreated towards the Alps, with a design of securing his
person in the city of Arles, which had often been the royal
residence of his predecessors. * But Honorius had scarcely passed
the Po, before he was overtaken by the speed of the Gothic
cavalry; since the urgency of the danger compelled him to seek a
temporary shelter within the fortifications of Asta, a town of
Liguria or Piemont, situate on the banks of the Tanarus. The
siege of an obscure place, which contained so rich a prize, and
seemed incapable of a long resistance, was instantly formed, and
indefatigably pressed, by the king of the Goths; and the bold
declaration, which the emperor might afterwards make, that his
breast had never been susceptible of fear, did not probably
obtain much credit, even in his own court. In the last, and
almost hopeless extremity, after the Barbarians had already
proposed the indignity of a capitulation, the Imperial captive
was suddenly relieved by the fame, the approach, and at length
the presence, of the hero, whom he had so long expected. At the
head of a chosen and intrepid vanguard, Stilicho swam the stream
of the Addua, to gain the time which he must have lost in the
attack of the bridge; the passage of the Po was an enterprise of
much less hazard and difficulty; and the successful action, in
which he cut his way through the Gothic camp under the walls of
Asta, revived the hopes, and vindicated the honor, of Rome.
Instead of grasping the fruit of his victory, the Barbarian was
gradually invested, on every side, by the troops of the West, who
successively issued through all the passes of the Alps; his
quarters were straitened; his convoys were intercepted; and the
vigilance of the Romans prepared to form a chain of
fortifications, and to besiege the lines of the besiegers. A
military council was assembled of the long-haired chiefs of the
Gothic nation; of aged warriors, whose bodies were wrapped in
furs, and whose stern countenances were marked with honorable
wounds. They weighed the glory of persisting in their attempt
against the advantage of securing their plunder; and they
recommended the prudent measure of a seasonable retreat. In this
important debate, Alaric displayed the spirit of the conqueror of
Rome; and after he had reminded his countrymen of their
achievements and of their designs, he concluded his animating
speech by the solemn and positive assurance that he was resolved
to find in Italy either a kingdom or a grave.
The loose discipline of the Barbarians always exposed them to
the danger of a surprise; but, instead of choosing the dissolute
hours of riot and intemperance, Stilicho resolved to attack the
Christian Goths, whilst they were devoutly employed in
celebrating the festival of Easter. The execution of the
stratagem, or, as it was termed by the clergy of the sacrilege,
was intrusted to Saul, a Barbarian and a Pagan, who had served,
however, with distinguished reputation among the veteran generals
of Theodosius. The camp of the Goths, which Alaric had pitched in
the neighborhood of Pollentia, was thrown into confusion by the
sudden and impetuous charge of the Imperial cavalry; but, in a
few moments, the undaunted genius of their leader gave them an
order, and a field of battle; and, as soon as they had recovered
from their astonishment, the pious confidence, that the God of
the Christians would assert their cause, added new strength to
their native valor. In this engagement, which was long maintained
with equal courage and success, the chief of the Alani, whose
diminutive and savage form concealed a magnanimous soul approved
his suspected loyalty, by the zeal with which he fought, and
fell, in the service of the republic; and the fame of this
gallant Barbarian has been imperfectly preserved in the verses of
Claudian, since the poet, who celebrates his virtue, has omitted
the mention of his name. His death was followed by the flight and
dismay of the squadrons which he commanded; and the defeat of the
wing of cavalry might have decided the victory of Alaric, if
Stilicho had not immediately led the Roman and Barbarian infantry
to the attack. The skill of the general, and the bravery of the
soldiers, surmounted every obstacle. In the evening of the bloody
day, the Goths retreated from the field of battle; the
intrenchments of their camp were forced, and the scene of rapine
and slaughter made some atonement for the calamities which they
had inflicted on the subjects of the empire. The magnificent
spoils of Corinth and Argos enriched the veterans of the West;
the captive wife of Alaric, who had impatiently claimed his
promise of Roman jewels and Patrician handmaids, was reduced to
implore the mercy of the insulting foe; and many thousand
prisoners, released from the Gothic chains, dispersed through the
provinces of Italy the praises of their heroic deliverer. The
triumph of Stilicho was compared by the poet, and perhaps by the
public, to that of Marius; who, in the same part of Italy, had
encountered and destroyed another army of Northern Barbarians.
The huge bones, and the empty helmets, of the Cimbri and of the
Goths, would easily be confounded by succeeding generations; and
posterity might erect a common trophy to the memory of the two
most illustrious generals, who had vanquished, on the same
memorable ground, the two most formidable enemies of Rome.
The eloquence of Claudian has celebrated, with lavish
applause, the victory of Pollentia, one of the most glorious days
in the life of his patron; but his reluctant and partial muse
bestows more genuine praise on the character of the Gothic king.
His name is, indeed, branded with the reproachful epithets of
pirate and robber, to which the conquerors of every age are so
justly entitled; but the poet of Stilicho is compelled to
acknowledge that Alaric possessed the invincible temper of mind,
which rises superior to every misfortune, and derives new
resources from adversity. After the total defeat of his infantry,
he escaped, or rather withdrew, from the field of battle, with
the greatest part of his cavalry entire and unbroken. Without
wasting a moment to lament the irreparable loss of so many brave
companions, he left his victorious enemy to bind in chains the
captive images of a Gothic king; and boldly resolved to break
through the unguarded passes of the Apennine, to spread
desolation over the fruitful face of Tuscany, and to conquer or
die before the gates of Rome. The capital was saved by the active
and incessant diligence of Stilicho; but he respected the despair
of his enemy; and, instead of committing the fate of the republic
to the chance of another battle, he proposed to purchase the
absence of the Barbarians. The spirit of Alaric would have
rejected such terms, the permission of a retreat, and the offer
of a pension, with contempt and indignation; but he exercised a
limited and precarious authority over the independent chieftains
who had raised him, for their service,
above the rank of his equals; they were still less disposed to
follow an unsuccessful general, and many of them were tempted to
consult their interest by a private negotiation with the minister
of Honorius. The king submitted to the voice of his people,
ratified the treaty with the empire of the West, and repassed the
Po with the remains of the flourishing army which he had led into
Italy. A considerable part of the Roman forces still continued to
attend his motions; and Stilicho, who maintained a secret
correspondence with some of the Barbarian chiefs, was punctually
apprised of the designs that were formed in the camp and council
of Alaric. The king of the Goths, ambitious to signalize his
retreat by some splendid achievement, had resolved to occupy the
important city of Verona, which commands the principal passage of
the Rhætian Alps; and, directing his march through the
territories of those German tribes, whose alliance would restore
his exhausted strength, to invade, on the side of the Rhine, the
wealthy and unsuspecting provinces of Gaul. Ignorant of the
treason which had already betrayed his bold and judicious
enterprise, he advanced towards the passes of the mountains,
already possessed by the Imperial troops; where he was exposed,
almost at the same instant, to a general attack in the front, on
his flanks, and in the rear. In this bloody action, at a small
distance from the walls of Verona, the loss of the Goths was not
less heavy than that which they had sustained in the defeat of
Pollentia; and their valiant king, who escaped by the swiftness
of his horse, must either have been slain or made prisoner, if
the hasty rashness of the Alani had not disappointed the measures
of the Roman general. Alaric secured the remains of his army on
the adjacent rocks; and prepared himself, with undaunted
resolution, to maintain a siege against the superior numbers of
the enemy, who invested him on all sides. But he could not oppose
the destructive progress of hunger and disease; nor was it
possible for him to check the continual desertion of his
impatient and capricious Barbarians. In this extremity he still
found resources in his own courage, or in the moderation of his
adversary; and the retreat of the Gothic king was considered as
the deliverance of Italy. Yet the people, and even the clergy,
incapable of forming any rational judgment of the business of
peace and war, presumed to arraign the policy of Stilicho, who so
often vanquished, so often surrounded, and so often dismissed the
implacable enemy of the republic. The first moment of the public
safety is devoted to gratitude and joy; but the second is
diligently occupied by envy and calumny.
The citizens of Rome had been astonished by the approach of
Alaric; and the diligence with which they labored to restore the
walls of the capital, confessed their own fears, and the decline
of the empire. After the retreat of the Barbarians, Honorius was
directed to accept the dutiful invitation of the senate, and to
celebrate, in the Imperial city, the auspicious æra of the
Gothic victory, and of his sixth consulship. The suburbs and the
streets, from the Milvian bridge to the Palatine mount, were
filled by the Roman people, who, in the space of a hundred years,
had only thrice been honored with the presence of their
sovereigns. While their eyes were fixed on the chariot where
Stilicho was deservedly seated by the side of his royal pupil,
they applauded the pomp of a triumph, which was not stained, like
that of Constantine, or of Theodosius, with civil blood. The
procession passed under a lofty arch, which had been purposely
erected: but in less than seven years, the Gothic conquerors of
Rome might read, if they were able to read, the superb
inscription of that monument, which attested the total defeat and
destruction of their nation. The emperor resided several months
in the capital, and every part of his behavior was regulated with
care to conciliate the affection of the clergy, the senate, and
the people of Rome. The clergy was edified by his frequent visits
and liberal gifts to the shrines of the apostles. The senate,
who, in the triumphal procession, had been excused from the
humiliating ceremony of preceding on foot the Imperial chariot,
was treated with the decent reverence which Stilicho always
affected for that assembly. The people was repeatedly gratified
by the attention and courtesy of Honorius in the public games,
which were celebrated on that occasion with a magnificence not
unworthy of the spectator. As soon as the appointed number of
chariot- races was concluded, the decoration of the Circus was
suddenly changed; the hunting of wild beasts afforded a various
and splendid entertainment; and the chase was succeeded by a
military dance, which seems, in the lively description of
Claudian, to present the image of a modern tournament.
In these games of Honorius, the inhuman combats of gladiators
polluted, for the last time, the amphitheater of Rome. The first
Christian emperor may claim the honor of the first edict which
condemned the art and amusement of shedding human blood; but this
benevolent law expressed the wishes of the prince, without
reforming an inveterate abuse, which degraded a civilized nation
below the condition of savage cannibals. Several hundred, perhaps
several thousand, victims were annually slaughtered in the great
cities of the empire; and the month of December, more peculiarly
devoted to the combats of gladiators, still exhibited to the eyes
of the Roman people a grateful spectacle of blood and cruelty.
Amidst the general joy of the victory of Pollentia, a Christian
poet exhorted the emperor to extirpate, by his authority, the
horrid custom which had so long resisted the voice of humanity
and religion. The pathetic representations of Prudentius were
less effectual than the generous boldness of Telemachus, and
Asiatic monk, whose death was more useful to mankind than his
life. The Romans were provoked by the interruption of their
pleasures; and the rash monk, who had descended into the arena to
separate the gladiators, was overwhelmed under a shower of
stones. But the madness of the people soon subsided; they
respected the memory of Telemachus, who had deserved the honors
of martyrdom; and they submitted, without a murmur, to the laws
of Honorius, which abolished forever the human sacrifices of the
amphitheater. * The citizens, who adhered to the manners of their
ancestors, might perhaps insinuate that the last remains of a
martial spirit were preserved in this school of fortitude, which
accustomed the Romans to the sight of blood, and to the contempt
of death; a vain and cruel prejudice, so nobly confuted by the
valor of ancient Greece, and of modern Europe!
The recent danger, to which the person of the emperor had been
exposed in the defenceless palace of Milan, urged him to seek a
retreat in some inaccessible fortress of Italy, where he might
securely remain, while the open country was covered by a deluge
of Barbarians. On the coast of the Adriatic, about ten or twelve
miles from the most southern of the seven mouths of the Po, the
Thessalians had founded the ancient colony of Ravenna, which they
afterwards resigned to the natives of Umbria. Augustus, who had
observed the opportunity of the place, prepared, at the distance
of three miles from the old town, a capacious harbor, for the
reception of two hundred and fifty ships of war. This naval
establishment, which included the arsenals and magazines, the
barracks of the troops, and the houses of the artificers, derived
its origin and name from the permanent station of the Roman
fleet; the intermediate space was soon filled with buildings and
inhabitants, and the three extensive and populous quarters of
Ravenna gradually contributed to form one of the most important
cities of Italy. The principal canal of Augustus poured a copious
stream of the waters of the Po through the midst of the city, to
the entrance of the harbor; the same waters were introduced into
the profound ditches that encompassed the walls; they were
distributed by a thousand subordinate canals, into every part of
the city, which they divided into a variety of small islands; the
communication was maintained only by the use of boats and
bridges; and the houses of Ravenna, whose appearance may be
compared to that of Venice, were raised on the foundation of
wooden piles. The adjacent country, to the distance of many
miles, was a deep and impassable morass; and the artificial
causeway, which connected Ravenna with the continent, might be
easily guarded or destroyed, on the approach of a hostile army
These morasses were interspersed, however, with vineyards: and
though the soil was exhausted by four or five crops, the town
enjoyed a more plentiful supply of wine than of fresh water. The
air, instead of receiving the sickly, and almost pestilential,
exhalations of low and marshy grounds, was distinguished, like
the neighborhood of Alexandria, as uncommonly pure and
salubrious; and this singular advantage was ascribed to the
regular tides of the Adriatic, which swept the canals,
interrupted the unwholesome stagnation of the waters, and
floated, every day, the vessels of the adjacent country into the
heart of Ravenna. The gradual retreat of the sea has left the
modern city at the distance of four miles from the Adriatic; and
as early as the fifth or sixth century of the Christian
æra, the port of Augustus was converted into pleasant
orchards; and a lonely grove of pines covered the ground where
the Roman fleet once rode at anchor. Even this alteration
contributed to increase the natural strength of the place, and
the shallowness of the water was a sufficient barrier against the
large ships of the enemy. This advantageous situation was
fortified by art and labor; and in the twentieth year of his age,
the emperor of the West, anxious only for his personal safety,
retired to the perpetual confinement of the walls and morasses of
Ravenna. The example of Honorius was imitated by his feeble
successors, the Gothic kings, and afterwards the Exarchs, who
occupied the throne and palace of the emperors; and till the
middle of the eight century, Ravenna was considered as the seat
of government, and the capital of Italy.
The fears of Honorius were not without foundation, nor were
his precautions without effect. While Italy rejoiced in her
deliverance from the Goths, a furious tempest was excited among
the nations of Germany, who yielded to the irresistible impulse
that appears to have been gradually communicated from the eastern
extremity of the continent of Asia. The Chinese annals, as they
have been interpreted by the earned industry of the present age,
may be usefully applied to reveal the secret and remote causes of
the fall of the Roman empire. The extensive territory to the
north of the great wall was possessed, after the flight of the
Huns, by the victorious Sienpi, who were sometimes broken into
independent tribes, and sometimes reunited under a supreme chief;
till at length, styling themselves
Topa, or masters of the earth, they
acquired a more solid consistence, and a more formidable power.
The Topa soon compelled the pastoral nations of the eastern
desert to acknowledge the superiority of their arms; they invaded
China in a period of weakness and intestine discord; and these
fortunate Tartars, adopting the laws and manners of the
vanquished people, founded an Imperial dynasty, which reigned
near one hundred and sixty years over the northern provinces of
the monarchy. Some generations before they ascended the throne of
China, one of the Topa princes had enlisted in his cavalry a
slave of the name of Moko, renowned for his valor, but who was
tempted, by the fear of punishment, to desert his standard, and
to range the desert at the head of a hundred followers. This gang
of robbers and outlaws swelled into a camp, a tribe, a numerous
people, distinguished by the appellation of
Geougen; and their hereditary
chieftains, the posterity of Moko the slave, assumed their rank
among the Scythian monarchs. The youth of Toulun, the greatest of
his descendants, was exercised by those misfortunes which are the
school of heroes. He bravely struggled with adversity, broke the
imperious yoke of the Topa, and became the legislator of his
nation, and the conqueror of Tartary. His troops were distributed
into regular bands of a hundred and of a thousand men; cowards
were stoned to death; the most splendid honors were proposed as
the reward of valor; and Toulun, who had knowledge enough to
despise the learning of China, adopted only such arts and
institutions as were favorable to the military spirit of his
government. His tents, which he removed in the winter season to a
more southern latitude, were pitched, during the summer, on the
fruitful banks of the Selinga. His conquests stretched from Corea
far beyond the River Irtish. He vanquished, in the country to the
north of the Caspian Sea, the nation of the
Huns; and the new title of
Khan, or
Cagan, expressed the fame and power
which he derived from this memorable victory.
The chain of events is interrupted, or rather is concealed, as
it passes from the Volga to the Vistula, through the dark
interval which separates the extreme limits of the Chinese, and
of the Roman, geography. Yet the temper of the Barbarians, and
the experience of successive emigrations, sufficiently declare,
that the Huns, who were oppressed by the arms of the Geougen,
soon withdrew from the presence of an insulting victor. The
countries towards the Euxine were already occupied by their
kindred tribes; and their hasty flight, which they soon converted
into a bold attack, would more naturally be directed towards the
rich and level plains, through which the Vistula gently flows
into the Baltic Sea. The North must again have been alarmed, and
agitated, by the invasion of the Huns; * and the nations who
retreated before them must have pressed with incumbent weight on
the confines of Germany. The inhabitants of those regions, which
the ancients have assigned to the Suevi, the Vandals, and the
Burgundians, might embrace the resolution of abandoning to the
fugitives of Sarmatia their woods and morasses; or at least of
discharging their superfluous numbers on the provinces of the
Roman empire. About four years after the victorious Toulun had
assumed the title of Khan of the Geougen, another Barbarian, the
haughty Rhodogast, or Radagaisus, marched from the northern
extremities of Germany almost to the gates of Rome, and left the
remains of his army to achieve the destruction of the West. The
Vandals, the Suevi, and the Burgundians, formed the strength of
this mighty host; but the Alani, who had found a hospitable
reception in their new seats, added their active cavalry to the
heavy infantry of the Germans; and the Gothic adventurers crowded
so eagerly to the standard of Radagaisus, that by some
historians, he has been styled the King of the Goths. Twelve
thousand warriors, distinguished above the vulgar by their noble
birth, or their valiant deeds, glittered in the van; and the
whole multitude, which was not less than two hundred thousand
fighting men, might be increased, by the accession of women, of
children, and of slaves, to the amount of four hundred thousand
persons. This formidable emigration issued from the same coast of
the Baltic, which had poured forth the myriads of the Cimbri and
Teutones, to assault Rome and Italy in the vigor of the republic.
After the departure of those Barbarians, their native country,
which was marked by the vestiges of their greatness, long
ramparts, and gigantic moles, remained, during some ages, a vast
and dreary solitude; till the human species was renewed by the
powers of generation, and the vacancy was filled by the influx of
new inhabitants. The nations who now usurp an extent of land
which they are unable to cultivate, would soon be assisted by the
industrious poverty of their neighbors, if the government of
Europe did not protect the claims of dominion and property.
Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths. -- Part
IV.
The correspondence of nations was, in that age, so imperfect
and precarious, that the revolutions of the North might escape
the knowledge of the court of Ravenna; till the dark cloud, which
was collected along the coast of the Baltic, burst in thunder
upon the banks of the Upper Danube. The emperor of the West, if
his ministers disturbed his amusements by the news of the
impending danger, was satisfied with being the occasion, and the
spectator, of the war. The safety of Rome was intrusted to the
counsels, and the sword, of Stilicho; but such was the feeble and
exhausted state of the empire, that it was impossible to restore
the fortifications of the Danube, or to prevent, by a vigorous
effort, the invasion of the Germans. The hopes of the vigilant
minister of Honorius were confined to the defence of Italy. He
once more abandoned the provinces, recalled the troops, pressed
the new levies, which were rigorously exacted, and
pusillanimously eluded; employed the most efficacious means to
arrest, or allure, the deserters; and offered the gift of
freedom, and of two pieces of gold, to all the slaves who would
enlist. By these efforts he painfully collected, from the
subjects of a great empire, an army of thirty or forty thousand
men, which, in the days of Scipio or Camillus, would have been
instantly furnished by the free citizens of the territory of
Rome. The thirty legions of Stilicho were reënforced by a
large body of Barbarian auxiliaries; the faithful Alani were
personally attached to his service; and the troops of Huns and of
Goths, who marched under the banners of their native princes,
Huldin and Sarus, were animated by interest and resentment to
oppose the ambition of Radagaisus. The king of the confederate
Germans passed, without resistance, the Alps, the Po, and the
Apennine; leaving on one hand the inaccessible palace of
Honorius, securely buried among the marshes of Ravenna; and, on
the other, the camp of Stilicho, who had fixed his head-quarters
at Ticinum, or Pavia, but who seems to have avoided a decisive
battle, till he had assembled his distant forces. Many cities of
Italy were pillaged, or destroyed; and the siege of Florence, by
Radagaisus, is one of the earliest events in the history of that
celebrated republic; whose firmness checked and delayed the
unskillful fury of the Barbarians. The senate and people trembled
at their approached within a hundred and eighty miles of Rome;
and anxiously compared the danger which they had escaped, with
the new perils to which they were exposed. Alaric was a Christian
and a soldier, the leader of a disciplined army; who understood
the laws of war, who respected the sanctity of treaties, and who
had familiarly conversed with the subjects of the empire in the
same camps, and the same churches. The savage Radagaisus was a
stranger to the manners, the religion, and even the language, of
the civilized nations of the South. The fierceness of his temper
was exasperated by cruel superstition; and it was universally
believed, that he had bound himself, by a solemn vow, to reduce
the city into a heap of stones and ashes, and to sacrifice the
most illustrious of the Roman senators on the altars of those
gods who were appeased by human blood. The public danger, which
should have reconciled all domestic animosities, displayed the
incurable madness of religious faction. The oppressed votaries of
Jupiter and Mercury respected, in the implacable enemy of Rome,
the character of a devout Pagan; loudly declared, that they were
more apprehensive of the sacrifices, than of the arms, of
Radagaisus; and secretly rejoiced in the calamities of their
country, which condemned the faith of their Christian
adversaries. *
Florence was reduced to the last extremity; and the fainting
courage of the citizens was supported only by the authority of
St. Ambrose; who had communicated, in a dream, the promise of a
speedy deliverance. On a sudden, they beheld, from their walls,
the banners of Stilicho, who advanced, with his united force, to
the relief of the faithful city; and who soon marked that fatal
spot for the grave of the Barbarian host. The apparent
contradictions of those writers who variously relate the defeat
of Radagaisus, may be reconciled without offering much violence
to their respective testimonies. Orosius and Augustin, who were
intimately connected by friendship and religion, ascribed this
miraculous victory to the providence of God, rather than to the
valor of man. They strictly exclude every idea of chance, or even
of bloodshed; and positively affirm, that the Romans, whose camp
was the scene of plenty and idleness, enjoyed the distress of the
Barbarians, slowly expiring on the sharp and barren ridge of the
hills of Fæsulæ, which rise above the city of
Florence. Their extravagant assertion that not a single soldier
of the Christian army was killed, or even wounded, may be
dismissed with silent contempt; but the rest of the narrative of
Augustin and Orosius is consistent with the state of the war, and
the character of Stilicho. Conscious that he commanded the last
army of the republic, his prudence would not expose it, in the
open field, to the headstrong fury of the Germans. The method of
surrounding the enemy with strong lines of circumvallation, which
he had twice employed against the Gothic king, was repeated on a
larger scale, and with more considerable effect. The examples of
Cæsar must have been familiar to the most illiterate of the
Roman warriors; and the fortifications of Dyrrachium, which
connected twenty-four castles, by a perpetual ditch and rampart
of fifteen miles, afforded the model of an intrenchment which
might confine, and starve, the most numerous host of Barbarians.
The Roman troops had less degenerated from the industry, than
from the valor, of their ancestors; and if their servile and
laborious work offended the pride of the soldiers, Tuscany could
supply many thousand peasants, who would labor, though, perhaps,
they would not fight, for the salvation of their native country.
The imprisoned multitude of horses and men was gradually
destroyed, by famine rather than by the sword; but the Romans
were exposed, during the progress of such an extensive work, to
the frequent attacks of an impatient enemy. The despair of the
hungry Barbarians would precipitate them against the
fortifications of Stilicho; the general might sometimes indulge
the ardor of his brave auxiliaries, who eagerly pressed to
assault the camp of the Germans; and these various incidents
might produce the sharp and bloody conflicts which dignify the
narrative of Zosimus, and the Chronicles of Prosper and
Marcellinus. A seasonable supply of men and provisions had been
introduced into the walls of Florence, and the famished host of
Radagaisus was in its turn besieged. The proud monarch of so many
warlike nations, after the loss of his bravest warriors, was
reduced to confide either in the faith of a capitulation, or in
the clemency of Stilicho. But the death of the royal captive, who
was ignominiously beheaded, disgraced the triumph of Rome and of
Christianity; and the short delay of his execution was sufficient
to brand the conqueror with the guilt of cool and deliberate
cruelty. The famished Germans, who escaped the fury of the
auxiliaries, were sold as slaves, at the contemptible price of as
many single pieces of gold; but the difference of food and
climate swept away great numbers of those unhappy strangers; and
it was observed, that the inhuman purchasers, instead of reaping
the fruits of their labor were soon obliged to provide the
expense of their interment Stilicho informed the emperor and the
senate of his success; and deserved, a second time, the glorious
title of Deliverer of Italy.
The fame of the victory, and more especially of the miracle,
has encouraged a vain persuasion, that the whole army, or rather
nation, of Germans, who migrated from the shores of the Baltic,
miserably perished under the walls of Florence. Such indeed was
the fate of Radagaisus himself, of his brave and faithful
companions, and of more than one third of the various multitude
of Sueves and Vandals, of Alani and Burgundians, who adhered to
the standard of their general. The union of such an army might
excite our surprise, but the causes of separation are obvious and
forcible; the pride of birth, the insolence of valor, the
jealousy of command, the impatience of subordination, and the
obstinate conflict of opinions, of interests, and of passions,
among so many kings and warriors, who were untaught to yield, or
to obey. After the defeat of Radagaisus, two parts of the German
host, which must have exceeded the number of one hundred thousand
men, still remained in arms, between the Apennine and the Alps,
or between the Alps and the Danube. It is uncertain whether they
attempted to revenge the death of their general; but their
irregular fury was soon diverted by the prudence and firmness of
Stilicho, who opposed their march, and facilitated their retreat;
who considered the safety of Rome and Italy as the great object
of his care, and who sacrificed, with too much indifference, the
wealth and tranquillity of the distant provinces. The Barbarians
acquired, from the junction of some Pannonian deserters, the
knowledge of the country, and of the roads; and the invasion of
Gaul, which Alaric had designed, was executed by the remains of
the great army of Radagaisus.
Yet if they expected to derive any assistance from the tribes
of Germany, who inhabited the banks of the Rhine, their hopes
were disappointed. The Alemanni preserved a state of inactive
neutrality; and the Franks distinguished their zeal and courage
in the defence of the of the empire. In the rapid progress down
the Rhine, which was the first act of the administration of
Stilicho, he had applied himself, with peculiar attention, to
secure the alliance of the warlike Franks, and to remove the
irreconcilable enemies of peace and of the republic. Marcomir,
one of their kings, was publicly convicted, before the tribunal
of the Roman magistrate, of violating the faith of treaties. He
was sentenced to a mild, but distant exile, in the province of
Tuscany; and this degradation of the regal dignity was so far
from exciting the resentment of his subjects, that they punished
with death the turbulent Sunno, who attempted to revenge his
brother; and maintained a dutiful allegiance to the princes, who
were established on the throne by the choice of Stilicho. When
the limits of Gaul and Germany were shaken by the northern
emigration, the Franks bravely encountered the single force of
the Vandals; who, regardless of the lessons of adversity, had
again separated their troops from the standard of their Barbarian
allies. They paid the penalty of their rashness; and twenty
thousand Vandals, with their king Godigisclus, were slain in the
field of battle. The whole people must have been extirpated, if
the squadrons of the Alani, advancing to their relief, had not
trampled down the infantry of the Franks; who, after an honorable
resistance, were compelled to relinquish the unequal contest. The
victorious confederates pursued their march, and on the last day
of the year, in a season when the waters of the Rhine were most
probably frozen, they entered, without opposition, the
defenceless provinces of Gaul. This memorable passage of the
Suevi, the Vandals, the Alani, and the Burgundians, who never
afterwards retreated, may be considered as the fall of the Roman
empire in the countries beyond the Alps; and the barriers, which
had so long separated the savage and the civilized nations of the
earth, were from that fatal moment levelled with the ground.
While the peace of Germany was secured by the attachment of
the Franks, and the neutrality of the Alemanni, the subjects of
Rome, unconscious of their approaching calamities, enjoyed the
state of quiet and prosperity, which had seldom blessed the
frontiers of Gaul. Their flocks and herds were permitted to graze
in the pastures of the Barbarians; their huntsmen penetrated,
without fear or danger, into the darkest recesses of the
Hercynian wood. The banks of the Rhine were crowned, like those
of the Tyber, with elegant houses, and well-cultivated farms; and
if a poet descended the river, he might express his doubt, on
which side was situated the territory of the Romans. This scene
of peace and plenty was suddenly changed into a desert; and the
prospect of the smoking ruins could alone distinguish the
solitude of nature from the desolation of man. The flourishing
city of Mentz was surprised and destroyed; and many thousand
Christians were inhumanly massacred in the church. Worms perished
after a long and obstinate siege; Strasburgh, Spires, Rheims,
Tournay, Arras, Amiens, experienced the cruel oppression of the
German yoke; and the consuming flames of war spread from the
banks of the Rhine over the greatest part of the seventeen
provinces of Gaul. That rich and extensive country, as far as the
ocean, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, was delivered to the
Barbarians, who drove before them, in a promiscuous crowd, the
bishop, the senator, and the virgin, laden with the spoils of
their houses and altars. The ecclesiastics, to whom we are
indebted for this vague description of the public calamities,
embraced the opportunity of exhorting the Christians to repent of
the sins which had provoked the Divine Justice, and to renounce
the perishable goods of a wretched and deceitful world. But as
the Pelagian controversy, which attempts to sound the abyss of
grace and predestination, soon became the serious employment of
the Latin clergy, the Providence which had decreed, or foreseen,
or permitted, such a train of moral and natural evils, was rashly
weighed in the imperfect and fallacious balance of reason. The
crimes, and the misfortunes, of the suffering people, were
presumptuously compared with those of their ancestors; and they
arraigned the Divine Justice, which did not exempt from the
common destruction the feeble, the guiltless, the infant portion
of the human species. These idle disputants overlooked the
invariable laws of nature, which have connected peace with
innocence, plenty with industry, and safety with valor. The timid
and selfish policy of the court of Ravenna might recall the
Palatine legions for the protection of Italy; the remains of the
stationary troops might be unequal to the arduous task; and the
Barbarian auxiliaries might prefer the unbounded license of spoil
to the benefits of a moderate and regular stipend. But the
provinces of Gaul were filled with a numerous race of hardy and
robust youth, who, in the defence of their houses, their
families, and their altars, if they had dared to die, would have
deserved to vanquish. The knowledge of their native country would
have enabled them to oppose continual and insuperable obstacles
to the progress of an invader; and the deficiency of the
Barbarians, in arms, as well as in discipline, removed the only
pretence which excuses the submission of a populous country to
the inferior numbers of a veteran army. When France was invaded
by Charles V., he inquired of a prisoner, how many
daysParis might be distant from the
frontier; "Perhaps twelve, but they
will be days of battle:" such was the gallant answer which
checked the arrogance of that ambitious prince. The subjects of
Honorius, and those of Francis I., were animated by a very
different spirit; and in less than two years, the divided troops
of the savages of the Baltic, whose numbers, were they fairly
stated, would appear contemptible, advanced, without a combat, to
the foot of the Pyrenean Mountains.
In the early part of the reign of Honorius, the vigilance of
Stilicho had successfully guarded the remote island of Britain
from her incessant enemies of the ocean, the mountains, and the
Irish coast. But those restless Barbarians could not neglect the
fair opportunity of the Gothic war, when the walls and stations
of the province were stripped of the Roman troops. If any of the
legionaries were permitted to return from the Italian expedition,
their faithful report of the court and character of Honorius must
have tended to dissolve the bonds of allegiance, and to
exasperate the seditious temper of the British army. The spirit
of revolt, which had formerly disturbed the age of Gallienus, was
revived by the capricious violence of the soldiers; and the
unfortunate, perhaps the ambitious, candidates, who were the
objects of their choice, were the instruments, and at length the
victims, of their passion. Marcus was the first whom they placed
on the throne, as the lawful emperor of Britain and of the West.
They violated, by the hasty murder of Marcus, the oath of
fidelity which they had imposed on themselves; and
theirdisapprobation of his manners may
seem to inscribe an honorable epitaph on his tomb. Gratian was
the next whom they adorned with the diadem and the purple; and,
at the end of four months, Gratian experienced the fate of his
predecessor. The memory of the great Constantine, whom the
British legions had given to the church and to the empire,
suggested the singular motive of their third choice. They
discovered in the ranks a private soldier of the name of
Constantine, and their impetuous levity had already seated him on
the throne, before they perceived his incapacity to sustain the
weight of that glorious appellation. Yet the authority of
Constantine was less precarious, and his government was more
successful, than the transient reigns of Marcus and of Gratian.
The danger of leaving his inactive troops in those camps, which
had been twice polluted with blood and sedition, urged him to
attempt the reduction of the Western provinces. He landed at
Boulogne with an inconsiderable force; and after he had reposed
himself some days, he summoned the cities of Gaul, which had
escaped the yoke of the Barbarians, to acknowledge their lawful
sovereign. They obeyed the summons without reluctance. The
neglect of the court of Ravenna had absolved a deserted people
from the duty of allegiance; their actual distress encouraged
them to accept any circumstances of change, without apprehension,
and, perhaps, with some degree of hope; and they might flatter
themselves, that the troops, the authority, and even the name of
a Roman emperor, who fixed his residence in Gaul, would protect
the unhappy country from the rage of the Barbarians. The first
successes of Constantine against the detached parties of the
Germans, were magnified by the voice of adulation into splendid
and decisive victories; which the reunion and insolence of the
enemy soon reduced to their just value. His negotiations procured
a short and precarious truce; and if some tribes of the
Barbarians were engaged, by the liberality of his gifts and
promises, to undertake the defence of the Rhine, these expensive
and uncertain treaties, instead of restoring the pristine vigor
of the Gallic frontier, served only to disgrace the majesty of
the prince, and to exhaust what yet remained of the treasures of
the republic. Elated, however, with this imaginary triumph, the
vain deliverer of Gaul advanced into the provinces of the South,
to encounter a more pressing and personal danger. Sarus the Goth
was ordered to lay the head of the rebel at the feet of the
emperor Honorius; and the forces of Britain and Italy were
unworthily consumed in this domestic quarrel. After the loss of
his two bravest generals, Justinian and Nevigastes, the former of
whom was slain in the field of battle, the latter in a peaceful
but treacherous interview, Constantine fortified himself within
the walls of Vienna. The place was ineffectually attacked seven
days; and the Imperial army supported, in a precipitate retreat,
the ignominy of purchasing a secure passage from the freebooters
and outlaws of the Alps. Those mountains now separated the
dominions of two rival monarchs; and the fortifications of the
double frontier were guarded by the troops of the empire, whose
arms would have been more usefully employed to maintain the Roman
limits against the Barbarians of Germany and Scythia.
Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths. -- Part
V.
On the side of the Pyrenees, the ambition of Constantine might
be justified by the proximity of danger; but his throne was soon
established by the conquest, or rather submission, of Spain;
which yielded to the influence of regular and habitual
subordination, and received the laws and magistrates of the
Gallic præfecture. The only opposition which was made to
the authority of Constantine proceeded not so much from the
powers of government, or the spirit of the people, as from the
private zeal and interest of the family of Theodosius. Four
brothers had obtained, by the favor of their kinsman, the
deceased emperor, an honorable rank and ample possessions in
their native country; and the grateful youths resolved to risk
those advantages in the service of his son. After an unsuccessful
effort to maintain their ground at the head of the stationary
troops of Lusitania, they retired to their estates; where they
armed and levied, at their own expense, a considerable body of
slaves and dependants, and boldly marched to occupy the strong
posts of the Pyrenean Mountains. This domestic insurrection
alarmed and perplexed the sovereign of Gaul and Britain; and he
was compelled to negotiate with some troops of Barbarian
auxiliaries, for the service of the Spanish war. They were
distinguished by the title of
Honorians; a name which might have
reminded them of their fidelity to their lawful sovereign; and if
it should candidly be allowed that the
Scots were influenced by any partial
affection for a British prince, the
Moors and the
Marcomanni could be tempted only by the
profuse liberality of the usurper, who distributed among the
Barbarians the military, and even the civil, honors of Spain. The
nine bands of Honorians, which may be
easily traced on the establishment of the Western empire, could
not exceed the number of five thousand men: yet this
inconsiderable force was sufficient to terminate a war, which had
threatened the power and safety of Constantine. The rustic army
of the Theodosian family was surrounded and destroyed in the
Pyrenees: two of the brothers had the good fortune to escape by
sea to Italy, or the East; the other two, after an interval of
suspense, were executed at Arles; and if Honorius could remain
insensible of the public disgrace, he might perhaps be affected
by the personal misfortunes of his generous kinsmen. Such were
the feeble arms which decided the possession of the Western
provinces of Europe, from the wall of Antoninus to the columns of
Hercules. The events of peace and war have undoubtedly been
diminished by the narrow and imperfect view of the historians of
the times, who were equally ignorant of the causes, and of the
effects, of the most important revolutions. But the total decay
of the national strength had annihilated even the last resource
of a despotic government; and the revenue of exhausted provinces
could no longer purchase the military service of a discontented
and pusillanimous people.
The poet, whose flattery has ascribed to the Roman eagle the
victories of Pollentia and Verona, pursues the hasty retreat of
Alaric, from the confines of Italy, with a horrid train of
imaginary spectres, such as might hover over an army of
Barbarians, which was almost exterminated by war, famine, and
disease. In the course of this unfortunate expedition, the king
of the Goths must indeed have sustained a considerable loss; and
his harassed forces required an interval of repose, to recruit
their numbers and revive their confidence. Adversity had
exercised and displayed the genius of Alaric; and the fame of his
valor invited to the Gothic standard the bravest of the Barbarian
warriors; who, from the Euxine to the Rhine, were agitated by the
desire of rapine and conquest. He had deserved the esteem, and he
soon accepted the friendship, of Stilicho himself. Renouncing the
service of the emperor of the East, Alaric concluded, with the
court of Ravenna, a treaty of peace and alliance, by which he was
declared master-general of the Roman armies throughout the
præfecture of Illyricum; as it was claimed, according to
the true and ancient limits, by the minister of Honorius. The
execution of the ambitious design, which was either stipulated,
or implied, in the articles of the treaty, appears to have been
suspended by the formidable irruption of Radagaisus; and the
neutrality of the Gothic king may perhaps be compared to the
indifference of Cæsar, who, in the conspiracy of Catiline,
refused either to assist, or to oppose, the enemy of the
republic. After the defeat of the Vandals, Stilicho resumed his
pretensions to the provinces of the East; appointed civil
magistrates for the administration of justice, and of the
finances; and declared his impatience to lead to the gates of
Constantinople the united armies of the Romans and of the Goths.
The prudence, however, of Stilicho, his aversion to civil war,
and his perfect knowledge of the weakness of the state, may
countenance the suspicion, that domestic peace, rather than
foreign conquest, was the object of his policy; and that his
principal care was to employ the forces of Alaric at a distance
from Italy. This design could not long escape the penetration of
the Gothic king, who continued to hold a doubtful, and perhaps a
treacherous, correspondence with the rival courts; who
protracted, like a dissatisfied mercenary, his languid operations
in Thessaly and Epirus, and who soon returned to claim the
extravagant reward of his ineffectual services. From his camp
near Æmona, on the confines of Italy, he transmitted to the
emperor of the West a long account of promises, of expenses, and
of demands; called for immediate satisfaction, and clearly
intimated the consequences of a refusal. Yet if his conduct was
hostile, his language was decent and dutiful. He humbly professed
himself the friend of Stilicho, and the soldier of Honorius;
offered his person and his troops to march, without delay,
against the usurper of Gaul; and solicited, as a permanent
retreat for the Gothic nation, the possession of some vacant
province of the Western empire.
The political and secret transactions of two statesmen, who
labored to deceive each other and the world, must forever have
been concealed in the impenetrable darkness of the cabinet, if
the debates of a popular assembly had not thrown some rays of
light on the correspondence of Alaric and Stilicho. The necessity
of finding some artificial support for a government, which, from
a principle, not of moderation, but of weakness, was reduced to
negotiate with its own subjects, had insensibly revived the
authority of the Roman senate; and the minister of Honorius
respectfully consulted the legislative council of the republic.
Stilicho assembled the senate in the palace of the Cæsars;
represented, in a studied oration, the actual state of affairs;
proposed the demands of the Gothic king, and submitted to their
consideration the choice of peace or war. The senators, as if
they had been suddenly awakened from a dream of four hundred
years, appeared, on this important occasion, to be inspired by
the courage, rather than by the wisdom, of their predecessors.
They loudly declared, in regular speeches, or in tumultuary
acclamations, that it was unworthy of the majesty of Rome to
purchase a precarious and disgraceful truce from a Barbarian
king; and that, in the judgment of a magnanimous people, the
chance of ruin was always preferable to the certainty of
dishonor. The minister, whose pacific intentions were seconded
only by the voice of a few servile and venal followers, attempted
to allay the general ferment, by an apology for his own conduct,
and even for the demands of the Gothic prince. "The payment of a
subsidy, which had excited the indignation of the Romans, ought
not (such was the language of Stilicho) to be considered in the
odious light, either of a tribute, or of a ransom, extorted by
the menaces of a Barbarian enemy. Alaric had faithfully asserted
the just pretensions of the republic to the provinces which were
usurped by the Greeks of Constantinople: he modestly required the
fair and stipulated recompense of his services; and if he had
desisted from the prosecution of his enterprise, he had obeyed,
in his retreat, the peremptory, though private, letters of the
emperor himself. These contradictory orders (he would not
dissemble the errors of his own family) had been procured by the
intercession of Serena. The tender piety of his wife had been too
deeply affected by the discord of the royal brothers, the sons of
her adopted father; and the sentiments of nature had too easily
prevailed over the stern dictates of the public welfare." These
ostensible reasons, which faintly disguise the obscure intrigues
of the palace of Ravenna, were supported by the authority of
Stilicho; and obtained, after a warm debate, the reluctant
approbation of the senate. The tumult of virtue and freedom
subsided; and the sum of four thousand pounds of gold was
granted, under the name of a subsidy, to secure the peace of
Italy, and to conciliate the friendship of the king of the Goths.
Lampadius alone, one of the most illustrious members of the
assembly, still persisted in his dissent; exclaimed, with a loud
voice, "This is not a treaty of peace, but of servitude;" and
escaped the danger of such bold opposition by immediately
retiring to the sanctuary of a Christian church.
[See Palace Of The Cæsars]
But the reign of Stilicho drew towards its end; and the proud
minister might perceive the symptoms of his approaching disgrace.
The generous boldness of Lampadius had been applauded; and the
senate, so patiently resigned to a long servitude, rejected with
disdain the offer of invidious and imaginary freedom. The troops,
who still assumed the name and prerogatives of the Roman legions,
were exasperated by the partial affection of Stilicho for the
Barbarians: and the people imputed to the mischievous policy of
the minister the public misfortunes, which were the natural
consequence of their own degeneracy. Yet Stilicho might have
continued to brave the clamors of the people, and even of the
soldiers, if he could have maintained his dominion over the
feeble mind of his pupil. But the respectful attachment of
Honorius was converted into fear, suspicion, and hatred. The
crafty Olympius, who concealed his vices under the mask of
Christian piety, had secretly undermined the benefactor, by whose
favor he was promoted to the honorable offices of the Imperial
palace. Olympius revealed to the unsuspecting emperor, who had
attained the twenty-fifth year of his age, that he was without
weight, or authority, in his own government; and artfully alarmed
his timid and indolent disposition by a lively picture of the
designs of Stilicho, who already meditated the death of his
sovereign, with the ambitious hope of placing the diadem on the
head of his son Eucherius. The emperor was instigated, by his new
favorite, to assume the tone of independent dignity; and the
minister was astonished to find, that secret resolutions were
formed in the court and council, which were repugnant to his
interest, or to his intentions. Instead of residing in the palace
of Rome, Honorius declared that it was his pleasure to return to
the secure fortress of Ravenna. On the first intelligence of the
death of his brother Arcadius, he prepared to visit
Constantinople, and to regulate, with the authority of a
guardian, the provinces of the infant Theodosius. The
representation of the difficulty and expense of such a distant
expedition, checked this strange and sudden sally of active
diligence; but the dangerous project of showing the emperor to
the camp of Pavia, which was composed of the Roman troops, the
enemies of Stilicho, and his Barbarian auxiliaries, remained
fixed and unalterable. The minister was pressed, by the advice of
his confidant, Justinian, a Roman advocate, of a lively and
penetrating genius, to oppose a journey so prejudicial to his
reputation and safety. His strenuous but ineffectual efforts
confirmed the triumph of Olympius; and the prudent lawyer
withdrew himself from the impending ruin of his patron.
In the passage of the emperor through Bologna, a mutiny of the
guards was excited and appeased by the secret policy of Stilicho;
who announced his instructions to decimate the guilty, and
ascribed to his own intercession the merit of their pardon. After
this tumult, Honorius embraced, for the last time, the minister
whom he now considered as a tyrant, and proceeded on his way to
the camp of Pavia; where he was received by the loyal
acclamations of the troops who were assembled for the service of
the Gallic war. On the morning of the fourth day, he pronounced,
as he had been taught, a military oration in the presence of the
soldiers, whom the charitable visits, and artful discourses, of
Olympius had prepared to execute a dark and bloody conspiracy. At
the first signal, they massacred the friends of Stilicho, the
most illustrious officers of the empire; two Prætorian
præfects, of Gaul and of Italy; two masters-general of the
cavalry and infantry; the master of the offices; the
quæstor, the treasurer, and the count of the domestics.
Many lives were lost; many houses were plundered; the furious
sedition continued to rage till the close of the evening; and the
trembling emperor, who was seen in the streets of Pavia without
his robes or diadem, yielded to the persuasions of his favorite;
condemned the memory of the slain; and solemnly approved the
innocence and fidelity of their assassins. The intelligence of
the massacre of Pavia filled the mind of Stilicho with just and
gloomy apprehensions; and he instantly summoned, in the camp of
Bologna, a council of the confederate leaders, who were attached
to his service, and would be involved in his ruin. The impetuous
voice of the assembly called aloud for arms, and for revenge; to
march, without a moment's delay, under the banners of a hero,
whom they had so often followed to victory; to surprise, to
oppress, to extirpate the guilty Olympius, and his degenerate
Romans; and perhaps to fix the diadem on the head of their
injured general. Instead of executing a resolution, which might
have been justified by success, Stilicho hesitated till he was
irrecoverably lost. He was still ignorant of the fate of the
emperor; he distrusted the fidelity of his own party; and he
viewed with horror the fatal consequences of arming a crowd of
licentious Barbarians against the soldiers and people of Italy.
The confederates, impatient of his timorous and doubtful delay,
hastily retired, with fear and indignation. At the hour of
midnight, Sarus, a Gothic warrior, renowned among the Barbarians
themselves for his strength and valor, suddenly invaded the camp
of his benefactor, plundered the baggage, cut in pieces the
faithful Huns, who guarded his person, and penetrated to the
tent, where the minister, pensive and sleepless, meditated on the
dangers of his situation. Stilicho escaped with difficulty from
the sword of the Goths and, after issuing a last and generous
admonition to the cities of Italy, to shut their gates against
the Barbarians, his confidence, or his despair, urged him to
throw himself into Ravenna, which was already in the absolute
possession of his enemies. Olympius, who had assumed the dominion
of Honorius, was speedily informed, that his rival had embraced,
as a suppliant the altar of the Christian church. The base and
cruel disposition of the hypocrite was incapable of pity or
remorse; but he piously affected to elude, rather than to
violate, the privilege of the sanctuary. Count Heraclian, with a
troop of soldiers, appeared, at the dawn of day, before the gates
of the church of Ravenna. The bishop was satisfied by a solemn
oath, that the Imperial mandate only directed them to secure the
person of Stilicho: but as soon as the unfortunate minister had
been tempted beyond the holy threshold, he produced the warrant
for his instant execution. Stilicho supported, with calm
resignation, the injurious names of traitor and parricide;
repressed the unseasonable zeal of his followers, who were ready
to attempt an ineffectual rescue; and, with a firmness not
unworthy of the last of the Roman generals, submitted his neck to
the sword of Heraclian.
The servile crowd of the palace, who had so long adored the
fortune of Stilicho, affected to insult his fall; and the most
distant connection with the master-general of the West, which had
so lately been a title to wealth and honors, was studiously
denied, and rigorously punished. His family, united by a triple
alliance with the family of Theodosius, might envy the condition
of the meanest peasant. The flight of his son Eucherius was
intercepted; and the death of that innocent youth soon followed
the divorce of Thermantia, who filled the place of her sister
Maria; and who, like Maria, had remained a virgin in the Imperial
bed. The friends of Stilicho, who had escaped the massacre of
Pavia, were persecuted by the implacable revenge of Olympius; and
the most exquisite cruelty was employed to extort the confession
of a treasonable and sacrilegious conspiracy. They died in
silence: their firmness justified the choice, and perhaps
absolved the innocence of their patron: and the despotic power,
which could take his life without a trial, and stigmatize his
memory without a proof, has no jurisdiction over the impartial
suffrage of posterity. The services of Stilicho are great and
manifest; his crimes, as they are vaguely stated in the language
of flattery and hatred, are obscure at least, and improbable.
About four months after his death, an edict was published, in the
name of Honorius, to restore the free communication of the two
empires, which had been so long interrupted by the
public enemy. The minister, whose fame
and fortune depended on the prosperity of the state, was accused
of betraying Italy to the Barbarians; whom he repeatedly
vanquished at Pollentia, at Verona, and before the walls of
Florence. His pretended design of placing the diadem on the head
of his son Eucherius, could not have been conducted without
preparations or accomplices; and the ambitious father would not
surely have left the future emperor, till the twentieth year of
his age, in the humble station of tribune of the notaries. Even
the religion of Stilicho was arraigned by the malice of his
rival. The seasonable, and almost miraculous, deliverance was
devoutly celebrated by the applause of the clergy; who asserted,
that the restoration of idols, and the persecution of the church,
would have been the first measure of the reign of Eucherius. The
son of Stilicho, however, was educated in the bosom of
Christianity, which his father had uniformly professed, and
zealously supported. * Serena had borrowed her magnificent
necklace from the statue of Vesta; and the Pagans execrated the
memory of the sacrilegious minister, by whose order the Sibylline
books, the oracles of Rome, had been committed to the flames. The
pride and power of Stilicho constituted his real guilt. An
honorable reluctance to shed the blood of his countrymen appears
to have contributed to the success of his unworthy rival; and it
is the last humiliation of the character of Honorius, that
posterity has not condescended to reproach him with his base
ingratitude to the guardian of his youth, and the support of his
empire.
Among the train of dependants whose wealth and dignity
attracted the notice of their own times,
our curiosity is excited by the
celebrated name of the poet Claudian, who enjoyed the favor of
Stilicho, and was overwhelmed in the ruin of his patron. The
titular offices of tribune and notary fixed his rank in the
Imperial court: he was indebted to the powerful intercession of
Serena for his marriage with a very rich heiress of the province
of Africa; and the statute of Claudian, erected in the forum of
Trajan, was a monument of the taste and liberality of the Roman
senate. After the praises of Stilicho became offensive and
criminal, Claudian was exposed to the enmity of a powerful and
unforgiving courtier, whom he had provoked by the insolence of
wit. He had compared, in a lively epigram, the opposite
characters of two Prætorian præfects of Italy; he
contrasts the innocent repose of a philosopher, who sometimes
resigned the hours of business to slumber, perhaps to study, with
the interesting diligence of a rapacious minister, indefatigable
in the pursuit of unjust or sacrilegious, gain. "How happy,"
continues Claudian, "how happy might it be for the people of
Italy, if Mallius could be constantly awake, and if Hadrian would
always sleep!" The repose of Mallius was not disturbed by this
friendly and gentle admonition; but the cruel vigilance of
Hadrian watched the opportunity of revenge, and easily obtained,
from the enemies of Stilicho, the trifling sacrifice of an
obnoxious poet. The poet concealed himself, however, during the
tumult of the revolution; and, consulting the dictates of
prudence rather than of honor, he addressed, in the form of an
epistle, a suppliant and humble recantation to the offended
præfect. He deplores, in mournful strains, the fatal
indiscretion into which he had been hurried by passion and folly;
submits to the imitation of his adversary the generous examples
of the clemency of gods, of heroes, and of lions; and expresses
his hope that the magnanimity of Hadrian will not trample on a
defenceless and contemptible foe, already humbled by disgrace and
poverty, and deeply wounded by the exile, the tortures, and the
death of his dearest friends. Whatever might be the success of
his prayer, or the accidents of his future life, the period of a
few years levelled in the grave the minister and the poet: but
the name of Hadrian is almost sunk in oblivion, while Claudian is
read with pleasure in every country which has retained, or
acquired, the knowledge of the Latin language. If we fairly
balance his merits and his defects, we shall acknowledge that
Claudian does not either satisfy, or silence, our reason. It
would not be easy to produce a passage that deserves the epithet
of sublime or pathetic; to select a verse that melts the heart or
enlarges the imagination. We should vainly seek, in the poems of
Claudian, the happy invention, and artificial conduct, of an
interesting fable; or the just and lively representation of the
characters and situations of real life. For the service of his
patron, he published occasional panegyrics and invectives: and
the design of these slavish compositions encouraged his
propensity to exceed the limits of truth and nature. These
imperfections, however, are compensated in some degree by the
poetical virtues of Claudian. He was endowed with the rare and
precious talent of raising the meanest, of adorning the most
barren, and of diversifying the most similar, topics: his
coloring, more especially in descriptive poetry, is soft and
splendid; and he seldom fails to display, and even to abuse, the
advantages of a cultivated understanding, a copious fancy, an
easy, and sometimes forcible, expression; and a perpetual flow of
harmonious versification. To these commendations, independent of
any accidents of time and place, we must add the peculiar merit
which Claudian derived from the unfavorable circumstances of his
birth. In the decline of arts, and of empire, a native of Egypt,
who had received the education of a Greek, assumed, in a mature
age, the familiar use, and absolute command, of the Latin
language; soared above the heads of his feeble contemporaries;
and placed himself, after an interval of three hundred years,
among the poets of ancient Rome.
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of
Territories By Barbarians.
Part I.
Invasion Of Italy By Alaric. -- Manners Of The Roman Senate
And People. -- Rome Is Thrice Besieged, And At Length Pillaged,
By The Goths. -- Death Of Alaric. -- The Goths Evacuate Italy. --
Fall Of Constantine. -- Gaul And Spain Are Occupied By The
Barbarians. -- Independence Of Britain.
The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may often
assume the appearance, and produce the effects, of a treasonable
correspondence with the public enemy. If Alaric himself had been
introduced into the council of Ravenna, he would probably have
advised the same measures which were actually pursued by the
ministers of Honorius. The king of the Goths would have
conspired, perhaps with some reluctance, to destroy the
formidable adversary, by whose arms, in Italy, as well as in
Greece, he had been twice overthrown.
Their active and interested hatred
laboriously accomplished the disgrace and ruin of the great
Stilicho. The valor of Sarus, his fame in arms, and his personal,
or hereditary, influence over the confederate Barbarians, could
recommend him only to the friends of their country, who despised,
or detested, the worthless characters of Turpilio, Varanes, and
Vigilantius. By the pressing instances of the new favorites,
these generals, unworthy as they had shown themselves of the
names of soldiers, were promoted to the command of the cavalry,
of the infantry, and of the domestic troops. The Gothic prince
would have subscribed with pleasure the edict which the
fanaticism of Olympius dictated to the simple and devout emperor.
Honorius excluded all persons, who were adverse to the Catholic
church, from holding any office in the state; obstinately
rejected the service of all those who dissented from his
religion; and rashly disqualified many of his bravest and most
skilful officers, who adhered to the Pagan worship, or who had
imbibed the opinions of Arianism. These measures, so advantageous
to an enemy, Alaric would have approved, and might perhaps have
suggested; but it may seem doubtful, whether the Barbarian would
have promoted his interest at the expense of the inhuman and
absurd cruelty which was perpetrated by the direction, or at
least with the connivance of the Imperial ministers. The foreign
auxiliaries, who had been attached to the person of Stilicho,
lamented his death; but the desire of revenge was checked by a
natural apprehension for the safety of their wives and children;
who were detained as hostages in the strong cities of Italy,
where they had likewise deposited their most valuable effects. At
the same hour, and as if by a common signal, the cities of Italy
were polluted by the same horrid scenes of universal massacre and
pillage, which involved, in promiscuous destruction, the families
and fortunes of the Barbarians. Exasperated by such an injury,
which might have awakened the tamest and most servile spirit,
they cast a look of indignation and hope towards the camp of
Alaric, and unanimously swore to pursue, with just and implacable
war, the perfidious nation who had so basely violated the laws of
hospitality. By the imprudent conduct of the ministers of
Honorius, the republic lost the assistance, and deserved the
enmity, of thirty thousand of her bravest soldiers; and the
weight of that formidable army, which alone might have determined
the event of the war, was transferred from the scale of the
Romans into that of the Goths.
In the arts of negotiation, as well as in those of war, the
Gothic king maintained his superior ascendant over an enemy,
whose seeming changes proceeded from the total want of counsel
and design. From his camp, on the confines of Italy, Alaric
attentively observed the revolutions of the palace, watched the
progress of faction and discontent, disguised the hostile aspect
of a Barbarian invader, and assumed the more popular appearance
of the friend and ally of the great Stilicho: to whose virtues,
when they were no longer formidable, he could pay a just tribute
of sincere praise and regret. The pressing invitation of the
malecontents, who urged the king of the Goths to invade Italy,
was enforced by a lively sense of his personal injuries; and he
might especially complain, that the Imperial ministers still
delayed and eluded the payment of the four thousand pounds of
gold which had been granted by the Roman senate, either to reward
his services, or to appease his fury. His decent firmness was
supported by an artful moderation, which contributed to the
success of his designs. He required a fair and reasonable
satisfaction; but he gave the strongest assurances, that, as soon
as he had obtained it, he would immediately retire. He refused to
trust the faith of the Romans, unless Ætius and Jason, the
sons of two great officers of state, were sent as hostages to his
camp; but he offered to deliver, in exchange, several of the
noblest youths of the Gothic nation. The modesty of Alaric was
interpreted, by the ministers of Ravenna, as a sure evidence of
his weakness and fear. They disdained either to negotiate a
treaty, or to assemble an army; and with a rash confidence,
derived only from their ignorance of the extreme danger,
irretrievably wasted the decisive moments of peace and war. While
they expected, in sullen silence, that the Barbarians would
evacuate the confines of Italy, Alaric, with bold and rapid
marches, passed the Alps and the Po; hastily pillaged the cities
of Aquileia, Altinum, Concordia, and Cremona, which yielded to
his arms; increased his forces by the accession of thirty
thousand auxiliaries; and, without meeting a single enemy in the
field, advanced as far as the edge of the morass which protected
the impregnable residence of the emperor of the West. Instead of
attempting the hopeless siege of Ravenna, the prudent leader of
the Goths proceeded to Rimini, stretched his ravages along the
sea-coast of the Hadriatic, and meditated the conquest of the
ancient mistress of the world. An Italian hermit, whose zeal and
sanctity were respected by the Barbarians themselves, encountered
the victorious monarch, and boldly denounced the indignation of
Heaven against the oppressors of the earth; but the saint himself
was confounded by the solemn asseveration of Alaric, that he felt
a secret and præternatural impulse, which directed, and
even compelled, his march to the gates of Rome. He felt, that his
genius and his fortune were equal to the most arduous
enterprises; and the enthusiasm which he communicated to the
Goths, insensibly removed the popular, and almost superstitious,
reverence of the nations for the majesty of the Roman name. His
troops, animated by the hopes of spoil, followed the course of
the Flaminian way, occupied the unguarded passes of the Apennine,
descended into the rich plains of Umbria; and, as they lay
encamped on the banks of the Clitumnus, might wantonly slaughter
and devour the milk-white oxen, which had been so long reserved
for the use of Roman triumphs. A lofty situation, and a
seasonable tempest of thunder and lightning, preserved the little
city of Narni; but the king of the Goths, despising the ignoble
prey, still advanced with unabated vigor; and after he had passed
through the stately arches, adorned with the spoils of Barbaric
victories, he pitched his camp under the walls of Rome.
During a period of six hundred and nineteen years, the seat of
empire had never been violated by the presence of a foreign
enemy. The unsuccessful expedition of Hannibal served only to
display the character of the senate and people; of a senate
degraded, rather than ennobled, by the comparison of an assembly
of kings; and of a people, to whom the ambassador of Pyrrhus
ascribed the inexhaustible resources of the Hydra. Each of the
senators, in the time of the Punic war, had accomplished his term
of the military service, either in a subordinate or a superior
station; and the decree, which invested with temporary command
all those who had been consuls, or censors, or dictators, gave
the republic the immediate assistance of many brave and
experienced generals. In the beginning of the war, the Roman
people consisted of two hundred and fifty thousand citizens of an
age to bear arms. Fifty thousand had already died in the defence
of their country; and the twenty-three legions which were
employed in the different camps of Italy, Greece, Sardinia,
Sicily, and Spain, required about one hundred thousand men. But
there still remained an equal number in Rome, and the adjacent
territory, who were animated by the same intrepid courage; and
every citizen was trained, from his earliest youth, in the
discipline and exercises of a soldier. Hannibal was astonished by
the constancy of the senate, who, without raising the siege of
Capua, or recalling their scattered forces, expected his
approach. He encamped on the banks of the Anio, at the distance
of three miles from the city; and he was soon informed, that the
ground on which he had pitched his tent, was sold for an adequate
price at a public auction; * and that a body of troops was
dismissed by an opposite road, to reënforce the legions of
Spain. He led his Africans to the gates of Rome, where he found
three armies in order of battle, prepared to receive him; but
Hannibal dreaded the event of a combat, from which he could not
hope to escape, unless he destroyed the last of his enemies; and
his speedy retreat confessed the invincible courage of the
Romans.
From the time of the Punic war, the uninterrupted succession
of senators had preserved the name and image of the republic; and
the degenerate subjects of Honorius ambitiously derived their
descent from the heroes who had repulsed the arms of Hannibal,
and subdued the nations of the earth. The temporal honors which
the devout Paula inherited and despised, are carefully
recapitulated by Jerom, the guide of her conscience, and the
historian of her life. The genealogy of her father, Rogatus,
which ascended as high as Agamemnon, might seem to betray a
Grecian origin; but her mother, Blæsilla, numbered the
Scipios, Æmilius Paulus, and the Gracchi, in the list of
her ancestors; and Toxotius, the husband of Paula, deduced his
royal lineage from Æneas, the father of the Julian line.
The vanity of the rich, who desired to be noble, was gratified by
these lofty pretensions. Encouraged by the applause of their
parasites, they easily imposed on the credulity of the vulgar;
and were countenanced, in some measure, by the custom of adopting
the name of their patron, which had always prevailed among the
freedmen and clients of illustrious families. Most of those
families, however, attacked by so many causes of external
violence or internal decay, were gradually extirpated; and it
would be more reasonable to seek for a lineal descent of twenty
generations, among the mountains of the Alps, or in the peaceful
solitude of Apulia, than on the theatre of Rome, the seat of
fortune, of danger, and of perpetual revolutions. Under each
successive reign, and from every province of the empire, a crowd
of hardy adventurers, rising to eminence by their talents or
their vices, usurped the wealth, the honors, and the palaces of
Rome; and oppressed, or protected, the poor and humble remains of
consular families; who were ignorant, perhaps, of the glory of
their ancestors.
In the time of Jerom and Claudian, the senators unanimously
yielded the preeminence to the Anician line; and a slight view of
theirhistory will serve to appreciate
the rank and antiquity of the noble families, which contended
only for the second place. During the five first ages of the
city, the name of the Anicians was unknown; they appear to have
derived their origin from Præneste; and the ambition of
those new citizens was long satisfied with the Plebeian honors of
tribunes of the people. One hundred and sixty-eight years before
the Christian æra, the family was ennobled by the
Prætorship of Anicius, who gloriously terminated the
Illyrian war, by the conquest of the nation, and the captivity of
their king. From the triumph of that general, three consulships,
in distant periods, mark the succession of the Anician name. From
the reign of Diocletian to the final extinction of the Western
empire, that name shone with a lustre which was not eclipsed, in
the public estimation, by the majesty of the Imperial purple. The
several branches, to whom it was communicated, united, by
marriage or inheritance, the wealth and titles of the Annian, the
Petronian, and the Olybrian houses; and in each generation the
number of consulships was multiplied by an hereditary claim. The
Anician family excelled in faith and in riches: they were the
first of the Roman senate who embraced Christianity; and it is
probable that Anicius Julian, who was afterwards consul and
præfect of the city, atoned for his attachment to the party
of Maxentius, by the readiness with which he accepted the
religion of Constantine. Their ample patrimony was increased by
the industry of Probus, the chief of the Anician family; who
shared with Gratian the honors of the consulship, and exercised,
four times, the high office of Prætorian præfect. His
immense estates were scattered over the wide extent of the Roman
world; and though the public might suspect or disapprove the
methods by which they had been acquired, the generosity and
magnificence of that fortunate statesman deserved the gratitude
of his clients, and the admiration of strangers. Such was the
respect entertained for his memory, that the two sons of Probus,
in their earliest youth, and at the request of the senate, were
associated in the consular dignity; a memorable distinction,
without example, in the annals of Rome.
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of
Territories By Barbarians. -- Part II.
"The marbles of the Anician palace," were used as a proverbial
expression of opulence and splendor; but the nobles and senators
of Rome aspired, in due gradation, to imitate that illustrious
family. The accurate description of the city, which was composed
in the Theodosian age, enumerates one thousand seven hundred and
eighty houses, the residence of wealthy
and honorable citizens. Many of these stately mansions might
almost excuse the exaggeration of the poet; that Rome contained a
multitude of palaces, and that each palace was equal to a city:
since it included within its own precincts every thing which
could be subservient either to use or luxury; markets,
hippodromes, temples, fountains, baths, porticos, shady groves,
and artificial aviaries. The historian Olympiodorus, who
represents the state of Rome when it was besieged by the Goths,
continues to observe, that several of the richest senators
received from their estates an annual income of four thousand
pounds of gold, above one hundred and sixty thousand pounds
sterling; without computing the stated provision of corn and
wine, which, had they been sold, might have equalled in value one
third of the money. Compared to this immoderate wealth, an
ordinary revenue of a thousand or fifteen hundred pounds of gold
might be considered as no more than adequate to the dignity of
the senatorian rank, which required many expenses of a public and
ostentatious kind. Several examples are recorded, in the age of
Honorius, of vain and popular nobles, who celebrated the year of
their prætorship by a festival, which lasted seven days,
and cost above one hundred thousand pounds sterling. The estates
of the Roman senators, which so far exceeded the proportion of
modern wealth, were not confined to the limits of Italy. Their
possessions extended far beyond the Ionian and Ægean Seas,
to the most distant provinces: the city of Nicopolis, which
Augustus had founded as an eternal monument of the Actian
victory, was the property of the devout Paula; and it is observed
by Seneca, that the rivers, which had divided hostile nations,
now flowed through the lands of private citizens. According to
their temper and circumstances, the estates of the Romans were
either cultivated by the labor of their slaves, or granted, for a
certain and stipulated rent, to the industrious farmer. The
economical writers of antiquity strenuously recommend the former
method, wherever it may be practicable; but if the object should
be removed, by its distance or magnitude, from the immediate eye
of the master, they prefer the active care of an old hereditary
tenant, attached to the soil, and interested in the produce, to
the mercenary administration of a negligent, perhaps an
unfaithful, steward.
The opulent nobles of an immense capital, who were never
excited by the pursuit of military glory, and seldom engaged in
the occupations of civil government, naturally resigned their
leisure to the business and amusements of private life. At Rome,
commerce was always held in contempt: but the senators, from the
first age of the republic, increased their patrimony, and
multiplied their clients, by the lucrative practice of usury; and
the obsolete laws were eluded, or violated, by the mutual
inclinations and interest of both parties. A considerable mass of
treasure must always have existed at Rome, either in the current
coin of the empire, or in the form of gold and silver plate; and
there were many sideboards in the time of Pliny which contained
more solid silver, than had been transported by Scipio from
vanquished Carthage. The greater part of the nobles, who
dissipated their fortunes in profuse luxury, found themselves
poor in the midst of wealth, and idle in a constant round of
dissipation. Their desires were continually gratified by the
labor of a thousand hands; of the numerous train of their
domestic slaves, who were actuated by the fear of punishment; and
of the various professions of artificers and merchants, who were
more powerfully impelled by the hopes of gain. The ancients were
destitute of many of the conveniences of life, which have been
invented or improved by the progress of industry; and the plenty
of glass and linen has diffused more real comforts among the
modern nations of Europe, than the senators of Rome could derive
from all the refinements of pompous or sensual luxury. Their
luxury, and their manners, have been the subject of minute and
laborious disposition: but as such inquiries would divert me too
long from the design of the present work, I shall produce an
authentic state of Rome and its inhabitants, which is more
peculiarly applicable to the period of the Gothic invasion.
Ammianus Marcellinus, who prudently chose the capital of the
empire as the residence the best adapted to the historian of his
own times, has mixed with the narrative of public events a lively
representation of the scenes with which he was familiarly
conversant. The judicious reader will not always approve of the
asperity of censure, the choice of circumstances, or the style of
expression; he will perhaps detect the latent prejudices, and
personal resentments, which soured the temper of Ammianus
himself; but he will surely observe, with philosophic curiosity,
the interesting and original picture of the manners of Rome.
"The greatness of Rome" -- such is the language of the
historian -- "was founded on the rare, and almost incredible,
alliance of virtue and of fortune. The long period of her infancy
was employed in a laborious struggle against the tribes of Italy,
the neighbors and enemies of the rising city. In the strength and
ardor of youth, she sustained the storms of war; carried her
victorious arms beyond the seas and the mountains; and brought
home triumphal laurels from every country of the globe. At
length, verging towards old age, and sometimes conquering by the
terror only of her name, she sought the blessings of ease and
tranquillity. The venerable city, which had trampled on the necks
of the fiercest nations, and established a system of laws, the
perpetual guardians of justice and freedom, was content, like a
wise and wealthy parent, to devolve on the Cæsars, her
favorite sons, the care of governing her ample patrimony. A
secure and profound peace, such as had been once enjoyed in the
reign of Numa, succeeded to the tumults of a republic; while Rome
was still adored as the queen of the earth; and the subject
nations still reverenced the name of the people, and the majesty
of the senate. But this native splendor," continues Ammianus, "is
degraded, and sullied, by the conduct of some nobles, who,
unmindful of their own dignity, and of that of their country,
assume an unbounded license of vice and folly. They contend with
each other in the empty vanity of titles and surnames; and
curiously select, or invent, the most lofty and sonorous
appellations, Reburrus, or Fabunius, Pagonius, or Tarasius, which
may impress the ears of the vulgar with astonishment and respect.
From a vain ambition of perpetuating their memory, they affect to
multiply their likeness, in statues of bronze and marble; nor are
they satisfied, unless those statues are covered with plates of
gold; an honorable distinction, first granted to Acilius the
consul, after he had subdued, by his arms and counsels, the power
of King Antiochus. The ostentation of displaying, of magnifying,
perhaps, the rent-roll of the estates which they possess in all
the provinces, from the rising to the setting sun, provokes the
just resentment of every man, who recollects, that their poor and
invincible ancestors were not distinguished from the meanest of
the soldiers, by the delicacy of their food, or the splendor of
their apparel. But the modern nobles measure their rank and
consequence according to the loftiness of their chariots, and the
weighty magnificence of their dress. Their long robes of silk and
purple float in the wind; and as they are agitated, by art or
accident, they occasionally discover the under garments, the rich
tunics, embroidered with the figures of various animals. Followed
by a train of fifty servants, and tearing up the pavement, they
move along the streets with the same impetuous speed as if they
travelled with post-horses; and the example of the senators is
boldly imitated by the matrons and ladies, whose covered
carriages are continually driving round the immense space of the
city and suburbs. Whenever these persons of high distinction
condescend to visit the public baths, they assume, on their
entrance, a tone of loud and insolent command, and appropriate to
their own use the conveniences which were designed for the Roman
people. If, in these places of mixed and general resort, they
meet any of the infamous ministers of their pleasures, they
express their affection by a tender embrace; while they proudly
decline the salutations of their fellow-citizens, who are not
permitted to aspire above the honor of kissing their hands, or
their knees. As soon as they have indulged themselves in the
refreshment of the bath, they resume their rings, and the other
ensigns of their dignity, select from their private wardrobe of
the finest linen, such as might suffice for a dozen persons, the
garments the most agreeable to their fancy, and maintain till
their departure the same haughty demeanor; which perhaps might
have been excused in the great Marcellus, after the conquest of
Syracuse. Sometimes, indeed, these heroes undertake more arduous
achievements; they visit their estates in Italy, and procure
themselves, by the toil of servile hands, the amusements of the
chase. If at any time, but more especially on a hot day, they
have courage to sail, in their painted galleys, from the Lucrine
Lake to their elegant villas on the seacoast of Puteoli and
Cayeta, they compare their own expeditions to the marches of
Cæsar and Alexander. Yet should a fly presume to settle on
the silken folds of their gilded umbrellas; should a sunbeam
penetrate through some unguarded and imperceptible chink, they
deplore their intolerable hardships, and lament, in affected
language, that they were not born in the land of the Cimmerians,
the regions of eternal darkness. In these journeys into the
country, the whole body of the household marches with their
master. In the same manner as the cavalry and infantry, the heavy
and the light armed troops, the advanced guard and the rear, are
marshalled by the skill of their military leaders; so the
domestic officers, who bear a rod, as an ensign of authority,
distribute and arrange the numerous train of slaves and
attendants. The baggage and wardrobe move in the front; and are
immediately followed by a multitude of cooks, and inferior
ministers, employed in the service of the kitchens, and of the
table. The main body is composed of a promiscuous crowd of
slaves, increased by the accidental concourse of idle or
dependent plebeians. The rear is closed by the favorite band of
eunuchs, distributed from age to youth, according to the order of
seniority. Their numbers and their deformity excite the horror of
the indignant spectators, who are ready to execrate the memory of
Semiramis, for the cruel art which she invented, of frustrating
the purposes of nature, and of blasting in the bud the hopes of
future generations. In the exercise of domestic jurisdiction, the
nobles of Rome express an exquisite sensibility for any personal
injury, and a contemptuous indifference for the rest of the human
species. When they have called for warm water, if a slave has
been tardy in his obedience, he is instantly chastised with three
hundred lashes: but should the same slave commit a wilful murder,
the master will mildly observe, that he is a worthless fellow;
but that, if he repeats the offence, he shall not escape
punishment. Hospitality was formerly the virtue of the Romans;
and every stranger, who could plead either merit or misfortune,
was relieved, or rewarded by their generosity. At present, if a
foreigner, perhaps of no contemptible rank, is introduced to one
of the proud and wealthy senators, he is welcomed indeed in the
first audience, with such warm professions, and such kind
inquiries, that he retires, enchanted with the affability of his
illustrious friend, and full of regret that he had so long
delayed his journey to Rome, the active seat of manners, as well
as of empire. Secure of a favorable reception, he repeats his
visit the ensuing day, and is mortified by the discovery, that
his person, his name, and his country, are already forgotten. If
he still has resolution to persevere, he is gradually numbered in
the train of dependants, and obtains the permission to pay his
assiduous and unprofitable court to a haughty patron, incapable
of gratitude or friendship; who scarcely deigns to remark his
presence, his departure, or his return. Whenever the rich prepare
a solemn and popular entertainment; whenever they celebrate, with
profuse and pernicious luxury, their private banquets; the choice
of the guests is the subject of anxious deliberation. The modest,
the sober, and the learned, are seldom preferred; and the
nomenclators, who are commonly swayed by interested motives, have
the address to insert, in the list of invitations, the obscure
names of the most worthless of mankind. But the frequent and
familiar companions of the great, are those parasites, who
practise the most useful of all arts, the art of flattery; who
eagerly applaud each word, and every action, of their immortal
patron; gaze with rapture on his marble columns and variegated
pavements; and strenuously praise the pomp and elegance which he
is taught to consider as a part of his personal merit. At the
Roman tables, the birds, the
squirrels,
or the fish, which appear of an uncommon size, are
contemplated with curious attention; a pair of scales is
accurately applied, to ascertain their real weight; and, while
the more rational guests are disgusted by the vain and tedious
repetition, notaries are summoned to attest, by an authentic
record, the truth of such a marvelous event. Another method of
introduction into the houses and society of the great, is derived
from the profession of gaming, or, as it is more politely styled,
of play. The confederates are united by a strict and indissoluble
bond of friendship, or rather of conspiracy; a superior degree of
skill in the Tesserarian art (which may
be interpreted the game of dice and tables) is a sure road to
wealth and reputation. A master of that sublime science, who in a
supper, or assembly, is placed below a magistrate, displays in
his countenance the surprise and indignation which Cato might be
supposed to feel, when he was refused the prætorship by the
votes of a capricious people. The acquisition of knowledge seldom
engages the curiosity of nobles, who abhor the fatigue, and
disdain the advantages, of study; and the only books which they
peruse are the Satires of Juvenal, and the verbose and fabulous
histories of Marius Maximus. The libraries, which they have
inherited from their fathers, are secluded, like dreary
sepulchres, from the light of day. But the costly instruments of
the theatre, flutes, and enormous lyres, and hydraulic organs,
are constructed for their use; and the harmony of vocal and
instrumental music is incessantly repeated in the palaces of
Rome. In those palaces, sound is preferred to sense, and the care
of the body to that of the mind. It is allowed as a salutary
maxim, that the light and frivolous suspicion of a contagious
malady, is of sufficient weight to excuse the visits of the most
intimate friends; and even the servants, who are despatched to
make the decent inquiries, are not suffered to return home, till
they have undergone the ceremony of a previous ablution. Yet this
selfish and unmanly delicacy occasionally yields to the more
imperious passion of avarice. The prospect of gain will urge a
rich and gouty senator as far as Spoleto; every sentiment of
arrogance and dignity is subdued by the hopes of an inheritance,
or even of a legacy; and a wealthy childless citizen is the most
powerful of the Romans. The art of obtaining the signature of a
favorable testament, and sometimes of hastening the moment of its
execution, is perfectly understood; and it has happened, that in
the same house, though in different apartments, a husband and a
wife, with the laudable design of overreaching each other, have
summoned their respective lawyers, to declare, at the same time,
their mutual, but contradictory, intentions. The distress which
follows and chastises extravagant luxury, often reduces the great
to the use of the most humiliating expedients. When they desire
to borrow, they employ the base and supplicating style of the
slave in the comedy; but when they are called upon to pay, they
assume the royal and tragic declamation of the grandsons of
Hercules. If the demand is repeated, they readily procure some
trusty sycophant, instructed to maintain a charge of poison, or
magic, against the insolent creditor; who is seldom released from
prison, till he has signed a discharge of the whole debt. These
vices, which degrade the moral character of the Romans, are mixed
with a puerile superstition, that disgraces their understanding.
They listen with confidence to the predictions of haruspices, who
pretend to read, in the entrails of victims, the signs of future
greatness and prosperity; and there are many who do not presume
either to bathe, or to dine, or to appear in public, till they
have diligently consulted, according to the rules of astrology,
the situation of Mercury, and the aspect of the moon. It is
singular enough, that this vain credulity may often be discovered
among the profane sceptics, who impiously doubt, or deny, the
existence of a celestial power."
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of
Territories By Barbarians. -- Part III.
In populous cities, which are the seat of commerce and
manufactures, the middle ranks of inhabitants, who derive their
subsistence from the dexterity or labor of their hands, are
commonly the most prolific, the most useful, and, in that sense,
the most respectable part of the community. But the plebeians of
Rome, who disdained such sedentary and servile arts, had been
oppressed from the earliest times by the weight of debt and
usury; and the husbandman, during the term of his military
service, was obliged to abandon the cultivation of his farm. The
lands of Italy which had been originally divided among the
families of free and indigent proprietors, were insensibly
purchased or usurped by the avarice of the nobles; and in the age
which preceded the fall of the republic, it was computed that
only two thousand citizens were possessed of an independent
substance. Yet as long as the people bestowed, by their
suffrages, the honors of the state, the command of the legions,
and the administration of wealthy provinces, their conscious
pride alleviated in some measure, the hardships of poverty; and
their wants were seasonably supplied by the ambitious liberality
of the candidates, who aspired to secure a venal majority in the
thirty-five tribes, or the hundred and ninety-three centuries, of
Rome. But when the prodigal commons had not only imprudently
alienated not only the use, but the
inheritance of power, they sunk, under
the reign of the Cæsars, into a vile and wretched populace,
which must, in a few generations, have been totally extinguished,
if it had not been continually recruited by the manumission of
slaves, and the influx of strangers. As early as the time of
Hadrian, it was the just complaint of the ingenuous natives, that
the capital had attracted the vices of the universe, and the
manners of the most opposite nations. The intemperance of the
Gauls, the cunning and levity of the Greeks, the savage obstinacy
of the Egyptians and Jews, the servile temper of the Asiatics,
and the dissolute, effeminate prostitution of the Syrians, were
mingled in the various multitude, which, under the proud and
false denomination of Romans, presumed to despise their fellow-
subjects, and even their sovereigns, who dwelt beyond the
precincts of the Eternal City.
Yet the name of that city was still pronounced with respect:
the frequent and capricious tumults of its inhabitants were
indulged with impunity; and the successors of Constantine,
instead of crushing the last remains of the democracy by the
strong arm of military power, embraced the mild policy of
Augustus, and studied to relieve the poverty, and to amuse the
idleness, of an innumerable people. I. For the convenience of the
lazy plebeians, the monthly distributions of corn were converted
into a daily allowance of bread; a great number of ovens were
constructed and maintained at the public expense; and at the
appointed hour, each citizen, who was furnished with a ticket,
ascended the flight of steps, which had been assigned to his
peculiar quarter or division, and received, either as a gift, or
at a very low price, a loaf of bread of the weight of three
pounds, for the use of his family. II. The forest of Lucania,
whose acorns fattened large droves of wild hogs, afforded, as a
species of tribute, a plentiful supply of cheap and wholesome
meat. During five months of the year, a regular allowance of
bacon was distributed to the poorer citizens; and the annual
consumption of the capital, at a time when it was much declined
from its former lustre, was ascertained, by an edict from
Valentinian the Third, at three millions six hundred and
twenty-eight thousand pounds. III. In the manners of antiquity,
the use of oil was indispensable for the lamp, as well as for the
bath; and the annual tax, which was imposed on Africa for the
benefit of Rome, amounted to the weight of three millions of
pounds, to the measure, perhaps, of three hundred thousand
English gallons. IV. The anxiety of Augustus to provide the
metropolis with sufficient plenty of corn, was not extended
beyond that necessary article of human subsistence; and when the
popular clamor accused the dearness and scarcity of wine, a
proclamation was issued, by the grave reformer, to remind his
subjects that no man could reasonably complain of thirst, since
the aqueducts of Agrippa had introduced into the city so many
copious streams of pure and salubrious water. This rigid sobriety
was insensibly relaxed; and, although the generous design of
Aurelian does not appear to have been executed in its full
extent, the use of wine was allowed on very easy and liberal
terms. The administration of the public cellars was delegated to
a magistrate of honorable rank; and a considerable part of the
vintage of Campania was reserved for the fortunate inhabitants of
Rome.
The stupendous aqueducts, so justly celebrated by the praises
of Augustus himself, replenished the
Therm, or baths, which had been
constructed in every part of the city, with Imperial
magnificence. The baths of Antoninus Caracalla, which were open,
at stated hours, for the indiscriminate service of the senators
and the people, contained above sixteen hundred seats of marble;
and more than three thousand were reckoned in the baths of
Diocletian. The walls of the lofty apartments were covered with
curious mosaics, that imitated the art of the pencil in the
elegance of design, and the variety of colors. The Egyptian
granite was beautifully encrusted with the precious green marble
of Numidia; the perpetual stream of hot water was poured into the
capacious basins, through so many wide mouths of bright and massy
silver; and the meanest Roman could purchase, with a small copper
coin, the daily enjoyment of a scene of pomp and luxury, which
might excite the envy of the kings of Asia. From these stately
palaces issued a swarm of dirty and ragged plebeians, without
shoes and without a mantle; who loitered away whole days in the
street of Forum, to hear news and to hold disputes; who
dissipated in extravagant gaming, the miserable pittance of their
wives and children; and spent the hours of the night in the
obscure taverns, and brothels, in the indulgence of gross and
vulgar sensuality.
But the most lively and splendid amusement of the idle
multitude, depended on the frequent exhibition of public games
and spectacles. The piety of Christian princes had suppressed the
inhuman combats of gladiators; but the Roman people still
considered the Circus as their home, their temple, and the seat
of the republic. The impatient crowd rushed at the dawn of day to
secure their places, and there were many who passed a sleepless
and anxious night in the adjacent porticos. From the morning to
the evening, careless of the sun, or of the rain, the spectators,
who sometimes amounted to the number of four hundred thousand,
remained in eager attention; their eyes fixed on the horses and
charioteers, their minds agitated with hope and fear, for the
success of the colors which they
espoused: and the happiness of Rome appeared to hang on the event
of a race. The same immoderate ardor inspired their clamors and
their applause, as often as they were entertained with the
hunting of wild beasts, and the various modes of theatrical
representation. These representations in modern capitals may
deserve to be considered as a pure and elegant school of taste,
and perhaps of virtue. But the Tragic and Comic Muse of the
Romans, who seldom aspired beyond the imitation of Attic genius,
had been almost totally silent since the fall of the republic;
and their place was unworthily occupied by licentious farce,
effeminate music, and splendid pageantry. The pantomimes, who
maintained their reputation from the age of Augustus to the sixth
century, expressed, without the use of words, the various fables
of the gods and heroes of antiquity; and the perfection of their
art, which sometimes disarmed the gravity of the philosopher,
always excited the applause and wonder of the people. The vast
and magnificent theatres of Rome were filled by three thousand
female dancers, and by three thousand singers, with the masters
of the respective choruses. Such was the popular favor which they
enjoyed, that, in a time of scarcity, when all strangers were
banished from the city, the merit of contributing to the public
pleasures exempted them from a law,
which was strictly executed against the professors of the liberal
arts.
It is said, that the foolish curiosity of Elagabalus attempted
to discover, from the quantity of spiders' webs, the number of
the inhabitants of Rome. A more rational method of inquiry might
not have been undeserving of the attention of the wisest princes,
who could easily have resolved a question so important for the
Roman government, and so interesting to succeeding ages. The
births and deaths of the citizens were duly registered; and if
any writer of antiquity had condescended to mention the annual
amount, or the common average, we might now produce some
satisfactory calculation, which would destroy the extravagant
assertions of critics, and perhaps confirm the modest and
probable conjectures of philosophers. The most diligent
researches have collected only the following circumstances;
which, slight and imperfect as they are, may tend, in some
degree, to illustrate the question of the populousness of ancient
Rome. I. When the capital of the empire was besieged by the
Goths, the circuit of the walls was accurately measured, by
Ammonius, the mathematician, who found it equal to twenty-one
miles. It should not be forgotten that the form of the city was
almost that of a circle; the geometrical figure which is known to
contain the largest space within any given circumference. II. The
architect Vitruvius, who flourished in the Augustan age, and
whose evidence, on this occasion, has peculiar weight and
authority, observes, that the innumerable habitations of the
Roman people would have spread themselves far beyond the narrow
limits of the city; and that the want of ground, which was
probably contracted on every side by gardens and villas,
suggested the common, though inconvenient, practice of raising
the houses to a considerable height in the air. But the loftiness
of these buildings, which often consisted of hasty work and
insufficient materials, was the cause of frequent and fatal
accidents; and it was repeatedly enacted by Augustus, as well as
by Nero, that the height of private edifices within the walls of
Rome, should not exceed the measure of seventy feet from the
ground. III. Juvenal laments, as it should seem from his own
experience, the hardships of the poorer citizens, to whom he
addresses the salutary advice of emigrating, without delay, from
the smoke of Rome, since they might purchase, in the little towns
of Italy, a cheerful commodious dwelling, at the same price which
they annually paid for a dark and miserable lodging. House-rent
was therefore immoderately dear: the rich acquired, at an
enormous expense, the ground, which they covered with palaces and
gardens; but the body of the Roman people was crowded into a
narrow space; and the different floors, and apartments, of the
same house, were divided, as it is still the custom of Paris, and
other cities, among several families of plebeians. IV. The total
number of houses in the fourteen regions of the city, is
accurately stated in the description of Rome, composed under the
reign of Theodosius, and they amount to forty-eight thousand
three hundred and eighty-two. The two classes of
domus and of
insul, into which they are divided,
include all the habitations of the capital, of every rank and
condition from the marble palace of the Anicii, with a numerous
establishment of freedmen and slaves, to the lofty and narrow
lodging-house, where the poet Codrus and his wife were permitted
to hire a wretched garret immediately under the files. If we
adopt the same average, which, under similar circumstances, has
been found applicable to Paris, and indifferently allow about
twenty-five persons for each house, of every degree, we may
fairly estimate the inhabitants of Rome at twelve hundred
thousand: a number which cannot be thought excessive for the
capital of a mighty empire, though it exceeds the populousness of
the greatest cities of modern Europe. *
Such was the state of Rome under the reign of Honorius; at the
time when the Gothic army formed the siege, or rather the
blockade, of the city. By a skilful disposition of his numerous
forces, who impatiently watched the moment of an assault, Alaric
encompassed the walls, commanded the twelve principal gates,
intercepted all communication with the adjacent country, and
vigilantly guarded the navigation of the Tyber, from which the
Romans derived the surest and most plentiful supply of
provisions. The first emotions of the nobles, and of the people,
were those of surprise and indignation, that a vile Barbarian
should dare to insult the capital of the world: but their
arrogance was soon humbled by misfortune; and their unmanly rage,
instead of being directed against an enemy in arms, was meanly
exercised on a defenceless and innocent victim. Perhaps in the
person of Serena, the Romans might have respected the niece of
Theodosius, the aunt, nay, even the adoptive mother, of the
reigning emperor: but they abhorred the widow of Stilicho; and
they listened with credulous passion to the tale of calumny,
which accused her of maintaining a secret and criminal
correspondence with the Gothic invader. Actuated, or overawed, by
the same popular frenzy, the senate, without requiring any
evidence of his guilt, pronounced the sentence of her death.
Serena was ignominiously strangled; and the infatuated multitude
were astonished to find, that this cruel act of injustice did not
immediately produce the retreat of the Barbarians, and the
deliverance of the city. That unfortunate city gradually
experienced the distress of scarcity, and at length the horrid
calamities of famine. The daily allowance of three pounds of
bread was reduced to one half, to one third, to nothing; and the
price of corn still continued to rise in a rapid and extravagant
proportion. The poorer citizens, who were unable to purchase the
necessaries of life, solicited the precarious charity of the
rich; and for a while the public misery was alleviated by the
humanity of Læta, the widow of the emperor Gratian, who had
fixed her residence at Rome, and consecrated to the use of the
indigent the princely revenue which she annually received from
the grateful successors of her husband. But these private and
temporary donatives were insufficient to appease the hunger of a
numerous people; and the progress of famine invaded the marble
palaces of the senators themselves. The persons of both sexes,
who had been educated in the enjoyment of ease and luxury,
discovered how little is requisite to supply the demands of
nature; and lavished their unavailing treasures of gold and
silver, to obtain the coarse and scanty sustenance which they
would formerly have rejected with disdain. The food the most
repugnant to sense or imagination, the aliments the most
unwholesome and pernicious to the constitution, were eagerly
devoured, and fiercely disputed, by the rage of hunger. A dark
suspicion was entertained, that some desperate wretches fed on
the bodies of their fellow-creatures, whom they had secretly
murdered; and even mothers, (such was the horrid conflict of the
two most powerful instincts implanted by nature in the human
breast,) even mothers are said to have tasted the flesh of their
slaughtered infants! Many thousands of the inhabitants of Rome
expired in their houses, or in the streets, for want of
sustenance; and as the public sepulchres without the walls were
in the power of the enemy the stench, which arose from so many
putrid and unburied carcasses, infected the air; and the miseries
of famine were succeeded and aggravated by the contagion of a
pestilential disease. The assurances of speedy and effectual
relief, which were repeatedly transmitted from the court of
Ravenna, supported for some time, the fainting resolution of the
Romans, till at length the despair of any human aid tempted them
to accept the offers of a præternatural deliverance.
Pompeianus, præfect of the city, had been persuaded, by the
art or fanaticism of some Tuscan diviners, that, by the
mysterious force of spells and sacrifices, they could extract the
lightning from the clouds, and point those celestial fires
against the camp of the Barbarians. The important secret was
communicated to Innocent, the bishop of Rome; and the successor
of St. Peter is accused, perhaps without foundation, of
preferring the safety of the republic to the rigid severity of
the Christian worship. But when the question was agitated in the
senate; when it was proposed, as an essential condition, that
those sacrifices should be performed in the Capitol, by the
authority, and in the presence, of the magistrates, the majority
of that respectable assembly, apprehensive either of the Divine
or of the Imperial displeasure, refused to join in an act, which
appeared almost equivalent to the public restoration of
Paganism.
The last resource of the Romans was in the clemency, or at
least in the moderation, of the king of the Goths. The senate,
who in this emergency assumed the supreme powers of government,
appointed two ambassadors to negotiate with the enemy. This
important trust was delegated to Basilius, a senator, of Spanish
extraction, and already conspicuous in the administration of
provinces; and to John, the first tribune of the notaries, who
was peculiarly qualified, by his dexterity in business, as well
as by his former intimacy with the Gothic prince. When they were
introduced into his presence, they declared, perhaps in a more
lofty style than became their abject condition, that the Romans
were resolved to maintain their dignity, either in peace or war;
and that, if Alaric refused them a fair and honorable
capitulation, he might sound his trumpets, and prepare to give
battle to an innumerable people, exercised in arms, and animated
by despair. "The thicker the hay, the easier it is mowed," was
the concise reply of the Barbarian; and this rustic metaphor was
accompanied by a loud and insulting laugh, expressive of his
contempt for the menaces of an unwarlike populace, enervated by
luxury before they were emaciated by famine. He then condescended
to fix the ransom, which he would accept as the price of his
retreat from the walls of Rome: all the
gold and silver in the city, whether it were the property of the
state, or of individuals; all the rich
and precious movables; and all the
slaves that could prove their title to the name of
Barbarians. The ministers of the senate
presumed to ask, in a modest and suppliant tone, "If such, O
king, are your demands, what do you intend to leave us?" "Your
Lives!" replied the haughty conqueror: they trembled, and
retired. Yet, before they retired, a short suspension of arms was
granted, which allowed some time for a more temperate
negotiation. The stern features of Alaric were insensibly
relaxed; he abated much of the rigor of his terms; and at length
consented to raise the siege, on the immediate payment of five
thousand pounds of gold, of thirty thousand pounds of silver, of
four thousand robes of silk, of three thousand pieces of fine
scarlet cloth, and of three thousand pounds weight of pepper. But
the public treasury was exhausted; the annual rents of the great
estates in Italy and the provinces, had been exchanged, during
the famine, for the vilest sustenance; the hoards of secret
wealth were still concealed by the obstinacy of avarice; and some
remains of consecrated spoils afforded the only resource that
could avert the impending ruin of the city. As soon as the Romans
had satisfied the rapacious demands of Alaric, they were
restored, in some measure, to the enjoyment of peace and plenty.
Several of the gates were cautiously opened; the importation of
provisions from the river and the adjacent country was no longer
obstructed by the Goths; the citizens resorted in crowds to the
free market, which was held during three days in the suburbs; and
while the merchants who undertook this gainful trade made a
considerable profit, the future subsistence of the city was
secured by the ample magazines which were deposited in the public
and private granaries. A more regular discipline than could have
been expected, was maintained in the camp of Alaric; and the wise
Barbarian justified his regard for the faith of treaties, by the
just severity with which he chastised a party of licentious
Goths, who had insulted some Roman citizens on the road to Ostia.
His army, enriched by the contributions of the capital, slowly
advanced into the fair and fruitful province of Tuscany, where he
proposed to establish his winter quarters; and the Gothic
standard became the refuge of forty thousand Barbarian slaves,
who had broke their chains, and aspired, under the command of
their great deliverer, to revenge the injuries and the disgrace
of their cruel servitude. About the same time, he received a more
honorable reenforcement of Goths and Huns, whom Adolphus, the
brother of his wife, had conducted, at his pressing invitation,
from the banks of the Danube to those of the Tyber, and who had
cut their way, with some difficulty and loss, through the
superior number of the Imperial troops. A victorious leader, who
united the daring spirit of a Barbarian with the art and
discipline of a Roman general, was at the head of a hundred
thousand fighting men; and Italy pronounced, with terror and
respect, the formidable name of Alaric.
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of
Territories By Barbarians. -- Part IV.
At the distance of fourteen centuries, we may be satisfied
with relating the military exploits of the conquerors of Rome,
without presuming to investigate the motives of their political
conduct. In the midst of his apparent prosperity, Alaric was
conscious, perhaps, of some secret weakness, some internal
defect; or perhaps the moderation which he displayed, was
intended only to deceive and disarm the easy credulity of the
ministers of Honorius. The king of the Goths repeatedly declared,
that it was his desire to be considered as the friend of peace,
and of the Romans. Three senators, at his earnest request, were
sent ambassadors to the court of Ravenna, to solicit the exchange
of hostages, and the conclusion of the treaty; and the proposals,
which he more clearly expressed during the course of the
negotiations, could only inspire a doubt of his sincerity, as
they might seem inadequate to the state of his fortune. The
Barbarian still aspired to the rank of master-general of the
armies of the West; he stipulated an annual subsidy of corn and
money; and he chose the provinces of Dalmatia, Noricum, and
Venetia, for the seat of his new kingdom, which would have
commanded the important communication between Italy and the
Danube. If these modest terms should be rejected, Alaric showed a
disposition to relinquish his pecuniary demands, and even to
content himself with the possession of Noricum; an exhausted and
impoverished country, perpetually exposed to the inroads of the
Barbarians of Germany. But the hopes of peace were disappointed
by the weak obstinacy, or interested views, of the minister
Olympius. Without listening to the salutary remonstrances of the
senate, he dismissed their ambassadors under the conduct of a
military escort, too numerous for a retinue of honor, and too
feeble for any army of defence. Six thousand Dalmatians, the
flower of the Imperial legions, were ordered to march from
Ravenna to Rome, through an open country which was occupied by
the formidable myriads of the Barbarians. These brave
legionaries, encompassed and betrayed, fell a sacrifice to
ministerial folly; their general, Valens, with a hundred
soldiers, escaped from the field of battle; and one of the
ambassadors, who could no longer claim the protection of the law
of nations, was obliged to purchase his freedom with a ransom of
thirty thousand pieces of gold. Yet Alaric, instead of resenting
this act of impotent hostility, immediately renewed his proposals
of peace; and the second embassy of the Roman senate, which
derived weight and dignity from the presence of Innocent, bishop
of the city, was guarded from the dangers of the road by a
detachment of Gothic soldiers.
Olympius might have continued to insult the just resentment of
a people who loudly accused him as the author of the public
calamities; but his power was undermined by the secret intrigues
of the palace. The favorite eunuchs transferred the government of
Honorius, and the empire, to Jovius, the Prætorian
præfect; an unworthy servant, who did not atone, by the
merit of personal attachment, for the errors and misfortunes of
his administration. The exile, or escape, of the guilty Olympius,
reserved him for more vicissitudes of fortune: he experienced the
adventures of an obscure and wandering life; he again rose to
power; he fell a second time into disgrace; his ears were cut
off; he expired under the lash; and his ignominious death
afforded a grateful spectacle to the friends of Stilicho. After
the removal of Olympius, whose character was deeply tainted with
religious fanaticism, the Pagans and heretics were delivered from
the impolitic proscription, which excluded them from the
dignities of the state. The brave Gennerid, a soldier of
Barbarian origin, who still adhered to the worship of his
ancestors, had been obliged to lay aside the military belt: and
though he was repeatedly assured by the emperor himself, that
laws were not made for persons of his rank or merit, he refused
to accept any partial dispensation, and persevered in honorable
disgrace, till he had extorted a general act of justice from the
distress of the Roman government. The conduct of Gennerid in the
important station to which he was promoted or restored, of
master-general of Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Rhætia,
seemed to revive the discipline and spirit of the republic. From
a life of idleness and want, his troops were soon habituated to
severe exercise and plentiful subsistence; and his private
generosity often supplied the rewards, which were denied by the
avarice, or poverty, of the court of Ravenna. The valor of
Gennerid, formidable to the adjacent Barbarians, was the firmest
bulwark of the Illyrian frontier; and his vigilant care assisted
the empire with a reenforcement of ten thousand Huns, who arrived
on the confines of Italy, attended by such a convoy of
provisions, and such a numerous train of sheep and oxen, as might
have been sufficient, not only for the march of an army, but for
the settlement of a colony. But the court and councils of
Honorius still remained a scene of weakness and distraction, of
corruption and anarchy. Instigated by the præfect Jovius,
the guards rose in furious mutiny, and demanded the heads of two
generals, and of the two principal eunuchs. The generals, under a
perfidious promise of safety, were sent on shipboard, and
privately executed; while the favor of the eunuchs procured them
a mild and secure exile at Milan and Constantinople. Eusebius the
eunuch, and the Barbarian Allobich, succeeded to the command of
the bed-chamber and of the guards; and the mutual jealousy of
these subordinate ministers was the cause of their mutual
destruction. By the insolent order of the count of the domestics,
the great chamberlain was shamefully beaten to death with sticks,
before the eyes of the astonished emperor; and the subsequent
assassination of Allobich, in the midst of a public procession,
is the only circumstance of his life, in which Honorius
discovered the faintest symptom of courage or resentment. Yet
before they fell, Eusebius and Allobich had contributed their
part to the ruin of the empire, by opposing the conclusion of a
treaty which Jovius, from a selfish, and perhaps a criminal,
motive, had negotiated with Alaric, in a personal interview under
the walls of Rimini. During the absence of Jovius, the emperor
was persuaded to assume a lofty tone of inflexible dignity, such
as neither his situation, nor his character, could enable him to
support; and a letter, signed with the name of Honorius, was
immediately despatched to the Prætorian præfect,
granting him a free permission to dispose of the public money,
but sternly refusing to prostitute the military honors of Rome to
the proud demands of a Barbarian. This letter was imprudently
communicated to Alaric himself; and the Goth, who in the whole
transaction had behaved with temper and decency, expressed, in
the most outrageous language, his lively sense of the insult so
wantonly offered to his person and to his nation. The conference
of Rimini was hastily interrupted; and the præfect Jovius,
on his return to Ravenna, was compelled to adopt, and even to
encourage, the fashionable opinions of the court. By his advice
and example, the principal officers of the state and army were
obliged to swear, that, without listening, in
any circumstances, to
any conditions of peace, they would
still persevere in perpetual and implacable war against the enemy
of the republic. This rash engagement opposed an insuperable bar
to all future negotiation. The ministers of Honorius were heard
to declare, that, if they had only invoked the name of the Deity,
they would consult the public safety, and trust their souls to
the mercy of Heaven: but they had sworn by the sacred head of the
emperor himself; they had sworn by the sacred head of the emperor
himself; they had touched, in solemn ceremony, that august seat
of majesty and wisdom; and the violation of their oath would
expose them to the temporal penalties of sacrilege and
rebellion.
While the emperor and his court enjoyed, with sullen pride,
the security of the marches and fortifications of Ravenna, they
abandoned Rome, almost without defence, to the resentment of
Alaric. Yet such was the moderation which he still preserved, or
affected, that, as he moved with his army along the Flaminian
way, he successively despatched the bishops of the towns of Italy
to reiterate his offers of peace, and to conjure the emperor,
that he would save the city and its inhabitants from hostile
fire, and the sword of the Barbarians. These impending calamities
were, however, averted, not indeed by the wisdom of Honorius, but
by the prudence or humanity of the Gothic king; who employed a
milder, though not less effectual, method of conquest. Instead of
assaulting the capital, he successfully directed his efforts
against the Port of Ostia, one of the
boldest and most stupendous works of Roman magnificence. The
accidents to which the precarious subsistence of the city was
continually exposed in a winter navigation, and an open road, had
suggested to the genius of the first Cæsar the useful
design, which was executed under the reign of Claudius. The
artificial moles, which formed the narrow entrance, advanced far
into the sea, and firmly repelled the fury of the waves, while
the largest vessels securely rode at anchor within three deep and
capacious basins, which received the northern branch of the
Tyber, about two miles from the ancient colony of Ostia. The
Roman Port insensibly swelled to the
size of an episcopal city, where the corn of Africa was deposited
in spacious granaries for the use of the capital. As soon as
Alaric was in possession of that important place, he summoned the
city to surrender at discretion; and his demands were enforced by
the positive declaration, that a refusal, or even a delay, should
be instantly followed by the destruction of the magazines, on
which the life of the Roman people depended. The clamors of that
people, and the terror of famine, subdued the pride of the
senate; they listened, without reluctance, to the proposal of
placing a new emperor on the throne of the unworthy Honorius; and
the suffrage of the Gothic conqueror bestowed the purple on
Attalus, præfect of the city. The grateful monarch
immediately acknowledged his protector as master-general of the
armies of the West; Adolphus, with the rank of count of the
domestics, obtained the custody of the person of Attalus; and the
two hostile nations seemed to be united in the closest bands of
friendship and alliance.
The gates of the city were thrown open, and the new emperor of
the Romans, encompassed on every side by the Gothic arms, was
conducted, in tumultuous procession, to the palace of Augustus
and Trajan. After he had distributed the civil and military
dignities among his favorites and followers, Attalus convened an
assembly of the senate; before whom, in a format and florid
speech, he asserted his resolution of restoring the majesty of
the republic, and of uniting to the empire the provinces of Egypt
and the East, which had once acknowledged the sovereignty of
Rome. Such extravagant promises inspired every reasonable citizen
with a just contempt for the character of an unwarlike usurper,
whose elevation was the deepest and most ignominious wound which
the republic had yet sustained from the insolence of the
Barbarians. But the populace, with their usual levity, applauded
the change of masters. The public discontent was favorable to the
rival of Honorius; and the sectaries, oppressed by his
persecuting edicts, expected some degree of countenance, or at
least of toleration, from a prince, who, in his native country of
Ionia, had been educated in the Pagan superstition, and who had
since received the sacrament of baptism from the hands of an
Arian bishop. The first days of the reign of Attalus were fair
and prosperous. An officer of confidence was sent with an
inconsiderable body of troops to secure the obedience of Africa;
the greatest part of Italy submitted to the terror of the Gothic
powers; and though the city of Bologna made a vigorous and
effectual resistance, the people of Milan, dissatisfied perhaps
with the absence of Honorius, accepted, with loud acclamations,
the choice of the Roman senate. At the head of a formidable army,
Alaric conducted his royal captive almost to the gates of
Ravenna; and a solemn embassy of the principal ministers, of
Jovius, the Prætorian præfect, of Valens, master of
the cavalry and infantry, of the quæstor Potamius, and of
Julian, the first of the notaries, was introduced, with martial
pomp, into the Gothic camp. In the name of their sovereign, they
consented to acknowledge the lawful election of his competitor,
and to divide the provinces of Italy and the West between the two
emperors. Their proposals were rejected with disdain; and the
refusal was aggravated by the insulting clemency of Attalus, who
condescended to promise, that, if Honorius would instantly resign
the purple, he should be permitted to pass the remainder of his
life in the peaceful exile of some remote island. So desperate
indeed did the situation of the son of Theodosius appear, to
those who were the best acquainted with his strength and
resources, that Jovius and Valens, his minister and his general,
betrayed their trust, infamously deserted the sinking cause of
their benefactor, and devoted their treacherous allegiance to the
service of his more fortunate rival. Astonished by such examples
of domestic treason, Honorius trembled at the approach of every
servant, at the arrival of every messenger. He dreaded the secret
enemies, who might lurk in his capital, his palace, his
bed-chamber; and some ships lay ready in the harbor of Ravenna,
to transport the abdicated monarch to the dominions of his infant
nephew, the emperor of the East.
But there is a Providence (such at least was the opinion of
the historian Procopius) that watches over innocence and folly;
and the pretensions of Honorius to its peculiar care cannot
reasonably be disputed. At the moment when his despair, incapable
of any wise or manly resolution, meditated a shameful flight, a
seasonable reenforcement of four thousand veterans unexpectedly
landed in the port of Ravenna. To these valiant strangers, whose
fidelity had not been corrupted by the factions of the court, he
committed the walls and gates of the city; and the slumbers of
the emperor were no longer disturbed by the apprehension of
imminent and internal danger. The favorable intelligence which
was received from Africa suddenly changed the opinions of men,
and the state of public affairs. The troops and officers, whom
Attalus had sent into that province, were defeated and slain; and
the active zeal of Heraclian maintained his own allegiance, and
that of his people. The faithful count of Africa transmitted a
large sum of money, which fixed the attachment of the Imperial
guards; and his vigilance, in preventing the exportation of corn
and oil, introduced famine, tumult, and discontent, into the
walls of Rome. The failure of the African expedition was the
source of mutual complaint and recrimination in the party of
Attalus; and the mind of his protector was insensibly alienated
from the interest of a prince, who wanted spirit to command, or
docility to obey. The most imprudent measures were adopted,
without the knowledge, or against the advice, of Alaric; and the
obstinate refusal of the senate, to allow, in the embarkation,
the mixture even of five hundred Goths, betrayed a suspicious and
distrustful temper, which, in their situation, was neither
generous nor prudent. The resentment of the Gothic king was
exasperated by the malicious arts of Jovius, who had been raised
to the rank of patrician, and who afterwards excused his double
perfidy, by declaring, without a blush, that he had only
seemed to abandon the service of
Honorius, more effectually to ruin the cause of the usurper. In a
large plain near Rimini, and in the presence of an innumerable
multitude of Romans and Barbarians, the wretched Attalus was
publicly despoiled of the diadem and purple; and those ensigns of
royalty were sent by Alaric, as the pledge of peace and
friendship, to the son of Theodosius. The officers who returned
to their duty, were reinstated in their employments, and even the
merit of a tardy repentance was graciously allowed; but the
degraded emperor of the Romans, desirous of life, and insensible
of disgrace, implored the permission of following the Gothic
camp, in the train of a haughty and capricious Barbarian.
The degradation of Attalus removed the only real obstacle to
the conclusion of the peace; and Alaric advanced within three
miles of Ravenna, to press the irresolution of the Imperial
ministers, whose insolence soon returned with the return of
fortune. His indignation was kindled by the report, that a rival
chieftain, that Sarus, the personal enemy of Adolphus, and the
hereditary foe of the house of Balti, had been received into the
palace. At the head of three hundred followers, that fearless
Barbarian immediately sallied from the gates of Ravenna;
surprised, and cut in pieces, a considerable body of Goths;
reentered the city in triumph; and was permitted to insult his
adversary, by the voice of a herald, who publicly declared that
the guilt of Alaric had forever excluded him from the friendship
and alliance of the emperor. The crime and folly of the court of
Ravenna was expiated, a third time, by the calamities of Rome.
The king of the Goths, who no longer dissembled his appetite for
plunder and revenge, appeared in arms under the walls of the
capital; and the trembling senate, without any hopes of relief,
prepared, by a desperate resistance, to defray the ruin of their
country. But they were unable to guard against the secret
conspiracy of their slaves and domestics; who, either from birth
or interest, were attached to the cause of the enemy. At the hour
of midnight, the Salarian gate was silently opened, and the
inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous sound of the Gothic
trumpet. Eleven hundred and sixty-three years after the
foundation of Rome, the Imperial city, which had subdued and
civilized so considerable a part of mankind, was delivered to the
licentious fury of the tribes of Germany and Scythia.
The proclamation of Alaric, when he forced his entrance into a
vanquished city, discovered, however, some regard for the laws of
humanity and religion. He encouraged his troops boldly to seize
the rewards of valor, and to enrich themselves with the spoils of
a wealthy and effeminate people: but he exhorted them, at the
same time, to spare the lives of the unresisting citizens, and to
respect the churches of the apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, as
holy and inviolable sanctuaries. Amidst the horrors of a
nocturnal tumult, several of the Christian Goths displayed the
fervor of a recent conversion; and some instances of their
uncommon piety and moderation are related, and perhaps adorned,
by the zeal of ecclesiastical writers. While the Barbarians
roamed through the city in quest of prey, the humble dwelling of
an aged virgin, who had devoted her life to the service of the
altar, was forced open by one of the powerful Goths. He
immediately demanded, though in civil language, all the gold and
silver in her possession; and was astonished at the readiness
with which she conducted him to a splendid hoard of massy plate,
of the richest materials, and the most curious workmanship. The
Barbarian viewed with wonder and delight this valuable
acquisition, till he was interrupted by a serious admonition,
addressed to him in the following words: "These," said she, "are
the consecrated vessels belonging to St. Peter: if you presume to
touch them, the sacrilegious deed will remain on your conscience.
For my part, I dare not keep what I am unable to defend." The
Gothic captain, struck with reverential awe, despatched a
messenger to inform the king of the treasure which he had
discovered; and received a peremptory order from Alaric, that all
the consecrated plate and ornaments should be transported,
without damage or delay, to the church of the apostle. From the
extremity, perhaps, of the Quirinal hill, to the distant quarter
of the Vatican, a numerous detachment of Goths, marching in order
of battle through the principal streets, protected, with
glittering arms, the long train of their devout companions, who
bore aloft, on their heads, the sacred vessels of gold and
silver; and the martial shouts of the Barbarians were mingled
with the sound of religious psalmody. From all the adjacent
houses, a crowd of Christians hastened to join this edifying
procession; and a multitude of fugitives, without distinction of
age, or rank, or even of sect, had the good fortune to escape to
the secure and hospitable sanctuary of the Vatican. The learned
work, concerning the City of God, was
professedly composed by St. Augustin, to justify the ways of
Providence in the destruction of the Roman greatness. He
celebrates, with peculiar satisfaction, this memorable triumph of
Christ; and insults his adversaries, by challenging them to
produce some similar example of a town taken by storm, in which
the fabulous gods of antiquity had been able to protect either
themselves or their deluded votaries.
In the sack of Rome, some rare and extraordinary examples of
Barbarian virtue have been deservedly applauded. But the holy
precincts of the Vatican, and the apostolic churches, could
receive a very small proportion of the Roman people; many
thousand warriors, more especially of the Huns, who served under
the standard of Alaric, were strangers to the name, or at least
to the faith, of Christ; and we may suspect, without any breach
of charity or candor, that in the hour of savage license, when
every passion was inflamed, and every restraint was removed, the
precepts of the Gospel seldom influenced the behavior of the
Gothic Christians. The writers, the best disposed to exaggerate
their clemency, have freely confessed, that a cruel slaughter was
made of the Romans; and that the streets of the city were filled
with dead bodies, which remained without burial during the
general consternation. The despair of the citizens was sometimes
converted into fury: and whenever the Barbarians were provoked by
opposition, they extended the promiscuous massacre to the feeble,
the innocent, and the helpless. The private revenge of forty
thousand slaves was exercised without pity or remorse; and the
ignominious lashes, which they had formerly received, were washed
away in the blood of the guilty, or obnoxious, families. The
matrons and virgins of Rome were exposed to injuries more
dreadful, in the apprehension of chastity, than death itself; and
the ecclesiastical historian has selected an example of female
virtue, for the admiration of future ages. A Roman lady, of
singular beauty and orthodox faith, had excited the impatient
desires of a young Goth, who, according to the sagacious remark
of Sozomen, was attached to the Arian heresy. Exasperated by her
obstinate resistance, he drew his sword, and, with the anger of a
lover, slightly wounded her neck. The bleeding heroine still
continued to brave his resentment, and to repel his love, till
the ravisher desisted from his unavailing efforts, respectfully
conducted her to the sanctuary of the Vatican, and gave six
pieces of gold to the guards of the church, on condition that
they should restore her inviolate to the arms of her husband.
Such instances of courage and generosity were not extremely
common. The brutal soldiers satisfied their sensual appetites,
without consulting either the inclination or the duties of their
female captives: and a nice question of casuistry was seriously
agitated, Whether those tender victims, who had inflexibly
refused their consent to the violation which they sustained, had
lost, by their misfortune, the glorious crown of virginity. Their
were other losses indeed of a more substantial kind, and more
general concern. It cannot be presumed, that all the Barbarians
were at all times capable of perpetrating such amorous outrages;
and the want of youth, or beauty, or chastity, protected the
greatest part of the Roman women from the danger of a rape. But
avarice is an insatiate and universal passion; since the
enjoyment of almost every object that can afford pleasure to the
different tastes and tempers of mankind may be procured by the
possession of wealth. In the pillage of Rome, a just preference
was given to gold and jewels, which contain the greatest value in
the smallest compass and weight: but, after these portable riches
had been removed by the more diligent robbers, the palaces of
Rome were rudely stripped of their splendid and costly furniture.
The sideboards of massy plate, and the variegated wardrobes of
silk and purple, were irregularly piled in the wagons, that
always followed the march of a Gothic army. The most exquisite
works of art were roughly handled, or wantonly destroyed; many a
statue was melted for the sake of the precious materials; and
many a vase, in the division of the spoil, was shivered into
fragments by the stroke of a battle-axe. The acquisition of
riches served only to stimulate the avarice of the rapacious
Barbarians, who proceeded, by threats, by blows, and by tortures,
to force from their prisoners the confession of hidden treasure.
Visible splendor and expense were alleged as the proof of a
plentiful fortune; the appearance of poverty was imputed to a
parsimonious disposition; and the obstinacy of some misers, who
endured the most cruel torments before they would discover the
secret object of their affection, was fatal to many unhappy
wretches, who expired under the lash, for refusing to reveal
their imaginary treasures. The edifices of Rome, though the
damage has been much exaggerated, received some injury from the
violence of the Goths. At their entrance through the Salarian
gate, they fired the adjacent houses to guide their march, and to
distract the attention of the citizens; the flames, which
encountered no obstacle in the disorder of the night, consumed
many private and public buildings; and the ruins of the palace of
Sallust remained, in the age of Justinian, a stately monument of
the Gothic conflagration. Yet a contemporary historian has
observed, that fire could scarcely consume the enormous beams of
solid brass, and that the strength of man was insufficient to
subvert the foundations of ancient structures. Some truth may
possibly be concealed in his devout assertion, that the wrath of
Heaven supplied the imperfections of hostile rage; and that the
proud Forum of Rome, decorated with the statues of so many gods
and heroes, was levelled in the dust by the stroke of
lightning.
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of
Territories By Barbarians. -- Part V.
Whatever might be the numbers of equestrian or plebeian rank,
who perished in the massacre of Rome, it is confidently affirmed
that only one senator lost his life by the sword of the enemy.
But it was not easy to compute the multitudes, who, from an
honorable station and a prosperous fortune, were suddenly reduced
to the miserable condition of captives and exiles. As the
Barbarians had more occasion for money than for slaves, they
fixed at a moderate price the redemption of their indigent
prisoners; and the ransom was often paid by the benevolence of
their friends, or the charity of strangers. The captives, who
were regularly sold, either in open market, or by private
contract, would have legally regained their native freedom, which
it was impossible for a citizen to lose, or to alienate. But as
it was soon discovered that the vindication of their liberty
would endanger their lives; and that the Goths, unless they were
tempted to sell, might be provoked to murder, their useless
prisoners; the civil jurisprudence had been already qualified by
a wise regulation, that they should be obliged to serve the
moderate term of five years, till they had discharged by their
labor the price of their redemption. The nations who invaded the
Roman empire, had driven before them, into Italy, whole troops of
hungry and affrighted provincials, less apprehensive of servitude
than of famine. The calamities of Rome and Italy dispersed the
inhabitants to the most lonely, the most secure, the most distant
places of refuge. While the Gothic cavalry spread terror and
desolation along the sea-coast of Campania and Tuscany, the
little island of Igilium, separated by a narrow channel from the
Argentarian promontory, repulsed, or eluded, their hostile
attempts; and at so small a distance from Rome, great numbers of
citizens were securely concealed in the thick woods of that
sequestered spot. The ample patrimonies, which many senatorian
families possessed in Africa, invited them, if they had time, and
prudence, to escape from the ruin of their country, to embrace
the shelter of that hospitable province. The most illustrious of
these fugitives was the noble and pious Proba, the widow of the
præfect Petronius. After the death of her husband, the most
powerful subject of Rome, she had remained at the head of the
Anician family, and successively supplied, from her private
fortune, the expense of the consulships of her three sons. When
the city was besieged and taken by the Goths, Proba supported,
with Christian resignation, the loss of immense riches; embarked
in a small vessel, from whence she beheld, at sea, the flames of
her burning palace, and fled with her daughter Læta, and
her granddaughter, the celebrated virgin, Demetrias, to the coast
of Africa. The benevolent profusion with which the matron
distributed the fruits, or the price, of her estates, contributed
to alleviate the misfortunes of exile and captivity. But even the
family of Proba herself was not exempt from the rapacious
oppression of Count Heraclian, who basely sold, in matrimonial
prostitution, the noblest maidens of Rome to the lust or avarice
of the Syrian merchants. The Italian fugitives were dispersed
through the provinces, along the coast of Egypt and Asia, as far
as Constantinople and Jerusalem; and the village of Bethlem, the
solitary residence of St. Jerom and his female converts, was
crowded with illustrious beggars of either sex, and every age,
who excited the public compassion by the remembrance of their
past fortune. This awful catastrophe of Rome filled the
astonished empire with grief and terror. So interesting a
contrast of greatness and ruin, disposed the fond credulity of
the people to deplore, and even to exaggerate, the afflictions of
the queen of cities. The clergy, who applied to recent events the
lofty metaphors of oriental prophecy, were sometimes tempted to
confound the destruction of the capital and the dissolution of
the globe.
There exists in human nature a strong propensity to depreciate
the advantages, and to magnify the evils, of the present times.
Yet, when the first emotions had subsided, and a fair estimate
was made of the real damage, the more learned and judicious
contemporaries were forced to confess, that infant Rome had
formerly received more essential injury from the Gauls, than she
had now sustained from the Goths in her declining age. The
experience of eleven centuries has enabled posterity to produce a
much more singular parallel; and to affirm with confidence, that
the ravages of the Barbarians, whom Alaric had led from the banks
of the Danube, were less destructive than the hostilities
exercised by the troops of Charles the Fifth, a Catholic prince,
who styled himself Emperor of the Romans. The Goths evacuated the
city at the end of six days, but Rome remained above nine months
in the possession of the Imperialists; and every hour was stained
by some atrocious act of cruelty, lust, and rapine. The authority
of Alaric preserved some order and moderation among the ferocious
multitude which acknowledged him for their leader and king; but
the constable of Bourbon had gloriously fallen in the attack of
the walls; and the death of the general removed every restraint
of discipline from an army which consisted of three independent
nations, the Italians, the Spaniards, and the Germans. In the
beginning of the sixteenth century, the manners of Italy
exhibited a remarkable scene of the depravity of mankind. They
united the sanguinary crimes that prevail in an unsettled state
of society, with the polished vices which spring from the abuse
of art and luxury; and the loose adventurers, who had violated
every prejudice of patriotism and superstition to assault the
palace of the Roman pontiff, must deserve to be considered as the
most profligate of the Italians. At the
same æra, the Spaniards were the
terror both of the Old and New World: but their high- spirited
valor was disgraced by gloomy pride, rapacious avarice, and
unrelenting cruelty. Indefatigable in the pursuit of fame and
riches, they had improved, by repeated practice, the most
exquisite and effectual methods of torturing their prisoners:
many of the Castilians, who pillaged Rome, were familiars of the
holy inquisition; and some volunteers, perhaps, were lately
returned from the conquest of Mexico The
Germans were less corrupt than the
Italians, less cruel than the Spaniards; and the rustic, or even
savage, aspect of those Tramontane
warriors, often disguised a simple and merciful disposition. But
they had imbibed, in the first fervor of the reformation, the
spirit, as well as the principles of Luther. It was their
favorite amusement to insult, or destroy, the consecrated objects
of Catholic superstition; they indulged, without pity or remorse,
a devout hatred against the clergy of every denomination and
degree, who form so considerable a part of the inhabitants of
modern Rome; and their fanatic zeal might aspire to subvert the
throne of Antichrist, to purify, with blood and fire, the
abominations of the spiritual Babylon.
The retreat of the victorious Goths, who evacuated Rome on the
sixth day, might be the result of prudence; but it was not surely
the effect of fear. At the head of an army encumbered with rich
and weighty spoils, their intrepid leader advanced along the
Appian way into the southern provinces of Italy, destroying
whatever dared to oppose his passage, and contenting himself with
the plunder of the unresisting country. The fate of Capua, the
proud and luxurious metropolis of Campania, and which was
respected, even in its decay, as the eighth city of the empire,
is buried in oblivion; whilst the adjacent town of Nola has been
illustrated, on this occasion, by the sanctity of Paulinus, who
was successively a consul, a monk, and a bishop. At the age of
forty, he renounced the enjoyment of wealth and honor, of society
and literature, to embrace a life of solitude and penance; and
the loud applause of the clergy encouraged him to despise the
reproaches of his worldly friends, who ascribed this desperate
act to some disorder of the mind or body. An early and passionate
attachment determined him to fix his humble dwelling in one of
the suburbs of Nola, near the miraculous tomb of St. Fælix,
which the public devotion had already surrounded with five large
and populous churches. The remains of his fortune, and of his
understanding, were dedicated to the service of the glorious
martyr; whose praise, on the day of his festival, Paulinus never
failed to celebrate by a solemn hymn; and in whose name he
erected a sixth church, of superior elegance and beauty, which
was decorated with many curious pictures, from the history of the
Old and New Testament. Such assiduous zeal secured the favor of
the saint, or at least of the people; and, after fifteen years'
retirement, the Roman consul was compelled to accept the
bishopric of Nola, a few months before the city was invested by
the Goths. During the siege, some religious persons were
satisfied that they had seen, either in dreams or visions, the
divine form of their tutelar patron; yet it soon appeared by the
event, that Fælix wanted power, or inclination, to preserve
the flock of which he had formerly been the shepherd. Nola was
not saved from the general devastation; and the captive bishop
was protected only by the general opinion of his innocence and
poverty. Above four years elapsed from the successful invasion of
Italy by the arms of Alaric, to the voluntary retreat of the
Goths under the conduct of his successor Adolphus; and, during
the whole time, they reigned without control over a country,
which, in the opinion of the ancients, had united all the various
excellences of nature and art. The prosperity, indeed, which
Italy had attained in the auspicious age of the Antonines, had
gradually declined with the decline of the empire. The fruits of
a long peace perished under the rude grasp of the Barbarians; and
they themselves were incapable of tasting the more elegant
refinements of luxury, which had been prepared for the use of the
soft and polished Italians. Each soldier, however, claimed an
ample portion of the substantial plenty, the corn and cattle, oil
and wine, that was daily collected and consumed in the Gothic
camp; and the principal warriors insulted the villas and gardens,
once inhabited by Lucullus and Cicero, along the beauteous coast
of Campania. Their trembling captives, the sons and daughters of
Roman senators, presented, in goblets of gold and gems, large
draughts of Falernian wine to the haughty victors; who stretched
their huge limbs under the shade of plane-trees, artificially
disposed to exclude the scorching rays, and to admit the genial
warmth, of the sun. These delights were enhanced by the memory of
past hardships: the comparison of their native soil, the bleak
and barren hills of Scythia, and the frozen banks of the Elbe and
Danube, added new charms to the felicity of the Italian
climate.
Whether fame, or conquest, or riches, were the object or
Alaric, he pursued that object with an indefatigable ardor, which
could neither be quelled by adversity nor satiated by success. No
sooner had he reached the extreme land of Italy, than he was
attracted by the neighboring prospect of a fertile and peaceful
island. Yet even the possession of Sicily he considered only as
an intermediate step to the important expedition, which he
already meditated against the continent of Africa. The Straits of
Rhegium and Messina are twelve miles in length, and, in the
narrowest passage, about one mile and a half broad; and the
fabulous monsters of the deep, the rocks of Scylla, and the
whirlpool of Charybdis, could terrify none but the most timid and
unskilful mariners. Yet as soon as the first division of the
Goths had embarked, a sudden tempest arose, which sunk, or
scattered, many of the transports; their courage was daunted by
the terrors of a new element; and the whole design was defeated
by the premature death of Alaric, which fixed, after a short
illness, the fatal term of his conquests. The ferocious character
of the Barbarians was displayed in the funeral of a hero whose
valor and fortune they celebrated with mournful applause. By the
labor of a captive multitude, they forcibly diverted the course
of the Busentinus, a small river that washes the walls of
Consentia. The royal sepulchre, adorned with the splendid spoils
and trophies of Rome, was constructed in the vacant bed; the
waters were then restored to their natural channel; and the
secret spot, where the remains of Alaric had been deposited, was
forever concealed by the inhuman massacre of the prisoners, who
had been employed to execute the work.
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of
Territories By Barbarians. -- Part VI.
The personal animosities and hereditary feuds of the
Barbarians were suspended by the strong necessity of their
affairs; and the brave Adolphus, the brother-in-law of the
deceased monarch, was unanimously elected to succeed to his
throne. The character and political system of the new king of the
Goths may be best understood from his own conversation with an
illustrious citizen of Narbonne; who afterwards, in a pilgrimage
to the Holy Land, related it to St. Jerom, in the presence of the
historian Orosius. "In the full confidence of valor and victory,
I once aspired (said Adolphus) to change the face of the
universe; to obliterate the name of Rome; to erect on its ruins
the dominion of the Goths; and to acquire, like Augustus, the
immortal fame of the founder of a new empire. By repeated
experiments, I was gradually convinced, that laws are essentially
necessary to maintain and regulate a well-constituted state; and
that the fierce, untractable humor of the Goths was incapable of
bearing the salutary yoke of laws and civil government. From that
moment I proposed to myself a different object of glory and
ambition; and it is now my sincere wish that the gratitude of
future ages should acknowledge the merit of a stranger, who
employed the sword of the Goths, not to subvert, but to restore
and maintain, the prosperity of the Roman empire." With these
pacific views, the successor of Alaric suspended the operations
of war; and seriously negotiated with the Imperial court a treaty
of friendship and alliance. It was the interest of the ministers
of Honorius, who were now released from the obligation of their
extravagant oath, to deliver Italy from the intolerable weight of
the Gothic powers; and they readily accepted their service
against the tyrants and Barbarians who infested the provinces
beyond the Alps. Adolphus, assuming the character of a Roman
general, directed his march from the extremity of Campania to the
southern provinces of Gaul. His troops, either by force of
agreement, immediately occupied the cities of Narbonne,
Thoulouse, and Bordeaux; and though they were repulsed by Count
Boniface from the walls of Marseilles, they soon extended their
quarters from the Mediterranean to the Ocean. The oppressed
provincials might exclaim, that the miserable remnant, which the
enemy had spared, was cruelly ravished by their pretended allies;
yet some specious colors were not wanting to palliate, or justify
the violence of the Goths. The cities of Gaul, which they
attacked, might perhaps be considered as in a state of rebellion
against the government of Honorius: the articles of the treaty,
or the secret instructions of the court, might sometimes be
alleged in favor of the seeming usurpations of Adolphus; and the
guilt of any irregular, unsuccessful act of hostility might
always be imputed, with an appearance of truth, to the
ungovernable spirit of a Barbarian host, impatient of peace or
discipline. The luxury of Italy had been less effectual to soften
the temper, than to relax the courage, of the Goths; and they had
imbibed the vices, without imitating the arts and institutions,
of civilized society.
The professions of Adolphus were probably sincere, and his
attachment to the cause of the republic was secured by the
ascendant which a Roman princess had acquired over the heart and
understanding of the Barbarian king. Placidia, the daughter of
the great Theodosius, and of Galla, his second wife, had received
a royal education in the palace of Constantinople; but the
eventful story of her life is connected with the revolutions
which agitated the Western empire under the reign of her brother
Honorius. When Rome was first invested by the arms of Alaric,
Placidia, who was then about twenty years of age, resided in the
city; and her ready consent to the death of her cousin Serena has
a cruel and ungrateful appearance, which, according to the
circumstances of the action, may be aggravated, or excused, by
the consideration of her tender age. The victorious Barbarians
detained, either as a hostage or a captive, the sister of
Honorius; but, while she was exposed to the disgrace of following
round Italy the motions of a Gothic camp, she experienced,
however, a decent and respectful treatment. The authority of
Jornandes, who praises the beauty of Placidia, may perhaps be
counterbalanced by the silence, the expressive silence, of her
flatterers: yet the splendor of her birth, the bloom of youth,
the elegance of manners, and the dexterous insinuation which she
condescended to employ, made a deep impression on the mind of
Adolphus; and the Gothic king aspired to call himself the brother
of the emperor. The ministers of Honorius rejected with disdain
the proposal of an alliance so injurious to every sentiment of
Roman pride; and repeatedly urged the restitution of Placidia, as
an indispensable condition of the treaty of peace. But the
daughter of Theodosius submitted, without reluctance, to the
desires of the conqueror, a young and valiant prince, who yielded
to Alaric in loftiness of stature, but who excelled in the more
attractive qualities of grace and beauty. The marriage of
Adolphus and Placidia was consummated before the Goths retired
from Italy; and the solemn, perhaps the anniversary day of their
nuptials was afterwards celebrated in the house of Ingenuus, one
of the most illustrious citizens of Narbonne in Gaul. The bride,
attired and adorned like a Roman empress, was placed on a throne
of state; and the king of the Goths, who assumed, on this
occasion, the Roman habit, contented himself with a less
honorable seat by her side. The nuptial gift, which, according to
the custom of his nation, was offered to Placidia, consisted of
the rare and magnificent spoils of her country. Fifty beautiful
youths, in silken robes, carried a basin in each hand; and one of
these basins was filled with pieces of gold, the other with
precious stones of an inestimable value. Attalus, so long the
sport of fortune, and of the Goths, was appointed to lead the
chorus of the Hymeneal song; and the degraded emperor might
aspire to the praise of a skilful musician. The Barbarians
enjoyed the insolence of their triumph; and the provincials
rejoiced in this alliance, which tempered, by the mild influence
of love and reason, the fierce spirit of their Gothic lord.
The hundred basins of gold and gems, presented to Placidia at
her nuptial feast, formed an inconsiderable portion of the Gothic
treasures; of which some extraordinary specimens may be selected
from the history of the successors of Adolphus. Many curious and
costly ornaments of pure gold, enriched with jewels, were found
in their palace of Narbonne, when it was pillaged, in the sixth
century, by the Franks: sixty cups, caps, or chalices; fifteen
patens, or plates, for the use of the
communion; twenty boxes, or cases, to hold the books of the
Gospels: this consecrated wealth was distributed by the son of
Clovis among the churches of his dominions, and his pious
liberality seems to upbraid some former sacrilege of the Goths.
They possessed, with more security of conscience, the famous
missorium, or great dish for the
service of the table, of massy gold, of the weight of five
hundred pounds, and of far superior value, from the precious
stones, the exquisite workmanship, and the tradition, that it had
been presented by Ætius, the patrician, to Torismond, king
of the Goths. One of the successors of Torismond purchased the
aid of the French monarch by the promise of this magnificent
gift. When he was seated on the throne of Spain, he delivered it
with reluctance to the ambassadors of Dagobert; despoiled them on
the road; stipulated, after a long negotiation, the inadequate
ransom of two hundred thousand pieces of gold; and preserved the
missorium, as the pride of the Gothic
treasury. When that treasury, after the conquest of Spain, was
plundered by the Arabs, they admired, and they have celebrated,
another object still more remarkable; a table of considerable
size, of one single piece of solid emerald, encircled with three
rows of fine pearls, supported by three hundred and sixty-five
feet of gems and massy gold, and estimated at the price of five
hundred thousand pieces of gold. Some portion of the Gothic
treasures might be the gift of friendship, or the tribute of
obedience; but the far greater part had been the fruits of war
and rapine, the spoils of the empire, and perhaps of Rome.
After the deliverance of Italy from the oppression of the
Goths, some secret counsellor was permitted, amidst the factions
of the palace, to heal the wounds of that afflicted country. By a
wise and humane regulation, the eight provinces which had been
the most deeply injured, Campania, Tuscany, Picenum, Samnium,
Apulia, Calabria, Bruttium, and Lucania, obtained an indulgence
of five years: the ordinary tribute was reduced to one fifth, and
even that fifth was destined to restore and support the useful
institution of the public posts. By another law, the lands which
had been left without inhabitants or cultivation, were granted,
with some diminution of taxes, to the neighbors who should
occupy, or the strangers who should solicit them; and the new
possessors were secured against the future claims of the fugitive
proprietors. About the same time a general amnesty was published
in the name of Honorius, to abolish the guilt and memory of all
the involuntary offences which had been
committed by his unhappy subjects, during the term of the public
disorder and calamity A decent and respectful attention was paid
to the restoration of the capital; the citizens were encouraged
to rebuild the edifices which had been destroyed or damaged by
hostile fire; and extraordinary supplies of corn were imported
from the coast of Africa. The crowds that so lately fled before
the sword of the Barbarians, were soon recalled by the hopes of
plenty and pleasure; and Albinus, præfect of Rome, informed
the court, with some anxiety and surprise, that, in a single day,
he had taken an account of the arrival of fourteen thousand
strangers. In less than seven years, the vestiges of the Gothic
invasion were almost obliterated; and the city appeared to resume
its former splendor and tranquillity. The venerable matron
replaced her crown of laurel, which had been ruffled by the
storms of war; and was still amused, in the last moment of her
decay, with the prophecies of revenge, of victory, and of eternal
dominion.
This apparent tranquillity was soon disturbed by the approach
of a hostile armament from the country which afforded the daily
subsistence of the Roman people. Heraclian, count of Africa, who,
under the most difficult and distressful circumstances, had
supported, with active loyalty, the cause of Honorius, was
tempted, in the year of his consulship, to assume the character
of a rebel, and the title of emperor. The ports of Africa were
immediately filled with the naval forces, at the head of which he
prepared to invade Italy: and his fleet, when it cast anchor at
the mouth of the Tyber, indeed surpassed the fleets of Xerxes and
Alexander, if all the vessels, including the royal galley, and
the smallest boat, did actually amount to the incredible number
of three thousand two hundred. Yet with such an armament, which
might have subverted, or restored, the greatest empires of the
earth, the African usurper made a very faint and feeble
impression on the provinces of his rival. As he marched from the
port, along the road which leads to the gates of Rome, he was
encountered, terrified, and routed, by one of the Imperial
captains; and the lord of this mighty host, deserting his fortune
and his friends, ignominiously fled with a single ship. When
Heraclian landed in the harbor of Carthage, he found that the
whole province, disdaining such an unworthy ruler, had returned
to their allegiance. The rebel was beheaded in the ancient temple
of Memory his consulship was abolished: and the remains of his
private fortune, not exceeding the moderate sum of four thousand
pounds of gold, were granted to the brave Constantius, who had
already defended the throne, which he afterwards shared with his
feeble sovereign. Honorius viewed, with supine indifference, the
calamities of Rome and Italy; but the rebellious attempts of
Attalus and Heraclian, against his personal safety, awakened, for
a moment, the torpid instinct of his nature. He was probably
ignorant of the causes and events which preserved him from these
impending dangers; and as Italy was no longer invaded by any
foreign or domestic enemies, he peaceably existed in the palace
of Ravenna, while the tyrants beyond the Alps were repeatedly
vanquished in the name, and by the lieutenants, of the son of
Theodosius. In the course of a busy and interesting narrative I
might possibly forget to mention the death of such a prince: and
I shall therefore take the precaution of observing, in this
place, that he survived the last siege of Rome about thirteen
years.
The usurpation of Constantine, who received the purple from
the legions of Britain, had been successful, and seemed to be
secure. His title was acknowledged, from the wall of Antoninus to
the columns of Hercules; and, in the midst of the public disorder
he shared the dominion, and the plunder, of Gaul and Spain, with
the tribes of Barbarians, whose destructive progress was no
longer checked by the Rhine or Pyrenees. Stained with the blood
of the kinsmen of Honorius, he extorted, from the court of
Ravenna, with which he secretly corresponded, the ratification of
his rebellious claims Constantine engaged himself, by a solemn
promise, to deliver Italy from the Goths; advanced as far as the
banks of the Po; and after alarming, rather than assisting, his
pusillanimous ally, hastily returned to the palace of Arles, to
celebrate, with intemperate luxury, his vain and ostentatious
triumph. But this transient prosperity was soon interrupted and
destroyed by the revolt of Count Gerontius, the bravest of his
generals; who, during the absence of his son Constants, a prince
already invested with the Imperial purple, had been left to
command in the provinces of Spain. From some reason, of which we
are ignorant, Gerontius, instead of assuming the diadem, placed
it on the head of his friend Maximus, who fixed his residence at
Tarragona, while the active count pressed forwards, through the
Pyrenees, to surprise the two emperors, Constantine and Constans,
before they could prepare for their defence. The son was made
prisoner at Vienna, and immediately put to death: and the
unfortunate youth had scarcely leisure to deplore the elevation
of his family; which had tempted, or compelled him,
sacrilegiously to desert the peaceful obscurity of the monastic
life. The father maintained a siege within the walls of Arles;
but those walls must have yielded to the assailants, had not the
city been unexpectedly relieved by the approach of an Italian
army. The name of Honorius, the proclamation of a lawful emperor,
astonished the contending parties of the rebels. Gerontius,
abandoned by his own troops, escaped to the confines of Spain;
and rescued his name from oblivion, by the Roman courage which
appeared to animate the last moments of his life. In the middle
of the night, a great body of his perfidious soldiers surrounded
and attacked his house, which he had strongly barricaded. His
wife, a valiant friend of the nation of the Alani, and some
faithful slaves, were still attached to his person; and he used,
with so much skill and resolution, a large magazine of darts and
arrows, that above three hundred of the assailants lost their
lives in the attempt. His slaves when all the missile weapons
were spent, fled at the dawn of day; and Gerontius, if he had not
been restrained by conjugal tenderness, might have imitated their
example; till the soldiers, provoked by such obstinate
resistance, applied fire on all sides to the house. In this fatal
extremity, he complied with the request of his Barbarian friend,
and cut off his head. The wife of Gerontius, who conjured him not
to abandon her to a life of misery and disgrace, eagerly
presented her neck to his sword; and the tragic scene was
terminated by the death of the count himself, who, after three
ineffectual strokes, drew a short dagger, and sheathed it in his
heart. The unprotected Maximus, whom he had invested with the
purple, was indebted for his life to the contempt that was
entertained of his power and abilities. The caprice of the
Barbarians, who ravaged Spain, once more seated this Imperial
phantom on the throne: but they soon resigned him to the justice
of Honorius; and the tyrant Maximus, after he had been shown to
the people of Ravenna and Rome, was publicly executed.
The general, (Constantius was his name,) who raised by his
approach the siege of Arles, and dissipated the troops of
Gerontius, was born a Roman; and this remarkable distinction is
strongly expressive of the decay of military spirit among the
subjects of the empire. The strength and majesty which were
conspicuous in the person of that general, marked him, in the
popular opinion, as a candidate worthy of the throne, which he
afterwards ascended. In the familiar intercourse of private life,
his manners were cheerful and engaging; nor would he sometimes
disdain, in the license of convivial mirth, to vie with the
pantomimes themselves, in the exercises of their ridiculous
profession. But when the trumpet summoned him to arms; when he
mounted his horse, and, bending down (for such was his singular
practice) almost upon the neck, fiercely rolled his large
animated eyes round the field, Constantius then struck terror
into his foes, and inspired his soldiers with the assurance of
victory. He had received from the court of Ravenna the important
commission of extirpating rebellion in the provinces of the West;
and the pretended emperor Constantine, after enjoying a short and
anxious respite, was again besieged in his capital by the arms of
a more formidable enemy. Yet this interval allowed time for a
successful negotiation with the Franks and Alemanni and his
ambassador, Edobic, soon returned at the head of an army, to
disturb the operations of the siege of Arles. The Roman general,
instead of expecting the attack in his lines, boldly and perhaps
wisely, resolved to pass the Rhone, and to meet the Barbarians.
His measures were conducted with so much skill and secrecy, that,
while they engaged the infantry of Constantius in the front, they
were suddenly attacked, surrounded, and destroyed, by the cavalry
of his lieutenant Ulphilas, who had silently gained an
advantageous post in their rear. The remains of the army of
Edobic were preserved by flight or submission, and their leader
escaped from the field of battle to the house of a faithless
friend; who too clearly understood, that the head of his
obnoxious guest would be an acceptable and lucrative present for
the Imperial general. On this occasion, Constantius behaved with
the magnanimity of a genuine Roman. Subduing, or suppressing,
every sentiment of jealousy, he publicly acknowledged the merit
and services of Ulphilas; but he turned with horror from the
assassin of Edobic; and sternly intimated his commands, that the
camp should no longer be polluted by the presence of an
ungrateful wretch, who had violated the laws of friendship and
hospitality. The usurper, who beheld, from the walls of Arles,
the ruin of his last hopes, was tempted to place some confidence
in so generous a conqueror. He required a solemn promise for his
security; and after receiving, by the imposition of hands, the
sacred character of a Christian Presbyter, he ventured to open
the gates of the city. But he soon experienced that the
principles of honor and integrity, which might regulate the
ordinary conduct of Constantius, were superseded by the loose
doctrines of political morality. The Roman general, indeed,
refused to sully his laurels with the blood of Constantine; but
the abdicated emperor, and his son Julian, were sent under a
strong guard into Italy; and before they reached the palace of
Ravenna, they met the ministers of death.
At a time when it was universally confessed, that almost every
man in the empire was superior in personal merit to the princes
whom the accident of their birth had seated on the throne, a
rapid succession of usurpers, regardless of the fate of their
predecessors, still continued to arise. This mischief was
peculiarly felt in the provinces of Spain and Gaul, where the
principles of order and obedience had been extinguished by war
and rebellion. Before Constantine resigned the purple, and in the
fourth month of the siege of Arles, intelligence was received in
the Imperial camp, that Jovinus has assumed the diadem at Mentz,
in the Upper Germany, at the instigation of Goar, king of the
Alani, and of Guntiarius, king of the Burgundians; and that the
candidate, on whom they had bestowed the empire, advanced with a
formidable host of Barbarians, from the banks of the Rhine to
those of the Rhone. Every circumstance is dark and extraordinary
in the short history of the reign of Jovinus. It was natural to
expect, that a brave and skilful general, at the head of a
victorious army, would have asserted, in a field of battle, the
justice of the cause of Honorius. The hasty retreat of
Constantius might be justified by weighty reasons; but he
resigned, without a struggle, the possession of Gaul; and
Dardanus, the Prætorian præfect, is recorded as the
only magistrate who refused to yield obedience to the usurper.
When the Goths, two years after the siege of Rome, established
their quarters in Gaul, it was natural to suppose that their
inclinations could be divided only between the emperor Honorius,
with whom they had formed a recent alliance, and the degraded
Attalus, whom they reserved in their camp for the occasional
purpose of acting the part of a musician or a monarch. Yet in a
moment of disgust, (for which it is not easy to assign a cause,
or a date,) Adolphus connected himself with the usurper of Gaul;
and imposed on Attalus the ignominious task of negotiating the
treaty, which ratified his own disgrace. We are again surprised
to read, that, instead of considering the Gothic alliance as the
firmest support of his throne, Jovinus upbraided, in dark and
ambiguous language, the officious importunity of Attalus; that,
scorning the advice of his great ally, he invested with the
purple his brother Sebastian; and that he most imprudently
accepted the service of Sarus, when that gallant chief, the
soldier of Honorius, was provoked to desert the court of a
prince, who knew not how to reward or punish. Adolphus, educated
among a race of warriors, who esteemed the duty of revenge as the
most precious and sacred portion of their inheritance, advanced
with a body of ten thousand Goths to encounter the hereditary
enemy of the house of Balti. He attacked Sarus at an unguarded
moment, when he was accompanied only by eighteen or twenty of his
valiant followers. United by friendship, animated by despair, but
at length oppressed by multitudes, this band of heroes deserved
the esteem, without exciting the compassion, of their enemies;
and the lion was no sooner taken in the toils, than he was
instantly despatched. The death of Sarus dissolved the loose
alliance which Adolphus still maintained with the usurpers of
Gaul. He again listened to the dictates of love and prudence; and
soon satisfied the brother of Placidia, by the assurance that he
would immediately transmit to the palace of Ravenna the heads of
the two tyrants, Jovinus and Sebastian. The king of the Goths
executed his promise without difficulty or delay; the helpless
brothers, unsupported by any personal merit, were abandoned by
their Barbarian auxiliaries; and the short opposition of Valentia
was expiated by the ruin of one of the noblest cities of Gaul.
The emperor, chosen by the Roman senate, who had been promoted,
degraded, insulted, restored, again degraded, and again insulted,
was finally abandoned to his fate; but when the Gothic king
withdrew his protection, he was restrained, by pity or contempt,
from offering any violence to the person of Attalus. The
unfortunate Attalus, who was left without subjects or allies,
embarked in one of the ports of Spain, in search of some secure
and solitary retreat: but he was intercepted at sea, conducted to
the presence of Honorius, led in triumph through the streets of
Rome or Ravenna, and publicly exposed to the gazing multitude, on
the second step of the throne of his invincible conqueror. The
same measure of punishment, with which, in the days of his
prosperity, he was accused of menacing his rival, was inflicted
on Attalus himself; he was condemned, after the amputation of two
fingers, to a perpetual exile in the Isle of Lipari, where he was
supplied with the decent necessaries of life. The remainder of
the reign of Honorius was undisturbed by rebellion; and it may be
observed, that, in the space of five years, seven usurpers had
yielded to the fortune of a prince, who was himself incapable
either of counsel or of action.
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of
Territories By Barbarians. -- Part VII.
The situation of Spain, separated, on all sides, from the
enemies of Rome, by the sea, by the mountains, and by
intermediate provinces, had secured the long tranquillity of that
remote and sequestered country; and we may observe, as a sure
symptom of domestic happiness, that, in a period of four hundred
years, Spain furnished very few materials to the history of the
Roman empire. The footsteps of the Barbarians, who, in the reign
of Gallienus, had penetrated beyond the Pyrenees, were soon
obliterated by the return of peace; and in the fourth century of
the Christian æra, the cities of Emerita, or Merida, of
Corduba, Seville, Bracara, and Tarragona, were numbered with the
most illustrious of the Roman world. The various plenty of the
animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms, was improved and
manufactured by the skill of an industrious people; and the
peculiar advantages of naval stores contributed to support an
extensive and profitable trade. The arts and sciences flourished
under the protection of the emperors; and if the character of the
Spaniards was enfeebled by peace and servitude, the hostile
approach of the Germans, who had spread terror and desolation
from the Rhine to the Pyrenees, seemed to rekindle some sparks of
military ardor. As long as the defence of the mountains was
intrusted to the hardy and faithful militia of the country, they
successfully repelled the frequent attempts of the Barbarians.
But no sooner had the national troops been compelled to resign
their post to the Honorian bands, in the service of Constantine,
than the gates of Spain were treacherously betrayed to the public
enemy, about ten months before the sack of Rome by the Goths. The
consciousness of guilt, and the thirst of rapine, prompted the
mercenary guards of the Pyrenees to desert their station; to
invite the arms of the Suevi, the Vandals, and the Alani; and to
swell the torrent which was poured with irresistible violence
from the frontiers of Gaul to the sea of Africa. The misfortunes
of Spain may be described in the language of its most eloquent
historian, who has concisely expressed the passionate, and
perhaps exaggerated, declamations of contemporary writers. "The
irruption of these nations was followed by the most dreadful
calamities; as the Barbarians exercised their indiscriminate
cruelty on the fortunes of the Romans and the Spaniards, and
ravaged with equal fury the cities and the open country. The
progress of famine reduced the miserable inhabitants to feed on
the flesh of their fellow-creatures; and even the wild beasts,
who multiplied, without control, in the desert, were exasperated,
by the taste of blood, and the impatience of hunger, boldly to
attack and devour their human prey. Pestilence soon appeared, the
inseparable companion of famine; a large proportion of the people
was swept away; and the groans of the dying excited only the envy
of their surviving friends. At length the Barbarians, satiated
with carnage and rapine, and afflicted by the contagious evils
which they themselves had introduced, fixed their permanent seats
in the depopulated country. The ancient Gallicia, whose limits
included the kingdom of Old Castille, was divided between the
Suevi and the Vandals; the Alani were scattered over the
provinces of Carthagena and Lusitania, from the Mediterranean to
the Atlantic Ocean; and the fruitful territory of Btica was
allotted to the Silingi, another branch of the Vandalic nation.
After regulating this partition, the conquerors contracted with
their new subjects some reciprocal engagements of protection and
obedience: the lands were again cultivated; and the towns and
villages were again occupied by a captive people. The greatest
part of the Spaniards was even disposed to prefer this new
condition of poverty and barbarism, to the severe oppressions of
the Roman government; yet there were many who still asserted
their native freedom; and who refused, more especially in the
mountains of Gallicia, to submit to the Barbarian yoke."
The important present of the heads of Jovinus and Sebastian
had approved the friendship of Adolphus, and restored Gaul to the
obedience of his brother Honorius. Peace was incompatible with
the situation and temper of the king of the Goths. He readily
accepted the proposal of turning his victorious arms against the
Barbarians of Spain; the troops of Constantius intercepted his
communication with the seaports of Gaul, and gently pressed his
march towards the Pyrenees: he passed the mountains, and
surprised, in the name of the emperor, the city of Barcelona. The
fondness of Adolphus for his Roman bride, was not abated by time
or possession: and the birth of a son, surnamed, from his
illustrious grandsire, Theodosius, appeared to fix him forever in
the interest of the republic. The loss of that infant, whose
remains were deposited in a silver coffin in one of the churches
near Barcelona, afflicted his parents; but the grief of the
Gothic king was suspended by the labors of the field; and the
course of his victories was soon interrupted by domestic treason.
He had imprudently received into his service one of the followers
of Sarus; a Barbarian of a daring spirit, but of a diminutive
stature; whose secret desire of revenging the death of his
beloved patron was continually irritated by the sarcasms of his
insolent master. Adolphus was assassinated in the palace of
Barcelona; the laws of the succession were violated by a
tumultuous faction; and a stranger to the royal race, Singeric,
the brother of Sarus himself, was seated on the Gothic throne.
The first act of his reign was the inhuman murder of the six
children of Adolphus, the issue of a former marriage, whom he
tore, without pity, from the feeble arms of a venerable bishop.
The unfortunate Placidia, instead of the respectful compassion,
which she might have excited in the most savage breasts, was
treated with cruel and wanton insult. The daughter of the emperor
Theodosius, confounded among a crowd of vulgar captives, was
compelled to march on foot above twelve miles, before the horse
of a Barbarian, the assassin of a husband whom Placidia loved and
lamented.
But Placidia soon obtained the pleasure of revenge, and the
view of her ignominious sufferings might rouse an indignant
people against the tyrant, who was assassinated on the seventh
day of his usurpation. After the death of Singeric, the free
choice of the nation bestowed the Gothic sceptre on Wallia; whose
warlike and ambitious temper appeared, in the beginning of his
reign, extremely hostile to the republic. He marched in arms from
Barcelona to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, which the ancients
revered and dreaded as the boundary of the world. But when he
reached the southern promontory of Spain, and, from the rock now
covered by the fortress of Gibraltar, contemplated the
neighboring and fertile coast of Africa, Wallia resumed the
designs of conquest, which had been interrupted by the death of
Alaric. The winds and waves again disappointed the enterprise of
the Goths; and the minds of a superstitious people were deeply
affected by the repeated disasters of storms and shipwrecks. In
this disposition the successor of Adolphus no longer refused to
listen to a Roman ambassador, whose proposals were enforced by
the real, or supposed, approach of a numerous army, under the
conduct of the brave Constantius. A solemn treaty was stipulated
and observed; Placidia was honorably restored to her brother; six
hundred thousand measures of wheat were delivered to the hungry
Goths; and Wallia engaged to draw his sword in the service of the
empire. A bloody war was instantly excited among the Barbarians
of Spain; and the contending princes are said to have addressed
their letters, their ambassadors, and their hostages, to the
throne of the Western emperor, exhorting him to remain a tranquil
spectator of their contest; the events of which must be favorable
to the Romans, by the mutual slaughter of their common enemies.
The Spanish war was obstinately supported, during three
campaigns, with desperate valor, and various success; and the
martial achievements of Wallia diffused through the empire the
superior renown of the Gothic hero. He exterminated the Silingi,
who had irretrievably ruined the elegant plenty of the province
of Btica. He slew, in battle, the king of the Alani; and the
remains of those Scythian wanderers, who escaped from the field,
instead of choosing a new leader, humbly sought a refuge under
the standard of the Vandals, with whom they were ever afterwards
confounded. The Vandals themselves, and the Suevi, yielded to the
efforts of the invincible Goths. The promiscuous multitude of
Barbarians, whose retreat had been intercepted, were driven into
the mountains of Gallicia; where they still continued, in a
narrow compass and on a barren soil, to exercise their domestic
and implacable hostilities. In the pride of victory, Wallia was
faithful to his engagements: he restored his Spanish conquests to
the obedience of Honorius; and the tyranny of the Imperial
officers soon reduced an oppressed people to regret the time of
their Barbarian servitude. While the event of the war was still
doubtful, the first advantages obtained by the arms of Wallia had
encouraged the court of Ravenna to decree the honors of a triumph
to their feeble sovereign. He entered Rome like the ancient
conquerors of nations; and if the monuments of servile corruption
had not long since met with the fate which they deserved, we
should probably find that a crowd of poets and orators, of
magistrates and bishops, applauded the fortune, the wisdom, and
the invincible courage, of the emperor Honorius.
Such a triumph might have been justly claimed by the ally of
Rome, if Wallia, before he repassed the Pyrenees, had extirpated
the seeds of the Spanish war. His victorious Goths, forty-three
years after they had passed the Danube, were established,
according to the faith of treaties, in the possession of the
second Aquitain; a maritime province between the Garonne and the
Loire, under the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction of
Bourdeaux. That metropolis, advantageously situated for the trade
of the ocean, was built in a regular and elegant form; and its
numerous inhabitants were distinguished among the Gauls by their
wealth, their learning, and the politeness of their manners. The
adjacent province, which has been fondly compared to the garden
of Eden, is blessed with a fruitful soil, and a temperate
climate; the face of the country displayed the arts and the
rewards of industry; and the Goths, after their martial toils,
luxuriously exhausted the rich vineyards of Aquitain. The Gothic
limits were enlarged by the additional gift of some neighboring
dioceses; and the successors of Alaric fixed their royal
residence at Thoulouse, which included five populous quarters, or
cities, within the spacious circuit of its walls. About the same
time, in the last years of the reign of Honorius, the Goths, the
Burgundians, and the Franks, obtained a permanent seat and
dominion in the provinces of Gaul. The liberal grant of the
usurper Jovinus to his Burgundian allies, was confirmed by the
lawful emperor; the lands of the First, or Upper, Germany, were
ceded to those formidable Barbarians; and they gradually
occupied, either by conquest or treaty, the two provinces which
still retain, with the titles of Duchy
and County, the national appellation of
Burgundy. The Franks, the valiant and faithful allies of the
Roman republic, were soon tempted to imitate the invaders, whom
they had so bravely resisted. Treves, the capital of Gaul, was
pillaged by their lawless bands; and the humble colony, which
they so long maintained in the district of Toxandia, in Brabant,
insensibly multiplied along the banks of the Meuse and Scheld,
till their independent power filled the whole extent of the
Second, or Lower Germany. These facts may be sufficiently
justified by historic evidence; but the foundation of the French
monarchy by Pharamond, the conquests, the laws, and even the
existence, of that hero, have been justly arraigned by the
impartial severity of modern criticism.
The ruin of the opulent provinces of Gaul may be dated from
the establishment of these Barbarians, whose alliance was
dangerous and oppressive, and who were capriciously impelled, by
interest or passion, to violate the public peace. A heavy and
partial ransom was imposed on the surviving provincials, who had
escaped the calamities of war; the fairest and most fertile lands
were assigned to the rapacious strangers, for the use of their
families, their slaves, and their cattle; and the trembling
natives relinquished with a sigh the inheritance of their
fathers. Yet these domestic misfortunes, which are seldom the lot
of a vanquished people, had been felt and inflicted by the Romans
themselves, not only in the insolence of foreign conquest, but in
the madness of civil discord. The Triumvirs proscribed eighteen
of the most flourishing colonies of Italy; and distributed their
lands and houses to the veterans who revenged the death of
Cæsar, and oppressed the liberty of their country. Two
poets of unequal fame have deplored, in similar circumstances,
the loss of their patrimony; but the legionaries of Augustus
appear to have surpassed, in violence and injustice, the
Barbarians who invaded Gaul under the reign of Honorius. It was
not without the utmost difficulty that Virgil escaped from the
sword of the Centurion, who had usurped his farm in the
neighborhood of Mantua; but Paulinus of Bourdeaux received a sum
of money from his Gothic purchaser, which he accepted with
pleasure and surprise; and though it was much inferior to the
real value of his estate, this act of rapine was disguised by
some colors of moderation and equity. The odious name of
conquerors was softened into the mild and friendly appellation of
the guests of the Romans; and the Barbarians of Gaul, more
especially the Goths, repeatedly declared, that they were bound
to the people by the ties of hospitality, and to the emperor by
the duty of allegiance and military service. The title of
Honorius and his successors, their laws, and their civil
magistrates, were still respected in the provinces of Gaul, of
which they had resigned the possession to the Barbarian allies;
and the kings, who exercised a supreme and independent authority
over their native subjects, ambitiously solicited the more
honorable rank of master-generals of the Imperial armies. Such
was the involuntary reverence which the Roman name still
impressed on the minds of those warriors, who had borne away in
triumph the spoils of the Capitol.
Whilst Italy was ravaged by the Goths, and a succession of
feeble tyrants oppressed the provinces beyond the Alps, the
British island separated itself from the body of the Roman
empire. The regular forces, which guarded that remote province,
had been gradually withdrawn; and Britain was abandoned without
defence to the Saxon pirates, and the savages of Ireland and
Caledonia. The Britons, reduced to this extremity, no longer
relied on the tardy and doubtful aid of a declining monarchy.
They assembled in arms, repelled the invaders, and rejoiced in
the important discovery of their own strength. Afflicted by
similar calamities, and actuated by the same spirit, the
Armorican provinces (a name which comprehended the maritime
countries of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire ) resolved to
imitate the example of the neighboring island. They expelled the
Roman magistrates, who acted under the authority of the usurper
Constantine; and a free government was established among a people
who had so long been subject to the arbitrary will of a master.
The independence of Britain and Armorica was soon confirmed by
Honorius himself, the lawful emperor of the West; and the
letters, by which he committed to the new states the care of
their own safety, might be interpreted as an absolute and
perpetual abdication of the exercise and rights of sovereignty.
This interpretation was, in some measure, justified by the event.
After the usurpers of Gaul had successively fallen, the maritime
provinces were restored to the empire. Yet their obedience was
imperfect and precarious: the vain, inconstant, rebellious
disposition of the people, was incompatible either with freedom
or servitude; and Armorica, though it could not long maintain the
form of a republic, was agitated by frequent and destructive
revolts. Britain was irrecoverably lost. But as the emperors
wisely acquiesced in the independence of a remote province, the
separation was not imbittered by the reproach of tyranny or
rebellion; and the claims of allegiance and protection were
succeeded by the mutual and voluntary offices of national
friendship.
This revolution dissolved the artificial fabric of civil and
military government; and the independent country, during a period
of forty years, till the descent of the Saxons, was ruled by the
authority of the clergy, the nobles, and the municipal towns. I.
Zosimus, who alone has preserved the memory of this singular
transaction, very accurately observes, that the letters of
Honorius were addressed to the cities
of Britain. Under the protection of the Romans, ninety-two
considerable towns had arisen in the several parts of that great
province; and, among these, thirty-three cities were
distinguished above the rest by their superior privileges and
importance. Each of these cities, as in all the other provinces
of the empire, formed a legal corporation, for the purpose of
regulating their domestic policy; and the powers of municipal
government were distributed among annual magistrates, a select
senate, and the assembly of the people, according to the original
model of the Roman constitution. The management of a common
revenue, the exercise of civil and criminal jurisdiction, and the
habits of public counsel and command, were inherent to these
petty republics; and when they asserted their independence, the
youth of the city, and of the adjacent districts, would naturally
range themselves under the standard of the magistrate. But the
desire of obtaining the advantages, and of escaping the burdens,
of political society, is a perpetual and inexhaustible source of
discord; nor can it reasonably be presumed, that the restoration
of British freedom was exempt from tumult and faction. The
preeminence of birth and fortune must have been frequently
violated by bold and popular citizens; and the haughty nobles,
who complained that they were become the subjects of their own
servants, would sometimes regret the reign of an arbitrary
monarch. II. The jurisdiction of each city over the adjacent
country, was supported by the patrimonial influence of the
principal senators; and the smaller towns, the villages, and the
proprietors of land, consulted their own safety by adhering to
the shelter of these rising republics. The sphere of their
attraction was proportioned to the respective degrees of their
wealth and populousness; but the hereditary lords of ample
possessions, who were not oppressed by the neighborhood of any
powerful city, aspired to the rank of independent princes, and
boldly exercised the rights of peace and war. The gardens and
villas, which exhibited some faint imitation of Italian elegance,
would soon be converted into strong castles, the refuge, in time
of danger, of the adjacent country: the produce of the land was
applied to purchase arms and horses; to maintain a military force
of slaves, of peasants, and of licentious followers; and the
chieftain might assume, within his own domain, the powers of a
civil magistrate. Several of these British chiefs might be the
genuine posterity of ancient kings; and many more would be
tempted to adopt this honorable genealogy, and to vindicate their
hereditary claims, which had been suspended by the usurpation of
the Cæsars. Their situation and their hopes would dispose
them to affect the dress, the language, and the customs of their
ancestors. If the princes of Britain
relapsed into barbarism, while the
cities studiously preserved the laws
and manners of Rome, the whole island must have been gradually
divided by the distinction of two national parties; again broken
into a thousand subdivisions of war and faction, by the various
provocations of interest and resentment. The public strength,
instead of being united against a foreign enemy, was consumed in
obscure and intestine quarrels; and the personal merit which had
placed a successful leader at the head of his equals, might
enable him to subdue the freedom of some neighboring cities; and
to claim a rank among the tyrants, who
infested Britain after the dissolution of the Roman government.
III. The British church might be composed of thirty or forty
bishops, with an adequate proportion of the inferior clergy; and
the want of riches (for they seem to have been poor ) would
compel them to deserve the public esteem, by a decent and
exemplary behavior. The interest, as well as the temper of the
clergy, was favorable to the peace and union of their distracted
country: those salutary lessons might be frequently inculcated in
their popular discourses; and the episcopal synods were the only
councils that could pretend to the weight and authority of a
national assembly. In such councils, where the princes and
magistrates sat promiscuously with the bishops, the important
affairs of the state, as well as of the church, might be freely
debated; differences reconciled, alliances formed, contributions
imposed, wise resolutions often concerted, and sometimes
executed; and there is reason to believe, that, in moments of
extreme danger, a Pendragon, or
Dictator, was elected by the general consent of the Britons.
These pastoral cares, so worthy of the episcopal character, were
interrupted, however, by zeal and superstition; and the British
clergy incessantly labored to eradicate the Pelagian heresy,
which they abhorred, as the peculiar disgrace of their native
country.
It is somewhat remarkable, or rather it is extremely natural,
that the revolt of Britain and Armorica should have introduced an
appearance of liberty into the obedient provinces of Gaul. In a
solemn edict, filled with the strongest assurances of that
paternal affection which princes so often express, and so seldom
feel, the emperor Honorius promulgated his intention of convening
an annual assembly of the seven
provinces: a name peculiarly appropriated to
Aquitain and the ancient Narbonnese, which had long since
exchanged their Celtic rudeness for the useful and elegant arts
of Italy. Arles, the seat of government and commerce, was
appointed for the place of the assembly; which regularly
continued twenty-eight days, from the fifteenth of August to the
thirteenth of September, of every year. It consisted of the
Prætorian præfect of the Gauls; of seven provincial
governors, one consular, and six presidents; of the magistrates,
and perhaps the bishops, of about sixty cities; and of a
competent, though indefinite, number of the most honorable and
opulent possessors of land, who might
justly be considered as the representatives of their country.
They were empowered to interpret and communicate the laws of
their sovereign; to expose the grievances and wishes of their
constituents; to moderate the excessive or unequal weight of
taxes; and to deliberate on every subject of local or national
importance, that could tend to the restoration of the peace and
prosperity of the seven provinces. If such an institution, which
gave the people an interest in their own government, had been
universally established by Trajan or the Antonines, the seeds of
public wisdom and virtue might have been cherished and propagated
in the empire of Rome. The privileges of the subject would have
secured the throne of the monarch; the abuses of an arbitrary
administration might have been prevented, in some degree, or
corrected, by the interposition of these representative
assemblies; and the country would have been defended against a
foreign enemy by the arms of natives and freemen. Under the mild
and generous influence of liberty, the Roman empire might have
remained invincible and immortal; or if its excessive magnitude,
and the instability of human affairs, had opposed such perpetual
continuance, its vital and constituent members might have
separately preserved their vigor and independence. But in the
decline of the empire, when every principle of health and life
had been exhausted, the tardy application of this partial remedy
was incapable of producing any important or salutary effects. The
emperor Honorius expresses his surprise, that he must compel the
reluctant provinces to accept a privilege which they should
ardently have solicited. A fine of three, or even five, pounds of
gold, was imposed on the absent representatives; who seem to have
declined this imaginary gift of a free constitution, as the last
and most cruel insult of their oppressors.
Chapter XXXII: Emperors Arcadius, Eutropius,
Theodosius II.
Part I.
Arcadius Emperor Of The East. -- Administration And Disgrace
Of Eutropius. -- Revolt Of Gainas. -- Persecution Of St. John
Chrysostom. -- Theodosius II. Emperor Of The East. -- His Sister
Pulcheria. -- His Wife Eudocia. -- The Persian War, And Division
Of Armenia.
The division of the Roman world between the sons of Theodosius
marks the final establishment of the empire of the East, which,
from the reign of Arcadius to the taking of Constantinople by the
Turks, subsisted one thousand and fifty-eight years, in a state
of premature and perpetual decay. The sovereign of that empire
assumed, and obstinately retained, the vain, and at length
fictitious, title of Emperor of the Romans; and the hereditary
appellation of Cæsar and Augustus continued to declare,
that he was the legitimate successor of the first of men, who had
reigned over the first of nations. The place of Constantinople
rivalled, and perhaps excelled, the magnificence of Persia; and
the eloquent sermons of St. Chrysostom celebrate, while they
condemn, the pompous luxury of the reign of Arcadius. "The
emperor," says he, "wears on his head either a diadem, or a crown
of gold, decorated with precious stones of inestimable value.
These ornaments, and his purple garments, are reserved for his
sacred person alone; and his robes of silk are embroidered with
the figures of golden dragons. His throne is of massy gold.
Whenever he appears in public, he is surrounded by his courtiers,
his guards, and his attendants. Their spears, their shields,
their cuirasses, the bridles and trappings of their horses, have
either the substance or the appearance of gold; and the large
splendid boss in the midst of their shield is encircled with
smaller bosses, which represent the shape of the human eye. The
two mules that drew the chariot of the monarch are perfectly
white, and shining all over with gold. The chariot itself, of
pure and solid gold, attracts the admiration of the spectators,
who contemplate the purple curtains, the snowy carpet, the size
of the precious stones, and the resplendent plates of gold, that
glitter as they are agitated by the motion of the carriage. The
Imperial pictures are white, on a blue ground; the emperor
appears seated on his throne, with his arms, his horses, and his
guards beside him; and his vanquished enemies in chains at his
feet." The successors of Constantine established their perpetual
residence in the royal city, which he had erected on the verge of
Europe and Asia. Inaccessible to the menaces of their enemies,
and perhaps to the complaints of their people, they received,
with each wind, the tributary productions of every climate; while
the impregnable strength of their capital continued for ages to
defy the hostile attempts of the Barbarians. Their dominions were
bounded by the Adriatic and the Tigris; and the whole interval of
twenty-five days' navigation, which separated the extreme cold of
Scythia from the torrid zone of Æthiopia, was comprehended
within the limits of the empire of the East. The populous
countries of that empire were the seat of art and learning, of
luxury and wealth; and the inhabitants, who had assumed the
language and manners of Greeks, styled themselves, with some
appearance of truth, the most enlightened and civilized portion
of the human species. The form of government was a pure and
simple monarchy; the name of the Roman Republic, which so long
preserved a faint tradition of freedom, was confined to the Latin
provinces; and the princes of Constantinople measured their
greatness by the servile obedience of their people. They were
ignorant how much this passive disposition enervates and degrades
every faculty of the mind. The subjects, who had resigned their
will to the absolute commands of a master, were equally incapable
of guarding their lives and fortunes against the assaults of the
Barbarians, or of defending their reason from the terrors of
superstition.
The first events of the reign of Arcadius and Honorius are so
intimately connected, that the rebellion of the Goths, and the
fall of Rufinus, have already claimed a place in the history of
the West. It has already been observed, that Eutropius, one of
the principal eunuchs of the palace of Constantinople, succeeded
the haughty minister whose ruin he had accomplished, and whose
vices he soon imitated. Every order of the state bowed to the new
favorite; and their tame and obsequious submission encouraged him
to insult the laws, and, what is still more difficult and
dangerous, the manners of his country. Under the weakest of the
predecessors of Arcadius, the reign of the eunuchs had been
secret and almost invisible. They insinuated themselves into the
confidence of the prince; but their ostensible functions were
confined to the menial service of the wardrobe and Imperial
bed-chamber. They might direct, in a whisper, the public
counsels, and blast, by their malicious suggestions, the fame and
fortunes of the most illustrious citizens; but they never
presumed to stand forward in the front of empire, or to profane
the public honors of the state. Eutropius was the first of his
artificial sex, who dared to assume the character of a Roman
magistrate and general. Sometimes, in the presence of the
blushing senate, he ascended the tribunal to pronounce judgment,
or to repeat elaborate harangues; and, sometimes, appeared on
horseback, at the head of his troops, in the dress and armor of a
hero. The disregard of custom and decency always betrays a weak
and ill-regulated mind; nor does Eutropius seem to have
compensated for the folly of the design by any superior merit or
ability in the execution. His former habits of life had not
introduced him to the study of the laws, or the exercises of the
field; his awkward and unsuccessful attempts provoked the secret
contempt of the spectators; the Goths expressed their wish that
such a general might always command the armies of Rome; and the
name of the minister was branded with ridicule, more pernicious,
perhaps, than hatred, to a public character. The subjects of
Arcadius were exasperated by the recollection, that this deformed
and decrepit eunuch, who so perversely mimicked the actions of a
man, was born in the most abject condition of servitude; that
before he entered the Imperial palace, he had been successively
sold and purchased by a hundred masters, who had exhausted his
youthful strength in every mean and infamous office, and at
length dismissed him, in his old age, to freedom and poverty.
While these disgraceful stories were circulated, and perhaps
exaggerated, in private conversation, the vanity of the favorite
was flattered with the most extraordinary honors. In the senate,
in the capital, in the provinces, the statues of Eutropius were
erected, in brass, or marble, decorated with the symbols of his
civil and military virtues, and inscribed with the pompous title
of the third founder of Constantinople. He was promoted to the
rank of patrician, which began to
signify in a popular, and even legal, acceptation, the father of
the emperor; and the last year of the fourth century was polluted
by the consulship of a eunuch and a
slave. This strange and inexpiable prodigy awakened, however, the
prejudices of the Romans. The effeminate consul was rejected by
the West, as an indelible stain to the annals of the republic;
and without invoking the shades of Brutus and Camillus, the
colleague of Eutropius, a learned and respectable magistrate,
sufficiently represented the different maxims of the two
administrations.
The bold and vigorous mind of Rufinus seems to have been
actuated by a more sanguinary and revengeful spirit; but the
avarice of the eunuch was not less insatiate than that of the
præfect. As long as he despoiled the oppressors, who had
enriched themselves with the plunder of the people, Eutropius
might gratify his covetous disposition without much envy or
injustice: but the progress of his rapine soon invaded the wealth
which had been acquired by lawful inheritance, or laudable
industry. The usual methods of extortion were practised and
improved; and Claudian has sketched a lively and original picture
of the public auction of the state. "The impotence of the
eunuch," says that agreeable satirist, "has served only to
stimulate his avarice: the same hand which in his servile
condition, was exercised in petty thefts, to unlock the coffers
of his master, now grasps the riches of the world; and this
infamous broker of the empire appreciates and divides the Roman
provinces from Mount Hæmus to the Tigris. One man, at the
expense of his villa, is made proconsul of Asia; a second
purchases Syria with his wife's jewels; and a third laments that
he has exchanged his paternal estate for the government of
Bithynia. In the antechamber of Eutropius, a large tablet is
exposed to public view, which marks the respective prices of the
provinces. The different value of Pontus, of Galatia, of Lydia,
is accurately distinguished. Lycia may be obtained for so many
thousand pieces of gold; but the opulence of Phrygia will require
a more considerable sum. The eunuch wishes to obliterate, by the
general disgrace, his personal ignominy; and as he has been sold
himself, he is desirous of selling the rest of mankind. In the
eager contention, the balance, which contains the fate and
fortunes of the province, often trembles on the beam; and till
one of the scales is inclined, by a superior weight, the mind of
the impartial judge remains in anxious suspense. Such," continues
the indignant poet, "are the fruits of Roman valor, of the defeat
of Antiochus, and of the triumph of Pompey." This venal
prostitution of public honors secured the impunity of
future crimes; but the riches, which
Eutropius derived from confiscation, were
already stained with injustice; since
it was decent to accuse, and to condemn, the proprietors of the
wealth, which he was impatient to confiscate. Some noble blood
was shed by the hand of the executioner; and the most
inhospitable extremities of the empire were filled with innocent
and illustrious exiles. Among the generals and consuls of the
East, Abundantius had reason to dread the first effects of the
resentment of Eutropius. He had been guilty of the unpardonable
crime of introducing that abject slave to the palace of
Constantinople; and some degree of praise must be allowed to a
powerful and ungrateful favorite, who was satisfied with the
disgrace of his benefactor. Abundantius was stripped of his ample
fortunes by an Imperial rescript, and banished to Pityus, on the
Euxine, the last frontier of the Roman world; where he subsisted
by the precarious mercy of the Barbarians, till he could obtain,
after the fall of Eutropius, a milder exile at Sidon, in Phnicia.
The destruction of Timasius required a more serious and regular
mode of attack. That great officer, the master-general of the
armies of Theodosius, had signalized his valor by a decisive
victory, which he obtained over the Goths of Thessaly; but he was
too prone, after the example of his sovereign, to enjoy the
luxury of peace, and to abandon his confidence to wicked and
designing flatterers. Timasius had despised the public clamor, by
promoting an infamous dependent to the command of a cohort; and
he deserved to feel the ingratitude of Bargus, who was secretly
instigated by the favorite to accuse his patron of a treasonable
conspiracy. The general was arraigned before the tribunal of
Arcadius himself; and the principal eunuch stood by the side of
the throne to suggest the questions and answers of his sovereign.
But as this form of trial might be deemed partial and arbitrary,
the further inquiry into the crimes of Timasius was delegated to
Saturninus and Procopius; the former of consular rank, the latter
still respected as the father-in-law of the emperor Valens. The
appearances of a fair and legal proceeding were maintained by the
blunt honesty of Procopius; and he yielded with reluctance to the
obsequious dexterity of his colleague, who pronounced a sentence
of condemnation against the unfortunate Timasius. His immense
riches were confiscated in the name of the emperor, and for the
benefit of the favorite; and he was doomed to perpetual exile a
Oasis, a solitary spot in the midst of the sandy deserts of
Libya. Secluded from all human converse, the master-general of
the Roman armies was lost forever to the world; but the
circumstances of his fate have been related in a various and
contradictory manner. It is insinuated that Eutropius despatched
a private order for his secret execution. It was reported, that,
in attempting to escape from Oasis, he perished in the desert, of
thirst and hunger; and that his dead body was found on the sands
of Libya. It has been asserted, with more confidence, that his
son Syagrius, after successfully eluding the pursuit of the
agents and emissaries of the court, collected a band of African
robbers; that he rescued Timasius from the place of his exile;
and that both the father and the son disappeared from the
knowledge of mankind. But the ungrateful Bargus, instead of being
suffered to possess the reward of guilt was soon after
circumvented and destroyed, by the more powerful villany of the
minister himself, who retained sense and spirit enough to abhor
the instrument of his own crimes.
The public hatred, and the despair of individuals, continually
threatened, or seemed to threaten, the personal safety of
Eutropius; as well as of the numerous adherents, who were
attached to his fortune, and had been promoted by his venal
favor. For their mutual defence, he contrived the safeguard of a
law, which violated every principal of humanity and justice. I.
It is enacted, in the name, and by the authority of Arcadius,
that all those who should conspire, either with subjects or with
strangers, against the lives of any of the persons whom the
emperor considers as the members of his own body, shall be
punished with death and confiscation. This species of fictitious
and metaphorical treason is extended to protect, not only the
illustrious officers of the state and
army, who were admitted into the sacred consistory, but likewise
the principal domestics of the palace, the senators of
Constantinople, the military commanders, and the civil
magistrates of the provinces; a vague and indefinite list, which,
under the successors of Constantine, included an obscure and
numerous train of subordinate ministers. II. This extreme
severity might perhaps be justified, had it been only directed to
secure the representatives of the sovereign from any actual
violence in the execution of their office. But the whole body of
Imperial dependants claimed a privilege, or rather impunity,
which screened them, in the loosest moments of their lives, from
the hasty, perhaps the justifiable, resentment of their
fellow-citizens; and, by a strange perversion of the laws, the
same degree of guilt and punishment was applied to a private
quarrel, and to a deliberate conspiracy against the emperor and
the empire. The edicts of Arcadius most positively and most
absurdly declares, that in such cases of treason,
thoughts and
actions ought to be punished with equal
severity; that the knowledge of a mischievous intention, unless
it be instantly revealed, becomes equally criminal with the
intention itself; and that those rash men, who shall presume to
solicit the pardon of traitors, shall themselves be branded with
public and perpetual infamy. III. "With regard to the sons of the
traitors," (continues the emperor,) "although they ought to share
the punishment, since they will probably imitate the guilt, of
their parents, yet, by the special effect of our Imperial lenity,
we grant them their lives; but, at the same time, we declare them
incapable of inheriting, either on the father's or on the
mother's side, or of receiving any gift or legacy, from the
testament either of kinsmen or of strangers. Stigmatized with
hereditary infamy, excluded from the hopes of honors or fortune,
let them endure the pangs of poverty and contempt, till they
shall consider life as a calamity, and death as a comfort and
relief." In such words, so well adapted to insult the feelings of
mankind, did the emperor, or rather his favorite eunuch, applaud
the moderation of a law, which transferred the same unjust and
inhuman penalties to the children of all those who had seconded,
or who had not disclosed, their fictitious conspiracies. Some of
the noblest regulations of Roman jurisprudence have been suffered
to expire; but this edict, a convenient and forcible engine of
ministerial tyranny, was carefully inserted in the codes of
Theodosius and Justinian; and the same maxims have been revived
in modern ages, to protect the electors of Germany, and the
cardinals of the church of Rome.
Yet these sanguinary laws, which spread terror among a
disarmed and dispirited people, were of too weak a texture to
restrain the bold enterprise of Tribigild the Ostrogoth. The
colony of that warlike nation, which had been planted by
Theodosius in one of the most fertile districts of Phrygia,
impatiently compared the slow returns of laborious husbandry with
the successful rapine and liberal rewards of Alaric; and their
leader resented, as a personal affront, his own ungracious
reception in the palace of Constantinople. A soft and wealthy
province, in the heart of the empire, was astonished by the sound
of war; and the faithful vassal who had been disregarded or
oppressed, was again respected, as soon as he resumed the hostile
character of a Barbarian. The vineyards and fruitful fields,
between the rapid Marsyas and the winding Mæander, were
consumed with fire; the decayed walls of the cities crumbled into
dust, at the first stroke of an enemy; the trembling inhabitants
escaped from a bloody massacre to the shores of the Hellespont;
and a considerable part of Asia Minor was desolated by the
rebellion of Tribigild. His rapid progress was checked by the
resistance of the peasants of Pamphylia; and the Ostrogoths,
attacked in a narrow pass, between the city of Selgæ, a
deep morass, and the craggy cliffs of Mount Taurus, were defeated
with the loss of their bravest troops. But the spirit of their
chief was not daunted by misfortune; and his army was continually
recruited by swarms of Barbarians and outlaws, who were desirous
of exercising the profession of robbery, under the more honorable
names of war and conquest. The rumors of the success of Tribigild
might for some time be suppressed by fear, or disguised by
flattery; yet they gradually alarmed both the court and the
capital. Every misfortune was exaggerated in dark and doubtful
hints; and the future designs of the rebels became the subject of
anxious conjecture. Whenever Tribigild advanced into the inland
country, the Romans were inclined to suppose that he meditated
the passage of Mount Taurus, and the invasion of Syria. If he
descended towards the sea, they imputed, and perhaps suggested,
to the Gothic chief, the more dangerous project of arming a fleet
in the harbors of Ionia, and of extending his depredations along
the maritime coast, from the mouth of the Nile to the port of
Constantinople. The approach of danger, and the obstinacy of
Tribigild, who refused all terms of accommodation, compelled
Eutropius to summon a council of war. After claiming for himself
the privilege of a veteran soldier, the eunuch intrusted the
guard of Thrace and the Hellespont to Gainas the Goth, and the
command of the Asiatic army to his favorite, Leo; two generals,
who differently, but effectually, promoted the cause of the
rebels. Leo, who, from the bulk of his body, and the dulness of
his mind, was surnamed the Ajax of the East, had deserted his
original trade of a woolcomber, to exercise, with much less skill
and success, the military profession; and his uncertain
operations were capriciously framed and executed, with an
ignorance of real difficulties, and a timorous neglect of every
favorable opportunity. The rashness of the Ostrogoths had drawn
them into a disadvantageous position between the Rivers Melas and
Eurymedon, where they were almost besieged by the peasants of
Pamphylia; but the arrival of an Imperial army, instead of
completing their destruction, afforded the means of safety and
victory. Tribigild surprised the unguarded camp of the Romans, in
the darkness of the night; seduced the faith of the greater part
of the Barbarian auxiliaries, and dissipated, without much
effort, the troops, which had been corrupted by the relaxation of
discipline, and the luxury of the capital. The discontent of
Gainas, who had so boldly contrived and executed the death of
Rufinus, was irritated by the fortune of his unworthy successor;
he accused his own dishonorable patience under the servile reign
of a eunuch; and the ambitious Goth was convicted, at least in
the public opinion, of secretly fomenting the revolt of
Tribigild, with whom he was connected by a domestic, as well as
by a national alliance. When Gainas passed the Hellespont, to
unite under his standard the remains of the Asiatic troops, he
skilfully adapted his motions to the wishes of the Ostrogoths;
abandoning, by his retreat, the country which they desired to
invade; or facilitating, by his approach, the desertion of the
Barbarian auxiliaries. To the Imperial court he repeatedly
magnified the valor, the genius, the inexhaustible resources of
Tribigild; confessed his own inability to prosecute the war; and
extorted the permission of negotiating with his invincible
adversary. The conditions of peace were dictated by the haughty
rebel; and the peremptory demand of the head of Eutropius
revealed the author and the design of this hostile
conspiracy.
Chapter XXXII: Emperors Arcadius, Eutropius,
Theodosius II. -- Part II.
The bold satirist, who has indulged his discontent by the
partial and passionate censure of the Christian emperors,
violates the dignity, rather than the truth, of history, by
comparing the son of Theodosius to one of those harmless and
simple animals, who scarcely feel that they are the property of
their shepherd. Two passions, however, fear and conjugal
affection, awakened the languid soul of Arcadius: he was
terrified by the threats of a victorious Barbarian; and he
yielded to the tender eloquence of his wife Eudoxia, who, with a
flood of artificial tears, presenting her infant children to
their father, implored his justice for some real or imaginary
insult, which she imputed to the audacious eunuch. The emperor's
hand was directed to sign the condemnation of Eutropius; the
magic spell, which during four years had bound the prince and the
people, was instantly dissolved; and the acclamations that so
lately hailed the merit and fortune of the favorite, were
converted into the clamors of the soldiers and people, who
reproached his crimes, and pressed his immediate execution. In
this hour of distress and despair, his only refuge was in the
sanctuary of the church, whose privileges he had wisely or
profanely attempted to circumscribe; and the most eloquent of the
saints, John Chrysostom, enjoyed the triumph of protecting a
prostrate minister, whose choice had raised him to the
ecclesiastical throne of Constantinople. The archbishop,
ascending the pulpit of the cathedral, that he might be
distinctly seen and heard by an innumerable crowd of either sex
and of every age, pronounced a seasonable and pathetic discourse
on the forgiveness of injuries, and the instability of human
greatness. The agonies of the pale and affrighted wretch, who lay
grovelling under the table of the altar, exhibited a solemn and
instructive spectacle; and the orator, who was afterwards accused
of insulting the misfortunes of Eutropius, labored to excite the
contempt, that he might assuage the fury, of the people. The
powers of humanity, of superstition, and of eloquence, prevailed.
The empress Eudoxia was restrained by her own prejudices, or by
those of her subjects, from violating the sanctuary of the
church; and Eutropius was tempted to capitulate, by the milder
arts of persuasion, and by an oath, that his life should be
spared. Careless of the dignity of their sovereign, the new
ministers of the palace immediately published an edict to
declare, that his late favorite had disgraced the names of consul
and patrician, to abolish his statues, to confiscate his wealth,
and to inflict a perpetual exile in the Island of Cyprus. A
despicable and decrepit eunuch could no longer alarm the fears of
his enemies; nor was he capable of enjoying what yet remained,
the comforts of peace, of solitude, and of a happy climate. But
their implacable revenge still envied him the last moments of a
miserable life, and Eutropius had no sooner touched the shores of
Cyprus, than he was hastily recalled. The vain hope of eluding,
by a change of place, the obligation of an oath, engaged the
empress to transfer the scene of his trial and execution from
Constantinople to the adjacent suburb of Chalcedon. The consul
Aurelian pronounced the sentence; and the motives of that
sentence expose the jurisprudence of a despotic government. The
crimes which Eutropius had committed against the people might
have justified his death; but he was found guilty of harnessing
to his chariot the sacred animals, who,
from their breed or color, were reserved for the use of the
emperor alone.
While this domestic revolution was transacted, Gainas openly
revolted from his allegiance; united his forces at Thyatira in
Lydia, with those of Tribigild; and still maintained his superior
ascendant over the rebellious leader of the Ostrogoths. The
confederate armies advanced, without resistance, to the straits
of the Hellespont and the Bosphorus; and Arcadius was instructed
to prevent the loss of his Asiatic dominions, by resigning his
authority and his person to the faith of the Barbarians. The
church of the holy martyr Euphemia, situate on a lofty eminence
near Chalcedon, was chosen for the place of the interview. Gainas
bowed with reverence at the feet of the emperor, whilst he
required the sacrifice of Aurelian and Saturninus, two ministers
of consular rank; and their naked necks were exposed, by the
haughty rebel, to the edge of the sword, till he condescended to
grant them a precarious and disgraceful respite. The Goths,
according to the terms of the agreement, were immediately
transported from Asia into Europe; and their victorious chief,
who accepted the title of master-general of the Roman armies,
soon filled Constantinople with his troops, and distributed among
his dependants the honors and rewards of the empire. In his early
youth, Gainas had passed the Danube as a suppliant and a
fugitive: his elevation had been the work of valor and fortune;
and his indiscreet or perfidious conduct was the cause of his
rapid downfall. Notwithstanding the vigorous opposition of the
archbishop, he importunately claimed for his Arian sectaries the
possession of a peculiar church; and the pride of the Catholics
was offended by the public toleration of heresy. Every quarter of
Constantinople was filled with tumult and disorder; and the
Barbarians gazed with such ardor on the rich shops of the
jewellers, and the tables of the bankers, which were covered with
gold and silver, that it was judged prudent to remove those
dangerous temptations from their sight. They resented the
injurious precaution; and some alarming attempts were made,
during the night, to attack and destroy with fire the Imperial
palace. In this state of mutual and suspicious hostility, the
guards and the people of Constantinople shut the gates, and rose
in arms to prevent or to punish the conspiracy of the Goths.
During the absence of Gainas, his troops were surprised and
oppressed; seven thousand Barbarians perished in this bloody
massacre. In the fury of the pursuit, the Catholics uncovered the
roof, and continued to throw down flaming logs of wood, till they
overwhelmed their adversaries, who had retreated to the church or
conventicle of the Arians. Gainas was either innocent of the
design, or too confident of his success; he was astonished by the
intelligence that the flower of his army had been ingloriously
destroyed; that he himself was declared a public enemy; and that
his countryman, Fravitta, a brave and loyal confederate, had
assumed the management of the war by sea and land. The
enterprises of the rebel, against the cities of Thrace, were
encountered by a firm and well-ordered defence; his hungry
soldiers were soon reduced to the grass that grew on the margin
of the fortifications; and Gainas, who vainly regretted the
wealth and luxury of Asia, embraced a desperate resolution of
forcing the passage of the Hellespont. He was destitute of
vessels; but the woods of the Chersonesus afforded materials for
rafts, and his intrepid Barbarians did not refuse to trust
themselves to the waves. But Fravitta attentively watched the
progress of their undertaking As soon as they had gained the
middle of the stream, the Roman galleys, impelled by the full
force of oars, of the current, and of a favorable wind, rushed
forwards in compact order, and with irresistible weight; and the
Hellespont was covered with the fragments of the Gothic
shipwreck. After the destruction of his hopes, and the loss of
many thousands of his bravest soldiers, Gainas, who could no
longer aspire to govern or to subdue the Romans, determined to
resume the independence of a savage life. A light and active body
of Barbarian horse, disengaged from their infantry and baggage,
might perform in eight or ten days a march of three hundred miles
from the Hellespont to the Danube; the garrisons of that
important frontier had been gradually annihilated; the river, in
the month of December, would be deeply frozen; and the unbounded
prospect of Scythia was opened to the ambition of Gainas. This
design was secretly communicated to the national troops, who
devoted themselves to the fortunes of their leader; and before
the signal of departure was given, a great number of provincial
auxiliaries, whom he suspected of an attachment to their native
country, were perfidiously massacred. The Goths advanced, by
rapid marches, through the plains of Thrace; and they were soon
delivered from the fear of a pursuit, by the vanity of Fravitta,
* who, instead of extinguishing the war, hastened to enjoy the
popular applause, and to assume the peaceful honors of the
consulship. But a formidable ally appeared in arms to vindicate
the majesty of the empire, and to guard the peace and liberty of
Scythia. The superior forces of Uldin, king of the Huns, opposed
the progress of Gainas; a hostile and ruined country prohibited
his retreat; he disdained to capitulate; and after repeatedly
attempting to cut his way through the ranks of the enemy, he was
slain, with his desperate followers, in the field of battle.
Eleven days after the naval victory of the Hellespont, the head
of Gainas, the inestimable gift of the conqueror, was received at
Constantinople with the most liberal expressions of gratitude;
and the public deliverance was celebrated by festivals and
illuminations. The triumphs of Arcadius became the subject of
epic poems; and the monarch, no longer oppressed by any hostile
terrors, resigned himself to the mild and absolute dominion of
his wife, the fair and artful Eudoxia, who was sullied her fame
by the persecution of St. John Chrysostom.
After the death of the indolent Nectarius, the successor of
Gregory Nazianzen, the church of Constantinople was distracted by
the ambition of rival candidates, who were not ashamed to
solicit, with gold or flattery, the suffrage of the people, or of
the favorite. On this occasion Eutropius seems to have deviated
from his ordinary maxims; and his uncorrupted judgment was
determined only by the superior merit of a stranger. In a late
journey into the East, he had admired the sermons of John, a
native and presbyter of Antioch, whose name has been
distinguished by the epithet of Chrysostom, or the Golden Mouth.
A private order was despatched to the governor of Syria; and as
the people might be unwilling to resign their favorite preacher,
he was transported, with speed and secrecy in a post- chariot,
from Antioch to Constantinople. The unanimous and unsolicited
consent of the court, the clergy, and the people, ratified the
choice of the minister; and, both as a saint and as an orator,
the new archbishop surpassed the sanguine expectations of the
public. Born of a noble and opulent family, in the capital of
Syria, Chrysostom had been educated, by the care of a tender
mother, under the tuition of the most skilful masters. He studied
the art of rhetoric in the school of Libanius; and that
celebrated sophist, who soon discovered the talents of his
disciple, ingenuously confessed that John would have deserved to
succeed him, had he not been stolen away by the Christians. His
piety soon disposed him to receive the sacrament of baptism; to
renounce the lucrative and honorable profession of the law; and
to bury himself in the adjacent desert, where he subdued the
lusts of the flesh by an austere penance of six years. His
infirmities compelled him to return to the society of mankind;
and the authority of Meletius devoted his talents to the service
of the church: but in the midst of his family, and afterwards on
the archiepiscopal throne, Chrysostom still persevered in the
practice of the monastic virtues. The ample revenues, which his
predecessors had consumed in pomp and luxury, he diligently
applied to the establishment of hospitals; and the multitudes,
who were supported by his charity, preferred the eloquent and
edifying discourses of their archbishop to the amusements of the
theatre or the circus. The monuments of that eloquence, which was
admired near twenty years at Antioch and Constantinople, have
been carefully preserved; and the possession of near one thousand
sermons, or homilies has authorized the critics of succeeding
times to appreciate the genuine merit of Chrysostom. They
unanimously attribute to the Christian orator the free command of
an elegant and copious language; the judgment to conceal the
advantages which he derived from the knowledge of rhetoric and
philosophy; an inexhaustible fund of metaphors and similitudes of
ideas and images, to vary and illustrate the most familiar
topics; the happy art of engaging the passions in the service of
virtue; and of exposing the folly, as well as the turpitude, of
vice, almost with the truth and spirit of a dramatic
representation.
The pastoral labors of the archbishop of Constantinople
provoked, and gradually united against him, two sorts of enemies;
the aspiring clergy, who envied his success, and the obstinate
sinners, who were offended by his reproofs. When Chrysostom
thundered, from the pulpit of St. Sophia, against the degeneracy
of the Christians, his shafts were spent among the crowd, without
wounding, or even marking, the character of any individual. When
he declaimed against the peculiar vices of the rich, poverty
might obtain a transient consolation from his invectives; but the
guilty were still sheltered by their numbers; and the reproach
itself was dignified by some ideas of superiority and enjoyment.
But as the pyramid rose towards the summit, it insensibly
diminished to a point; and the magistrates, the ministers, the
favorite eunuchs, the ladies of the court, the empress Eudoxia
herself, had a much larger share of guilt to divide among a
smaller proportion of criminals. The personal applications of the
audience were anticipated, or confirmed, by the testimony of
their own conscience; and the intrepid preacher assumed the
dangerous right of exposing both the offence and the offender to
the public abhorrence. The secret resentment of the court
encouraged the discontent of the clergy and monks of
Constantinople, who were too hastily reformed by the fervent zeal
of their archbishop. He had condemned, from the pulpit, the
domestic females of the clergy of Constantinople, who, under the
name of servants, or sisters, afforded a perpetual occasion
either of sin or of scandal. The silent and solitary ascetics,
who had secluded themselves from the world, were entitled to the
warmest approbation of Chrysostom; but he despised and
stigmatized, as the disgrace of their holy profession, the crowd
of degenerate monks, who, from some unworthy motives of pleasure
or profit, so frequently infested the streets of the capital. To
the voice of persuasion, the archbishop was obliged to add the
terrors of authority; and his ardor, in the exercise of
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, was not always exempt from passion;
nor was it always guided by prudence. Chrysostom was naturally of
a choleric disposition. Although he struggled, according to the
precepts of the gospel, to love his private enemies, he indulged
himself in the privilege of hating the enemies of God and of the
church; and his sentiments were sometimes delivered with too much
energy of countenance and expression. He still maintained, from
some considerations of health or abstinence, his former habits of
taking his repasts alone; and this inhospitable custom, which his
enemies imputed to pride, contributed, at least, to nourish the
infirmity of a morose and unsocial humor. Separated from that
familiar intercourse, which facilitates the knowledge and the
despatch of business, he reposed an unsuspecting confidence in
his deacon Serapion; and seldom applied his speculative knowledge
of human nature to the particular character, either of his
dependants, or of his equals. Conscious of the purity of his
intentions, and perhaps of the superiority of his genius, the
archbishop of Constantinople extended the jurisdiction of the
Imperial city, that he might enlarge the sphere of his pastoral
labors; and the conduct which the profane imputed to an ambitious
motive, appeared to Chrysostom himself in the light of a sacred
and indispensable duty. In his visitation through the Asiatic
provinces, he deposed thirteen bishops of Lydia and Phrygia; and
indiscreetly declared that a deep corruption of simony and
licentiousness had infected the whole episcopal order. If those
bishops were innocent, such a rash and unjust condemnation must
excite a well- grounded discontent. If they were guilty, the
numerous associates of their guilt would soon discover that their
own safety depended on the ruin of the archbishop; whom they
studied to represent as the tyrant of the Eastern church.
This ecclesiastical conspiracy was managed by Theophilus,
archbishop of Alexandria, an active and ambitious prelate, who
displayed the fruits of rapine in monuments of ostentation. His
national dislike to the rising greatness of a city which degraded
him from the second to the third rank in the Christian world, was
exasperated by some personal dispute with Chrysostom himself. By
the private invitation of the empress, Theophilus landed at
Constantinople with a stout body of Egyptian mariners, to
encounter the populace; and a train of dependent bishops, to
secure, by their voices, the majority of a synod. The synod was
convened in the suburb of Chalcedon, surnamed the Oak, where
Rufinus had erected a stately church and monastery; and their
proceedings were continued during fourteen days, or sessions. A
bishop and a deacon accused the archbishop of Constantinople; but
the frivolous or improbable nature of the forty-seven articles
which they presented against him, may justly be considered as a
fair and unexceptional panegyric. Four successive summons were
signified to Chrysostom; but he still refused to trust either his
person or his reputation in the hands of his implacable enemies,
who, prudently declining the examination of any particular
charges, condemned his contumacious disobedience, and hastily
pronounced a sentence of deposition. The synod of the
Oak immediately addressed the emperor
to ratify and execute their judgment, and charitably insinuated,
that the penalties of treason might be inflicted on the audacious
preacher, who had reviled, under the name of Jezebel, the empress
Eudoxia herself. The archbishop was rudely arrested, and
conducted through the city, by one of the Imperial messengers,
who landed him, after a short navigation, near the entrance of
the Euxine; from whence, before the expiration of two days, he
was gloriously recalled.
The first astonishment of his faithful people had been mute
and passive: they suddenly rose with unanimous and irresistible
fury. Theophilus escaped, but the promiscuous crowd of monks and
Egyptian mariners was slaughtered without pity in the streets of
Constantinople. A seasonable earthquake justified the
interposition of Heaven; the torrent of sedition rolled forwards
to the gates of the palace; and the empress, agitated by fear or
remorse, threw herself at the feet of Arcadius, and confessed
that the public safety could be purchased only by the restoration
of Chrysostom. The Bosphorus was covered with innumerable
vessels; the shores of Europe and Asia were profusely
illuminated; and the acclamations of a victorious people
accompanied, from the port to the cathedral, the triumph of the
archbishop; who, too easily, consented to resume the exercise of
his functions, before his sentence had been legally reversed by
the authority of an ecclesiastical synod. Ignorant, or careless,
of the impending danger, Chrysostom indulged his zeal, or perhaps
his resentment; declaimed with peculiar asperity against
female vices; and condemned the profane
honors which were addressed, almost in the precincts of St.
Sophia, to the statue of the empress. His imprudence tempted his
enemies to inflame the haughty spirit of Eudoxia, by reporting,
or perhaps inventing, the famous exordium of a sermon, "Herodias
is again furious; Herodias again dances; she once more requires
the head of John;" an insolent allusion, which, as a woman and a
sovereign, it was impossible for her to forgive. The short
interval of a perfidious truce was employed to concert more
effectual measures for the disgrace and ruin of the archbishop. A
numerous council of the Eastern prelates, who were guided from a
distance by the advice of Theophilus, confirmed the validity,
without examining the justice, of the former sentence; and a
detachment of Barbarian troops was introduced into the city, to
suppress the emotions of the people. On the vigil of Easter, the
solemn administration of baptism was rudely interrupted by the
soldiers, who alarmed the modesty of the naked catechumens, and
violated, by their presence, the awful mysteries of the Christian
worship. Arsacius occupied the church of St. Sophia, and the
archiepiscopal throne. The Catholics retreated to the baths of
Constantine, and afterwards to the fields; where they were still
pursued and insulted by the guards, the bishops, and the
magistrates. The fatal day of the second and final exile of
Chrysostom was marked by the conflagration of the cathedral, of
the senate-house, and of the adjacent buildings; and this
calamity was imputed, without proof, but not without probability,
to the despair of a persecuted faction.
Cicero might claim some merit, if his voluntary banishment
preserved the peace of the republic; but the submission of
Chrysostom was the indispensable duty of a Christian and a
subject. Instead of listening to his humble prayer, that he might
be permitted to reside at Cyzicus, or Nicomedia, the inflexible
empress assigned for his exile the remote and desolate town of
Cucusus, among the ridges of Mount Taurus, in the Lesser Armenia.
A secret hope was entertained, that the archbishop might perish
in a difficult and dangerous march of seventy days, in the heat
of summer, through the provinces of Asia Minor, where he was
continually threatened by the hostile attacks of the Isaurians,
and the more implacable fury of the monks. Yet Chrysostom arrived
in safety at the place of his confinement; and the three years
which he spent at Cucusus, and the neighboring town of Arabissus,
were the last and most glorious of his life. His character was
consecrated by absence and persecution; the faults of his
administration were no longer remembered; but every tongue
repeated the praises of his genius and virtue: and the respectful
attention of the Christian world was fixed on a desert spot among
the mountains of Taurus. From that solitude the archbishop, whose
active mind was invigorated by misfortunes, maintained a strict
and frequent correspondence with the most distant provinces;
exhorted the separate congregation of his faithful adherents to
persevere in their allegiance; urged the destruction of the
temples of Phnicia, and the extirpation of heresy in the Isle of
Cyprus; extended his pastoral care to the missions of Persia and
Scythia; negotiated, by his ambassadors, with the Roman pontiff
and the emperor Honorius; and boldly appealed, from a partial
synod, to the supreme tribunal of a free and general council. The
mind of the illustrious exile was still independent; but his
captive body was exposed to the revenge of the oppressors, who
continued to abuse the name and authority of Arcadius. An order
was despatched for the instant removal of Chrysostom to the
extreme desert of Pityus: and his guards so faithfully obeyed
their cruel instructions, that, before he reached the sea-coast
of the Euxine, he expired at Comana, in Pontus, in the sixtieth
year of his age. The succeeding generation acknowledged his
innocence and merit. The archbishops of the East, who might blush
that their predecessors had been the enemies of Chrysostom, were
gradually disposed, by the firmness of the Roman pontiff, to
restore the honors of that venerable name. At the pious
solicitation of the clergy and people of Constantinople, his
relics, thirty years after his death, were transported from their
obscure sepulchre to the royal city. The emperor Theodosius
advanced to receive them as far as Chalcedon; and, falling
prostrate on the coffin, implored, in the name of his guilty
parents, Arcadius and Eudoxia, the forgiveness of the injured
saint.
Chapter XXXII: Emperors Arcadius, Eutropius,
Theodosius II. -- Part III.
Yet a reasonable doubt may be entertained, whether any stain
of hereditary guilt could be derived from Arcadius to his
successor. Eudoxia was a young and beautiful woman, who indulged
her passions, and despised her husband; Count John enjoyed, at
least, the familiar confidence of the empress; and the public
named him as the real father of Theodosius the younger. The birth
of a son was accepted, however, by the pious husband, as an event
the most fortunate and honorable to himself, to his family, and
to the Eastern world: and the royal infant, by an unprecedented
favor, was invested with the titles of Cæsar and Augustus.
In less than four years afterwards, Eudoxia, in the bloom of
youth, was destroyed by the consequences of a miscarriage; and
this untimely death confounded the prophecy of a holy bishop,
who, amidst the universal joy, had ventured to foretell, that she
should behold the long and auspicious reign of her glorious son.
The Catholics applauded the justice of Heaven, which avenged the
persecution of St. Chrysostom; and perhaps the emperor was the
only person who sincerely bewailed the loss of the haughty and
rapacious Eudoxia. Such a domestic misfortune afflicted
him more deeply than the public
calamities of the East; the licentious excursions, from Pontus to
Palestine, of the Isaurian robbers, whose impunity accused the
weakness of the government; and the earthquakes, the
conflagrations, the famine, and the flights of locusts, which the
popular discontent was equally disposed to attribute to the
incapacity of the monarch. At length, in the thirty-first year of
his age, after a reign (if we may abuse that word) of thirteen
years, three months, and fifteen days, Arcadius expired in the
palace of Constantinople. It is impossible to delineate his
character; since, in a period very copiously furnished with
historical materials, it has not been possible to remark one
action that properly belongs to the son of the great
Theodosius.
The historian Procopius has indeed illuminated the mind of the
dying emperor with a ray of human prudence, or celestial wisdom.
Arcadius considered, with anxious foresight, the helpless
condition of his son Theodosius, who was no more than seven years
of age, the dangerous factions of a minority, and the aspiring
spirit of Jezdegerd, the Persian monarch. Instead of tempting the
allegiance of an ambitious subject, by the participation of
supreme power, he boldly appealed to the magnanimity of a king;
and placed, by a solemn testament, the sceptre of the East in the
hands of Jezdegerd himself. The royal guardian accepted and
discharged this honorable trust with unexampled fidelity; and the
infancy of Theodosius was protected by the arms and councils of
Persia. Such is the singular narrative of Procopius; and his
veracity is not disputed by Agathias, while he presumes to
dissent from his judgment, and to arraign the wisdom of a
Christian emperor, who, so rashly, though so fortunately,
committed his son and his dominions to the unknown faith of a
stranger, a rival, and a heathen. At the distance of one hundred
and fifty years, this political question might be debated in the
court of Justinian; but a prudent historian will refuse to
examine the propriety, till he has
ascertained the truth, of the testament
of Arcadius. As it stands without a parallel in the history of
the world, we may justly require, that it should be attested by
the positive and unanimous evidence of contemporaries. The
strange novelty of the event, which excites our distrust, must
have attracted their notice; and their universal silence
annihilates the vain tradition of the succeeding age.
The maxims of Roman jurisprudence, if they could fairly be
transferred from private property to public dominion, would have
adjudged to the emperor Honorius the guardianship of his nephew,
till he had attained, at least, the fourteenth year of his age.
But the weakness of Honorius, and the calamities of his reign,
disqualified him from prosecuting this natural claim; and such
was the absolute separation of the two monarchies, both in
interest and affection, that Constantinople would have obeyed,
with less reluctance, the orders of the Persian, than those of
the Italian, court. Under a prince whose weakness is disguised by
the external signs of manhood and discretion, the most worthless
favorites may secretly dispute the empire of the palace; and
dictate to submissive provinces the commands of a master, whom
they direct and despise. But the ministers of a child, who is
incapable of arming them with the sanction of the royal name,
must acquire and exercise an independent authority. The great
officers of the state and army, who had been appointed before the
death of Arcadius, formed an aristocracy, which might have
inspired them with the idea of a free republic; and the
government of the Eastern empire was fortunately assumed by the
præfect Anthemius, who obtained, by his superior abilities,
a lasting ascendant over the minds of his equals. The safety of
the young emperor proved the merit and integrity of Anthemius;
and his prudent firmness sustained the force and reputation of an
infant reign. Uldin, with a formidable host of Barbarians, was
encamped in the heart of Thrace; he proudly rejected all terms of
accommodation; and, pointing to the rising sun, declared to the
Roman ambassadors, that the course of that planet should alone
terminate the conquest of the Huns. But the desertion of his
confederates, who were privately convinced of the justice and
liberality of the Imperial ministers, obliged Uldin to repass the
Danube: the tribe of the Scyrri, which composed his rear-guard,
was almost extirpated; and many thousand captives were dispersed
to cultivate, with servile labor, the fields of Asia. In the
midst of the public triumph, Constantinople was protected by a
strong enclosure of new and more extensive walls; the same
vigilant care was applied to restore the fortifications of the
Illyrian cities; and a plan was judiciously conceived, which, in
the space of seven years, would have secured the command of the
Danube, by establishing on that river a perpetual fleet of two
hundred and fifty armed vessels.
But the Romans had so long been accustomed to the authority of
a monarch, that the first, even among the females, of the
Imperial family, who displayed any courage or capacity, was
permitted to ascend the vacant throne of Theodosius. His sister
Pulcheria, who was only two years older than himself, received,
at the age of sixteen, the title of
Augusta; and though her favor might be
sometimes clouded by caprice or intrigue, she continued to govern
the Eastern empire near forty years; during the long minority of
her brother, and after his death, in her own name, and in the
name of Marcian, her nominal husband. From a motive either of
prudence or religion, she embraced a life of celibacy; and
notwithstanding some aspersions on the chastity of Pulcheria,
this resolution, which she communicated to her sisters Arcadia
and Marina, was celebrated by the Christian world, as the sublime
effort of heroic piety. In the presence of the clergy and people,
the three daughters of Arcadius dedicated their virginity to God;
and the obligation of their solemn vow was inscribed on a tablet
of gold and gems; which they publicly offered in the great church
of Constantinople. Their palace was converted into a monastery;
and all males, except the guides of their conscience, the saints
who had forgotten the distinction of sexes, were scrupulously
excluded from the holy threshold. Pulcheria, her two sisters, and
a chosen train of favorite damsels, formed a religious community:
they denounced the vanity of dress; interrupted, by frequent
fasts, their simple and frugal diet; allotted a portion of their
time to works of embroidery; and devoted several hours of the day
and night to the exercises of prayer and psalmody. The piety of a
Christian virgin was adorned by the zeal and liberality of an
empress. Ecclesiastical history describes the splendid churches,
which were built at the expense of Pulcheria, in all the
provinces of the East; her charitable foundations for the benefit
of strangers and the poor; the ample donations which she assigned
for the perpetual maintenance of monastic societies; and the
active severity with which she labored to suppress the opposite
heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches. Such virtues were supposed to
deserve the peculiar favor of the Deity: and the relics of
martyrs, as well as the knowledge of future events, were
communicated in visions and revelations to the Imperial saint.
Yet the devotion of Pulcheria never diverted her indefatigable
attention from temporal affairs; and she alone, among all the
descendants of the great Theodosius, appears to have inherited
any share of his manly spirit and abilities. The elegant and
familiar use which she had acquired, both of the Greek and Latin
languages, was readily applied to the various occasions of
speaking or writing, on public business: her deliberations were
maturely weighed; her actions were prompt and decisive; and,
while she moved, without noise or ostentation, the wheel of
government, she discreetly attributed to the genius of the
emperor the long tranquillity of his reign. In the last years of
his peaceful life, Europe was indeed afflicted by the arms of
war; but the more extensive provinces of Asia still continued to
enjoy a profound and permanent repose. Theodosius the younger was
never reduced to the disgraceful necessity of encountering and
punishing a rebellious subject: and since we cannot applaud the
vigor, some praise may be due to the mildness and prosperity, of
the administration of Pulcheria.
The Roman world was deeply interested in the education of its
master. A regular course of study and exercise was judiciously
instituted; of the military exercises of riding, and shooting
with the bow; of the liberal studies of grammar, rhetoric, and
philosophy: the most skilful masters of the East ambitiously
solicited the attention of their royal pupil; and several noble
youths were introduced into the palace, to animate his diligence
by the emulation of friendship. Pulcheria alone discharged the
important task of instructing her brother in the arts of
government; but her precepts may countenance some suspicions of
the extent of her capacity, or of the purity of her intentions.
She taught him to maintain a grave and majestic deportment; to
walk, to hold his robes, to seat himself on his throne, in a
manner worthy of a great prince; to abstain from laughter; to
listen with condescension; to return suitable answers; to assume,
by turns, a serious or a placid countenance: in a word, to
represent with grace and dignity the external figure of a Roman
emperor. But Theodosius was never excited to support the weight
and glory of an illustrious name: and, instead of aspiring to
support his ancestors, he degenerated (if we may presume to
measure the degrees of incapacity) below the weakness of his
father and his uncle. Arcadius and Honorius had been assisted by
the guardian care of a parent, whose lessons were enforced by his
authority and example. But the unfortunate prince, who is born in
the purple, must remain a stranger to the voice of truth; and the
son of Arcadius was condemned to pass his perpetual infancy
encompassed only by a servile train of women and eunuchs. The
ample leisure which he acquired by neglecting the essential
duties of his high office, was filled by idle amusements and
unprofitable studies. Hunting was the only active pursuit that
could tempt him beyond the limits of the palace; but he most
assiduously labored, sometimes by the light of a midnight lamp,
in the mechanic occupations of painting and carving; and the
elegance with which he transcribed religious books entitled the
Roman emperor to the singular epithet of
Calligraphes, or a fair writer.
Separated from the world by an impenetrable veil, Theodosius
trusted the persons whom he loved; he loved those who were
accustomed to amuse and flatter his indolence; and as he never
perused the papers that were presented for the royal signature,
the acts of injustice the most repugnant to his character were
frequently perpetrated in his name. The emperor himself was
chaste, temperate, liberal, and merciful; but these qualities,
which can only deserve the name of virtues when they are
supported by courage and regulated by discretion, were seldom
beneficial, and they sometimes proved mischievous, to mankind.
His mind, enervated by a royal education, was oppressed and
degraded by abject superstition: he fasted, he sung psalms, he
blindly accepted the miracles and doctrines with which his faith
was continually nourished. Theodosius devoutly worshipped the
dead and living saints of the Catholic church; and he once
refused to eat, till an insolent monk, who had cast an
excommunication on his sovereign, condescended to heal the
spiritual wound which he had inflicted.
The story of a fair and virtuous maiden, exalted from a
private condition to the Imperial throne, might be deemed an
incredible romance, if such a romance had not been verified in
the marriage of Theodosius. The celebrated Athenais was educated
by her father Leontius in the religion and sciences of the
Greeks; and so advantageous was the opinion which the Athenian
philosopher entertained of his contemporaries, that he divided
his patrimony between his two sons, bequeathing to his daughter a
small legacy of one hundred pieces of gold, in the lively
confidence that her beauty and merit would be a sufficient
portion. The jealousy and avarice of her brothers soon compelled
Athenais to seek a refuge at Constantinople; and, with some
hopes, either of justice or favor, to throw herself at the feet
of Pulcheria. That sagacious princess listened to her eloquent
complaint; and secretly destined the daughter of the philosopher
Leontius for the future wife of the emperor of the East, who had
now attained the twentieth year of his age. She easily excited
the curiosity of her brother, by an interesting picture of the
charms of Athenais; large eyes, a well- proportioned nose, a fair
complexion, golden locks, a slender person, a graceful demeanor,
an understanding improved by study, and a virtue tried by
distress. Theodosius, concealed behind a curtain in the apartment
of his sister, was permitted to behold the Athenian virgin: the
modest youth immediately declared his pure and honorable love;
and the royal nuptials were celebrated amidst the acclamations of
the capital and the provinces. Athenais, who was easily persuaded
to renounce the errors of Paganism, received at her baptism the
Christian name of Eudocia; but the cautious Pulcheria withheld
the title of Augusta, till the wife of Theodosius had approved
her fruitfulness by the birth of a daughter, who espoused,
fifteen years afterwards, the emperor of the West. The brothers
of Eudocia obeyed, with some anxiety, her Imperial summons; but
as she could easily forgive their unfortunate unkindness, she
indulged the tenderness, or perhaps the vanity, of a sister, by
promoting them to the rank of consuls and præfects. In the
luxury of the palace, she still cultivated those ingenuous arts
which had contributed to her greatness; and wisely dedicated her
talents to the honor of religion, and of her husband. Eudocia
composed a poetical paraphrase of the first eight books of the
Old Testament, and of the prophecies of Daniel and Zechariah; a
cento of the verses of Homer, applied to the life and miracles of
Christ, the legend of St. Cyprian, and a panegyric on the Persian
victories of Theodosius; and her writings, which were applauded
by a servile and superstitious age, have not been disdained by
the candor of impartial criticism. The fondness of the emperor
was not abated by time and possession; and Eudocia, after the
marriage of her daughter, was permitted to discharge her grateful
vows by a solemn pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Her ostentatious
progress through the East may seem inconsistent with the spirit
of Christian humility; she pronounced, from a throne of gold and
gems, an eloquent oration to the senate of Antioch, declared her
royal intention of enlarging the walls of the city, bestowed a
donative of two hundred pounds of gold to restore the public
baths, and accepted the statues, which were decreed by the
gratitude of Antioch. In the Holy Land, her alms and pious
foundations exceeded the munificence of the great Helena, and
though the public treasure might be impoverished by this
excessive liberality, she enjoyed the conscious satisfaction of
returning to Constantinople with the chains of St. Peter, the
right arm of St. Stephen, and an undoubted picture of the Virgin,
painted by St. Luke. But this pilgrimage was the fatal term of
the glories of Eudocia. Satiated with empty pomp, and unmindful,
perhaps, of her obligations to Pulcheria, she ambitiously aspired
to the government of the Eastern empire; the palace was
distracted by female discord; but the victory was at last
decided, by the superior ascendant of the sister of Theodosius.
The execution of Paulinus, master of the offices, and the
disgrace of Cyrus, Prætorian præfect of the East,
convinced the public that the favor of Eudocia was insufficient
to protect her most faithful friends; and the uncommon beauty of
Paulinus encouraged the secret rumor, that his guilt was that of
a successful lover. As soon as the empress perceived that the
affection of Theodosius was irretrievably lost, she requested the
permission of retiring to the distant solitude of Jerusalem. She
obtained her request; but the jealousy of Theodosius, or the
vindictive spirit of Pulcheria, pursued her in her last retreat;
and Saturninus, count of the domestics, was directed to punish
with death two ecclesiastics, her most favored servants. Eudocia
instantly revenged them by the assassination of the count; the
furious passions which she indulged on this suspicious occasion,
seemed to justify the severity of Theodosius; and the empress,
ignominiously stripped of the honors of her rank, was disgraced,
perhaps unjustly, in the eyes of the world. The remainder of the
life of Eudocia, about sixteen years, was spent in exile and
devotion; and the approach of age, the death of Theodosius, the
misfortunes of her only daughter, who was led a captive from Rome
to Carthage, and the society of the Holy Monks of Palestine,
insensibly confirmed the religious temper of her mind. After a
full experience of the vicissitudes of human life, the daughter
of the philosopher Leontius expired, at Jerusalem, in the
sixty-seventh year of her age; protesting, with her dying breath,
that she had never transgressed the bounds of innocence and
friendship.
The gentle mind of Theodosius was never inflamed by the
ambition of conquest, or military renown; and the slight alarm of
a Persian war scarcely interrupted the tranquillity of the East.
The motives of this war were just and honorable. In the last year
of the reign of Jezdegerd, the supposed guardian of Theodosius, a
bishop, who aspired to the crown of martyrdom, destroyed one of
the fire-temples of Susa. His zeal and obstinacy were revenged on
his brethren: the Magi excited a cruel persecution; and the
intolerant zeal of Jezdegerd was imitated by his son Varanes, or
Bahram, who soon afterwards ascended the throne. Some Christian
fugitives, who escaped to the Roman frontier, were sternly
demanded, and generously refused; and the refusal, aggravated by
commercial disputes, soon kindled a war between the rival
monarchies. The mountains of Armenia, and the plains of
Mesopotamia, were filled with hostile armies; but the operations
of two successive campaigns were not productive of any decisive
or memorable events. Some engagements were fought, some towns
were besieged, with various and doubtful success: and if the
Romans failed in their attempt to recover the long-lost
possession of Nisibis, the Persians were repulsed from the walls
of a Mesopotamian city, by the valor of a martial bishop, who
pointed his thundering engine in the name of St. Thomas the
Apostle. Yet the splendid victories which the incredible speed of
the messenger Palladius repeatedly announced to the palace of
Constantinople, were celebrated with festivals and panegyrics.
From these panegyrics the historians of the age might borrow
their extraordinary, and, perhaps, fabulous tales; of the proud
challenge of a Persian hero, who was entangled by the net, and
despatched by the sword, of Areobindus the Goth; of the ten
thousand Immortals, who were slain in
the attack of the Roman camp; and of the hundred thousand Arabs,
or Saracens, who were impelled by a panic terror to throw
themselves headlong into the Euphrates. Such events may be
disbelieved or disregarded; but the charity of a bishop, Acacius
of Amida, whose name might have dignified the saintly calendar,
shall not be lost in oblivion. Boldly declaring, that vases of
gold and silver are useless to a God who neither eats nor drinks,
the generous prelate sold the plate of the church of Amida;
employed the price in the redemption of seven thousand Persian
captives; supplied their wants with affectionate liberality; and
dismissed them to their native country, to inform their king of
the true spirit of the religion which he persecuted. The practice
of benevolence in the midst of war must always tend to assuage
the animosity of contending nations; and I wish to persuade
myself, that Acacius contributed to the restoration of peace. In
the conference which was held on the limits of the two empires,
the Roman ambassadors degraded the personal character of their
sovereign, by a vain attempt to magnify the extent of his power;
when they seriously advised the Persians to prevent, by a timely
accommodation, the wrath of a monarch, who was yet ignorant of
this distant war. A truce of one hundred years was solemnly
ratified; and although the revolutions of Armenia might threaten
the public tranquillity, the essential conditions of this treaty
were respected near fourscore years by the successors of
Constantine and Artaxerxes.
Since the Roman and Parthian standards first encountered on
the banks of the Euphrates, the kingdom of Armenia was
alternately oppressed by its formidable protectors; and in the
course of this History, several events, which inclined the
balance of peace and war, have been already related. A
disgraceful treaty had resigned Armenia to the ambition of Sapor;
and the scale of Persia appeared to preponderate. But the royal
race of Arsaces impatiently submitted to the house of Sassan; the
turbulent nobles asserted, or betrayed, their hereditary
independence; and the nation was still attached to the
Christian princes of Constantinople. In
the beginning of the fifth century, Armenia was divided by the
progress of war and faction; and the unnatural division
precipitated the downfall of that ancient monarchy. Chosroes, the
Persian vassal, reigned over the Eastern and most extensive
portion of the country; while the Western province acknowledged
the jurisdiction of Arsaces, and the supremacy of the emperor
Arcadius. * After the death of Arsaces, the Romans suppressed the
regal government, and imposed on their allies the condition of
subjects. The military command was delegated to the count of the
Armenian frontier; the city of Theodosiopolis was built and
fortified in a strong situation, on a fertile and lofty ground,
near the sources of the Euphrates; and the dependent territories
were ruled by five satraps, whose dignity was marked by a
peculiar habit of gold and purple. The less fortunate nobles, who
lamented the loss of their king, and envied the honors of their
equals, were provoked to negotiate their peace and pardon at the
Persian court; and returning, with their followers, to the palace
of Artaxata, acknowledged Chosroes for their lawful sovereign.
About thirty years afterwards, Artasires, the nephew and
successor of Chosroes, fell under the displeasure of the haughty
and capricious nobles of Armenia; and they unanimously desired a
Persian governor in the room of an unworthy king. The answer of
the archbishop Isaac, whose sanction they earnestly solicited, is
expressive of the character of a superstitious people. He
deplored the manifest and inexcusable vices of Artasires; and
declared, that he should not hesitate to accuse him before the
tribunal of a Christian emperor, who would punish, without
destroying, the sinner. "Our king," continued Isaac, "is too much
addicted to licentious pleasures, but he has been purified in the
holy waters of baptism. He is a lover of women, but he does not
adore the fire or the elements. He may deserve the reproach of
lewdness, but he is an undoubted Catholic; and his faith is pure,
though his manners are flagitious. I will never consent to
abandon my sheep to the rage of devouring wolves; and you would
soon repent your rash exchange of the infirmities of a believer,
for the specious virtues of a heathen." Exasperated by the
firmness of Isaac, the factious nobles accused both the king and
the archbishop as the secret adherents of the emperor; and
absurdly rejoiced in the sentence of condemnation, which, after a
partial hearing, was solemnly pronounced by Bahram himself. The
descendants of Arsaces were degraded from the royal dignity,
which they had possessed above five hundred and sixty years; and
the dominions of the unfortunate Artasires, * under the new and
significant appellation of Persarmenia, were reduced into the
form of a province. This usurpation excited the jealousy of the
Roman government; but the rising disputes were soon terminated by
an amicable, though unequal, partition of the ancient kingdom of
Armenia: and a territorial acquisition, which Augustus might have
despised, reflected some lustre on the declining empire of the
younger Theodosius.
Chapter XXXIII: Conquest Of Africa By The
Vandals.
Part I.
Death Of Honorius. -- Valentinian III. -- Emperor Of The East.
-- Administration Of His Mother Placidia -- Ætius And
Boniface. -- Conquest Of Africa By The Vandals.
During a long and disgraceful reign of twenty-eight years,
Honorius, emperor of the West, was separated from the friendship
of his brother, and afterwards of his nephew, who reigned over
the East; and Constantinople beheld, with apparent indifference
and secret joy, the calamities of Rome. The strange adventures of
Placidia gradually renewed and cemented the alliance of the two
empires. The daughter of the great Theodosius had been the
captive, and the queen, of the Goths; she lost an affectionate
husband; she was dragged in chains by his insulting assassin; she
tasted the pleasure of revenge, and was exchanged, in the treaty
of peace, for six hundred thousand measures of wheat. After her
return from Spain to Italy, Placidia experienced a new
persecution in the bosom of her family. She was averse to a
marriage, which had been stipulated without her consent; and the
brave Constantius, as a noble reward for the tyrants whom he had
vanquished, received, from the hand of Honorius himself, the
struggling and the reluctant hand of the widow of Adolphus. But
her resistance ended with the ceremony of the nuptials: nor did
Placidia refuse to become the mother of Honoria and Valentinian
the Third, or to assume and exercise an absolute dominion over
the mind of her grateful husband. The generous soldier, whose
time had hitherto been divided between social pleasure and
military service, was taught new lessons of avarice and ambition:
he extorted the title of Augustus: and the servant of Honorius
was associated to the empire of the West. The death of
Constantius, in the seventh month of his reign, instead of
diminishing, seemed to increase the power of Placidia; and the
indecent familiarity of her brother, which might be no more than
the symptoms of a childish affection, were universally attributed
to incestuous love. On a sudden, by some base intrigues of a
steward and a nurse, this excessive fondness was converted into
an irreconcilable quarrel: the debates of the emperor and his
sister were not long confined within the walls of the palace; and
as the Gothic soldiers adhered to their queen, the city of
Ravenna was agitated with bloody and dangerous tumults, which
could only be appeased by the forced or voluntary retreat of
Placidia and her children. The royal exiles landed at
Constantinople, soon after the marriage of Theodosius, during the
festival of the Persian victories. They were treated with
kindness and magnificence; but as the statues of the emperor
Constantius had been rejected by the Eastern court, the title of
Augusta could not decently be allowed to his widow. Within a few
months after the arrival of Placidia, a swift messenger announced
the death of Honorius, the consequence of a dropsy; but the
important secret was not divulged, till the necessary orders had
been despatched for the march of a large body of troops to the
`-coast of Dalmatia. The shops and the gates of Constantinople
remained shut during seven days; and the loss of a foreign
prince, who could neither be esteemed nor regretted, was
celebrated with loud and affected demonstrations of the public
grief.
While the ministers of Constantinople deliberated, the vacant
throne of Honorius was usurped by the ambition of a stranger. The
name of the rebel was John; he filled the confidential office of
Primicerius, or principal secretary,
and history has attributed to his character more virtues, than
can easily be reconciled with the violation of the most sacred
duty. Elated by the submission of Italy, and the hope of an
alliance with the Huns, John presumed to insult, by an embassy,
the majesty of the Eastern emperor; but when he understood that
his agents had been banished, imprisoned, and at length chased
away with deserved ignominy, John prepared to assert, by arms,
the injustice of his claims. In such a cause, the grandson of the
great Theodosius should have marched in person: but the young
emperor was easily diverted, by his physicians, from so rash and
hazardous a design; and the conduct of the Italian expedition was
prudently intrusted to Ardaburius, and his son Aspar, who had
already signalized their valor against the Persians. It was
resolved, that Ardaburius should embark with the infantry; whilst
Aspar, at the head of the cavalry, conducted Placidia and her son
Valentinian along the sea-coast of the Adriatic. The march of the
cavalry was performed with such active diligence, that they
surprised, without resistance, the important city of Aquileia:
when the hopes of Aspar were unexpectedly confounded by the
intelligence, that a storm had dispersed the Imperial fleet; and
that his father, with only two galleys, was taken and carried a
prisoner into the port of Ravenna. Yet this incident, unfortunate
as it might seem, facilitated the conquest of Italy. Ardaburius
employed, or abused, the courteous freedom which he was permitted
to enjoy, to revive among the troops a sense of loyalty and
gratitude; and as soon as the conspiracy was ripe for execution,
he invited, by private messages, and pressed the approach of,
Aspar. A shepherd, whom the popular credulity transformed into an
angel, guided the eastern cavalry by a secret, and, it was
thought, an impassable road, through the morasses of the Po: the
gates of Ravenna, after a short struggle, were thrown open; and
the defenceless tyrant was delivered to the mercy, or rather to
the cruelty, of the conquerors. His right hand was first cut off;
and, after he had been exposed, mounted on an ass, to the public
derision, John was beheaded in the circus of Aquileia. The
emperor Theodosius, when he received the news of the victory,
interrupted the horse-races; and singing, as he marched through
the streets, a suitable psalm, conducted his people from the
Hippodrome to the church, where he spent the remainder of the day
in grateful devotion.
In a monarchy, which, according to various precedents, might
be considered as elective, or hereditary, or patrimonial, it was
impossible that the intricate claims of female and collateral
succession should be clearly defined; and Theodosius, by the
right of consanguinity or conquest, might have reigned the sole
legitimate emperor of the Romans. For a moment, perhaps, his eyes
were dazzled by the prospect of unbounded sway; but his indolent
temper gradually acquiesced in the dictates of sound policy. He
contented himself with the possession of the East; and wisely
relinquished the laborious task of waging a distant and doubtful
war against the Barbarians beyond the Alps; or of securing the
obedience of the Italians and Africans, whose minds were
alienated by the irreconcilable difference of language and
interest. Instead of listening to the voice of ambition,
Theodosius resolved to imitate the moderation of his grandfather,
and to seat his cousin Valentinian on the throne of the West. The
royal infant was distinguished at Constantinople by the title of
Nobilissimus: he was promoted, before
his departure from Thessalonica, to the rank and dignity of
Cæsar; and after the conquest of
Italy, the patrician Helion, by the authority of Theodosius, and
in the presence of the senate, saluted Valentinian the Third by
the name of Augustus, and solemnly invested him with the diadem
and the Imperial purple. By the agreement of the three females
who governed the Roman world, the son of Placidia was betrothed
to Eudoxia, the daughter of Theodosius and Athenais; and as soon
as the lover and his bride had attained the age of puberty, this
honorable alliance was faithfully accomplished. At the same time,
as a compensation, perhaps, for the expenses of the war, the
Western Illyricum was detached from the Italian dominions, and
yielded to the throne of Constantinople. The emperor of the East
acquired the useful dominion of the rich and maritime province of
Dalmatia, and the dangerous sovereignty of Pannonia and Noricum,
which had been filled and ravaged above twenty years by a
promiscuous crowd of Huns, Ostrogoths, Vandals, and
Bavarians. Theodosius and Valentinian
continued to respect the obligations of their public and domestic
alliance; but the unity of the Roman government was finally
dissolved. By a positive declaration, the validity of all future
laws was limited to the dominions of their peculiar author;
unless he should think proper to communicate them, subscribed
with his own hand, for the approbation of his independent
colleague.
Valentinian, when he received the title of Augustus, was no
more than six years of age; and his long minority was intrusted
to the guardian care of a mother, who might assert a female claim
to the succession of the Western empire. Placidia envied, but she
could not equal, the reputation and virtues of the wife and
sister of Theodosius, the elegant genius of Eudocia, the wise and
successful policy of Pulcheria. The mother of Valentinian was
jealous of the power which she was incapable of exercising; she
reigned twenty-five years, in the name of her son; and the
character of that unworthy emperor gradually countenanced the
suspicion that Placidia had enervated his youth by a dissolute
education, and studiously diverted his attention from every manly
and honorable pursuit. Amidst the decay of military spirit, her
armies were commanded by two generals, Ætius and Boniface,
who may be deservedly named as the last of the Romans. Their
union might have supported a sinking empire; their discord was
the fatal and immediate cause of the loss of Africa. The invasion
and defeat of Attila have immortalized the fame of Ætius;
and though time has thrown a shade over the exploits of his
rival, the defence of Marseilles, and the deliverance of Africa,
attest the military talents of Count Boniface. In the field of
battle, in partial encounters, in single combats, he was still
the terror of the Barbarians: the clergy, and particularly his
friend Augustin, were edified by the Christian piety which had
once tempted him to retire from the world; the people applauded
his spotless integrity; the army dreaded his equal and inexorable
justice, which may be displayed in a very singular example. A
peasant, who complained of the criminal intimacy between his wife
and a Gothic soldier, was directed to attend his tribunal the
following day: in the evening the count, who had diligently
informed himself of the time and place of the assignation,
mounted his horse, rode ten miles into the country, surprised the
guilty couple, punished the soldier with instant death, and
silenced the complaints of the husband by presenting him, the
next morning, with the head of the adulterer. The abilities of
Ætius and Boniface might have been usefully employed
against the public enemies, in separate and important commands;
but the experience of their past conduct should have decided the
real favor and confidence of the empress Placidia. In the
melancholy season of her exile and distress, Boniface alone had
maintained her cause with unshaken fidelity: and the troops and
treasures of Africa had essentially contributed to extinguish the
rebellion. The same rebellion had been supported by the zeal and
activity of Ætius, who brought an army of sixty thousand
Huns from the Danube to the confines of Italy, for the service of
the usurper. The untimely death of John compelled him to accept
an advantageous treaty; but he still continued, the subject and
the soldier of Valentinian, to entertain a secret, perhaps a
treasonable, correspondence with his Barbarian allies, whose
retreat had been purchased by liberal gifts, and more liberal
promises. But Ætius possessed an advantage of singular
moment in a female reign; he was present: he besieged, with
artful and assiduous flattery, the palace of Ravenna; disguised
his dark designs with the mask of loyalty and friendship; and at
length deceived both his mistress and his absent rival, by a
subtle conspiracy, which a weak woman and a brave man could not
easily suspect. He had secretly persuaded Placidia to recall
Boniface from the government of Africa; he secretly advised
Boniface to disobey the Imperial summons: to the one, he
represented the order as a sentence of death; to the other, he
stated the refusal as a signal of revolt; and when the credulous
and unsuspectful count had armed the province in his defence,
Ætius applauded his sagacity in foreseeing the rebellion,
which his own perfidy had excited. A temperate inquiry into the
real motives of Boniface would have restored a faithful servant
to his duty and to the republic; but the arts of Ætius
still continued to betray and to inflame, and the count was
urged, by persecution, to embrace the most desperate counsels.
The success with which he eluded or repelled the first attacks,
could not inspire a vain confidence, that at the head of some
loose, disorderly Africans, he should be able to withstand the
regular forces of the West, commanded by a rival, whose military
character it was impossible for him to despise. After some
hesitation, the last struggles of prudence and loyalty, Boniface
despatched a trusty friend to the court, or rather to the camp,
of Gonderic, king of the Vandals, with the proposal of a strict
alliance, and the offer of an advantageous and perpetual
settlement.
After the retreat of the Goths, the authority of Honorius had
obtained a precarious establishment in Spain; except only in the
province of Gallicia, where the Suevi and the Vandals had
fortified their camps, in mutual discord and hostile
independence. The Vandals prevailed; and their adversaries were
besieged in the Nervasian hills, between Leon and Oviedo, till
the approach of Count Asterius compelled, or rather provoked, the
victorious Barbarians to remove the scene of the war to the
plains of Btica. The rapid progress of the Vandals soon acquired
a more effectual opposition; and the master-general Castinus
marched against them with a numerous army of Romans and Goths.
Vanquished in battle by an inferior army, Castinus fled with
dishonor to Tarragona; and this memorable defeat, which has been
represented as the punishment, was most probably the effect, of
his rash presumption. Seville and Carthagena became the reward,
or rather the prey, of the ferocious conquerors; and the vessels
which they found in the harbor of Carthagena might easily
transport them to the Isles of Majorca and Minorca, where the
Spanish fugitives, as in a secure recess, had vainly concealed
their families and their fortunes. The experience of navigation,
and perhaps the prospect of Africa, encouraged the Vandals to
accept the invitation which they received from Count Boniface;
and the death of Gonderic served only to forward and animate the
bold enterprise. In the room of a prince not conspicuous for any
superior powers of the mind or body, they acquired his bastard
brother, the terrible Genseric; a name, which, in the destruction
of the Roman empire, has deserved an equal rank with the names of
Alaric and Attila. The king of the Vandals is described to have
been of a middle stature, with a lameness in one leg, which he
had contracted by an accidental fall from his horse. His slow and
cautious speech seldom declared the deep purposes of his soul; he
disdained to imitate the luxury of the vanquished; but he
indulged the sterner passions of anger and revenge. The ambition
of Genseric was without bounds and without scruples; and the
warrior could dexterously employ the dark engines of policy to
solicit the allies who might be useful to his success, or to
scatter among his enemies the seeds of hatred and contention.
Almost in the moment of his departure he was informed that
Hermanric, king of the Suevi, had presumed to ravage the Spanish
territories, which he was resolved to abandon. Impatient of the
insult, Genseric pursued the hasty retreat of the Suevi as far as
Merida; precipitated the king and his army into the River Anas,
and calmly returned to the sea-shore to embark his victorious
troops. The vessels which transported the Vandals over the modern
Straits of Gibraltar, a channel only twelve miles in breadth,
were furnished by the Spaniards, who anxiously wished their
departure; and by the African general, who had implored their
formidable assistance.
Our fancy, so long accustomed to exaggerate and multiply the
martial swarms of Barbarians that seemed to issue from the North,
will perhaps be surprised by the account of the army which
Genseric mustered on the coast of Mauritania. The Vandals, who in
twenty years had penetrated from the Elbe to Mount Atlas, were
united under the command of their warlike king; and he reigned
with equal authority over the Alani, who had passed, within the
term of human life, from the cold of Scythia to the excessive
heat of an African climate. The hopes of the bold enterprise had
excited many brave adventurers of the Gothic nation; and many
desperate provincials were tempted to repair their fortunes by
the same means which had occasioned their ruin. Yet this various
multitude amounted only to fifty thousand effective men; and
though Genseric artfully magnified his apparent strength, by
appointing eighty chiliarchs, or
commanders of thousands, the fallacious increase of old men, of
children, and of slaves, would scarcely have swelled his army to
the number of four-score thousand persons. But his own dexterity,
and the discontents of Africa, soon fortified the Vandal powers,
by the accession of numerous and active allies. The parts of
Mauritania which border on the Great Desert and the Atlantic
Ocean, were filled with a fierce and untractable race of men,
whose savage temper had been exasperated, rather than reclaimed,
by their dread of the Roman arms. The wandering Moors, as they
gradually ventured to approach the seashore, and the camp of the
Vandals, must have viewed with terror and astonishment the dress,
the armor, the martial pride and discipline of the unknown
strangers who had landed on their coast; and the fair complexions
of the blue-eyed warriors of Germany formed a very singular
contrast with the swarthy or olive hue which is derived from the
neighborhood of the torrid zone. After the first difficulties had
in some measure been removed, which arose from the mutual
ignorance of their respective language, the Moors, regardless of
any future consequence, embraced the alliance of the enemies of
Rome; and a crowd of naked savages rushed from the woods and
valleys of Mount Atlas, to satiate their revenge on the polished
tyrants, who had injuriously expelled them from the native
sovereignty of the land.
The persecution of the Donatists was an event not less
favorable to the designs of Genseric. Seventeen years before he
landed in Africa, a public conference was held at Carthage, by
the order of the magistrate. The Catholics were satisfied, that,
after the invincible reasons which they had alleged, the
obstinacy of the schismatics must be inexcusable and voluntary;
and the emperor Honorius was persuaded to inflict the most
rigorous penalties on a faction which had so long abused his
patience and clemency. Three hundred bishops, with many thousands
of the inferior clergy, were torn from their churches, stripped
of their ecclesiastical possessions, banished to the islands, and
proscribed by the laws, if they presumed to conceal themselves in
the provinces of Africa. Their numerous congregations, both in
cities and in the country, were deprived of the rights of
citizens, and of the exercise of religious worship. A regular
scale of fines, from ten to two hundred pounds of silver, was
curiously ascertained, according to the distinction of rank and
fortune, to punish the crime of assisting at a schismatic
conventicle; and if the fine had been levied five times, without
subduing the obstinacy of the offender, his future punishment was
referred to the discretion of the Imperial court. By these
severities, which obtained the warmest approbation of St.
Augustin, great numbers of Donatists were reconciled to the
Catholic Church; but the fanatics, who still persevered in their
opposition, were provoked to madness and despair; the distracted
country was filled with tumult and bloodshed; the armed troops of
Circumcellions alternately pointed their rage against themselves,
or against their adversaries; and the calendar of martyrs
received on both sides a considerable augmentation. Under these
circumstances, Genseric, a Christian, but an enemy of the
orthodox communion, showed himself to the Donatists as a powerful
deliverer, from whom they might reasonably expect the repeal of
the odious and oppressive edicts of the Roman emperors. The
conquest of Africa was facilitated by the active zeal, or the
secret favor, of a domestic faction; the wanton outrages against
the churches and the clergy of which the Vandals are accused, may
be fairly imputed to the fanaticism of their allies; and the
intolerant spirit which disgraced the triumph of Christianity,
contributed to the loss of the most important province of the
West.
The court and the people were astonished by the strange
intelligence, that a virtuous hero, after so many favors, and so
many services, had renounced his allegiance, and invited the
Barbarians to destroy the province intrusted to his command. The
friends of Boniface, who still believed that his criminal
behavior might be excused by some honorable motive, solicited,
during the absence of Ætius, a free conference with the
Count of Africa; and Darius, an officer of high distinction, was
named for the important embassy. In their first interview at
Carthage, the imaginary provocations were mutually explained; the
opposite letters of Ætius were produced and compared; and
the fraud was easily detected. Placidia and Boniface lamented
their fatal error; and the count had sufficient magnanimity to
confide in the forgiveness of his sovereign, or to expose his
head to her future resentment. His repentance was fervent and
sincere; but he soon discovered that it was no longer in his
power to restore the edifice which he had shaken to its
foundations. Carthage and the Roman garrisons returned with their
general to the allegiance of Valentinian; but the rest of Africa
was still distracted with war and faction; and the inexorable
king of the Vandals, disdaining all terms of accommodation,
sternly refused to relinquish the possession of his prey. The
band of veterans who marched under the standard of Boniface, and
his hasty levies of provincial troops, were defeated with
considerable loss; the victorious Barbarians insulted the open
country; and Carthage, Cirta, and Hippo Regius, were the only
cities that appeared to rise above the general inundation.
The long and narrow tract of the African coast was filled with
frequent monuments of Roman art and magnificence; and the
respective degrees of improvement might be accurately measured by
the distance from Carthage and the Mediterranean. A simple
reflection will impress every thinking mind with the clearest
idea of fertility and cultivation: the country was extremely
populous; the inhabitants reserved a liberal subsistence for
their own use; and the annual exportation, particularly of wheat,
was so regular and plentiful, that Africa deserved the name of
the common granary of Rome and of mankind. On a sudden the seven
fruitful provinces, from Tangier to Tripoli, were overwhelmed by
the invasion of the Vandals; whose destructive rage has perhaps
been exaggerated by popular animosity, religious zeal, and
extravagant declamation. War, in its fairest form, implies a
perpetual violation of humanity and justice; and the hostilities
of Barbarians are inflamed by the fierce and lawless spirit which
incessantly disturbs their peaceful and domestic society. The
Vandals, where they found resistance, seldom gave quarter; and
the deaths of their valiant countrymen were expiated by the ruin
of the cities under whose walls they had fallen. Careless of the
distinctions of age, or sex, or rank, they employed every species
of indignity and torture, to force from the captives a discovery
of their hidden wealth. The stern policy of Genseric justified
his frequent examples of military execution: he was not always
the master of his own passions, or of those of his followers; and
the calamities of war were aggravated by the licentiousness of
the Moors, and the fanaticism of the Donatists. Yet I shall not
easily be persuaded, that it was the common practice of the
Vandals to extirpate the olives, and other fruit trees, of a
country where they intended to settle: nor can I believe that it
was a usual stratagem to slaughter great numbers of their
prisoners before the walls of a besieged city, for the sole
purpose of infecting the air, and producing a pestilence, of
which they themselves must have been the first victims.
The generous mind of Count Boniface was tortured by the
exquisite distress of beholding the ruin which he had occasioned,
and whose rapid progress he was unable to check. After the loss
of a battle he retired into Hippo Regius; where he was
immediately besieged by an enemy, who considered him as the real
bulwark of Africa. The maritime colony of
Hippo, about two hundred miles westward
of Carthage, had formerly acquired the distinguishing epithet of
Regius, from the residence of Numidian
kings; and some remains of trade and populousness still adhere to
the modern city, which is known in Europe by the corrupted name
of Bona. The military labors, and anxious reflections, of Count
Boniface, were alleviated by the edifying conversation of his
friend St. Augustin; till that bishop, the light and pillar of
the Catholic church, was gently released, in the third month of
the siege, and in the seventy-sixth year of his age, from the
actual and the impending calamities of his country. The youth of
Augustin had been stained by the vices and errors which he so
ingenuously confesses; but from the moment of his conversion to
that of his death, the manners of the bishop of Hippo were pure
and austere: and the most conspicuous of his virtues was an
ardent zeal against heretics of every denomination; the
Manichæans, the Donatists, and the Pelagians, against whom
he waged a perpetual controversy. When the city, some months
after his death, was burnt by the Vandals, the library was
fortunately saved, which contained his voluminous writings; two
hundred and thirty-two separate books or treatises on theological
subjects, besides a complete exposition of the psalter and the
gospel, and a copious magazine of epistles and homilies.
According to the judgment of the most impartial critics, the
superficial learning of Augustin was confined to the Latin
language; and his style, though sometimes animated by the
eloquence of passion, is usually clouded by false and affected
rhetoric. But he possessed a strong, capacious, argumentative
mind; he boldly sounded the dark abyss of grace, predestination,
free will, and original sin; and the rigid system of Christianity
which he framed or restored, has been entertained, with public
applause, and secret reluctance, by the Latin church.
Chapter XXXIII: Conquest Of Africa By The Vandals.
-- Part II.
By the skill of Boniface, and perhaps by the ignorance of the
Vandals, the siege of Hippo was protracted above fourteen months:
the sea was continually open; and when the adjacent country had
been exhausted by irregular rapine, the besiegers themselves were
compelled by famine to relinquish their enterprise. The
importance and danger of Africa were deeply felt by the regent of
the West. Placidia implored the assistance of her eastern ally;
and the Italian fleet and army were reënforced by Asper, who
sailed from Constantinople with a powerful armament. As soon as
the force of the two empires was united under the command of
Boniface, he boldly marched against the Vandals; and the loss of
a second battle irretrievably decided the fate of Africa. He
embarked with the precipitation of despair; and the people of
Hippo were permitted, with their families and effects, to occupy
the vacant place of the soldiers, the greatest part of whom were
either slain or made prisoners by the Vandals. The count, whose
fatal credulity had wounded the vitals of the republic, might
enter the palace of Ravenna with some anxiety, which was soon
removed by the smiles of Placidia. Boniface accepted with
gratitude the rank of patrician, and the dignity of
master-general of the Roman armies; but he must have blushed at
the sight of those medals, in which he was represented with the
name and attributes of victory. The discovery of his fraud, the
displeasure of the empress, and the distinguished favor of his
rival, exasperated the haughty and perfidious soul of
Ætius. He hastily returned from Gaul to Italy, with a
retinue, or rather with an army, of Barbarian followers; and such
was the weakness of the government, that the two generals decided
their private quarrel in a bloody battle. Boniface was
successful; but he received in the conflict a mortal wound from
the spear of his adversary, of which he expired within a few
days, in such Christian and charitable sentiments, that he
exhorted his wife, a rich heiress of Spain, to accept Ætius
for her second husband. But Ætius could not derive any
immediate advantage from the generosity of his dying enemy: he
was proclaimed a rebel by the justice of Placidia; and though he
attempted to defend some strong fortresses, erected on his
patrimonial estate, the Imperial power soon compelled him to
retire into Pannonia, to the tents of his faithful Huns. The
republic was deprived, by their mutual discord, of the service of
her two most illustrious champions.
It might naturally be expected, after the retreat of Boniface,
that the Vandals would achieve, without resistance or delay, the
conquest of Africa. Eight years, however, elapsed, from the
evacuation of Hippo to the reduction of Carthage. In the midst of
that interval, the ambitious Genseric, in the full tide of
apparent prosperity, negotiated a treaty of peace, by which he
gave his son Hunneric for a hostage; and consented to leave the
Western emperor in the undisturbed possession of the three
Mauritanias. This moderation, which cannot be imputed to the
justice, must be ascribed to the policy, of the conqueror. His
throne was encompassed with domestic enemies, who accused the
baseness of his birth, and asserted the legitimate claims of his
nephews, the sons of Gonderic. Those nephews, indeed, he
sacrificed to his safety; and their mother, the widow of the
deceased king, was precipitated, by his order, into the river
Ampsaga. But the public discontent burst forth in dangerous and
frequent conspiracies; and the warlike tyrant is supposed to have
shed more Vandal blood by the hand of the executioner, than in
the field of battle. The convulsions of Africa, which had favored
his attack, opposed the firm establishment of his power; and the
various seditions of the Moors and Germans, the Donatists and
Catholics, continually disturbed, or threatened, the unsettled
reign of the conqueror. As he advanced towards Carthage, he was
forced to withdraw his troops from the Western provinces; the
sea-coast was exposed to the naval enterprises of the Romans of
Spain and Italy; and, in the heart of Numidia, the strong inland
city of Corta still persisted in obstinate independence. These
difficulties were gradually subdued by the spirit, the
perseverance, and the cruelty of Genseric; who alternately
applied the arts of peace and war to the establishment of his
African kingdom. He subscribed a solemn treaty, with the hope of
deriving some advantage from the term of its continuance, and the
moment of its violation. The vigilance of his enemies was relaxed
by the protestations of friendship, which concealed his hostile
approach; and Carthage was at length surprised by the Vandals,
five hundred and eighty-five years after the destruction of the
city and republic by the younger Scipio.
A new city had arisen from its ruins, with the title of a
colony; and though Carthage might yield to the royal prerogatives
of Constantinople, and perhaps to the trade of Alexandria, or the
splendor of Antioch, she still maintained the second rank in the
West; as the Rome (if we may use the
style of contemporaries) of the African world. That wealthy and
opulent metropolis displayed, in a dependent condition, the image
of a flourishing republic. Carthage contained the manufactures,
the arms, and the treasures of the six provinces. A regular
subordination of civil honors gradually ascended from the
procurators of the streets and quarters of the city, to the
tribunal of the supreme magistrate, who, with the title of
proconsul, represented the state and dignity of a consul of
ancient Rome. Schools and gymnasia were
instituted for the education of the African youth; and the
liberal arts and manners, grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, were
publicly taught in the Greek and Latin languages. The buildings
of Carthage were uniform and magnificent; a shady grove was
planted in the midst of the capital; the
new port, a secure and capacious
harbor, was subservient to the commercial industry of citizens
and strangers; and the splendid games of the circus and theatre
were exhibited almost in the presence of the Barbarians. The
reputation of the Carthaginians was not equal to that of their
country, and the reproach of Punic faith still adhered to their
subtle and faithless character. The habits of trade, and the
abuse of luxury, had corrupted their manners; but their impious
contempt of monks, and the shameless practice of unnatural lusts,
are the two abominations which excite the pious vehemence of
Salvian, the preacher of the age. The king of the Vandals
severely reformed the vices of a voluptuous people; and the
ancient, noble, ingenuous freedom of Carthage (these expressions
of Victor are not without energy) was reduced by Genseric into a
state of ignominious servitude. After he had permitted his
licentious troops to satiate their rage and avarice, he
instituted a more regular system of rapine and oppression. An
edict was promulgated, which enjoined all persons, without fraud
or delay, to deliver their gold, silver, jewels, and valuable
furniture or apparel, to the royal officers; and the attempt to
secrete any part of their patrimony was inexorably punished with
death and torture, as an act of treason against the state. The
lands of the proconsular province, which formed the immediate
district of Carthage, were accurately measured, and divided among
the Barbarians; and the conqueror reserved for his peculiar
domain the fertile territory of Byzacium, and the adjacent parts
of Numidia and Getulia.
It was natural enough that Genseric should hate those whom he
had injured: the nobility and senators of Carthage were exposed
to his jealousy and resentment; and all those who refused the
ignominious terms, which their honor and religion forbade them to
accept, were compelled by the Arian tyrant to embrace the
condition of perpetual banishment. Rome, Italy, and the provinces
of the East, were filled with a crowd of exiles, of fugitives,
and of ingenuous captives, who solicited the public compassion;
and the benevolent epistles of Theodoret still preserve the names
and misfortunes of Cælestian and Maria. The Syrian bishop
deplores the misfortunes of Cælestian, who, from the state
of a noble and opulent senator of Carthage, was reduced, with his
wife and family, and servants, to beg his bread in a foreign
country; but he applauds the resignation of the Christian exile,
and the philosophic temper, which, under the pressure of such
calamities, could enjoy more real happiness than was the ordinary
lot of wealth and prosperity. The story of Maria, the daughter of
the magnificent Eudæmon, is singular and interesting. In
the sack of Carthage, she was purchased from the Vandals by some
merchants of Syria, who afterwards sold her as a slave in their
native country. A female attendant, transported in the same ship,
and sold in the same family, still continued to respect a
mistress whom fortune had reduced to the common level of
servitude; and the daughter of Eudæmon received from her
grateful affection the domestic services which she had once
required from her obedience. This remarkable behavior divulged
the real condition of Maria, who, in the absence of the bishop of
Cyrrhus, was redeemed from slavery by the generosity of some
soldiers of the garrison. The liberality of Theodoret provided
for her decent maintenance; and she passed ten months among the
deaconesses of the church; till she was unexpectedly informed,
that her father, who had escaped from the ruin of Carthage,
exercised an honorable office in one of the Western provinces.
Her filial impatience was seconded by the pious bishop:
Theodoret, in a letter still extant, recommends Maria to the
bishop of Ægæ, a maritime city of Cilicia, which was
frequented, during the annual fair, by the vessels of the West;
most earnestly requesting, that his colleague would use the
maiden with a tenderness suitable to her birth; and that he would
intrust her to the care of such faithful merchants, as would
esteem it a sufficient gain, if they restored a daughter, lost
beyond all human hope, to the arms of her afflicted parent.
Among the insipid legends of ecclesiastical history, I am
tempted to distinguish the memorable fable of the Seven Sleepers;
whose imaginary date corresponds with the reign of the younger
Theodosius, and the conquest of Africa by the Vandals. When the
emperor Decius persecuted the Christians, seven noble youths of
Ephesus concealed themselves in a spacious cavern in the side of
an adjacent mountain; where they were doomed to perish by the
tyrant, who gave orders that the entrance should be firmly
secured by the a pile of huge stones. They immediately fell into
a deep slumber, which was miraculously prolonged without injuring
the powers of life, during a period of one hundred and
eighty-seven years. At the end of that time, the slaves of
Adolius, to whom the inheritance of the mountain had descended,
removed the stones to supply materials for some rustic edifice:
the light of the sun darted into the cavern, and the Seven
Sleepers were permitted to awake. After a slumber, as they
thought of a few hours, they were pressed by the calls of hunger;
and resolved that Jamblichus, one of their number, should
secretly return to the city to purchase bread for the use of his
companions. The youth (if we may still employ that appellation)
could no longer recognize the once familiar aspect of his native
country; and his surprise was increased by the appearance of a
large cross, triumphantly erected over the principal gate of
Ephesus. His singular dress, and obsolete language, confounded
the baker, to whom he offered an ancient medal of Decius as the
current coin of the empire; and Jamblichus, on the suspicion of a
secret treasure, was dragged before the judge. Their mutual
inquiries produced the amazing discovery, that two centuries were
almost elapsed since Jamblichus and his friends had escaped from
the rage of a Pagan tyrant. The bishop of Ephesus, the clergy,
the magistrates, the people, and, as it is said, the emperor
Theodosius himself, hastened to visit the cavern of the Seven
Sleepers; who bestowed their benediction, related their story,
and at the same instant peaceably expired. The origin of this
marvellous fable cannot be ascribed to the pious fraud and
credulity of the modern Greeks, since
the authentic tradition may be traced within half a century of
the supposed miracle. James of Sarug, a Syrian bishop, who was
born only two years after the death of the younger Theodosius,
has devoted one of his two hundred and thirty homilies to the
praise of the young men of Ephesus. Their legend, before the end
of the sixth century, was translated from the Syriac into the
Latin language, by the care of Gregory of Tours. The hostile
communions of the East preserve their memory with equal
reverence; and their names are honorably inscribed in the Roman,
the Abyssinian, and the Russian calendar. Nor has their
reputation been confined to the Christian world. This popular
tale, which Mahomet might learn when he drove his camels to the
fairs of Syria, is introduced as a divine revelation, into the
Koran. The story of the Seven Sleepers has been adopted and
adorned by the nations, from Bengal to Africa, who profess the
Mahometan religion; and some vestiges of a similar tradition have
been discovered in the remote extremities of Scandinavia. This
easy and universal belief, so expressive of the sense of mankind,
may be ascribed to the genuine merit of the fable itself. We
imperceptibly advance from youth to age, without observing the
gradual, but incessant, change of human affairs; and even in our
larger experience of history, the imagination is accustomed, by a
perpetual series of causes and effects, to unite the most distant
revolutions. But if the interval between two memorable æras
could be instantly annihilated; if it were possible, after a
momentary slumber of two hundred years, to display the
newworld to the eyes of a spectator,
who still retained a lively and recent impression of the
old, his surprise and his reflections
would furnish the pleasing subject of a philosophical romance.
The scene could not be more advantageously placed, than in the
two centuries which elapsed between the reigns of Decius and of
Theodosius the Younger. During this period, the seat of
government had been transported from Rome to a new city on the
banks of the Thracian Bosphorus; and the abuse of military spirit
had been suppressed by an artificial system of tame and
ceremonious servitude. The throne of the persecuting Decius was
filled by a succession of Christian and orthodox princes, who had
extirpated the fabulous gods of antiquity: and the public
devotion of the age was impatient to exalt the saints and martyrs
of the Catholic church, on the altars of Diana and Hercules. The
union of the Roman empire was dissolved; its genius was humbled
in the dust; and armies of unknown Barbarians, issuing from the
frozen regions of the North, had established their victorious
reign over the fairest provinces of Europe and Africa.
Chapter XXXIV: Attila.
Part I.
The Character, Conquests, And Court Of Attila, King Of The
Huns. -- Death Of Theodosius The Younger. -- Elevation Of Marcian
To The Empire Of The East.
The Western world was oppressed by the Goths and Vandals, who
fled before the Huns; but the achievements of the Huns themselves
were not adequate to their power and prosperity. Their victorious
hordes had spread from the Volga to the Danube; but the public
force was exhausted by the discord of independent chieftains;
their valor was idly consumed in obscure and predatory
excursions; and they often degraded their national dignity, by
condescending, for the hopes of spoil, to enlist under the
banners of their fugitive enemies. In the reign of Attila, the
Huns again became the terror of the world; and I shall now
describe the character and actions of that formidable Barbarian;
who alternately insulted and invaded the East and the West, and
urged the rapid downfall of the Roman empire.
In the tide of emigration which impetuously rolled from the
confines of China to those of Germany, the most powerful and
populous tribes may commonly be found on the verge of the Roman
provinces. The accumulated weight was sustained for a while by
artificial barriers; and the easy condescension of the emperors
invited, without satisfying, the insolent demands of the
Barbarians, who had acquired an eager appetite for the luxuries
of civilized life. The Hungarians, who ambitiously insert the
name of Attila among their native kings, may affirm with truth
that the hordes, which were subject to his uncle Roas, or
Rugilas, had formed their encampments within the limits of modern
Hungary, in a fertile country, which liberally supplied the wants
of a nation of hunters and shepherds. In this advantageous
situation, Rugilas, and his valiant brothers, who continually
added to their power and reputation, commanded the alternative of
peace or war with the two empires. His alliance with the Romans
of the West was cemented by his personal friendship for the great
Ætius; who was always secure of finding, in the Barbarian
camp, a hospitable reception and a powerful support. At his
solicitation, and in the name of John the usurper, sixty thousand
Huns advanced to the confines of Italy; their march and their
retreat were alike expensive to the state; and the grateful
policy of Ætius abandoned the possession of Pannonia to his
faithful confederates. The Romans of the East were not less
apprehensive of the arms of Rugilas, which threatened the
provinces, or even the capital. Some ecclesiastical historians
have destroyed the Barbarians with lightning and pestilence; but
Theodosius was reduced to the more humble expedient of
stipulating an annual payment of three hundred and fifty pounds
of gold, and of disguising this dishonorable tribute by the title
of general, which the king of the Huns condescended to accept.
The public tranquillity was frequently interrupted by the fierce
impatience of the Barbarians, and the perfidious intrigues of the
Byzantine court. Four dependent nations, among whom we may
distinguish the Barbarians, disclaimed the sovereignty of the
Huns; and their revolt was encouraged and protected by a Roman
alliance; till the just claims, and formidable power, of Rugilas,
were effectually urged by the voice of Eslaw his ambassador.
Peace was the unanimous wish of the senate: their decree was
ratified by the emperor; and two ambassadors were named,
Plinthas, a general of Scythian extraction, but of consular rank;
and the quæstor Epigenes, a wise and experienced statesman,
who was recommended to that office by his ambitious
colleague.
The death of Rugilas suspended the progress of the treaty. His
two nephews, Attila and Bleda, who succeeded to the throne of
their uncle, consented to a personal interview with the
ambassadors of Constantinople; but as they proudly refused to
dismount, the business was transacted on horseback, in a spacious
plain near the city of Margus, in the Upper Mæsia. The
kings of the Huns assumed the solid benefits, as well as the vain
honors, of the negotiation. They dictated the conditions of
peace, and each condition was an insult on the majesty of the
empire. Besides the freedom of a safe and plentiful market on the
banks of the Danube, they required that the annual contribution
should be augmented from three hundred and fifty to seven hundred
pounds of gold; that a fine or ransom of eight pieces of gold
should be paid for every Roman captive who had escaped from his
Barbarian master; that the emperor should renounce all treaties
and engagements with the enemies of the Huns; and that all the
fugitives who had taken refuge in the court or provinces of
Theodosius, should be delivered to the justice of their offended
sovereign. This justice was rigorously inflicted on some
unfortunate youths of a royal race. They were crucified on the
territories of the empire, by the command of Attila: and as soon
as the king of the Huns had impressed the Romans with the terror
of his name, he indulged them in a short and arbitrary respite,
whilst he subdued the rebellious or independent nations of
Scythia and Germany.
Attila, the son of Mundzuk, deduced his noble, perhaps his
regal, descent from the ancient Huns, who had formerly contended
with the monarchs of China. His features, according to the
observation of a Gothic historian, bore the stamp of his national
origin; and the portrait of Attila exhibits the genuine deformity
of a modern Calmuk; a large head, a swarthy complexion, small,
deep-seated eyes, a flat nose, a few hairs in the place of a
beard, broad shoulders, and a short square body, of nervous
strength, though of a disproportioned form. The haughty step and
demeanor of the king of the Huns expressed the consciousness of
his superiority above the rest of mankind; and he had a custom of
fiercely rolling his eyes, as if he wished to enjoy the terror
which he inspired. Yet this savage hero was not inaccessible to
pity; his suppliant enemies might confide in the assurance of
peace or pardon; and Attila was considered by his subjects as a
just and indulgent master. He delighted in war; but, after he had
ascended the throne in a mature age, his head, rather than his
hand, achieved the conquest of the North; and the fame of an
adventurous soldier was usefully exchanged for that of a prudent
and successful general. The effects of personal valor are so
inconsiderable, except in poetry or romance, that victory, even
among Barbarians, must depend on the degree of skill with which
the passions of the multitude are combined and guided for the
service of a single man. The Scythian conquerors, Attila and
Zingis, surpassed their rude countrymen in art rather than in
courage; and it may be observed that the monarchies, both of the
Huns and of the Moguls, were erected by their founders on the
basis of popular superstition The miraculous conception, which
fraud and credulity ascribed to the virgin-mother of Zingis,
raised him above the level of human nature; and the naked
prophet, who in the name of the Deity invested him with the
empire of the earth, pointed the valor of the Moguls with
irresistible enthusiasm. The religious arts of Attila were not
less skillfully adapted to the character of his age and country.
It was natural enough that the Scythians should adore, with
peculiar devotion, the god of war; but as they were incapable of
forming either an abstract idea, or a corporeal representation,
they worshipped their tutelar deity under the symbol of an iron
cimeter. One of the shepherds of the Huns perceived, that a
heifer, who was grazing, had wounded herself in the foot, and
curiously followed the track of the blood, till he discovered,
among the long grass, the point of an ancient sword, which he dug
out of the ground and presented to Attila. That magnanimous, or
rather that artful, prince accepted, with pious gratitude, this
celestial favor; and, as the rightful possessor of the
sword of Mars, asserted his divine and
indefeasible claim to the dominion of the earth. If the rites of
Scythia were practised on this solemn occasion, a lofty altar, or
rather pile of fagots, three hundred yards in length and in
breadth, was raised in a spacious plain; and the sword of Mars
was placed erect on the summit of this rustic altar, which was
annually consecrated by the blood of sheep, horses, and of the
hundredth captive. Whether human sacrifices formed any part of
the worship of Attila, or whether he propitiated the god of war
with the victims which he continually offered in the field of
battle, the favorite of Mars soon acquired a sacred character,
which rendered his conquests more easy and more permanent; and
the Barbarian princes confessed, in the language of devotion or
flattery, that they could not presume to gaze, with a steady eye,
on the divine majesty of the king of the Huns. His brother Bleda,
who reigned over a considerable part of the nation, was compelled
to resign his sceptre and his life. Yet even this cruel act was
attributed to a supernatural impulse; and the vigor with which
Attila wielded the sword of Mars, convinced the world that it had
been reserved alone for his invincible arm. But the extent of his
empire affords the only remaining evidence of the number and
importance of his victories; and the Scythian monarch, however
ignorant of the value of science and philosophy, might perhaps
lament that his illiterate subjects were destitute of the art
which could perpetuate the memory of his exploits.
If a line of separation were drawn between the civilized and
the savage climates of the globe; between the inhabitants of
cities, who cultivated the earth, and the hunters and shepherds,
who dwelt in tents, Attila might aspire to the title of supreme
and sole monarch of the Barbarians. He alone, among the
conquerors of ancient and modern times, united the two mighty
kingdoms of Germany and Scythia; and those vague appellations,
when they are applied to his reign, may be understood with an
ample latitude. Thuringia, which stretched beyond its actual
limits as far as the Danube, was in the number of his provinces;
he interposed, with the weight of a powerful neighbor, in the
domestic affairs of the Franks; and one of his lieutenants
chastised, and almost exterminated, the Burgundians of the Rhine.
He subdued the islands of the ocean, the kingdoms of Scandinavia,
encompassed and divided by the waters of the Baltic; and the Huns
might derive a tribute of furs from that northern region, which
has been protected from all other conquerors by the severity of
the climate, and the courage of the natives. Towards the East, it
is difficult to circumscribe the dominion of Attila over the
Scythian deserts; yet we may be assured, that he reigned on the
banks of the Volga; that the king of the Huns was dreaded, not
only as a warrior, but as a magician; that he insulted and
vanquished the khan of the formidable Geougen; and that he sent
ambassadors to negotiate an equal alliance with the empire of
China. In the proud review of the nations who acknowledged the
sovereignty of Attila, and who never entertained, during his
lifetime, the thought of a revolt, the Gepidæ and the
Ostrogoths were distinguished by their numbers, their bravery,
and the personal merits of their chiefs. The renowned Ardaric,
king of the Gepidæ, was the faithful and sagacious
counsellor of the monarch, who esteemed his intrepid genius,
whilst he loved the mild and discreet virtues of the noble
Walamir, king of the Ostrogoths. The crowd of vulgar kings, the
leaders of so many martial tribes, who served under the standard
of Attila, were ranged in the submissive order of guards and
domestics round the person of their master. They watched his nod;
they trembled at his frown; and at the first signal of his will,
they executed, without murmur or hesitation, his stern and
absolute commands. In time of peace, the dependent princes, with
their national troops, attended the royal camp in regular
succession; but when Attila collected his military force, he was
able to bring into the field an army of five, or, according to
another account, of seven hundred thousand Barbarians.
The ambassadors of the Huns might awaken the attention of
Theodosius, by reminding him that they were his neighbors both in
Europe and Asia; since they touched the Danube on one hand, and
reached, with the other, as far as the Tanais. In the reign of
his father Arcadius, a band of adventurous Huns had ravaged the
provinces of the East; from whence they brought away rich spoils
and innumerable captives. They advanced, by a secret path, along
the shores of the Caspian Sea; traversed the snowy mountains of
Armenia; passed the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the Halys;
recruited their weary cavalry with the generous breed of
Cappadocian horses; occupied the hilly country of Cilicia, and
disturbed the festal songs and dances of the citizens of Antioch.
Egypt trembled at their approach; and the monks and pilgrims of
the Holy Land prepared to escaped their fury by a speedy
embarkation. The memory of this invasion was still recent in the
minds of the Orientals. The subjects of Attila might execute,
with superior forces, the design which these adventurers had so
boldly attempted; and it soon became the subject of anxious
conjecture, whether the tempest would fall on the dominions of
Rome, or of Persia. Some of the great vassals of the king of the
Huns, who were themselves in the rank of powerful princes, had
been sent to ratify an alliance and society of arms with the
emperor, or rather with the general of the West. They related,
during their residence at Rome, the circumstances of an
expedition, which they had lately made into the East. After
passing a desert and a morass, supposed by the Romans to be the
Lake Mæotis, they penetrated through the mountains, and
arrived, at the end of fifteen days' march, on the confines of
Media; where they advanced as far as the unknown cities of Basic
and Cursic. * They encountered the Persian army in the plains of
Media and the air, according to their own expression, was
darkened by a cloud of arrows. But the Huns were obliged to
retire before the numbers of the enemy. Their laborious retreat
was effected by a different road; they lost the greatest part of
their booty; and at length returned to the royal camp, with some
knowledge of the country, and an impatient desire of revenge. In
the free conversation of the Imperial ambassadors, who discussed,
at the court of Attila, the character and designs of their
formidable enemy, the ministers of Constantinople expressed their
hope, that his strength might be diverted and employed in a long
and doubtful contest with the princes of the house of Sassan. The
more sagacious Italians admonished their Eastern brethren of the
folly and danger of such a hope; and convinced them,
that the Medes and Persians were
incapable of resisting the arms of the Huns; and
that the easy and important acquisition
would exalt the pride, as well as power, of the conqueror.
Instead of contenting himself with a moderate contribution, and a
military title, which equalled him only to the generals of
Theodosius, Attila would proceed to impose a disgraceful and
intolerable yoke on the necks of the prostrate and captive
Romans, who would then be encompassed, on all sides, by the
empire of the Huns.
While the powers of Europe and Asia were solicitous to avert
the impending danger, the alliance of Attila maintained the
Vandals in the possession of Africa. An enterprise had been
concerted between the courts of Ravenna and Constantinople, for
the recovery of that valuable province; and the ports of Sicily
were already filled with the military and naval forces of
Theodosius. But the subtle Genseric, who spread his negotiations
round the world, prevented their designs, by exciting the king of
the Huns to invade the Eastern empire; and a trifling incident
soon became the motive, or pretence, of a destructive war. Under
the faith of the treaty of Margus, a free market was held on the
Northern side of the Danube, which was protected by a Roman
fortress surnamed Constantia. A troop of Barbarians violated the
commercial security; killed, or dispersed, the unsuspecting
traders; and levelled the fortress with the ground. The Huns
justified this outrage as an act of reprisal; alleged, that the
bishop of Margus had entered their territories, to discover and
steal a secret treasure of their kings; and sternly demanded the
guilty prelate, the sacrilegious spoil, and the fugitive
subjects, who had escaped from the justice of Attila. The refusal
of the Byzantine court was the signal of war; and the
Mæsians at first applauded the generous firmness of their
sovereign. But they were soon intimidated by the destruction of
Viminiacum and the adjacent towns; and the people was persuaded
to adopt the convenient maxim, that a private citizen, however
innocent or respectable, may be justly sacrificed to the safety
of his country. The bishop of Margus, who did not possess the
spirit of a martyr, resolved to prevent the designs which he
suspected. He boldly treated with the princes of the Huns:
secured, by solemn oaths, his pardon and reward; posted a
numerous detachment of Barbarians, in silent ambush, on the banks
of the Danube; and, at the appointed hour, opened, with his own
hand, the gates of his episcopal city. This advantage, which had
been obtained by treachery, served as a prelude to more honorable
and decisive victories. The Illyrian frontier was covered by a
line of castles and fortresses; and though the greatest part of
them consisted only of a single tower, with a small garrison,
they were commonly sufficient to repel, or to intercept, the
inroads of an enemy, who was ignorant of the art, and impatient
of the delay, of a regular siege. But these slight obstacles were
instantly swept away by the inundation of the Huns. They
destroyed, with fire and sword, the populous cities of Sirmium
and Singidunum, of Ratiaria and Marcianopolis, of Naissus and
Sardica; where every circumstance of the discipline of the
people, and the construction of the buildings, had been gradually
adapted to the sole purpose of defence. The whole breadth of
Europe, as it extends above five hundred miles from the Euxine to
the Hadriatic, was at once invaded, and occupied, and desolated,
by the myriads of Barbarians whom Attila led into the field. The
public danger and distress could not, however, provoke Theodosius
to interrupt his amusements and devotion, or to appear in person
at the head of the Roman legions. But the troops, which had been
sent against Genseric, were hastily recalled from Sicily; the
garrisons, on the side of Persia, were exhausted; and a military
force was collected in Europe, formidable by their arms and
numbers, if the generals had understood the science of command,
and the soldiers the duty of obedience. The armies of the Eastern
empire were vanquished in three successive engagements; and the
progress of Attila may be traced by the fields of battle. The two
former, on the banks of the Utus, and under the walls of
Marcianopolis, were fought in the extensive plains between the
Danube and Mount Hæmus. As the Romans were pressed by a
victorious enemy, they gradually, and unskilfully, retired
towards the Chersonesus of Thrace; and that narrow peninsula, the
last extremity of the land, was marked by their third, and
irreparable, defeat. By the destruction of this army, Attila
acquired the indisputable possession of the field. From the
Hellespont to Thermopylæ, and the suburbs of
Constantinople, he ravaged, without resistance, and without
mercy, the provinces of Thrace and Macedonia. Heraclea and
Hadrianople might, perhaps, escape this dreadful irruption of the
Huns; but the words, the most expressive of total extirpation and
erasure, are applied to the calamities which they inflicted on
seventy cities of the Eastern empire. Theodosius, his court, and
the unwarlike people, were protected by the walls of
Constantinople; but those walls had been shaken by a recent
earthquake, and the fall of fifty-eight towers had opened a large
and tremendous breach. The damage indeed was speedily repaired;
but this accident was aggravated by a superstitious fear, that
Heaven itself had delivered the Imperial city to the shepherds of
Scythia, who were strangers to the laws, the language, and the
religion, of the Romans.
In all their invasions of the civilized empires of the South,
the Scythian shepherds have been uniformly actuated by a savage
and destructive spirit. The laws of war, that restrain the
exercise of national rapine and murder, are founded on two
principles of substantial interest: the knowledge of the
permanent benefits which may be obtained by a moderate use of
conquest; and a just apprehension, lest the desolation which we
inflict on the enemy's country may be retaliated on our own. But
these considerations of hope and fear are almost unknown in the
pastoral state of nations. The Huns of Attila may, without
injustice, be compared to the Moguls and Tartars, before their
primitive manners were changed by religion and luxury; and the
evidence of Oriental history may reflect some light on the short
and imperfect annals of Rome. After the Moguls had subdued the
northern provinces of China, it was seriously proposed, not in
the hour of victory and passion, but in calm deliberate council,
to exterminate all the inhabitants of that populous country, that
the vacant land might be converted to the pasture of cattle. The
firmness of a Chinese mandarin, who insinuated some principles of
rational policy into the mind of Zingis, diverted him from the
execution of this horrid design. But in the cities of Asia, which
yielded to the Moguls, the inhuman abuse of the rights of war was
exercised with a regular form of discipline, which may, with
equal reason, though not with equal authority, be imputed to the
victorious Huns. The inhabitants, who had submitted to their
discretion, were ordered to evacuate their houses, and to
assemble in some plain adjacent to the city; where a division was
made of the vanquished into three parts. The first class
consisted of the soldiers of the garrison, and of the young men
capable of bearing arms; and their fate was instantly decided
they were either enlisted among the Moguls, or they were
massacred on the spot by the troops, who, with pointed spears and
bended bows, had formed a circle round the captive multitude. The
second class, composed of the young and beautiful women, of the
artificers of every rank and profession, and of the more wealthy
or honorable citizens, from whom a private ransom might be
expected, was distributed in equal or proportionable lots. The
remainder, whose life or death was alike useless to the
conquerors, were permitted to return to the city; which, in the
mean while, had been stripped of its valuable furniture; and a
tax was imposed on those wretched inhabitants for the indulgence
of breathing their native air. Such was the behavior of the
Moguls, when they were not conscious of any extraordinary rigor.
But the most casual provocation, the slightest motive of caprice
or convenience, often provoked them to involve a whole people in
an indiscriminate massacre; and the ruin of some flourishing
cities was executed with such unrelenting perseverance, that,
according to their own expression, horses might run, without
stumbling, over the ground where they had once stood. The three
great capitals of Khorasan, Maru, Neisabour, and Herat, were
destroyed by the armies of Zingis; and the exact account which
was taken of the slain amounted to four millions three hundred
and forty-seven thousand persons. Timur, or Tamerlane, was
educated in a less barbarous age, and in the profession of the
Mahometan religion; yet, if Attila equalled the hostile ravages
of Tamerlane, either the Tartar or the Hun might deserve the
epithet of the Scourge of God.
Chapter XXXIV: Attila. -- Part
II.
It may be affirmed, with bolder assurance, that the Huns
depopulated the provinces of the empire, by the number of Roman
subjects whom they led away into captivity. In the hands of a
wise legislator, such an industrious colony might have
contributed to diffuse through the deserts of Scythia the
rudiments of the useful and ornamental arts; but these captives,
who had been taken in war, were accidentally dispersed among the
hordes that obeyed the empire of Attila. The estimate of their
respective value was formed by the simple judgment of
unenlightened and unprejudiced Barbarians. Perhaps they might not
understand the merit of a theologian, profoundly skilled in the
controversies of the Trinity and the Incarnation; yet they
respected the ministers of every religion and the active zeal of
the Christian missionaries, without approaching the person or the
palace of the monarch, successfully labored in the propagation of
the gospel. The pastoral tribes, who were ignorant of the
distinction of landed property, must have disregarded the use, as
well as the abuse, of civil jurisprudence; and the skill of an
eloquent lawyer could excite only their contempt or their
abhorrence. The perpetual intercourse of the Huns and the Goths
had communicated the familiar knowledge of the two national
dialects; and the Barbarians were ambitious of conversing in
Latin, the military idiom even of the Eastern empire. But they
disdained the language and the sciences of the Greeks; and the
vain sophist, or grave philosopher, who had enjoyed the
flattering applause of the schools, was mortified to find that
his robust servant was a captive of more value and importance
than himself. The mechanic arts were encouraged and esteemed, as
they tended to satisfy the wants of the Huns. An architect in the
service of Onegesius, one of the favorites of Attila, was
employed to construct a bath; but this work was a rare example of
private luxury; and the trades of the smith, the carpenter, the
armorer, were much more adapted to supply a wandering people with
the useful instruments of peace and war. But the merit of the
physician was received with universal favor and respect: the
Barbarians, who despised death, might be apprehensive of disease;
and the haughty conqueror trembled in the presence of a captive,
to whom he ascribed, perhaps, an imaginary power of prolonging or
preserving his life. The Huns might be provoked to insult the
misery of their slaves, over whom they exercised a despotic
command; but their manners were not susceptible of a refined
system of oppression; and the efforts of courage and diligence
were often recompensed by the gift of freedom. The historian
Priscus, whose embassy is a source of curious instruction, was
accosted in the camp of Attila by a stranger, who saluted him in
the Greek language, but whose dress and figure displayed the
appearance of a wealthy Scythian. In the siege of Viminiacum, he
had lost, according to his own account, his fortune and liberty;
he became the slave of Onegesius; but his faithful services,
against the Romans and the Acatzires, had gradually raised him to
the rank of the native Huns; to whom he was attached by the
domestic pledges of a new wife and several children. The spoils
of war had restored and improved his private property; he was
admitted to the table of his former lord; and the apostate Greek
blessed the hour of his captivity, since it had been the
introduction to a happy and independent state; which he held by
the honorable tenure of military service. This reflection
naturally produced a dispute on the advantages and defects of the
Roman government, which was severely arraigned by the apostate,
and defended by Priscus in a prolix and feeble declamation. The
freedman of Onegesius exposed, in true and lively colors, the
vices of a declining empire, of which he had so long been the
victim; the cruel absurdity of the Roman princes, unable to
protect their subjects against the public enemy, unwilling to
trust them with arms for their own defence; the intolerable
weight of taxes, rendered still more oppressive by the intricate
or arbitrary modes of collection; the obscurity of numerous and
contradictory laws; the tedious and expensive forms of judicial
proceedings; the partial administration of justice; and the
universal corruption, which increased the influence of the rich,
and aggravated the misfortunes of the poor. A sentiment of
patriotic sympathy was at length revived in the breast of the
fortunate exile; and he lamented, with a flood of tears, the
guilt or weakness of those magistrates who had perverted the
wisest and most salutary institutions.
The timid or selfish policy of the Western Romans had
abandoned the Eastern empire to the Huns. The loss of armies, and
the want of discipline or virtue, were not supplied by the
personal character of the monarch. Theodosius might still affect
the style, as well as the title, of Invincible
Augustus; but he was reduced to solicit the
clemency of Attila, who imperiously dictated these harsh and
humiliating conditions of peace. I. The emperor of the East
resigned, by an express or tacit convention, an extensive and
important territory, which stretched along the southern banks of
the Danube, from Singidunum, or Belgrade, as far as Novæ,
in the diocese of Thrace. The breadth was defined by the vague
computation of fifteen * days' journey; but, from the proposal of
Attila to remove the situation of the national market, it soon
appeared, that he comprehended the ruined city of Naissus within
the limits of his dominions. II. The king of the Huns required
and obtained, that his tribute or subsidy should be augmented
from seven hundred pounds of gold to the annual sum of two
thousand one hundred; and he stipulated the immediate payment of
six thousand pounds of gold, to defray the expenses, or to
expiate the guilt, of the war. One might imagine, that such a
demand, which scarcely equalled the measure of private wealth,
would have been readily discharged by the opulent empire of the
East; and the public distress affords a remarkable proof of the
impoverished, or at least of the disorderly, state of the
finances. A large proportion of the taxes extorted from the
people was detained and intercepted in their passage, though the
foulest channels, to the treasury of Constantinople. The revenue
was dissipated by Theodosius and his favorites in wasteful and
profuse luxury; which was disguised by the names of Imperial
magnificence, or Christian charity. The immediate supplies had
been exhausted by the unforeseen necessity of military
preparations. A personal contribution, rigorously, but
capriciously, imposed on the members of the senatorian order, was
the only expedient that could disarm, without loss of time, the
impatient avarice of Attila; and the poverty of the nobles
compelled them to adopt the scandalous resource of exposing to
public auction the jewels of their wives, and the hereditary
ornaments of their palaces. III. The king of the Huns appears to
have established, as a principle of national jurisprudence, that
he could never lose the property, which he had once acquired, in
the persons who had yielded either a voluntary, or reluctant,
submission to his authority. From this principle he concluded,
and the conclusions of Attila were irrevocable laws, that the
Huns, who had been taken prisoner in war, should be released
without delay, and without ransom; that every Roman captive, who
had presumed to escape, should purchase his right to freedom at
the price of twelve pieces of gold; and that all the Barbarians,
who had deserted the standard of Attila, should be restored,
without any promise or stipulation of pardon. In the execution of
this cruel and ignominious treaty, the Imperial officers were
forced to massacre several loyal and noble deserters, who refused
to devote themselves to certain death; and the Romans forfeited
all reasonable claims to the friendship of any Scythian people,
by this public confession, that they were destitute either of
faith, or power, to protect the suppliant, who had embraced the
throne of Theodosius.
The firmness of a single town, so obscure, that, except on
this occasion, it has never been mentioned by any historian or
geographer, exposed the disgrace of the emperor and empire.
Azimus, or Azimuntium, a small city of Thrace on the Illyrian
borders, had been distinguished by the martial spirit of its
youth, the skill and reputation of the leaders whom they had
chosen, and their daring exploits against the innumerable host of
the Barbarians. Instead of tamely expecting their approach, the
Azimuntines attacked, in frequent and successful sallies, the
troops of the Huns, who gradually declined the dangerous
neighborhood, rescued from their hands the spoil and the
captives, and recruited their domestic force by the voluntary
association of fugitives and deserters. After the conclusion of
the treaty, Attila still menaced the empire with implacable war,
unless the Azimuntines were persuaded, or compelled, to comply
with the conditions which their sovereign had accepted. The
ministers of Theodosius confessed with shame, and with truth,
that they no longer possessed any authority over a society of
men, who so bravely asserted their natural independence; and the
king of the Huns condescended to negotiate an equal exchange with
the citizens of Azimus. They demanded the restitution of some
shepherds, who, with their cattle, had been accidentally
surprised. A strict, though fruitless, inquiry was allowed: but
the Huns were obliged to swear, that they did not detain any
prisoners belonging to the city, before they could recover two
surviving countrymen, whom the Azimuntines had reserved as
pledges for the safety of their lost companions. Attila, on his
side, was satisfied, and deceived, by their solemn asseveration,
that the rest of the captives had been put to the sword; and that
it was their constant practice, immediately to dismiss the Romans
and the deserters, who had obtained the security of the public
faith. This prudent and officious dissimulation may be condemned,
or excused, by the casuists, as they incline to the rigid decree
of St. Augustin, or to the milder sentiment of St. Jerom and St.
Chrysostom: but every soldier, every statesman, must acknowledge,
that, if the race of the Azimuntines had been encouraged and
multiplied, the Barbarians would have ceased to trample on the
majesty of the empire.
It would have been strange, indeed, if Theodosius had
purchased, by the loss of honor, a secure and solid tranquillity,
or if his tameness had not invited the repetition of injuries.
The Byzantine court was insulted by five or six successive
embassies; and the ministers of Attila were uniformly instructed
to press the tardy or imperfect execution of the last treaty; to
produce the names of fugitives and deserters, who were still
protected by the empire; and to declare, with seeming moderation,
that, unless their sovereign obtained complete and immediate
satisfaction, it would be impossible for him, were it even his
wish, to check the resentment of his warlike tribes. Besides the
motives of pride and interest, which might prompt the king of the
Huns to continue this train of negotiation, he was influenced by
the less honorable view of enriching his favorites at the expense
of his enemies. The Imperial treasury was exhausted, to procure
the friendly offices of the ambassadors and their principal
attendants, whose favorable report might conduce to the
maintenance of peace. The Barbarian monarch was flattered by the
liberal reception of his ministers; he computed, with pleasure,
the value and splendor of their gifts, rigorously exacted the
performance of every promise which would contribute to their
private emolument, and treated as an important business of state
the marriage of his secretary Constantius. That Gallic
adventurer, who was recommended by Ætius to the king of the
Huns, had engaged his service to the ministers of Constantinople,
for the stipulated reward of a wealthy and noble wife; and the
daughter of Count Saturninus was chosen to discharge the
obligations of her country. The reluctance of the victim, some
domestic troubles, and the unjust confiscation of her fortune,
cooled the ardor of her interested lover; but he still demanded,
in the name of Attila, an equivalent alliance; and, after many
ambiguous delays and excuses, the Byzantine court was compelled
to sacrifice to this insolent stranger the widow of Armatius,
whose birth, opulence, and beauty, placed her in the most
illustrious rank of the Roman matrons. For these importunate and
oppressive embassies, Attila claimed a suitable return: he
weighed, with suspicious pride, the character and station of the
Imperial envoys; but he condescended to promise that he would
advance as far as Sardica to receive any ministers who had been
invested with the consular dignity. The council of Theodosius
eluded this proposal, by representing the desolate and ruined
condition of Sardica, and even ventured to insinuate that every
officer of the army or household was qualified to treat with the
most powerful princes of Scythia. Maximin, a respectable
courtier, whose abilities had been long exercised in civil and
military employments, accepted, with reluctance, the troublesome,
and perhaps dangerous, commission of reconciling the angry spirit
of the king of the Huns. His friend, the historian Priscus,
embraced the opportunity of observing the Barbarian hero in the
peaceful and domestic scenes of life: but the secret of the
embassy, a fatal and guilty secret, was intrusted only to the
interpreter Vigilius. The two last ambassadors of the Huns,
Orestes, a noble subject of the Pannonian province, and Edecon, a
valiant chieftain of the tribe of the Scyrri, returned at the
same time from Constantinople to the royal camp. Their obscure
names were afterwards illustrated by the extraordinary fortune
and the contrast of their sons: the two servants of Attila became
the fathers of the last Roman emperor of the West, and of the
first Barbarian king of Italy.
The ambassadors, who were followed by a numerous train of men
and horses, made their first halt at Sardica, at the distance of
three hundred and fifty miles, or thirteen days' journey, from
Constantinople. As the remains of Sardica were still included
within the limits of the empire, it was incumbent on the Romans
to exercise the duties of hospitality. They provided, with the
assistance of the provincials, a sufficient number of sheep and
oxen, and invited the Huns to a splendid, or at least, a
plentiful supper. But the harmony of the entertainment was soon
disturbed by mutual prejudice and indiscretion. The greatness of
the emperor and the empire was warmly maintained by their
ministers; the Huns, with equal ardor, asserted the superiority
of their victorious monarch: the dispute was inflamed by the rash
and unseasonable flattery of Vigilius, who passionately rejected
the comparison of a mere mortal with the divine Theodosius; and
it was with extreme difficulty that Maximin and Priscus were able
to divert the conversation, or to soothe the angry minds, of the
Barbarians. When they rose from table, the Imperial ambassador
presented Edecon and Orestes with rich gifts of silk robes and
Indian pearls, which they thankfully accepted. Yet Orestes could
not forbear insinuating that he had not always been treated with
such respect and liberality: and the offensive distinction which
was implied, between his civil office and the hereditary rank of
his colleague seems to have made Edecon a doubtful friend, and
Orestes an irreconcilable enemy. After this entertainment, they
travelled about one hundred miles from Sardica to Naissus. That
flourishing city, which has given birth to the great Constantine,
was levelled with the ground: the inhabitants were destroyed or
dispersed; and the appearance of some sick persons, who were
still permitted to exist among the ruins of the churches, served
only to increase the horror of the prospect. The surface of the
country was covered with the bones of the slain; and the
ambassadors, who directed their course to the north-west, were
obliged to pass the hills of modern Servia, before they descended
into the flat and marshy grounds which are terminated by the
Danube. The Huns were masters of the great river: their
navigation was performed in large canoes, hollowed out of the
trunk of a single tree; the ministers of Theodosius were safely
landed on the opposite bank; and their Barbarian associates
immediately hastened to the camp of Attila, which was equally
prepared for the amusements of hunting or of war. No sooner had
Maximin advanced about two miles * from the Danube, than he began
to experience the fastidious insolence of the conqueror. He was
sternly forbid to pitch his tents in a pleasant valley, lest he
should infringe the distant awe that was due to the royal
mansion. The ministers of Attila pressed them to communicate the
business, and the instructions, which he reserved for the ear of
their sovereign When Maximin temperately urged the contrary
practice of nations, he was still more confounded to find that
the resolutions of the Sacred Consistory, those secrets (says
Priscus) which should not be revealed to the gods themselves, had
been treacherously disclosed to the public enemy. On his refusal
to comply with such ignominious terms, the Imperial envoy was
commanded instantly to depart; the order was recalled; it was
again repeated; and the Huns renewed their ineffectual attempts
to subdue the patient firmness of Maximin. At length, by the
intercession of Scotta, the brother of Onegesius, whose
friendship had been purchased by a liberal gift, he was admitted
to the royal presence; but, in stead of obtaining a decisive
answer, he was compelled to undertake a remote journey towards
the north, that Attila might enjoy the proud satisfaction of
receiving, in the same camp, the ambassadors of the Eastern and
Western empires. His journey was regulated by the guides, who
obliged him to halt, to hasten his march, or to deviate from the
common road, as it best suited the convenience of the king. The
Romans, who traversed the plains of Hungary, suppose that they
passed several navigable rivers, either
in canoes or portable boats; but there is reason to suspect that
the winding stream of the Teyss, or Tibiscus, might present
itself in different places under different names. From the
contiguous villages they received a plentiful and regular supply
of provisions; mead instead of wine, millet in the place of
bread, and a certain liquor named
camus, which according to the report of
Priscus, was distilled from barley. Such fare might appear coarse
and indelicate to men who had tasted the luxury of
Constantinople; but, in their accidental distress, they were
relieved by the gentleness and hospitality of the same
Barbarians, so terrible and so merciless in war. The ambassadors
had encamped on the edge of a large morass. A violent tempest of
wind and rain, of thunder and lightning, overturned their tents,
immersed their baggage and furniture in the water, and scattered
their retinue, who wandered in the darkness of the night,
uncertain of their road, and apprehensive of some unknown danger,
till they awakened by their cries the inhabitants of a
neighboring village, the property of the widow of Bleda. A bright
illumination, and, in a few moments, a comfortable fire of reeds,
was kindled by their officious benevolence; the wants, and even
the desires, of the Romans were liberally satisfied; and they
seem to have been embarrassed by the singular politeness of
Bleda's widow, who added to her other favors the gift, or at
least the loan, of a sufficient number of beautiful and
obsequious damsels. The sunshine of the succeeding day was
dedicated to repose, to collect and dry the baggage, and to the
refreshment of the men and horses: but, in the evening, before
they pursued their journey, the ambassadors expressed their
gratitude to the bounteous lady of the village, by a very
acceptable present of silver cups, red fleeces, dried fruits, and
Indian pepper. Soon after this adventure, they rejoined the march
of Attila, from whom they had been separated about six days, and
slowly proceeded to the capital of an empire, which did not
contain, in the space of several thousand miles, a single
city.
As far as we may ascertain the vague and obscure geography of
Priscus, this capital appears to have been seated between the
Danube, the Teyss, and the Carpathian hills, in the plains of
Upper Hungary, and most probably in the neighborhood of Jezberin,
Agria, or Tokay. In its origin it could be no more than an
accidental camp, which, by the long and frequent residence of
Attila, had insensibly swelled into a huge village, for the
reception of his court, of the troops who followed his person,
and of the various multitude of idle or industrious slaves and
retainers. The baths, constructed by Onegesius, were the only
edifice of stone; the materials had been transported from
Pannonia; and since the adjacent country was destitute even of
large timber, it may be presumed, that the meaner habitations of
the royal village consisted of straw, or mud, or of canvass. The
wooden houses of the more illustrious Huns were built and adorned
with rude magnificence, according to the rank, the fortune, or
the taste of the proprietors. They seem to have been distributed
with some degree of order and symmetry; and each spot became more
honorable as it approached the person of the sovereign. The
palace of Attila, which surpassed all other houses in his
dominions, was built entirely of wood, and covered an ample space
of ground. The outward enclosure was a lofty wall, or palisade,
of smooth square timber, intersected with high towers, but
intended rather for ornament than defence. This wall, which seems
to have encircled the declivity of a hill, comprehended a great
variety of wooden edifices, adapted to the uses of royalty. A
separate house was assigned to each of the numerous wives of
Attila; and, instead of the rigid and illiberal confinement
imposed by Asiatic jealousy they politely admitted the Roman
ambassadors to their presence, their table, and even to the
freedom of an innocent embrace. When Maximin offered his presents
to Cerca, * the principal queen, he admired the singular
architecture on her mansion, the height of the round columns, the
size and beauty of the wood, which was curiously shaped or turned
or polished or carved; and his attentive eye was able to discover
some taste in the ornaments and some regularity in the
proportions. After passing through the guards, who watched before
the gate, the ambassadors were introduced into the private
apartment of Cerca. The wife of Attila received their visit
sitting, or rather lying, on a soft couch; the floor was covered
with a carpet; the domestics formed a circle round the queen; and
her damsels, seated on the ground, were employed in working the
variegated embroidery which adorned the dress of the Barbaric
warriors. The Huns were ambitious of displaying those riches
which were the fruit and evidence of their victories: the
trappings of their horses, their swords, and even their shoes,
were studded with gold and precious stones; and their tables were
profusely spread with plates, and goblets, and vases of gold and
silver, which had been fashioned by the labor of Grecian artists.
The monarch alone assumed the superior pride of still adhering to
the simplicity of his Scythian ancestors. The dress of Attila,
his arms, and the furniture of his horse, were plain, without
ornament, and of a single color. The royal table was served in
wooden cups and platters; flesh was his only food; and the
conqueror of the North never tasted the luxury of bread.
When Attila first gave audience to the Roman ambassadors on
the banks of the Danube, his tent was encompassed with a
formidable guard. The monarch himself was seated in a wooden
chair. His stern countenance, angry gestures, and impatient tone,
astonished the firmness of Maximin; but Vigilius had more reason
to tremble, since he distinctly understood the menace, that if
Attila did not respect the law of nations, he would nail the
deceitful interpreter to the cross. and leave his body to the
vultures. The Barbarian condescended, by producing an accurate
list, to expose the bold falsehood of Vigilius, who had affirmed
that no more than seventeen deserters could be found. But he
arrogantly declared, that he apprehended only the disgrace of
contending with his fugitive slaves; since he despised their
impotent efforts to defend the provinces which Theodosius had
intrusted to their arms: "For what fortress," (added Attila,)
"what city, in the wide extent of the Roman empire, can hope to
exist, secure and impregnable, if it is our pleasure that it
should be erased from the earth?" He dismissed, however, the
interpreter, who returned to Constantinople with his peremptory
demand of more complete restitution, and a more splendid embassy.
His anger gradually subsided, and his domestic satisfaction in a
marriage which he celebrated on the road with the daughter of
Eslam, * might perhaps contribute to mollify the native
fierceness of his temper. The entrance of Attila into the royal
village was marked by a very singular ceremony. A numerous troop
of women came out to meet their hero and their king. They marched
before him, distributed into long and regular files; the
intervals between the files were filled by white veils of thin
linen, which the women on either side bore aloft in their hands,
and which formed a canopy for a chorus of young virgins, who
chanted hymns and songs in the Scythian language. The wife of his
favorite Onegesius, with a train of female attendants, saluted
Attila at the door of her own house, on his way to the palace;
and offered, according to the custom of the country, her
respectful homage, by entreating him to taste the wine and meat
which she had prepared for his reception. As soon as the monarch
had graciously accepted her hospitable gift, his domestics lifted
a small silver table to a convenient height, as he sat on
horseback; and Attila, when he had touched the goblet with his
lips, again saluted the wife of Onegesius, and continued his
march. During his residence at the seat of empire, his hours were
not wasted in the recluse idleness of a seraglio; and the king of
the Huns could maintain his superior dignity, without concealing
his person from the public view. He frequently assembled his
council, and gave audience to the ambassadors of the nations; and
his people might appeal to the supreme tribunal, which he held at
stated times, and, according to the Eastern custom, before the
principal gate of his wooden palace. The Romans, both of the East
and of the West, were twice invited to the banquets, where Attila
feasted with the princes and nobles of Scythia. Maximin and his
colleagues were stopped on the threshold, till they had made a
devout libation to the health and prosperity of the king of the
Huns; and were conducted, after this ceremony, to their
respective seats in a spacious hall. The royal table and couch,
covered with carpets and fine linen, was raised by several steps
in the midst of the hall; and a son, an uncle, or perhaps a
favorite king, were admitted to share the simple and homely
repast of Attila. Two lines of small tables, each of which
contained three or four guests, were ranged in order on either
hand; the right was esteemed the most honorable, but the Romans
ingenuously confess, that they were placed on the left; and that
Beric, an unknown chieftain, most probably of the Gothic race,
preceded the representatives of Theodosius and Valentinian. The
Barbarian monarch received from his cup-bearer a goblet filled
with wine, and courteously drank to the health of the most
distinguished guest; who rose from his seat, and expressed, in
the same manner, his loyal and respectful vows. This ceremony was
successively performed for all, or at least for the illustrious
persons of the assembly; and a considerable time must have been
consumed, since it was thrice repeated as each course or service
was placed on the table. But the wine still remained after the
meat had been removed; and the Huns continued to indulge their
intemperance long after the sober and decent ambassadors of the
two empires had withdrawn themselves from the nocturnal banquet.
Yet before they retired, they enjoyed a singular opportunity of
observing the manners of the nation in their convivial
amusements. Two Scythians stood before the couch of Attila, and
recited the verses which they had composed, to celebrate his
valor and his victories. * A profound silence prevailed in the
hall; and the attention of the guests was captivated by the vocal
harmony, which revived and perpetuated the memory of their own
exploits; a martial ardor flashed from the eyes of the warriors,
who were impatient for battle; and the tears of the old men
expressed their generous despair, that they could no longer
partake the danger and glory of the field. This entertainment,
which might be considered as a school of military virtue, was
succeeded by a farce, that debased the dignity of human nature. A
Moorish and a Scythian buffoon * successively excited the mirth
of the rude spectators, by their deformed figure, ridiculous
dress, antic gestures, absurd speeches, and the strange,
unintelligible confusion of the Latin, the Gothic, and the Hunnic
languages; and the hall resounded with loud and licentious peals
of laughter. In the midst of this intemperate riot, Attila alone,
without a change of countenance, maintained his steadfast and
inflexible gravity; which was never relaxed, except on the
entrance of Irnac, the youngest of his sons: he embraced the boy
with a smile of paternal tenderness, gently pinched him by the
cheek, and betrayed a partial affection, which was justified by
the assurance of his prophets, that Irnac would be the future
support of his family and empire. Two days afterwards, the
ambassadors received a second invitation; and they had reason to
praise the politeness, as well as the hospitality, of Attila. The
king of the Huns held a long and familiar conversation with
Maximin; but his civility was interrupted by rude expressions and
haughty reproaches; and he was provoked, by a motive of interest,
to support, with unbecoming zeal, the private claims of his
secretary Constantius. "The emperor" (said Attila) "has long
promised him a rich wife: Constantius must not be disappointed;
nor should a Roman emperor deserve the name of liar." On the
third day, the ambassadors were dismissed; the freedom of several
captives was granted, for a moderate ransom, to their pressing
entreaties; and, besides the royal presents, they were permitted
to accept from each of the Scythian nobles the honorable and
useful gift of a horse. Maximin returned, by the same road, to
Constantinople; and though he was involved in an accidental
dispute with Beric, the new ambassador of Attila, he flattered
himself that he had contributed, by the laborious journey, to
confirm the peace and alliance of the two nations.
Chapter XXXIV: Attila. -- Part
III.
But the Roman ambassador was ignorant of the treacherous
design, which had been concealed under the mask of the public
faith. The surprise and satisfaction of Edecon, when he
contemplated the splendor of Constantinople, had encouraged the
interpreter Vigilius to procure for him a secret interview with
the eunuch Chrysaphius, who governed the emperor and the empire.
After some previous conversation, and a mutual oath of secrecy,
the eunuch, who had not, from his own feelings or experience,
imbibed any exalted notions of ministerial virtue, ventured to
propose the death of Attila, as an important service, by which
Edecon might deserve a liberal share of the wealth and luxury
which he admired. The ambassador of the Huns listened to the
tempting offer; and professed, with apparent zeal, his ability,
as well as readiness, to execute the bloody deed; the design was
communicated to the master of the offices, and the devout
Theodosius consented to the assassination of his invincible
enemy. But this perfidious conspiracy was defeated by the
dissimulation, or the repentance, of Edecon; and though he might
exaggerate his inward abhorrence for the treason, which he seemed
to approve, he dexterously assumed the merit of an early and
voluntary confession. If we now review
the embassy of Maximin, and the behavior of Attila, we must
applaud the Barbarian, who respected the laws of hospitality, and
generously entertained and dismissed the minister of a prince who
had conspired against his life. But the rashness of Vigilius will
appear still more extraordinary, since he returned, conscious of
his guilt and danger, to the royal camp, accompanied by his son,
and carrying with him a weighty purse of gold, which the favorite
eunuch had furnished, to satisfy the demands of Edecon, and to
corrupt the fidelity of the guards. The interpreter was instantly
seized, and dragged before the tribunal of Attila, where he
asserted his innocence with specious firmness, till the threat of
inflicting instant death on his son extorted from him a sincere
discovery of the criminal transaction. Under the name of ransom,
or confiscation, the rapacious king of the Huns accepted two
hundred pounds of gold for the life of a traitor, whom he
disdained to punish. He pointed his just indignation against a
nobler object. His ambassadors, Eslaw and Orestes, were
immediately despatched to Constantinople, with a peremptory
instruction, which it was much safer for them to execute than to
disobey. They boldly entered the Imperial presence, with the
fatal purse hanging down from the neck of Orestes; who
interrogated the eunuch Chrysaphius, as he stood beside the
throne, whether he recognized the evidence of his guilt. But the
office of reproof was reserved for the superior dignity of his
colleague Eslaw, who gravely addressed the emperor of the East in
the following words: "Theodosius is the son of an illustrious and
respectable parent: Attila likewise is descended from a noble
race; and he has supported, by his
actions, the dignity which he inherited from his father Mundzuk.
But Theodosius has forfeited his paternal honors, and, by
consenting to pay tribute has degraded himself to the condition
of a slave. It is therefore just, that he should reverence the
man whom fortune and merit have placed above him; instead of
attempting, like a wicked slave, clandestinely to conspire
against his master." The son of Arcadius, who was accustomed only
to the voice of flattery, heard with astonishment the severe
language of truth: he blushed and trembled; nor did he presume
directly to refuse the head of Chrysaphius, which Eslaw and
Orestes were instructed to demand. A solemn embassy, armed with
full powers and magnificent gifts, was hastily sent to deprecate
the wrath of Attila; and his pride was gratified by the choice of
Nomius and Anatolius, two ministers of consular or patrician
rank, of whom the one was great treasurer, and the other was
master-general of the armies of the East. He condescended to meet
these ambassadors on the banks of the River Drenco; and though he
at first affected a stern and haughty demeanor, his anger was
insensibly mollified by their eloquence and liberality. He
condescended to pardon the emperor, the eunuch, and the
interpreter; bound himself by an oath to observe the conditions
of peace; released a great number of captives; abandoned the
fugitives and deserters to their fate; and resigned a large
territory, to the south of the Danube, which he had already
exhausted of its wealth and inhabitants. But this treaty was
purchased at an expense which might have supported a vigorous and
successful war; and the subjects of Theodosius were compelled to
redeem the safety of a worthless favorite by oppressive taxes,
which they would more cheerfully have paid for his
destruction.
The emperor Theodosius did not long survive the most
humiliating circumstance of an inglorious life. As he was riding,
or hunting, in the neighborhood of Constantinople, he was thrown
from his horse into the River Lycus: the spine of the back was
injured by the fall; and he expired some days afterwards, in the
fiftieth year of his age, and the forty-third of his reign. His
sister Pulcheria, whose authority had been controlled both in
civil and ecclesiastical affairs by the pernicious influence of
the eunuchs, was unanimously proclaimed Empress of the East; and
the Romans, for the first time, submitted to a female reign. No
sooner had Pulcheria ascended the throne, than she indulged her
own and the public resentment, by an act of popular justice.
Without any legal trial, the eunuch Chrysaphius was executed
before the gates of the city; and the immense riches which had
been accumulated by the rapacious favorite, served only to hasten
and to justify his punishment. Amidst the general acclamations of
the clergy and people, the empress did not forget the prejudice
and disadvantage to which her sex was exposed; and she wisely
resolved to prevent their murmurs by the choice of a colleague,
who would always respect the superior rank and virgin chastity of
his wife. She gave her hand to Marcian, a senator, about sixty
years of age; and the nominal husband of Pulcheria was solemnly
invested with the Imperial purple. The zeal which he displayed
for the orthodox creed, as it was established by the council of
Chalcedon, would alone have inspired the grateful eloquence of
the Catholics. But the behavior of Marcian in a private life, and
afterwards on the throne, may support a more rational belief,
that he was qualified to restore and invigorate an empire, which
had been almost dissolved by the successive weakness of two
hereditary monarchs. He was born in Thrace, and educated to the
profession of arms; but Marcian's youth had been severely
exercised by poverty and misfortune, since his only resource,
when he first arrived at Constantinople, consisted in two hundred
pieces of gold, which he had borrowed of a friend. He passed
nineteen years in the domestic and military service of Aspar, and
his son Ardaburius; followed those powerful generals to the
Persian and African wars; and obtained, by their influence, the
honorable rank of tribune and senator. His mild disposition, and
useful talents, without alarming the jealousy, recommended
Marcian to the esteem and favor of his patrons; he had seen,
perhaps he had felt, the abuses of a venal and oppressive
administration; and his own example gave weight and energy to the
laws, which he promulgated for the reformation of manners.
Chapter XXXV: Invasion By Attila.
Part I.
Invasion Of Gaul By Attila. -- He Is Repulsed By Ætius
And The Visigoths. -- Attila Invades And Evacuates Italy. -- The
Deaths Of Attila, Ætius, And Valentinian The Third.
It was the opinion of Marcian, that war should be avoided, as
long as it is possible to preserve a secure and honorable peace;
but it was likewise his opinion, that peace cannot be honorable
or secure, if the sovereign betrays a pusillanimous aversion to
war. This temperate courage dictated his reply to the demands of
Attila, who insolently pressed the payment of the annual tribute.
The emperor signified to the Barbarians, that they must no longer
insult the majesty of Rome by the mention of a tribute; that he
was disposed to reward, with becoming liberality, the faithful
friendship of his allies; but that, if they presumed to violate
the public peace, they should feel that he possessed troops, and
arms, and resolution, to repel their attacks. The same language,
even in the camp of the Huns, was used by his ambassador
Apollonius, whose bold refusal to deliver the presents, till he
had been admitted to a personal interview, displayed a sense of
dignity, and a contempt of danger, which Attila was not prepared
to expect from the degenerate Romans. He threatened to chastise
the rash successor of Theodosius; but he hesitated whether he
should first direct his invincible arms against the Eastern or
the Western empire. While mankind awaited his decision with awful
suspense, he sent an equal defiance to the courts of Ravenna and
Constantinople; and his ministers saluted the two emperors with
the same haughty declaration. "Attila,
my lord, and
thy lord, commands thee to provide a
palace for his immediate reception." But as the Barbarian
despised, or affected to despise, the Romans of the East, whom he
had so often vanquished, he soon declared his resolution of
suspending the easy conquest, till he had achieved a more
glorious and important enterprise. In the memorable invasions of
Gaul and Italy, the Huns were naturally attracted by the wealth
and fertility of those provinces; but the particular motives and
provocations of Attila can only be explained by the state of the
Western empire under the reign of Valentinian, or, to speak more
correctly, under the administration of Ætius.
After the death of his rival Boniface, Ætius had
prudently retired to the tents of the Huns; and he was indebted
to their alliance for his safety and his restoration. Instead of
the suppliant language of a guilty exile, he solicited his pardon
at the head of sixty thousand Barbarians; and the empress
Placidia confessed, by a feeble resistance, that the
condescension, which might have been ascribed to clemency, was
the effect of weakness or fear. She delivered herself, her son
Valentinian, and the Western empire, into the hands of an
insolent subject; nor could Placidia protect the son- in-law of
Boniface, the virtuous and faithful Sebastian, from the
implacable persecution which urged him from one kingdom to
another, till he miserably perished in the service of the
Vandals. The fortunate Ætius, who was immediately promoted
to the rank of patrician, and thrice invested with the honors of
the consulship, assumed, with the title of master of the cavalry
and infantry, the whole military power of the state; and he is
sometimes styled, by contemporary writers, the duke, or general,
of the Romans of the West. His prudence, rather than his virtue,
engaged him to leave the grandson of Theodosius in the possession
of the purple; and Valentinian was permitted to enjoy the peace
and luxury of Italy, while the patrician appeared in the glorious
light of a hero and a patriot, who supported near twenty years
the ruins of the Western empire. The Gothic historian ingenuously
confesses, that Ætius was born for the salvation of the
Roman republic; and the following portrait, though it is drawn in
the fairest colors, must be allowed to contain a much larger
proportion of truth than of flattery. * "His mother was a wealthy
and noble Italian, and his father Gaudentius, who held a
distinguished rank in the province of Scythia, gradually rose
from the station of a military domestic, to the dignity of master
of the cavalry. Their son, who was enrolled almost in his infancy
in the guards, was given as a hostage, first to Alaric, and
afterwards to the Huns; and he successively obtained the civil
and military honors of the palace, for which he was equally
qualified by superior merit. The graceful figure of Ætius
was not above the middle stature; but his manly limbs were
admirably formed for strength, beauty, and agility; and he
excelled in the martial exercises of managing a horse, drawing
the bow, and darting the javelin. He could patiently endure the
want of food, or of sleep; and his mind and body were alike
capable of the most laborious efforts. He possessed the genuine
courage that can despise not only dangers, but injuries: and it
was impossible either to corrupt, or deceive, or intimidate the
firm integrity of his soul." The Barbarians, who had seated
themselves in the Western provinces, were insensibly taught to
respect the faith and valor of the patrician Ætius. He
soothed their passions, consulted their prejudices, balanced
their interests, and checked their ambition. * A seasonable
treaty, which he concluded with Genseric, protected Italy from
the depredations of the Vandals; the independent Britons implored
and acknowledged his salutary aid; the Imperial authority was
restored and maintained in Gaul and Spain; and he compelled the
Franks and the Suevi, whom he had vanquished in the field, to
become the useful confederates of the republic.
From a principle of interest, as well as gratitude,
Ætius assiduously cultivated the alliance of the Huns.
While he resided in their tents as a hostage, or an exile, he had
familiarly conversed with Attila himself, the nephew of his
benefactor; and the two famous antagonists appeared to have been
connected by a personal and military friendship, which they
afterwards confirmed by mutual gifts, frequent embassies, and the
education of Carpilio, the son of Ætius, in the camp of
Attila. By the specious professions of gratitude and voluntary
attachment, the patrician might disguise his apprehensions of the
Scythian conqueror, who pressed the two empires with his
innumerable armies. His demands were obeyed or eluded. When he
claimed the spoils of a vanquished city, some vases of gold,
which had been fraudulently embezzled, the civil and military
governors of Noricum were immediately despatched to satisfy his
complaints: and it is evident, from their conversation with
Maximin and Priscus, in the royal village, that the valor and
prudence of Ætius had not saved the Western Romans from the
common ignominy of tribute. Yet his dexterous policy prolonged
the advantages of a salutary peace; and a numerous army of Huns
and Alani, whom he had attached to his person, was employed in
the defence of Gaul. Two colonies of these Barbarians were
judiciously fixed in the territories of Valens and Orleans; and
their active cavalry secured the important passages of the Rhone
and of the Loire. These savage allies were not indeed less
formidable to the subjects than to the enemies of Rome. Their
original settlement was enforced with the licentious violence of
conquest; and the province through which they marched was exposed
to all the calamities of a hostile invasion. Strangers to the
emperor or the republic, the Alani of Gaul was devoted to the
ambition of Ætius, and though he might suspect, that, in a
contest with Attila himself, they would revolt to the standard of
their national king, the patrician labored to restrain, rather
than to excite, their zeal and resentment against the Goths, the
Burgundians, and the Franks.
The kingdom established by the Visigoths in the southern
provinces of Gaul, had gradually acquired strength and maturity;
and the conduct of those ambitious Barbarians, either in peace or
war, engaged the perpetual vigilance of Ætius. After the
death of Wallia, the Gothic sceptre devolved to Theodoric, the
son of the great Alaric; and his prosperous reign of more than
thirty years, over a turbulent people, may be allowed to prove,
that his prudence was supported by uncommon vigor, both of mind
and body. Impatient of his narrow limits, Theodoric aspired to
the possession of Arles, the wealthy seat of government and
commerce; but the city was saved by the timely approach of
Ætius; and the Gothic king, who had raised the siege with
some loss and disgrace, was persuaded, for an adequate subsidy,
to divert the martial valor of his subjects in a Spanish war. Yet
Theodoric still watched, and eagerly seized, the favorable moment
of renewing his hostile attempts. The Goths besieged Narbonne,
while the Belgic provinces were invaded by the Burgundians; and
the public safety was threatened on every side by the apparent
union of the enemies of Rome. On every side, the activity of
Ætius, and his Scythian cavalry, opposed a firm and
successful resistance. Twenty thousand Burgundians were slain in
battle; and the remains of the nation humbly accepted a dependent
seat in the mountains of Savoy. The walls of Narbonne had been
shaken by the battering engines, and the inhabitants had endured
the last extremities of famine, when Count Litorius, approaching
in silence, and directing each horseman to carry behind him two
sacks of flour, cut his way through the intrenchments of the
besiegers. The siege was immediately raised; and the more
decisive victory, which is ascribed to the personal conduct of
Ætius himself, was marked with the blood of eight thousand
Goths. But in the absence of the patrician, who was hastily
summoned to Italy by some public or private interest, Count
Litorius succeeded to the command; and his presumption soon
discovered that far different talents are required to lead a wing
of cavalry, or to direct the operations of an important war. At
the head of an army of Huns, he rashly advanced to the gates of
Thoulouse, full of careless contempt for an enemy whom his
misfortunes had rendered prudent, and his situation made
desperate. The predictions of the augurs had inspired Litorius
with the profane confidence that he should enter the Gothic
capital in triumph; and the trust which he reposed in his Pagan
allies, encouraged him to reject the fair conditions of peace,
which were repeatedly proposed by the bishops in the name of
Theodoric. The king of the Goths exhibited in his distress the
edifying contrast of Christian piety and moderation; nor did he
lay aside his sackcloth and ashes till he was prepared to arm for
the combat. His soldiers, animated with martial and religious
enthusiasm, assaulted the camp of Litorius. The conflict was
obstinate; the slaughter was mutual. The Roman general, after a
total defeat, which could be imputed only to his unskilful
rashness, was actually led through the streets of Thoulouse, not
in his own, but in a hostile triumph; and the misery which he
experienced, in a long and ignominious captivity, excited the
compassion of the Barbarians themselves. Such a loss, in a
country whose spirit and finances were long since exhausted,
could not easily be repaired; and the Goths, assuming, in their
turn, the sentiments of ambition and revenge, would have planted
their victorious standards on the banks of the Rhone, if the
presence of Ætius had not restored strength and discipline
to the Romans. The two armies expected the signal of a decisive
action; but the generals, who were conscious of each other's
force, and doubtful of their own superiority, prudently sheathed
their swords in the field of battle; and their reconciliation was
permanent and sincere. Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, appears
to have deserved the love of his subjects, the confidence of his
allies, and the esteem of mankind. His throne was surrounded by
six valiant sons, who were educated with equal care in the
exercises of the Barbarian camp, and in those of the Gallic
schools: from the study of the Roman jurisprudence, they acquired
the theory, at least, of law and justice; and the harmonious
sense of Virgil contributed to soften the asperity of their
native manners. The two daughters of the Gothic king were given
in marriage to the eldest sons of the kings of the Suevi and of
the Vandals, who reigned in Spain and Africa: but these
illustrious alliances were pregnant with guilt and discord. The
queen of the Suevi bewailed the death of a husband inhumanly
massacred by her brother. The princess of the Vandals was the
victim of a jealous tyrant, whom she called her father. The cruel
Genseric suspected that his son's wife had conspired to poison
him; the supposed crime was punished by the amputation of her
nose and ears; and the unhappy daughter of Theodoric was
ignominiously returned to the court of Thoulouse in that deformed
and mutilated condition. This horrid act, which must seem
incredible to a civilized age drew tears from every spectator;
but Theodoric was urged, by the feelings of a parent and a king,
to revenge such irreparable injuries. The Imperial ministers, who
always cherished the discord of the Barbarians, would have
supplied the Goths with arms, and ships, and treasures, for the
African war; and the cruelty of Genseric might have been fatal to
himself, if the artful Vandal had not armed, in his cause, the
formidable power of the Huns. His rich gifts and pressing
solicitations inflamed the ambition of Attila; and the designs of
Ætius and Theodoric were prevented by the invasion of
Gaul.
The Franks, whose monarchy was still confined to the
neighborhood of the Lower Rhine, had wisely established the right
of hereditary succession in the noble family of the Merovingians.
These princes were elevated on a buckler, the symbol of military
command; and the royal fashion of long hair was the ensign of
their birth and dignity. Their flaxen locks, which they combed
and dressed with singular care, hung down in flowing ringlets on
their back and shoulders; while the rest of the nation were
obliged, either by law or custom, to shave the hinder part of
their head, to comb their hair over the forehead, and to content
themselves with the ornament of two small whiskers. The lofty
stature of the Franks, and their blue eyes, denoted a Germanic
origin; their close apparel accurately expressed the figure of
their limbs; a weighty sword was suspended from a broad belt;
their bodies were protected by a large shield; and these warlike
Barbarians were trained, from their earliest youth, to run, to
leap, to swim; to dart the javelin, or battle-axe, with unerring
aim; to advance, without hesitation, against a superior enemy;
and to maintain, either in life or death, the invincible
reputation of their ancestors. Clodion, the first of their
long-haired kings, whose name and actions are mentioned in
authentic history, held his residence at Dispargum, a village or
fortress, whose place may be assigned between Louvain and
Brussels. From the report of his spies, the king of the Franks
was informed, that the defenceless state of the second Belgic
must yield, on the slightest attack, to the valor of his
subjects. He boldly penetrated through the thickets and morasses
of the Carbonarian forest; occupied Tournay and Cambray, the only
cities which existed in the fifth century, and extended his
conquests as far as the River Somme, over a desolate country,
whose cultivation and populousness are the effects of more recent
industry. While Clodion lay encamped in the plains of Artois, and
celebrated, with vain and ostentatious security, the marriage,
perhaps, of his son, the nuptial feast was interrupted by the
unexpected and unwelcome presence of Ætius, who had passed
the Somme at the head of his light cavalry. The tables, which had
been spread under the shelter of a hill, along the banks of a
pleasant stream, were rudely overturned; the Franks were
oppressed before they could recover their arms, or their ranks;
and their unavailing valor was fatal only to themselves. The
loaded wagons, which had followed their march, afforded a rich
booty; and the virgin- bride, with her female attendants,
submitted to the new lovers, who were imposed on them by the
chance of war. This advance, which had been obtained by the skill
and activity of Ætius, might reflect some disgrace on the
military prudence of Clodion; but the king of the Franks soon
regained his strength and reputation, and still maintained the
possession of his Gallic kingdom from the Rhine to the Somme.
Under his reign, and most probably from the thee enterprising
spirit of his subjects, his three capitals, Mentz, Treves, and
Cologne, experienced the effects of hostile cruelty and avarice.
The distress of Cologne was prolonged by the perpetual dominion
of the same Barbarians, who evacuated the ruins of Treves; and
Treves, which in the space of forty years had been four times
besieged and pillaged, was disposed to lose the memory of her
afflictions in the vain amusements of the Circus. The death of
Clodion, after a reign of twenty years, exposed his kingdom to
the discord and ambition of his two sons. Meroveus, the younger,
was persuaded to implore the protection of Rome; he was received
at the Imperial court, as the ally of Valentinian, and the
adopted son of the patrician Ætius; and dismissed to his
native country, with splendid gifts, and the strongest assurances
of friendship and support. During his absence, his elder brother
had solicited, with equal ardor, the formidable aid of Attila;
and the king of the Huns embraced an alliance, which facilitated
the passage of the Rhine, and justified, by a specious and
honorable pretence, the invasion of Gaul.
Chapter XXXV: Invasion By Attila. -- Part
II.
When Attila declared his resolution of supporting the cause of
his allies, the Vandals and the Franks, at the same time, and
almost in the spirit of romantic chivalry, the savage monarch
professed himself the lover and the champion of the princess
Honoria. The sister of Valentinian was educated in the palace of
Ravenna; and as her marriage might be productive of some danger
to the state, she was raised, by the title of
Augusta, above the hopes of the most
presumptuous subject. But the fair Honoria had no sooner attained
the sixteenth year of her age, than she detested the importunate
greatness which must forever exclude her from the comforts of
honorable love; in the midst of vain and unsatisfactory pomp,
Honoria sighed, yielded to the impulse of nature, and threw
herself into the arms of her chamberlain Eugenius. Her guilt and
shame (such is the absurd language of imperious man) were soon
betrayed by the appearances of pregnancy; but the disgrace of the
royal family was published to the world by the imprudence of the
empress Placidia who dismissed her daughter, after a strict and
shameful confinement, to a remote exile at Constantinople. The
unhappy princess passed twelve or fourteen years in the irksome
society of the sisters of Theodosius, and their chosen virgins;
to whose crown Honoria could no longer
aspire, and whose monastic assiduity of prayer, fasting, and
vigils, she reluctantly imitated. Her impatience of long and
hopeless celibacy urged her to embrace a strange and desperate
resolution. The name of Attila was familiar and formidable at
Constantinople; and his frequent embassies entertained a
perpetual intercourse between his camp and the Imperial palace.
In the pursuit of love, or rather of revenge, the daughter of
Placidia sacrificed every duty and every prejudice; and offered
to deliver her person into the arms of a Barbarian, of whose
language she was ignorant, whose figure was scarcely human, and
whose religion and manners she abhorred. By the ministry of a
faithful eunuch, she transmitted to Attila a ring, the pledge of
her affection; and earnestly conjured him to claim her as a
lawful spouse, to whom he had been secretly betrothed. These
indecent advances were received, however, with coldness and
disdain; and the king of the Huns continued to multiply the
number of his wives, till his love was awakened by the more
forcible passions of ambition and avarice. The invasion of Gaul
was preceded, and justified, by a formal demand of the princess
Honoria, with a just and equal share of the Imperial patrimony.
His predecessors, the ancient Tanjous, had often addressed, in
the same hostile and peremptory manner, the daughters of China;
and the pretensions of Attila were not less offensive to the
majesty of Rome. A firm, but temperate, refusal was communicated
to his ambassadors. The right of female succession, though it
might derive a specious argument from the recent examples of
Placidia and Pulcheria, was strenuously denied; and the
indissoluble engagements of Honoria were opposed to the claims of
her Scythian lover. On the discovery of her connection with the
king of the Huns, the guilty princess had been sent away, as an
object of horror, from Constantinople to Italy: her life was
spared; but the ceremony of her marriage was performed with some
obscure and nominal husband, before she was immured in a
perpetual prison, to bewail those crimes and misfortunes, which
Honoria might have escaped, had she not been born the daughter of
an emperor.
A native of Gaul, and a contemporary, the learned and eloquent
Sidonius, who was afterwards bishop of Clermont, had made a
promise to one of his friends, that he would compose a regular
history of the war of Attila. If the modesty of Sidonius had not
discouraged him from the prosecution of this interesting work,
the historian would have related, with the simplicity of truth,
those memorable events, to which the poet, in vague and doubtful
metaphors, has concisely alluded. The kings and nations of
Germany and Scythia, from the Volga perhaps to the Danube, obeyed
the warlike summons of Attila. From the royal village, in the
plains of Hungary his standard moved towards the West; and after
a march of seven or eight hundred miles, he reached the conflux
of the Rhine and the Neckar, where he was joined by the Franks,
who adhered to his ally, the elder of the sons of Clodion. A
troop of light Barbarians, who roamed in quest of plunder, might
choose the winter for the convenience of passing the river on the
ice; but the innumerable cavalry of the Huns required such plenty
of forage and provisions, as could be procured only in a milder
season; the Hercynian forest supplied materials for a bridge of
boats; and the hostile myriads were poured, with resistless
violence, into the Belgic provinces. The consternation of Gaul
was universal; and the various fortunes of its cities have been
adorned by tradition with martyrdoms and miracles. Troyes was
saved by the merits of St. Lupus; St. Servatius was removed from
the world, that he might not behold the ruin of Tongres; and the
prayers of St. Genevieve diverted the march of Attila from the
neighborhood of Paris. But as the greatest part of the Gallic
cities were alike destitute of saints and soldiers, they were
besieged and stormed by the Huns; who practised, in the example
of Metz, their customary maxims of war. They involved, in a
promiscuous massacre, the priests who served at the altar, and
the infants, who, in the hour of danger, had been providently
baptized by the bishop; the flourishing city was delivered to the
flames, and a solitary chapel of St. Stephen marked the place
where it formerly stood. From the Rhine and the Moselle, Attila
advanced into the heart of Gaul; crossed the Seine at Auxerre;
and, after a long and laborious march, fixed his camp under the
walls of Orleans. He was desirous of securing his conquests by
the possession of an advantageous post, which commanded the
passage of the Loire; and he depended on the secret invitation of
Sangiban, king of the Alani, who had promised to betray the city,
and to revolt from the service of the empire. But this
treacherous conspiracy was detected and disappointed: Orleans had
been strengthened with recent fortifications; and the assaults of
the Huns were vigorously repelled by the faithful valor of the
soldiers, or citizens, who defended the place. The pastoral
diligence of Anianus, a bishop of primitive sanctity and
consummate prudence, exhausted every art of religious policy to
support their courage, till the arrival of the expected succors.
After an obstinate siege, the walls were shaken by the battering
rams; the Huns had already occupied the suburbs; and the people,
who were incapable of bearing arms, lay prostrate in prayer.
Anianus, who anxiously counted the days and hours, despatched a
trusty messenger to observe, from the rampart, the face of the
distant country. He returned twice, without any intelligence that
could inspire hope or comfort; but, in his third report, he
mentioned a small cloud, which he had faintly descried at the
extremity of the horizon. "It is the aid of God!" exclaimed the
bishop, in a tone of pious confidence; and the whole multitude
repeated after him, "It is the aid of God." The remote object, on
which every eye was fixed, became each moment larger, and more
distinct; the Roman and Gothic banners were gradually perceived;
and a favorable wind blowing aside the dust, discovered, in deep
array, the impatient squadrons of Ætius and Theodoric, who
pressed forwards to the relief of Orleans.
The facility with which Attila had penetrated into the heart
of Gaul, may be ascribed to his insidious policy, as well as to
the terror of his arms. His public declarations were skilfully
mitigated by his private assurances; he alternately soothed and
threatened the Romans and the Goths; and the courts of Ravenna
and Thoulouse, mutually suspicious of each other's intentions,
beheld, with supine indifference, the approach of their common
enemy. Ætius was the sole guardian of the public safety;
but his wisest measures were embarrassed by a faction, which,
since the death of Placidia, infested the Imperial palace: the
youth of Italy trembled at the sound of the trumpet; and the
Barbarians, who, from fear or affection, were inclined to the
cause of Attila, awaited with doubtful and venal faith, the event
of the war. The patrician passed the Alps at the head of some
troops, whose strength and numbers scarcely deserved the name of
an army. But on his arrival at Arles, or Lyons, he was confounded
by the intelligence, that the Visigoths, refusing to embrace the
defence of Gaul, had determined to expect, within their own
territories, the formidable invader, whom they professed to
despise. The senator Avitus, who, after the honorable exercise of
the Prætorian præfecture, had retired to his estate
in Auvergne, was persuaded to accept the important embassy, which
he executed with ability and success. He represented to
Theodoric, that an ambitious conqueror, who aspired to the
dominion of the earth, could be resisted only by the firm and
unanimous alliance of the powers whom he labored to oppress. The
lively eloquence of Avitus inflamed the Gothic warriors, by the
description of the injuries which their ancestors had suffered
from the Huns; whose implacable fury still pursued them from the
Danube to the foot of the Pyrenees. He strenuously urged, that it
was the duty of every Christian to save, from sacrilegious
violation, the churches of God, and the relics of the saints:
that it was the interest of every Barbarian, who had acquired a
settlement in Gaul, to defend the fields and vineyards, which
were cultivated for his use, against the desolation of the
Scythian shepherds. Theodoric yielded to the evidence of truth;
adopted the measure at once the most prudent and the most
honorable; and declared, that, as the faithful ally of
Ætius and the Romans, he was ready to expose his life and
kingdom for the common safety of Gaul. The Visigoths, who, at
that time, were in the mature vigor of their fame and power,
obeyed with alacrity the signal of war; prepared their arms and
horses, and assembled under the standard of their aged king, who
was resolved, with his two eldest sons, Torismond and Theodoric,
to command in person his numerous and valiant people. The example
of the Goths determined several tribes or nations, that seemed to
fluctuate between the Huns and the Romans. The indefatigable
diligence of the patrician gradually collected the troops of Gaul
and Germany, who had formerly acknowledged themselves the
subjects, or soldiers, of the republic, but who now claimed the
rewards of voluntary service, and the rank of independent allies;
the Læti, the Armoricans, the Breones the Saxons, the
Burgundians, the Sarmatians, or Alani, the Ripuarians, and the
Franks who followed Meroveus as their lawful prince. Such was the
various army, which, under the conduct of Ætius and
Theodoric, advanced, by rapid marches to relieve Orleans, and to
give battle to the innumerable host of Attila.
On their approach the king of the Huns immediately raised the
siege, and sounded a retreat to recall the foremost of his troops
from the pillage of a city which they had already entered. The
valor of Attila was always guided by his prudence; and as he
foresaw the fatal consequences of a defeat in the heart of Gaul,
he repassed the Seine, and expected the enemy in the plains of
Châlons, whose smooth and level surface was adapted to the
operations of his Scythian cavalry. But in this tumultuary
retreat, the vanguard of the Romans and their allies continually
pressed, and sometimes engaged, the troops whom Attila had posted
in the rear; the hostile columns, in the darkness of the night
and the perplexity of the roads, might encounter each other
without design; and the bloody conflict of the Franks and
Gepidæ, in which fifteen thousand Barbarians were slain,
was a prelude to a more general and decisive action. The
Catalaunian fields spread themselves round Châlons, and
extend, according to the vague measurement of Jornandes, to the
length of one hundred and fifty, and the breadth of one hundred
miles, over the whole province, which is entitled to the
appellation of a champaign country.
This spacious plain was distinguished, however, by some
inequalities of ground; and the importance of a height, which
commanded the camp of Attila, was understood and disputed by the
two generals. The young and valiant Torismond first occupied the
summit; the Goths rushed with irresistible weight on the Huns,
who labored to ascend from the opposite side: and the possession
of this advantageous post inspired both the troops and their
leaders with a fair assurance of victory. The anxiety of Attila
prompted him to consult his priests and haruspices. It was
reported, that, after scrutinizing the entrails of victims, and
scraping their bones, they revealed, in mysterious language, his
own defeat, with the death of his principal adversary; and that
the Barbarians, by accepting the equivalent, expressed his
involuntary esteem for the superior merit of Ætius. But the
unusual despondency, which seemed to prevail among the Huns,
engaged Attila to use the expedient, so familiar to the generals
of antiquity, of animating his troops by a military oration; and
his language was that of a king, who had often fought and
conquered at their head. He pressed them to consider their past
glory, their actual danger, and their future hopes. The same
fortune, which opened the deserts and morasses of Scythia to
their unarmed valor, which had laid so many warlike nations
prostrate at their feet, had reserved the
joys of this memorable field for the
consummation of their victories. The cautious steps of their
enemies, their strict alliance, and their advantageous posts, he
artfully represented as the effects, not of prudence, but of
fear. The Visigoths alone were the strength and nerves of the
opposite army; and the Huns might securely trample on the
degenerate Romans, whose close and compact order betrayed their
apprehensions, and who were equally incapable of supporting the
dangers or the fatigues of a day of battle. The doctrine of
predestination, so favorable to martial virtue, was carefully
inculcated by the king of the Huns; who assured his subjects,
that the warriors, protected by Heaven, were safe and
invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy; but that the unerring
Fates would strike their victims in the bosom of inglorious
peace. "I myself," continued Attila, "will throw the first
javelin, and the wretch who refuses to imitate the example of his
sovereign, is devoted to inevitable death." The spirit of the
Barbarians was rekindled by the presence, the voice, and the
example of their intrepid leader; and Attila, yielding to their
impatience, immediately formed his order of battle. At the head
of his brave and faithful Huns, he occupied in person the centre
of the line. The nations subject to his empire, the Rugians, the
Heruli, the Thuringians, the Franks, the Burgundians, were
extended on either hand, over the ample space of the Catalaunian
fields; the right wing was commanded by Ardaric, king of the
Gepidæ; and the three valiant brothers, who reigned over
the Ostrogoths, were posted on the left to oppose the kindred
tribes of the Visigoths. The disposition of the allies was
regulated by a different principle. Sangiban, the faithless king
of the Alani, was placed in the centre, where his motions might
be strictly watched, and that the treachery might be instantly
punished. Ætius assumed the command of the left, and
Theodoric of the right wing; while Torismond still continued to
occupy the heights which appear to have stretched on the flank,
and perhaps the rear, of the Scythian army. The nations from the
Volga to the Atlantic were assembled on the plain of
Châlons; but many of these nations had been divided by
faction, or conquest, or emigration; and the appearance of
similar arms and ensigns, which threatened each other, presented
the image of a civil war.
The discipline and tactics of the Greeks and Romans form an
interesting part of their national manners. The attentive study
of the military operations of Xenophon, or Cæsar, or
Frederic, when they are described by the same genius which
conceived and executed them, may tend to improve (if such
improvement can be wished) the art of destroying the human
species. But the battle of Châlons can only excite our
curiosity by the magnitude of the object; since it was decided by
the blind impetuosity of Barbarians, and has been related by
partial writers, whose civil or ecclesiastical profession
secluded them from the knowledge of military affairs.
Cassiodorus, however, had familiarly conversed with many Gothic
warriors, who served in that memorable engagement; "a conflict,"
as they informed him, "fierce, various, obstinate, and bloody;
such as could not be paralleled either in the present or in past
ages." The number of the slain amounted to one hundred and
sixty-two thousand, or, according to another account, three
hundred thousand persons; and these incredible exaggerations
suppose a real and effective loss sufficient to justify the
historian's remark, that whole generations may be swept away by
the madness of kings, in the space of a single hour. After the
mutual and repeated discharge of missile weapons, in which the
archers of Scythia might signalize their superior dexterity, the
cavalry and infantry of the two armies were furiously mingled in
closer combat. The Huns, who fought under the eyes of their king
pierced through the feeble and doubtful centre of the allies,
separated their wings from each other, and wheeling, with a rapid
effort, to the left, directed their whole force against the
Visigoths. As Theodoric rode along the ranks, to animate his
troops, he received a mortal stroke from the javelin of Andages,
a noble Ostrogoth, and immediately fell from his horse. The
wounded king was oppressed in the general disorder, and trampled
under the feet of his own cavalry; and this important death
served to explain the ambiguous prophecy of the haruspices.
Attila already exulted in the confidence of victory, when the
valiant Torismond descended from the hills, and verified the
remainder of the prediction. The Visigoths, who had been thrown
into confusion by the flight or defection of the Alani, gradually
restored their order of battle; and the Huns were undoubtedly
vanquished, since Attila was compelled to retreat. He had exposed
his person with the rashness of a private soldier; but the
intrepid troops of the centre had pushed forwards beyond the rest
of the line; their attack was faintly supported; their flanks
were unguarded; and the conquerors of Scythia and Germany were
saved by the approach of the night from a total defeat. They
retired within the circle of wagons that fortified their camp;
and the dismounted squadrons prepared themselves for a defence,
to which neither their arms, nor their temper, were adapted. The
event was doubtful: but Attila had secured a last and honorable
resource. The saddles and rich furniture of the cavalry were
collected, by his order, into a funeral pile; and the magnanimous
Barbarian had resolved, if his intrenchments should be forced, to
rush headlong into the flames, and to deprive his enemies of the
glory which they might have acquired, by the death or captivity
of Attila.
But his enemies had passed the night in equal disorder and
anxiety. The inconsiderate courage of Torismond was tempted to
urge the pursuit, till he unexpectedly found himself, with a few
followers, in the midst of the Scythian wagons. In the confusion
of a nocturnal combat, he was thrown from his horse; and the
Gothic prince must have perished like his father, if his youthful
strength, and the intrepid zeal of his companions, had not
rescued him from this dangerous situation. In the same manner,
but on the left of the line, Ætius himself, separated from
his allies, ignorant of their victory, and anxious for their
fate, encountered and escaped the hostile troops that were
scattered over the plains of Châlons; and at length reached
the camp of the Goths, which he could only fortify with a slight
rampart of shields, till the dawn of day. The Imperial general
was soon satisfied of the defeat of Attila, who still remained
inactive within his intrenchments; and when he contemplated the
bloody scene, he observed, with secret satisfaction, that the
loss had principally fallen on the Barbarians. The body of
Theodoric, pierced with honorable wounds, was discovered under a
heap of the slain: is subjects bewailed the death of their king
and father; but their tears were mingled with songs and
acclamations, and his funeral rites were performed in the face of
a vanquished enemy. The Goths, clashing their arms, elevated on a
buckler his eldest son Torismond, to whom they justly ascribed
the glory of their success; and the new king accepted the
obligation of revenge as a sacred portion of his paternal
inheritance. Yet the Goths themselves were astonished by the
fierce and undaunted aspect of their formidable antagonist; and
their historian has compared Attila to a lion encompassed in his
den, and threatening his hunters with redoubled fury. The kings
and nations who might have deserted his standard in the hour of
distress, were made sensible that the displeasure of their
monarch was the most imminent and inevitable danger. All his
instruments of martial music incessantly sounded a loud and
animating strain of defiance; and the foremost troops who
advanced to the assault were checked or destroyed by showers of
arrows from every side of the intrenchments. It was determined,
in a general council of war, to besiege the king of the Huns in
his camp, to intercept his provisions, and to reduce him to the
alternative of a disgraceful treaty or an unequal combat. But the
impatience of the Barbarians soon disdained these cautious and
dilatory measures; and the mature policy of Ætius was
apprehensive that, after the extirpation of the Huns, the
republic would be oppressed by the pride and power of the Gothic
nation. The patrician exerted the superior ascendant of authority
and reason to calm the passions, which the son of Theodoric
considered as a duty; represented, with seeming affection and
real truth, the dangers of absence and delay and persuaded
Torismond to disappoint, by his speedy return, the ambitious
designs of his brothers, who might occupy the throne and
treasures of Thoulouse. After the departure of the Goths, and the
separation of the allied army, Attila was surprised at the vast
silence that reigned over the plains of Châlons: the
suspicion of some hostile stratagem detained him several days
within the circle of his wagons, and his retreat beyond the Rhine
confessed the last victory which was achieved in the name of the
Western empire. Meroveus and his Franks, observing a prudent
distance, and magnifying the opinion of their strength by the
numerous fires which they kindled every night, continued to
follow the rear of the Huns till they reached the confines of
Thuringia. The Thuringians served in the army of Attila: they
traversed, both in their march and in their return, the
territories of the Franks; and it was perhaps in this war that
they exercised the cruelties which, about fourscore years
afterwards, were revenged by the son of Clovis. They massacred
their hostages, as well as their captives: two hundred young
maidens were tortured with exquisite and unrelenting rage; their
bodies were torn asunder by wild horses, or their bones were
crushed under the weight of rolling wagons; and their unburied
limbs were abandoned on the public roads, as a prey to dogs and
vultures. Such were those savage ancestors, whose imaginary
virtues have sometimes excited the praise and envy of civilized
ages.
Chapter XXXV: Invasion By Attila. -- Part
III.
Neither the spirit, nor the forces, nor the reputation, of
Attila, were impaired by the failure of the Gallic expedition In
the ensuing spring he repeated his demand of the princess
Honoria, and her patrimonial treasures. The demand was again
rejected, or eluded; and the indignant lover immediately took the
field, passed the Alps, invaded Italy, and besieged Aquileia with
an innumerable host of Barbarians. Those Barbarians were
unskilled in the methods of conducting a regular siege, which,
even among the ancients, required some knowledge, or at least
some practice, of the mechanic arts. But the labor of many
thousand provincials and captives, whose lives were sacrificed
without pity, might execute the most painful and dangerous work.
The skill of the Roman artists might be corrupted to the
destruction of their country. The walls of Aquileia were
assaulted by a formidable train of battering rams, movable
turrets, and engines, that threw stones, darts, and fire; and the
monarch of the Huns employed the forcible impulse of hope, fear,
emulation, and interest, to subvert the only barrier which
delayed the conquest of Italy. Aquileia was at that period one of
the richest, the most populous, and the strongest of the maritime
cities of the Adriatic coast. The Gothic auxiliaries, who
appeared to have served under their native princes, Alaric and
Antala, communicated their intrepid spirit; and the citizens
still remembered the glorious and successful resistance which
their ancestors had opposed to a fierce, inexorable Barbarian,
who disgraced the majesty of the Roman purple. Three months were
consumed without effect in the siege of the Aquileia; till the
want of provisions, and the clamors of his army, compelled Attila
to relinquish the enterprise; and reluctantly to issue his
orders, that the troops should strike their tents the next
morning, and begin their retreat. But as he rode round the walls,
pensive, angry, and disappointed, he observed a stork preparing
to leave her nest, in one of the towers, and to fly with her
infant family towards the country. He seized, with the ready
penetration of a statesman, this trifling incident, which chance
had offered to superstition; and exclaimed, in a loud and
cheerful tone, that such a domestic bird, so constantly attached
to human society, would never have abandoned her ancient seats,
unless those towers had been devoted to impending ruin and
solitude. The favorable omen inspired an assurance of victory;
the siege was renewed and prosecuted with fresh vigor; a large
breach was made in the part of the wall from whence the stork had
taken her flight; the Huns mounted to the assault with
irresistible fury; and the succeeding generation could scarcely
discover the ruins of Aquileia. After this dreadful chastisement,
Attila pursued his march; and as he passed, the cities of
Altinum, Concordia, and Padua, were reduced into heaps of stones
and ashes. The inland towns, Vicenza, Verona, and Bergamo, were
exposed to the rapacious cruelty of the Huns. Milan and Pavia
submitted, without resistance, to the loss of their wealth; and
applauded the unusual clemency which preserved from the flames
the public, as well as private, buildings, and spared the lives
of the captive multitude. The popular traditions of Comum, Turin,
or Modena, may justly be suspected; yet they concur with more
authentic evidence to prove, that Attila spread his ravages over
the rich plains of modern Lombardy; which are divided by the Po,
and bounded by the Alps and Apennine. When he took possession of
the royal palace of Milan, he was surprised and offended at the
sight of a picture which represented the Cæsars seated on
their throne, and the princes of Scythia prostrate at their feet.
The revenge which Attila inflicted on this monument of Roman
vanity, was harmless and ingenious. He commanded a painter to
reverse the figures and the attitudes; and the emperors were
delineated on the same canvas, approaching in a suppliant posture
to empty their bags of tributary gold before the throne of the
Scythian monarch. The spectators must have confessed the truth
and propriety of the alteration; and were perhaps tempted to
apply, on this singular occasion, the well-known fable of the
dispute between the lion and the man.
It is a saying worthy of the ferocious pride of Attila, that
the grass never grew on the spot where his horse had trod. Yet
the savage destroyer undesignedly laid the foundation of a
republic, which revived, in the feudal state of Europe, the art
and spirit of commercial industry. The celebrated name of Venice,
or Venetia, was formerly diffused over a large and fertile
province of Italy, from the confines of Pannonia to the River
Addua, and from the Po to the Rhætian and Julian Alps.
Before the irruption of the Barbarians, fifty Venetian cities
flourished in peace and prosperity: Aquileia was placed in the
most conspicuous station: but the ancient dignity of Padua was
supported by agriculture and manufactures; and the property of
five hundred citizens, who were entitled to the equestrian rank,
must have amounted, at the strictest computation, to one million
seven hundred thousand pounds. Many families of Aquileia, Padua,
and the adjacent towns, who fled from the sword of the Huns,
found a safe, though obscure, refuge in the neighboring islands.
At the extremity of the Gulf, where the Adriatic feebly imitates
the tides of the ocean, near a hundred small islands are
separated by shallow water from the continent, and protected from
the waves by several long slips of land, which admit the entrance
of vessels through some secret and narrow channels. Till the
middle of the fifth century, these remote and sequestered spots
remained without cultivation, with few inhabitants, and almost
without a name. But the manners of the Venetian fugitives, their
arts and their government, were gradually formed by their new
situation; and one of the epistles of Cassiodorus, which
describes their condition about seventy years afterwards, may be
considered as the primitive monument of the republic. * The
minister of Theodoric compares them, in his quaint declamatory
style, to water-fowl, who had fixed their nests on the bosom of
the waves; and though he allows, that the Venetian provinces had
formerly contained many noble families, he insinuates, that they
were now reduced by misfortune to the same level of humble
poverty. Fish was the common, and almost the universal, food of
every rank: their only treasure consisted in the plenty of salt,
which they extracted from the sea: and the exchange of that
commodity, so essential to human life, was substituted in the
neighboring markets to the currency of gold and silver. A people,
whose habitations might be doubtfully assigned to the earth or
water, soon became alike familiar with the two elements; and the
demands of avarice succeeded to those of necessity. The
islanders, who, from Grado to Chiozza, were intimately connected
with each other, penetrated into the heart of Italy, by the
secure, though laborious, navigation of the rivers and inland
canals. Their vessels, which were continually increasing in size
and number, visited all the harbors of the Gulf; and the marriage
which Venice annually celebrates with the Adriatic, was
contracted in her early infancy. The epistle of Cassiodorus, the
Prætorian præfect, is addressed to the maritime
tribunes; and he exhorts them, in a mild tone of authority, to
animate the zeal of their countrymen for the public service,
which required their assistance to transport the magazines of
wine and oil from the province of Istria to the royal city of
Ravenna. The ambiguous office of these magistrates is explained
by the tradition, that, in the twelve principal islands, twelve
tribunes, or judges, were created by an annual and popular
election. The existence of the Venetian republic under the Gothic
kingdom of Italy, is attested by the same authentic record, which
annihilates their lofty claim of original and perpetual
independence.
The Italians, who had long since renounced the exercise of
arms, were surprised, after forty years' peace, by the approach
of a formidable Barbarian, whom they abhorred, as the enemy of
their religion, as well as of their republic. Amidst the general
consternation, Ætius alone was incapable of fear; but it
was impossible that he should achieve, alone and unassisted, any
military exploits worthy of his former renown. The Barbarians who
had defended Gaul, refused to march to the relief of Italy; and
the succors promised by the Eastern emperor were distant and
doubtful. Since Ætius, at the head of his domestic troops,
still maintained the field, and harassed or retarded the march of
Attila, he never showed himself more truly great, than at the
time when his conduct was blamed by an ignorant and ungrateful
people. If the mind of Valentinian had been susceptible of any
generous sentiments, he would have chosen such a general for his
example and his guide. But the timid grandson of Theodosius,
instead of sharing the dangers, escaped from the sound of war;
and his hasty retreat from Ravenna to Rome, from an impregnable
fortress to an open capital, betrayed his secret intention of
abandoning Italy, as soon as the danger should approach his
Imperial person. This shameful abdication was suspended, however,
by the spirit of doubt and delay, which commonly adheres to
pusillanimous counsels, and sometimes corrects their pernicious
tendency. The Western emperor, with the senate and people of
Rome, embraced the more salutary resolution of deprecating, by a
solemn and suppliant embassy, the wrath of Attila. This important
commission was accepted by Avienus, who, from his birth and
riches, his consular dignity, the numerous train of his clients,
and his personal abilities, held the first rank in the Roman
senate. The specious and artful character of Avienus was
admirably qualified to conduct a negotiation either of public or
private interest: his colleague Trigetius had exercised the
Prætorian præfecture of Italy; and Leo, bishop of
Rome, consented to expose his life for the safety of his flock.
The genius of Leo was exercised and displayed in the public
misfortunes; and he has deserved the appellation of
Great, by the successful zeal with
which he labored to establish his opinions and his authority,
under the venerable names of orthodox faith and ecclesiastical
discipline. The Roman ambassadors were introduced to the tent of
Attila, as he lay encamped at the place where the slow-winding
Mincius is lost in the foaming waves of the Lake Benacus, and
trampled, with his Scythian cavalry, the farms of Catullus and
Virgil. The Barbarian monarch listened with favorable, and even
respectful, attention; and the deliverance of Italy was purchased
by the immense ransom, or dowry, of the princess Honoria. The
state of his army might facilitate the treaty, and hasten his
retreat. Their martial spirit was relaxed by the wealth and
indolence of a warm climate. The shepherds of the North, whose
ordinary food consisted of milk and raw flesh, indulged
themselves too freely in the use of bread, of wine, and of meat,
prepared and seasoned by the arts of cookery; and the progress of
disease revenged in some measure the injuries of the Italians.
When Attila declared his resolution of carrying his victorious
arms to the gates of Rome, he was admonished by his friends, as
well as by his enemies, that Alaric had not long survived the
conquest of the eternal city. His mind, superior to real danger,
was assaulted by imaginary terrors; nor could he escape the
influence of superstition, which had so often been subservient to
his designs. The pressing eloquence of Leo, his majestic aspect
and sacerdotal robes, excited the veneration of Attila for the
spiritual father of the Christians. The apparition of the two
apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, who menaced the Barbarian with
instant death, if he rejected the prayer of their successor, is
one of the noblest legends of ecclesiastical tradition. The
safety of Rome might deserve the interposition of celestial
beings; and some indulgence is due to a fable, which has been
represented by the pencil of Raphael, and the chisel of
Algardi.
Before the king of the Huns evacuated Italy, he threatened to
return more dreadful, and more implacable, if his bride, the
princess Honoria, were not delivered to his ambassadors within
the term stipulated by the treaty. Yet, in the mean while, Attila
relieved his tender anxiety, by adding a beautiful maid, whose
name was Ildico, to the list of his innumerable wives. Their
marriage was celebrated with barbaric pomp and festivity, at his
wooden palace beyond the Danube; and the monarch, oppressed with
wine and sleep, retired at a late hour from the banquet to the
nuptial bed. His attendants continued to respect his pleasures,
or his repose, the greatest part of the ensuing day, till the
unusual silence alarmed their fears and suspicions; and, after
attempting to awaken Attila by loud and repeated cries, they at
length broke into the royal apartment. They found the trembling
bride sitting by the bedside, hiding her face with her veil, and
lamenting her own danger, as well as the death of the king, who
had expired during the night. An artery had suddenly burst: and
as Attila lay in a supine posture, he was suffocated by a torrent
of blood, which, instead of finding a passage through the
nostrils, regurgitated into the lungs and stomach. His body was
solemnly exposed in the midst of the plain, under a silken
pavilion; and the chosen squadrons of the Huns, wheeling round in
measured evolutions, chanted a funeral song to the memory of a
hero, glorious in his life, invincible in his death, the father
of his people, the scourge of his enemies, and the terror of the
world. According to their national custom, the Barbarians cut off
a part of their hair, gashed their faces with unseemly wounds,
and bewailed their valiant leader as he deserved, not with the
tears of women, but with the blood of warriors. The remains of
Attila were enclosed within three coffins, of gold, of silver,
and of iron, and privately buried in the night: the spoils of
nations were thrown into his grave; the captives who had opened
the ground were inhumanly massacred; and the same Huns, who had
indulged such excessive grief, feasted, with dissolute and
intemperate mirth, about the recent sepulchre of their king. It
was reported at Constantinople, that on the fortunate night on
which he expired, Marcian beheld in a dream the bow of Attila
broken asunder: and the report may be allowed to prove, how
seldom the image of that formidable Barbarian was absent from the
mind of a Roman emperor.
The revolution which subverted the empire of the Huns,
established the fame of Attila, whose genius alone had sustained
the huge and disjointed fabric. After his death, the boldest
chieftains aspired to the rank of kings; the most powerful kings
refused to acknowledge a superior; and the numerous sons, whom so
many various mothers bore to the deceased monarch, divided and
disputed, like a private inheritance, the sovereign command of
the nations of Germany and Scythia. The bold Ardaric felt and
represented the disgrace of this servile partition; and his
subjects, the warlike Gepidæ, with the Ostrogoths, under
the conduct of three valiant brothers, encouraged their allies to
vindicate the rights of freedom and royalty. In a bloody and
decisive conflict on the banks of the River Netad, in Pannonia,
the lance of the Gepidæ, the sword of the Goths, the arrows
of the Huns, the Suevic infantry, the light arms of the Heruli,
and the heavy weapons of the Alani, encountered or supported each
other; and the victory of the Ardaric was accompanied with the
slaughter of thirty thousand of his enemies. Ellac, the eldest
son of Attila, lost his life and crown in the memorable battle of
Netad: his early valor had raised him to the throne of the
Acatzires, a Scythian people, whom he subdued; and his father,
who loved the superior merit, would have envied the death of
Ellac. His brother, Dengisich, with an army of Huns, still
formidable in their flight and ruin, maintained his ground above
fifteen years on the banks of the Danube. The palace of Attila,
with the old country of Dacia, from the Carpathian hills to the
Euxine, became the seat of a new power, which was erected by
Ardaric, king of the Gepidæ. The Pannonian conquests from
Vienna to Sirmium, were occupied by the Ostrogoths; and the
settlements of the tribes, who had so bravely asserted their
native freedom, were irregularly distributed, according to the
measure of their respective strength. Surrounded and oppressed by
the multitude of his father's slaves, the kingdom of Dengisich
was confined to the circle of his wagons; his desperate courage
urged him to invade the Eastern empire: he fell in battle; and
his head ignominiously exposed in the Hippodrome, exhibited a
grateful spectacle to the people of Constantinople. Attila had
fondly or superstitiously believed, that Irnac, the youngest of
his sons, was destined to perpetuate the glories of his race. The
character of that prince, who attempted to moderate the rashness
of his brother Dengisich, was more suitable to the declining
condition of the Huns; and Irnac, with his subject hordes,
retired into the heart of the Lesser Scythia. They were soon
overwhelmed by a torrent of new Barbarians, who followed the same
road which their own ancestors had formerly discovered. The
Geougen, or Avares, whose residence is
assigned by the Greek writers to the shores of the ocean,
impelled the adjacent tribes; till at length the Igours of the
North, issuing from the cold Siberian regions, which produce the
most valuable furs, spread themselves over the desert, as far as
the Borysthenes and the Caspian gates; and finally extinguished
the empire of the Huns.
Such an event might contribute to the safety of the Eastern
empire, under the reign of a prince who conciliated the
friendship, without forfeiting the esteem, of the Barbarians. But
the emperor of the West, the feeble and dissolute Valentinian,
who had reached his thirty-fifth year without attaining the age
of reason or courage, abused this apparent security, to undermine
the foundations of his own throne, by the murder of the patrician
Ætius. From the instinct of a base and jealous mind, he
hated the man who was universally celebrated as the terror of the
Barbarians, and the support of the republic; * and his new
favorite, the eunuch Heraclius, awakened the emperor from the
supine lethargy, which might be disguised, during the life of
Placidia, by the excuse of filial piety. The fame of Ætius,
his wealth and dignity, the numerous and martial train of
Barbarian followers, his powerful dependants, who filled the
civil offices of the state, and the hopes of his son Gaudentius,
who was already contracted to Eudoxia, the emperor's daughter,
had raised him above the rank of a subject. The ambitious
designs, of which he was secretly accused, excited the fears, as
well as the resentment, of Valentinian. Ætius himself,
supported by the consciousness of his merit, his services, and
perhaps his innocence, seems to have maintained a haughty and
indiscreet behavior. The patrician offended his sovereign by a
hostile declaration; he aggravated the offence, by compelling him
to ratify, with a solemn oath, a treaty of reconciliation and
alliance; he proclaimed his suspicions, he neglected his safety;
and from a vain confidence that the enemy, whom he despised, was
incapable even of a manly crime, he rashly ventured his person in
the palace of Rome. Whilst he urged, perhaps with intemperate
vehemence, the marriage of his son; Valentinian, drawing his
sword, the first sword he had ever drawn, plunged it in the
breast of a general who had saved his empire: his courtiers and
eunuchs ambitiously struggled to imitate their master; and
Ætius, pierced with a hundred wounds, fell dead in the
royal presence. Boethius, the Prætorian præfect, was
killed at the same moment, and before the event could be
divulged, the principal friends of the patrician were summoned to
the palace, and separately murdered. The horrid deed, palliated
by the specious names of justice and necessity, was immediately
communicated by the emperor to his soldiers, his subjects, and
his allies. The nations, who were strangers or enemies to
Ætius, generously deplored the unworthy fate of a hero: the
Barbarians, who had been attached to his service, dissembled
their grief and resentment: and the public contempt, which had
been so long entertained for Valentinian, was at once converted
into deep and universal abhorrence. Such sentiments seldom
pervade the walls of a palace; yet the emperor was confounded by
the honest reply of a Roman, whose approbation he had not
disdained to solicit. "I am ignorant, sir, of your motives or
provocations; I only know, that you have acted like a man who
cuts off his right hand with his left."
The luxury of Rome seems to have attracted the long and
frequent visits of Valentinian; who was consequently more
despised at Rome than in any other part of his dominions. A
republican spirit was insensibly revived in the senate, as their
authority, and even their supplies, became necessary for the
support of his feeble government. The stately demeanor of an
hereditary monarch offended their pride; and the pleasures of
Valentinian were injurious to the peace and honor of noble
families. The birth of the empress Eudoxia was equal to his own,
and her charms and tender affection deserved those testimonies of
love which her inconstant husband dissipated in vague and
unlawful amours. Petronius Maximus, a wealthy senator of the
Anician family, who had been twice consul, was possessed of a
chaste and beautiful wife: her obstinate resistance served only
to irritate the desires of Valentinian; and he resolved to
accomplish them, either by stratagem or force. Deep gaming was
one of the vices of the court: the emperor, who, by chance or
contrivance, had gained from Maximus a considerable sum,
uncourteously exacted his ring as a security for the debt; and
sent it by a trusty messenger to his wife, with an order, in her
husband's name, that she should immediately attend the empress
Eudoxia. The unsuspecting wife of Maximus was conveyed in her
litter to the Imperial palace; the emissaries of her impatient
lover conducted her to a remote and silent bed-chamber; and
Valentinian violated, without remorse, the laws of hospitality.
Her tears, when she returned home, her deep affliction, and her
bitter reproaches against a husband whom she considered as the
accomplice of his own shame, excited Maximus to a just revenge;
the desire of revenge was stimulated by ambition; and he might
reasonably aspire, by the free suffrage of the Roman senate, to
the throne of a detested and despicable rival. Valentinian, who
supposed that every human breast was devoid, like his own, of
friendship and gratitude, had imprudently admitted among his
guards several domestics and followers of Ætius. Two of
these, of Barbarian race were persuaded to execute a sacred and
honorable duty, by punishing with death the assassin of their
patron; and their intrepid courage did not long expect a
favorable moment. Whilst Valentinian amused himself, in the field
of Mars, with the spectacle of some military sports, they
suddenly rushed upon him with drawn weapons, despatched the
guilty Heraclius, and stabbed the emperor to the heart, without
the least opposition from his numerous train, who seemed to
rejoice in the tyrant's death. Such was the fate of Valentinian
the Third, the last Roman emperor of the family of Theodosius. He
faithfully imitated the hereditary weakness of his cousin and his
two uncles, without inheriting the gentleness, the purity, the
innocence, which alleviate, in their characters, the want of
spirit and ability. Valentinian was less excusable, since he had
passions, without virtues: even his religion was questionable;
and though he never deviated into the paths of heresy, he
scandalized the pious Christians by his attachment to the profane
arts of magic and divination.
As early as the time of Cicero and Varro, it was the opinion
of the Roman augurs, that the twelve
vultures which Romulus had seen, represented the
twelve centuries, assigned for the
fatal period of his city. This prophecy, disregarded perhaps in
the season of health and prosperity, inspired the people with
gloomy apprehensions, when the twelfth century, clouded with
disgrace and misfortune, was almost elapsed; and even posterity
must acknowledge with some surprise, that the arbitrary
interpretation of an accidental or fabulous circumstance has been
seriously verified in the downfall of the Western empire. But its
fall was announced by a clearer omen than the flight of vultures:
the Roman government appeared every day less formidable to its
enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects. The taxes
were multiplied with the public distress; economy was neglected
in proportion as it became necessary; and the injustice of the
rich shifted the unequal burden from themselves to the people,
whom they defrauded of the indulgences
that might sometimes have alleviated their misery. The severe
inquisition which confiscated their goods, and tortured their
persons, compelled the subjects of Valentinian to prefer the more
simple tyranny of the Barbarians, to fly to the woods and
mountains, or to embrace the vile and abject condition of
mercenary servants. They abjured and abhorred the name of Roman
citizens, which had formerly excited the ambition of mankind. The
Armorican provinces of Gaul, and the greatest part of Spain,
were-thrown into a state of disorderly independence, by the
confederations of the Bagaudæ; and the Imperial ministers
pursued with proscriptive laws, and ineffectual arms, the rebels
whom they had made. If all the Barbarian conquerors had been
annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not
have restored the empire of the West: and if Rome still survived,
she survived the loss of freedom, of virtue, and of honor.
Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The Western
Empire.
Part I.
Sack Of Rome By Genseric, King Of The Vandals. -- His Naval
Depredations. -- Succession Of The Last Emperors Of The West,
Maximus, Avitus, Majorian, Severus, Anthemius, Olybrius,
Glycerius, Nepos, Augustulus. -- Total Extinction Of The Western
Empire. -- Reign Of Odoacer, The First Barbarian King Of
Italy.
The loss or desolation of the provinces, from the Ocean to the
Alps, impaired the glory and greatness of Rome: her internal
prosperity was irretrievably destroyed by the separation of
Africa. The rapacious Vandals confiscated the patrimonial estates
of the senators, and intercepted the regular subsidies, which
relieved the poverty and encouraged the idleness of the
plebeians. The distress of the Romans was soon aggravated by an
unexpected attack; and the province, so long cultivated for their
use by industrious and obedient subjects, was armed against them
by an ambitious Barbarian. The Vandals and Alani, who followed
the successful standard of Genseric, had acquired a rich and
fertile territory, which stretched along the coast above ninety
days' journey from Tangier to Tripoli; but their narrow limits
were pressed and confined, on either side, by the sandy desert
and the Mediterranean. The discovery and conquest of the Black
nations, that might dwell beneath the torrid zone, could not
tempt the rational ambition of Genseric; but he cast his eyes
towards the sea; he resolved to create a naval power, and his
bold resolution was executed with steady and active perseverance.
The woods of Mount Atlas afforded an inexhaustible nursery of
timber: his new subjects were skilled in the arts of navigation
and ship-building; he animated his daring Vandals to embrace a
mode of warfare which would render every maritime country
accessible to their arms; the Moors and Africans were allured by
the hopes of plunder; and, after an interval of six centuries,
the fleets that issued from the port of Carthage again claimed
the empire of the Mediterranean. The success of the Vandals, the
conquest of Sicily, the sack of Palermo, and the frequent
descents on the coast of Lucania, awakened and alarmed the mother
of Valentinian, and the sister of Theodosius. Alliances were
formed; and armaments, expensive and ineffectual, were prepared,
for the destruction of the common enemy; who reserved his courage
to encounter those dangers which his policy could not prevent or
elude. The designs of the Roman government were repeatedly
baffled by his artful delays, ambiguous promises, and apparent
concessions; and the interposition of his formidable confederate,
the king of the Huns, recalled the emperors from the conquest of
Africa to the care of their domestic safety. The revolutions of
the palace, which left the Western empire without a defender, and
without a lawful prince, dispelled the apprehensions, and
stimulated the avarice, of Genseric. He immediately equipped a
numerous fleet of Vandals and Moors, and cast anchor at the mouth
of the Tyber, about three months after the death of Valentinian,
and the elevation of Maximus to the Imperial throne.
The private life of the senator Petronius Maximus was often
alleged as a rare example of human felicity. His birth was noble
and illustrious, since he descended from the Anician family; his
dignity was supported by an adequate patrimony in land and money;
and these advantages of fortune were accompanied with liberal
arts and decent manners, which adorn or imitate the inestimable
gifts of genius and virtue. The luxury of his palace and table
was hospitable and elegant. Whenever Maximus appeared in public,
he was surrounded by a train of grateful and obsequious clients;
and it is possible that among these clients, he might deserve and
possess some real friends. His merit was rewarded by the favor of
the prince and senate: he thrice exercised the office of
Prætorian præfect of Italy; he was twice invested
with the consulship, and he obtained the rank of patrician. These
civil honors were not incompatible with the enjoyment of leisure
and tranquillity; his hours, according to the demands of pleasure
or reason, were accurately distributed by a water-clock; and this
avarice of time may be allowed to prove the sense which Maximus
entertained of his own happiness. The injury which he received
from the emperor Valentinian appears to excuse the most bloody
revenge. Yet a philosopher might have reflected, that, if the
resistance of his wife had been sincere, her chastity was still
inviolate, and that it could never be restored if she had
consented to the will of the adulterer. A patriot would have
hesitated before he plunged himself and his country into those
inevitable calamities which must follow the extinction of the
royal house of Theodosius. The imprudent Maximus disregarded
these salutary considerations; he gratified his resentment and
ambition; he saw the bleeding corpse of Valentinian at his feet;
and he heard himself saluted Emperor by the unanimous voice of
the senate and people. But the day of his inauguration was the
last day of his happiness. He was imprisoned (such is the lively
expression of Sidonius) in the palace; and after passing a
sleepless night, he sighed that he had attained the summit of his
wishes, and aspired only to descend from the dangerous elevation.
Oppressed by the weight of the diadem, he communicated his
anxious thoughts to his friend and quæstor Fulgentius; and
when he looked back with unavailing regret on the secure
pleasures of his former life, the emperor exclaimed, "O fortunate
Damocles, thy reign began and ended with the same dinner;" a
well-known allusion, which Fulgentius afterwards repeated as an
instructive lesson for princes and subjects.
The reign of Maximus continued about three months. His hours,
of which he had lost the command, were disturbed by remorse, or
guilt, or terror, and his throne was shaken by the seditions of
the soldiers, the people, and the confederate Barbarians. The
marriage of his son Paladius with the eldest daughter of the late
emperor, might tend to establish the hereditary succession of his
family; but the violence which he offered to the empress Eudoxia,
could proceed only from the blind impulse of lust or revenge. His
own wife, the cause of these tragic events, had been seasonably
removed by death; and the widow of Valentinian was compelled to
violate her decent mourning, perhaps her real grief, and to
submit to the embraces of a presumptuous usurper, whom she
suspected as the assassin of her deceased husband. These
suspicions were soon justified by the indiscreet confession of
Maximus himself; and he wantonly provoked the hatred of his
reluctant bride, who was still conscious that she was descended
from a line of emperors. From the East, however, Eudoxia could
not hope to obtain any effectual assistance; her father and her
aunt Pulcheria were dead; her mother languished at Jerusalem in
disgrace and exile; and the sceptre of Constantinople was in the
hands of a stranger. She directed her eyes towards Carthage;
secretly implored the aid of the king of the Vandals; and
persuaded Genseric to improve the fair opportunity of disguising
his rapacious designs by the specious names of honor, justice,
and compassion. Whatever abilities Maximus might have shown in a
subordinate station, he was found incapable of administering an
empire; and though he might easily have been informed of the
naval preparations which were made on the opposite shores of
Africa, he expected with supine indifference the approach of the
enemy, without adopting any measures of defence, of negotiation,
or of a timely retreat. When the Vandals disembarked at the mouth
of the Tyber, the emperor was suddenly roused from his lethargy
by the clamors of a trembling and exasperated multitude. The only
hope which presented itself to his astonished mind was that of a
precipitate flight, and he exhorted the senators to imitate the
example of their prince. But no sooner did Maximus appear in the
streets, than he was assaulted by a shower of stones; a Roman, or
a Burgundian soldier, claimed the honor of the first wound; his
mangled body was ignominiously cast into the Tyber; the Roman
people rejoiced in the punishment which they had inflicted on the
author of the public calamities; and the domestics of Eudoxia
signalized their zeal in the service of their mistress.
On the third day after the tumult, Genseric boldly advanced
from the port of Ostia to the gates of the defenceless city.
Instead of a sally of the Roman youth, there issued from the
gates an unarmed and venerable procession of the bishop at the
head of his clergy. The fearless spirit of Leo, his authority and
eloquence, again mitigated the
fierceness of a Barbarian conqueror; the king of the Vandals
promised to spare the unresisting multitude, to protect the
buildings from fire, and to exempt the captives from torture; and
although such orders were neither seriously given, nor strictly
obeyed, the mediation of Leo was glorious to himself, and in some
degree beneficial to his country. But Rome and its inhabitants
were delivered to the licentiousness of the Vandals and Moors,
whose blind passions revenged the injuries of Carthage. The
pillage lasted fourteen days and nights; and all that yet
remained of public or private wealth, of sacred or profane
treasure, was diligently transported to the vessels of Genseric.
Among the spoils, the splendid relics of two temples, or rather
of two religions, exhibited a memorable example of the
vicissitudes of human and divine things. Since the abolition of
Paganism, the Capitol had been violated and abandoned; yet the
statues of the gods and heroes were still respected, and the
curious roof of gilt bronze was reserved for the rapacious hands
of Genseric. The holy instruments of the Jewish worship, the gold
table, and the gold candlestick with seven branches, originally
framed according to the particular instructions of God himself,
and which were placed in the sanctuary of his temple, had been
ostentatiously displayed to the Roman people in the triumph of
Titus. They were afterwards deposited in the temple of Peace; and
at the end of four hundred years, the spoils of Jerusalem were
transferred from Rome to Carthage, by a Barbarian who derived his
origin from the shores of the Baltic. These ancient monuments
might attract the notice of curiosity, as well as of avarice. But
the Christian churches, enriched and adorned by the prevailing
superstition of the times, afforded more plentiful materials for
sacrilege; and the pious liberality of Pope Leo, who melted six
silver vases, the gift of Constantine, each of a hundred pounds
weight, is an evidence of the damage which he attempted to
repair. In the forty-five years that had elapsed since the Gothic
invasion, the pomp and luxury of Rome were in some measure
restored; and it was difficult either to escape, or to satisfy,
the avarice of a conqueror, who possessed leisure to collect, and
ships to transport, the wealth of the capital. The Imperial
ornaments of the palace, the magnificent furniture and wardrobe,
the sideboards of massy plate, were accumulated with disorderly
rapine; the gold and silver amounted to several thousand talents;
yet even the brass and copper were laboriously removed. Eudoxia
herself, who advanced to meet her friend and deliverer, soon
bewailed the imprudence of her own conduct. She was rudely
stripped of her jewels; and the unfortunate empress, with her two
daughters, the only surviving remains of the great Theodosius,
was compelled, as a captive, to follow the haughty Vandal; who
immediately hoisted sail, and returned with a prosperous
navigation to the port of Carthage. Many thousand Romans of both
sexes, chosen for some useful or agreeable qualifications,
reluctantly embarked on board the fleet of Genseric; and their
distress was aggravated by the unfeeling Barbarians, who, in the
division of the booty, separated the wives from their husbands,
and the children from their parents. The charity of Deogratias,
bishop of Carthage, was their only consolation and support. He
generously sold the gold and silver plate of the church to
purchase the freedom of some, to alleviate the slavery of others,
and to assist the wants and infirmities of a captive multitude,
whose health was impaired by the hardships which they had
suffered in their passage from Italy to Africa. By his order, two
spacious churches were converted into hospitals; the sick were
distributed into convenient beds, and liberally supplied with
food and medicines; and the aged prelate repeated his visits both
in the day and night, with an assiduity that surpassed his
strength, and a tender sympathy which enhanced the value of his
services. Compare this scene with the field of Cannæ; and
judge between Hannibal and the successor of St. Cyprian.
The deaths of Ætius and Valentinian had relaxed the ties
which held the Barbarians of Gaul in peace and subordination. The
sea-coast was infested by the Saxons; the Alemanni and the Franks
advanced from the Rhine to the Seine; and the ambition of the
Goths seemed to meditate more extensive and permanent conquests.
The emperor Maximus relieved himself, by a judicious choice, from
the weight of these distant cares; he silenced the solicitations
of his friends, listened to the voice of fame, and promoted a
stranger to the general command of the forces of Gaul. Avitus,
the stranger, whose merit was so nobly rewarded, descended from a
wealthy and honorable family in the diocese of Auvergne. The
convulsions of the times urged him to embrace, with the same
ardor, the civil and military professions: and the indefatigable
youth blended the studies of literature and jurisprudence with
the exercise of arms and hunting. Thirty years of his life were
laudably spent in the public service; he alternately displayed
his talents in war and negotiation; and the soldier of
Ætius, after executing the most important embassies, was
raised to the station of Prætorian præfect of Gaul.
Either the merit of Avitus excited envy, or his moderation was
desirous of repose, since he calmly retired to an estate, which
he possessed in the neighborhood of Clermont. A copious stream,
issuing from the mountain, and falling headlong in many a loud
and foaming cascade, discharged its waters into a lake about two
miles in length, and the villa was pleasantly seated on the
margin of the lake. The baths, the porticos, the summer and
winter apartments, were adapted to the purposes of luxury and
use; and the adjacent country afforded the various prospects of
woods, pastures, and meadows. In this retreat, where Avitus
amused his leisure with books, rural sports, the practice of
husbandry, and the society of his friends, he received the
Imperial diploma, which constituted him master-general of the
cavalry and infantry of Gaul. He assumed the military command;
the Barbarians suspended their fury; and whatever means he might
employ, whatever concessions he might be forced to make, the
people enjoyed the benefits of actual tranquillity. But the fate
of Gaul depended on the Visigoths; and the Roman general, less
attentive to his dignity than to the public interest, did not
disdain to visit Thoulouse in the character of an ambassador. He
was received with courteous hospitality by Theodoric, the king of
the Goths; but while Avitus laid the foundations of a solid
alliance with that powerful nation, he was astonished by the
intelligence, that the emperor Maximus was slain, and that Rome
had been pillaged by the Vandals. A vacant throne, which he might
ascend without guilt or danger, tempted his ambition; and the
Visigoths were easily persuaded to support his claim by their
irresistible suffrage. They loved the person of Avitus; they
respected his virtues; and they were not insensible of the
advantage, as well as honor, of giving an emperor to the West.
The season was now approaching, in which the annual assembly of
the seven provinces was held at Arles; their deliberations might
perhaps be influenced by the presence of Theodoric and his
martial brothers; but their choice would naturally incline to the
most illustrious of their countrymen. Avitus, after a decent
resistance, accepted the Imperial diadem from the representatives
of Gaul; and his election was ratified by the acclamations of the
Barbarians and provincials. The formal consent of Marcian,
emperor of the East, was solicited and obtained; but the senate,
Rome, and Italy, though humbled by their recent calamities,
submitted with a secret murmur to the presumption of the Gallic
usurper.
Theodoric, to whom Avitus was indebted for the purple, had
acquired the Gothic sceptre by the murder of his elder brother
Torismond; and he justified this atrocious deed by the design
which his predecessor had formed of violating his alliance with
the empire. Such a crime might not be incompatible with the
virtues of a Barbarian; but the manners of Theodoric were gentle
and humane; and posterity may contemplate without terror the
original picture of a Gothic king, whom Sidonius had intimately
observed, in the hours of peace and of social intercourse. In an
epistle, dated from the court of Thoulouse, the orator satisfies
the curiosity of one of his friends, in the following
description: "By the majesty of his appearance, Theodoric would
command the respect of those who are ignorant of his merit; and
although he is born a prince, his merit would dignify a private
station. He is of a middle stature, his body appears rather plump
than fat, and in his well-proportioned limbs agility is united
with muscular strength. If you examine his countenance, you will
distinguish a high forehead, large shaggy eyebrows, an aquiline
nose, thin lips, a regular set of white teeth, and a fair
complexion, that blushes more frequently from modesty than from
anger. The ordinary distribution of his time, as far as it is
exposed to the public view, may be concisely represented. Before
daybreak, he repairs, with a small train, to his domestic chapel,
where the service is performed by the Arian clergy; but those who
presume to interpret his secret sentiments, consider this
assiduous devotion as the effect of habit and policy. The rest of
the morning is employed in the administration of his kingdom. His
chair is surrounded by some military officers of decent aspect
and behavior: the noisy crowd of his Barbarian guards occupies
the hall of audience; but they are not permitted to stand within
the veils or curtains that conceal the council-chamber from
vulgar eyes. The ambassadors of the nations are successively
introduced: Theodoric listens with attention, answers them with
discreet brevity, and either announces or delays, according to
the nature of their business, his final resolution. About eight
(the second hour) he rises from his throne, and visits either his
treasury or his stables. If he chooses to hunt, or at least to
exercise himself on horseback, his bow is carried by a favorite
youth; but when the game is marked, he bends it with his own
hand, and seldom misses the object of his aim: as a king, he
disdains to bear arms in such ignoble warfare; but as a soldier,
he would blush to accept any military service which he could
perform himself. On common days, his dinner is not different from
the repast of a private citizen, but every Saturday, many
honorable guests are invited to the royal table, which, on these
occasions, is served with the elegance of Greece, the plenty of
Gaul, and the order and diligence of Italy. The gold or silver
plate is less remarkable for its weight than for the brightness
and curious workmanship: the taste is gratified without the help
of foreign and costly luxury; the size and number of the cups of
wine are regulated with a strict regard to the laws of
temperance; and the respectful silence that prevails, is
interrupted only by grave and instructive conversation. After
dinner, Theodoric sometimes indulges himself in a short slumber;
and as soon as he wakes, he calls for the dice and tables,
encourages his friends to forget the royal majesty, and is
delighted when they freely express the passions which are excited
by the incidents of play. At this game, which he loves as the
image of war, he alternately displays his eagerness, his skill,
his patience, and his cheerful temper. If he loses, he laughs; he
is modest and silent if he wins. Yet, notwithstanding this
seeming indifference, his courtiers choose to solicit any favor
in the moments of victory; and I myself, in my applications to
the king, have derived some benefit from my losses. About the
ninth hour (three o'clock) the tide of business again returns,
and flows incessantly till after sunset, when the signal of the
royal supper dismisses the weary crowd of suppliants and
pleaders. At the supper, a more familiar repast, buffoons and
pantomimes are sometimes introduced, to divert, not to offend,
the company, by their ridiculous wit: but female singers, and the
soft, effeminate modes of music, are severely banished, and such
martial tunes as animate the soul to deeds of valor are alone
grateful to the ear of Theodoric. He retires from table; and the
nocturnal guards are immediately posted at the entrance of the
treasury, the palace, and the private apartments."
When the king of the Visigoths encouraged Avitus to assume the
purple, he offered his person and his forces, as a faithful
soldier of the republic. The exploits of Theodoric soon convinced
the world that he had not degenerated from the warlike virtues of
his ancestors. After the establishment of the Goths in Aquitain,
and the passage of the Vandals into Africa, the Suevi, who had
fixed their kingdom in Gallicia, aspired to the conquest of
Spain, and threatened to extinguish the feeble remains of the
Roman dominion. The provincials of Carthagena and Tarragona,
afflicted by a hostile invasion, represented their injuries and
their apprehensions. Count Fronto was despatched, in the name of
the emperor Avitus, with advantageous offers of peace and
alliance; and Theodoric interposed his weighty mediation, to
declare, that, unless his brother-in-law, the king of the Suevi,
immediately retired, he should be obliged to arm in the cause of
justice and of Rome. "Tell him," replied the haughty Rechiarius,
"that I despise his friendship and his arms; but that I shall
soon try whether he will dare to expect my arrival under the
walls of Thoulouse." Such a challenge urged Theodoric to prevent
the bold designs of his enemy; he passed the Pyrenees at the head
of the Visigoths: the Franks and Burgundians served under his
standard; and though he professed himself the dutiful servant of
Avitus, he privately stipulated, for himself and his successors,
the absolute possession of his Spanish conquests. The two armies,
or rather the two nations, encountered each other on the banks of
the River Urbicus, about twelve miles from Astorga; and the
decisive victory of the Goths appeared for a while to have
extirpated the name and kingdom of the Suevi. From the field of
battle Theodoric advanced to Braga, their metropolis, which still
retained the splendid vestiges of its ancient commerce and
dignity. His entrance was not polluted with blood; and the Goths
respected the chastity of their female captives, more especially
of the consecrated virgins: but the greatest part of the clergy
and people were made slaves, and even the churches and altars
were confounded in the universal pillage. The unfortunate king of
the Suevi had escaped to one of the ports of the ocean; but the
obstinacy of the winds opposed his flight: he was delivered to
his implacable rival; and Rechiarius, who neither desired nor
expected mercy, received, with manly constancy, the death which
he would probably have inflicted. After this bloody sacrifice to
policy or resentment, Theodoric carried his victorious arms as
far as Merida, the principal town of Lusitania, without meeting
any resistance, except from the miraculous powers of St. Eulalia;
but he was stopped in the full career of success, and recalled
from Spain before he could provide for the security of his
conquests. In his retreat towards the Pyrenees, he revenged his
disappointment on the country through which he passed; and, in
the sack of Pollentia and Astorga, he showed himself a faithless
ally, as well as a cruel enemy. Whilst the king of the Visigoths
fought and vanquished in the name of Avitus, the reign of Avitus
had expired; and both the honor and the interest of Theodoric
were deeply wounded by the disgrace of a friend, whom he had
seated on the throne of the Western empire.
Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The Western
Empire. -- Part II.
The pressing solicitations of the senate and people persuaded
the emperor Avitus to fix his residence at Rome, and to accept
the consulship for the ensuing year. On the first day of January,
his son-in-law, Sidonius Apollinaris, celebrated his praises in a
panegyric of six hundred verses; but this composition, though it
was rewarded with a brass statue, seems to contain a very
moderate proportion, either of genius or of truth. The poet, if
we may degrade that sacred name, exaggerates the merit of a
sovereign and a father; and his prophecy of a long and glorious
reign was soon contradicted by the event. Avitus, at a time when
the Imperial dignity was reduced to a preeminence of toil and
danger, indulged himself in the pleasures of Italian luxury: age
had not extinguished his amorous inclinations; and he is accused
of insulting, with indiscreet and ungenerous raillery, the
husbands whose wives he had seduced or violated. But the Romans
were not inclined either to excuse his faults or to acknowledge
his virtues. The several parts of the empire became every day
more alienated from each other; and the stranger of Gaul was the
object of popular hatred and contempt. The senate asserted their
legitimate claim in the election of an emperor; and their
authority, which had been originally derived from the old
constitution, was again fortified by the actual weakness of a
declining monarchy. Yet even such a monarchy might have resisted
the votes of an unarmed senate, if their discontent had not been
supported, or perhaps inflamed, by the Count Ricimer, one of the
principal commanders of the Barbarian troops, who formed the
military defence of Italy. The daughter of Wallia, king of the
Visigoths, was the mother of Ricimer; but he was descended, on
the father's side, from the nation of the Suevi; his pride or
patriotism might be exasperated by the misfortunes of his
countrymen; and he obeyed, with reluctance, an emperor in whose
elevation he had not been consulted. His faithful and important
services against the common enemy rendered him still more
formidable; and, after destroying on the coast of Corsica a fleet
of Vandals, which consisted of sixty galleys, Ricimer returned in
triumph with the appellation of the Deliverer of Italy. He chose
that moment to signify to Avitus, that his reign was at an end;
and the feeble emperor, at a distance from his Gothic allies, was
compelled, after a short and unavailing struggle to abdicate the
purple. By the clemency, however, or the contempt, of Ricimer, he
was permitted to descend from the throne to the more desirable
station of bishop of Placentia: but the resentment of the senate
was still unsatisfied; and their inflexible severity pronounced
the sentence of his death He fled towards the Alps, with the
humble hope, not of arming the Visigoths in his cause, but of
securing his person and treasures in the sanctuary of Julian, one
of the tutelar saints of Auvergne. Disease, or the hand of the
executioner, arrested him on the road; yet his remains were
decently transported to Brivas, or Brioude, in his native
province, and he reposed at the feet of his holy patron. Avitus
left only one daughter, the wife of Sidonius Apollinaris, who
inherited the patrimony of his father-in-law; lamenting, at the
same time, the disappointment of his public and private
expectations. His resentment prompted him to join, or at least to
countenance, the measures of a rebellious faction in Gaul; and
the poet had contracted some guilt, which it was incumbent on him
to expiate, by a new tribute of flattery to the succeeding
emperor.
The successor of Avitus presents the welcome discovery of a
great and heroic character, such as sometimes arise, in a
degenerate age, to vindicate the honor of the human species. The
emperor Majorian has deserved the praises of his contemporaries,
and of posterity; and these praises may be strongly expressed in
the words of a judicious and disinterested historian: "That he
was gentle to his subjects; that he was terrible to his enemies;
and that he excelled, in every virtue,
all his predecessors who had reigned
over the Romans." Such a testimony may justify at least the
panegyric of Sidonius; and we may acquiesce in the assurance,
that, although the obsequious orator would have flattered, with
equal zeal, the most worthless of princes, the extraordinary
merit of his object confined him, on this occasion, within the
bounds of truth. Majorian derived his name from his maternal
grandfather, who, in the reign of the great Theodosius, had
commanded the troops of the Illyrian frontier. He gave his
daughter in marriage to the father of Majorian, a respectable
officer, who administered the revenues of Gaul with skill and
integrity; and generously preferred the friendship of Ætius
to the tempting offer of an insidious court. His son, the future
emperor, who was educated in the profession of arms, displayed,
from his early youth, intrepid courage, premature wisdom, and
unbounded liberality in a scanty fortune. He followed the
standard of Ætius, contributed to his success, shared, and
sometimes eclipsed, his glory, and at last excited the jealousy
of the patrician, or rather of his wife, who forced him to retire
from the service. Majorian, after the death of Ætius, was
recalled and promoted; and his intimate connection with Count
Ricimer was the immediate step by which he ascended the throne of
the Western empire. During the vacancy that succeeded the
abdication of Avitus, the ambitious Barbarian, whose birth
excluded him from the Imperial dignity, governed Italy with the
title of Patrician; resigned to his friend the conspicuous
station of master-general of the cavalry and infantry; and, after
an interval of some months, consented to the unanimous wish of
the Romans, whose favor Majorian had solicited by a recent
victory over the Alemanni. He was invested with the purple at
Ravenna: and the epistle which he addressed to the senate, will
best describe his situation and his sentiments. "Your election,
Conscript Fathers! and the ordinance of the most valiant army,
have made me your emperor. May the propitious Deity direct and
prosper the counsels and events of my administration, to your
advantage and to the public welfare! For my own part, I did not
aspire, I have submitted to reign; nor should I have discharged
the obligations of a citizen if I had refused, with base and
selfish ingratitude, to support the weight of those labors, which
were imposed by the republic. Assist, therefore, the prince whom
you have made; partake the duties which you have enjoined; and
may our common endeavors promote the happiness of an empire,
which I have accepted from your hands. Be assured, that, in our
times, justice shall resume her ancient vigor, and that virtue
shall become, not only innocent, but meritorious. Let none,
except the authors themselves, be apprehensive of
delations, which, as a subject, I have
always condemned, and, as a prince, will severely punish. Our own
vigilance, and that of our father, the patrician Ricimer, shall
regulate all military affairs, and provide for the safety of the
Roman world, which we have saved from foreign and domestic
enemies. You now understand the maxims of my government; you may
confide in the faithful love and sincere assurances of a prince
who has formerly been the companion of your life and dangers; who
still glories in the name of senator, and who is anxious that you
should never repent the judgment which you have pronounced in his
favor." The emperor, who, amidst the ruins of the Roman world,
revived the ancient language of law and liberty, which Trajan
would not have disclaimed, must have derived those generous
sentiments from his own heart; since they were not suggested to
his imitation by the customs of his age, or the example of his
predecessors.
The private and public actions of Majorian are very
imperfectly known: but his laws, remarkable for an original cast
of thought and expression, faithfully represent the character of
a sovereign who loved his people, who sympathized in their
distress, who had studied the causes of the decline of the
empire, and who was capable of applying (as far as such
reformation was practicable) judicious and effectual remedies to
the public disorders. His regulations concerning the finances
manifestly tended to remove, or at least to mitigate, the most
intolerable grievances. I. From the first hour of his reign, he
was solicitous (I translate his own words) to relieve the
wearyfortunes of the provincials,
oppressed by the accumulated weight of indictions and
superindictions. With this view he granted a universal amnesty, a
final and absolute discharge of all arrears of tribute, of all
debts, which, under any pretence, the fiscal officers might
demand from the people. This wise dereliction of obsolete,
vexatious, and unprofitable claims, improved and purified the
sources of the public revenue; and the subject who could now look
back without despair, might labor with hope and gratitude for
himself and for his country. II. In the assessment and collection
of taxes, Majorian restored the ordinary jurisdiction of the
provincial magistrates; and suppressed the extraordinary
commissions which had been introduced, in the name of the emperor
himself, or of the Prætorian præfects. The favorite
servants, who obtained such irregular powers, were insolent in
their behavior, and arbitrary in their demands: they affected to
despise the subordinate tribunals, and they were discontented, if
their fees and profits did not twice exceed the sum which they
condescended to pay into the treasury. One instance of their
extortion would appear incredible, were it not authenticated by
the legislator himself. They exacted the whole payment in gold:
but they refused the current coin of the empire, and would accept
only such ancient pieces as were stamped with the names of
Faustina or the Antonines. The subject, who was unprovided with
these curious medals, had recourse to the expedient of
compounding with their rapacious demands; or if he succeeded in
the research, his imposition was doubled, according to the weight
and value of the money of former times. III. "The municipal
corporations, (says the emperor,) the lesser senates, (so
antiquity has justly styled them,) deserve to be considered as
the heart of the cities, and the sinews of the republic. And yet
so low are they now reduced, by the injustice of magistrates and
the venality of collectors, that many of their members,
renouncing their dignity and their country, have taken refuge in
distant and obscure exile." He urges, and even compels, their
return to their respective cities; but he removes the grievance
which had forced them to desert the exercise of their municipal
functions. They are directed, under the authority of the
provincial magistrates, to resume their office of levying the
tribute; but, instead of being made responsible for the whole sum
assessed on their district, they are only required to produce a
regular account of the payments which they have actually
received, and of the defaulters who are still indebted to the
public. IV. But Majorian was not ignorant that these corporate
bodies were too much inclined to retaliate the injustice and
oppression which they had suffered; and he therefore revives the
useful office of the defenders of
cities. He exhorts the people to elect, in a full
and free assembly, some man of discretion and integrity, who
would dare to assert their privileges, to represent their
grievances, to protect the poor from the tyranny of the rich, and
to inform the emperor of the abuses that were committed under the
sanction of his name and authority.
The spectator who casts a mournful view over the ruins of
ancient Rome, is tempted to accuse the memory of the Goths and
Vandals, for the mischief which they had neither leisure, nor
power, nor perhaps inclination, to perpetrate. The tempest of war
might strike some lofty turrets to the ground; but the
destruction which undermined the foundations of those massy
fabrics was prosecuted, slowly and silently, during a period of
ten centuries; and the motives of interest, that afterwards
operated without shame or control, were severely checked by the
taste and spirit of the emperor Majorian. The decay of the city
had gradually impaired the value of the public works. The circus
and theatres might still excite, but they seldom gratified, the
desires of the people: the temples, which had escaped the zeal of
the Christians, were no longer inhabited, either by gods or men;
the diminished crowds of the Romans were lost in the immense
space of their baths and porticos; and the stately libraries and
halls of justice became useless to an indolent generation, whose
repose was seldom disturbed, either by study or business. The
monuments of consular, or Imperial, greatness were no longer
revered, as the immortal glory of the capital: they were only
esteemed as an inexhaustible mine of materials, cheaper, and more
convenient than the distant quarry. Specious petitions were
continually addressed to the easy magistrates of Rome, which
stated the want of stones or bricks, for some necessary service:
the fairest forms of architecture were rudely defaced, for the
sake of some paltry, or pretended, repairs; and the degenerate
Romans, who converted the spoil to their own emolument,
demolished, with sacrilegious hands, the labors of their
ancestors. Majorian, who had often sighed over the desolation of
the city, applied a severe remedy to the growing evil. He
reserved to the prince and senate the sole cognizance of the
extreme cases which might justify the destruction of an ancient
edifice; imposed a fine of fifty pounds of gold (two thousand
pounds sterling) on every magistrate who should presume to grant
such illegal and scandalous license, and threatened to chastise
the criminal obedience of their subordinate officers, by a severe
whipping, and the amputation of both their hands. In the last
instance, the legislator might seem to forget the proportion of
guilt and punishment; but his zeal arose from a generous
principle, and Majorian was anxious to protect the monuments of
those ages, in which he would have desired and deserved to live.
The emperor conceived, that it was his interest to increase the
number of his subjects; and that it was his duty to guard the
purity of the marriage-bed: but the means which he employed to
accomplish these salutary purposes are of an ambiguous, and
perhaps exceptionable, kind. The pious maids, who consecrated
their virginity to Christ, were restrained from taking the veil
till they had reached their fortieth year. Widows under that age
were compelled to form a second alliance within the term of five
years, by the forfeiture of half their wealth to their nearest
relations, or to the state. Unequal marriages were condemned or
annulled. The punishment of confiscation and exile was deemed so
inadequate to the guilt of adultery, that, if the criminal
returned to Italy, he might, by the express declaration of
Majorian, be slain with impunity.
While the emperor Majorian assiduously labored to restore the
happiness and virtue of the Romans, he encountered the arms of
Genseric, from his character and situation their most formidable
enemy. A fleet of Vandals and Moors landed at the mouth of the
Liris, or Garigliano; but the Imperial troops surprised and
attacked the disorderly Barbarians, who were encumbered with the
spoils of Campania; they were chased with slaughter to their
ships, and their leader, the king's brother-in-law, was found in
the number of the slain. Such vigilance might announce the
character of the new reign; but the strictest vigilance, and the
most numerous forces, were insufficient to protect the
long-extended coast of Italy from the depredations of a naval
war. The public opinion had imposed a nobler and more arduous
task on the genius of Majorian. Rome expected from him alone the
restitution of Africa; and the design, which he formed, of
attacking the Vandals in their new settlements, was the result of
bold and judicious policy. If the intrepid emperor could have
infused his own spirit into the youth of Italy; if he could have
revived in the field of Mars, the manly exercises in which he had
always surpassed his equals; he might have marched against
Genseric at the head of a Roman army.
Such a reformation of national manners might be embraced by the
rising generation; but it is the misfortune of those princes who
laboriously sustain a declining monarchy, that, to obtain some
immediate advantage, or to avert some impending danger, they are
forced to countenance, and even to multiply, the most pernicious
abuses. Majorian, like the weakest of his predecessors, was
reduced to the disgraceful expedient of substituting Barbarian
auxiliaries in the place of his unwarlike subjects: and his
superior abilities could only be displayed in the vigor and
dexterity with which he wielded a dangerous instrument, so apt to
recoil on the hand that used it. Besides the confederates, who
were already engaged in the service of the empire, the fame of
his liberality and valor attracted the nations of the Danube, the
Borysthenes, and perhaps of the Tanais. Many thousands of the
bravest subjects of Attila, the Gepidæ, the Ostrogoths, the
Rugians, the Burgundians, the Suevi, the Alani, assembled in the
plains of Liguria; and their formidable strength was balanced by
their mutual animosities. They passed the Alps in a severe
winter. The emperor led the way, on foot, and in complete armor;
sounding, with his long staff, the depth of the ice, or snow, and
encouraging the Scythians, who complained of the extreme cold, by
the cheerful assurance, that they should be satisfied with the
heat of Africa. The citizens of Lyons had presumed to shut their
gates; they soon implored, and experienced, the clemency of
Majorian. He vanquished Theodoric in the field; and admitted to
his friendship and alliance a king whom he had found not unworthy
of his arms. The beneficial, though precarious, reunion of the
greater part of Gaul and Spain, was the effect of persuasion, as
well as of force; and the independent Bagaudæ, who had
escaped, or resisted, the oppression, of former reigns, were
disposed to confide in the virtues of Majorian. His camp was
filled with Barbarian allies; his throne was supported by the
zeal of an affectionate people; but the emperor had foreseen,
that it was impossible, without a maritime power, to achieve the
conquest of Africa. In the first Punic war, the republic had
exerted such incredible diligence, that, within sixty days after
the first stroke of the axe had been given in the forest, a fleet
of one hundred and sixty galleys proudly rode at anchor in the
sea. Under circumstances much less favorable, Majorian equalled
the spirit and perseverance of the ancient Romans. The woods of
the Apennine were felled; the arsenals and manufactures of
Ravenna and Misenum were restored; Italy and Gaul vied with each
other in liberal contributions to the public service; and the
Imperial navy of three hundred large galleys, with an adequate
proportion of transports and smaller vessels, was collected in
the secure and capacious harbor of Carthagena in Spain. The
intrepid countenance of Majorian animated his troops with a
confidence of victory; and, if we might credit the historian
Procopius, his courage sometimes hurried him beyond the bounds of
prudence. Anxious to explore, with his own eyes, the state of the
Vandals, he ventured, after disguising the color of his hair, to
visit Carthage, in the character of his own ambassador: and
Genseric was afterwards mortified by the discovery, that he had
entertained and dismissed the emperor of the Romans. Such an
anecdote may be rejected as an improbable fiction; but it is a
fiction which would not have been imagined, unless in the life of
a hero.
Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The Western
Empire. -- Part III.
Without the help of a personal interview, Genseric was
sufficiently acquainted with the genius and designs of his
adversary. He practiced his customary arts of fraud and delay,
but he practiced them without success. His applications for peace
became each hour more submissive, and perhaps more sincere; but
the inflexible Majorian had adopted the ancient maxim, that Rome
could not be safe, as long as Carthage existed in a hostile
state. The king of the Vandals distrusted the valor of his native
subjects, who were enervated by the luxury of the South; he
suspected the fidelity of the vanquished people, who abhorred him
as an Arian tyrant; and the desperate measure, which he executed,
of reducing Mauritania into a desert, could not defeat the
operations of the Roman emperor, who was at liberty to land his
troops on any part of the African coast. But Genseric was saved
from impending and inevitable ruin by the treachery of some
powerful subjects, envious, or apprehensive, of their master's
success. Guided by their secret intelligence, he surprised the
unguarded fleet in the Bay of Carthagena: many of the ships were
sunk, or taken, or burnt; and the preparations of three years
were destroyed in a single day. After this event, the behavior of
the two antagonists showed them superior to their fortune. The
Vandal, instead of being elated by this accidental victory,
immediately renewed his solicitations for peace. The emperor of
the West, who was capable of forming great designs, and of
supporting heavy disappointments, consented to a treaty, or
rather to a suspension of arms; in the full assurance that,
before he could restore his navy, he should be supplied with
provocations to justify a second war. Majorian returned to Italy,
to prosecute his labors for the public happiness; and, as he was
conscious of his own integrity, he might long remain ignorant of
the dark conspiracy which threatened his throne and his life. The
recent misfortune of Carthagena sullied the glory which had
dazzled the eyes of the multitude; almost every description of
civil and military officers were exasperated against the
Reformer, since they all derived some advantage from the abuses
which he endeavored to suppress; and the patrician Ricimer
impelled the inconstant passions of the Barbarians against a
prince whom he esteemed and hated. The virtues of Majorian could
not protect him from the impetuous sedition, which broke out in
the camp near Tortona, at the foot of the Alps. He was compelled
to abdicate the Imperial purple: five days after his abdication,
it was reported that he died of a dysentery; and the humble tomb,
which covered his remains, was consecrated by the respect and
gratitude of succeeding generations. The private character of
Majorian inspired love and respect. Malicious calumny and satire
excited his indignation, or, if he himself were the object, his
contempt; but he protected the freedom of wit, and, in the hours
which the emperor gave to the familiar society of his friends, he
could indulge his taste for pleasantry, without degrading the
majesty of his rank.
It was not, perhaps, without some regret, that Ricimer
sacrificed his friend to the interest of his ambition: but he
resolved, in a second choice, to avoid the imprudent preference
of superior virtue and merit. At his command, the obsequious
senate of Rome bestowed the Imperial title on Libius Severus, who
ascended the throne of the West without emerging from the
obscurity of a private condition. History has scarcely deigned to
notice his birth, his elevation, his character, or his death.
Severus expired, as soon as his life became inconvenient to his
patron; and it would be useless to discriminate his nominal reign
in the vacant interval of six years, between the death of
Majorian and the elevation of Anthemius. During that period, the
government was in the hands of Ricimer alone; and, although the
modest Barbarian disclaimed the name of king, he accumulated
treasures, formed a separate army, negotiated private alliances,
and ruled Italy with the same independent and despotic authority,
which was afterwards exercised by Odoacer and Theodoric. But his
dominions were bounded by the Alps; and two Roman generals,
Marcellinus and Ægidius, maintained their allegiance to the
republic, by rejecting, with disdain, the phantom which he styled
an emperor. Marcellinus still adhered to the old religion; and
the devout Pagans, who secretly disobeyed the laws of the church
and state, applauded his profound skill in the science of
divination. But he possessed the more valuable qualifications of
learning, virtue, and courage; the study of the Latin literature
had improved his taste; and his military talents had recommended
him to the esteem and confidence of the great Ætius, in
whose ruin he was involved. By a timely flight, Marcellinus
escaped the rage of Valentinian, and boldly asserted his liberty
amidst the convulsions of the Western empire. His voluntary, or
reluctant, submission to the authority of Majorian, was rewarded
by the government of Sicily, and the command of an army,
stationed in that island to oppose, or to attack, the Vandals;
but his Barbarian mercenaries, after the emperor's death, were
tempted to revolt by the artful liberality of Ricimer. At the
head of a band of faithful followers, the intrepid Marcellinus
occupied the province of Dalmatia, assumed the title of patrician
of the West, secured the love of his subjects by a mild and
equitable reign, built a fleet which claimed the dominion of the
Adriatic, and alternately alarmed the coasts of Italy and of
Africa. Ægidius, the master-general of Gaul, who equalled,
or at least who imitated, the heroes of ancient Rome, proclaimed
his immortal resentment against the assassins of his beloved
master. A brave and numerous army was attached to his standard:
and, though he was prevented by the arts of Ricimer, and the arms
of the Visigoths, from marching to the gates of Rome, he
maintained his independent sovereignty beyond the Alps, and
rendered the name of Ægidius, respectable both in peace and
war. The Franks, who had punished with exile the youthful follies
of Childeric, elected the Roman general for their king: his
vanity, rather than his ambition, was gratified by that singular
honor; and when the nation, at the end of four years, repented of
the injury which they had offered to the Merovingian family, he
patiently acquiesced in the restoration of the lawful prince. The
authority of Ægidius ended only with his life, and the
suspicions of poison and secret violence, which derived some
countenance from the character of Ricimer, were eagerly
entertained by the passionate credulity of the Gauls.
The kingdom of Italy, a name to which the Western empire was
gradually reduced, was afflicted, under the reign of Ricimer, by
the incessant depredations of the Vandal pirates. In the spring
of each year, they equipped a formidable navy in the port of
Carthage; and Genseric himself, though in a very advanced age,
still commanded in person the most important expeditions. His
designs were concealed with impenetrable secrecy, till the moment
that he hoisted sail. When he was asked, by his pilot, what
course he should steer, "Leave the determination to the winds,
(replied the Barbarian, with pious arrogance;)
they will transport us to the guilty
coast, whose inhabitants have provoked the divine justice;" but
if Genseric himself deigned to issue more precise orders, he
judged the most wealthy to be the most criminal. The Vandals
repeatedly visited the coasts of Spain, Liguria, Tuscany,
Campania, Lucania, Bruttium, Apulia, Calabria, Venetia, Dalmatia,
Epirus, Greece, and Sicily: they were tempted to subdue the
Island of Sardinia, so advantageously placed in the centre of the
Mediterranean; and their arms spread desolation, or terror, from
the columns of Hercules to the mouth of the Nile. As they were
more ambitious of spoil than of glory, they seldom attacked any
fortified cities, or engaged any regular troops in the open
field. But the celerity of their motions enabled them, almost at
the same time, to threaten and to attack the most distant
objects, which attracted their desires; and as they always
embarked a sufficient number of horses, they had no sooner
landed, than they swept the dismayed country with a body of light
cavalry. Yet, notwithstanding the example of their king, the
native Vandals and Alani insensibly declined this toilsome and
perilous warfare; the hardy generation of the first conquerors
was almost extinguished, and their sons, who were born in Africa,
enjoyed the delicious baths and gardens which had been acquired
by the valor of their fathers. Their place was readily supplied
by a various multitude of Moors and Romans, of captives and
outlaws; and those desperate wretches, who had already violated
the laws of their country, were the most eager to promote the
atrocious acts which disgrace the victories of Genseric. In the
treatment of his unhappy prisoners, he sometimes consulted his
avarice, and sometimes indulged his cruelty; and the massacre of
five hundred noble citizens of Zant or Zacynthus, whose mangled
bodies he cast into the Ionian Sea, was imputed, by the public
indignation, to his latest posterity.
Such crimes could not be excused by any provocations; but the
war, which the king of the Vandals prosecuted against the Roman
empire was justified by a specious and reasonable motive. The
widow of Valentinian, Eudoxia, whom he had led captive from Rome
to Carthage, was the sole heiress of the Theodosian house; her
elder daughter, Eudocia, became the reluctant wife of Hunneric,
his eldest son; and the stern father, asserting a legal claim,
which could not easily be refuted or satisfied, demanded a just
proportion of the Imperial patrimony. An adequate, or at least a
valuable, compensation, was offered by the Eastern emperor, to
purchase a necessary peace. Eudoxia and her younger daughter,
Placidia, were honorably restored, and the fury of the Vandals
was confined to the limits of the Western empire. The Italians,
destitute of a naval force, which alone was capable of protecting
their coasts, implored the aid of the more fortunate nations of
the East; who had formerly acknowledged, in peace and war, the
supremacy of Rome. But the perpetual divisions of the two empires
had alienated their interest and their inclinations; the faith of
a recent treaty was alleged; and the Western Romans, instead of
arms and ships, could only obtain the assistance of a cold and
ineffectual mediation. The haughty Ricimer, who had long
struggled with the difficulties of his situation, was at length
reduced to address the throne of Constantinople, in the humble
language of a subject; and Italy submitted, as the price and
security to accept a master from the choice of the emperor of the
East. It is not the purpose of the present chapter, or even of
the present volume, to continue the distinct series of the
Byzantine history; but a concise view of the reign and character
of the emperor Leo, may explain the last efforts that were
attempted to save the falling empire of the West.
Since the death of the younger Theodosius, the domestic repose
of Constantinople had never been interrupted by war or faction.
Pulcheria had bestowed her hand, and the sceptre of the East, on
the modest virtue of Marcian: he gratefully reverenced her august
rank and virgin chastity; and, after her death, he gave his
people the example of the religious worship that was due to the
memory of the Imperial saint. Attentive to the prosperity of his
own dominions, Marcian seemed to behold, with indifference, the
misfortunes of Rome; and the obstinate refusal of a brave and
active prince, to draw his sword against the Vandals, was
ascribed to a secret promise, which had formerly been exacted
from him when he was a captive in the power of Genseric. The
death of Marcian, after a reign of seven years, would have
exposed the East to the danger of a popular election; if the
superior weight of a single family had not been able to incline
the balance in favor of the candidate whose interest they
supported. The patrician Aspar might have placed the diadem on
his own head, if he would have subscribed the Nicene creed.
During three generations, the armies of the East were
successively commanded by his father, by himself, and by his son
Ardaburius; his Barbarian guards formed a military force that
overawed the palace and the capital; and the liberal distribution
of his immense treasures rendered Aspar as popular as he was
powerful. He recommended the obscure name of Leo of Thrace, a
military tribune, and the principal steward of his household. His
nomination was unanimously ratified by the senate; and the
servant of Aspar received the Imperial crown from the hands of
the patriarch or bishop, who was permitted to express, by this
unusual ceremony, the suffrage of the Deity. This emperor, the
first of the name of Leo, has been distinguished by the title of
the Great; from a succession of
princes, who gradually fixed in the opinion of the Greeks a very
humble standard of heroic, or at least of royal, perfection. Yet
the temperate firmness with which Leo resisted the oppression of
his benefactor, showed that he was conscious of his duty and of
his prerogative. Aspar was astonished to find that his influence
could no longer appoint a præfect of Constantinople: he
presumed to reproach his sovereign with a breach of promise, and
insolently shaking his purple, "It is not proper, (said he,) that
the man who is invested with this garment, should be guilty of
lying." "Nor is it proper, (replied Leo,) that a prince should be
compelled to resign his own judgment, and the public interest, to
the will of a subject." After this extraordinary scene, it was
impossible that the reconciliation of the emperor and the
patrician could be sincere; or, at least, that it could be solid
and permanent. An army of Isaurians was secretly levied, and
introduced into Constantinople; and while Leo undermined the
authority, and prepared the disgrace, of the family of Aspar, his
mild and cautious behavior restrained them from any rash and
desperate attempts, which might have been fatal to themselves, or
their enemies. The measures of peace and war were affected by
this internal revolution. As long as Aspar degraded the majesty
of the throne, the secret correspondence of religion and interest
engaged him to favor the cause of Genseric. When Leo had
delivered himself from that ignominious servitude, he listened to
the complaints of the Italians; resolved to extirpate the tyranny
of the Vandals; and declared his alliance with his colleague,
Anthemius, whom he solemnly invested with the diadem and purple
of the West.
The virtues of Anthemius have perhaps been magnified, since
the Imperial descent, which he could only deduce from the usurper
Procopius, has been swelled into a line of emperors. But the
merit of his immediate parents, their honors, and their riches,
rendered Anthemius one of the most illustrious subjects of the
East. His father, Procopius, obtained, after his Persian embassy,
the rank of general and patrician; and the name of Anthemius was
derived from his maternal grandfather, the celebrated
præfect, who protected, with so much ability and success,
the infant reign of Theodosius. The grandson of the præfect
was raised above the condition of a private subject, by his
marriage with Euphemia, the daughter of the emperor Marcian. This
splendid alliance, which might supersede the necessity of merit,
hastened the promotion of Anthemius to the successive dignities
of count, of master-general, of consul, and of patrician; and his
merit or fortune claimed the honors of a victory, which was
obtained on the banks of the Danube, over the Huns. Without
indulging an extravagant ambition, the son-in-law of Marcian
might hope to be his successor; but Anthemius supported the
disappointment with courage and patience; and his subsequent
elevation was universally approved by the public, who esteemed
him worthy to reign, till he ascended the throne. The emperor of
the West marched from Constantinople, attended by several counts
of high distinction, and a body of guards almost equal to the
strength and numbers of a regular army: he entered Rome in
triumph, and the choice of Leo was confirmed by the senate, the
people, and the Barbarian confederates of Italy. The solemn
inauguration of Anthemius was followed by the nuptials of his
daughter and the patrician Ricimer; a fortunate event, which was
considered as the firmest security of the union and happiness of
the state. The wealth of two empires was ostentatiously
displayed; and many senators completed their ruin, by an
expensive effort to disguise their poverty. All serious business
was suspended during this festival; the courts of justice were
shut; the streets of Rome, the theatres, the places of public and
private resort, resounded with hymeneal songs and dances: and the
royal bride, clothed in silken robes, with a crown on her head,
was conducted to the palace of Ricimer, who had changed his
military dress for the habit of a consul and a senator. On this
memorable occasion, Sidonius, whose early ambition had been so
fatally blasted, appeared as the orator of Auvergne, among the
provincial deputies who addressed the throne with congratulations
or complaints. The calends of January were now approaching, and
the venal poet, who had loved Avitus, and esteemed Majorian, was
persuaded by his friends to celebrate, in heroic verse, the
merit, the felicity, the second consulship, and the future
triumphs, of the emperor Anthemius. Sidonius pronounced, with
assurance and success, a panegyric which is still extant; and
whatever might be the imperfections, either of the subject or of
the composition, the welcome flatterer was immediately rewarded
with the præfecture of Rome; a dignity which placed him
among the illustrious personages of the empire, till he wisely
preferred the more respectable character of a bishop and a
saint.
The Greeks ambitiously commend the piety and catholic faith of
the emperor whom they gave to the West; nor do they forget to
observe, that when he left Constantinople, he converted his
palace into the pious foundation of a public bath, a church, and
a hospital for old men. Yet some suspicious appearances are found
to sully the theological fame of Anthemius. From the conversation
of Philotheus, a Macedonian sectary, he had imbibed the spirit of
religious toleration; and the Heretics of Rome would have
assembled with impunity, if the bold and vehement censure which
Pope Hilary pronounced in the church of St. Peter, had not
obliged him to abjure the unpopular indulgence. Even the Pagans,
a feeble and obscure remnant, conceived some vain hopes, from the
indifference, or partiality, of Anthemius; and his singular
friendship for the philosopher Severus, whom he promoted to the
consulship, was ascribed to a secret project, of reviving the
ancient worship of the gods. These idols were crumbled into dust:
and the mythology which had once been the creed of nations, was
so universally disbelieved, that it might be employed without
scandal, or at least without suspicion, by Christian poets. Yet
the vestiges of superstition were not absolutely obliterated, and
the festival of the Lupercalia, whose origin had preceded the
foundation of Rome, was still celebrated under the reign of
Anthemius. The savage and simple rites were expressive of an
early state of society before the invention of arts and
agriculture. The rustic deities who presided over the toils and
pleasures of the pastoral life, Pan, Faunus, and their train of
satyrs, were such as the fancy of shepherds might create,
sportive, petulant, and lascivious; whose power was limited, and
whose malice was inoffensive. A goat was the offering the best
adapted to their character and attributes; the flesh of the
victim was roasted on willow spits; and the riotous youths, who
crowded to the feast, ran naked about the fields, with leather
thongs in their hands, communicating, as it was supposed, the
blessing of fecundity to the women whom they touched. The altar
of Pan was erected, perhaps by Evander the Arcadian, in a dark
recess in the side of the Palantine hill, watered by a perpetual
fountain, and shaded by a hanging grove. A tradition, that, in
the same place, Romulus and Remus were suckled by the wolf,
rendered it still more sacred and venerable in the eyes of the
Romans; and this sylvan spot was gradually surrounded by the
stately edifices of the Forum. After the conversion of the
Imperial city, the Christians still continued, in the month of
February, the annual celebration of the Lupercalia; to which they
ascribed a secret and mysterious influence on the genial powers
of the animal and vegetable world. The bishops of Rome were
solicitous to abolish a profane custom, so repugnant to the
spirit of Christianity; but their zeal was not supported by the
authority of the civil magistrate: the inveterate abuse subsisted
till the end of the fifth century, and Pope Gelasius, who
purified the capital from the last stain of idolatry, appeased by
a formal apology, the murmurs of the senate and people.
Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The Western
Empire. -- Part IV.
In all his public declarations, the emperor Leo assumes the
authority, and professes the affection, of a father, for his son
Anthemius, with whom he had divided the administration of the
universe. The situation, and perhaps the character, of Leo,
dissuaded him from exposing his person to the toils and dangers
of an African war. But the powers of the Eastern empire were
strenuously exerted to deliver Italy and the Mediterranean from
the Vandals; and Genseric, who had so long oppressed both the
land and sea, was threatened from every side with a formidable
invasion. The campaign was opened by a bold and successful
enterprise of the præfect Heraclius. The troops of Egypt,
Thebais, and Libya, were embarked, under his command; and the
Arabs, with a train of horses and camels, opened the roads of the
desert. Heraclius landed on the coast of Tripoli, surprised and
subdued the cities of that province, and prepared, by a laborious
march, which Cato had formerly executed, to join the Imperial
army under the walls of Carthage. The intelligence of this loss
extorted from Genseric some insidious and ineffectual
propositions of peace; but he was still more seriously alarmed by
the reconciliation of Marcellinus with the two empires. The
independent patrician had been persuaded to acknowledge the
legitimate title of Anthemius, whom he accompanied in his journey
to Rome; the Dalmatian fleet was received into the harbors of
Italy; the active valor of Marcellinus expelled the Vandals from
the Island of Sardinia; and the languid efforts of the West added
some weight to the immense preparations of the Eastern Romans.
The expense of the naval armament, which Leo sent against the
Vandals, has been distinctly ascertained; and the curious and
instructive account displays the wealth of the declining empire.
The Royal demesnes, or private patrimony of the prince, supplied
seventeen thousand pounds of gold; forty-seven thousand pounds of
gold, and seven hundred thousand of silver, were levied and paid
into the treasury by the Prætorian præfects. But the
cities were reduced to extreme poverty; and the diligent
calculation of fines and forfeitures, as a valuable object of the
revenue, does not suggest the idea of a just or merciful
administration. The whole expense, by whatsoever means it was
defrayed, of the African campaign, amounted to the sum of one
hundred and thirty thousand pounds of gold, about five millions
two hundred thousand pounds sterling, at a time when the value of
money appears, from the comparative price of corn, to have been
somewhat higher than in the present age. The fleet that sailed
from Constantinople to Carthage, consisted of eleven hundred and
thirteen ships, and the number of soldiers and mariners exceeded
one hundred thousand men. Basiliscus, the brother of the empress
Vorina, was intrusted with this important command. His sister,
the wife of Leo, had exaggerated the merit of his former exploits
against the Scythians. But the discovery of his guilt, or
incapacity, was reserved for the African war; and his friends
could only save his military reputation by asserting, that he had
conspired with Aspar to spare Genseric, and to betray the last
hope of the Western empire.
Experience has shown, that the success of an invader most
commonly depends on the vigor and celerity of his operations. The
strength and sharpness of the first impression are blunted by
delay; the health and spirit of the troops insensibly languish in
a distant climate; the naval and military force, a mighty effort
which perhaps can never be repeated, is silently consumed; and
every hour that is wasted in negotiation, accustoms the enemy to
contemplate and examine those hostile terrors, which, on their
first appearance, he deemed irresistible. The formidable navy of
Basiliscus pursued its prosperous navigation from the Thracian
Bosphorus to the coast of Africa. He landed his troops at Cape
Bona, or the promontory of Mercury, about forty miles from
Carthage. The army of Heraclius, and the fleet of Marcellinus,
either joined or seconded the Imperial lieutenant; and the
Vandals who opposed his progress by sea or land, were
successively vanquished. If Basiliscus had seized the moment of
consternation, and boldly advanced to the capital, Carthage must
have surrendered, and the kingdom of the Vandals was
extinguished. Genseric beheld the danger with firmness, and
eluded it with his veteran dexterity. He protested, in the most
respectful language, that he was ready to submit his person, and
his dominions, to the will of the emperor; but he requested a
truce of five days to regulate the terms of his submission; and
it was universally believed, that his secret liberality
contributed to the success of this public negotiation. Instead of
obstinately refusing whatever indulgence his enemy so earnestly
solicited, the guilty, or the credulous, Basiliscus consented to
the fatal truce; and his imprudent security seemed to proclaim,
that he already considered himself as the conqueror of Africa.
During this short interval, the wind became favorable to the
designs of Genseric. He manned his largest ships of war with the
bravest of the Moors and Vandals; and they towed after them many
large barks, filled with combustible materials. In the obscurity
of the night, these destructive vessels were impelled against the
unguarded and unsuspecting fleet of the Romans, who were awakened
by the sense of their instant danger. Their close and crowded
order assisted the progress of the fire, which was communicated
with rapid and irresistible violence; and the noise of the wind,
the crackling of the flames, the dissonant cries of the soldiers
and mariners, who could neither command nor obey, increased the
horror of the nocturnal tumult. Whilst they labored to extricate
themselves from the fire-ships, and to save at least a part of
the navy, the galleys of Genseric assaulted them with temperate
and disciplined valor; and many of the Romans, who escaped the
fury of the flames, were destroyed or taken by the victorious
Vandals. Among the events of that disastrous night, the heroic,
or rather desperate, courage of John, one of the principal
officers of Basiliscus, has rescued his name from oblivion. When
the ship, which he had bravely defended, was almost consumed, he
threw himself in his armor into the sea, disdainfully rejected
the esteem and pity of Genso, the son of Genseric, who pressed
him to accept honorable quarter, and sunk under the waves;
exclaiming, with his last breath, that he would never fall alive
into the hands of those impious dogs. Actuated by a far different
spirit, Basiliscus, whose station was the most remote from
danger, disgracefully fled in the beginning of the engagement,
returned to Constantinople with the loss of more than half of his
fleet and army, and sheltered his guilty head in the sanctuary of
St. Sophia, till his sister, by her tears and entreaties, could
obtain his pardon from the indignant emperor. Heraclius effected
his retreat through the desert; Marcellinus retired to Sicily,
where he was assassinated, perhaps at the instigation of Ricimer,
by one of his own captains; and the king of the Vandals expressed
his surprise and satisfaction, that the Romans themselves should
remove from the world his most formidable antagonists. After the
failure of this great expedition, * Genseric again became the
tyrant of the sea: the coasts of Italy, Greece, and Asia, were
again exposed to his revenge and avarice; Tripoli and Sardinia
returned to his obedience; he added Sicily to the number of his
provinces; and before he died, in the fulness of years and of
glory, he beheld the final extinction of the empire of the
West.
During his long and active reign, the African monarch had
studiously cultivated the friendship of the Barbarians of Europe,
whose arms he might employ in a seasonable and effectual
diversion against the two empires. After the death of Attila, he
renewed his alliance with the Visigoths of Gaul; and the sons of
the elder Theodoric, who successively reigned over that warlike
nation, were easily persuaded, by the sense of interest, to
forget the cruel affront which Genseric had inflicted on their
sister. The death of the emperor Majorian delivered Theodoric the
Second from the restraint of fear, and perhaps of honor; he
violated his recent treaty with the Romans; and the ample
territory of Narbonne, which he firmly united to his dominions,
became the immediate reward of his perfidy. The selfish policy of
Ricimer encouraged him to invade the provinces which were in the
possession of Ægidius, his rival; but the active count, by
the defence of Arles, and the victory of Orleans, saved Gaul, and
checked, during his lifetime, the progress of the Visigoths.
Their ambition was soon rekindled; and the design of
extinguishing the Roman empire in Spain and Gaul was conceived,
and almost completed, in the reign of Euric, who assassinated his
brother Theodoric, and displayed, with a more savage temper,
superior abilities, both in peace and war. He passed the Pyrenees
at the head of a numerous army, subdued the cities of Saragossa
and Pampeluna, vanquished in battle the martial nobles of the
Tarragonese province, carried his victorious arms into the heart
of Lusitania, and permitted the Suevi to hold the kingdom of
Gallicia under the Gothic monarchy of Spain. The efforts of Euric
were not less vigorous, or less successful, in Gaul; and
throughout the country that extends from the Pyrenees to the
Rhone and the Loire, Berry and Auvergne were the only cities, or
dioceses, which refused to acknowledge him as their master. In
the defence of Clermont, their principal town, the inhabitants of
Auvergne sustained, with inflexible resolution, the miseries of
war, pestilence, and famine; and the Visigoths, relinquishing the
fruitless siege, suspended the hopes of that important conquest.
The youth of the province were animated by the heroic, and almost
incredible, valor of Ecdicius, the son of the emperor Avitus, who
made a desperate sally with only eighteen horsemen, boldly
attacked the Gothic army, and, after maintaining a flying
skirmish, retired safe and victorious within the walls of
Clermont. His charity was equal to his courage: in a time of
extreme scarcity, four thousand poor were fed at his expense; and
his private influence levied an army of Burgundians for the
deliverance of Auvergne. From
hisvirtues alone the faithful citizens
of Gaul derived any hopes of safety or freedom; and even such
virtues were insufficient to avert the impending ruin of their
country, since they were anxious to learn, from his authority and
example, whether they should prefer the alternative of exile or
servitude. The public confidence was lost; the resources of the
state were exhausted; and the Gauls had too much reason to
believe, that Anthemius, who reigned in Italy, was incapable of
protecting his distressed subjects beyond the Alps. The feeble
emperor could only procure for their defence the service of
twelve thousand British auxiliaries. Riothamus, one of the
independent kings, or chieftains, of the island, was persuaded to
transport his troops to the continent of Gaul: he sailed up the
Loire, and established his quarters in Berry, where the people
complained of these oppressive allies, till they were destroyed
or dispersed by the arms of the Visigoths.
One of the last acts of jurisdiction, which the Roman senate
exercised over their subjects of Gaul, was the trial and
condemnation of Arvandus, the Prætorian præfect.
Sidonius, who rejoices that he lived under a reign in which he
might pity and assist a state criminal, has expressed, with
tenderness and freedom, the faults of his indiscreet and
unfortunate friend. From the perils which he had escaped,
Arvandus imbibed confidence rather than wisdom; and such was the
various, though uniform, imprudence of his behavior, that his
prosperity must appear much more surprising than his downfall.
The second præfecture, which he obtained within the term of
five years, abolished the merit and popularity of his preceding
administration. His easy temper was corrupted by flattery, and
exasperated by opposition; he was forced to satisfy his
importunate creditors with the spoils of the province; his
capricious insolence offended the nobles of Gaul, and he sunk
under the weight of the public hatred. The mandate of his
disgrace summoned him to justify his conduct before the senate;
and he passed the Sea of Tuscany with a favorable wind, the
presage, as he vainly imagined, of his future fortunes. A decent
respect was still observed for the
Prfectorian rank; and on his arrival at
Rome, Arvandus was committed to the hospitality, rather than to
the custody, of Flavius Asellus, the count of the sacred
largesses, who resided in the Capitol. He was eagerly pursued by
his accusers, the four deputies of Gaul, who were all
distinguished by their birth, their dignities, or their
eloquence. In the name of a great province, and according to the
forms of Roman jurisprudence, they instituted a civil and
criminal action, requiring such restitution as might compensate
the losses of individuals, and such punishment as might satisfy
the justice of the state. Their charges of corrupt oppression
were numerous and weighty; but they placed their secret
dependence on a letter which they had intercepted, and which they
could prove, by the evidence of his secretary, to have been
dictated by Arvandus himself. The author of this letter seemed to
dissuade the king of the Goths from a peace with the
Greek emperor: he suggested the attack
of the Britons on the Loire; and he recommended a division of
Gaul, according to the law of nations, between the Visigoths and
the Burgundians. These pernicious schemes, which a friend could
only palliate by the reproaches of vanity and indiscretion, were
susceptible of a treasonable interpretation; and the deputies had
artfully resolved not to produce their most formidable weapons
till the decisive moment of the contest. But their intentions
were discovered by the zeal of Sidonius. He immediately apprised
the unsuspecting criminal of his danger; and sincerely lamented,
without any mixture of anger, the haughty presumption of
Arvandus, who rejected, and even resented, the salutary advice of
his friends. Ignorant of his real situation, Arvandus showed
himself in the Capitol in the white robe of a candidate, accepted
indiscriminate salutations and offers of service, examined the
shops of the merchants, the silks and gems, sometimes with the
indifference of a spectator, and sometimes with the attention of
a purchaser; and complained of the times, of the senate, of the
prince, and of the delays of justice. His complaints were soon
removed. An early day was fixed for his trial; and Arvandus
appeared, with his accusers, before a numerous assembly of the
Roman senate. The mournful garb which they affected, excited the
compassion of the judges, who were scandalized by the gay and
splendid dress of their adversary: and when the præfect
Arvandus, with the first of the Gallic deputies, were directed to
take their places on the senatorial benches, the same contrast of
pride and modesty was observed in their behavior. In this
memorable judgment, which presented a lively image of the old
republic, the Gauls exposed, with force and freedom, the
grievances of the province; and as soon as the minds of the
audience were sufficiently inflamed, they recited the fatal
epistle. The obstinacy of Arvandus was founded on the strange
supposition, that a subject could not be convicted of treason,
unless he had actually conspired to assume the purple. As the
paper was read, he repeatedly, and with a loud voice,
acknowledged it for his genuine composition; and his astonishment
was equal to his dismay, when the unanimous voice of the senate
declared him guilty of a capital offence. By their decree, he was
degraded from the rank of a præfect to the obscure
condition of a plebeian, and ignominiously dragged by servile
hands to the public prison. After a fortnight's adjournment, the
senate was again convened to pronounce the sentence of his death;
but while he expected, in the Island of Æsculapius, the
expiration of the thirty days allowed by an ancient law to the
vilest malefactors, his friends interposed, the emperor Anthemius
relented, and the præfect of Gaul obtained the milder
punishment of exile and confiscation. The faults of Arvandus
might deserve compassion; but the impunity of Seronatus accused
the justice of the republic, till he was condemned and executed,
on the complaint of the people of Auvergne. That flagitious
minister, the Catiline of his age and country, held a secret
correspondence with the Visigoths, to betray the province which
he oppressed: his industry was continually exercised in the
discovery of new taxes and obsolete offences; and his extravagant
vices would have inspired contempt, if they had not excited fear
and abhorrence.
Such criminals were not beyond the reach of justice; but
whatever might be the guilt of Ricimer, that powerful Barbarian
was able to contend or to negotiate with the prince, whose
alliance he had condescended to accept. The peaceful and
prosperous reign which Anthemius had promised to the West, was
soon clouded by misfortune and discord. Ricimer, apprehensive, or
impatient, of a superior, retired from Rome, and fixed his
residence at Milan; an advantageous situation either to invite or
to repel the warlike tribes that were seated between the Alps and
the Danube. Italy was gradually divided into two independent and
hostile kingdoms; and the nobles of Liguria, who trembled at the
near approach of a civil war, fell prostrate at the feet of the
patrician, and conjured him to spare their unhappy country. "For
my own part," replied Ricimer, in a tone of insolent moderation,
"I am still inclined to embrace the friendship of the Galatian;
but who will undertake to appease his anger, or to mitigate the
pride, which always rises in proportion to our submission?" They
informed him, that Epiphanius, bishop of Pavia, united the wisdom
of the serpent with the innocence of the dove; and appeared
confident, that the eloquence of such an ambassador must prevail
against the strongest opposition, either of interest or passion.
Their recommendation was approved; and Epiphanius, assuming the
benevolent office of mediation, proceeded without delay to Rome,
where he was received with the honors due to his merit and
reputation. The oration of a bishop in favor of peace may be
easily supposed; he argued, that, in all possible circumstances,
the forgiveness of injuries must be an act of mercy, or
magnanimity, or prudence; and he seriously admonished the emperor
to avoid a contest with a fierce Barbarian, which might be fatal
to himself, and must be ruinous to his dominions. Anthemius
acknowledged the truth of his maxims; but he deeply felt, with
grief and indignation, the behavior of Ricimer, and his passion
gave eloquence and energy to his discourse. "What favors," he
warmly exclaimed, "have we refused to this ungrateful man? What
provocations have we not endured! Regardless of the majesty of
the purple, I gave my daughter to a Goth; I sacrificed my own
blood to the safety of the republic. The liberality which ought
to have secured the eternal attachment of Ricimer has exasperated
him against his benefactor. What wars has he not excited against
the empire! How often has he instigated and assisted the fury of
hostile nations! Shall I now accept his perfidious friendship?
Can I hope that he will respect the engagements of a treaty, who
has already violated the duties of a son?" But the anger of
Anthemius evaporated in these passionate exclamations: he
insensibly yielded to the proposals of Epiphanius; and the bishop
returned to his diocese with the satisfaction of restoring the
peace of Italy, by a reconciliation, of which the sincerity and
continuance might be reasonably suspected. The clemency of the
emperor was extorted from his weakness; and Ricimer suspended his
ambitious designs till he had secretly prepared the engines with
which he resolved to subvert the throne of Anthemius. The mask of
peace and moderation was then thrown aside. The army of Ricimer
was fortified by a numerous reenforcement of Burgundians and
Oriental Suevi: he disclaimed all allegiance to the Greek
emperor, marched from Milan to the Gates of Rome, and fixing his
camp on the banks of the Anio, impatiently expected the arrival
of Olybrius, his Imperial candidate.
The senator Olybrius, of the Anician family, might esteem
himself the lawful heir of the Western empire. He had married
Placidia, the younger daughter of Valentinian, after she was
restored by Genseric; who still detained her sister Eudoxia, as
the wife, or rather as the captive, of his son. The king of the
Vandals supported, by threats and solicitations, the fair
pretensions of his Roman ally; and assigned, as one of the
motives of the war, the refusal of the senate and people to
acknowledge their lawful prince, and the unworthy preference
which they had given to a stranger. The friendship of the public
enemy might render Olybrius still more unpopular to the Italians;
but when Ricimer meditated the ruin of the emperor Anthemius, he
tempted, with the offer of a diadem, the candidate who could
justify his rebellion by an illustrious name and a royal
alliance. The husband of Placidia, who, like most of his
ancestors, had been invested with the consular dignity, might
have continued to enjoy a secure and splendid fortune in the
peaceful residence of Constantinople; nor does he appear to have
been tormented by such a genius as cannot be amused or occupied,
unless by the administration of an empire. Yet Olybrius yielded
to the importunities of his friends, perhaps of his wife; rashly
plunged into the dangers and calamities of a civil war; and, with
the secret connivance of the emperor Leo, accepted the Italian
purple, which was bestowed, and resumed, at the capricious will
of a Barbarian. He landed without obstacle (for Genseric was
master of the sea) either at Ravenna, or the port of Ostia, and
immediately proceeded to the camp of Ricimer, where he was
received as the sovereign of the Western world.
The patrician, who had extended his posts from the Anio to the
Melvian bridge, already possessed two quarters of Rome, the
Vatican and the Janiculum, which are separated by the Tyber from
the rest of the city; and it may be conjectured, that an assembly
of seceding senators imitated, in the choice of Olybrius, the
forms of a legal election. But the body of the senate and people
firmly adhered to the cause of Anthemius; and the more effectual
support of a Gothic army enabled him to prolong his reign, and
the public distress, by a resistance of three months, which
produced the concomitant evils of famine and pestilence. At
length Ricimer made a furious assault on the bridge of Hadrian,
or St. Angelo; and the narrow pass was defended with equal valor
by the Goths, till the death of Gilimer, their leader. The
victorious troops, breaking down every barrier, rushed with
irresistible violence into the heart of the city, and Rome (if we
may use the language of a contemporary pope) was subverted by the
civil fury of Anthemius and Ricimer. The unfortunate Anthemius
was dragged from his concealment, and inhumanly massacred by the
command of his son-in-law; who thus added a third, or perhaps a
fourth, emperor to the number of his victims. The soldiers, who
united the rage of factious citizens with the savage manners of
Barbarians, were indulged, without control, in the license of
rapine and murder: the crowd of slaves and plebeians, who were
unconcerned in the event, could only gain by the indiscriminate
pillage; and the face of the city exhibited the strange contrast
of stern cruelty and dissolute intemperance. Forty days after
this calamitous event, the subject, not of glory, but of guilt,
Italy was delivered, by a painful disease, from the tyrant
Ricimer, who bequeathed the command of his army to his nephew
Gundobald, one of the princes of the Burgundians. In the same
year all the principal actors in this great revolution were
removed from the stage; and the whole reign of Olybrius, whose
death does not betray any symptoms of violence, is included
within the term of seven months. He left one daughter, the
offspring of his marriage with Placidia; and the family of the
great Theodosius, transplanted from Spain to Constantinople, was
propagated in the female line as far as the eighth
generation.
Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The Western
Empire. -- Part V.
Whilst the vacant throne of Italy was abandoned to lawless
Barbarians, the election of a new colleague was seriously
agitated in the council of Leo. The empress Verina, studious to
promote the greatness of her own family, had married one of her
nieces to Julius Nepos, who succeeded his uncle Marcellinus in
the sovereignty of Dalmatia, a more solid possession than the
title which he was persuaded to accept, of Emperor of the West.
But the measures of the Byzantine court were so languid and
irresolute, that many months elapsed after the death of
Anthemius, and even of Olybrius, before their destined successor
could show himself, with a respectable force, to his Italian
subjects. During that interval, Glycerius, an obscure soldier,
was invested with the purple by his patron Gundobald; but the
Burgundian prince was unable, or unwilling, to support his
nomination by a civil war: the pursuits of domestic ambition
recalled him beyond the Alps, and his client was permitted to
exchange the Roman sceptre for the bishopric of Salona. After
extinguishing such a competitor, the emperor Nepos was
acknowledged by the senate, by the Italians, and by the
provincials of Gaul; his moral virtues, and military talents,
were loudly celebrated; and those who derived any private benefit
from his government, announced, in prophetic strains, the
restoration of the public felicity. Their hopes (if such hopes
had been entertained) were confounded within the term of a single
year, and the treaty of peace, which ceded Auvergne to the
Visigoths, is the only event of his short and inglorious reign.
The most faithful subjects of Gaul were sacrificed, by the
Italian emperor, to the hope of domestic security; but his repose
was soon invaded by a furious sedition of the Barbarian
confederates, who, under the command of Orestes, their general,
were in full march from Rome to Ravenna. Nepos trembled at their
approach; and, instead of placing a just confidence in the
strength of Ravenna, he hastily escaped to his ships, and retired
to his Dalmatian principality, on the opposite coast of the
Adriatic. By this shameful abdication, he protracted his life
about five years, in a very ambiguous state, between an emperor
and an exile, till he was assassinated at Salona by the
ungrateful Glycerius, who was translated, perhaps as the reward
of his crime, to the archbishopric of Milan.
The nations who had asserted their independence after the
death of Attila, were established, by the right of possession or
conquest, in the boundless countries to the north of the Danube;
or in the Roman provinces between the river and the Alps. But the
bravest of their youth enlisted in the army of
confederates, who formed the defence
and the terror of Italy; and in this promiscuous multitude, the
names of the Heruli, the Scyrri, the Alani, the Turcilingi, and
the Rugians, appear to have predominated. The example of these
warriors was imitated by Orestes, the son of Tatullus, and the
father of the last Roman emperor of the West. Orestes, who has
been already mentioned in this History, had never deserted his
country. His birth and fortunes rendered him one of the most
illustrious subjects of Pannonia. When that province was ceded to
the Huns, he entered into the service of Attila, his lawful
sovereign, obtained the office of his secretary, and was
repeatedly sent ambassador to Constantinople, to represent the
person, and signify the commands, of the imperious monarch. The
death of that conqueror restored him to his freedom; and Orestes
might honorably refuse either to follow the sons of Attila into
the Scythian desert, or to obey the Ostrogoths, who had usurped
the dominion of Pannonia. He preferred the service of the Italian
princes, the successors of Valentinian; and as he possessed the
qualifications of courage, industry, and experience, he advanced
with rapid steps in the military profession, till he was
elevated, by the favor of Nepos himself, to the dignities of
patrician, and master-general of the troops. These troops had
been long accustomed to reverence the character and authority of
Orestes, who affected their manners, conversed with them in their
own language, and was intimately connected with their national
chieftains, by long habits of familiarity and friendship. At his
solicitation they rose in arms against the obscure Greek, who
presumed to claim their obedience; and when Orestes, from some
secret motive, declined the purple, they consented, with the same
facility, to acknowledge his son Augustulus as the emperor of the
West. By the abdication of Nepos, Orestes had now attained the
summit of his ambitious hopes; but he soon discovered, before the
end of the first year, that the lessons of perjury and
ingratitude, which a rebel must inculcate, will be resorted to
against himself; and that the precarious sovereign of Italy was
only permitted to choose, whether he would be the slave, or the
victim, of his Barbarian mercenaries. The dangerous alliance of
these strangers had oppressed and insulted the last remains of
Roman freedom and dignity. At each revolution, their pay and
privileges were augmented; but their insolence increased in a
still more extravagant degree; they envied the fortune of their
brethren in Gaul, Spain, and Africa, whose victorious arms had
acquired an independent and perpetual inheritance; and they
insisted on their peremptory demand, that a
third part of the lands of Italy should
be immediately divided among them. Orestes, with a spirit, which,
in another situation, might be entitled to our esteem, chose
rather to encounter the rage of an armed multitude, than to
subscribe the ruin of an innocent people. He rejected the
audacious demand; and his refusal was favorable to the ambition
of Odoacer; a bold Barbarian, who assured his fellow-soldiers,
that, if they dared to associate under his command, they might
soon extort the justice which had been denied to their dutiful
petitions. From all the camps and garrisons of Italy, the
confederates, actuated by the same resentment and the same hopes,
impatiently flocked to the standard of this popular leader; and
the unfortunate patrician, overwhelmed by the torrent, hastily
retreated to the strong city of Pavia, the episcopal seat of the
holy Epiphanites. Pavia was immediately besieged, the
fortifications were stormed, the town was pillaged; and although
the bishop might labor, with much zeal and some success, to save
the property of the church, and the chastity of female captives,
the tumult could only be appeased by the execution of Orestes.
His brother Paul was slain in an action near Ravenna; and the
helpless Augustulus, who could no longer command the respect, was
reduced to implore the clemency, of Odoacer.
That successful Barbarian was the son of Edecon; who, in some
remarkable transactions, particularly described in a preceding
chapter, had been the colleague of Orestes himself. * The honor
of an ambassador should be exempt from suspicion; and Edecon had
listened to a conspiracy against the life of his sovereign. But
this apparent guilt was expiated by his merit or repentance; his
rank was eminent and conspicuous; he enjoyed the favor of Attila;
and the troops under his command, who guarded, in their turn, the
royal village, consisted of a tribe of Scyrri, his immediate and
hereditary subjects. In the revolt of the nations, they still
adhered to the Huns; and more than twelve years afterwards, the
name of Edecon is honorably mentioned, in their unequal contests
with the Ostrogoths; which was terminated, after two bloody
battles, by the defeat and dispersion of the Scyrri. Their
gallant leader, who did not survive this national calamity, left
two sons, Onulf and Odoacer, to struggle with adversity, and to
maintain as they might, by rapine or service, the faithful
followers of their exile. Onulf directed his steps towards
Constantinople, where he sullied, by the assassination of a
generous benefactor, the fame which he had acquired in arms. His
brother Odoacer led a wandering life among the Barbarians of
Noricum, with a mind and a fortune suited to the most desperate
adventures; and when he had fixed his choice, he piously visited
the cell of Severinus, the popular saint of the country, to
solicit his approbation and blessing. The lowness of the door
would not admit the lofty stature of Odoacer: he was obliged to
stoop; but in that humble attitude the saint could discern the
symptoms of his future greatness; and addressing him in a
prophetic tone, "Pursue" (said he) "your design; proceed to
Italy; you will soon cast away this coarse garment of skins; and
your wealth will be adequate to the liberality of your mind." The
Barbarian, whose daring spirit accepted and ratified the
prediction, was admitted into the service of the Western empire,
and soon obtained an honorable rank in the guards. His manners
were gradually polished, his military skill was improved, and the
confederates of Italy would not have elected him for their
general, unless the exploits of Odoacer had established a high
opinion of his courage and capacity. Their military acclamations
saluted him with the title of king; but he abstained, during his
whole reign, from the use of the purple and diadem, lest he
should offend those princes, whose subjects, by their accidental
mixture, had formed the victorious army, which time and policy
might insensibly unite into a great nation.
Royalty was familiar to the Barbarians, and the submissive
people of Italy was prepared to obey, without a murmur, the
authority which he should condescend to exercise as the
vicegerent of the emperor of the West. But Odoacer had resolved
to abolish that useless and expensive office; and such is the
weight of antique prejudice, that it required some boldness and
penetration to discover the extreme facility of the enterprise.
The unfortunate Augustulus was made the instrument of his own
disgrace: he signified his resignation to the senate; and that
assembly, in their last act of obedience to a Roman prince, still
affected the spirit of freedom, and the forms of the
constitution. An epistle was addressed, by their unanimous
decree, to the emperor Zeno, the son-in-law and successor of Leo;
who had lately been restored, after a short rebellion, to the
Byzantine throne. They solemnly "disclaim the necessity, or even
the wish, of continuing any longer the Imperial succession in
Italy; since, in their opinion, the majesty of a sole monarch is
sufficient to pervade and protect, at the same time, both the
East and the West. In their own name, and in the name of the
people, they consent that the seat of universal empire shall be
transferred from Rome to Constantinople; and they basely renounce
the right of choosing their master, the only vestige that yet
remained of the authority which had given laws to the world. The
republic (they repeat that name without a blush) might safely
confide in the civil and military virtues of Odoacer; and they
humbly request, that the emperor would invest him with the title
of Patrician, and the administration of the
diocese of Italy." The deputies of the
senate were received at Constantinople with some marks of
displeasure and indignation: and when they were admitted to the
audience of Zeno, he sternly reproached them with their treatment
of the two emperors, Anthemius and Nepos, whom the East had
successively granted to the prayers of Italy. "The first"
(continued he) "you have murdered; the second you have expelled;
but the second is still alive, and whilst he lives he is your
lawful sovereign." But the prudent Zeno soon deserted the
hopeless cause of his abdicated colleague. His vanity was
gratified by the title of sole emperor, and by the statues
erected to his honor in the several quarters of Rome; he
entertained a friendly, though ambiguous, correspondence with the
patrician Odoacer; and he gratefully
accepted the Imperial ensigns, the sacred ornaments of the throne
and palace, which the Barbarian was not unwilling to remove from
the sight of the people.
In the space of twenty years since the death of Valentinian,
nine emperors had successively disappeared; and the son of
Orestes, a youth recommended only by his beauty, would be the
least entitled to the notice of posterity, if his reign, which
was marked by the extinction of the Roman empire in the West, did
not leave a memorable era in the history of mankind. The
patrician Orestes had married the daughter of Count
Romulus, of Petovio in Noricum: the
name of Augustus, notwithstanding the
jealousy of power, was known at Aquileia as a familiar surname;
and the appellations of the two great founders, of the city and
of the monarchy, were thus strangely united in the last of their
successors. The son of Orestes assumed and disgraced the names of
Romulus Augustus; but the first was corrupted into Momyllus, by
the Greeks, and the second has been changed by the Latins into
the contemptible diminutive Augustulus. The life of this
inoffensive youth was spared by the generous clemency of Odoacer;
who dismissed him, with his whole family, from the Imperial
palace, fixed his annual allowance at six thousand pieces of
gold, and assigned the castle of Lucullus, in Campania, for the
place of his exile or retirement. As soon as the Romans breathed
from the toils of the Punic war, they were attracted by the
beauties and the pleasures of Campania; and the country- house of
the elder Scipio at Liternum exhibited a lasting model of their
rustic simplicity. The delicious shores of the Bay of Naples were
crowded with villas; and Sylla applauded the masterly skill of
his rival, who had seated himself on the lofty promontory of
Misenum, that commands, on every side, the sea and land, as far
as the boundaries of the horizon. The villa of Marius was
purchased, within a few years, by Lucullus, and the price had
increased from two thousand five hundred, to more than fourscore
thousand, pounds sterling. It was adorned by the new proprietor
with Grecian arts and Asiatic treasures; and the houses and
gardens of Lucullus obtained a distinguished rank in the list of
Imperial palaces. When the Vandals became formidable to the
sea-coast, the Lucullan villa, on the promontory of Misenum,
gradually assumed the strength and appellation of a strong
castle, the obscure retreat of the last emperor of the West.
About twenty years after that great revolution, it was converted
into a church and monastery, to receive the bones of St.
Severinus. They securely reposed, amidst the broken trophies of
Cimbric and Armenian victories, till the beginning of the tenth
century; when the fortifications, which might afford a dangerous
shelter to the Saracens, were demolished by the people of
Naples.
Odoacer was the first Barbarian who reigned in Italy, over a
people who had once asserted their just superiority above the
rest of mankind. The disgrace of the Romans still excites our
respectful compassion, and we fondly sympathize with the
imaginary grief and indignation of their degenerate posterity.
But the calamities of Italy had gradually subdued the proud
consciousness of freedom and glory. In the age of Roman virtue
the provinces were subject to the arms, and the citizens to the
laws, of the republic; till those laws were subverted by civil
discord, and both the city and the province became the servile
property of a tyrant. The forms of the constitution, which
alleviated or disguised their abject slavery, were abolished by
time and violence; the Italians alternately lamented the presence
or the absence of the sovereign, whom they detested or despised;
and the succession of five centuries inflicted the various evils
of military license, capricious despotism, and elaborate
oppression. During the same period, the Barbarians had emerged
from obscurity and contempt, and the warriors of Germany and
Scythia were introduced into the provinces, as the servants, the
allies, and at length the masters, of the Romans, whom they
insulted or protected. The hatred of the people was suppressed by
fear; they respected the spirit and splendor of the martial
chiefs who were invested with the honors of the empire; and the
fate of Rome had long depended on the sword of those formidable
strangers. The stern Ricimer, who trampled on the ruins of Italy,
had exercised the power, without assuming the title, of a king;
and the patient Romans were insensibly prepared to acknowledge
the royalty of Odoacer and his Barbaric successors.
The king of Italy was not unworthy of the high station to
which his valor and fortune had exalted him: his savage manners
were polished by the habits of conversation; and he respected,
though a conqueror and a Barbarian, the institutions, and even
the prejudices, of his subjects. After an interval of seven
years, Odoacer restored the consulship of the West. For himself,
he modestly, or proudly, declined an honor which was still
accepted by the emperors of the East; but the curule chair was
successively filled by eleven of the most illustrious senators;
and the list is adorned by the respectable name of Basilius,
whose virtues claimed the friendship and grateful applause of
Sidonius, his client. The laws of the emperors were strictly
enforced, and the civil administration of Italy was still
exercised by the Prætorian præfect and his
subordinate officers. Odoacer devolved on the Roman magistrates
the odious and oppressive task of collecting the public revenue;
but he reserved for himself the merit of seasonable and popular
indulgence. Like the rest of the Barbarians, he had been
instructed in the Arian heresy; but he revered the monastic and
episcopal characters; and the silence of the Catholics attest the
toleration which they enjoyed. The peace of the city required the
interposition of his præfect Basilius in the choice of a
Roman pontiff: the decree which restrained the clergy from
alienating their lands was ultimately designed for the benefit of
the people, whose devotions would have been taxed to repair the
dilapidations of the church. Italy was protected by the arms of
its conqueror; and its frontiers were respected by the Barbarians
of Gaul and Germany, who had so long insulted the feeble race of
Theodosius. Odoacer passed the Adriatic, to chastise the
assassins of the emperor Nepos, and to acquire the maritime
province of Dalmatia. He passed the Alps, to rescue the remains
of Noricum from Fava, or Feletheus, king of the Rugians, who held
his residence beyond the Danube. The king was vanquished in
battle, and led away prisoner; a numerous colony of captives and
subjects was transplanted into Italy; and Rome, after a long
period of defeat and disgrace, might claim the triumph of her
Barbarian master.
Notwithstanding the prudence and success of Odoacer, his
kingdom exhibited the sad prospect of misery and desolation.
Since the age of Tiberius, the decay of agriculture had been felt
in Italy; and it was a just subject of complaint, that the life
of the Roman people depended on the accidents of the winds and
waves. In the division and the decline of the empire, the
tributary harvests of Egypt and Africa were withdrawn; the
numbers of the inhabitants continually diminished with the means
of subsistence; and the country was exhausted by the
irretrievable losses of war, famine, and pestilence. St. Ambrose
has deplored the ruin of a populous district, which had been once
adorned with the flourishing cities of Bologna, Modena, Regium,
and Placentia. Pope Gelasius was a subject of Odoacer; and he
affirms, with strong exaggeration, that in Æmilia, Tuscany,
and the adjacent provinces, the human species was almost
extirpated. The plebeians of Rome, who were fed by the hand of
their master, perished or disappeared, as soon as his liberality
was suppressed; the decline of the arts reduced the industrious
mechanic to idleness and want; and the senators, who might
support with patience the ruin of their country, bewailed their
private loss of wealth and luxury. * One third of those ample
estates, to which the ruin of Italy is originally imputed, was
extorted for the use of the conquerors. Injuries were aggravated
by insults; the sense of actual sufferings was imbittered by the
fear of more dreadful evils; and as new lands were allotted to
the new swarms of Barbarians, each senator was apprehensive lest
the arbitrary surveyors should approach his favorite villa, or
his most profitable farm. The least unfortunate were those who
submitted without a murmur to the power which it was impossible
to resist. Since they desired to live, they owed some gratitude
to the tyrant who had spared their lives; and since he was the
absolute master of their fortunes, the portion which he left must
be accepted as his pure and voluntary gift. The distress of Italy
was mitigated by the prudence and humanity of Odoacer, who had
bound himself, as the price of his elevation, to satisfy the
demands of a licentious and turbulent multitude. The kings of the
Barbarians were frequently resisted, deposed, or murdered, by
their native subjects, and the various
bands of Italian mercenaries, who associated under the standard
of an elective general, claimed a larger privilege of freedom and
rapine. A monarchy destitute of national union, and hereditary
right, hastened to its dissolution. After a reign of fourteen
years, Odoacer was oppressed by the superior genius of Theodoric,
king of the Ostrogoths; a hero alike excellent in the arts of war
and of government, who restored an age of peace and prosperity,
and whose name still excites and deserves the attention of
mankind.
Chapter XXXVII: Conversion Of The Barbarians To
Christianity.
Part I.
Origin Progress, And Effects Of The Monastic Life. --
Conversion Of The Barbarians To Christianity And Arianism. --
Persecution Of The Vandals In Africa. -- Extinction Of Arianism
Among The Barbarians.
The indissoluble connection of civil and ecclesiastical
affairs has compelled, and encouraged, me to relate the progress,
the persecutions, the establishment, the divisions, the final
triumph, and the gradual corruption, of Christianity. I have
purposely delayed the consideration of two religious events,
interesting in the study of human nature, and important in the
decline and fall of the Roman empire. I. The institution of the
monastic life; and, II. The conversion of the northern
Barbarians.
I. Prosperity and peace introduced the distinction of the
vulgar and the Ascetic
Christians. The loose and imperfect practice of
religion satisfied the conscience of the multitude. The prince or
magistrate, the soldier or merchant, reconciled their fervent
zeal, and implicit faith, with the exercise of their profession,
the pursuit of their interest, and the indulgence of their
passions: but the Ascetics, who obeyed and abused the rigid
precepts of the gospel, were inspired by the savage enthusiasm
which represents man as a criminal, and God as a tyrant. They
seriously renounced the business, and the pleasures, of the age;
abjured the use of wine, of flesh, and of marriage; chastised
their body, mortified their affections, and embraced a life of
misery, as the price of eternal happiness. In the reign of
Constantine, the Ascetics fled from a profane and degenerate
world, to perpetual solitude, or religious society. Like the
first Christians of Jerusalem, * they resigned the use, or the
property of their temporal possessions; established regular
communities of the same sex, and a similar disposition; and
assumed the names of Hermits,
Monks, and
Anachorets, expressive of their lonely
retreat in a natural or artificial desert. They soon acquired the
respect of the world, which they despised; and the loudest
applause was bestowed on this Divine Philosophy, which surpassed,
without the aid of science or reason, the laborious virtues of
the Grecian schools. The monks might indeed contend with the
Stoics, in the contempt of fortune, of pain, and of death: the
Pythagorean silence and submission were revived in their servile
discipline; and they disdained, as firmly as the Cynics
themselves, all the forms and decencies of civil society. But the
votaries of this Divine Philosophy aspired to imitate a purer and
more perfect model. They trod in the footsteps of the prophets,
who had retired to the desert; and they restored the devout and
contemplative life, which had been instituted by the Essenians,
in Palestine and Egypt. The philosophic eye of Pliny had surveyed
with astonishment a solitary people, who dwelt among the
palm-trees near the Dead Sea; who subsisted without money, who
were propagated without women; and who derived from the disgust
and repentance of mankind a perpetual supply of voluntary
associates.
Egypt, the fruitful parent of superstition, afforded the first
example of the monastic life. Antony, an illiterate youth of the
lower parts of Thebais, distributed his patrimony, deserted his
family and native home, and executed his
monastic penance with original and
intrepid fanaticism. After a long and painful novitiate, among
the tombs, and in a ruined tower, he boldly advanced into the
desert three days' journey to the eastward of the Nile;
discovered a lonely spot, which possessed the advantages of shade
and water, and fixed his last residence on Mount Colzim, near the
Red Sea; where an ancient monastery still preserves the name and
memory of the saint. The curious devotion of the Christians
pursued him to the desert; and when he was obliged to appear at
Alexandria, in the face of mankind, he supported his fame with
discretion and dignity. He enjoyed the friendship of Athanasius,
whose doctrine he approved; and the Egyptian peasant respectfully
declined a respectful invitation from the emperor Constantine.
The venerable patriarch (for Antony attained the age of one
hundred and five years) beheld the numerous progeny which had
been formed by his example and his lessons. The prolific colonies
of monks multiplied with rapid increase on the sands of Libya,
upon the rocks of Thebais, and in the cities of the Nile. To the
south of Alexandria, the mountain, and adjacent desert, of
Nitria, were peopled by five thousand anachorets; and the
traveller may still investigate the ruins of fifty monasteries,
which were planted in that barren soil by the disciples of
Antony. In the Upper Thebais, the vacant island of Tabenne, was
occupied by Pachomius and fourteen hundred of his brethren. That
holy abbot successively founded nine monasteries of men, and one
of women; and the festival of Easter sometimes collected fifty
thousand religious persons, who followed his
angelic rule of discipline. The stately
and populous city of Oxyrinchus, the seat of Christian orthodoxy,
had devoted the temples, the public edifices, and even the
ramparts, to pious and charitable uses; and the bishop, who might
preach in twelve churches, computed ten thousand females and
twenty thousand males, of the monastic profession. The Egyptians,
who gloried in this marvellous revolution, were disposed to hope,
and to believe, that the number of the monks was equal to the
remainder of the people; and posterity might repeat the saying,
which had formerly been applied to the sacred animals of the same
country, That in Egypt it was less difficult to find a god than a
man.
Athanasius introduced into Rome the knowledge and practice of
the monastic life; and a school of this new philosophy was opened
by the disciples of Antony, who accompanied their primate to the
holy threshold of the Vatican. The strange and savage appearance
of these Egyptians excited, at first, horror and contempt, and,
at length, applause and zealous imitation. The senators, and more
especially the matrons, transformed their palaces and villas into
religious houses; and the narrow institution of
six Vestals was eclipsed by the
frequent monasteries, which were seated on the ruins of ancient
temples, and in the midst of the Roman forum. Inflamed by the
example of Antony, a Syrian youth, whose name was Hilarion, fixed
his dreary abode on a sandy beach, between the sea and a morass,
about seven miles from Gaza. The austere penance, in which he
persisted forty-eight years, diffused a similar enthusiasm; and
the holy man was followed by a train of two or three thousand
anachorets, whenever he visited the innumerable monasteries of
Palestine. The fame of Basil is immortal in the monastic history
of the East. With a mind that had tasted the learning and
eloquence of Athens; with an ambition scarcely to be satisfied
with the archbishopric of Cæsarea, Basil retired to a
savage solitude in Pontus; and deigned, for a while, to give laws
to the spiritual colonies which he profusely scattered along the
coast of the Black Sea. In the West, Martin of Tours, a soldier,
a hermit, a bishop, and a saint, established the monasteries of
Gaul; two thousand of his disciples followed him to the grave;
and his eloquent historian challenges the deserts of Thebais to
produce, in a more favorable climate, a champion of equal virtue.
The progress of the monks was not less rapid, or universal, than
that of Christianity itself. Every province, and, at last, every
city, of the empire, was filled with their increasing multitudes;
and the bleak and barren isles, from Lerins to Lipari, that arose
out of the Tuscan Sea, were chosen by the anachorets for the
place of their voluntary exile. An easy and perpetual intercourse
by sea and land connected the provinces of the Roman world; and
the life of Hilarion displays the facility with which an indigent
hermit of Palestine might traverse Egypt, embark for Sicily,
escape to Epirus, and finally settle in the Island of Cyprus. The
Latin Christians embraced the religious institutions of Rome. The
pilgrims, who visited Jerusalem, eagerly copied, in the most
distant climates of the earth, the faithful model of the monastic
life. The disciples of Antony spread themselves beyond the
tropic, over the Christian empire of Æthiopia. The
monastery of Banchor, in Flintshire, which contained above two
thousand brethren, dispersed a numerous colony among the
Barbarians of Ireland; and Iona, one of the Hebrides, which was
planted by the Irish monks, diffused over the northern regions a
doubtful ray of science and superstition.
These unhappy exiles from social life were impelled by the
dark and implacable genius of superstition. Their mutual
resolution was supported by the example of millions, of either
sex, of every age, and of every rank; and each proselyte who
entered the gates of a monastery, was persuaded that he trod the
steep and thorny path of eternal happiness. But the operation of
these religious motives was variously determined by the temper
and situation of mankind. Reason might subdue, or passion might
suspend, their influence: but they acted most forcibly on the
infirm minds of children and females; they were strengthened by
secret remorse, or accidental misfortune; and they might derive
some aid from the temporal considerations of vanity or interest.
It was naturally supposed, that the pious and humble monks, who
had renounced the world to accomplish the work of their
salvation, were the best qualified for the spiritual government
of the Christians. The reluctant hermit was torn from his cell,
and seated, amidst the acclamations of the people, on the
episcopal throne: the monasteries of Egypt, of Gaul, and of the
East, supplied a regular succession of saints and bishops; and
ambition soon discovered the secret road which led to the
possession of wealth and honors. The popular monks, whose
reputation was connected with the fame and success of the order,
assiduously labored to multiply the number of their
fellow-captives. They insinuated themselves into noble and
opulent families; and the specious arts of flattery and seduction
were employed to secure those proselytes who might bestow wealth
or dignity on the monastic profession. The indignant father
bewailed the loss, perhaps, of an only son; the credulous maid
was betrayed by vanity to violate the laws of nature; and the
matron aspired to imaginary perfection, by renouncing the virtues
of domestic life. Paula yielded to the persuasive eloquence of
Jerom; and the profane title of mother-in-law of God tempted that
illustrious widow to consecrate the virginity of her daughter
Eustochium. By the advice, and in the company, of her spiritual
guide, Paula abandoned Rome and her infant son; retired to the
holy village of Bethlem; founded a hospital and four monasteries;
and acquired, by her alms and penance, an eminent and conspicuous
station in the Catholic church. Such rare and illustrious
penitents were celebrated as the glory and example of their age;
but the monasteries were filled by a crowd of obscure and abject
plebeians, who gained in the cloister much more than they had
sacrificed in the world. Peasants, slaves, and mechanics, might
escape from poverty and contempt to a safe and honorable
profession; whose apparent hardships are mitigated by custom, by
popular applause, and by the secret relaxation of discipline. The
subjects of Rome, whose persons and fortunes were made
responsible for unequal and exorbitant tributes, retired from the
oppression of the Imperial government; and the pusillanimous
youth preferred the penance of a monastic, to the dangers of a
military, life. The affrighted provincials of every rank, who
fled before the Barbarians, found shelter and subsistence: whole
legions were buried in these religious sanctuaries; and the same
cause, which relieved the distress of individuals, impaired the
strength and fortitude of the empire.
The monastic profession of the ancients was an act of
voluntary devotion. The inconstant fanatic was threatened with
the eternal vengeance of the God whom he deserted; but the doors
of the monastery were still open for repentance. Those monks,
whose conscience was fortified by reason or passion, were at
liberty to resume the character of men and citizens; and even the
spouses of Christ might accept the legal embraces of an earthly
lover. The examples of scandal, and the progress of superstition,
suggested the propriety of more forcible restraints. After a
sufficient trial, the fidelity of the novice was secured by a
solemn and perpetual vow; and his irrevocable engagement was
ratified by the laws of the church and state. A guilty fugitive
was pursued, arrested, and restored to his perpetual prison; and
the interposition of the magistrate oppressed the freedom and the
merit, which had alleviated, in some degree, the abject slavery
of the monastic discipline. The actions of a monk, his words, and
even his thoughts, were determined by an inflexible rule, or a
capricious superior: the slightest offences were corrected by
disgrace or confinement, extraordinary fasts, or bloody
flagellation; and disobedience, murmur, or delay, were ranked in
the catalogue of the most heinous sins. A blind submission to the
commands of the abbot, however absurd, or even criminal, they
might seem, was the ruling principle, the first virtue of the
Egyptian monks; and their patience was frequently exercised by
the most extravagant trials. They were directed to remove an
enormous rock; assiduously to water a barren staff, that was
planted in the ground, till, at the end of three years, it should
vegetate and blossom like a tree; to walk into a fiery furnace;
or to cast their infant into a deep pond: and several saints, or
madmen, have been immortalized in monastic story, by their
thoughtless and fearless obedience. The freedom of the mind, the
source of every generous and rational sentiment, was destroyed by
the habits of credulity and submission; and the monk, contracting
the vices of a slave, devoutly followed the faith and passions of
his ecclesiastical tyrant. The peace of the Eastern church was
invaded by a swarm of fanatics, incapable of fear, or reason, or
humanity; and the Imperial troops acknowledged, without shame,
that they were much less apprehensive of an encounter with the
fiercest Barbarians.
Superstition has often framed and consecrated the fantastic
garments of the monks: but their apparent singularity sometimes
proceeds from their uniform attachment to a simple and primitive
model, which the revolutions of fashion have made ridiculous in
the eyes of mankind. The father of the Benedictines expressly
disclaims all idea of choice of merit; and soberly exhorts his
disciples to adopt the coarse and convenient dress of the
countries which they may inhabit. The monastic habits of the
ancients varied with the climate, and their mode of life; and
they assumed, with the same indifference, the sheep-skin of the
Egyptian peasants, or the cloak of the Grecian philosophers. They
allowed themselves the use of linen in Egypt, where it was a
cheap and domestic manufacture; but in the West they rejected
such an expensive article of foreign luxury. It was the practice
of the monks either to cut or shave their hair; they wrapped
their heads in a cowl to escape the sight of profane objects;
their legs and feet were naked, except in the extreme cold of
winter; and their slow and feeble steps were supported by a long
staff. The aspect of a genuine anachoret was horrid and
disgusting: every sensation that is offensive to man was thought
acceptable to God; and the angelic rule of Tabenne condemned the
salutary custom of bathing the limbs in water, and of anointing
them with oil. * The austere monks slept on the ground, on a hard
mat, or a rough blanket; and the same bundle of palm-leaves
served them as a seat in the lay, and a pillow in the night.
Their original cells were low, narrow huts, built of the
slightest materials; which formed, by the regular distribution of
the streets, a large and populous village, enclosing, within the
common wall, a church, a hospital, perhaps a library, some
necessary offices, a garden, and a fountain or reservoir of fresh
water. Thirty or forty brethren composed a family of separate
discipline and diet; and the great monasteries of Egypt consisted
of thirty or forty families.
Chapter XXXVII: Conversion Of The Barbarians To
Christianity. -- Part II.
Pleasure and guilt are synonymous terms in the language of the
monks, and they discovered, by experience, that rigid fasts, and
abstemious diet, are the most effectual preservatives against the
impure desires of the flesh. The rules of abstinence which they
imposed, or practised, were not uniform or perpetual: the
cheerful festival of the Pentecost was balanced by the
extraordinary mortification of Lent; the fervor of new
monasteries was insensibly relaxed; and the voracious appetite of
the Gauls could not imitate the patient and temperate virtue of
the Egyptians. The disciples of Antony and Pachomius were
satisfied with their daily pittance, of twelve ounces of bread,
or rather biscuit, which they divided into two frugal repasts, of
the afternoon and of the evening. It was esteemed a merit, and
almost a duty, to abstain from the boiled vegetables which were
provided for the refectory; but the extraordinary bounty of the
abbot sometimes indulged them with the luxury of cheese, fruit,
salad, and the small dried fish of the Nile. A more ample
latitude of sea and river fish was gradually allowed or assumed;
but the use of flesh was long confined to the sick or travellers;
and when it gradually prevailed in the less rigid monasteries of
Europe, a singular distinction was introduced; as if birds,
whether wild or domestic, had been less profane than the grosser
animals of the field. Water was the pure and innocent beverage of
the primitive monks; and the founder of the Benedictines regrets
the daily portion of half a pint of wine, which had been extorted
from him by the intemperance of the age. Such an allowance might
be easily supplied by the vineyards of Italy; and his victorious
disciples, who passed the Alps, the Rhine, and the Baltic,
required, in the place of wine, an adequate compensation of
strong beer or cider.
The candidate who aspired to the virtue of evangelical
poverty, abjured, at his first entrance into a regular community,
the idea, and even the name, of all separate or exclusive
possessions. The brethren were supported by their manual labor;
and the duty of labor was strenuously recommended as a penance,
as an exercise, and as the most laudable means of securing their
daily subsistence. The garden and fields, which the industry of
the monks had often rescued from the forest or the morass, were
diligently cultivated by their hands. They performed, without
reluctance, the menial offices of slaves and domestics; and the
several trades that were necessary to provide their habits, their
utensils, and their lodging, were exercised within the precincts
of the great monasteries. The monastic studies have tended, for
the most part, to darken, rather than to dispel, the cloud of
superstition. Yet the curiosity or zeal of some learned
solitaries has cultivated the ecclesiastical, and even the
profane, sciences; and posterity must gratefully acknowledge,
that the monuments of Greek and Roman literature have been
preserved and multiplied by their indefatigable pens. But the
more humble industry of the monks, especially in Egypt, was
contented with the silent, sedentary occupation of making wooden
sandals, or of twisting the leaves of the palm-tree into mats and
baskets. The superfluous stock, which was not consumed in
domestic use, supplied, by trade, the wants of the community: the
boats of Tabenne, and the other monasteries of Thebais, descended
the Nile as far as Alexandria; and, in a Christian market, the
sanctity of the workmen might enhance the intrinsic value of the
work.
But the necessity of manual labor was insensibly superseded.
The novice was tempted to bestow his fortune on the saints, in
whose society he was resolved to spend the remainder of his life;
and the pernicious indulgence of the laws permitted him to
receive, for their use, any future accessions of legacy or
inheritance. Melania contributed her plate, three hundred pounds
weight of silver; and Paula contracted an immense debt, for the
relief of their favorite monks; who kindly imparted the merits of
their prayers and penance to a rich and liberal sinner. Time
continually increased, and accidents could seldom diminish, the
estates of the popular monasteries, which spread over the
adjacent country and cities: and, in the first century of their
institution, the infidel Zosimus has maliciously observed, that,
for the benefit of the poor, the Christian monks had reduced a
great part of mankind to a state of beggary. As long as they
maintained their original fervor, they approved themselves,
however, the faithful and benevolent stewards of the charity,
which was entrusted to their care. But their discipline was
corrupted by prosperity: they gradually assumed the pride of
wealth, and at last indulged the luxury of expense. Their public
luxury might be excused by the magnificence of religious worship,
and the decent motive of erecting durable habitations for an
immortal society. But every age of the church has accused the
licentiousness of the degenerate monks; who no longer remembered
the object of their institution, embraced the vain and sensual
pleasures of the world, which they had renounced, and
scandalously abused the riches which had been acquired by the
austere virtues of their founders. Their natural descent, from
such painful and dangerous virtue, to the common vices of
humanity, will not, perhaps, excite much grief or indignation in
the mind of a philosopher.
The lives of the primitive monks were consumed in penance and
solitude; undisturbed by the various occupations which fill the
time, and exercise the faculties, of reasonable, active, and
social beings. Whenever they were permitted to step beyond the
precincts of the monastery, two jealous companions were the
mutual guards and spies of each other's actions; and, after their
return, they were condemned to forget, or, at least, to suppress,
whatever they had seen or heard in the world. Strangers, who
professed the orthodox faith, were hospitably entertained in a
separate apartment; but their dangerous conversation was
restricted to some chosen elders of approved discretion and
fidelity. Except in their presence, the monastic slave might not
receive the visits of his friends or kindred; and it was deemed
highly meritorious, if he afflicted a tender sister, or an aged
parent, by the obstinate refusal of a word or look. The monks
themselves passed their lives, without personal attachments,
among a crowd which had been formed by accident, and was
detained, in the same prison, by force or prejudice. Recluse
fanatics have few ideas or sentiments to communicate: a special
license of the abbot regulated the time and duration of their
familiar visits; and, at their silent meals, they were enveloped
in their cowls, inaccessible, and almost invisible, to each
other. Study is the resource of solitude: but education had not
prepared and qualified for any liberal studies the mechanics and
peasants who filled the monastic communities. They might work:
but the vanity of spiritual perfection was tempted to disdain the
exercise of manual labor; and the industry must be faint and
languid, which is not excited by the sense of personal
interest.
According to their faith and zeal, they might employ the day,
which they passed in their cells, either in vocal or mental
prayer: they assembled in the evening, and they were awakened in
the night, for the public worship of the monastery. The precise
moment was determined by the stars, which are seldom clouded in
the serene sky of Egypt; and a rustic horn, or trumpet, the
signal of devotion, twice interrupted the vast silence of the
desert. Even sleep, the last refuge of the unhappy, was
rigorously measured: the vacant hours of the monk heavily rolled
along, without business or pleasure; and, before the close of
each day, he had repeatedly accused the tedious progress of the
sun. In this comfortless state, superstition still pursued and
tormented her wretched votaries. The repose which they had sought
in the cloister was disturbed by a tardy repentance, profane
doubts, and guilty desires; and, while they considered each
natural impulse as an unpardonable sin, they perpetually trembled
on the edge of a flaming and bottomless abyss. From the painful
struggles of disease and despair, these unhappy victims were
sometimes relieved by madness or death; and, in the sixth
century, a hospital was founded at Jerusalem for a small portion
of the austere penitents, who were deprived of their senses.
Their visions, before they attained this extreme and acknowledged
term of frenzy, have afforded ample materials of supernatural
history. It was their firm persuasion, that the air, which they
breathed, was peopled with invisible enemies; with innumerable
demons, who watched every occasion, and assumed every form, to
terrify, and above all to tempt, their unguarded virtue. The
imagination, and even the senses, were deceived by the illusions
of distempered fanaticism; and the hermit, whose midnight prayer
was oppressed by involuntary slumber, might easily confound the
phantoms of horror or delight, which had occupied his sleeping
and his waking dreams.
The monks were divided into two classes: the
Cnobites, who lived under a common and
regular discipline; and the Anachorets,
who indulged their unsocial, independent fanaticism. The most
devout, or the most ambitious, of the spiritual brethren,
renounced the convent, as they had renounced the world. The
fervent monasteries of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, were
surrounded by a Laura, a distant circle
of solitary cells; and the extravagant penance of Hermits was
stimulated by applause and emulation. They sunk under the painful
weight of crosses and chains; and their emaciated limbs were
confined by collars, bracelets, gauntlets, and greaves of massy
and rigid iron. All superfluous encumbrance of dress they
contemptuously cast away; and some savage saints of both sexes
have been admired, whose naked bodies were only covered by their
long hair. They aspired to reduce themselves to the rude and
miserable state in which the human brute is scarcely
distinguishable above his kindred animals; and the numerous sect
of Anachorets derived their name from their humble practice of
grazing in the fields of Mesopotamia with the common herd. They
often usurped the den of some wild beast whom they affected to
resemble; they buried themselves in some gloomy cavern, which art
or nature had scooped out of the rock; and the marble quarries of
Thebais are still inscribed with the monuments of their penance.
The most perfect Hermits are supposed to have passed many days
without food, many nights without sleep, and many years without
speaking; and glorious was the man ( I
abuse that name) who contrived any cell, or seat, of a peculiar
construction, which might expose him, in the most inconvenient
posture, to the inclemency of the seasons.
Among these heroes of the monastic life, the name and genius
of Simeon Stylites have been immortalized by the singular
invention of an aërial penance. At the age of thirteen, the
young Syrian deserted the profession of a shepherd, and threw
himself into an austere monastery. After a long and painful
novitiate, in which Simeon was repeatedly saved from pious
suicide, he established his residence on a mountain, about thirty
or forty miles to the east of Antioch. Within the space of a
mandra, or circle of stones, to which
he had attached himself by a ponderous chain, he ascended a
column, which was successively raised from the height of nine, to
that of sixty, feet from the ground. In this last and lofty
station, the Syrian Anachoret resisted the heat of thirty
summers, and the cold of as many winters. Habit and exercise
instructed him to maintain his dangerous situation without fear
or giddiness, and successively to assume the different postures
of devotion. He sometimes prayed in an erect attitude, with his
outstretched arms in the figure of a cross, but his most familiar
practice was that of bending his meagre skeleton from the
forehead to the feet; and a curious spectator, after numbering
twelve hundred and forty- four repetitions, at length desisted
from the endless account. The progress of an ulcer in his thigh
might shorten, but it could not disturb, this
celestial life; and the patient Hermit
expired, without descending from his column. A prince, who should
capriciously inflict such tortures, would be deemed a tyrant; but
it would surpass the power of a tyrant to impose a long and
miserable existence on the reluctant victims of his cruelty. This
voluntary martyrdom must have gradually destroyed the sensibility
both of the mind and body; nor can it be presumed that the
fanatics, who torment themselves, are susceptible of any lively
affection for the rest of mankind. A cruel, unfeeling temper has
distinguished the monks of every age and country: their stern
indifference, which is seldom mollified by personal friendship,
is inflamed by religious hatred; and their merciless zeal has
strenuously administered the holy office of the Inquisition.
The monastic saints, who excite only the contempt and pity of
a philosopher, were respected, and almost adored, by the prince
and people. Successive crowds of pilgrims from Gaul and India
saluted the divine pillar of Simeon: the tribes of Saracens
disputed in arms the honor of his benediction; the queens of
Arabia and Persia gratefully confessed his supernatural virtue;
and the angelic Hermit was consulted by the younger Theodosius,
in the most important concerns of the church and state. His
remains were transported from the mountain of Telenissa, by a
solemn procession of the patriarch, the master-general of the
East, six bishops, twenty-one counts or tribunes, and six
thousand soldiers; and Antioch revered his bones, as her glorious
ornament and impregnable defence. The fame of the apostles and
martyrs was gradually eclipsed by these recent and popular
Anachorets; the Christian world fell prostrate before their
shrines; and the miracles ascribed to their relics exceeded, at
least in number and duration, the spiritual exploits of their
lives. But the golden legend of their lives was embellished by
the artful credulity of their interested brethren; and a
believing age was easily persuaded, that the slightest caprice of
an Egyptian or a Syrian monk had been sufficient to interrupt the
eternal laws of the universe. The favorites of Heaven were
accustomed to cure inveterate diseases with a touch, a word, or a
distant message; and to expel the most obstinate demons from the
souls or bodies which they possessed. They familiarly accosted,
or imperiously commanded, the lions and serpents of the desert;
infused vegetation into a sapless trunk; suspended iron on the
surface of the water; passed the Nile on the back of a crocodile,
and refreshed themselves in a fiery furnace. These extravagant
tales, which display the fiction without the genius, of poetry,
have seriously affected the reason, the faith, and the morals, of
the Christians. Their credulity debased and vitiated the
faculties of the mind: they corrupted the evidence of history;
and superstition gradually extinguished the hostile light of
philosophy and science. Every mode of religious worship which had
been practised by the saints, every mysterious doctrine which
they believed, was fortified by the sanction of divine
revelation, and all the manly virtues were oppressed by the
servile and pusillanimous reign of the monks. If it be possible
to measure the interval between the philosophic writings of
Cicero and the sacred legend of Theodoret, between the character
of Cato and that of Simeon, we may appreciate the memorable
revolution which was accomplished in the Roman empire within a
period of five hundred years.
II. The progress of Christianity has been marked by two
glorious and decisive victories: over the learned and luxurious
citizens of the Roman empire; and over the warlike Barbarians of
Scythia and Germany, who subverted the empire, and embraced the
religion, of the Romans. The Goths were the foremost of these
savage proselytes; and the nation was indebted for its conversion
to a countryman, or, at least, to a subject, worthy to be ranked
among the inventors of useful arts, who have deserved the
remembrance and gratitude of posterity. A great number of Roman
provincials had been led away into captivity by the Gothic bands,
who ravaged Asia in the time of Gallienus; and of these captives,
many were Christians, and several belonged to the ecclesiastical
order. Those involuntary missionaries, dispersed as slaves in the
villages of Dacia, successively labored for the salvation of
their masters. The seeds which they planted, of the evangelic
doctrine, were gradually propagated; and before the end of a
century, the pious work was achieved by the labors of Ulphilas,
whose ancestors had been transported beyond the Danube from a
small town of Cappadocia.
Ulphilas, the bishop and apostle of the Goths, acquired their
love and reverence by his blameless life and indefatigable zeal;
and they received, with implicit confidence, the doctrines of
truth and virtue which he preached and practised. He executed the
arduous task of translating the Scriptures into their native
tongue, a dialect of the German or Teutonic language; but he
prudently suppressed the four books of Kings, as they might tend
to irritate the fierce and sanguinary spirit of the Barbarians.
The rude, imperfect idiom of soldiers and shepherds, so ill
qualified to communicate any spiritual ideas, was improved and
modulated by his genius: and Ulphilas, before he could frame his
version, was obliged to compose a new alphabet of twenty-four
letters; * four of which he invented, to express the peculiar
sounds that were unknown to the Greek and Latin pronunciation.
But the prosperous state of the Gothic church was soon afflicted
by war and intestine discord, and the chieftains were divided by
religion as well as by interest. Fritigern, the friend of the
Romans, became the proselyte of Ulphilas; while the haughty soul
of Athanaric disdained the yoke of the empire and of the gospel
The faith of the new converts was tried by the persecution which
he excited. A wagon, bearing aloft the shapeless image of Thor,
perhaps, or of Woden, was conducted in solemn procession through
the streets of the camp; and the rebels, who refused to worship
the god of their fathers, were immediately burnt, with their
tents and families. The character of Ulphilas recommended him to
the esteem of the Eastern court, where he twice appeared as the
minister of peace; he pleaded the cause of the distressed Goths,
who implored the protection of Valens; and the name of
Moses was applied to this spiritual
guide, who conducted his people through the deep waters of the
Danube to the Land of Promise. The devout shepherds, who were
attached to his person, and tractable to his voice, acquiesced in
their settlement, at the foot of the Mæsian mountains, in a
country of woodlands and pastures, which supported their flocks
and herds, and enabled them to purchase the corn and wine of the
more plentiful provinces. These harmless Barbarians multiplied in
obscure peace and the profession of Christianity.
Their fiercer brethren, the formidable Visigoths, universally
adopted the religion of the Romans, with whom they maintained a
perpetual intercourse, of war, of friendship, or of conquest. In
their long and victorious march from the Danube to the Atlantic
Ocean, they converted their allies; they educated the rising
generation; and the devotion which reigned in the camp of Alaric,
or the court of Thoulouse, might edify or disgrace the palaces of
Rome and Constantinople. During the same period, Christianity was
embraced by almost all the Barbarians, who established their
kingdoms on the ruins of the Western empire; the Burgundians in
Gaul, the Suevi in Spain, the Vandals in Africa, the Ostrogoths
in Pannonia, and the various bands of mercenaries, that raised
Odoacer to the throne of Italy. The Franks and the Saxons still
persevered in the errors of Paganism; but the Franks obtained the
monarchy of Gaul by their submission to the example of Clovis;
and the Saxon conquerors of Britain were reclaimed from their
savage superstition by the missionaries of Rome. These Barbarian
proselytes displayed an ardent and successful zeal in the
propagation of the faith. The Merovingian kings, and their
successors, Charlemagne and the Othos, extended, by their laws
and victories, the dominion of the cross. England produced the
apostle of Germany; and the evangelic light was gradually
diffused from the neighborhood of the Rhine, to the nations of
the Elbe, the Vistula, and the Baltic.
Chapter XXXVII: Conversion Of The Barbarians To
Christianity. -- Part III.
The different motives which influenced the reason, or the
passions, of the Barbarian converts, cannot easily be
ascertained. They were often capricious and accidental; a dream,
an omen, the report of a miracle, the example of some priest, or
hero, the charms of a believing wife, and, above all, the
fortunate event of a prayer, or vow, which, in a moment of
danger, they had addressed to the God of the Christians. The
early prejudices of education were insensibly erased by the
habits of frequent and familiar society, the moral precepts of
the gospel were protected by the extravagant virtues of the
monks; and a spiritual theology was supported by the visible
power of relics, and the pomp of religious worship. But the
rational and ingenious mode of persuasion, which a Saxon bishop
suggested to a popular saint, might sometimes be employed by the
missionaries, who labored for the conversion of infidels.
"Admit," says the sagacious disputant, "whatever they are pleased
to assert of the fabulous, and carnal, genealogy of their gods
and goddesses, who are propagated from each other. From this
principle deduce their imperfect nature, and human infirmities,
the assurance they were born, and the
probability that they will die. At what
time, by what means, from what cause, were the eldest of the gods
or goddesses produced? Do they still continue, or have they
ceased, to propagate? If they have ceased, summon your
antagonists to declare the reason of this strange alteration. If
they still continue, the number of the gods must become infinite;
and shall we not risk, by the indiscreet worship of some impotent
deity, to excite the resentment of his jealous superior? The
visible heavens and earth, the whole system of the universe,
which may be conceived by the mind, is it created or eternal? If
created, how, or where, could the gods themselves exist before
creation? If eternal, how could they assume the empire of an
independent and preexisting world? Urge these arguments with
temper and moderation; insinuate, at seasonable intervals, the
truth and beauty of the Christian revelation; and endeavor to
make the unbelievers ashamed, without making them angry." This
metaphysical reasoning, too refined, perhaps, for the Barbarians
of Germany, was fortified by the grosser weight of authority and
popular consent. The advantage of temporal prosperity had
deserted the Pagan cause, and passed over to the service of
Christianity. The Romans themselves, the most powerful and
enlightened nation of the globe, had renounced their ancient
superstition; and, if the ruin of their empire seemed to accuse
the efficacy of the new faith, the disgrace was already retrieved
by the conversion of the victorious Goths. The valiant and
fortunate Barbarians, who subdued the provinces of the West,
successively received, and reflected, the same edifying example.
Before the age of Charlemagne, the Christian nations of Europe
might exult in the exclusive possession of the temperate
climates, of the fertile lands, which produced corn, wine, and
oil; while the savage idolaters, and their helpless idols, were
confined to the extremities of the earth, the dark and frozen
regions of the North.
Christianity, which opened the gates of Heaven to the
Barbarians, introduced an important change in their moral and
political condition. They received, at the same time, the use of
letters, so essential to a religion whose doctrines are contained
in a sacred book; and while they studied the divine truth, their
minds were insensibly enlarged by the distant view of history, of
nature, of the arts, and of society. The version of the
Scriptures into their native tongue, which had facilitated their
conversion, must excite among their clergy some curiosity to read
the original text, to understand the sacred liturgy of the
church, and to examine, in the writings of the fathers, the chain
of ecclesiastical tradition. These spiritual gifts were preserved
in the Greek and Latin languages, which concealed the inestimable
monuments of ancient learning. The immortal productions of
Virgil, Cicero, and Livy, which were accessible to the Christian
Barbarians, maintained a silent intercourse between the reign of
Augustus and the times of Clovis and Charlemagne. The emulation
of mankind was encouraged by the remembrance of a more perfect
state; and the flame of science was secretly kept alive, to warm
and enlighten the mature age of the Western world. In the most
corrupt state of Christianity, the Barbarians might learn justice
from the law, and mercy from the
gospel; and if the knowledge of their
duty was insufficient to guide their actions, or to regulate
their passions, they were sometimes restrained by conscience, and
frequently punished by remorse. But the direct authority of
religion was less effectual than the holy communion, which united
them with their Christian brethren in spiritual friendship. The
influence of these sentiments contributed to secure their
fidelity in the service, or the alliance, of the Romans, to
alleviate the horrors of war, to moderate the insolence of
conquest, and to preserve, in the downfall of the empire, a
permanent respect for the name and institutions of Rome. In the
days of Paganism, the priests of Gaul and Germany reigned over
the people, and controlled the jurisdiction of the magistrates;
and the zealous proselytes transferred an equal, or more ample,
measure of devout obedience, to the pontiffs of the Christian
faith. The sacred character of the bishops was supported by their
temporal possessions; they obtained an honorable seat in the
legislative assemblies of soldiers and freemen; and it was their
interest, as well as their duty, to mollify, by peaceful
counsels, the fierce spirit of the Barbarians. The perpetual
correspondence of the Latin clergy, the frequent pilgrimages to
Rome and Jerusalem, and the growing authority of the popes,
cemented the union of the Christian republic, and gradually
produced the similar manners, and common jurisprudence, which
have distinguished, from the rest of mankind, the independent,
and even hostile, nations of modern Europe.
But the operation of these causes was checked and retarded by
the unfortunate accident, which infused a deadly poison into the
cup of Salvation. Whatever might be the early sentiments of
Ulphilas, his connections with the empire and the church were
formed during the reign of Arianism. The apostle of the Goths
subscribed the creed of Rimini; professed with freedom, and
perhaps with sincerity, that the Son was not
equal, or consubstantial to the Father;
communicated these errors to the clergy and people; and infected
the Barbaric world with a heresy, which the great Theodosius
proscribed and extinguished among the Romans. The temper and
understanding of the new proselytes were not adapted to
metaphysical subtilties; but they strenuously maintained, what
they had piously received, as the pure and genuine doctrines of
Christianity. The advantage of preaching and expounding the
Scriptures in the Teutonic language promoted the apostolic labors
of Ulphilas and his successors; and they ordained a competent
number of bishops and presbyters for the instruction of the
kindred tribes. The Ostrogoths, the Burgundians, the Suevi, and
the Vandals, who had listened to the eloquence of the Latin
clergy, preferred the more intelligible lessons of their domestic
teachers; and Arianism was adopted as the national faith of the
warlike converts, who were seated on the ruins of the Western
empire. This irreconcilable difference of religion was a
perpetual source of jealousy and hatred; and the reproach of
Barbarian was imbittered by the more
odious epithet of Heretic. The heroes
of the North, who had submitted, with some reluctance, to believe
that all their ancestors were in hell, were astonished and
exasperated to learn, that they themselves had only changed the
mode of their eternal condemnation. Instead of the smooth
applause, which Christian kings are accustomed to expect from
their royal prelates, the orthodox bishops and their clergy were
in a state of opposition to the Arian courts; and their
indiscreet opposition frequently became criminal, and might
sometimes be dangerous. The pulpit, that safe and sacred organ of
sedition, resounded with the names of Pharaoh and Holofernes; the
public discontent was inflamed by the hope or promise of a
glorious deliverance; and the seditious saints were tempted to
promote the accomplishment of their own predictions.
Notwithstanding these provocations, the Catholics of Gaul, Spain,
and Italy, enjoyed, under the reign of the Arians, the free and
peaceful exercise of their religion. Their haughty masters
respected the zeal of a numerous people, resolved to die at the
foot of their altars; and the example of their devout constancy
was admired and imitated by the Barbarians themselves. The
conquerors evaded, however, the disgraceful reproach, or
confession, of fear, by attributing their toleration to the
liberal motives of reason and humanity; and while they affected
the language, they imperceptiby imbibed the spirit, of genuine
Christianity.
The peace of the church was sometimes interrupted. The
Catholics were indiscreet, the Barbarians were impatient; and the
partial acts of severity or injustice, which had been recommended
by the Arian clergy, were exaggerated by the orthodox writers.
The guilt of persecution may be imputed to Euric, king of the
Visigoths; who suspended the exercise of ecclesiastical, or, at
least, of episcopal functions; and punished the popular bishops
of Aquitain with imprisonment, exile, and confiscation. But the
cruel and absurd enterprise of subduing the minds of a whole
people was undertaken by the Vandals alone. Genseric himself, in
his early youth, had renounced the orthodox communion; and the
apostate could neither grant, nor expect, a sincere forgiveness.
He was exasperated to find that the Africans, who had fled before
him in the field, still presumed to dispute his will in synods
and churches; and his ferocious mind was incapable of fear or of
compassion. His Catholic subjects were oppressed by intolerant
laws and arbitrary punishments. The language of Genseric was
furious and formidable; the knowledge of his intentions might
justify the most unfavorable interpretation of his actions; and
the Arians were reproached with the frequent executions which
stained the palace and the dominions of the tyrant. Arms and
ambition were, however, the ruling passions of the monarch of the
sea. But Hunneric, his inglorious son, who seemed to inherit only
his vices, tormented the Catholics with the same unrelenting fury
which had been fatal to his brother, his nephews, and the friends
and favorites of his father; and even to the Arian patriarch, who
was inhumanly burnt alive in the midst of Carthage. The religious
war was preceded and prepared by an insidious truce; persecution
was made the serious and important business of the Vandal court;
and the loathsome disease which hastened the death of Hunneric,
revenged the injuries, without contributing to the deliverance,
of the church. The throne of Africa was successively filled by
the two nephews of Hunneric; by Gundamund, who reigned about
twelve, and by Thrasimund, who governed the nation about
twenty-seven, years. Their administration was hostile and
oppressive to the orthodox party. Gundamund appeared to emulate,
or even to surpass, the cruelty of his uncle; and, if at length
he relented, if he recalled the bishops, and restored the freedom
of Athanasian worship, a premature death intercepted the benefits
of his tardy clemency. His brother, Thrasimund, was the greatest
and most accomplished of the Vandal kings, whom he excelled in
beauty, prudence, and magnanimity of soul. But this magnanimous
character was degraded by his intolerant zeal and deceitful
clemency. Instead of threats and tortures, he employed the
gentle, but efficacious, powers of seduction. Wealth, dignity,
and the royal favor, were the liberal rewards of apostasy; the
Catholics, who had violated the laws, might purchase their pardon
by the renunciation of their faith; and whenever Thrasimund
meditated any rigorous measure, he patiently waited till the
indiscretion of his adversaries furnished him with a specious
opportunity. Bigotry was his last sentiment in the hour of death;
and he exacted from his successor a solemn oath, that he would
never tolerate the sectaries of Athanasius. But his successor,
Hilderic, the gentle son of the savage Hunneric, preferred the
duties of humanity and justice to the vain obligation of an
impious oath; and his accession was gloriously marked by the
restoration of peace and universal freedom. The throne of that
virtuous, though feeble monarch, was usurped by his cousin
Gelimer, a zealous Arian: but the Vandal kingdom, before he could
enjoy or abuse his power, was subverted by the arms of
Belisarius; and the orthodox party retaliated the injuries which
they had endured.
The passionate declamations of the Catholics, the sole
historians of this persecution, cannot afford any distinct series
of causes and events; any impartial view of the characters, or
counsels; but the most remarkable circumstances that deserve
either credit or notice, may be referred to the following heads;
I. In the original law, which is still extant, Hunneric expressly
declares, (and the declaration appears to be correct,) that he
had faithfully transcribed the regulations and penalties of the
Imperial edicts, against the heretical congregations, the clergy,
and the people, who dissented from the established religion. If
the rights of conscience had been understood, the Catholics must
have condemned their past conduct or acquiesced in their actual
suffering. But they still persisted to refuse the indulgence
which they claimed. While they trembled under the lash of
persecution, they praised the laudable
severity of Hunneric himself, who burnt or banished great numbers
of Manichæans; and they rejected, with horror, the
ignominious compromise, that the disciples of Arius and of
Athanasius should enjoy a reciprocal and similar toleration in
the territories of the Romans, and in those of the Vandals. II.
The practice of a conference, which the Catholics had so
frequently used to insult and punish their obstinate antagonists,
was retorted against themselves. At the command of Hunneric, four
hundred and sixty-six orthodox bishops assembled at Carthage; but
when they were admitted into the hall of audience, they had the
mortification of beholding the Arian Cyrila exalted on the
patriarchal throne. The disputants were separated, after the
mutual and ordinary reproaches of noise and silence, of delay and
precipitation, of military force and of popular clamor. One
martyr and one confessor were selected among the Catholic
bishops; twenty- eight escaped by flight, and eighty-eight by
conformity; forty-six were sent into Corsica to cut timber for
the royal navy; and three hundred and two were banished to the
different parts of Africa, exposed to the insults of their
enemies, and carefully deprived of all the temporal and spiritual
comforts of life. The hardships of ten years' exile must have
reduced their numbers; and if they had complied with the law of
Thrasimund, which prohibited any episcopal consecrations, the
orthodox church of Africa must have expired with the lives of its
actual members. They disobeyed, and their disobedience was
punished by a second exile of two hundred and twenty bishops into
Sardinia; where they languished fifteen years, till the accession
of the gracious Hilderic. The two islands were judiciously chosen
by the malice of their Arian tyrants. Seneca, from his own
experience, has deplored and exaggerated the miserable state of
Corsica, and the plenty of Sardinia was overbalanced by the
unwholesome quality of the air. III. The zeal of Generic and his
successors, for the conversion of the Catholics, must have
rendered them still more jealous to guard the purity of the
Vandal faith. Before the churches were finally shut, it was a
crime to appear in a Barbarian dress; and those who presumed to
neglect the royal mandate were rudely dragged backwards by their
long hair. The palatine officers, who refused to profess the
religion of their prince, were ignominiously stripped of their
honors and employments; banished to Sardinia and Sicily; or
condemned to the servile labors of slaves and peasants in the
fields of Utica. In the districts which had been peculiarly
allotted to the Vandals, the exercise of the Catholic worship was
more strictly prohibited; and severe penalties were denounced
against the guilt both of the missionary and the proselyte. By
these arts, the faith of the Barbarians was preserved, and their
zeal was inflamed: they discharged, with devout fury, the office
of spies, informers, or executioners; and whenever their cavalry
took the field, it was the favorite amusement of the march to
defile the churches, and to insult the clergy of the adverse
faction. IV. The citizens who had been educated in the luxury of
the Roman province, were delivered, with exquisite cruelty, to
the Moors of the desert. A venerable train of bishops,
presbyters, and deacons, with a faithful crowd of four thousand
and ninety- six persons, whose guilt is not precisely
ascertained, were torn from their native homes, by the command of
Hunneric. During the night they were confined, like a herd of
cattle, amidst their own ordure: during the day they pursued
their march over the burning sands; and if they fainted under the
heat and fatigue, they were goaded, or dragged along, till they
expired in the hands of their tormentors. These unhappy exiles,
when they reached the Moorish huts, might excite the compassion
of a people, whose native humanity was neither improved by
reason, nor corrupted by fanaticism: but if they escaped the
dangers, they were condemned to share the distress of a savage
life. V. It is incumbent on the authors of persecution previously
to reflect, whether they are determined to support it in the last
extreme. They excite the flame which they strive to extinguish;
and it soon becomes necessary to chastise the contumacy, as well
as the crime, of the offender. The fine, which he is unable or
unwilling to discharge, exposes his person to the severity of the
law; and his contempt of lighter penalties suggests the use and
propriety of capital punishment. Through the veil of fiction and
declamation we may clearly perceive, that the Catholics more
especially under the reign of Hunneric, endured the most cruel
and ignominious treatment. Respectable citizens, noble matrons,
and consecrated virgins, were stripped naked, and raised in the
air by pulleys, with a weight suspended at their feet. In this
painful attitude their naked bodies were torn with scourges, or
burnt in the most tender parts with red-hot plates of iron. The
amputation of the ears the nose, the tongue, and the right hand,
was inflicted by the Arians; and although the precise number
cannot be defined, it is evident that many persons, among whom a
bishop and a proconsul may be named, were entitled to the crown
of martyrdom. The same honor has been ascribed to the memory of
Count Sebastian, who professed the Nicene creed with unshaken
constancy; and Genseric might detest, as a heretic, the brave and
ambitious fugitive whom he dreaded as a rival. VI. A new mode of
conversion, which might subdue the feeble, and alarm the
timorous, was employed by the Arian ministers. They imposed, by
fraud or violence, the rites of baptism; and punished the
apostasy of the Catholics, if they disclaimed this odious and
profane ceremony, which scandalously violated the freedom of the
will, and the unity of the sacrament. The hostile sects had
formerly allowed the validity of each other's baptism; and the
innovation, so fiercely maintained by the Vandals, can be imputed
only to the example and advice of the Donatists. VII. The Arian
clergy surpassed in religious cruelty the king and his Vandals;
but they were incapable of cultivating the spiritual vineyard,
which they were so desirous to possess. A patriarch might seat
himself on the throne of Carthage; some bishops, in the principal
cities, might usurp the place of their rivals; but the smallness
of their numbers, and their ignorance of the Latin language,
disqualified the Barbarians for the ecclesiastical ministry of a
great church; and the Africans, after the loss of their orthodox
pastors, were deprived of the public exercise of Christianity.
VIII. The emperors were the natural protectors of the Homoousian
doctrine; and the faithful people of Africa, both as Romans and
as Catholics, preferred their lawful sovereignty to the
usurpation of the Barbarous heretics. During an interval of peace
and friendship, Hunneric restored the cathedral of Carthage; at
the intercession of Zeno, who reigned in the East, and of
Placidia, the daughter and relict of emperors, and the sister of
the queen of the Vandals. But this decent regard was of short
duration; and the haughty tyrant displayed his contempt for the
religion of the empire, by studiously arranging the bloody images
of persecution, in all the principal streets through which the
Roman ambassador must pass in his way to the palace. An oath was
required from the bishops, who were assembled at Carthage, that
they would support the succession of his son Hilderic, and that
they would renounce all foreign or
transmarinecorrespondence. This
engagement, consistent, as it should seem, with their moral and
religious duties, was refused by the more sagacious members of
the assembly. Their refusal, faintly colored by the pretence that
it is unlawful for a Christian to swear, must provoke the
suspicions of a jealous tyrant.
Chapter XXXVII: Conversion Of The Barbarians To
Christianity. -- Part IV.
The Catholics, oppressed by royal and military force, were far
superior to their adversaries in numbers and learning. With the
same weapons which the Greek and Latin fathers had already
provided for the Arian controversy, they repeatedly silenced, or
vanquished, the fierce and illiterate successors of Ulphilas. The
consciousness of their own superiority might have raised them
above the arts and passions of religious warfare. Yet, instead of
assuming such honorable pride, the orthodox theologians were
tempted, by the assurance of impunity, to compose fictions, which
must be stigmatized with the epithets of fraud and forgery. They
ascribed their own polemical works to the most venerable names of
Christian antiquity; the characters of Athanasius and Augustin
were awkwardly personated by Vigilius and his disciples; and the
famous creed, which so clearly expounds the mysteries of the
Trinity and the Incarnation, is deduced, with strong probability,
from this African school. Even the Scriptures themselves were
profaned by their rash and sacrilegious hands. The memorable
text, which asserts the unity of the three who
bear witness in heaven, is condemned by the universal silence of
the orthodox fathers, ancient versions, and authentic
manuscripts. It was first alleged by the Catholic bishops whom
Hunneric summoned to the conference of Carthage. An allegorical
interpretation, in the form, perhaps, of a marginal note, invaded
the text of the Latin Bibles, which were renewed and corrected in
a dark period of ten centuries. After the invention of printing,
the editors of the Greek Testament yielded to their own
prejudices, or those of the times; and the pious fraud, which was
embraced with equal zeal at Rome and at Geneva, has been
infinitely multiplied in every country and every language of
modern Europe.
The example of fraud must excite suspicion: and the specious
miracles by which the African Catholics have defended the truth
and justice of their cause, may be ascribed, with more reason, to
their own industry, than to the visible protection of Heaven. Yet
the historian, who views this religious conflict with an
impartial eye, may condescend to mention
one preternatural event, which will
edify the devout, and surprise the incredulous. Tipasa, a
maritime colony of Mauritania, sixteen miles to the east of
Cæsarea, had been distinguished, in every age, by the
orthodox zeal of its inhabitants. They had braved the fury of the
Donatists; they resisted, or eluded, the tyranny of the Arians.
The town was deserted on the approach of an heretical bishop:
most of the inhabitants who could procure ships passed over to
the coast of Spain; and the unhappy remnant, refusing all
communion with the usurper, still presumed to hold their pious,
but illegal, assemblies. Their disobedience exasperated the
cruelty of Hunneric. A military count was despatched from
Carthage to Tipasa: he collected the Catholics in the Forum, and,
in the presence of the whole province, deprived the guilty of
their right hands and their tongues. But the holy confessors
continued to speak without tongues; and this miracle is attested
by Victor, an African bishop, who published a history of the
persecution within two years after the event. "If any one," says
Victor, "should doubt of the truth, let him repair to
Constantinople, and listen to the clear and perfect language of
Restitutus, the sub-deacon, one of these glorious sufferers, who
is now lodged in the palace of the emperor Zeno, and is respected
by the devout empress." At Constantinople we are astonished to
find a cool, a learned, and unexceptionable witness, without
interest, and without passion. Æneas of Gaza, a Platonic
philosopher, has accurately described his own observations on
these African sufferers. "I saw them myself: I heard them speak:
I diligently inquired by what means such an articulate voice
could be formed without any organ of speech: I used my eyes to
examine the report of my ears; I opened their mouth, and saw that
the whole tongue had been completely torn away by the roots; an
operation which the physicians generally suppose to be mortal."
The testimony of Æneas of Gaza might be confirmed by the
superfluous evidence of the emperor Justinian, in a perpetual
edict; of Count Marcellinus, in his Chronicle of the times; and
of Pope Gregory the First, who had resided at Constantinople, as
the minister of the Roman pontiff. They all lived within the
compass of a century; and they all appeal to their personal
knowledge, or the public notoriety, for the truth of a miracle,
which was repeated in several instances, displayed on the
greatest theatre of the world, and submitted, during a series of
years, to the calm examination of the senses. This supernatural
gift of the African confessors, who spoke without tongues, will
command the assent of those, and of those only, who already
believe, that their language was pure and orthodox. But the
stubborn mind of an infidel, is guarded by secret, incurable
suspicion; and the Arian, or Socinian, who has seriously rejected
the doctrine of a Trinity, will not be shaken by the most
plausible evidence of an Athanasian miracle.
The Vandals and the Ostrogoths persevered in the profession of
Arianism till the final ruin of the kingdoms which they had
founded in Africa and Italy. The Barbarians of Gaul submitted to
the orthodox dominion of the Franks; and Spain was restored to
the Catholic church by the voluntary conversion of the
Visigoths.
This salutary revolution was hastened by the example of a
royal martyr, whom our calmer reason may style an ungrateful
rebel. Leovigild, the Gothic monarch of Spain, deserved the
respect of his enemies, and the love of his subjects; the
Catholics enjoyed a free toleration, and his Arian synods
attempted, without much success, to reconcile their scruples by
abolishing the unpopular rite of a
second baptism. His eldest son
Hermenegild, who was invested by his father with the royal
diadem, and the fair principality of Btica, contracted an
honorable and orthodox alliance with a Merovingian princess, the
daughter of Sigebert, king of Austrasia, and of the famous
Brunechild. The beauteous Ingundis, who was no more than thirteen
years of age, was received, beloved, and persecuted, in the Arian
court of Toledo; and her religious constancy was alternately
assaulted with blandishments and violence by Goisvintha, the
Gothic queen, who abused the double claim of maternal authority.
Incensed by her resistance, Goisvintha seized the Catholic
princess by her long hair, inhumanly dashed her against the
ground, kicked her till she was covered with blood, and at last
gave orders that she should be stripped, and thrown into a basin,
or fish-pond. Love and honor might excite Hermenegild to resent
this injurious treatment of his bride; and he was gradually
persuaded that Ingundis suffered for the cause of divine truth.
Her tender complaints, and the weighty arguments of Leander,
archbishop of Seville, accomplished his conversion and the heir
of the Gothic monarchy was initiated in the Nicene faith by the
solemn rites of confirmation. The rash youth, inflamed by zeal,
and perhaps by ambition, was tempted to violate the duties of a
son and a subject; and the Catholics of Spain, although they
could not complain of persecution, applauded his pious rebellion
against an heretical father. The civil war was protracted by the
long and obstinate sieges of Merida, Cordova, and Seville, which
had strenuously espoused the party of Hermenegild He invited the
orthodox Barbarians, the Seuvi, and the Franks, to the
destruction of his native land; he solicited the dangerous aid of
the Romans, who possessed Africa, and a part of the Spanish
coast; and his holy ambassador, the archbishop Leander,
effectually negotiated in person with the Byzantine court. But
the hopes of the Catholics were crushed by the active diligence
of the monarch who commanded the troops and treasures of Spain;
and the guilty Hermenegild, after his vain attempts to resist or
to escape, was compelled to surrender himself into the hands of
an incensed father. Leovigild was still mindful of that sacred
character; and the rebel, despoiled of the regal ornaments, was
still permitted, in a decent exile, to profess the Catholic
religion. His repeated and unsuccessful treasons at length
provoked the indignation of the Gothic king; and the sentence of
death, which he pronounced with apparent reluctance, was
privately executed in the tower of Seville. The inflexible
constancy with which he refused to accept the Arian communion, as
the price of his safety, may excuse the honors that have been
paid to the memory of St. Hermenegild. His wife and infant son
were detained by the Romans in ignominious captivity; and this
domestic misfortune tarnished the glories of Leovigild, and
imbittered the last moments of his life.
His son and successor, Recared, the first Catholic king of
Spain, had imbibed the faith of his unfortunate brother, which he
supported with more prudence and success. Instead of revolting
against his father, Recared patiently expected the hour of his
death. Instead of condemning his memory, he piously supposed,
that the dying monarch had abjured the errors of Arianism, and
recommended to his son the conversion of the Gothic nation. To
accomplish that salutary end, Recared convened an assembly of the
Arian clergy and nobles, declared himself a Catholic, and
exhorted them to imitate the example of their prince. The
laborious interpretation of doubtful texts, or the curious
pursuit of metaphysical arguments, would have excited an endless
controversy; and the monarch discreetly proposed to his
illiterate audience two substantial and visible arguments, -- the
testimony of Earth, and of Heaven. The
Earth had submitted to the Nicene
synod: the Romans, the Barbarians, and the inhabitants of Spain,
unanimously professed the same orthodox creed; and the Visigoths
resisted, almost alone, the consent of the Christian world. A
superstitious age was prepared to reverence, as the testimony of
Heaven, the preternatural cures, which
were performed by the skill or virtue of the Catholic clergy; the
baptismal fonts of Osset in Btica, which were spontaneously
replenished every year, on the vigil of Easter; and the
miraculous shrine of St. Martin of Tours, which had already
converted the Suevic prince and people of Gallicia. The Catholic
king encountered some difficulties on this important change of
the national religion. A conspiracy, secretly fomented by the
queen-dowager, was formed against his life; and two counts
excited a dangerous revolt in the Narbonnese Gaul. But Recared
disarmed the conspirators, defeated the rebels, and executed
severe justice; which the Arians, in their turn, might brand with
the reproach of persecution. Eight bishops, whose names betray
their Barbaric origin, abjured their errors; and all the books of
Arian theology were reduced to ashes, with the house in which
they had been purposely collected. The whole body of the
Visigoths and Suevi were allured or driven into the pale of the
Catholic communion; the faith, at least of the rising generation,
was fervent and sincere: and the devout liberality of the
Barbarians enriched the churches and monasteries of Spain.
Seventy bishops, assembled in the council of Toledo, received the
submission of their conquerors; and the zeal of the Spaniards
improved the Nicene creed, by declaring the procession of the
Holy Ghost from the Son, as well as from the Father; a weighty
point of doctrine, which produced, long afterwards, the schism of
the Greek and Latin churches. The royal proselyte immediately
saluted and consulted Pope Gregory, surnamed the Great, a learned
and holy prelate, whose reign was distinguished by the conversion
of heretics and infidels. The ambassadors of Recared respectfully
offered on the threshold of the Vatican his rich presents of gold
and gems; they accepted, as a lucrative exchange, the hairs of
St. John the Baptist; a cross, which enclosed a small piece of
the true wood; and a key, that contained some particles of iron
which had been scraped from the chains of St. Peter.
The same Gregory, the spiritual conqueror of Britain,
encouraged the pious Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards, to
propagate the Nicene faith among the victorious savages, whose
recent Christianity was polluted by the Arian heresy. Her devout
labors still left room for the industry and success of future
missionaries; and many cities of Italy were still disputed by
hostile bishops. But the cause of Arianism was gradually
suppressed by the weight of truth, of interest, and of example;
and the controversy, which Egypt had derived from the Platonic
school, was terminated, after a war of three hundred years, by
the final conversion of the Lombards of Italy.
The first missionaries who preached the gospel to the
Barbarians, appealed to the evidence of reason, and claimed the
benefit of toleration. But no sooner had they established their
spiritual dominion, than they exhorted the Christian kings to
extirpate, without mercy, the remains of Roman or Barbaric
superstition. The successors of Clovis inflicted one hundred
lashes on the peasants who refused to destroy their idols; the
crime of sacrificing to the demons was punished by the
Anglo-Saxon laws with the heavier penalties of imprisonment and
confiscation; and even the wise Alfred adopted, as an
indispensable duty, the extreme rigor of the Mosaic institutions.
But the punishment and the crime were gradually abolished among a
Christian people; the theological disputes of the schools were
suspended by propitious ignorance; and the intolerant spirit
which could find neither idolaters nor heretics, was reduced to
the persecution of the Jews. That exiled nation had founded some
synagogues in the cities of Gaul; but Spain, since the time of
Hadrian, was filled with their numerous colonies. The wealth
which they accumulated by trade, and the management of the
finances, invited the pious avarice of their masters; and they
might be oppressed without danger, as they had lost the use, and
even the remembrance, of arms. Sisebut, a Gothic king, who
reigned in the beginning of the seventh century, proceeded at
once to the last extremes of persecution. Ninety thousand Jews
were compelled to receive the sacrament of baptism; the fortunes
of the obstinate infidels were confiscated, their bodies were
tortured; and it seems doubtful whether they were permitted to
abandon their native country. The excessive zeal of the Catholic
king was moderated, even by the clergy of Spain, who solemnly
pronounced an inconsistent sentence:
that the sacraments should not be
forcibly imposed; but that the Jews who
had been baptized should be constrained, for the honor of the
church, to persevere in the external practice of a religion which
they disbelieved and detested. Their frequent relapses provoked
one of the successors of Sisebut to banish the whole nation from
his dominions; and a council of Toledo published a decree, that
every Gothic king should swear to maintain this salutary edict.
But the tyrants were unwilling to dismiss the victims, whom they
delighted to torture, or to deprive themselves of the industrious
slaves, over whom they might exercise a lucrative oppression. The
Jews still continued in Spain, under the weight of the civil and
ecclesiastical laws, which in the same country have been
faithfully transcribed in the Code of the Inquisition. The Gothic
kings and bishops at length discovered, that injuries will
produce hatred, and that hatred will find the opportunity of
revenge. A nation, the secret or professed enemies of
Christianity, still multiplied in servitude and distress; and the
intrigues of the Jews promoted the rapid success of the Arabian
conquerors.
As soon as the Barbarians withdrew their powerful support, the
unpopular heresy of Arius sunk into contempt and oblivion. But
the Greeks still retained their subtle and loquacious
disposition: the establishment of an obscure doctrine suggested
new questions, and new disputes; and it was always in the power
of an ambitious prelate, or a fanatic monk, to violate the peace
of the church, and, perhaps, of the empire. The historian of the
empire may overlook those disputes which were confined to the
obscurity of schools and synods. The Manichæans, who
labored to reconcile the religions of Christ and of Zoroaster,
had secretly introduced themselves into the provinces: but these
foreign sectaries were involved in the common disgrace of the
Gnostics, and the Imperial laws were executed by the public
hatred. The rational opinions of the Pelagians were propagated
from Britain to Rome, Africa, and Palestine, and silently expired
in a superstitious age. But the East was distracted by the
Nestorian and Eutychian controversies; which attempted to explain
the mystery of the incarnation, and hastened the ruin of
Christianity in her native land. These controversies were first
agitated under the reign of the younger Theodosius: but their
important consequences extend far beyond the limits of the
present volume. The metaphysical chain of argument, the contests
of ecclesiastical ambition, and their political influence on the
decline of the Byzantine empire, may afford an interesting and
instructive series of history, from the general councils of
Ephesus and Chalcedon, to the conquest of the East by the
successors of Mahomet.
Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.
Part I.
Reign And Conversion Of Clovis. -- His Victories Over The
Alemanni, Burgundians, And Visigoths. -- Establishment Of The
French Monarchy In Gaul. -- Laws Of The Barbarians. -- State Of
The Romans. -- The Visigoths Of Spain. -- Conquest Of Britain By
The Saxons.
The Gauls, who impatiently supported the Roman yoke, received
a memorable lesson from one of the lieutenants of Vespasian,
whose weighty sense has been refined and expressed by the genius
of Tacitus. "The protection of the republic has delivered Gaul
from internal discord and foreign invasions. By the loss of
national independence, you have acquired the name and privileges
of Roman citizens. You enjoy, in common with yourselves, the
permanent benefits of civil government; and your remote situation
is less exposed to the accidental mischiefs of tyranny. Instead
of exercising the rights of conquest, we have been contented to
impose such tributes as are requisite for your own preservation.
Peace cannot be secured without armies; and armies must be
supported at the expense of the people. It is for your sake, not
for our own, that we guard the barrier of the Rhine against the
ferocious Germans, who have so often attempted, and who will
always desire, to exchange the solitude of their woods and
morasses for the wealth and fertility of Gaul. The fall of Rome
would be fatal to the provinces; and you would be buried in the
ruins of that mighty fabric, which has been raised by the valor
and wisdom of eight hundred years. Your imaginary freedom would
be insulted and oppressed by a savage master; and the expulsion
of the Romans would be succeeded by the eternal hostilities of
the Barbarian conquerors." This salutary advice was accepted, and
this strange prediction was accomplished. In the space of four
hundred years, the hardy Gauls, who had encountered the arms of
Cæsar, were imperceptibly melted into the general mass of
citizens and subjects: the Western empire was dissolved; and the
Germans, who had passed the Rhine, fiercely contended for the
possession of Gaul, and excited the contempt, or abhorrence, of
its peaceful and polished inhabitants. With that conscious pride
which the preeminence of knowledge and luxury seldom fails to
inspire, they derided the hairy and gigantic savages of the
North; their rustic manners, dissonant joy, voracious appetite,
and their horrid appearance, equally disgusting to the sight and
to the smell. The liberal studies were still cultivated in the
schools of Autun and Bordeaux; and the language of Cicero and
Virgil was familiar to the Gallic youth. Their ears were
astonished by the harsh and unknown sounds of the Germanic
dialect, and they ingeniously lamented that the trembling muses
fled from the harmony of a Burgundian lyre. The Gauls were
endowed with all the advantages of art and nature; but as they
wanted courage to defend them, they were justly condemned to
obey, and even to flatter, the victorious Barbarians, by whose
clemency they held their precarious fortunes and their lives.
As soon as Odoacer had extinguished the Western empire, he
sought the friendship of the most powerful of the Barbarians. The
new sovereign of Italy resigned to Euric, king of the Visigoths,
all the Roman conquests beyond the Alps, as far as the Rhine and
the Ocean: and the senate might confirm this liberal gift with
some ostentation of power, and without any real loss of revenue
and dominion. The lawful pretensions of Euric were justified by
ambition and success; and the Gothic nation might aspire, under
his command, to the monarchy of Spain and Gaul. Arles and
Marseilles surrendered to his arms: he oppressed the freedom of
Auvergne; and the bishop condescended to purchase his recall from
exile by a tribute of just, but reluctant praise. Sidonius waited
before the gates of the palace among a crowd of ambassadors and
suppliants; and their various business at the court of Bordeaux
attested the power, and the renown, of the king of the Visigoths.
The Heruli of the distant ocean, who painted their naked bodies
with its crulean color, implored his protection; and the Saxons
respected the maritime provinces of a prince, who was destitute
of any naval force. The tall Burgundians submitted to his
authority; nor did he restore the captive Franks, till he had
imposed on that fierce nation the terms of an unequal peace. The
Vandals of Africa cultivated his useful friendship; and the
Ostrogoths of Pannonia were supported by his powerful aid against
the oppression of the neighboring Huns. The North (such are the
lofty strains of the poet) was agitated or appeased by the nod of
Euric; the great king of Persia consulted the oracle of the West;
and the aged god of the Tyber was protected by the swelling
genius of the Garonne. The fortune of nations has often depended
on accidents; and France may ascribe her greatness to the
premature death of the Gothic king, at a time when his son Alaric
was a helpless infant, and his adversary Clovis an ambitious and
valiant youth.
While Childeric, the father of Clovis, lived an exile in
Germany, he was hospitably entertained by the queen, as well as
by the king, of the Thuringians. After his restoration, Basina
escaped from her husband's bed to the arms of her lover; freely
declaring, that if she had known a man wiser, stronger, or more
beautiful, than Childeric, that man should have been the object
of her preference. Clovis was the offspring of this voluntary
union; and, when he was no more than fifteen years of age, he
succeeded, by his father's death, to the command of the Salian
tribe. The narrow limits of his kingdom were confined to the
island of the Batavians, with the ancient dioceses of Tournay and
Arras; and at the baptism of Clovis the number of his warriors
could not exceed five thousand. The kindred tribes of the Franks,
who had seated themselves along the Belgic rivers, the Scheld,
the Meuse, the Moselle, and the Rhine, were governed by their
independent kings, of the Merovingian race; the equals, the
allies, and sometimes the enemies of the Salic prince. But the
Germans, who obeyed, in peace, the hereditary jurisdiction of
their chiefs, were free to follow the standard of a popular and
victorious general; and the superior merit of Clovis attracted
the respect and allegiance of the national confederacy. When he
first took the field, he had neither gold and silver in his
coffers, nor wine and corn in his magazine; but he imitated the
example of Cæsar, who, in the same country, had acquired
wealth by the sword, and purchased soldiers with the fruits of
conquest. After each successful battle or expedition, the spoils
were accumulated in one common mass; every warrior received his
proportionable share; and the royal prerogative submitted to the
equal regulations of military law. The untamed spirit of the
Barbarians was taught to acknowledge the advantages of regular
discipline. At the annual review of the month of March, their
arms were diligently inspected; and when they traversed a
peaceful territory, they were prohibited from touching a blade of
grass. The justice of Clovis was inexorable; and his careless or
disobedient soldiers were punished with instant death. It would
be superfluous to praise the valor of a Frank; but the valor of
Clovis was directed by cool and consummate prudence. In all his
transactions with mankind, he calculated the weight of interest,
of passion, and of opinion; and his measures were sometimes
adapted to the sanguinary manners of the Germans, and sometimes
moderated by the milder genius of Rome, and Christianity. He was
intercepted in the career of victory, since he died in the
forty-fifth year of his age: but he had already accomplished, in
a reign of thirty years, the establishment of the French monarchy
in Gaul.
The first exploit of Clovis was the defeat of Syagrius, the
son of Ægidius; and the public quarrel might, on this
occasion, be inflamed by private resentment. The glory of the
father still insulted the Merovingian race; the power of the son
might excite the jealous ambition of the king of the Franks.
Syagrius inherited, as a patrimonial estate, the city and diocese
of Soissons: the desolate remnant of the second Belgic, Rheims
and Troyes, Beauvais and Amiens, would naturally submit to the
count or patrician: and after the dissolution of the Western
empire, he might reign with the title, or at least with the
authority, of king of the Romans. As a Roman, he had been
educated in the liberal studies of rhetoric and jurisprudence;
but he was engaged by accident and policy in the familiar use of
the Germanic idiom. The independent Barbarians resorted to the
tribunal of a stranger, who possessed the singular talent of
explaining, in their native tongue, the dictates of reason and
equity. The diligence and affability of their judge rendered him
popular, the impartial wisdom of his decrees obtained their
voluntary obedience, and the reign of Syagrius over the Franks
and Burgundians seemed to revive the original institution of
civil society. In the midst of these peaceful occupations,
Syagrius received, and boldly accepted, the hostile defiance of
Clovis; who challenged his rival in the spirit, and almost in the
language, of chivalry, to appoint the day and the field of
battle. In the time of Cæsar Soissons would have poured
forth a body of fifty thousand horse and such an army might have
been plentifully supplied with shields, cuirasses, and military
engines, from the three arsenals or manufactures of the city. But
the courage and numbers of the Gallic youth were long since
exhausted; and the loose bands of volunteers, or mercenaries, who
marched under the standard of Syagrius, were incapable of
contending with the national valor of the Franks. It would be
ungenerous without some more accurate knowledge of his strength
and resources, to condemn the rapid flight of Syagrius, who
escaped, after the loss of a battle, to the distant court of
Thoulouse. The feeble minority of Alaric could not assist or
protect an unfortunate fugitive; the pusillanimous Goths were
intimidated by the menaces of Clovis; and the Roman king, after a
short confinement, was delivered into the hands of the
executioner. The Belgic cities surrendered to the king of the
Franks; and his dominions were enlarged towards the East by the
ample diocese of Tongres which Clovis subdued in the tenth year
of his reign.
The name of the Alemanni has been absurdly derived from their
imaginary settlement on the banks of the
Leman Lake. That fortunate district,
from the lake to the Avenche, and Mount Jura, was occupied by the
Burgundians. The northern parts of Helvetia had indeed been
subdued by the ferocious Alemanni, who destroyed with their own
hands the fruits of their conquest. A province, improved and
adorned by the arts of Rome, was again reduced to a savage
wilderness; and some vestige of the stately Vindonissa may still
be discovered in the fertile and populous valley of the Aar. From
the source of the Rhine to its conflux with the Mein and the
Moselle, the formidable swarms of the Alemanni commanded either
side of the river, by the right of ancient possession, or recent
victory. They had spread themselves into Gaul, over the modern
provinces of Alsace and Lorraine; and their bold invasion of the
kingdom of Cologne summoned the Salic prince to the defence of
his Ripuarian allies. Clovis encountered the invaders of Gaul in
the plain of Tolbiac, about twenty-four miles from Cologne; and
the two fiercest nations of Germany were mutually animated by the
memory of past exploits, and the prospect of future greatness.
The Franks, after an obstinate struggle, gave way; and the
Alemanni, raising a shout of victory, impetuously pressed their
retreat. But the battle was restored by the valor, and the
conduct, and perhaps by the piety, of Clovis; and the event of
the bloody day decided forever the alternative of empire or
servitude. The last king of the Alemanni was slain in the field,
and his people were slaughtered or pursued, till they threw down
their arms, and yielded to the mercy of the conqueror. Without
discipline it was impossible for them to rally: they had
contemptuously demolished the walls and fortifications which
might have protected their distress; and they were followed into
the heart of their forests by an enemy not less active, or
intrepid, than themselves. The great Theodoric congratulated the
victory of Clovis, whose sister Albofleda the king of Italy had
lately married; but he mildly interceded with his brother in
favor of the suppliants and fugitives, who had implored his
protection. The Gallic territories, which were possessed by the
Alemanni, became the prize of their conqueror; and the haughty
nation, invincible, or rebellious, to the arms of Rome,
acknowledged the sovereignty of the Merovingian kings, who
graciously permitted them to enjoy their peculiar manners and
institutions, under the government of official, and, at length,
of hereditary, dukes. After the conquest of the Western
provinces, the Franks alone maintained their ancient habitations
beyond the Rhine. They gradually subdued, and civilized, the
exhausted countries, as far as the Elbe, and the mountains of
Bohemia; and the peace of Europe was secured by the obedience of
Germany.
Till the thirtieth year of his age, Clovis continued to
worship the gods of his ancestors. His disbelief, or rather
disregard, of Christianity, might encourage him to pillage with
less remorse the churches of a hostile territory: but his
subjects of Gaul enjoyed the free exercise of religious worship;
and the bishops entertained a more favorable hope of the
idolater, than of the heretics. The Merovingian prince had
contracted a fortunate alliance with the fair Clotilda, the niece
of the king of Burgundy, who, in the midst of an Arian court, was
educated in the profession of the Catholic faith. It was her
interest, as well as her duty, to achieve the conversion of a
Pagan husband; and Clovis insensibly listened to the voice of
love and religion. He consented (perhaps such terms had been
previously stipulated) to the baptism of his eldest son; and
though the sudden death of the infant excited some superstitious
fears, he was persuaded, a second time, to repeat the dangerous
experiment. In the distress of the battle of Tolbiac, Clovis
loudly invoked the God of Clotilda and the Christians; and
victory disposed him to hear, with respectful gratitude, the
eloquent Remigius, bishop of Rheims, who forcibly displayed the
temporal and spiritual advantages of his conversion. The king
declared himself satisfied of the truth of the Catholic faith;
and the political reasons which might have suspended his public
profession, were removed by the devout or loyal acclamations of
the Franks, who showed themselves alike prepared to follow their
heroic leader to the field of battle, or to the baptismal font.
The important ceremony was performed in the cathedral of Rheims,
with every circumstance of magnificence and solemnity that could
impress an awful sense of religion on the minds of its rude
proselytes. The new Constantine was immediately baptized, with
three thousand of his warlike subjects; and their example was
imitated by the remainder of the gentle
Barbarians, who, in obedience to the victorious
prelate, adored the cross which they had burnt, and burnt the
idols which they had formerly adored. The mind of Clovis was
susceptible of transient fervor: he was exasperated by the
pathetic tale of the passion and death of Christ; and, instead of
weighing the salutary consequences of that mysterious sacrifice,
he exclaimed, with indiscreet fury, "Had I been present at the
head of my valiant Franks, I would have revenged his injuries."
But the savage conqueror of Gaul was incapable of examining the
proofs of a religion, which depends on the laborious
investigation of historic evidence and speculative theology. He
was still more incapable of feeling the mild influence of the
gospel, which persuades and purifies the heart of a genuine
convert. His ambitious reign was a perpetual violation of moral
and Christian duties: his hands were stained with blood in peace
as well as in war; and, as soon as Clovis had dismissed a synod
of the Gallican church, he calmly assassinated
all the princes of the Merovingian
race. Yet the king of the Franks might sincerely worship the
Christian God, as a Being more excellent and powerful than his
national deities; and the signal deliverance and victory of
Tolbiac encouraged Clovis to confide in the future protection of
the Lord of Hosts. Martin, the most popular of the saints, had
filled the Western world with the fame of those miracles which
were incessantly performed at his holy sepulchre of Tours. His
visible or invisible aid promoted the cause of a liberal and
orthodox prince; and the profane remark of Clovis himself, that
St. Martin was an expensive friend, need not be interpreted as
the symptom of any permanent or rational scepticism. But earth,
as well as heaven, rejoiced in the conversion of the Franks. On
the memorable day when Clovis ascended from the baptismal font,
he alone, in the Christian world, deserved the name and
prerogatives of a Catholic king. The emperor Anastasius
entertained some dangerous errors concerning the nature of the
divine incarnation; and the Barbarians of Italy, Africa, Spain,
and Gaul, were involved in the Arian heresy. The eldest, or
rather the only, son of the church, was acknowledged by the
clergy as their lawful sovereign, or glorious deliverer; and the
armies of Clovis were strenuously supported by the zeal and
fervor of the Catholic faction.
Under the Roman empire, the wealth and jurisdiction of the
bishops, their sacred character, and perpetual office, their
numerous dependants, popular eloquence, and provincial
assemblies, had rendered them always respectable, and sometimes
dangerous. Their influence was augmented with the progress of
superstition; and the establishment of the French monarchy may,
in some degree, be ascribed to the firm alliance of a hundred
prelates, who reigned in the discontented, or independent, cities
of Gaul. The slight foundations of the
Armorican republic had been repeatedly
shaken, or overthrown; but the same people still guarded their
domestic freedom; asserted the dignity of the Roman name; and
bravely resisted the predatory inroads, and regular attacks, of
Clovis, who labored to extend his conquests from the Seine to the
Loire. Their successful opposition introduced an equal and
honorable union. The Franks esteemed the valor of the Armoricans
and the Armoricans were reconciled by the religion of the Franks.
The military force which had been stationed for the defence of
Gaul, consisted of one hundred different bands of cavalry or
infantry; and these troops, while they assumed the title and
privileges of Roman soldiers, were renewed by an incessant supply
of the Barbarian youth. The extreme fortifications, and scattered
fragments of the empire, were still defended by their hopeless
courage. But their retreat was intercepted, and their
communication was impracticable: they were abandoned by the Greek
princes of Constantinople, and they piously disclaimed all
connection with the Arian usurpers of Gaul. They accepted,
without shame or reluctance, the generous capitulation, which was
proposed by a Catholic hero; and this spurious, or legitimate,
progeny of the Roman legions, was distinguished in the succeeding
age by their arms, their ensigns, and their peculiar dress and
institutions. But the national strength was increased by these
powerful and voluntary accessions; and the neighboring kingdoms
dreaded the numbers, as well as the spirit, of the Franks. The
reduction of the Northern provinces of Gaul, instead of being
decided by the chance of a single battle, appears to have been
slowly effected by the gradual operation of war and treaty and
Clovis acquired each object of his ambition, by such efforts, or
such concessions, as were adequate to its real value.
His savage character, and the virtues
of Henry IV., suggest the most opposite ideas of human nature;
yet some resemblance may be found in the situation of two
princes, who conquered France by their valor, their policy, and
the merits of a seasonable conversion.
The kingdom of the Burgundians, which was defined by the
course of two Gallic rivers, the Saone and the Rhône,
extended from the forest of Vosges to the Alps and the sea of
Marseilles. The sceptre was in the hands of Gundobald. That
valiant and ambitious prince had reduced the number of royal
candidates by the death of two brothers, one of whom was the
father of Clotilda; but his imperfect prudence still permitted
Godegesil, the youngest of his brothers, to possess the dependent
principality of Geneva. The Arian monarch was justly alarmed by
the satisfaction, and the hopes, which seemed to animate his
clergy and people after the conversion of Clovis; and Gundobald
convened at Lyons an assembly of his bishops, to reconcile, if it
were possible, their religious and political discontents. A vain
conference was agitated between the two factions. The Arians
upbraided the Catholics with the worship of three Gods: the
Catholics defended their cause by theological distinctions; and
the usual arguments, objections, and replies were reverberated
with obstinate clamor; till the king revealed his secret
apprehensions, by an abrupt but decisive question, which he
addressed to the orthodox bishops. "If you truly profess the
Christian religion, why do you not restrain the king of the
Franks? He has declared war against me, and forms alliances with
my enemies for my destruction. A sanguinary and covetous mind is
not the symptom of a sincere conversion: let him show his faith
by his works." The answer of Avitus, bishop of Vienna, who spoke
in the name of his brethren, was delivered with the voice and
countenance of an angel. "We are ignorant of the motives and
intentions of the king of the Franks: but we are taught by
Scripture, that the kingdoms which abandon the divine law are
frequently subverted; and that enemies will arise on every side
against those who have made God their enemy. Return, with thy
people, to the law of God, and he will give peace and security to
thy dominions." The king of Burgundy, who was not prepared to
accept the condition which the Catholics considered as essential
to the treaty, delayed and dismissed the ecclesiastical
conference; after reproaching his bishops, that Clovis, their
friend and proselyte, had privately tempted the allegiance of his
brother.
Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis. -- Part
II.
The allegiance of his brother was already seduced; and the
obedience of Godegesil, who joined the royal standard with the
troops of Geneva, more effectually promoted the success of the
conspiracy. While the Franks and Burgundians contended with equal
valor, his seasonable desertion decided the event of the battle;
and as Gundobald was faintly supported by the disaffected Gauls,
he yielded to the arms of Clovis, and hastily retreated from the
field, which appears to have been situate between Langres and
Dijon. He distrusted the strength of Dijon, a quadrangular
fortress, encompassed by two rivers, and by a wall thirty feet
high, and fifteen thick, with four gates, and thirty-three
towers: he abandoned to the pursuit of Clovis the important
cities of Lyons and Vienna; and Gundobald still fled with
precipitation, till he had reached Avignon, at the distance of
two hundred and fifty miles from the field of battle. A long
siege and an artful negotiation, admonished the king of the
Franks of the danger and difficulty of his enterprise. He imposed
a tribute on the Burgundian prince, compelled him to pardon and
reward his brother's treachery, and proudly returned to his own
dominions, with the spoils and captives of the southern
provinces. This splendid triumph was soon clouded by the
intelligence, that Gundobald had violated his recent obligations,
and that the unfortunate Godegesil, who was left at Vienna with a
garrison of five thousand Franks, had been besieged, surprised,
and massacred by his inhuman brother. Such an outrage might have
exasperated the patience of the most peaceful sovereign; yet the
conqueror of Gaul dissembled the injury, released the tribute,
and accepted the alliance, and military service, of the king of
Burgundy. Clovis no longer possessed those advantages which had
assured the success of the preceding war; and his rival,
instructed by adversity, had found new resources in the
affections of his people. The Gauls or Romans applauded the mild
and impartial laws of Gundobald, which almost raised them to the
same level with their conquerors. The bishops were reconciled,
and flattered, by the hopes, which he artfully suggested, of his
approaching conversion; and though he eluded their accomplishment
to the last moment of his life, his moderation secured the peace,
and suspended the ruin, of the kingdom of Burgundy.
I am impatient to pursue the final ruin of that kingdom, which
was accomplished under the reign of Sigismond, the son of
Gundobald. The Catholic Sigismond has acquired the honors of a
saint and martyr; but the hands of the royal saint were stained
with the blood of his innocent son, whom he inhumanly sacrificed
to the pride and resentment of a step- mother. He soon discovered
his error, and bewailed the irreparable loss. While Sigismond
embraced the corpse of the unfortunate youth, he received a
severe admonition from one of his attendants: "It is not his
situation, O king! it is thine which deserves pity and
lamentation." The reproaches of a guilty conscience were
alleviated, however, by his liberal donations to the monastery of
Agaunum, or St. Maurice, in Vallais; which he himself had founded
in honor of the imaginary martyrs of the Thebæan legion. A
full chorus of perpetual psalmody was instituted by the pious
king; he assiduously practised the austere devotion of the monks;
and it was his humble prayer, that Heaven would inflict in this
world the punishment of his sins. His prayer was heard: the
avengers were at hand: and the provinces of Burgundy were
overwhelmed by an army of victorious Franks. After the event of
an unsuccessful battle, Sigismond, who wished to protract his
life that he might prolong his penance, concealed himself in the
desert in a religious habit, till he was discovered and betrayed
by his subjects, who solicited the favor of their new masters.
The captive monarch, with his wife and two children, was
transported to Orleans, and buried alive in a deep well, by the
stern command of the sons of Clovis; whose cruelty might derive
some excuse from the maxims and examples of their barbarous age.
Their ambition, which urged them to achieve the conquest of
Burgundy, was inflamed, or disguised, by filial piety: and
Clotilda, whose sanctity did not consist in the forgiveness of
injuries, pressed them to revenge her father's death on the
family of his assassin. The rebellious Burgundians (for they
attempted to break their chains) were still permitted to enjoy
their national laws under the obligation of tribute and military
service; and the Merovingian princes peaceably reigned over a
kingdom, whose glory and greatness had been first overthrown by
the arms of Clovis.
The first victory of Clovis had insulted the honor of the
Goths. They viewed his rapid progress with jealousy and terror;
and the youthful fame of Alaric was oppressed by the more potent
genius of his rival. Some disputes inevitably arose on the edge
of their contiguous dominions; and after the delays of fruitless
negotiation, a personal interview of the two kings was proposed
and accepted. The conference of Clovis and Alaric was held in a
small island of the Loire, near Amboise. They embraced,
familiarly conversed, and feasted together; and separated with
the warmest professions of peace and brotherly love. But their
apparent confidence concealed a dark suspicion of hostile and
treacherous designs; and their mutual complaints solicited,
eluded, and disclaimed, a final arbitration. At Paris, which he
already considered as his royal seat, Clovis declared to an
assembly of the princes and warriors, the pretence, and the
motive, of a Gothic war. "It grieves me to see that the Arians
still possess the fairest portion of Gaul. Let us march against
them with the aid of God; and, having vanquished the heretics, we
will possess and divide their fertile provinces." The Franks, who
were inspired by hereditary valor and recent zeal, applauded the
generous design of their monarch; expressed their resolution to
conquer or die, since death and conquest would be equally
profitable; and solemnly protested that they would never shave
their beards till victory should absolve them from that
inconvenient vow. The enterprise was promoted by the public or
private exhortations of Clotilda. She reminded her husband how
effectually some pious foundation would propitiate the Deity, and
his servants: and the Christian hero, darting his battle-axe with
a skilful and nervous band, "There, (said he,) on that spot where
my Francisca, shall fall, will I erect
a church in honor of the holy apostles." This ostentatious piety
confirmed and justified the attachment of the Catholics, with
whom he secretly corresponded; and their devout wishes were
gradually ripened into a formidable conspiracy. The people of
Aquitain were alarmed by the indiscreet reproaches of their
Gothic tyrants, who justly accused them of preferring the
dominion of the Franks: and their zealous adherent Quintianus,
bishop of Rodez, preached more forcibly in his exile than in his
diocese. To resist these foreign and domestic enemies, who were
fortified by the alliance of the Burgundians, Alaric collected
his troops, far more numerous than the military powers of Clovis.
The Visigoths resumed the exercise of arms, which they had
neglected in a long and luxurious peace; a select band of valiant
and robust slaves attended their masters to the field; and the
cities of Gaul were compelled to furnish their doubtful and
reluctant aid. Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, who reigned in
Italy, had labored to maintain the tranquillity of Gaul; and he
assumed, or affected, for that purpose, the impartial character
of a mediator. But the sagacious monarch dreaded the rising
empire of Clovis, and he was firmly engaged to support the
national and religious cause of the Goths.
The accidental, or artificial, prodigies which adorned the
expedition of Clovis, were accepted by a superstitious age, as
the manifest declaration of the divine favor. He marched from
Paris; and as he proceeded with decent reverence through the holy
diocese of Tours, his anxiety tempted him to consult the shrine
of St. Martin, the sanctuary and the oracle of Gaul. His
messengers were instructed to remark the words of the Psalm which
should happen to be chanted at the precise moment when they
entered the church. Those words most fortunately expressed the
valor and victory of the champions of Heaven, and the application
was easily transferred to the new Joshua, the new Gideon, who
went forth to battle against the enemies of the Lord. Orleans
secured to the Franks a bridge on the Loire; but, at the distance
of forty miles from Poitiers, their progress was intercepted by
an extraordinary swell of the River Vigenna or Vienne; and the
opposite banks were covered by the encampment of the Visigoths.
Delay must be always dangerous to Barbarians, who consume the
country through which they march; and had Clovis possessed
leisure and materials, it might have been impracticable to
construct a bridge, or to force a passage, in the face of a
superior enemy. But the affectionate peasants who were impatient
to welcome their deliverer, could easily betray some unknown or
unguarded ford: the merit of the discovery was enhanced by the
useful interposition of fraud or fiction; and a white hart, of
singular size and beauty, appeared to guide and animate the march
of the Catholic army. The counsels of the Visigoths were
irresolute and distracted. A crowd of impatient warriors,
presumptuous in their strength, and disdaining to fly before the
robbers of Germany, excited Alaric to assert in arms the name and
blood of the conquerors of Rome. The advice of the graver
chieftains pressed him to elude the first ardor of the Franks;
and to expect, in the southern provinces of Gaul, the veteran and
victorious Ostrogoths, whom the king of Italy had already sent to
his assistance. The decisive moments were wasted in idle
deliberation the Goths too hastily abandoned, perhaps, an
advantageous post; and the opportunity of a secure retreat was
lost by their slow and disorderly motions. After Clovis had
passed the ford, as it is still named, of the
Hart, he advanced with bold and hasty
steps to prevent the escape of the enemy. His nocturnal march was
directed by a flaming meteor, suspended in the air above the
cathedral of Poitiers; and this signal, which might be previously
concerted with the orthodox successor of St. Hilary, was compared
to the column of fire that guided the Israelites in the desert.
At the third hour of the day, about ten miles beyond Poitiers,
Clovis overtook, and instantly attacked, the Gothic army; whose
defeat was already prepared by terror and confusion. Yet they
rallied in their extreme distress, and the martial youths, who
had clamorously demanded the battle, refused to survive the
ignominy of flight. The two kings encountered each other in
single combat. Alaric fell by the hand of his rival; and the
victorious Frank was saved by the goodness of his cuirass, and
the vigor of his horse, from the spears of two desperate Goths,
who furiously rode against him to revenge the death of their
sovereign. The vague expression of a mountain of the slain,
serves to indicate a cruel though indefinite slaughter; but
Gregory has carefully observed, that his valiant countryman
Apollinaris, the son of Sidonius, lost his life at the head of
the nobles of Auvergne. Perhaps these suspected Catholics had
been maliciously exposed to the blind assault of the enemy; and
perhaps the influence of religion was superseded by personal
attachment or military honor.
Such is the empire of Fortune, (if we may still disguise our
ignorance under that popular name,) that it is almost equally
difficult to foresee the events of war, or to explain their
various consequences. A bloody and complete victory has sometimes
yielded no more than the possession of the field and the loss of
ten thousand men has sometimes been sufficient to destroy, in a
single day, the work of ages. The decisive battle of Poitiers was
followed by the conquest of Aquitain. Alaric had left behind him
an infant son, a bastard competitor, factious nobles, and a
disloyal people; and the remaining forces of the Goths were
oppressed by the general consternation, or opposed to each other
in civil discord. The victorious king of the Franks proceeded
without delay to the siege of Angoulême. At the sound of
his trumpets the walls of the city imitated the example of
Jericho, and instantly fell to the ground; a splendid miracle,
which may be reduced to the supposition, that some clerical
engineers had secretly undermined the foundations of the rampart.
At Bordeaux, which had submitted without resistance, Clovis
established his winter quarters; and his prudent economy
transported from Thoulouse the royal treasures, which were
deposited in the capital of the monarchy. The conqueror
penetrated as far as the confines of Spain; restored the honors
of the Catholic church; fixed in Aquitain a colony of Franks; and
delegated to his lieutenants the easy task of subduing, or
extirpating, the nation of the Visigoths. But the Visigoths were
protected by the wise and powerful monarch of Italy. While the
balance was still equal, Theodoric had perhaps delayed the march
of the Ostrogoths; but their strenuous efforts successfully
resisted the ambition of Clovis; and the army of the Franks, and
their Burgundian allies, was compelled to raise the siege of
Arles, with the loss, as it is said, of thirty thousand men.
These vicissitudes inclined the fierce spirit of Clovis to
acquiesce in an advantageous treaty of peace. The Visigoths were
suffered to retain the possession of Septimania, a narrow tract
of sea-coast, from the Rhône to the Pyrenees; but the ample
province of Aquitain, from those mountains to the Loire, was
indissolubly united to the kingdom of France.
After the success of the Gothic war, Clovis accepted the
honors of the Roman consulship. The emperor Anastasius
ambitiously bestowed on the most powerful rival of Theodoric the
title and ensigns of that eminent dignity; yet, from some unknown
cause, the name of Clovis has not been inscribed in the Fasti
either of the East or West. On the solemn day, the monarch of
Gaul, placing a diadem on his head, was invested, in the church
of St. Martin, with a purple tunic and mantle. From thence he
proceeded on horseback to the cathedral of Tours; and, as he
passed through the streets, profusely scattered, with his own
hand, a donative of gold and silver to the joyful multitude, who
incessantly repeated their acclamations of
Consul and
Augustus. The actual or legal authority
of Clovis could not receive any new accessions from the consular
dignity. It was a name, a shadow, an empty pageant; and if the
conqueror had been instructed to claim the ancient prerogatives
of that high office, they must have expired with the period of
its annual duration. But the Romans were disposed to revere, in
the person of their master, that antique title which the emperors
condescended to assume: the Barbarian himself seemed to contract
a sacred obligation to respect the majesty of the republic; and
the successors of Theodosius, by soliciting his friendship,
tacitly forgave, and almost ratified, the usurpation of Gaul.
Twenty-five years after the death of Clovis this important
concession was more formally declared, in a treaty between his
sons and the emperor Justinian. The Ostrogoths of Italy, unable
to defend their distant acquisitions, had resigned to the Franks
the cities of Arles and Marseilles; of Arles, still adorned with
the seat of a Prætorian præfect, and of Marseilles,
enriched by the advantages of trade and navigation. This
transaction was confirmed by the Imperial authority; and
Justinian, generously yielding to the Franks the sovereignty of
the countries beyond the Alps, which they already possessed,
absolved the provincials from their allegiance; and established
on a more lawful, though not more solid, foundation, the throne
of the Merovingians. From that era they enjoyed the right of
celebrating at Arles the games of the circus; and by a singular
privilege, which was denied even to the Persian monarch, the
gold coin, impressed with their name
and image, obtained a legal currency in the empire. A Greek
historian of that age has praised the private and public virtues
of the Franks, with a partial enthusiasm, which cannot be
sufficiently justified by their domestic annals. He celebrates
their politeness and urbanity, their regular government, and
orthodox religion; and boldly asserts, that these Barbarians
could be distinguished only by their dress and language from the
subjects of Rome. Perhaps the Franks already displayed the social
disposition, and lively graces, which, in every age, have
disguised their vices, and sometimes concealed their intrinsic
merit. Perhaps Agathias, and the Greeks, were dazzled by the
rapid progress of their arms, and the splendor of their empire.
Since the conquest of Burgundy, Gaul, except the Gothic province
of Septimania, was subject, in its whole extent, to the sons of
Clovis. They had extinguished the German kingdom of Thuringia,
and their vague dominion penetrated beyond the Rhine, into the
heart of their native forests. The Alemanni, and Bavarians, who
had occupied the Roman provinces of Rhætia and Noricum, to
the south of the Danube, confessed themselves the humble vassals
of the Franks; and the feeble barrier of the Alps was incapable
of resisting their ambition. When the last survivor of the sons
of Clovis united the inheritance and conquests of the
Merovingians, his kingdom extended far beyond the limits of
modern France. Yet modern France, such has been the progress of
arts and policy, far surpasses, in wealth, populousness, and
power, the spacious but savage realms of Clotaire or
Dagobert.
The Franks, or French, are the only people of Europe who can
deduce a perpetual succession from the conquerors of the Western
empire. But their conquest of Gaul was followed by ten centuries
of anarchy and ignorance. On the revival of learning, the
students, who had been formed in the schools of Athens and Rome,
disdained their Barbarian ancestors; and a long period elapsed
before patient labor could provide the requisite materials to
satisfy, or rather to excite, the curiosity of more enlightened
times. At length the eye of criticism and philosophy was directed
to the antiquities of France; but even philosophers have been
tainted by the contagion of prejudice and passion. The most
extreme and exclusive systems, of the personal servitude of the
Gauls, or of their voluntary and equal alliance with the Franks,
have been rashly conceived, and obstinately defended; and the
intemperate disputants have accused each other of conspiring
against the prerogative of the crown, the dignity of the nobles,
or the freedom of the people. Yet the sharp conflict has usefully
exercised the adverse powers of learning and genius; and each
antagonist, alternately vanquished and victorious has extirpated
some ancient errors, and established some interesting truths. An
impartial stranger, instructed by their discoveries, their
disputes, and even their faults, may describe, from the same
original materials, the state of the Roman provincials, after
Gaul had submitted to the arms and laws of the Merovingian
kings.
The rudest, or the most servile, condition of human society,
is regulated, however, by some fixed and general rules. When
Tacitus surveyed the primitive simplicity of the Germans, he
discovered some permanent maxims, or customs, of public and
private life, which were preserved by faithful tradition till the
introduction of the art of writing, and of the Latin tongue.
Before the election of the Merovingian kings, the most powerful
tribe, or nation, of the Franks, appointed four venerable
chieftains to compose the Salic laws;
and their labors were examined and approved in three successive
assemblies of the people. After the baptism of Clovis, he
reformed several articles that appeared incompatible with
Christianity: the Salic law was again amended by his sons; and at
length, under the reign of Dagobert, the code was revised and
promulgated in its actual form, one hundred years after the
establishment of the French monarchy. Within the same period, the
customs of the Ripuarians were
transcribed and published; and Charlemagne himself, the
legislator of his age and country, had accurately studied the
two national laws, which still
prevailed among the Franks. The same care was extended to their
vassals; and the rude institutions of the
Alemanni and
Bavarians were diligently compiled and
ratified by the supreme authority of the Merovingian kings. The
Visigoths and
Burgundians, whose conquests in Gaul
preceded those of the Franks, showed less impatience to attain
one of the principal benefits of civilized society. Euric was the
first of the Gothic princes who expressed, in writing, the
manners and customs of his people; and the composition of the
Burgundian laws was a measure of policy rather than of justice;
to alleviate the yoke, and regain the affections, of their Gallic
subjects. Thus, by a singular coincidence, the Germans framed
their artless institutions, at a time when the elaborate system
of Roman jurisprudence was finally consummated. In the Salic
laws, and the Pandects of Justinian, we may compare the first
rudiments, and the full maturity, of civil wisdom; and whatever
prejudices may be suggested in favor of Barbarism, our calmer
reflections will ascribe to the Romans the superior advantages,
not only of science and reason, but of humanity and justice. Yet
the laws * of the Barbarians were adapted to their wants and
desires, their occupations and their capacity; and they all
contributed to preserve the peace, and promote the improvement,
of the society for whose use they were originally established.
The Merovingians, instead of imposing a uniform rule of conduct
on their various subjects, permitted each people, and each
family, of their empire, freely to enjoy their domestic
institutions; nor were the Romans excluded from the common
benefits of this legal toleration. The children embraced the
law of their parents, the wife that of
her husband, the freedman that of his patron; and in all causes
where the parties were of different nations, the plaintiff or
accuser was obliged to follow the tribunal of the defendant, who
may always plead a judicial presumption of right, or innocence. A
more ample latitude was allowed, if every citizen, in the
presence of the judge, might declare the law under which he
desired to live, and the national society to which he chose to
belong. Such an indulgence would abolish the partial distinctions
of victory: and the Roman provincials might patiently acquiesce
in the hardships of their condition; since it depended on
themselves to assume the privilege, if they dared to assert the
character, of free and warlike Barbarians.
Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis. -- Part
III.
When justice inexorably requires the death of a murderer, each
private citizen is fortified by the assurance, that the laws, the
magistrate, and the whole community, are the guardians of his
personal safety. But in the loose society of the Germans, revenge
was always honorable, and often meritorious: the independent
warrior chastised, or vindicated, with his own hand, the injuries
which he had offered or received; and he had only to dread the
resentment of the sons and kinsmen of the enemy, whom he had
sacrificed to his selfish or angry passions. The magistrate,
conscious of his weakness, interposed, not to punish, but to
reconcile; and he was satisfied if he could persuade or compel
the contending parties to pay and to accept the moderate fine
which had been ascertained as the price of blood. The fierce
spirit of the Franks would have opposed a more rigorous sentence;
the same fierceness despised these ineffectual restraints; and,
when their simple manners had been corrupted by the wealth of
Gaul, the public peace was continually violated by acts of hasty
or deliberate guilt. In every just government the same penalty is
inflicted, or at least is imposed, for the murder of a peasant or
a prince. But the national inequality established by the Franks,
in their criminal proceedings, was the last insult and abuse of
conquest. In the calm moments of legislation, they solemnly
pronounced, that the life of a Roman was of smaller value than
that of a Barbarian. The Antrustion, a
name expressive of the most illustrious birth or dignity among
the Franks, was appreciated at the sum of six hundred pieces of
gold; while the noble provincial, who was admitted to the king's
table, might be legally murdered at the expense of three hundred
pieces. Two hundred were deemed sufficient for a Frank of
ordinary condition; but the meaner Romans were exposed to
disgrace and danger by a trifling compensation of one hundred, or
even fifty, pieces of gold. Had these laws been regulated by any
principle of equity or reason, the public protection should have
supplied, in just proportion, the want of personal strength. But
the legislator had weighed in the scale, not of justice, but of
policy, the loss of a soldier against that of a slave: the head
of an insolent and rapacious Barbarian was guarded by a heavy
fine; and the slightest aid was afforded to the most defenceless
subjects. Time insensibly abated the pride of the conquerors and
the patience of the vanquished; and the boldest citizen was
taught, by experience, that he might suffer more injuries than he
could inflict. As the manners of the Franks became less
ferocious, their laws were rendered more severe; and the
Merovingian kings attempted to imitate the impartial rigor of the
Visigoths and Burgundians. Under the empire of Charlemagne,
murder was universally punished with death; and the use of
capital punishments has been liberally multiplied in the
jurisprudence of modern Europe.
The civil and military professions, which had been separated
by Constantine, were again united by the Barbarians. The harsh
sound of the Teutonic appellations was mollified into the Latin
titles of Duke, of Count, or of Præfect; and the same
officer assumed, within his district, the command of the troops,
and the administration of justice. But the fierce and illiterate
chieftain was seldom qualified to discharge the duties of a
judge, which required all the faculties of a philosophic mind,
laboriously cultivated by experience and study; and his rude
ignorance was compelled to embrace some simple, and visible,
methods of ascertaining the cause of justice. In every religion,
the Deity has been invoked to confirm the truth, or to punish the
falsehood of human testimony; but this powerful instrument was
misapplied and abused by the simplicity of the German
legislators. The party accused might justify his innocence, by
producing before their tribunal a number of friendly witnesses,
who solemnly declared their belief, or assurance, that he was not
guilty. According to the weight of the charge, this legal number
of compurgators was multiplied;
seventy-two voices were required to absolve an incendiary or
assassin: and when the chastity of a queen of France was
suspected, three hundred gallant nobles swore, without
hesitation, that the infant prince had been actually begotten by
her deceased husband. The sin and scandal of manifest and
frequent perjuries engaged the magistrates to remove these
dangerous temptations; and to supply the defects of human
testimony by the famous experiments of fire and water. These
extraordinary trials were so capriciously contrived, that, in
some cases, guilt, and innocence in others, could not be proved
without the interposition of a miracle. Such miracles were really
provided by fraud and credulity; the most intricate causes were
determined by this easy and infallible method, and the turbulent
Barbarians, who might have disdained the sentence of the
magistrate, submissively acquiesced in the judgment of God.
But the trials by single combat gradually obtained superior
credit and authority, among a warlike people, who could not
believe that a brave man deserved to suffer, or that a coward
deserved to live. Both in civil and criminal proceedings, the
plaintiff, or accuser, the defendant, or even the witness, were
exposed to mortal challenge from the antagonist who was destitute
of legal proofs; and it was incumbent on them either to desert
their cause, or publicly to maintain their honor, in the lists of
battle. They fought either on foot, or on horseback, according to
the custom of their nation; and the decision of the sword, or
lance, was ratified by the sanction of Heaven, of the judge, and
of the people. This sanguinary law was introduced into Gaul by
the Burgundians; and their legislator Gundobald condescended to
answer the complaints and objections of his subject Avitus. "Is
it not true," said the king of Burgundy to the bishop, "that the
event of national wars, and private combats, is directed by the
judgment of God; and that his providence awards the victory to
the juster cause?" By such prevailing arguments, the absurd and
cruel practice of judicial duels, which had been peculiar to some
tribes of Germany, was propagated and established in all the
monarchies of Europe, from Sicily to the Baltic. At the end of
ten centuries, the reign of legal violence was not totally
extinguished; and the ineffectual censures of saints, of popes,
and of synods, may seem to prove, that the influence of
superstition is weakened by its unnatural alliance with reason
and humanity. The tribunals were stained with the blood, perhaps,
of innocent and respectable citizens; the law, which now favors
the rich, then yielded to the strong; and the old, the feeble,
and the infirm, were condemned, either to renounce their fairest
claims and possessions, to sustain the dangers of an unequal
conflict, or to trust the doubtful aid of a mercenary champion.
This oppressive jurisprudence was imposed on the provincials of
Gaul, who complained of any injuries in their persons and
property. Whatever might be the strength, or courage, of
individuals, the victorious Barbarians excelled in the love and
exercise of arms; and the vanquished Roman was unjustly summoned
to repeat, in his own person, the bloody contest which had been
already decided against his country.
A devouring host of one hundred and twenty thousand Germans
had formerly passed the Rhine under the command of Ariovistus.
One third part of the fertile lands of the Sequani was
appropriated to their use; and the conqueror soon repeated his
oppressive demand of another third, for the accommodation of a
new colony of twenty-four thousand Barbarians, whom he had
invited to share the rich harvest of Gaul. At the distance of
five hundred years, the Visigoths and Burgundians, who revenged
the defeat of Ariovistus, usurped the same unequal proportion of
two thirds of the subject lands. But
this distribution, instead of spreading over the province, may be
reasonably confined to the peculiar districts where the
victorious people had been planted by their own choice, or by the
policy of their leader. In these districts, each Barbarian was
connected by the ties of hospitality with some Roman provincial.
To this unwelcome guest, the proprietor was compelled to abandon
two thirds of his patrimony, but the German, a shepherd and a
hunter, might sometimes content himself with a spacious range of
wood and pasture, and resign the smallest, though most valuable,
portion, to the toil of the industrious husbandman. The silence
of ancient and authentic testimony has encouraged an opinion,
that the rapine of the Franks was not
moderated, or disguised, by the forms of a legal division; that
they dispersed themselves over the provinces of Gaul, without
order or control; and that each victorious robber, according to
his wants, his avarice, and his strength, measured with his sword
the extent of his new inheritance. At a distance from their
sovereign, the Barbarians might indeed be tempted to exercise
such arbitrary depredation; but the firm and artful policy of
Clovis must curb a licentious spirit, which would aggravate the
misery of the vanquished, whilst it corrupted the union and
discipline of the conquerors. * The memorable vase of Soissons is
a monument and a pledge of the regular distribution of the Gallic
spoils. It was the duty and the interest of Clovis to provide
rewards for a successful army, settlements for a numerous people;
without inflicting any wanton or superfluous injuries on the
loyal Catholics of Gaul. The ample fund, which he might lawfully
acquire, of the Imperial patrimony, vacant lands, and Gothic
usurpations, would diminish the cruel necessity of seizure and
confiscation, and the humble provincials would more patiently
acquiesce in the equal and regular distribution of their
loss.
The wealth of the Merovingian princes consisted in their
extensive domain. After the conquest of Gaul, they still
delighted in the rustic simplicity of their ancestors; the cities
were abandoned to solitude and decay; and their coins, their
charters, and their synods, are still inscribed with the names of
the villas, or rural palaces, in which they successively resided.
One hundred and sixty of these palaces,
a title which need not excite any unseasonable ideas of art or
luxury, were scattered through the provinces of their kingdom;
and if some might claim the honors of a fortress, the far greater
part could be esteemed only in the light of profitable farms. The
mansion of the long-haired kings was surrounded with convenient
yards and stables, for the cattle and the poultry; the garden was
planted with useful vegetables; the various trades, the labors of
agriculture, and even the arts of hunting and fishing, were
exercised by servile hands for the emolument of the sovereign;
his magazines were filled with corn and wine, either for sale or
consumption; and the whole administration was conducted by the
strictest maxims of private economy. This ample patrimony was
appropriated to supply the hospitable plenty of Clovis and his
successors; and to reward the fidelity of their brave companions
who, both in peace and war, were devoted to their persona
service. Instead of a horse, or a suit of armor, each companion,
according to his rank, or merit, or favor, was invested with a
benefice, the primitive name, and most
simple form, of the feudal possessions. These gifts might be
resumed at the pleasure of the sovereign; and his feeble
prerogative derived some support from the influence of his
liberality. * But this dependent tenure was gradually abolished
by the independent and rapacious nobles of France, who
established the perpetual property, and hereditary succession, of
their benefices; a revolution salutary to the earth, which had
been injured, or neglected, by its precarious masters. Besides
these royal and beneficiary estates, a large proportion had been
assigned, in the division of Gaul, of
allodial and
Salic lands: they were exempt from
tribute, and the Salic lands were equally shared among the male
descendants of the Franks.
In the bloody discord and silent decay of the Merovingian
line, a new order of tyrants arose in the provinces, who, under
the appellation of Seniors, or Lords,
usurped a right to govern, and a license to oppress, the subjects
of their peculiar territory. Their ambition might be checked by
the hostile resistance of an equal: but the laws were
extinguished; and the sacrilegious Barbarians, who dared to
provoke the vengeance of a saint or bishop, would seldom respect
the landmarks of a profane and defenceless neighbor. The common
or public rights of nature, such as they had always been deemed
by the Roman jurisprudence, were severely restrained by the
German conquerors, whose amusement, or rather passion, was the
exercise of hunting. The vague dominion which
Man has assumed over the wild inhabitants of the
earth, the air, and the waters, was confined to some fortunate
individuals of the human species. Gaul was again overspread with
woods; and the animals, who were reserved for the use or pleasure
of the lord, might ravage with impunity the fields of his
industrious vassals. The chase was the sacred privilege of the
nobles and their domestic servants. Plebeian transgressors were
legally chastised with stripes and imprisonment; but in an age
which admitted a slight composition for the life of a citizen, it
was a capital crime to destroy a stag or a wild bull within the
precincts of the royal forests.
According to the maxims of ancient war, the conqueror became
the lawful master of the enemy whom he had subdued and spared:
and the fruitful cause of personal slavery, which had been almost
suppressed by the peaceful sovereignty of Rome, was again revived
and multiplied by the perpetual hostilities of the independent
Barbarians. The Goth, the Burgundian, or the Frank, who returned
from a successful expedition, dragged after him a long train of
sheep, of oxen, and of human captives, whom he treated with the
same brutal contempt. The youths of an elegant form and an
ingenuous aspect were set apart for the domestic service; a
doubtful situation, which alternately exposed them to the
favorable or cruel impulse of passion. The useful mechanics and
servants (smiths, carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, cooks,
gardeners, dyers, and workmen in gold and silver, &c.)
employed their skill for the use, or profit, of their master. But
the Roman captives, who were destitute of art, but capable of
labor, were condemned, without regard to their former rank, to
tend the cattle and cultivate the lands of the Barbarians. The
number of the hereditary bondsmen, who were attached to the
Gallic estates, was continually increased by new supplies; and
the servile people, according to the situation and temper of
their lords, was sometimes raised by precarious indulgence, and
more frequently depressed by capricious despotism. An absolute
power of life and death was exercised by these lords; and when
they married their daughters, a train of useful servants, chained
on the wagons to prevent their escape, was sent as a nuptial
present into a distant country. The majesty of the Roman laws
protected the liberty of each citizen, against the rash effects
of his own distress or despair. But the subjects of the
Merovingian kings might alienate their personal freedom; and this
act of legal suicide, which was familiarly practised, is
expressed in terms most disgraceful and afflicting to the dignity
of human nature. The example of the poor, who purchased life by
the sacrifice of all that can render life desirable, was
gradually imitated by the feeble and the devout, who, in times of
public disorder, pusillanimously crowded to shelter themselves
under the battlements of a powerful chief, and around the shrine
of a popular saint. Their submission was accepted by these
temporal or spiritual patrons; and the hasty transaction
irrecoverably fixed their own condition, and that of their latest
posterity. From the reign of Clovis, during five successive
centuries, the laws and manners of Gaul uniformly tended to
promote the increase, and to confirm the duration, of personal
servitude. Time and violence almost obliterated the intermediate
ranks of society; and left an obscure and narrow interval between
the noble and the slave. This arbitrary and recent division has
been transformed by pride and prejudice into a
national distinction, universally
established by the arms and the laws of the Merovingians. The
nobles, who claimed their genuine or fabulous descent from the
independent and victorious Franks, have asserted and abused the
indefeasible right of conquest over a prostrate crowd of slaves
and plebeians, to whom they imputed the imaginary disgrace of
Gallic or Roman extraction.
The general state and revolutions of
France, a name which was imposed by the
conquerors, may be illustrated by the particular example of a
province, a diocese, or a senatorial family. Auvergne had
formerly maintained a just preeminence among the independent
states and cities of Gaul. The brave and numerous inhabitants
displayed a singular trophy; the sword of Cæsar himself,
which he had lost when he was repulsed before the walls of
Gergovia. As the common offspring of Troy, they claimed a
fraternal alliance with the Romans; and if each province had
imitated the courage and loyalty of Auvergne, the fall of the
Western empire might have been prevented or delayed. They firmly
maintained the fidelity which they had reluctantly sworn to the
Visigoths, out when their bravest nobles had fallen in the battle
of Poitiers, they accepted, without resistance, a victorious and
Catholic sovereign. This easy and valuable conquest was achieved
and possessed by Theodoric, the eldest son of Clovis: but the
remote province was separated from his Austrasian dominions, by
the intermediate kingdoms of Soissons, Paris, and Orleans, which
formed, after their father's death, the inheritance of his three
brothers. The king of Paris, Childebert, was tempted by the
neighborhood and beauty of Auvergne. The Upper country, which
rises towards the south into the mountains of the Cevennes,
presented a rich and various prospect of woods and pastures; the
sides of the hills were clothed with vines; and each eminence was
crowned with a villa or castle. In the Lower Auvergne, the River
Allier flows through the fair and spacious plain of Limagne; and
the inexhaustible fertility of the soil supplied, and still
supplies, without any interval of repose, the constant repetition
of the same harvests. On the false report, that their lawful
sovereign had been slain in Germany, the city and diocese of
Auvergne were betrayed by the grandson of Sidonius Apollinaris.
Childebert enjoyed this clandestine victory; and the free
subjects of Theodoric threatened to desert his standard, if he
indulged his private resentment, while the nation was engaged in
the Burgundian war. But the Franks of Austrasia soon yielded to
the persuasive eloquence of their king. "Follow me," said
Theodoric, "into Auvergne; I will lead you into a province, where
you may acquire gold, silver, slaves, cattle, and precious
apparel, to the full extent of your wishes. I repeat my promise;
I give you the people and their wealth as your prey; and you may
transport them at pleasure into your own country." By the
execution of this promise, Theodoric justly forfeited the
allegiance of a people whom he devoted to destruction. His
troops, reënforced by the fiercest Barbarians of Germany,
spread desolation over the fruitful face of Auvergne; and two
places only, a strong castle and a holy shrine, were saved or
redeemed from their licentious fury. The castle of Meroliac was
seated on a lofty rock, which rose a hundred feet above the
surface of the plain; and a large reservoir of fresh water was
enclosed, with some arable lands, within the circle of its
fortifications. The Franks beheld with envy and despair this
impregnable fortress; but they surprised a party of fifty
stragglers; and, as they were oppressed by the number of their
captives, they fixed, at a trifling ransom, the alternative of
life or death for these wretched victims, whom the cruel
Barbarians were prepared to massacre on the refusal of the
garrison. Another detachment penetrated as far as Brivas, or
Brioude, where the inhabitants, with their valuable effects, had
taken refuge in the sanctuary of St. Julian. The doors of the
church resisted the assault; but a daring soldier entered through
a window of the choir, and opened a passage to his companions.
The clergy and people, the sacred and the profane spoils, were
rudely torn from the altar; and the sacrilegious division was
made at a small distance from the town of Brioude. But this act
of impiety was severely chastised by the devout son of Clovis. He
punished with death the most atrocious offenders; left their
secret accomplices to the vengeance of St. Julian; released the
captives; restored the plunder; and extended the rights of
sanctuary five miles round the sepulchre of the holy martyr.
Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis. -- Part
IV.
Before the Austrasian army retreated from Auvergne, Theodoric
exacted some pledges of the future loyalty of a people, whose
just hatred could be restrained only by their fear. A select band
of noble youths, the sons of the principal senators, was
delivered to the conqueror, as the hostages of the faith of
Childebert, and of their countrymen. On the first rumor of war,
or conspiracy, these guiltless youths were reduced to a state of
servitude; and one of them, Attalus, whose adventures are more
particularly related, kept his master's horses in the diocese of
Treves. After a painful search, he was discovered, in this
unworthy occupation, by the emissaries of his grandfather,
Gregory bishop of Langres; but his offers of ransom were sternly
rejected by the avarice of the Barbarian, who required an
exorbitant sum of ten pounds of gold for the freedom of his noble
captive. His deliverance was effected by the hardy stratagem of
Leo, an item belonging to the kitchens of the bishop of Langres.
An unknown agent easily introduced him into the same family. The
Barbarian purchased Leo for the price of twelve pieces of gold;
and was pleased to learn that he was deeply skilled in the luxury
of an episcopal table: "Next Sunday," said the Frank, "I shall
invite my neighbors and kinsmen. Exert thy art, and force them to
confess, that they have never seen, or tasted, such an
entertainment, even in the king's house." Leo assured him, that
if he would provide a sufficient quantity of poultry, his wishes
should be satisfied. The master who already aspired to the merit
of elegant hospitality, assumed, as his own, the praise which the
voracious guests unanimously bestowed on his cook; and the
dexterous Leo insensibly acquired the trust and management of his
household. After the patient expectation of a whole year, he
cautiously whispered his design to Attalus, and exhorted him to
prepare for flight in the ensuing night. At the hour of midnight,
the intemperate guests retired from the table; and the Frank's
son-in-law, whom Leo attended to his apartment with a nocturnal
potation, condescended to jest on the facility with which he
might betray his trust. The intrepid slave, after sustaining this
dangerous raillery, entered his master's bedchamber; removed his
spear and shield; silently drew the fleetest horses from the
stable; unbarred the ponderous gates; and excited Attalus to save
his life and liberty by incessant diligence. Their apprehensions
urged them to leave their horses on the banks of the Meuse; they
swam the river, wandered three days in the adjacent forest, and
subsisted only by the accidental discovery of a wild plum-tree.
As they lay concealed in a dark thicket, they heard the noise of
horses; they were terrified by the angry countenance of their
master, and they anxiously listened to his declaration, that, if
he could seize the guilty fugitives, one of them he would cut in
pieces with his sword, and would expose the other on a gibbet. A
length, Attalus and his faithful Leo reached the friendly
habitation of a presbyter of Rheims, who recruited their fainting
strength with bread and wine, concealed them from the search of
their enemy, and safely conducted them beyond the limits of the
Austrasian kingdom, to the episcopal palace of Langres. Gregory
embraced his grandson with tears of joy, gratefully delivered
Leo, with his whole family, from the yoke of servitude, and
bestowed on him the property of a farm, where he might end his
days in happiness and freedom. Perhaps this singular adventure,
which is marked with so many circumstances of truth and nature,
was related by Attalus himself, to his cousin or nephew, the
first historian of the Franks. Gregory of Tours was born about
sixty years after the death of Sidonius Apollinaris; and their
situation was almost similar, since each of them was a native of
Auvergne, a senator, and a bishop. The difference of their style
and sentiments may, therefore, express the decay of Gaul; and
clearly ascertain how much, in so short a space, the human mind
had lost of its energy and refinement.
We are now qualified to despise the opposite, and, perhaps,
artful, misrepresentations, which have softened, or exaggerated,
the oppression of the Romans of Gaul under the reign of the
Merovingians. The conquerors never promulgated any
universal edict of servitude, or
confiscation; but a degenerate people, who excused their weakness
by the specious names of politeness and peace, was exposed to the
arms and laws of the ferocious Barbarians, who contemptuously
insulted their possessions, their freedom, and their safety.
Their personal injuries were partial and irregular; but the great
body of the Romans survived the revolution, and still preserved
the property, and privileges, of citizens. A large portion of
their lands was exacted for the use of the Franks: but they
enjoyed the remainder, exempt from tribute; and the same
irresistible violence which swept away the arts and manufactures
of Gaul, destroyed the elaborate and expensive system of Imperial
despotism. The Provincials must frequently deplore the savage
jurisprudence of the Salic or Ripuarian laws; but their private
life, in the important concerns of marriage, testaments, or
inheritance, was still regulated by the Theodosian Code; and a
discontented Roman might freely aspire, or descend, to the title
and character of a Barbarian. The honors of the state were
accessible to his ambition: the education and temper of the
Romans more peculiarly qualified them for the offices of civil
government; and, as soon as emulation had rekindled their
military ardor, they were permitted to march in the ranks, or
even at the head, of the victorious Germans. I shall not attempt
to enumerate the generals and magistrates, whose names attest the
liberal policy of the Merovingians. The supreme command of
Burgundy, with the title of Patrician, was successively intrusted
to three Romans; and the last, and most powerful, Mummolus, who
alternately saved and disturbed the monarchy, had supplanted his
father in the station of count of Autun, and left a treasury of
thirty talents of gold, and two hundred and fifty talents of
silver. The fierce and illiterate Barbarians were excluded,
during several generations, from the dignities, and even from the
orders, of the church. The clergy of Gaul consisted almost
entirely of native provincials; the haughty Franks fell at the
feet of their subjects, who were dignified with the episcopal
character: and the power and riches which had been lost in war,
were insensibly recovered by superstition. In all temporal
affairs, the Theodosian Code was the universal law of the clergy;
but the Barbaric jurisprudence had liberally provided for their
personal safety; a sub-deacon was equivalent to two Franks; the
antrustion, and priest, were held in
similar estimation: and the life of a bishop was appreciated far
above the common standard, at the price of nine hundred pieces of
gold. The Romans communicated to their conquerors the use of the
Christian religion and Latin language; but their language and
their religion had alike degenerated from the simple purity of
the Augustan, and Apostolic age. The progress of superstition and
Barbarism was rapid and universal: the worship of the saints
concealed from vulgar eyes the God of the Christians; and the
rustic dialect of peasants and soldiers was corrupted by a
Teutonic idiom and pronunciation. Yet such intercourse of sacred
and social communion eradicated the distinctions of birth and
victory; and the nations of Gaul were gradually confounded under
the name and government of the Franks.
The Franks, after they mingled with their Gallic subjects,
might have imparted the most valuable of human gifts, a spirit
and system of constitutional liberty. Under a king, hereditary,
but limited, the chiefs and counsellors might have debated at
Paris, in the palace of the Cæsars: the adjacent field,
where the emperors reviewed their mercenary legions. would have
admitted the legislative assembly of freemen and warriors; and
the rude model, which had been sketched in the woods of Germany,
might have been polished and improved by the civil wisdom of the
Romans. But the careless Barbarians, secure of their personal
independence, disdained the labor of government: the annual
assemblies of the month of March were silently abolished; and the
nation was separated, and almost dissolved, by the conquest of
Gaul. The monarchy was left without any regular establishment of
justice, of arms, or of revenue. The successors of Clovis wanted
resolution to assume, or strength to exercise, the legislative
and executive powers, which the people had abdicated: the royal
prerogative was distinguished only by a more ample privilege of
rapine and murder; and the love of freedom, so often invigorated
and disgraced by private ambition, was reduced, among the
licentious Franks, to the contempt of order, and the desire of
impunity. Seventy-five years after the death of Clovis, his
grandson, Gontran, king of Burgundy, sent an army to invade the
Gothic possessions of Septimania, or Languedoc. The troops of
Burgundy, Berry, Auvergne, and the adjacent territories, were
excited by the hopes of spoil. They marched, without discipline,
under the banners of German, or Gallic, counts: their attack was
feeble and unsuccessful; but the friendly and hostile provinces
were desolated with indiscriminate rage. The cornfields, the
villages, the churches themselves, were consumed by fire: the
inhabitants were massacred, or dragged into captivity; and, in
the disorderly retreat, five thousand of these inhuman savages
were destroyed by hunger or intestine discord. When the pious
Gontran reproached the guilt or neglect of their leaders, and
threatened to inflict, not a legal sentence, but instant and
arbitrary execution, they accused the universal and incurable
corruption of the people. "No one," they said, "any longer fears
or respects his king, his duke, or his count. Each man loves to
do evil, and freely indulges his criminal inclinations. The most
gentle correction provokes an immediate tumult, and the rash
magistrate, who presumes to censure or restrain his seditious
subjects, seldom escapes alive from their revenge." It has been
reserved for the same nation to expose, by their intemperate
vices, the most odious abuse of freedom; and to supply its loss
by the spirit of honor and humanity, which now alleviates and
dignifies their obedience to an absolute sovereign. *
The Visigoths had resigned to Clovis the greatest part of
their Gallic possessions; but their loss was amply compensated by
the easy conquest, and secure enjoyment, of the provinces of
Spain. From the monarchy of the Goths, which soon involved the
Suevic kingdom of Gallicia, the modern Spaniards still derive
some national vanity; but the historian of the Roman empire is
neither invited, nor compelled, to pursue the obscure and barren
series of their annals. The Goths of Spain were separated from
the rest of mankind by the lofty ridge of the Pyrenæan
mountains: their manners and institutions, as far as they were
common to the Germanic tribes, have been already explained. I
have anticipated, in the preceding chapter, the most important of
their ecclesiastical events, the fall of Arianism, and the
persecution of the Jews; and it only remains to observe some
interesting circumstances which relate to the civil and
ecclesiastical constitution of the Spanish kingdom.
After their conversion from idolatry or heresy, the Frank and
the Visigoths were disposed to embrace, with equal submission,
the inherent evils and the accidental benefits, of superstition.
But the prelates of France, long before the extinction of the
Merovingian race, had degenerated into fighting and hunting
Barbarians. They disdained the use of synods; forgot the laws of
temperance and chastity; and preferred the indulgence of private
ambition and luxury to the general interest of the sacerdotal
profession. The bishops of Spain respected themselves, and were
respected by the public: their indissoluble union disguised their
vices, and confirmed their authority; and the regular discipline
of the church introduced peace, order, and stability, into the
government of the state. From the reign of Recared, the first
Catholic king, to that of Witiza, the immediate predecessor of
the unfortunate Roderic, sixteen national councils were
successively convened. The six metropolitans, Toledo, Seville,
Merida, Braga, Tarragona, and Narbonne, presided according to
their respective seniority; the assembly was composed of their
suffragan bishops, who appeared in person, or by their proxies;
and a place was assigned to the most holy, or opulent, of the
Spanish abbots. During the first three days of the convocation,
as long as they agitated the ecclesiastical question of doctrine
and discipline, the profane laity was excluded from their
debates; which were conducted, however, with decent solemnity.
But, on the morning of the fourth day, the doors were thrown open
for the entrance of the great officers of the palace, the dukes
and counts of the provinces, the judges of the cities, and the
Gothic nobles, and the decrees of Heaven were ratified by the
consent of the people. The same rules were observed in the
provincial assemblies, the annual synods, which were empowered to
hear complaints, and to redress grievances; and a legal
government was supported by the prevailing influence of the
Spanish clergy. The bishops, who, in each revolution, were
prepared to flatter the victorious, and to insult the prostrate
labored, with diligence and success, to kindle the flames of
persecution, and to exalt the mitre above the crown. Yet the
national councils of Toledo, in which the free spirit of the
Barbarians was tempered and guided by episcopal policy, have
established some prudent laws for the common benefit of the king
and people. The vacancy of the throne was supplied by the choice
of the bishops and palatines; and after the failure of the line
of Alaric, the regal dignity was still limited to the pure and
noble blood of the Goths. The clergy, who anointed their lawful
prince, always recommended, and sometimes practised, the duty of
allegiance; and the spiritual censures were denounced on the
heads of the impious subjects, who should resist his authority,
conspire against his life, or violate, by an indecent union, the
chastity even of his widow. But the monarch himself, when he
ascended the throne, was bound by a reciprocal oath to God and
his people, that he would faithfully execute this important
trust. The real or imaginary faults of his administration were
subject to the control of a powerful aristocracy; and the bishops
and palatines were guarded by a fundamental privilege, that they
should not be degraded, imprisoned, tortured, nor punished with
death, exile, or confiscation, unless by the free and public
judgment of their peers.
One of these legislative councils of Toledo examined and
ratified the code of laws which had been compiled by a succession
of Gothic kings, from the fierce Euric, to the devout Egica. As
long as the Visigoths themselves were satisfied with the rude
customs of their ancestors, they indulged their subjects of
Aquitain and Spain in the enjoyment of the Roman law. Their
gradual improvement in arts, in policy, and at length in
religion, encouraged them to imitate, and to supersede, these
foreign institutions; and to compose a code of civil and criminal
jurisprudence, for the use of a great and united people. The same
obligations, and the same privileges, were communicated to the
nations of the Spanish monarchy; and the conquerors, insensibly
renouncing the Teutonic idiom, submitted to the restraints of
equity, and exalted the Romans to the participation of freedom.
The merit of this impartial policy was enhanced by the situation
of Spain under the reign of the Visigoths. The provincials were
long separated from their Arian masters by the irreconcilable
difference of religion. After the conversion of Recared had
removed the prejudices of the Catholics, the coasts, both of the
Ocean and Mediterranean, were still possessed by the Eastern
emperors; who secretly excited a discontented people to reject
the yoke of the Barbarians, and to assert the name and dignity of
Roman citizens. The allegiance of doubtful subjects is indeed
most effectually secured by their own persuasion, that they
hazard more in a revolt, than they can hope to obtain by a
revolution; but it has appeared so natural to oppress those whom
we hate and fear, that the contrary system well deserves the
praise of wisdom and moderation.
While the kingdom of the Franks and Visigoths were established
in Gaul and Spain, the Saxons achieved the conquest of Britain,
the third great diocese of the Præfecture of the West.
Since Britain was already separated from the Roman empire, I
might, without reproach, decline a story familiar to the most
illiterate, and obscure to the most learned, of my readers. The
Saxons, who excelled in the use of the oar, or the battle- axe,
were ignorant of the art which could alone perpetuate the fame of
their exploits; the Provincials, relapsing into barbarism,
neglected to describe the ruin of their country; and the doubtful
tradition was almost extinguished, before the missionaries of
Rome restored the light of science and Christianity. The
declamations of Gildas, the fragments, or fables, of Nennius, the
obscure hints of the Saxon laws and chronicles, and the
ecclesiastical tales of the venerable Bede, have been illustrated
by the diligence, and sometimes embellished by the fancy, of
succeeding writers, whose works I am not ambitious either to
censure or to transcribe. Yet the historian of the empire may be
tempted to pursue the revolutions of a Roman province, till it
vanishes from his sight; and an Englishman may curiously trace
the establishment of the Barbarians, from whom he derives his
name, his laws, and perhaps his origin.
About forty years after the dissolution of the Roman
government, Vortigern appears to have obtained the supreme,
though precarious command of the princes and cities of Britain.
That unfortunate monarch has been almost unanimously condemned
for the weak and mischievous policy of inviting a formidable
stranger, to repel the vexatious inroads of a domestic foe. His
ambassadors are despatched, by the gravest historians, to the
coast of Germany: they address a pathetic oration to the general
assembly of the Saxons, and those warlike Barbarians resolve to
assist with a fleet and army the suppliants of a distant and
unknown island. If Britain had indeed been unknown to the Saxons,
the measure of its calamities would have been less complete. But
the strength of the Roman government could not always guard the
maritime province against the pirates of Germany; the independent
and divided states were exposed to their attacks; and the Saxons
might sometimes join the Scots and the Picts, in a tacit, or
express, confederacy of rapine and destruction. Vortigern could
only balance the various perils, which assaulted on every side
his throne and his people; and his policy may deserve either
praise or excuse, if he preferred the alliance of
those Barbarians, whose naval power
rendered them the most dangerous enemies and the most serviceable
allies. Hengist and Horsa, as they ranged along the Eastern coast
with three ships, were engaged, by the promise of an ample
stipend, to embrace the defence of Britain; and their intrepid
valor soon delivered the country from the Caledonian invaders.
The Isle of Thanet, a secure and fertile district, was allotted
for the residence of these German auxiliaries, and they were
supplied, according to the treaty, with a plentiful allowance of
clothing and provisions. This favorable reception encouraged five
thousand warriors to embark with their families in seventeen
vessels, and the infant power of Hengist was fortified by this
strong and seasonable reenforcement. The crafty Barbarian
suggested to Vortigern the obvious advantage of fixing, in the
neighborhood of the Picts, a colony of faithful allies: a third
fleet of forty ships, under the command of his son and nephew,
sailed from Germany, ravaged the Orkneys, and disembarked a new
army on the coast of Northumberland, or Lothian, at the opposite
extremity of the devoted land. It was easy to foresee, but it was
impossible to prevent, the impending evils. The two nations were
soon divided and exasperated by mutual jealousies. The Saxons
magnified all that they had done and suffered in the cause of an
ungrateful people; while the Britons regretted the liberal
rewards which could not satisfy the avarice of those haughty
mercenaries. The causes of fear and hatred were inflamed into an
irreconcilable quarrel. The Saxons flew to arms; and if they
perpetrated a treacherous massacre during the security of a
feast, they destroyed the reciprocal confidence which sustains
the intercourse of peace and war.
Hengist, who boldly aspired to the conquest of Britain,
exhorted his countrymen to embrace the glorious opportunity: he
painted in lively colors the fertility of the soil, the wealth of
the cities, the pusillanimous temper of the natives, and the
convenient situation of a spacious solitary island, accessible on
all sides to the Saxon fleets. The successive colonies which
issued, in the period of a century, from the mouths of the Elbe,
the Weser, and the Rhine, were principally composed of three
valiant tribes or nations of Germany; the
Jutes, the old
Saxons, and the Angles.
The Jutes, who fought under the peculiar banner of Hengist,
assumed the merit of leading their countrymen in the paths of
glory, and of erecting, in Kent, the first independent kingdom.
The fame of the enterprise was attributed to the primitive
Saxons; and the common laws and language of the conquerors are
described by the national appellation of a people, which, at the
end of four hundred years, produced the first monarchs of South
Britain. The Angles were distinguished by their numbers and their
success; and they claimed the honor of fixing a perpetual name on
the country, of which they occupied the most ample portion. The
Barbarians, who followed the hopes of rapine either on the land
or sea, were insensibly blended with this triple confederacy; the
Frisians, who had been tempted by their
vicinity to the British shores, might balance, during a short
space, the strength and reputation of the native Saxons; the
Danes, the
Prussians, the
Rugians, are faintly described; and
some adventurous Huns, who had wandered
as far as the Baltic, might embark on board the German vessels,
for the conquest of a new world. But this arduous achievement was
not prepared or executed by the union of national powers. Each
intrepid chieftain, according to the measure of his fame and
fortunes, assembled his followers; equipped a fleet of three, or
perhaps of sixty, vessels; chose the place of the attack; and
conducted his subsequent operations according to the events of
the war, and the dictates of his private interest. In the
invasion of Britain many heroes vanquished and fell; but only
seven victorious leaders assumed, or at least maintained, the
title of kings. Seven independent thrones, the Saxon Heptarchy, *
were founded by the conquerors, and seven families, one of which
has been continued, by female succession, to our present
sovereign, derived their equal and sacred lineage from Woden, the
god of war. It has been pretended, that this republic of kings
was moderated by a general council and a supreme magistrate. But
such an artificial scheme of policy is repugnant to the rude and
turbulent spirit of the Saxons: their laws are silent; and their
imperfect annals afford only a dark and bloody prospect of
intestine discord.
A monk, who, in the profound ignorance of human life, has
presumed to exercise the office of historian, strangely
disfigures the state of Britain at the time of its separation
from the Western empire. Gildas describes in florid language the
improvements of agriculture, the foreign trade which flowed with
every tide into the Thames and the Severn the solid and lofty
construction of public and private edifices; he accuses the
sinful luxury of the British people; of a people, according to
the same writer, ignorant of the most simple arts, and incapable,
without the aid of the Romans, of providing walls of stone, or
weapons of iron, for the defence of their native land. Under the
long dominion of the emperors, Britain had been insensibly
moulded into the elegant and servile form of a Roman province,
whose safety was intrusted to a foreign power. The subjects of
Honorius contemplated their new freedom with surprise and terror;
they were left destitute of any civil or military constitution;
and their uncertain rulers wanted either skill, or courage, or
authority, to direct the public force against the common enemy.
The introduction of the Saxons betrayed their internal weakness,
and degraded the character both of the prince and people. Their
consternation magnified the danger; the want of union diminished
their resources; and the madness of civil factions was more
solicitous to accuse, than to remedy, the evils, which they
imputed to the misconduct of their adversaries. Yet the Britons
were not ignorant, they could not be ignorant, of the manufacture
or the use of arms; the successive and disorderly attacks of the
Saxons allowed them to recover from their amazement, and the
prosperous or adverse events of the war added discipline and
experience to their native valor.
While the continent of Europe and Africa yielded, without
resistance, to the Barbarians, the British island, alone and
unaided, maintained a long, a vigorous, though an unsuccessful,
struggle, against the formidable pirates, who, almost at the same
instant, assaulted the Northern, the Eastern, and the Southern
coasts. The cities which had been fortified with skill, were
defended with resolution; the advantages of ground, hills,
forests, and morasses, were diligently improved by the
inhabitants; the conquest of each district was purchased with
blood; and the defeats of the Saxons are strongly attested by the
discreet silence of their annalist. Hengist might hope to achieve
the conquest of Britain; but his ambition, in an active reign of
thirty-five years, was confined to the possession of Kent; and
the numerous colony which he had planted in the North, was
extirpated by the sword of the Britons. The monarchy of the West
Saxons was laboriously founded by the persevering efforts of
three martial generations. The life of Cerdic, one of the bravest
of the children of Woden, was consumed in the conquest of
Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight; and the loss which he sustained
in the battle of Mount Badon, reduced him to a state of
inglorious repose. Kenric, his valiant son, advanced into
Wiltshire; besieged Salisbury, at that time seated on a
commanding eminence; and vanquished an army which advanced to the
relief of the city. In the subsequent battle of Marlborough, his
British enemies displayed their military science. Their troops
were formed in three lines; each line consisted of three distinct
bodies, and the cavalry, the archers, and the pikemen, were
distributed according to the principles of Roman tactics. The
Saxons charged in one weighty column, boldly encountered with
their short swords the long lances of the Britons, and maintained
an equal conflict till the approach of night. Two decisive
victories, the death of three British kings, and the reduction of
Cirencester, Bath, and Gloucester, established the fame and power
of Ceaulin, the grandson of Cerdic, who carried his victorious
arms to the banks of the Severn.
After a war of a hundred years, the independent Britons still
occupied the whole extent of the Western coast, from the wall of
Antoninus to the extreme promontory of Cornwall; and the
principal cities of the inland country still opposed the arms of
the Barbarians. Resistance became more languid, as the number and
boldness of the assailants continually increased. Winning their
way by slow and painful efforts, the Saxons, the Angles, and
their various confederates, advanced from the North, from the
East, and from the South, till their victorious banners were
united in the centre of the island. Beyond the Severn the Britons
still asserted their national freedom, which survived the
heptarchy, and even the monarchy, of the Saxons. The bravest
warriors, who preferred exile to slavery, found a secure refuge
in the mountains of Wales: the reluctant submission of Cornwall
was delayed for some ages; and a band of fugitives acquired a
settlement in Gaul, by their own valor, or the liberality of the
Merovingian kings. The Western angle of Armorica acquired the new
appellations of Cornwall, and the
Lesser Britain; and the vacant lands of
the Osismii were filled by a strange people, who, under the
authority of their counts and bishops, preserved the laws and
language of their ancestors. To the feeble descendants of Clovis
and Charlemagne, the Britons of Armorica refused the customary
tribute, subdued the neighboring dioceses of Vannes, Rennes, and
Nantes, and formed a powerful, though vassal, state, which has
been united to the crown of France.
Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis. -- Part
V.
In a century of perpetual, or at least implacable, war, much
courage, and some skill, must have been exerted for the defence
of Britain. Yet if the memory of its champions is almost buried
in oblivion, we need not repine; since every age, however
destitute of science or virtue, sufficiently abounds with acts of
blood and military renown. The tomb of Vortimer, the son of
Vortigern, was erected on the margin of the sea-shore, as a
landmark formidable to the Saxons, whom he had thrice vanquished
in the fields of Kent. Ambrosius Aurelian was descended from a
noble family of Romans; his modesty was equal to his valor, and
his valor, till the last fatal action, was crowned with splendid
success. But every British name is effaced by the illustrious
name of Arthur, the hereditary prince of the
Silures, in South Wales, and the elective king or general of the
nation. According to the most rational account, he defeated, in
twelve successive battles, the Angles of the North, and the
Saxons of the West; but the declining age of the hero was
imbittered by popular ingratitude and domestic misfortunes. The
events of his life are less interesting than the singular
revolutions of his fame. During a period of five hundred years
the tradition of his exploits was preserved, and rudely
embellished, by the obscure bards of Wales and Armorica, who were
odious to the Saxons, and unknown to the rest of mankind. The
pride and curiosity of the Norman conquerors prompted them to
inquire into the ancient history of Britain: they listened with
fond credulity to the tale of Arthur, and eagerly applauded the
merit of a prince who had triumphed over the Saxons, their common
enemies. His romance, transcribed in the Latin of Jeffrey of
Monmouth, and afterwards translated into the fashionable idiom of
the times, was enriched with the various, though incoherent,
ornaments which were familiar to the experience, the learning, or
the fancy, of the twelfth century. The progress of a Phrygian
colony, from the Tyber to the Thames, was easily ingrafted on the
fable of the Æneid; and the royal ancestors of Arthur
derived their origin from Troy, and claimed their alliance with
the Cæsars. His trophies were decorated with captive
provinces and Imperial titles; and his Danish victories avenged
the recent injuries of his country. The gallantry and
superstition of the British hero, his feasts and tournaments, and
the memorable institution of his Knights of the Round
Table, were faithfully copied from the reigning
manners of chivalry; and the fabulous exploits of Uther's son
appear less incredible than the adventures which were achieved by
the enterprising valor of the Normans. Pilgrimage, and the holy
wars, introduced into Europe the specious miracles of Arabian
magic. Fairies and giants, flying dragons, and enchanted palaces,
were blended with the more simple fictions of the West; and the
fate of Britain depended on the art, or the predictions, of
Merlin. Every nation embraced and adorned the popular romance of
Arthur, and the Knights of the Round Table: their names were
celebrated in Greece and Italy; and the voluminous tales of Sir
Lancelot and Sir Tristram were devoutly studied by the princes
and nobles, who disregarded the genuine heroes and historians of
antiquity. At length the light of science and reason was
rekindled; the talisman was broken; the visionary fabric melted
into air; and by a natural, though unjust, reverse of the public
opinion, the severity of the present age is inclined to question
the existence of Arthur.
Resistance, if it cannot avert, must increase the miseries of
conquest; and conquest has never appeared more dreadful and
destructive than in the hands of the Saxons; who hated the valor
of their enemies, disdained the faith of treaties, and violated,
without remorse, the most sacred objects of the Christian
worship. The fields of battle might be traced, almost in every
district, by monuments of bones; the fragments of falling towers
were stained with blood; the last of the Britons, without
distinction of age or sex, was massacred, in the ruins of
Anderida; and the repetition of such calamities was frequent and
familiar under the Saxon heptarchy. The arts and religion, the
laws and language, which the Romans had so carefully planted in
Britain, were extirpated by their barbarous successors. After the
destruction of the principal churches, the bishops, who had
declined the crown of martyrdom, retired with the holy relics
into Wales and Armorica; the remains of their flocks were left
destitute of any spiritual food; the practice, and even the
remembrance, of Christianity were abolished; and the British
clergy might obtain some comfort from the damnation of the
idolatrous strangers. The kings of France maintained the
privileges of their Roman subjects; but the ferocious Saxons
trampled on the laws of Rome, and of the emperors. The
proceedings of civil and criminal jurisdiction, the titles of
honor, the forms of office, the ranks of society, and even the
domestic rights of marriage, testament, and inheritance, were
finally suppressed; and the indiscriminate crowd of noble and
plebeian slaves was governed by the traditionary customs, which
had been coarsely framed for the shepherds and pirates of
Germany. The language of science, of business, and of
conversation, which had been introduced by the Romans, was lost
in the general desolation. A sufficient number of Latin or Celtic
words might be assumed by the Germans, to express their new wants
and ideas; but those illiterate Pagans
preserved and established the use of their national dialect.
Almost every name, conspicuous either in the church or state,
reveals its Teutonic origin; and the geography of
England was universally inscribed with
foreign characters and appellations. The example of a revolution,
so rapid and so complete, may not easily be found; but it will
excite a probable suspicion, that the arts of Rome were less
deeply rooted in Britain than in Gaul or Spain; and that the
native rudeness of the country and its inhabitants was covered by
a thin varnish of Italian manners.
This strange alteration has persuaded historians, and even
philosophers, that the provincials of Britain were totally
exterminated; and that the vacant land was again peopled by the
perpetual influx, and rapid increase, of the German colonies.
Three hundred thousand Saxons are said
to have obeyed the summons of Hengist; the entire emigration of
the Angles was attested, in the age of Bede, by the solitude of
their native country; and our experience has shown the free
propagation of the human race, if they are cast on a fruitful
wilderness, where their steps are unconfined, and their
subsistence is plentiful. The Saxon kingdoms displayed the face
of recent discovery and cultivation; the towns were small, the
villages were distant; the husbandry was languid and unskilful;
four sheep were equivalent to an acre of the best land; an ample
space of wood and morass was resigned to the vague dominion of
nature; and the modern bishopric of Durham, the whole territory
from the Tyne to the Tees, had returned to its primitive state of
a savage and solitary forest. Such imperfect population might
have been supplied, in some generations, by the English colonies;
but neither reason nor facts can justify the unnatural
supposition, that the Saxons of Britain remained alone in the
desert which they had subdued. After the sanguinary Barbarians
had secured their dominion, and gratified their revenge, it was
their interest to preserve the peasants as well as the cattle, of
the unresisting country. In each successive revolution, the
patient herd becomes the property of its new masters; and the
salutary compact of food and labor is silently ratified by their
mutual necessities. Wilfrid, the apostle of Sussex, accepted from
his royal convert the gift of the peninsula of Selsey, near
Chichester, with the persons and property of its inhabitants, who
then amounted to eighty-seven families. He released them at once
from spiritual and temporal bondage; and two hundred and fifty
slaves of both sexes were baptized by their indulgent master. The
kingdom of Sussex, which spread from the sea to the Thames,
contained seven thousand families; twelve hundred were ascribed
to the Isle of Wight; and, if we multiply this vague computation,
it may seem probable, that England was cultivated by a million of
servants, or villains, who were
attached to the estates of their arbitrary landlords. The
indigent Barbarians were often tempted to sell their children, or
themselves into perpetual, and even foreign, bondage; yet the
special exemptions which were granted to
national slaves, sufficiently declare
that they were much less numerous than the strangers and
captives, who had lost their liberty, or changed their masters,
by the accidents of war. When time and religion had mitigated the
fierce spirit of the Anglo-Saxons, the laws encouraged the
frequent practice of manumission; and their subjects, of Welsh or
Cambrian extraction, assumed the respectable station of inferior
freemen, possessed of lands, and entitled to the rights of civil
society. Such gentle treatment might secure the allegiance of a
fierce people, who had been recently subdued on the confines of
Wales and Cornwall. The sage Ina, the legislator of Wessex,
united the two nations in the bands of domestic alliance; and
four British lords of Somersetshire may be honorably
distinguished in the court of a Saxon monarch.
The independent Britons appear to have relapsed into the state
of original barbarism, from whence they had been imperfectly
reclaimed. Separated by their enemies from the rest of mankind,
they soon became an object of scandal and abhorrence to the
Catholic world. Christianity was still professed in the mountains
of Wales; but the rude schismatics, in the
formof the clerical tonsure, and in the
day of the celebration of Easter,
obstinately resisted the imperious mandates of the Roman
pontiffs. The use of the Latin language was insensibly abolished,
and the Britons were deprived of the art and learning which Italy
communicated to her Saxon proselytes. In Wales and Armorica, the
Celtic tongue, the native idiom of the West, was preserved and
propagated; and the Bards, who had been
the companions of the Druids, were still protected, in the
sixteenth century, by the laws of Elizabeth. Their chief, a
respectable officer of the courts of Pengwern, or Aberfraw, or
Caermarthen, accompanied the king's servants to war: the monarchy
of the Britons, which he sung in the front of battle, excited
their courage, and justified their depredations; and the songster
claimed for his legitimate prize the fairest heifer of the spoil.
His subordinate ministers, the masters and disciples of vocal and
instrumental music, visited, in their respective circuits, the
royal, the noble, and the plebeian houses; and the public
poverty, almost exhausted by the clergy, was oppressed by the
importunate demands of the bards. Their rank and merit were
ascertained by solemn trials, and the strong belief of
supernatural inspiration exalted the fancy of the poet, and of
his audience. The last retreats of Celtic freedom, the extreme
territories of Gaul and Britain, were less adapted to agriculture
than to pasturage: the wealth of the Britons consisted in their
flocks and herds; milk and flesh were their ordinary food; and
bread was sometimes esteemed, or rejected, as a foreign luxury.
Liberty had peopled the mountains of Wales and the morasses of
Armorica; but their populousness has been maliciously ascribed to
the loose practice of polygamy; and the houses of these
licentious barbarians have been supposed to contain ten wives,
and perhaps fifty children. Their disposition was rash and
choleric; they were bold in action and in speech; and as they
were ignorant of the arts of peace, they alternately indulged
their passions in foreign and domestic war. The cavalry of
Armorica, the spearmen of Gwent, and the archers of Merioneth,
were equally formidable; but their poverty could seldom procure
either shields or helmets; and the inconvenient weight would have
retarded the speed and agility of their desultory operations. One
of the greatest of the English monarchs was requested to satisfy
the curiosity of a Greek emperor concerning the state of Britain;
and Henry II. could assert, from his personal experience, that
Wales was inhabited by a race of naked warriors, who encountered,
without fear, the defensive armor of their enemies.
By the revolution of Britain, the limits of science, as well
as of empire, were contracted. The dark cloud, which had been
cleared by the Phnician discoveries, and finally dispelled by the
arms of Cæsar, again settled on the shores of the Atlantic,
and a Roman province was again lost among the fabulous Islands of
the Ocean. One hundred and fifty years after the reign of
Honorius, the gravest historian of the times describes the
wonders of a remote isle, whose eastern and western parts are
divided by an antique wall, the boundary of life and death, or,
more properly, of truth and fiction. The east is a fair country,
inhabited by a civilized people: the air is healthy, the waters
are pure and plentiful, and the earth yields her regular and
fruitful increase. In the west, beyond the wall, the air is
infectious and mortal; the ground is covered with serpents; and
this dreary solitude is the region of departed spirits, who are
transported from the opposite shores in substantial boats, and by
living rowers. Some families of fishermen, the subjects of the
Franks, are excused from tribute, in consideration of the
mysterious office which is performed by these Charons of the
ocean. Each in his turn is summoned, at the hour of midnight, to
hear the voices, and even the names, of the ghosts: he is
sensible of their weight, and he feels himself impelled by an
unknown, but irresistible power. After this dream of fancy, we
read with astonishment, that the name of this island is
Brittia; that it lies in the ocean,
against the mouth of the Rhine, and less than thirty miles from
the continent; that it is possessed by three nations, the
Frisians, the Angles, and the Britons; and that some Angles had
appeared at Constantinople, in the train of the French
ambassadors. From these ambassadors Procopius might be informed
of a singular, though not improbable, adventure, which announces
the spirit, rather than the delicacy, of an English heroine. She
had been betrothed to Radiger, king of the Varni, a tribe of
Germans who touched the ocean and the Rhine; but the perfidious
lover was tempted, by motives of policy, to prefer his father's
widow, the sister of Theodebert, king of the Franks. The forsaken
princess of the Angles, instead of bewailing, revenged her
disgrace. Her warlike subjects are said to have been ignorant of
the use, and even of the form, of a horse; but she boldly sailed
from Britain to the mouth of the Rhine, with a fleet of four
hundred ships, and an army of one hundred thousand men. After the
loss of a battle, the captive Radiger implored the mercy of his
victorious bride, who generously pardoned his offence, dismissed
her rival, and compelled the king of the Varni to discharge with
honor and fidelity the duties of a husband. This gallant exploit
appears to be the last naval enterprise of the Anglo-Saxons. The
arts of navigation, by which they acquired the empire of Britain
and of the sea, were soon neglected by the indolent Barbarians,
who supinely renounced all the commercial advantages of their
insular situation. Seven independent kingdoms were agitated by
perpetual discord; and the British
worldwas seldom connected, either in peace or war,
with the nations of the Continent.
I have now accomplished the laborious narrative of the decline
and fall of the Roman empire, from the fortunate age of Trajan
and the Antonines, to its total extinction in the West, about
five centuries after the Christian era. At that unhappy period,
the Saxons fiercely struggled with the natives for the possession
of Britain: Gaul and Spain were divided between the powerful
monarchies of the Franks and Visigoths, and the dependent
kingdoms of the Suevi and Burgundians: Africa was exposed to the
cruel persecution of the Vandals, and the savage insults of the
Moors: Rome and Italy, as far as the banks of the Danube, were
afflicted by an army of Barbarian mercenaries, whose lawless
tyranny was succeeded by the reign of Theodoric the Ostrogoth.
All the subjects of the empire, who, by the use of the Latin
language, more particularly deserved the name and privileges of
Romans, were oppressed by the disgrace and calamities of foreign
conquest; and the victorious nations of Germany established a new
system of manners and government in the western countries of
Europe. The majesty of Rome was faintly represented by the
princes of Constantinople, the feeble and imaginary successors of
Augustus. Yet they continued to reign over the East, from the
Danube to the Nile and Tigris; the Gothic and Vandal kingdoms of
Italy and Africa were subverted by the arms of Justinian; and the
history of the Greek emperors may still
afford a long series of instructive lessons, and interesting
revolutions.
Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis. -- Part
VI.
General Observations On The Fall Of The Roman Empire In The
West.
The Greeks, after their country had been reduced into a province, imputed the triumphs of Rome, not to the merit, but to the fortune, of the republic. The inconstant goddess, who so blindly distributes and resumes her favors, had now consented (such was the language of envious flattery) to resign her wings, to descend from her globe, and to fix her firm and immutable throne on the banks of the Tyber. A wiser Greek, who has composed, with a philosophic spirit, the memorable history of his own times, deprived his countrymen of this vain and delusive comfort, by opening to their view the deep foundations of the greatness of Rome. The fidelity of the citizens to each other, and to the state, was confirmed by the habits of education, and the prejudices of religion. Honor, as well as virtue, was the principle of the republic; the ambitious citizens labored to deserve the solemn glories of a triumph; and the ardor of the Roman youth was kindled into active emulation, as often as they beheld the domestic images of their ancestors. The temperate struggles of the patricians and plebeians had finally established the firm and equal balance of the constitution; which united the freedom of popular assemblies, with the authority and wisdom of a senate, and the executive powers of a regal magistrate. When the consul displayed the standard of the republic, each citizen bound himself, b